The Front Line
Our communal blog featuring the latest in Civil War news, research, analysis, and events from a network of historians
Published: 5/6/13
An Excerpt from Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front
It’s easy to miss what remains of the Salem Church battlefield, and if not for the stone statues that stand sentinel next to the roadway, you might not know there’s...
Published: 4/30/13
A Civil War Era Royal Wedding
Much like the Anglophiles of today, Civil War-era Americans were fascinated by the British royal family. Rather than obsessing over William, Kate, and Harry, nineteenth century Americans celebrated the marriage...
Published: 4/30/13
Civil War Desserts
Confederate Apple Pie Without The Apples Ingredients: 1 ¾ cups of water 2 cups of sugar 2 tablespoons cream of tarter 2 tablespoons lemon juice Grated zest of one lemon...
Published: 4/29/13
“The Grandest Charity in the Country:” The Missouri Home For Confederate Veterans
In the decades immediately following the Civil War, Missourians expressed concern for the plight of their aging and ill Confederate veterans. In response, the Ex-Confederate Association of Missouri formed in...
Published: 2/14/13
An 1863 Valentine
Letter from Alexander Hays to Annie Adams McFadden Hays, February 14, 1863 Union Mills, Va., February 14th, 1863. Dear Wife: It has this minute struck me that this is St....
Published: 1/22/13
2012 | The Year in Review
Another year has come and gone and The Civil War Monitor editorial staff is thankful for a very productive 2012. As we begin to make plans for another exciting year,...
Published: 1/16/13
How We Need to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love “Lincoln” and “Django Unchained”
Alright . . . historians, history buffs, and anyone who cares about history—take a deep breath and repeat after me: “It’s OK to love Lincoln and Django Unchained.” Why? Because they’re excellent—and I...
Published: 11/26/12
“Not Since the Days of William the Conquerer” – Anti-War Democrats of Ohio in their Own Words
For me, one of the great joys of researching and writing about Civil War history is “reading other people’s mail.” Whether in archives, digitized sources online, or in books, reading...
Published: 11/11/12
Wither Liberia? Civil War Emancipation and Freedmen Resettlement in West Africa
On a late October morning in 1862 the U.S. Treasury department received a visit from Robert J. Walker. The former Mississippi senator was something of an enigma in war-torn Washington—an...
Published: 10/29/12
The Peace Monument At Appomattox, UDC, and Reconstruction
In May 1932, Mary Davidson Carter, a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) from Upperville, Virginia, was angry. She had just learned that the federal government was...
Published: 10/8/12
The Myth of the H.L. Hunley’s Blue Lantern
When the Confederate H.L. Hunley engaged the USS Housatonic on February 17, 1864, she made history as the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. She also sparked one of...
Published: 10/1/12
The Consequences of Damning the Torpedoes
Rear Adm. David Farragut famously “damned the torpedoes” when he closed off the port of Mobile as a haven for blockade runners. But the Union navy’s and army’s final push...
Published: 9/17/12
The Battle For Freedom: Antietam and the Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln spent the late summer of 1862 waiting. Worrying and waiting. He was worrying about the war, which was not going well. And he was waiting for a victory...
Published: 8/27/12
Bowdoin’s Other Civil War Sons
Discussions surrounding Bowdoin College and the Civil War invariably return to the famous Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine and the acts of his regiment at Gettysburg on July...
Published: 8/24/12
Fathering Recruitment
Titled, “A Good Way for Fathers of Families to Aid Recruiting,” this July 1862 Harper’s Weekly cartoon is a playful take on Union recruitment efforts. (Yet, it is much more...
Published: 8/17/12
Hercules of the Union
Happy Friday! Today’s Friday Funny is a celebration of Union General Winfield Scott—cast here as the mythical Hercules slaying a secessionist hydra. Aiding Scott in his epic battle is the...
Published: 8/6/12
John Sherman and the Would-Be Thirteenth Amendment of 1861
John Sherman was a rising Republican star. A prominent member of the U.S. House of Representatives, he was on the cusp of a long Senate career. Everyone knew the man...
Published: 7/30/12
Munson Monroe Buford’s Unfinished Civil War
In late March 1885, South Carolinian Munson Monroe Buford wrote to famed Confederate general and now prominent political figure Wade Hampton. Buford had served for the war’s duration in the...