Winter 2023-2024

Civil War Times

Biographies, battles, eyewitness accounts & period photos of America’s greatest internal conflict

Civil War Times1 min read
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Civil War Times1 min read
Historynet
VISIT HISTORYNET.COM A week after Gettysburg, violence consumed New York City. Elizabeth Oakes Smith’s diary recorded it all. By Jonathan W. White historynet.com/witness-new-yorkdraft-riots What happened today, yesterday—or any day you care to searc
Civil War Times1 min read
Civil War Times
DANA B. SHOAF EDITOR IN CHIEF CHRIS K. HOWLAND SENIOR EDITOR BRIAN WALKER GROUP DESIGN DIRECTOR ALEX GRIFFITH DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY AUSTIN STAHL ASSOCIATE DESIGN DIRECTOR CLAIRE BARRETT NEWS AND SOCIAL EDITOR Gabor Boritt, Catherine Clinton, Thomas
Civil War Times1 min read
Two Triggers
Savage bullets are quite rare to find in an archaeological setting. I’ve only ever found 4, 3 of which were in one hole and the 4th was fired. Oddball looking revolvers! —Elijah Filbert I’m wondering if it’s a “one and done design.” —Steve Sickles Ed
Civil War Times1 min read
First Mondays
Our most recent First Mondays broadcast took a look at the famous “Gettysburg Gun” of Battery B, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery, currently on display at the Varnum Memorial Armory in East Greenwich, R.I. The broadcast drew a lot of interest. Stephe
Civil War Times2 min read
A New Exposure
As part of the commemorative activities in Gettysburg, Pa., this July for the 160th anniversary of the battle fought there July 1-3, 1863, the Center for Civil War Photography and the Adams County Historical Society unveiled a newly discovered wartim
Civil War Times2 min read
Digging Deep
A NEW REPORT from the Manassas National Battlefield Park summarizing the findings of a four-year study of archaeology that turned up some fascinating results. For example, some of the findings revealed the Brawner Farm, site of the opening engagement
Civil War Times1 min read
War Frame
THIS UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN made a conscious choice to pose with the U.S. flag behind her. Her gaze is strong and straightforward, and she no doubt wants to convey her loyalty to the Union war effort. It is quite likely she had a male relative in the ser
Civil War Times2 min read
Preaervation Register
As the nation commemorated the 161st anniversary of the Battle of Antietam September 17, the American Battlefield Trust (ABT) declared victory in its efforts to save nearly 150 acres of battlefield land associated with the Maryland Campaign, includin
Civil War Times1 min read
The Legend Of Robert Smalls
ROBERT SMALLS, an enslaved Black harbor pilot in Charleston, S.C., stole a Confederate naval vessel and sailed it past the Union blockade to freedom. And that’s just the beginning of his incredible story, which takes him from serving the country in t
Civil War Times1 min readAmerican Government
Usns Harriet Tubman
A U.S. NAVY SHIP will now bear the name of celebrated abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who was the first African American woman to formally serve in the military during the Civil War, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro recently announced. The future USNS Har
Civil War Times1 min read
Open To The Public!
Visitors to the Antietam National Battlefield can now experience the park’s newly remodeled Visitor Center. After two years of closure for rehabilitation work, the Visitor Center reopened in August. Its updated museum includes new interpretation and
Civil War Times2 min read
A New Salute: In Memoriam
In September 1861, 25 men of Orwell, Ashtabula County, Ohio, formed Company A of the 6th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry after a patriotic rally at the local town hall. On September 10, 2023, a monument was dedicated to them on a spot in town near where that
Civil War Times1 min read
Close Up! Quiz
WHO SLEPT in this cabin? Send your answer to chowland@historynet.com, subject heading “Buckeye Boy.” ■
Civil War Times1 min read
Answer To Last Issue’s Close Up!
CONGRATULATIONS to Scott Shields of Columbia, S.C., who correctly identified the Gettysburg statue of Lieutenant Stephen F. Brown, 13th Vermont. ■
Civil War Times1 min readUnited States
On The Frontier
ON MAY 29, 1868, Ulysses S. Grant accepted the nomination as the Republican candidate for president of the United States. He then went on campaign, or what he called “an inspection tour of the West.” That same year, famed Civil War photographer Andre
Civil War Times4 min read
Envelopes With A Message
A MASSIVE AMOUNT of correspondence passed between Union armies and the home front. Chaplain Richard Eddy of the 60th New York Infantry, who also served as the regimental postmaster, noted in April 1863 that he “mailed for the regiment 3855 letters du
Civil War Times6 min read
Trailing A Killer
PERHAPS NO PLACE is better to begin an adventure in the footsteps of Samuel “Champ” Ferguson—the most notorious of Confederate guerrilla leaders—than a small brewery near Sparta, Tenn., roughly 100 miles east of Nashville. One’s mind can become a lit
Civil War Times1 min readInternational Relations
Today In History May 13, 1865
UNION SOLDIER JOHN J. WILLIAMS IS KILLED ON THE BANKS OF THE RIO GRANDE DURING THE BATTLE OF PALMITO RANCH. RECOGNIZED AS THE LAST MAN TO DIE IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, HE WAS ONE OF AN ESTIMATED700,000MEN—ROUGHLY 2% OF THE U.S. POPULATION AT THE TIM
Civil War Times1 min read
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Civil War Times6 min read
Another Napoleonic War
NO LARGER COLLECTION of artillery had ever been brought to a war’s battlefields in the Western Hemisphere before the Civil War. More than 200,000 men, trained and educated like no other subset of soldiers in this war of amateurs, handled and operated
Civil War Times1 min read
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Civil War Times1 min read
A New Harvest
IN FEBRUARY 1972, I opened my mailbox and found my first subscribed issue of Civil War Times. I remember the cover well, the colorful Red-Legged Devils of the 14th Brooklyn fording a river. For the next few decades, the magazine allowed me to travel
Civil War Times1 min read
Gardner And His Assistants
Prior to May 1863, photographer Alexander Gardner had managed Mathew Brady’s Washington, D.C., gallery. Frustrated, however, with the fact Brady took credit for a photograph, even if was taken by another operative, Gardner struck out on his own. At G
Civil War Times9 min read
Left On The Field
One of the many iconic photographs taken on the Gettysburg battlefield by Alexander Gardner’s photographic team was the heartbreaking image of the bloated corpse of a horse. The unfortunate animal was one of the wheel pair, and it died still harnesse
Civil War Times7 min read
Grant’s Best Gunner
Tour Stop One at Vicksburg National Military Park is the location of “Battery DeGolyer.” Named after its commanding officer, Captain Samuel DeGolyer, the position had the heaviest concentration of guns on the Union lines during the 47-day Siege of Vi
Civil War Times12 min read
‘Weary Of So Much Suffering’
Agloomy and tragic scene—one with which the inhabitants of the oft-contested city of Winchester, Va., were unfortunately all too familiar—unfolded throughout the night of September 19, 1864, as thousands of casualties from the Third Battle of Winches
Civil War Times11 min read
Lincoln’s Foreign Legion
In the earliest days of Union enlistment in New York City, anyone willing to volunteer was welcome at recruitment offices—including the foreign-born. Language barriers proved no obstacle, particularly among Germans. After all, German support had help
Civil War Times2 min read
Indestructible Fortitude
Most people know Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain as the “Hero of Little Round Top”—or at the very least for his magnificent mustache. The Civil War officer, however, who led the 20th Maine and steadfastly anchored the Union flank at the Battle of Gettysb
Civil War Times1 min read
Sharps’ Breechloader
BY 1830, Christian Sharps, born in New Jersey in 1811 had gone to work at the Harpers Ferry, Va., Arsenal, helping to produce firearms for the U.S. Army. In 1848, Sharps received his first breechloadingfirearms patent. By 1851, the gunmaker had struc
Civil War Times2 min read
Essays On Grant
In this engaging volume, 16 authors provide fresh interpretations of General Ulysses S. Grant’s legendary career. An impressive bonus is the inclusion of commemorative messages from the 16 living U.S. presidents marking his bicentennial birthday. As
Civil War Times1 min read
What Are You Reading?
Clara Barton was a restless soul—a soldier father’s daughter through and through, but always a lady, as he had taught her. Curious to know more of the details and less of the legend of her service, I’m reading A Woman of Valor by Stephen Oates. I’m e
Civil War Times2 min readAmerican Government
Eleven Sessions, Eleven States
The Confederate Congress met in 11 sessions from February 1861 to March 1865. The last seven volumes of the Southern Historical Society Papers, published intermittently from 1923 to 1959, reprinted proceedings of the body’s sessions from February 186
Civil War Times2 min readAmerican Government
Confederate Staging Ground
Histories of the Civil War seldom pay much attention to Canada. But as Canadian journalist Julian Sher shows in this stirring work: Canada and Canadians played a pivotal role in the conflict. Canada, of course, represented the freedom line for runawa
Civil War Times1 min read
Synopsis Of Mayhem
In 1987 Harry Pfanz put out Gettysburg: The Second Day, a massive work of 600 pages. So now it’s time for something different: Timothy Orr’s paperback of just under 100 pages, richly illustrated and with a dozen color maps. It’s a good read and synop
Civil War Times3 min read
More Military, Please
Readers interested in the Civil War will be disappointed in this biography, three-quarters of which concerns James Garfield’s political career, and nearly half of that is devoted to the final 16 months of his life. Only 50 pages cover Garfield’s time
Civil War Times1 min read
Scrawl of A Survivor $225
ON JULY 3, 1863, at Gettysburg, Jacob Winslow and his comrades in the 108th New York Infantry took a merciless pounding from Confederate guns during the pre–Pickett’s Charge artillery barrage. Positioned on the far right of the 2nd Corps’ line in Zie

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