Category: American History

The Battlefield of Yellow Tavern, Virginia

Though this battlefield has been lost to time, with effort, lingering traces of the ultimate Confederate cavalier's last battle can still be found hidden in the Richmond suburbs.

Sons for Liberty: Masterminds of the Boston Tea Party

The origins and founding of the Sons of Liberty is unclear, but history records the earliest known references to the organization to 1765 in the thriving colonial port cities of Boston and New York.

The Battle of Gettysburg

In the summer of 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched his second invasion of the Northern states. Lee sought to capitalize on recent Confederate victories and defeat the Union army on Northern soil, which he hoped would force the Lincoln administration to negotiate for peace.

Thomas Lafayette Rosser “Tex”

(October 15, 1836 – March 29, 1910) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, and later an officer in the Spanish American War and railroad construction engineer. A favorite of J.E.B. Stuart, he was noted for his daring cavalry raids, efficiency in handling combat troops, and tactical brilliance. Early life and career Rosser…

Quantrill’s Guerillas and William Anderson “Bloody Bill”

A low-level conflict had already been raging in the Missouri-Kansas borderlands in the years preceding the outbreak of the Civil War. Fueling this conflict was a dispute over whether Kansas should be a slave-holding state or not. By the time the war started, Missouri’s pro-rebel guerrillas were known as “Bushwackers,” while their pro-Federal counterparts…

Civil War Casualties

The Cost of War: Killed, Wounded, Captured, and Missing The Civil War was America’s bloodiest conflict. The unprecedented violence of battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River, and Gettysburg shocked citizens and international observers alike. Nearly as many men died in captivity during the Civil War as were killed in the whole of the Vietnam…

Sergeant Berry Greenwood Benson

Berry Benson was born on February 9th, 1843 in Hamburg, South Carolina, just across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia. In 1860 Berry Benson enlisted with his brother in a local militia unit aged 17 and 15 respectively. The next spring they witnessed the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. After the surrender…

Black Confederates fighting for the South.

I’ll describe some actual, real-life black Confederates. In 1891, Tennessee began granting pensions to Confederate veterans. The Board of Pension Examiners was established to determine if those applying for pensions were eligible. Eligibility requirements included an inability to support oneself, honorable separation from the service and residence in the state for one year prior to…

Perryville Overlook

Despite being the Confederate high-water mark of the Western Theater and one of the most important battles of the American Civil War, most people, including many Civil War buffs, know little about the Battle of Perryville. Consider these 10 facts about this watershed battle in the western theater.