The Death of Major General John Sedgwick May 9th, 1864
John Sedgwick was born in Cornwell Hollow, Connecticut in 1813 and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1837. He served in the Mexican War and was a major in the 1st ...
Category: War
The Surrender of the Confederate Armies: April-June 1865
On April 9th, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. This event at Appomattox Court House, Virginia is often regarded as the end of...
The Capture of Fort Henry, Tennessee February 1862
In the fall of 1861, Captain Jesse Taylor accepted command of the artillery at Fort Henry, a Confederate garrison on the Tennessee River near the Kentucky–Tennessee border. The Tennessee flows from eastern Tennessee southwest into...
Magnificent Hetty Cary: Betsy Ross of the South
One of the more prominent socialites and colorful characters in Richmond society during the Civil War was displaced Marylander Hetty Cary. A descendant of Thomas Jefferson, Cary was born near Baltimore in 1836, and was...
William T. Sherman’s Christmas Gift of Savannah, Georgia
Major General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea was near an end in mid December 1864. After capturing Fort McAllister on the Ogeechee River below Savannah, Georgia on December 13th, there was just...
The Seacoast Mortar called “The Dictator” at the Siege of Petersburg 1864
Civil War seacoast mortars were very large mortars used defensively in fixed fortifications and in coast and river defense. They were also used in siege operations and occasionally in other offensive endeavors. The largest mortar...
Colonel Joseph Bailey’s Red River Dam
In March of 1864, a land force consisting of the Union Army’s 19th Corps and portions of the 13th, 16th, and 17th Corps under the command of Major General Nathaniel Banks headed northwest up...
Confederate General Patrick Cleburne’s Emancipation Proposal
Patrick Cleburne was born near Cork, Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day in 1828. He served three years in the British Army before emigrating to the United States in 1849. He eventually settled in Helena,...