Grant’s Canal at Vicksburg
Before launching his final, successful campaign to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, Major General Ulysses S. Grant made several other unsuccessful attempts to take the city. Situated on a high bluff on a sharp bend in...
Iron Brigader Blog
The Hazen Brigade Monument at Stones River is the Nation’s Oldest Civil War Memorial
Though most Civil War memorials were created after the war ended, in a few cases the soldiers themselves didn’t wait that long to commemorate the fight and honor those who fell. The Hazen Brigade...
Battery B, 4th U.S. Artillery at the Battle of Antietam
Battery B of the 4th U.S. Artillery often provided artillery support for the regiments of the Iron Brigade. At the battles of Gainesville, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, and Gettysburg, this Regular Army...
General James D. Morgan’s Report on the Battle of Jonesboro
By the end of August 1864, Major General William T. Sherman’s army had been outside of Atlanta, Georgia for several weeks but had been unable to drive out General John Bell Hood’s determined Confederate...
Recovery of CSS Georgia Yielding Cannons and Other Artifacts
The ironclad CSS Georgia was part of the defenses of Savannah, Georgia during the Civil War. The heavy vessel was underpowered with an inadequately small engine, and the ship was relegated to being a...
Future U.S. Presidents Who Served in the Army in the Civil War
In the final third of the 19th century, Civil War service was almost a prerequisite for those aspiring to be President of the United States. Seven of the next eight men who served as...
Captain Eugene Carr’s Report on the Battle of Wilson’s Creek
On August 10th, 1861, a Union Army force of 5400 men under the command of Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon attacked a much larger Confederate army of approximately 12,000 at a location along a stream...
The Shirley House Survived the Siege of Vicksburg Despite Its Location on the Battlefield
Standing next to the Illinois Memorial in Vicksburg National Military Park is the Shirley House, a white frame structure that is the only surviving wartime structure within the park boundaries (though numerous antebellum buildings...