Scuffed military boots

On Military Desertion and Executions

Military desertion is not as rare as one would think.
W.E.B. DuBois

W. E. B. Du Bois Sets The Stage

A brief communication is revealing window into the life of thinker W. E. B. Du Bois.
Sketch of a Thanksgiving celebration in a military camp in 1861

Meat and Potatoes: The Reminiscences of Alonzo Davis

In April 1863, the men of the 4th California infantry were hungry. They were posted at Drum Barracks ...
Grassy area in front of a small mountain range

Making Claims

How claims records and other documents serve as historical sources.
Confederate officer, John Robery Baylor from the Civil War time period

A Complicated Man: John Baylor’s Letters to His Family

How could John Baylor have done such terrible thing and simultaneously be so effusively affectionate in his letters home?
Card catalogue drawers

Adventures in Historical Research

Megan Kate Nelson, a historian of Civil War and the American Southwest, is behind the (Un)Catalogued Column for JSTOR Daily.
Empty Headstones

Green Burial and the North-South Divide

Embalming practices were first introduced in the US during the Civil War to preserve bodies for transportation.