Summer 2025 Issue Highlights
Cover stories surface in different ways. When the reveal themselves, it is unexpected and joyful. The image and story that leads are Summer 2025 issue is no exception. I was
Category: 2025 Summer
The Enduring Emotional Power of Civil War Portrait Photographs
I’ve heard from a number of you about the cover story in our last issue, “Wounded Warriors.” The gist of the comments: Seeing soldiers and sailors with amputated limbs brought
How Many Miles Did Army of the Potomac Regiments March to Gettysburg?
During the three-week lead-up to the Battle of Gettysburg, the Army of the Potomac made a sustained series of forced marches with only occasional breaks as they raced from various
New Books: Catholic Chaplains, Weather Gods
Priests Who Delivered Faith and Hope Attendees at recent Civil War collector shows may have encountered an enthusiastic, engaging man dressed in the clothing of a Civil War chaplain. Within
Mistaken Identity and Fame Fixation
By Kurt Luther Ann Shumard, Senior Curator of Photographs at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, reached out to me with a question about a possible misidentification. A glass plate negative
“One of Nature’s Truest Noblemen” in Three Wars
By Joe Bauman Few soldiers served in the major armed conflicts of 1812, Mexico, and the Civil War. The most notable name is Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, who commanded the
“Woe Be to Those Who Laugh at His Death”
War Department clerk and former army captain Edward C. Townsend was overcome with emotion after news of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln reached him. “Never before did I shed tears
“Boys, Save the Colors!”
Small in stature yet formidable in his resolve, quiet and unassuming Christian Abraham Fleetwood abandoned his bookkeeping job in Baltimore the moment Black men were allowed to enlist. Born free
President-Elect Lincoln Meets a Revolutionary War Veteran
A memorable meeting between two distinguished visitors took place at the Astor House in New York City during the morning of February 20, 1861. President-elect Abraham Lincoln, on his way
“True Blue and Grit to the Backbone”
By Phil Spaugy The story is well known. How John Lawrence Burns of Gettysburg, a man born during the presidency of George Washington, a soldier of 1812, a former town