By Ronald S. Coddington Two distinct human stories connected to the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay have passed through the generations. The protagonists were celebrated as heroes—one a profile of
A Rear Admiral’s Son John Wilkes, Jr., sat for this portrait about 1847, the same year he graduated from the Naval Academy. Known as “Jack” to his friends, young Wilkes
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
By Perry Frohne Over the past few decades, 19th-century photography has experienced only minor amateur attacks from those intent on defrauding its collecting community. Thankfully these fakes are fairly easy
Career navy officer Richard Worsam Meade was an irascible man. This quirk in his personality may have been hereditary; his uncle famously exhibited the same trait—Maj. Gen. George G. Meade.
A yard sale discovery in Florence, S.C., in the 1980s turned up this circa late 1850s image. In antebellum times, the city comprised part of Darlington District. This militiaman might
A Regimental History in the Grand Tradition The histories of regiments produced during the lifetimes of veterans that fought the Civil War stand as a memorial to their service. These
Torrents of rain turned the Virginia countryside outside Richmond into a formless swamp following the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862. But the Union soldiers, exhausted from days
A soldier in the 9th New York Infantry, popularly known as Hawkins’ Zouaves for its colonel, Rush Hawkins, stands with his hands at his side. A Masonic pin on his
