Civil War Times

In the Miscellany section of the Autumn 2022 issue, you state that Walter Taylor was “in the room when his commander surrendered to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant”. Taylor was not in the room; he wimped out, claiming that he couldn’t bear the humiliation,

On September 17, 2022, the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg, the Rebel Yell and thundering artillery once again rent the air as the Liberty Rifles and the 1st Section reenactment units re-created the 4th Texas Infantry and V

On July 3, 2022, visitors to the Portsmouth Historical Society in Rhode Island got a rare glimpse of a fragile U.S. flag bearing 33 stars, dating from the admission of Oregon on February 14, 1859. The banner was briefly on display while being aired o

ON SEPTEMBER 10, 1862, 29-year-old Michigan teacher Julia Wheelock received word that her brother Orville, of the 8th Michigan Infantry, had been wounded at the September 1 Battle of Chantilly and was in a hospital in Alexandria, Va. She raced to his

WINFIELD SCOTT’S accomplishments place him among the five greatest soldiers in U.S. history—in company with George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and George C. Marshall. Between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, Scott did as muc

AFTER SPENDING a sleepless Saturday night in a sketchy Richmond hotel, I drive surprisingly uncongested highways to the unheralded New Market Heights battlefield, where U.S. Colored Troops made history. Promptly at 8:30 a.m., I arrive at the already

STEVE COWIE SPENT 15 years researching how the Battle of Antietam and the following military occupations affected the prosperous small town of Sharpsburg, Md. Captivated by the Civil War since childhood, Cowie used skills developed as a screenwriter

I RECENTLY ACQUIRED A SMITH CARBINE, similar to those pictured in Armament (P. 60), thanks to the help of advisory board member Phil Spaugy. Phil, a member of the North-South Skirmish Association, is my go-to person when I have a firearms question. I

Mississippi suffered greatly throughout the Civil War, but it was at Corinth where citizens and volunteers first endured the carnage of war amplified by a bloody clash deep in the Tennessee wilderness. Early on, gaining possession of Corinth—an impor

In the spring of 1883, Erastus G. Bartlett, a veteran of the 12th West Virginia Infantry and assistant inspector general for the Grand Army of the Republic’s (GAR) Department of West Virginia, submitted his annual report to John W. Burst, the GAR’s i

While the GAR’s members in the Shenandoah Valley committed themselves to honoring the memory of fallen brothers, some also thought of establishing “a permanent colony of GAR veterans” somewhere in the Valley. Inspired by the colony established by Phi

The surging mass of armed men stopped the train full of Union recruits and herded the passengers out of their cars. The bold move occurred in Pennsylvania, sending shock waves across the Keystone State. Governor Andrew Curtin dashed off a telegram to

How do you force someone to fight for someone else’s freedom? This question reveals the irony of the policy of conscription that the U.S. government implemented during the Civil War. The Confederacy had introduced conscription first and experienced i

The Civil War has long been recognized as a conflict that ushered in many military and technological innovations—from trench warfare and repeating firearms to submarines and ironclad warships—that foreshadowed the evolution of warfare in the 20th cen

Wisconsin men eagerly answered President Lincoln’s call for troops in April 1861, and more volunteers came forward than could initially be used. Governor Alexander Randall set up a training ground for troops in the capital city of Madison. The encamp

A PLACE NAMED Buttermilk Falls doesn’t sound like it should be associated with a deadly firearm, but that New York town was the home of Gilbert Smith, inventor of a .50-caliber breechloading carbine he patented in 1857 that bears his name. In 1860, t

While the Civil War’s human cost has been rigorously charted over the years, its financial implications have received far less attention. Inhis new book, Ways and Means, Roger Lowenstein remedies this oversight with an engaging, detailed account that