One of the ingredients in Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's recipe for success in the Western Theater was cooperation and coordination with the navy. In a letter to a friend, he mentioned how clever and fearless they were, and mentioned Lt. Cmdr. Seth Ledyard Phelps by name. Here's the story.

First Sgt. John V. Miller of the 142nd Pennsylvania Infantry led his company at Gettysburg after all the officers had been hit. A quarter-century after the battle, at a reunion in Gettysburg, he remembered the fallen. Here's his address.

Every general has a champion who celebrates a soldier's life and deeds. Major Gen. George Henry Thomas, the Virginia-born West Pointer remembered as the Rock of Chickamauga, had his champion in Thomas Budd Van Horne, an army chaplain who wrote Thomas's biography. Here's Van Horne's recollection.

On July 1, 1863, at Gettysburg, Asst. Surg. James Fulton of the 143rd Pennsylvania Infantry found himself on an odyssey as he tried to find the makeshift hospital for his division's wounded, and to navigate the lack of food and presence of Confederates. Here's Fulton's story, based on his diary.

If you've visited Gettysburg in recent years, you've found a visitor center, guided tours, museums, hotels, restaurants, and just about everything a modern traveler could want.

Now, travel back to June 1867. What was it like? War correspondent George Alfred Townsend, who used the pen name "Gath,...

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson has become so much a part of Civil War legend that it can be difficult to see the man behind the monument. One of his fellow generals, John Brown Gordon, explored “The secret of his wonderful power” and “The secret of Jackson’s character.”

Sergeant David A. Barnett of the 99th Pennsylvania Infantry participated in the second and third days' fighting at Gettysburg, and lived to write home about it. In a letter to his cousin Robert, Barnett recalls the battle and pokes fun at the "fireside generals" who criticized the Army of the Pot...

There days before the Battle of Gettysburg, Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon and his brigade marched into York, Pa., in the vanguard of Confederate invasion forces. Covered in powdery dust from the turnpikes, their presence frightened townspeople. Here's the story, in Gordon's words.

One of the best known artworks about the Civil War is the oil painting depicting generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson conferring before the Battle of Chancellorsville. What are they talking about and what did they say? Two postwar accounts, one by Lee, provide insights.

Becoming familiar with a general's personality traits can help us to better understand how he commanded troops in combat. One of the more unique characters in the Confederate military leadership was Richard S. Ewell, who was described by fellow general John B. Gordon.

Up until the Battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865, Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan was more brute than brains, observed the war correspondent George Alfred "Gath" Townsend. But in this engagement, Gath notes, Sheridan proved he could also be a master strategist.

The thought of Civil War Richmond brings to mind scenes of devastation and destruction caused by Confederates as they abandoned the city in early April, 1865. But there is also the Richmond of 1861, where patriotic fervor for the nascent Confederacy exploded in the wake of the bombardment of Fort...

John Gibbon, the Union-loyal major general from North Carolina, is associated with the Iron Brigade, the defense of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, and the last campaigns that culminated at Appomattox. Long after the war he met up with a friend in Virginia to hunt. Here's the story.

Benjamin Franklin Whitehouse of the 1st Ohio Heavy Artillery was a proud member of the Grand Army of the Republic, As the years passed, and the veterans' hair grayed, Whitehouse wrote of their sacrifices and contributions. Here's a sampling from his papers.

On July 5, 1863, Corp. William S. White and his fellow artillerists in the Richmond Howitzers withdrew from Pennsylvania to Virginia in the wake of the loss at the Battle of Gettysburg. White overheard Gen. Robert E. Lee talking to Gen. Richard Ewell. Here's what Lee said.

Major Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan, known as "Little Phil" to his friends, had a big personality—and a front row seat at the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. In his 1885 memoirs, Sheridan recalls the event, and Grant's character as a man and a leader.

A subscriber recently commented: "Did Lee or his Chief of Staff write an after action report that survives? That would be a great insightful document." He did, and the entire report is 7,406 words long. I read it, and found six takeaways to share.

Elisha Rice Reed, who served in the ranks of the Iron Brigade's 2nd Wisconsin Infantry, suffered wounds in both legs during the first day's fighting at Gettysburg. As a prisoner of war in the Seminary, he watched Pickett's Charge from the cupola of the distinctive brick building.

What was it like to be an artillerist in action during the bombardment that preceded Pickett's Charge? William S. White, a corporal in the 3rd Company of the Richmond Howitzers, described the scene in his diary, and what happened after the guns fell silent.

Immediately following the death of Ulysses S. Grant on July 23, 1885, a reporter interviewed former Confederate Gen. James Longstreet at his home outside Gainesville, Ga. Longstreet paid tribute to his late friend and shared memories of war and peace.

Private Benjamin Franklin Whitehouse of the 1st Ohio Heavy Artillery had his first night on guard duty at Fort Burnside in Covington, Ky. During his watch, he spied movement and saw a figure moving toward him. He eventually fired a shot. Here's what happened next.

In the papers of Benjamin Franklin Whitehouse of the 1st Ohio Heavy Artillery can be found two poems, both copied in long hand, that reveal in poignant verse the dwindling numbers of Grand Army of the Republic veterans as the years passed.

During the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, Helen Gilson lent her considerable skills as a compassionate caregiver to Union and Confederate wounded. At one point, a patient asked her to sing. The song she chose moved Northern and Southern hearts,

John Buford, one of the most respected Union generals, displayed grit and determination on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. After the war, one of Buford's staffers, 1st Lt. and Signal Corps officer Aaron B. Jerome, worried that history would forget Buford. So he wrote a letter to promot...