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Published 3/31/2023

Voices From the Army of Northern Virginia, Part 6

By: Gary W. Gallagher Category: Articles

This installment in the series focuses on the top leadership of the cavalry. The three titles include the correspondence of James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart, by far the most important cavalryman in the Army of Northern Virginia, and Wade Hampton, his successor in 1864, together with staff officer Henry B. McClellan’s combination memoir and biography of Stuart. Other notable books with cavalry...

Published 3/29/2023

LONGACRE: Unsung Hero of Gettysburg (2021)

By: Codie Eash Category: Book Reviews

In "Unsung Hero of Gettysburg," Edward G. Longacre has commendably done his part to ensure that David McMurtrie Gregg is unsung no more.

Published 3/24/2023

Extra Voices: Battle Fatigue

By: The Civil War Monitor Category: Articles

In the Voices section of our Spring 2023 issue we highlighted quotes about the onset of battle fatigue among 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.

Published 3/22/2023

KENT: Lincoln: The Fire of Genius (2022)

By: Jonathan Tracey Category: Book Reviews

David J. Kent's "Lincoln: The Fire of Genius" supplies strong evidence that Lincoln was a thoughtful and curious man who defied stereotypes.

Published 3/15/2023

TROTTI: The End of Public Execution (2022)

By: Aaron David Hyams Category: Book Reviews

With "The End of Public Execution," Michael Ayers Trotti gives us yet another perspective on how the world white Southerners envisioned and held as truth had to be most unnaturally forced into place.

Published 3/9/2023

Eyewitness to the Battle of Hampton Roads

By: Samuel Dana Green Category: In the First Person

During the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862--where the ironclad warships USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (Merrimac) fought to a draw--Lieutenant Samuel Dana Green was in the thick of the fight. The 23-year-old Maryland served as Monitor's executive officer, and would temporarily take command of the vessel after its captain, John Worden, was wounded during the battle. Five days after the...

Published 3/8/2023

ROTHERA: Civil Wars and Reconstructions in the Americas (2022)

By: Chase H. McCarter Category: Book Reviews

Evan Rothera's "Civil Wars and Reconstructions in the Americas" shifts focus away from Europe and centers the interconnected civil wars and reconstructions that transpired concurrently in the U.S., Mexico, and Argentina.

Published 3/6/2023

"When the Boys Come Home"

By: John Hay Category: From the Archives

In June 1864, Harper's Weekly published the following poem by John Hay, one of two personal secretaries to President Abraham Lincoln. Hay, 25 at the time, remained with Lincoln until the president's assassination in April 1865. After the war, Hay remained active in politics, serving as secretary of state under President William McKinley. He died in 1905 at age 66.

Published 3/2/2023

CHERVINSKY & COSTELLO (eds.): Mourning the Presidents (2023)

By: Brian Matthew Jordan Category: Book Reviews

Students of Civil War history have much to grapple with in "Mourning the Presidents," edited by Lindsay M. Chervinsky and Matthew R. Costello.

Published 2/24/2023

The Books That Built Me: Joan Waugh

By: Joan Waugh Category: Articles

Narrowing down a list of “books that built me” was surprisingly difficult. The books finally selected, four biographies and one autobiography, stand as touchstones marking different periods of my intellectual enlightenment, framing a lifelong interest in using the biographical method to understand the past. Emerson’s above quotation held meaning for me almost as soon as I learned how to read...