Civil War Times Magazine

11/25/2022

A Hike to Davis Ford, Where 22,000 Confederates Crossed the Duck River in 1864

'Dirt roads, deer hunters, and dear Lord save me. I’m going to Davis Ford.'

11/25/2022

After the Carnage of Antietam, Man's Best Friend Stood Loyally By

The incredible bond between soldiers and their dogs provided a moving addendum to the Civil War battle's bloody fury.

11/24/2022

The Hero of Lookout Mountain

Captain John Wilson, of Company C, 8th Kentucky Infantry, is recognized as the first Union volunteer to plant the regiment’s battle flag on the summit of Lookout Mountain #OnThisDay, Nov. 24, 1863, during the “Battle of the Clouds.” In his own words Captain Wilson said, “Brig. Gen. Walter C. Whitaker of Kentucky came to our regiment and said to Col. Sidney M. Barnes: ‘Col. Barnes, have you an officer that will volunteer to carry your flag and place it on the top of the Mountain?’ I said, ‘General, I will go.’ Turning to the regiment, he said, ‘How many of you will go with Capt. Wilson? I could order you up there, but will not, for it is a hazardous undertaking; but for the flag that gets there first it will be an honor.’” Five men went with Wilson, who described the undertaking this way: “Dim daylight was dawning. We crept cautiously upward, clutching at rocks and bush, supporting each other, using sticks and poles and such other aids as we could gather. At every step we expected to be greeted with deadly missiles of some sort from the enemy. But fortune favored us, and before sun-up, I, in front, reached the summit and planted the flag on top of Lookout Mountain. It was the highest flag that was planted during the war. Soon other detachments came up and congratulated me and my party, and we were the lions of the day in the Union Army.”

11/24/2022

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Civil War Times magazine!

11/24/2022

An Ohio English Teacher Went to Fight in the Civil War and Got His First True Taste of Battle

An Ohio teacher got his first true taste of battle as Vicksburg fell in the summer of 1863. Two arduous but fulfilling years in uniform followed.

11/24/2022

No Rest for Man or Beast: The Brutal Battle of Yellow Tavern

The chaos and violence of cavalry warfare and its impact on the movements of both Union and Confederate armies leading to the bloodbath at Cold Harbor.

11/24/2022

How the South Led the North in Submarine Warfare

The daunting Hunley earned its glory, but the sub wasn’t the South’s only “Infernal Machine” to antagonize the Union Navy during the war.

11/23/2022

A Happy Thanksgiving message from Civil War Times magazine Editor Dana B. Shoaf and Director of Photography Melissa A. Winn. Thank you! Happy Holidays to all!

11/23/2022

#HumpDayHistory
(Civil War facts to get you through the longest day of the week)

The Army Medical Museum

The Army Medical Museum was established by U.S. Army Surgeon General William A. Hammond in 1862, as a center for research in military medicine and surgery. Hammond directed medical officers in the field to collect "specimens of morbid anatomy...together with projectiles and foreign bodies removed,” and to forward them to the newly founded museum for study. Civil War surgeon John Brinton served as the museum’s first curator and visited several mid-Atlantic battlefields, including Gettysburg, to report back to Hammond his observations on medical techniques, burials, and, more importantly, to collect the amputated limbs of the wounded and have them shipped in barrels back to Washington, D.C., for the museum. During and after the war, the museum staff took pictures of wounded soldiers showing the effects of gunshot wounds as well as results of amputations and other surgical procedures. The information collected was compiled into six volumes of "The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion", published between 1870 and 1883.

11/23/2022

Battle Of Chattanooga

#OnThisDay in 1863, the Battle of Chattanooga begins, ending three days later, and after several engagements, with a Union victory.

Facts about the Battle Of Chattanooga, an 1863 Civil War Battle of the American Civil War Battle.

11/23/2022

How Medical Triage Went Mainstream During the Civil War

Triage for the wounded, institutionalized during the Civil War, remains fundamental for modern medical teams.

11/23/2022

How the Sites of Stonewall Jackson's Wounding and Death Became Tourist Attractions

Confederate veterans created shrines to memorialize the general and attract travelers' dollars.

And why Stonewall Jackson's arm has its own gravestone.

11/23/2022

Target Vicksburg: The Union Challenge of Taking the City on the Hill

The Hill City controlled the Mississippi River. Taking it wouldn’t be easy.

The Hill City controlled the Mississippi River. Taking it wouldn’t be easy The Hill City controlled the Mississippi River. Taking it wouldn’t be easy.

11/22/2022

#OnThisDay in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Seven months earlier, on April 7, 1963, he visted Antietam National Battlefield. View some footage of his visit here, courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

11/22/2022

John Wilkes Booth: An Oily Character

Before plotting murder, the actor tried his hand at wildcatting.

Before plotting murder, actor tried his hand at wildcatting

11/22/2022

He's Spent Decades Wandering Antietam — Here's What He's Found

A “Babe Ruth of Storytellers” holds history in his head… and his pockets.

11/22/2022

In God We Trust: Did George B. McClellan Suffer from a Messianic Complex?

Did George McClellan suffer from a messianic complex? How both the Union and Confederdacy believed they had God on their side during the Civil War.

Did George McClellan suffer from a messianic complex? How both the Union and Confederdacy believed they had God on their side during the Civil War

11/21/2022

In His Words: The Exceptional Life of Union Engineer Gilbert Thompson

Union Engineer Gilbert Thompson documented his Civil War service with an illustrated diary.

Union Engineer Gilbert Thompson documented his Civil War service with an illustrated diary

11/21/2022

Can You Dig it? Archaeologists Take on Culp’s Hill

Archaeologists can’t swing a metal detector without getting a hit.

Archaeologists can’t swing a metal detector without getting a hit Archaeologists can’t swing a metal detector without getting a hit

11/20/2022

5 Famous Body Parts From History That You Can Visit

These famous men left something behind besides their legacies. Here's where to visit the most famous body parts to, err, rest in pieces

These famous men left something behind besides their legacies. Here's where to visit the most famous body parts to, err, rest in pieces.

11/20/2022

Vicksburg: Where Grant Learned How to Win the War

A little-discussed factor was the social revolution that preceded Vicksburg's surrender—the destruction of the plantation oligarchy and the liberation of 100,000 slaves.

An little-discussed factor was the social revolution that preceded Vicksburg's surrender—the destruction of the plantation oligarchy and the liberation of 100,000 slaves.

11/20/2022

'Shoot and be Damned’

A tense interaction between green soldiers and agitated civilians results in murder.

A tense interaction between green soldiers and agitated civilians results in murder

11/19/2022

Regulating Venus

Faced with a rampant prostitution crisis in Nashville, the U.S. Army tried a bold social experiment.

Faced with a rampant prostitution crisis in Nashville, the U.S. Army tried a bold social experiment

11/19/2022

Historian Allen Guelzo delivers the keynote address at the ceremonies commemorating the 159th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address delivered by Abraham Lincoln November 19, 1863.

11/19/2022

No Man Left Behind: A Union Soldier Risked it All To Save Wounded Comrades

“The daring of this man,” Captain Frank Donaldson later wrote about Lemuel Crocker’s Shepherdstown heroism, “is without precedent."

“The daring of this man,” Captain Frank Donaldson later wrote about Lemuel Crocker’s Shepherdstown heroism, “is without precedent"

11/19/2022

Author and Historian Jon Meacham recites the Gettysburg Address at Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg National Military Park on the 159th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s historic address.

11/19/2022

A fine description of the meaning of the events #OnThisDay November 19, 1863, in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. From Bruce Catton’s “Glory Road,” part of his timeless Army of the Potomac trilogy.

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“There were thousands of people at this ceremony, and among them were certain wounded veterans who had come back to see all of this, and in a knot wandered away from the crowd around the speakers stand and strolled down along Cemetery Ridge, pausing when they reached a little clump of trees, and where they looked off toward the west and talked quietly about what they had seen and done there.

In front of them was the wide gentle valley of the shadow of death, brimming now with soft autumn light, and behind them the flags waved lazily about the speakers stand and the voice droned on, building up to a literary climax. The valley was a mile wide, and there was rolling ground where the Rebel guns had been ranked, and on the crest of this ridge was the space where a girlish artillery lieutenant had had a sergeant hold him up while he called for the last round of canister, the ground where file closers had gripped hands and dug in their heels to hold a wavering line together, the place where the noise of men desperately fighting had been heard as a great mournful roar; and the voice went on, and the governors looked dignified , and the veterans by the trees looked about them and saw again the fury and the smoke and the killing.

This then was the valley of dry bones, waiting for the word, which might or might not come in rhythmic prose that began with the customs of ancient Athens. The bones had laid there in the sun and rain and now were carefully arranged state by state under the new sod. They were the bones of men who had exulted in their youth, and some who had been unstained heroes while others had been scamps who had pillaged and robbed and ran away when they could, and they had died here, and that was the end of them. They had come here because of angry words and hot passions in which they had not shared. They had come too, because the drums had rolled and the bands had blared the swinging deceitful tunes piped men off to battle….three cheers for the red, white and blue, here’s a long look back at the girl I left behind me, John Browns body lies a-moldering in the grave but we go marching on, and Yankee Doodle on his spotted pony goes riding off into the eternal smoky mist of war.

Back of these men were innumerable long dusty roads reaching into the main street of a thousand youthful towns and villages where they had been bright flags overhead and people on the board sidewalks cheering and crying and waving a last good-by. It had seemed so once that there was some compelling reason to bring the men here-something so broad that it would encompass all of the horrible contradictory manifestations of the country’s pain and bewilderment, the riots and lynching’s, the hysterical conspiracies with their oaths written in blood, the hard hand that had been laid upon the country-side, the scramble for riches and the scheming for high place and the carried by quiet folk who just wanted to live at peace by the faith they used to have.

Perhaps there was meaning to all of this somewhere. Perhaps everything that the nation was and meant to be had come to focus here, beyond the graves and the remembered echo of the guns and the wreckage of lived that were gone forever. Perhaps the whole of it somehow was greater than the sum of its tragic parts, and perhaps here on this windswept hill the thing could be said at last, so the dry bones of the country dreams could take on flesh.

The orator finished, and after the applause had died away the tall man in the black frock coat got to his feet, with two little sheets of paper in his hand, and he looked out over the valley and began to speak.”

11/19/2022

11/19/2022

The Gettysburg Address

#OnThisDay in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivers his famed Gettysburg Address.

The full text of the Gettysburg Address, delivered by President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery.

11/19/2022

Pickett's Charge: Is Everything We Think We Know Wrong?

J.E.B. Stuart’s intentions during Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg have long been misinterpreted.

J.E.B. Stuart’s intentions during Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg have long been misinterpreted

11/19/2022

An Ohio English Teacher Went to Fight in the Civil War and Got His First True Taste of Battle

An Ohio teacher got his first true taste of battle as Vicksburg fell in the summer of 1863. Two arduous but fulfilling years in uniform followed.

11/19/2022

Fighting the Enemy Was a Civil War Hazard. So Was Manufacturing Weapons.

Explosions from Connecticut to Mississippi killed or maimed hundreds of munitions workers.

Explosions from Connecticut to Mississippi killed or maimed hundreds of munitions workers

11/19/2022

The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia won the prestigious Wendy Allen Award Thursday night, given annually by The Lincoln Forum at its annual seminar in Gettysburg, Pa. Lincoln Forum vice chairman Jonathan White said the award recognized the group’s "exceptional work helping the public learn about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era."

In the photo, from left to right, are Lincoln Group president David J. Kent, Wendy Allen, Jonathan White and Lincoln Forum chairman Harold Holzer. The award includes the Lincoln portrait in the photo painted by Allen, a noted Gettysburg-based artist and organizer of the 100 Nights of Taps held annually at the Gettysburg National Cemetery.

11/18/2022

Civil War Times Editor Dana B. Shoaf and Author and Historian Jonathan White discuss White’s recent works on Abraham Lincoln and African Americans at The Lincoln Forum.

11/18/2022

CWT Editor Dana B. Shoaf and Daniel Weinberg of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop discuss some rare Lincoln-related artifacts at The Lincoln Forum.

11/18/2022

Civil War Times Editor Dana B. Shoaf and historian Hugh Goffinet discuss USCT stories and student scholars at The Lincoln Forum.

11/18/2022

Join CWT Editor Dana B. Shoaf on the Gettysburg Battlefield at Forbes’ Rock.

11/18/2022

Join CWT Editor Dana B. Shoaf on the Gettysburg Battlefield and find out about the fighting at Culp’s Hill.

11/18/2022

Join CWT Editor Dana B. Shoaf on the Gettysburg Battlefield at the Virginia monument.

11/18/2022

No Shade for the 'Dictator'
By Dana B. Shoaf

When I look at this image of the famous 13-inch mortar nicknamed the “Dictator,” taken some time between mid July and late August 1864 during the Siege of Petersburg, Va., I’m not only impressed with the size of the death-dealer, but also how “hot” this image feels. It must have been sizzling on that flatcar.

The gunners, members of the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, have stripped to their shirtsleeves to fire the behemoth. Every time the mortar discharged, it caused the flatcar to roll backward 10 to 12 feet down the tracks.

This was the first position for the Dictator, it later moved to other locations, and if you visit Petersburg today, you’ll see the mortar displayed at its final position, on land at Union battery 5. No matter where the Dictator was located, it was throwing some high heat.

Photo: Library of Congress