2020

This book, one of the Concise Lincoln Library Series, analyzes Lincoln’s reliance on his interpretation the nation’s Founding Fathers’ intent to…

their retail training materials it states that it was not customary for men to wear wedding rings prior to World War II.

On December 11, 1862, after a weeklong delay in receiving needed pontoon bridges to cross the Rappahannock River, Union Major General Ambrose E.…

How fast did the news travel? How accurate were the reports in the press? What did Northern readers know during the middle of September 1862, as…

As the editor of GUNS Magazine, sponsor of this abundantly illustrated publication, notes, “Guns tell stories, and those associated with the Wild…

looks as if McClellan was pushing the enemy hard to the river.”

As the American Civil War ground into its third year of combat, the ever conservative Ordnance Department began actively looking for metallic…

Abraham Among the Yankees: Lincoln’s 1848 Visit to Massachusetts. By William F. Hanna. Illustrated, Notes, Bibliography, Index, 2020, Southern…

The most common smoothbore percussion musket in Confederate hands was most likely a U.S. 1816/22 converted from flint sometime after the Mexican War.…

“Let’s see, the artillery was… there.” Finding artillery positions is one of my hobbies when I’m working on a battlefield. Look for great high…

Of all the many cruelties of war, one scene that evokes the most pity is, perhaps, the image of wounded men trapped between the lines, suffering for…

The most common smoothbore percussion musket in Confederate hands was most likely a U.S. 1816/22 converted from flint sometime after the Mexican War.…

1943, 1952. Start your study of Civil War soldiers with Bell Wiley. Outdated in some respects, but the wealth of first-hand accounts and quotations…

The Ballard Carbine was a breechloading, single shot metallic cartridge firearm invented by Charles H. Ballard of Worcester, Mass. His invention was…

The 6th Michigan Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War. By Eric R. Faust. Illustrated, notes, appendices, index, bibliography, 2020, McFarland and…

The continued lack of vitamin C (which leads to scurvy) begins with poor wound healing, then bleeding and blackening of the gums, followed by severe…

The savage back-and-forth struggle at the north and center ground to a halt by early afternoon. On the right, Confederate numbers were much reduced…

While the term “buck and ball” is often used when describing smoothbore musket ammunition in the Civil War, the use of such ammunition was not unique…

Emerging Civil War is pleased to honor Jack Melton with its Brig. Gen. Thomas Greely Stevenson Award for 2020. Melton and his wife, Peggy, own and…

The Terry’s Patent Carbine, produced by the Birmingham firm of Calisher & Terry, as well as some other Birmingham contractors, was one of the more…

Caught in the Maelstrom: The Indian Nations in the Civil War, 1861–1865. By Clint Crowe. Bibliography, footnotes, photographs, maps, index. 300 pp.…

The horse was the backbone of the war effort, especially for the Confederate side. They carried generals and moved artillery and ambulances. One…

Stern necessity bade us be satisfied with simply holding our ground. – Col. Risden Bennett

I have mentioned Research Press Journal in this column before. It is a British publication, but there is a lot to learn in its pages for Americans…

denying the rights of newly freed blacks. The third disadvantage was especially prevalent during his second term. As race relations intensified, and…

In the March 2020 CWN, we looked at John Walch’s superimposed load, 10-shot pocket revolver; a gun that almost bankrupted Oliver Winchester and the…

Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf

The rifled military arm was far from a new design by the time of the Civil War. The smoothbore muskets still dominated as the military arms because…

In previous columns viewed the Battle of Antietam from the perspective of Federal officers whose troops contended with their Confederate enemies…

When I was a little kid, walking up Broadway in New York City with my father and best friend Ron, I saw something in a store window on lower Broadway…

Civil War soldiers’ letters are still being discovered, 150 years after the conflict ended. Letters from Florida soldiers are especially rare, given…

By an act of the Virginia legislature, the Virginia Manufactory of Arms was established in 1797. The goal of this armory, located along the James…

Generals Killed At Gettysburg: Battle Summary Included. Edit by Joe Mieczkowski. Illustrations, Photos, Appendix, Index, 2020, 152 pp., Pedia Press…

Stock always on hand of Breech- Loading Double Guns and Double Rifles for Central Fire or Pin Cartridges; Muzzle- Loading Single and Double guns, at…

According to the Franklin Repository, Chambersburg’s Republican newspaper, the presidential contest in 1864 presented a clear choice to the…

In the years following the Civil War, a lot of folklore regarding small arms became part of the American story. One of these tales, regarding the…

or book, Civil War Artillery Projectiles – The Half Shell Book.

The Confederate long arms produced by the firm of Cook & Brother are some of the best made and most sought after guns produced in the South during…

The River Was Dyed With Blood: Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow. By Brian Steel Wills. Illustrated, appendix, notes, bibliography, 288 pp.…

The accomplishments of the Confederate forces during the Civil War, especially the continued success of the Army of Northern Virginia, are…

On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln called for 75,000 militia to subdue an insurrection by “combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the…

New Jersey sent two brigades to Virginia in 1861. The first was a four regiment militia brigade enlisted for 90-days service; the second the official…

or book, Civil War Artillery Projectiles – The Half Shell Book.

During the American Civil War, the U.S. government entered into contracts with more than two dozen firms to produce the U.S. Model 1861 and Model…

The Spirits of Bad Men Made Perfect: The Life and Diary of Confederate Artillerist William Ellis Jones. By Constance Hall Jones. Maps, Photos…

Infantry that lends some insight into how muskets could be lost, or in this case, exchanged. Pvt. Ware had previously entered in his diary how he had…

views and predicted that “as soon as [Northern blacks] come within reach of the Southern army they will be captured and restored to the condition for…

Hugh Judson Kilpatrick has been accounted an irresponsible scoundrel, or worse, not only by historians but by his fellow soldiers, who dubbed him…

100 Significant Civil War Photographs – Charleston in the War. By Stephen Davis & Jack W. Melton Jr. Maps, photos, illustrations, bibliography…

In 1850, Samuel Colt introduced what would become his most successful large frame percussion revolver, a revolver that would be second only to his…

In this novel of historical fiction, the author uses the life of his distant ancestor, Thomas Hanner Lyle, Company B, 14th Tennessee (CSA) Infantry…

manufactured Parker Hales of any type currently available.

these abler and worse men? For this we turn to the Jan. 20, 1864, Spirit. “The grand jury of Fulton…ignored the bill of indictment against Henry G.…

While the history of the American Civil War is an area of great interest to hobby participants there is also a historical piece to the reenactment…

The Princeton Fugitive Slave: The Trials of James Collins Johnson. By Lolita Buckner Inniss. Notes, Bibliography, and Index. 272 pp., 2019. Fordham…

The best possible description of the British Pattern 1856 cavalry carbine is that it was a compromise; a carbine that no one wanted, and yet was the…

Continuing the recent, and much welcomed, trend of books looking at the American Civil War as a global event is this one that examines various…

Major T.H. Blacknall in an article titled “Corn” (Confederate Veteran Magazine, Vol. 26, April 1918) noted the following: “During the war I commanded…

have become lines of communication of the first importance. Washington and Abbeville may become our future base of supply for the army in Virginia,”…

If you were a black powder fan back in the 1930s into the early 1950s, you were pretty much on your own. You had to either find a shootable original…

Lieutenant and Drill Master at a Georgia Camp of Instruction. He was already serving, but his official appointment date was July 29, 1862. He…

Revolver— The Gun That Almost Put Oliver Winchester Out of

Gunpowder on Their Skirts: Military Heroines for the Blue and Gray. By Stephanie H. Ford. Bibliography, index, notes, glossary, photographs, drawings…

According to E. Lawrence Abel (Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861–1865), by the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, “[a]…

I first became interested in Civil War battlefield preservation when I met Clark B. “Bud” Hall in 1989 when he came to speak to our local Civil War…

In December and January we observed, through the eyes of several Federal officers, the carnage in the first two phases of the Battle of Antietam, on…

Buffalo Arms is currently selling loaded obsolete black powder cartridge rifle ammunition. One caliber of interest to Civil War shooters is the 56-50…

Civil War: What Your History Teacher Didn’t Teach You Philip Leigh, U. S. Grant’s Failed Presidency Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., The Greatest Lynching in…

The U.S. Model 1855 Pistol Carbine was a classic example of the pre-Civil War United States Ordnance Department’s inability to be forward thinkers…

Untouched by the Conflict: The Civil War Letters of Singleton Ashenfelter, Dickinson College. Edited by Jonathan W. White and Daniel Glenn. 35…

A P53 (Pattern 1853) Enfield long rifle was recently purchased by a comrade who had questions about its history. It is an interesting piece. It looks…

each other round after round. There was yet no winner and no loser. They stood staring at each other’s bloody and swollen faces, both holding their…

Pietta USA, which now owns EMF and is probably the dominant reproduction revolver source, has introduced a new “Deluxe Grande Californian” model…

Interestingly, both men were separated by thousands of miles during the period of 1844–1853. King served as a minister to France, while Buchanan…

On January 25, 1856, one of the first, and most important, long arms to be derived from the Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle Musket was officially approved…