Dr. Jonathan Letterman’s Civil War Ambulance Corps
The Civil War produced casualties on a scale never seen in American history up to that time. Out of necessity, great improvements in the treatment of the wounded were made during the war, and...
Category: War
Lt. William B. Cushing’s Attack on Jacksonville, N.C. November 1862
U.S. Navy officer William B. Cushing is perhaps best known for his daring October 1864 raid that destroyed the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle at Plymouth, North Carolina, but he had a number of additional...
The Destruction of the CSS Virginia May 1862
Following the historic clash between the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimack) on March 9th, 1862, Virginia returned to port in Norfolk, Virginia for repairs and refitting. Besides repairing battle damage,...
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 ...
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...