“By Whose Orders?”
By Evan Phifer When the Civil War broke out, John Barclay Fassett volunteered as a private in the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry for three months in 1861. Soon afterwards,
Category: The Honored Few
“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
Saving Private Cochran
During the wee hours of April 2, 1865, an incident on Petersburg’s front lines forever intertwined the lives of three Union enlisted men. They served in the ranks of Company
A Routine Day Ends With A Medal of Honor Act
Captain George Newman Bliss expected a routine day on Sept. 28, 1864. A large cavalry force, including his troopers in the 1st Rhode Island, rode through Waynesboro, Va., to water
Jenny the Drummer Boy
Drummer boy Johann Christoph Julius Langbein’s nickname “Jenny” traces back to his 1861 enlistment in the 9th New York Infantry, popularly known as Hawkins’ Zouaves. One writer noted that the
Saving a Trooper at White Bird Canyon
The light of dawn on June 17, 1877, revealed a column of about 106 U.S. Cavalry troops, plus a couple dozen civilians and scouts, moving down a trail along a
“Damn You, Sir! I Don’t Want a Flag of Truce; I Want the American Flag!”
At Atlanta on the afternoon July 22, 1864, a massive assault by Maj. Gen. Frank Cheatham’s Confederate corps tore into the Union’s western front. The attack landed squarely on the
“Boys, I Fear You Will Never See Shaler Again”
Marye’s Heights proved one of the hardest fought patches of ground in the Civil War’s Eastern Theater. The first attempt by Union forces to take it, during the December 1862
Two Fathers, Two Sons, Two Telegrams
On May 24, 1861, Ephraim D. Ellsworth, 52, happened to be in the telegraph office in Mechanicsville, N.Y., when a shocking message came across the wires. The operator wept openly,
Leading From the Front
The Battle of Piedmont, fought in the Shenandoah Valley on June 5, 1864, is noted for the death of Confederate commander William E. “Grumble” Jones and the rout of his