American Civil War

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Benjamin F. Butler created 1864 medal for black troops numismaticnews.net :: 2010-02-17 :: Civil War Medals & Stories
Although the U.S. military has awarded medals for bravery in the 19th century there was only one medal struck as an award to a body of troops for a particular battle. The 1864 "Colored Troops before Richmond" medal - a reminder of the bravery of black troops in the Union Army. The general in charge of the black troops in Virginia in 1984 was Benjamin F. Butler - known as "Beast" Butler because of his harsh military rule in New Orleans in 1862. Butler was so impressed with his black regiments that he set out to have a medal struck in honor of those whose feats went well beyond the call of duty.

Libby Prison Breakout: The Daring Escape from the Notorious Civil War Prison by Joseph Wheelan huntingtonnews.net :: 2010-02-17 :: PoW & Prisoner of War Camps - American Civil War
Civil War buffs and even the general public know the Andersonville Prison, where the Confederacy housed Union POWs under dreadful conditions. Not so many know about Libby Prison in the heart of the Confederate capital of Richmond. With prisoner exchanges suspended, escape and death were the only ways out. The meticulous planning led to the Feb. 9, 1864 escape of 109 officers - out of the 1,200 in Libby - through a 55-foot tunnel and their flight through the heart of the enemy homeland in one of the coldest winters of the war to safety for some and capture for others. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE, FR]

Ulysses S. Grant letters found in museum archives in Freeport mysuburbanlife.com :: 2010-02-17 :: General Ulysses S. Grant
As museum director for the Stephenson County Historical Society in Freeport, one of Ed Finch's duties is keeping track of all the items received at the museum. While browsing through a safe at the museum, he ran across documents in a box which had been untouched for some time. As he looked at the contents of the box, a small sheaf of papers got his attention. "I thought Wow!" In his hands were letters written by Ulysses S. Grant. One of the letters, to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, is lengthy and discusses Grant's plans to move against Confederate forces in Mississippi.

The day 45 Australians rowed off to fight with the Confederates smh.com.au :: 2010-02-17 :: Naval war and blockade - American Civil War
When a Confederate warship sailed into Port Melbourne it set off a chain of events that cost Britain a small fortune. In 1865 the Confederate raider Shenandoah limped in for repairs, avoiding Union ships that had been chasing it. Many Melburnians were sympathetic to the rebels' cause, and they became the toast of the town as they waited for repairs to the ship's propeller shaft. Balls were held in their honour and crowds flocked to see the ship. The US consul, William Blanchard, attempted to rally the authorities to intervene, but the repaired and resupplied Shenandoah left with 45 new recruits.

Artifacts like Booth’s bullet reveal lesser-known side of Lincoln's murder courier-journal.com :: 2010-01-23 :: John Wilkes Booth - Lincoln Assassination
It is the size of a thumbnail, its once-round form now oblong with misshapen edges. This object is the handmade ball of britannia that John Wilkes Booth fired out of his Philadelphia Derringer on April 14, 1865, into the head of President Abraham Lincoln. The bullet that killed the 16th president is among a number of items linked with his murder and autopsy in an exhibition called "Abraham Lincoln: The Final Casualty of the War." The exhibit is running indefinitely, as part of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial, at the National Museum of Health & Medicine on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

"Blue and Gray Diplomacy" traces Europe's lack of role in American Civil War tuscaloosanews.com :: 2010-01-23 :: Why South lost Civil War - Confederacy Myths
The true lost cause of the American Civil War might have been any effort by Confederate diplomats to secure sovereign recognition by European powers, writes history professor Howard Jones in "Blue and Gray Diplomacy: A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations". The American Civil War so puzzled Europeans that they - in the end -stayed out of it, letting the Americans kill one another in what many on the old continent considered a senseless war. The Confederate States of America's failure to win recognition did not determine the outcome of the war by itself, but it surely contributed to its defeat. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE, FR]

Guerrillas and other curiosities by Samuel Anderson Pence (book review) washingtontimes.com :: 2010-01-23 :: Battles and Battlefields - American Civil War
Most Civil War enthusiasts remember the Missouri "bushwhackers" as bloodthirsty Rebel brigands who fought under the "black flag" and left their mark on such places as Lawrence, Kan., and Centralia, Mo. Although the well-publicized feats of Willian T. "Bloody Bill" Anderson, Frank and Jesse James, William Quantrell and Cole Younger made them infamous, many of their lesser-known compatriots had remarkable adventures as well. Samuel Anderson Pence was born in 1885, and while growing up he knew Frank James and a number of other former guerrillas. Fascinated by their stories of gun battles, amazing escapes and thrilling raids, Pence later wrote bushwhacker history.

AHEC unveils digitized collection of Civil War photographs cumberlink.com :: 2009-12-02 :: Photographs, Pictures of Civil War
American Civil war Generals and ordinary soldiers now dwell online for the world to see. When these photos were first shot, it was with primitive technology. Camera speeds were too slow to capture Civil War combat on film, but good enough for camp scenes, portraits and the aftermath of battle. Recently the Army Heritage and Education Center unveiled a digitized collection of 23,000 vintage photos from the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States from the Massachusetts Commandery. This collection is considered by historians the single best Civil War photograph collection in the world.

Belle Reynolds: The only woman who was commissioned as an officer during the civil war washingtontimes.com :: 2009-12-02 :: Women during Civil War
When the Civil War broke out, many women wanted to serve too, although the Army only accepted male soldiers. Some women became nurses at the battlefields and an unknown number disguised themselves as men and served in the Army. Then there was Union Maj. Belle Reynolds, the only woman who was commissioned as an officer during the war. She was born Arabella Macomber in 1843 in Shelburne Falls, Mass. She faced her greatest trial at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6 and 7, 1862. The Army had gone into camp, not expecting a Confederate attack - but that's what happened. The unprepared Union Army was pushed back, almost into the Tennessee River.

Captives in Gray: The Civil War Prisons of the Union by Roger Pickenpaugh washingtontimes.com :: 2009-12-02 :: PoW & Prisoner of War Camps - American Civil War
Not many writers on Civil War topics can garner an endorsement from a former American president, but Jimmy Carter calls Roger Pickenpaugh's Captives in Gray "a vivid description of conditions and events rarely described." Even though 8 volumes of the Official Records, War of the Rebellion are about Civil War POWs, it was not until 1930 that professor William Hesseltine wrote a scholarly monograph. Over 60 years would then pass before historians began to focus on conditions at individual camps in the North and the South. Pickenpaugh has gathered reminiscences from letters, diaries and memoirs to separate the wheat of truth from the biased argument surrounding this subject. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE, FR]

U. S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth by Joan Waugh (book review) washingtonpost.com :: 2009-12-02 :: General Ulysses S. Grant
"Why did Grant's star shine so brightly for Americans of his own day, and why has it been eclipsed so completely for Americans since at least the mid-twentieth century?" Though there can be no definitive answer, but history professor Joan Waugh explores some good reasons. Grant was widely recognized during the war by his troops and residents of the Union, and after Appomattox by many Southerners, who were thankful for his generosity toward Southern soldiers and officers at the surrender and for his attempts as president to reconcile the former enemies and reunite the nation. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE, FR]

The American Civil War: A Military History by John Keegan (book review) nytimes.com :: 2009-11-04 :: Civil War Books
John Keegan is the military historian's military historian. A senior lecturer at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, he is the author of 20 very comprehensive military history books. "The American Civil War" is filled with data that will send a thrill down any history buff's spine: details about tactics, geography, economics, ideology, generals, psychology, demographics, and weaponry. Keegan, who is British, takes the long view - a European view - of the American Civil War, placing it into broad historical context. Because the South had few if any large cities to attack its army "presented itself as the only target at which to strike." But that army could be elusive. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE, FR]

Tennessee wants captured Confederate flags returned tennessean.com :: 2009-10-12 :: Civil War Flags: Confederate, Rebel & Battle
In 1862, in the middle of the Civil War, two Confederate battle flags from Tennessee made their way to Cincinnati with the Cincinnati soldiers and sailors who seized them as trophies of war and displayed them so that the whole town could celebrate the local boys' victory. Today, Tennessee would like to have them back. But what happened to the battle flags is a mystery. "Maybe they no longer exist, or maybe they are sitting in somebody's attic somewhere in Cincinnati," said historian Greg Briggs, who is writing a book on the battle flags carried by Tennessee troops in the Civil War.

The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta by Marc Wortman [book review] huntingtonnews.net :: 2009-10-12 :: Civil War Books
Civil War buffs whose knowledge of the burning of Atlanta in 1864 has been limited to the "Gone With the Wind" will be happy with Marc Wortman's "The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta." He gives a very readable and comprehensive look at the 44-day siege of the vital rail and manufacturing center by the forces of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, providing also a history of the city that in less than two decades had become second only to Richmond as a war production city. Wortman claims Atlanta is the only American city to be besieged and destroyed, although many would include Richmond in that category. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE, FR]

Civil War Wives: Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis, and Julia Dent Grant by Carol Berkin csmonitor.com :: 2009-10-12 :: Women during Civil War
The 3 women whose lives are explored in "Civil War Wives" came from Southern elite slaveholding families. Through marriage to prominent men, they gained access to power, but had none themselves. Even though they differed temperamentally, each experienced privileges, sacrifices, and restrictions that few others could imagine. And unlike many famous wives Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis and Julia Dent Grant left behind a lot of direct source material - letters, essays, memoirs, and diaries - making them ideal biography topics, allowing us "to glimpse aspects of the nineteenth century that might otherwise be lost in the roar of cannon and heated debate." [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE, FR]

American History Series: The Civil War at Sea voanews.com :: 2009-09-16 :: Naval war and blockade - American Civil War
As soon as the war started, President Abraham Lincoln wanted to block the South's ports to prevent the South from shipping its products to other countries in exchange for industrial goods. The plan had weaknesses. The Union navy was too small for the job and the Confederate seacoast was long. The Confederacy had no navy at the start of the Civil War - and little money to create one - plus no factories to build one. For a while, the Confederacy was able to get warships from Britain, but then the Union put diplomatic pressure on Britain to stop this cooperation. So the Confederacy depended on privately owned ships to get goods in and out of the South.

American history 1861-1865: U.S. Civil War was a conflict between the Abraham Lincoln led Union and 11 southern states that formed CSA - the Confederate States of America, led by Jefferson Davis. In the first year the Union got control of the border states and established a naval blockade as both sides raised large armies. In 1862 the bloody battles began. Robert E. Lee get a series of Confederate victories, but his best general, Stonewall Jackson, was killed at the Chancellorsville in May 1863. Lee's invasion of the North was repulsed at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. In July 1863 Ulysses Grant seized control of Mississippi by capturing Vicksburg, thus splitting the Confederacy. The war ended after the Confederacy collapsed following General Robert E. Lee's surrender at the Battle of Appomattox.

Also called: 'War of the Rebellion', 'War of Southern Independence', 'War of Northern Aggression' and 'War Between the States'.

American Civil War in the News is a edited review of American Civil War related news and articles, providing collection of hand-picked 1861-1865 era history.