Civil War Operations Against Charleston, S.C. I Photos
Charleston, S.C. was ensured a place in Civil War history when the first shots of the war were fired at Fort Sumter on April 12-13, 1861. From that moment the city would take on an important place in...
View ArticleThe Civil War on the Water: The Union Blockade l Photos
When President Abraham Lincoln declared a blockade of Confederate ports on April 19, 1861, the U.S. Navy consisted of 42 commissioned ships. Even more dire was the fact that only three of those ships...
View ArticleHair Has Long and Short History in Armed Forces
While Americans today expect to see soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen with closely clipped hair, many don’t realize that hair standards in the armed forces have changed radically...
View ArticleU.S. Army Rangers
Back in the Age of Muskets (1600-1850), every military commander knew that peasants made the best infantry: stolid, inured to hardship, and conditioned to obey their social superiors. But armies also...
View ArticleThe Legacy of the Ships Named New York
It was sometime in September of 1776 when the first armed vessel of the United States to carry the name New York slid into the lower reaches of Lake Champlain. She was an odd looking thing, about 50...
View ArticleThe Navy and New York City
To those who don’t know its history well, New York City may not appear to be a Navy town. However, the connection between the U.S. Navy and New York goes back to the dawn of the country. In fact, New...
View ArticleCSS Shenandoah and the Last Shot of the Civil War
It is a matter of odd historical fact that the last shot of the American Civil War was a blank fired at a New Bedford whaling ship in the Bering Sea off Siberia on June 22, 1865, more than a month...
View ArticleKnife on a Stick: The Rise and Fall of the Bayonet
Three hundred and eighty five men of Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s 20th Maine Regiment held the Union Army’s left flank on July 2, 1863. Posted on a hill called Little Round Top they were...
View ArticleThe Civil War Ironclad Monitor’s Unknown Sailors Are Remembered and Honored...
While the guns of the USS Monitor went quiet 151 years ago, the final rifle volleys fired into the brisk evening air this March brought her back to life for just a brief moment in time. Crafted for a...
View ArticleThe Virtues of Stubbornness: Mules at War
Mules don’t exist in nature. They are an artificial product of human ingenuity, and like many such products, it didn’t take long before they found a place in the grim business of war. A mule is the...
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