Major General William T. Sherman's forces entered Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, on Feb. 17, 1865. As Sherman rode through the conquered city he met numerous individuals, including escaped Union prisoners of war. One of these bedraggled men handed him a note. Sherman stuffed it into his...

ne of the central figures in Pickett’s Charge was the colonel responsible for the massive artillery bombardment intended to soften up the Union position prior to the assault: Edward Porter Alexander. In 1877, he shared his experience on July 3, 1863, including his communications with Gen. James L...

When the U.S. Army of the Potomac opened its spring 1864 campaign against the C.S. Army of Northern Virginia, Gen. Robert E. Lee faced a new adversary fresh from the war's Western Theater: Ulysses S. Grant. One of Lee's subordinates, Brig. Gen. Evander M. Law recalled how little his fellow senior...

George Gordon Meade, the West Point educated commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, is largely remembered for the perception that he failed to vigorously pursue Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Gettysburg, and also for flashes of hot temper. But ...

In 1938, the Mutual Broadcast Network’s Special Features Division aired programming from the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. One of the Confederate veterans interviewed, Robert Powell Scott of the 45th Arkansas Mounted Infantry, told his story. Here's what he had to say.

Image: Lib...

Buried in the recesses of the National Archives, in the millions of cards in the Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR), is an easter egg in the form of a fantastical giant of a Union soldier from Kentucky. Here's the story—and a guide to understanding CMSRs.

He was an Irish immigrant, Civil and Spanish-American War veteran, color bearer severely wounded in battle, Medal of Honor recipient, baseball player, legislator, and popular figure wherever he went. Meet Michael Emmet Urell of the 82nd New York Infantry.

John Francis Campbell journeyed far and wide during his lifetime. A scholar, an author, a traveler, and a rambling renaissance man, he traveled to different parts of the globe to see what he could see. This includes a visit to the war-torn United States in the autumn of 1864.

In 1862, The New York Journal of Commerce declared Vermont Gov. Frederick Holbrook’s Thanksgiving message “a proclamation worth reading and preserving.” 163 years later, the governor's words continue to resonate.

During the lead up to the election of 1860, Ulysses S. Grant lived in Galena, Ill., where he worked in the family business. Though not able to vote because he had not lived in the state long enough to qualify, he had a preferred candidate—Abraham Lincoln—and he helped drill the Wide-Awakes, a you...

This image of an unidentified soldier showing us his knapsack, stenciled with the name of his organization, and his Sharps rifle kicked off a trip down the research rabbit trail to learn more about his company and regiment. Here's the story.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain possessed many natural gifts honed during his life's journey as a professor, general, and governor of Maine. His abilities as a writer shone light on his beloved 20th Maine Infantry and his own leadership at Little Round Top. Here's a lesser known writing about a night...

During the Army of the Potomac’s 1864 advance across the Rapidan River and deep into enemy territory in Virginia, Union and Confederate forces clashed in The Wilderness—by all accounts some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Here's an eyewitness account by artilleryman Charles B. Brockway.

During the winter of 1860-1861, as the secession crisis unfolded and the country teetered on the brink of war, private citizen Ulysses S. Grant traveled the upper Midwest, chatting up locals in towns about the future of America. Here's his reflections.

History remembers John Clifford Pemberton as the Northern-born Confederate general who surrendered his forces garrisoning the Mississippi River fortress city of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Following his death in Philadelphia in 1881, a local newspaper remembered "the doom of a beaten man was on hi...