Videos

The White House Historical Association, in this virtual event, hosted a reassessment of President Ulysses Grant’s military service, presidency, and legacy.

Historian Timothy Smith discussed the Vicksburg Campaign, which ended with the Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863. Union control of the Mississippi River split the Confederacy in half and…

Historians discussed Civil War battles of 1863. The Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge in Spotsylvania, Virginia, hosted this event.

Historian Cecily Zander discussed Confederate General Braxton Bragg, who achieved the most significant southern victory in the Western Theater at the 1863 Battle of Chickamauga but was later…

Located in Charleston harbor, Fort Sumter was still held by Union forces in April 1861, despite South Carolina’s secession in 1860. National Park Service historian Mark Maloy described the e…

Civil War historians Doug Crenshaw and Robert Dunkerly talked about Confederate General Joseph Johnston. He served with honors in the United States military during the Mexican-American War, …

Chris Mackowski, editor in chief of the “Emerging Civil War” blog, talked about Union General Thomas Stevenson, who was was killed in action during the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse in M…

Civil War author Sean Chick talked about Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard at the annual “Emerging Civil War” blog symposium. He described General Beauregard’s relationship with Confeder…

John Rankin joined the Union Army at age 18 and served three years in the Indiana 27th Infantry. After the Civil War, he published memoirs and newspaper columns recounting his experiences, w…

Chris Mackowski is the author of Grant’s Last Battle: The Story Behind the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. He talked about his book, which recounts Grant’s life post-presidency, includ…

Author Sarah Kay Bierle discussed the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaigns and Civil War medical care at that time. She noted both the Union and Confederacy had developed improved systems by tha…

Some 180,000 African Americans -- both free and formerly enslaved -- served in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. Steward Henderson told the story of these men who by the…

Many historians consider the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville to be Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s greatest victory. Facing a Union Army more than twice the size of his own, Lee divided …

In September 1864, with his army stalemated in a siege at Petersburg, Virginia, Ulysses S. Grant approved of a plan by General Benjamin Butler to take two Union corps north of the James Rive…

During the Battle of Gettysburg’s second day, Union commander George Meade called for reinforcements to beat back an assault his left flank, leaving only a single brigade to defend his right…

Elmira, a Union prisoner of war camp located in New York, opened in July 1864 after many other Union prisons were at capacity. Almost 3,000 Confederate POWs died at the camp from disease, ex…

In October 1862, Confederate cavalry under General J.E.B. Stuart pressed into Maryland and Pennsylvania--including the town of Chambersburg--to raid for horses and other supplies. “Emerging …

Historic site manager Paige Gibbons Backus discussed the state of medical knowledge at the beginning of the Civil War, including surgical practices and diseases common among the soldiers. Sh…

About a month after the Battle of Antietam, Union forces under General George McClellan crossed the Potomac River in pursuit of General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. Autho…

Chris Mackowski discussed the Battle of Mine Run, a small engagement in December 1863 between Union forces against better positioned Confederates near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Mr. Mackowski…