No guns for black men
G. P. Miller, a black physician from Michigan, wrote this letter to U.S. Secretary of War Simon Cameron in October 1861. He proposed to raise a regiment of “sharp...
Patients protest
Sickness, not combat, killed most Civil War soldiers. During the early months of the war, especially, disease ran rampant through both the U.S. and Confederate...
Promoted by election
Electing junior officers such as lieutenants and captains to higher ranks was common among state troops of both the North and South. This report from Confederate 1st...
Staying warm
The three Confederate soldiers huddled around a fire in this photograph were stationed on picket duty. Units on both sides stationed a picket guard, consisting of a...
Stonewall Jackson
Lieutenant General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, a revered Confederate commander, graduated from West Point in and served the U.S. Army in the Mexican War. He...
The Confederacy Goes to War!
The Confederacy considered itself the victim of Northern aggression. Its efforts to negotiate separation had failed. So on May 6, 1861, the Confederate Congress...
Virginia leaves the Union
On April 17, 1861, delegates to a special convention of the Commonwealth of Virginia voted to repeal its ratification of the United States Constitution. Virginia was...