Blogs

In "I Saw Death Coming," Kidada E. Williams provides an essential cross-section into how racist violence targeted Black families and postwar freedom.

I was not one of those precocious Civil War enthusiasts who started reading Bruce Catton at the age of 10. Even when I was in high school, my tastes ran more to literature than to history. The first history book that left a serious im- pression was John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage (1957). For some reason the chapter on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and Kansas senator Edmund G. Ross,...

In "The Tale Untwisted," Gene Thorp and Alexander Rossino build on but meaningfully extend Maryland Campaign revisionism.

Roger Lowenstein's "Ways and Means" flows with a confident grace, guiding readers through myriad financial schemes, government policies, and political intrigue.

"Six Miles from Charleston, Five Minutes to Hell" argues that Secessionville was a key battle, outweighing in scope what it lacked in scale.

New Hampshire-born journalist Charles Carleton Coffin accompanied Winfield Scott Hancock and his II Corps of the Army of the Potomac during the Gettysburg Campaign. Coffin wrote about a memorable encounter between Union troops and Gettysburg resident Josephine Miller, 23, who remained in the family house with her father as the battle intensified in the area. Coffin’s account, published as part...

"Contemners and Serpents" presents the correspondence of a family who ended up in Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina during and after the Civil War.

Mingus and Wittenberg present a comprehensive retelling of the critical period that preceded the conflict’s bloodiest encounter.

James C. Cobb's biography "C. Vann Woodward" provides unique insight into the power and production of history.

How did Americans observe Christmas and the New Year during the Civil War? Illustrated newspapers, like Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's, published many illustrations throughout the conflict that showed readers how their fellow countrymen marked the holiday season, both in the army and on the homefront.

Robert Redd's "Hidden History of Civil War Florida" highlights the depth fo the state's Civil War history.

Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation could be one of this century’s great movies about self-emancipation. Not because of its fragile historical accuracy, or because it stars Will Smith, but because it lives up to its title:

Jeffrey L. Pasley's "A Fire Bell in the Past" succeeds in presenting a novel look into the Missouri crisis.

In the Voices section of our Winter 2022 issue we highlighted quotes about the "straggling" of soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies. Unfortunately, we didn't have room to include all that we found. Below are those that just missed the cut.

Alicestyne Turley's "The Gospel of Freedom" is a recommended and valuable contribution to our understanding of the Underground Railroad, Black Evangelicalism, and abolition.

The Books & Authors section of our Winter 2022 issue contains our annual roundup of the year's best Civil War titles. As usual, we've enlisted a handful of Civil War historians, avid readers all, and asked them to pick their two favorite books published in 2022. Below are their selections.  We also gave them a chance to name an additional title or two that they’re looking forward to, books...

Walter R. Green Jr.'s "The Nashville and Decatur Railroad in the Civil War" is among the best of recent publications on individual railroads in the conflict.

For the Dossier section of our Fall 2022 issue, we asked a panel of Civil War historians a series of questions about Union general George G. Meade, from what they most admired about the Army of the Potomac commander to their favorite book about him. Due to space constraints, we weren't able to include any of the answers to two of our questions for the panel. Below are the questions, and their...