Holding hostages in Kentucky
Kentucky never formally left the Union, but its population was deeply split. The state declared itself neutral until the Confederates invaded in 1861. Kentucky was...
Honoring her husband’s service
This certificate authorizes pension payments of 8 dollars per month to Helena Potter. Helena was the widow of Civil War veteran Private Warren Potter, Company D,...
How did most soldiers die?
Three of five U.S. soldiers and two of three Confederate soldiers who perished died from disease. These pages from a book kept at Pettigrew Hospital outside Raleigh,...
“I want you to take the oath …”
Martha Cockrone wrote this letter on May 25, 1865, after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. In it she asked her husband, a Confederate prisoner of war, to take...
Impact on the South
The Confederacy depended on enslaved people to build fortifications, cook, drive supply wagons, work in hospitals, and produce munitions. Slave labor also planted and...
Indignant citizens protest
Citizens of Minnesota sent this fiery petition to Congress during the winter of 1861, demanding that the United States recapture the forts, arms, and other Federal...
Integrated but not equal
An integrated crew served on this U.S. gunboat, probably the Mendota. During the Civil War, 18,000 black men<&ndash>and more than a dozen women<&ndash> served...