A Useful Life: Sarah Chamberlin Eccleston, Civil War nurse and educator
By Sidney Dreese Nothing mattered more to Sarah “Sallie” Chamberlin than to live a useful life. A fire burned in her patriotic heart, and she was both anxious and determined
Tag: Civil War history
Cruising the Potomac and Elsewhere with Brig. Gen. John P. Slough’s Brigade Band
By Ronald S. Coddington, with images from the Mark Jones Collection On an April day in 1864, in a field near Alexandria, Va., thousands of soldiers and civilians gathered to
A Concise, Richly Illustrated History of the Atlanta Campaign
Major General William T. Sherman possessed a gift for catchphrases. One of his best-known quips is “So Atlanta is ours and fairly won.” These words appeared in a telegram sent
“The Soul of Grant’s Cabinet is Gone”
General and Secretary of War John Aaron Rawlins lost his battle against consumption late in the afternoon of Sept. 6, 1869. His death struggle played out in a bed at
The Black Phalanx at Benton Barracks: Transforming men of color into U.S. soldiers, late 1863 to early 1864
By Ronald S. Coddington An officer in the 1st Missouri Colored Infantry recalled how recruits for a new regiment marched with “sluggish step and plantation gait” through St. Louis in
On the Demise of Civil War Times, and Introducing a New Column
The storied magazine Civil War Times ceased publication this spring after its parent company scaled back its operations, eliminated the print edition, and explored an expanded digital edition. Its decline
The Little Gamecock: The rise of Brig. Gen. Evander McIver Law, C.S.A.
By Ronald S. Coddington, with images and artifacts from the Craig and Carol Wofford Collection Evander McIver Law focused his piercing blue eyes on the skyline above the Gettysburg countryside.
A Confederate Casualty at Missionary Ridge, a Post-Mortem, and More
The 45th Tennessee Infantry and other Confederate forces occupied Tunnel Hill along the northern edge of Missionary Ridge on the morning of Nov. 25, 1863. Though they successfully repelled piecemeal
For the Sporting Man: A concise history of mail order erotica in the Civil War
By Elizabeth A. Topping, with images and ephemera from the author’s collection Mail call never failed to break the monotony of camp life and stirred anticipation among men and officers