The Civil War Podcast

The University of Richmond has posted an interactive, online map that charts the activity of the Union army and (sometimes unrelated) slavery/emancipation events across the states from ’61 to ’65.  It’s interesting to note how the red dots (emancipations) generally precede the blue dots (army investments), and to observe the profusion of red and blue [...]

I ragged on the trip planner from the National Parks Service Civil War website, but the rest of the site is fantastic.  I’ve always found the NPS site-sites lacking in information.  If you want two paragraphs on why they’re important, OK, but God forbid they should have photos of what to see while you’re there. [...]

The US Postal Service has created some 1862 sesquicentennial stamps.  They aren’t much more visually interesting than the aforementioned coins, though I admit, I haven’t seen the size of the stamps.  Super-huge stamps would give a bit more oomph than the watercolored drabness of the Antietam scene, and the New Orleans battle is a bit [...]

The National Park System has created a new Civil War portal, with a map tool that allows you to create a route for sesquicentennial holidaying.  It seems promising, but in my opinion needs some refinement.  Independent sites are available, but major and minor sites are given equal stature, so it’s difficult to zoom in on, [...]

If you’re an American reading this, your income taxes are due today.  Lincoln, of course, famously instituted the income tax into law, but did you know that your two day “tax holiday” this year is due to Abe as well?  Turns out DC shuts down for Emancipation Day, which commemorates an event most of us [...]

Today is the anniversary of Lincoln’s death, the process of which started the night before at Ford’s Theater, and ended across the street at the Petersen House. This year, both events and locations have been commemorated in a newly expanded museum housed in the building adjoining the House Where Lincoln Died. Wait a minute, you [...]

If – like me – you’re planning a visit to DC during this 1862 sesquicentennial year, be sure to add the National Portrait Gallery to your must-sees.  In addition to an exhibition of Brady’s portraits of the Union generals, there’s a collection of Adalbert Volck etchings on display. A Volck lithograph was reproduced in the [...]

As one who never carries cash, it’s rare for me even to see Canadian quarters, so I don’t expect to find any of these in my change. Nifty commemorations, though I’m not sure about the artwork, which is a little plain.  (Still, it beats this old Isle of Man 20P, whose face an old friend described [...]

150 years ago today, the war changed irrevocably. Seeing the elephant was a kind of Scared Straight for the Western armies and the nation in general. No more would the boys pretend at playing soldiers, and gone were the thoughts of a swift end to the conflict. I thought it fitting to commemorate the anniversary [...]

Civil War buffs in Washington, DC have another month and a half to partake in the Corcoran Gallery’s Shadows of History exhibition. The photographs capture a wide range of subjects, from geographical views, landscapes, and portraits of soldiers and officers at rest, to the death and destruction in the aftermath of battles. Photographs by George [...]