Palms of Victory
Mary Dines made her way to the front of a gathering at a Freedmen’s camp in Washington, D.C., her knees nervously shaking. She joined her fellow inhabitants, all dressed in
Category: The Citizenry
The Circuit Rider
By Elizabeth A. Topping Among the preachers who served the Midwest in 1864 perhaps no one man touched the souls of more families than Rev. Allen H. Tilton. A traveling
Commission of a Lifetime
An insatiable demand for memorials honoring the sacrifice of a generation swept the country for decades after the Civil War. Each memorial involved formal dedication ceremonies with all the pomp
Barnum and Bagley
Of the diminutive performers at Barnum’s American Museum in the Spring of 1864, only one had the potential to grow to an average height. Major Willie Bagley, nicknamed “The Wisconsin
The Seamstress
A scissor-wielding seamstress prepares to cut a length of string attached to a pair of trousers. A second pair of scissors lay open on the base of her dress. A
The Uniform Makers
The Haley brothers arrived in New Market in Rockingham County, N.H., on the eve of the Civil War. There, they built their tailoring establishment at the corner of Main and
Divin Glover and Her Enslaver
Divin Glover sits with hands placed one atop the other, her furrowed brow and heavy eyelids bearing witness to her age. She is attired in a plaid dress with white
Hostile Spirit
By Jeff Giambrone After the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, the victorious Union army assumed the difficult role of occupier to a city filled with pro-Confederate sympathizers. Over
“The Parents of 5 ‘Ragged’ Rebs”
When Kentuckians Elizabeth Taylor Nelson and John Rowzee Green married in 1839, they could never have imagined that five of their 13 children would become Confederate soldiers. They included 1st
Corning Milliners
This view of four ladies standing on the second floor landing of the back of clapboard building was taken by a photographer in Corning, N.Y. On the stairway below them