Blogs

Dillon J. Carroll's "Invisible Wounds" is a fascinating study that unequivocally illustrates the links between the Civil War and mental illness.

Abraham Lincoln was not a military man, yet in March 1861 he became commander in chief of forces that would soon face the task of suppressing an 11-state rebellion. Other than a few months’ service in the Illinois militia in 1832, he had no experience or training on which to draw. He would need to rely on the professional officers commanding his army and navy, but some of them joined the...

"Spectacle of Grief" by Sarah J. Purcell is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand the paradoxes of American nationalism, either in the Civil War era or today.

We recently asked Jeniffer Maloney, director of marketing and public relations at American Civil War Museum, about their new Robins Theater opening this month. She gave us a first look at the facility and film it will show, A People’s Contest.

Josiah M. Favill, a young officer in the 57th New York Infantry, kept a detailed diary during the Civil War. In one entry, dated May 16, 1862, Favill writes in detail about a common summer pest found (then and now) in the eastern U.S.—the wood tick. Read his itch-enducing description of his—and his comrades'—encounters with the aggressive insect.

"Gettysburg's Lost Love Story" by Jeffrey J. Harding is told with verve and a keen eye for descriptive detail.

Between May 31 and June 12, 1864, the armies of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee clashed near Mechanicsville, Virginia, in the Battle of Cold Harbor. June 3 witnessed particularly fierce fighting after Grant ordered repeated attacks against the strong Confederate positions—attacks in which Union forces suffered casualties two to four times greater than their opponents. Among those who...

"Love & Duty" by Angela Esco Elder demonstrates that not all Confederate widows midwifed the Lost Cause.

"Salmon P. Chase" by Walter Stahr is an admirable treatment of an oft-forgotten nineteenth century politician.

Looking for good books on Civil War photography? We asked Ronald S. Coddington, author and publiser of Military Images magazine, for three books on the subject that he considers essential reads. Here are his picks: 

"Back From Battle" documents the valuable role that Pennsylvania's Camp Discharge played in the war's final months.

Susan Jonusas's "Hell's Half-Acre" spotlights the Benders as particularly monstrous actors on a stage covered in the blood of conquest and post-Civil War racial strife.

In "Harriet Tubman" Kerry Walters adds historical depth to the well-known abolitionist's life.

I suppose you could say that I started researching my recently published book, Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War, when I was 12 years old. In 1998, I met a man from my hometown of Akron, Ohio, who spent much of his late teens and early twenties crisscrossing the Midwest in search of the last survivors of Abraham Lincoln’s armies. Nearly 70 years old and the son of a ...

"To Address You as My Friend" assembles a wonderfully rich and fascinating mosaic of the hopes, dreams, and frustrations of African Americans during the Civil War.

"First Fallen" is a welcome addition to the literature that casts its gaze on the North and the men who rallied to the United States flag in 1861.

“That is the last speech he will ever make.” So remarked John Wilkes Booth on April 11, 1865, after listening to President Abraham Lincoln deliver remarks outside the White House. Speaking to a crowd of thousands only two days after Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Lincoln had mentioned

In "Our Comfort in Dying," Jonathan W. Peters brings together significant works by a Virginian who was notable not only as one of those who “rode with Stonewall,” but also as a major spiritual and intellectual thinker in the Civil War South.

In "A House Built By Slaves," Jonathan W. White offers a narrative of Black Americans pushing the president toward emancipation and Lincoln listening to their arguments....