Women fighting on the Confederate front line in the Civil War? Yes! Women weren’t legally allowed to fight, but an estimated 400 to 750 women from the North and South disguised themselves as men and fought on the battlefields without anyone ever discovering their true identities. The Confederacy had no age requirement for joining up. […]
What can you say about the Irish born Confederate soldier Henry Kyd Douglas? General Robert E. Lee gave him compliments, Stonewall Jackson relied on his close service, women of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania were enchanted by his flair, drama, and good looks. Even the enemy Federal soldiers held an admiration for him. Varina Davis, […]
In March of 1865, a Jewish Confederate Captain Samuel Yates Levy wrote his father from a Union prisoner of war camp, “I long to breathe the free air of Dixie.” Many Jewish Southerners rallied to their states and sacrificed their lives in battle. It was probably the largest ethnic group to serve the Confederacy, made […]
Nowhere in any other battle area of the Civil War was the fight between the just and unjust, between liberty and tyranny more clearly shown than in Missouri. Toughened by a rough-hewed frontier heritage, Missourians entered the war with a determined willingness to fight. General Van Dorn wrote to Jefferson Davis about the Missourians: “During […]
“I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten, […]
It was not easy going behind enemy lines to gather intelligence. It takes a bit of courage, cleverness, and wit to act when the opportunity arises. Sam Watson was a Confederate soldier serving under General Polk in June 1864 about the time of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia. One night he put those […]
Here’s how one of the men who served under Confederate General Turner Ashby described him: “Imagine a man with thick coal black hair, heavy black beard, dark skin, large black eyes, sleepy looking except when the Yankees are in sight. Then they do flash fire…” General Turner Ashby came from a long line of military […]
Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan was one of the Confederacy’s most colorful and successful cavaliers and raiders. His exploits earned him a reputation for audacity and creativity that took him deep behind federal lines – the farthest north a Confederate force ever penetrated during the Civil War. Morgan grew up in Kentucky, attended college […]
Have you ever seen the The Polk Battle Flag? It features the well-known Southern Cross, with an upright cross with the colors reversed. Here’s some things we know about the man behind that banner. Leonidas Polk, the son of a distinguished Revolutionary War officer, was one of the South’s most beloved generals. He attended the […]
It had been three long years since the first shots rang out at Fort Sumter. Both sides were growing weary of the war. General Grant had a made a plan to bring a Union victory and an end of the war. It included sending General Sherman’s army into Georgia with the mission to capture Atlanta, […]
We know that during the important three day Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, (July 1 – 3, 1863) the greatest number of casualties occurred on both Union and Confederate sides. Just south of Gettysburg were two hills. The smaller, Little Round Top, was the spot where the most famous fight of the battle took place. […]
Vicksburg was a city Union Generals Grant and Sherman had fixed their eyes on as a big prize. It was crucial they take the town as it was the only major point to connect their Eastern campaign with the Confederates to the West, the Trans-Mississippi territory. They would attack from two directions and capture Vicksburg […]
