Union Soldiers from Wisconsin, Connecticut and Elsewhere
The pressing need for volunteers to fill the depleted ranks of the Union army had not waned by the summer of 1864. In Milwaukee, recruiters organized Wisconsin’s 43rd infantry regiment
Recent Stories
Lincoln’s Winning Hand
These political cartoons, published as cartes de visite, highlight the outcome of the 1864 presidential election in which incumbent Republican Abraham Lincoln trounced his Democratic Party rival, Maj. Gen. George
The Summer 2024 Issue
In February, I attended the South Boston Civil War and Military Show in South Boston. It’s a wonderful venue featuring collectors from Virginia and North Carolina, as well as area
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
USCT Troops Commissioned and Enlisted during the Civil War
The total number of United States Colored Troops who served in the Civil War was 186,017, as reported in the 1866 Report of the Provost Marshal General by James B.
Remembrance as History
The sheer volume of surviving writings by those citizen and professional soldiers who experienced the Civil War firsthand is immense. Accounts in diaries, letters, periodicals and books stand as a
Oscar F. Douglas: The Photographer Behind the Iconic USCT Drummer Boy
By Kurt Luther The pair of cartes de visite of a young African American boy transformed from a runaway slave into a Union drummer boy are among the most memorable
A U.S. Army Assistant Surgeon in Profile
Marcus Aurelius Root, renowned Philadelphia photographer and author of the 1864 treatise and handbook, The Camera and the Pencil; or the Heliographic Art, created this portrait of a U.S. Army
The Celebrated Man of the Hour
Bad news flooded Northern newspapers in 1861. Secession. Fort Sumter. Riots in Baltimore and St. Louis. Lost battles at Bull Run and Ball’s Bluff. Death snuffing out young lives. News
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