The historic debut of the ironclad CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, Virginia, forever changed naval warfare. One of the officers aboard the Confederate vessel, Douglas Forrest, served as an aide to Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan. This is his story.

Captain Edwin E. Bouldin (1838–1912) wrote a brief history of the company he commanded, the Charlotte Cavalry, which entered Confederate service as Company B of the 14th Virginia Cavalry. In closing, he reflected on his men and offered his thoughts on how the Confederacy—and their service—should ...

The 131st birthday of George Washington, on February 22, 1863, offered newspaper editors an opportunity to connect the founding father and first president to current events. In occupied Nashville, Tenn., the Nashville Daily Union weighed in.

Major Gen. George Gordon Meade rose to national attention with his victory at the Battle or Gettysburg, and stands among the pantheon of military leaders who saved the Union. Yet, he never quite gained the heroic status of a Grant or Sherman, or a Lee or Jackson. Writer Gamaliel Bradford explored...

Major Gen. George Gordon Meade rose to national attention with his victory at the Battle or Gettysburg, and stands among the pantheon of military leaders who saved the Union. Yet, he never quite gained the heroic status of a Grant or Sherman, or a Lee or Jackson. Writer Gamaliel Bradford explored...

Major Gen. George Gordon Meade rose to national attention with his victory at the Battle or Gettysburg, and stands among the pantheon of military leaders who saved the Union. Yet, he never quite gained the heroic status of a Grant or Sherman, or a Lee or Jackson. Writer Gamaliel Bradford explored...

On December 22, 1864, the Union transport North America steamed up the Florida coast, packed with soldier patients, crew, and caregivers on the way to New York. A raging storm overcame the vessel, and crew worked feverishly to save lives. Here's what happened.

On July 4, 1865, in courthouse square at Princeton, Ind., a monument was dedicated to the 58th Indiana Infantry, which had been organized in the town four years earlier. Its origins date to April 1863, when the regiment was only half way through its service. Here's the backstory.

Ulysses S. Grant provided little color commentary in his memoirs about his brief trip to Washington, D.C., to accept his lieutenant general's commission from President Abraham Lincoln. The four-day event did receive attention in newspapers. Here are early accounts of the visit.

William Wade Dudley, the respected lieutenant colonel of the Iron Brigade's 19th Indiana Infantry, suffered a combat-ending wound on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. A quarter-century later, during the heated presidential campaign of 1888, a private circular Dudley wrote leaked to the p...

Just after the federal loss at the Battle of Second Bull Run, Brig. Gen. Nathan Kimball and his brigade of Buckeyes, Hoosiers, and West Virginia paused in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., before heading into the Maryland Campaign. Here's a view of Kimball and his battle-hardened citizen-soldiers.

There comes a time in early life when a slave becomes aware that he is a slave. And so it was with Henry Scott, a half-white child fathered by his master in Northern Virginia’s Fauquier County. Henry became acutely and painfully aware of his condition at age eight in about 1856—and vowed to escap...

During the early days of the war, the country community of Bailey's Crossroads, Va., lay between the defenses of Washington, D.C., and Confederate outposts on Munson's Hill. A report of life on the Union picket lines during this time is a unique and sometimes light-hearted view.

Major Gen. Joseph Hooker is well-remembered for his generalship at the battles of Chancellorsville and Lookout Mountain—and his outspoken nature, attacking peers and superiors with reckless abandon. Gamaliel Bradford, a pioneer of psychological studies, explored Hooker in a 1914 article in The At...

Major Gen. Joseph Hooker is well-remembered for his generalship at the battles of Chancellorsville and Lookout Mountain—and his outspoken nature, attacking peers and superiors with reckless abandon. Gamaliel Bradford, a pioneer of psychological studies, explored Hooker in a 1914 article in The At...

Major Gen. Joseph Hooker is well-remembered for his generalship at the battles of Chancellorsville and Lookout Mountain—and his outspoken nature, attacking peers and superiors with reckless abandon. Gamaliel Bradford, a pioneer of psychological studies, explored Hooker in a 1914 article in The At...

Restless Harvard dropout Mason Archelaus Rea thrived on adventure, traveling widely before war redirected his energies to defending his country. Joining the 24th Massachusetts Infantry, he proved himself an able commander along the Southern coast and in Virginia. Here's his story.

In his 1898 study, "Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War," biographer George Francis Robert Henderson traced Jackson's history from West Point to Chancellorsville. At the conclusion, he offered an evaluation of the man and the soldier.

James Buchanan—one of the nation’s most controversial presidents, died only three years after the end of the Civil War—on June 1, 1868—a time when the wounds of war were still fresh and raw. Here's a sampling of newspaper reports in the early days following his demise.

On May 8, 1861, in Indianapolis, Col. Lew Wallace and his nattily attired Zouaves gathered in State House Square to received their regimental flags. Civic leaders and families gathered for the occasion, similar to other ceremonies playing out across the country during these early months of the wa...

On the afternoon of July 1, 1863, Capt. Thomas Clark of the U.S. Signal Corps stood high above Gettysburg in the steeple of the town’s prominent two-story courthouse. From this perch—one of the tallest points in the town—he had a commanding view of the surrounding countryside—and the Confederate ...

The operations around Chattanooga in October and November 1863 that ended in Union forces breaking the siege and defeating the Confederate army, are due in large part to the generalship of Ulysses S. Grant. More than two decades after the decisive victory, he shared remarks of two of the opposing...

One of the most celebrated Union commands in the Western Theater is Wilder’s Lightning Brigade, composed of mounted infantry from Indiana and Illinois, and artillery. The story of how the Brigade earned its nom de guerre is revealed by Col. and Brevet Brig. Gen. John T. Wilder.

On July 23, 1863, almost three weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg, as Iron Brigade commander Solomon Meredith recovered from wounds in Washington, D.C., he paused his recuperation to write a letter to Wisconsin Gov. Edward Salomon to praise his state's citizen-soldiers. Here's the exchange betw...