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“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security.“

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Jefferson Davis, Feb. 10, 1861

On this day in 1861, a telegram arrived at Brierfield, Jefferson Davis’ Mississippi plantation, informing him that on the previous day, breakaway delegates meeting in Montgomery, Ala., had chosen him…

Maps of the Confederate Army

The Confederate Army had difficulty throughout the war in supplying its field officers with adequate maps.

Allegheny Arsenal Explosion of 1862

In the early afternoon on September 17, 1862, just about 200 miles from where the Battle of Antietam was taking place, another Civil War-era tragedy occurs: Three explosions rip through…

Battlefield Preservation

Save Tennessee Battlefields

Your help is needed to save two key tracts at Lookout Mountain and Franklin.
The first tract includes 301 acres that played an important role in the “Battle Above the Clouds” at Lookout Mountain. The second tract is a small but crucial parcel at the Franklin Battlefield, which adds a key piece of ground to the land the Trust already worked so hard to reclaim and restore.

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The Trent Affair

In accordance with the authority conferred by this Congress, the Confederate President appointed John Slidell and James M. Mason diplomatic agents in October 1861, with the power to enter into conventions for treaties with England and France. They were commissioned to secure from these European powers recognition of the Confederate…

Confederate Generals (A-D)

Alexander W. Campbell

Alexander William Campbell (June 4, 1828 – June 13, 1893), was a Confederate States Army Brigadier General during the American Civil War. He was a lawyer in Tennessee before and after the war, mayor of Jackson, Tennessee, 1856, and an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for governor of Tennessee in 1880.…

Old Capital Prison

In November 1861, Secretary of State William H. Seward told Lord Richard Lyons, British Ambassador to the United States, “My Lord, I can touch a bell on my right hand, and order the arrest of a citizen of Ohio; I can touch the bell again, and order the imprisonment of…

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Events & Overview of the Pre-Civil War Era

During the early 19th century, and especially after the War of 1812, American society was profoundly transformed. These years witnessed rapid economic and territorial expansion; the extension of democratic politics;…

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving of 1863

In October 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation of thanksgiving, calling upon the nation to set aside the fourth Thursday of November to pause and give thanks to God….

Maps of the Confederate Army

The Confederate Army had difficulty throughout the war in supplying its field officers with adequate maps.

First Battle of Bull Run

The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas (the name used by Confederate forces), was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas. It was the first major land battle of the American Civil War. Just months after the start of the war at Fort…

Battle of Fredericksburg

The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. The combat, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee, was part of the Union Army’s futile frontal attacks on December 13 against entrenched…

Battle of Boonville

The First Battle of Boonville was a minor skirmish of the American Civil War, occurring on June 17, 1861, near Boonville in Cooper County, Missouri. Although casualties were extremely light, the battle’s strategic impact was far greater than one might assume from its limited nature. The Union victory established what would become an…

Battle of Fort Donelson

The Battle of Fort Donelson was fought from February 11 to February 16, 1862, in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.

Database of Battles

From Native Indians, The American Revolution,
and American Civil War

The Battles of Lexington and Concord

They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston.

The Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn Heights)

The British recognized the strategic importance of New York as the focal point for communications between the northern and southern colonies. Washington also recognized this, and in April of 1776…

The Battle of Quebec

The Battle of Quebec was an attempt on December 31, 1775, by American colonial forces to capture the city of Quebec, drive the British military from the Province of Quebec,…

The Declaration of Independence

At a meeting of the Second Continental Congress in the summer of 1776, Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, proposed that the American colonies should declare their independence from Britain

The French and Indian War

Unlike the previous wars between European powers in the 1700s, the French And Indian War was begun in North America—in the heartland of the Ohio Valley, where both France and Britain held claims to land and trading rights.

The Revolutionary Christmas

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence was fought between Great Britain and the thirteen British colonies between the years 1775 and 1783. The mutinous colonists declared themselves no longer allied with the crown and kicked off an eight year struggle against the political and…

American Society in Revolt

Training the Continental Army As the colonies prepared themselves for war, new militias were formed throughout America, primarily to defend local communities from British aggression. Other units, however, rushed to join their comrades in Boston as soon as every man had a musket. Under the strict command of George Washington, Nathanael Greene,…