Blogs

Few scholars have produced as many groundbreaking works as Civil War historian George C. Rable. Since his retirement from teaching in 2016, a group of his former doctoral students have worked on a festschrift to honor

John Stewart did a yeoman job of searching the archives for "Pinkertons, Prostitutes, and Spies."

An appreciation of Shelby Foote, a master of historical storytelling.

A roundup of the books that do the best job in capturing the nature of Civil War combat.

Exhaustive research, keen analysis, and lively narrative marks "Lee Is Trapped, and Must Be Taken" as a definitive contribution to the field.

David Connon's is an intimate and thought-provoking work which challenges notions of Northern hegemony...

Mark Hughes' "Confederate Soldiers in the American Civil War" is a short but comprehensive guide on the Confederate soldier...it should be added to every Civil War enthusiast's bookshelf.

A thoroughly engaging read, Adam Domby's "The False Cause" exposes the outrageous falsehoods that underpinned the Lost Cause.

Editor Mark Flotow’s "In Their Letters, In Their Words" is a valuable read for those interested an the on-the-ground perspective of the war.

On the night of April 9, 1865, only hours after surrendering to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Robert E. Lee sat around a fire with a group of his officers outside his tent.

In "Gold and Freedom," Nicolas Barreyre seeks to broaden the scope, geographic as well as temporal, of Reconstruction.

On June 3, 1865—only a few weeks after the end of the Civil War—Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper ran the following article about the former Confederate-run prison in Richmond called Castle Thunder ... with a focus on one of its most infamous guards, which it profiled in the sketch below: 

In "Mississippi Bishop William Henry Elder and the Civil War," Ryan Starrett has produced an excellent, if limited local history...

Clint Crowe's "Caught in the Maelstrom" shows that the Indian Territory is a fertile field for future research....

In "Imperfect Union," Steve Inskeep focuses his attention on telling an enticing story...

A look at how historians are engaging scholars, enthusiasts, and the public on social media platforms.

In the Voices section of our Spring 2020 issue we highlighted quotes by Union and Confederate soldiers about the excitement that often accompanied payday in camp. Unfortunately, we didn't have room to include all that we found. Below are those that didn't make the cut.

In "The Last Battleground," Philip Gerard tries to bring the reader along on his journey...to learn about some of the lives touched by the Civil War in North Carolina.

As the war raged on, civilians in New York city still made time to think of the latest fashions...

Donald L. Miller's "Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy" is marked by impeccable prose anchored by a staggering amount of archival research and an impressive grasp of relevant historiography line every page.