Today in military history: Union Army cuts off Port Hudson
On May 21, 1863, a 48-day siege began as the Union Army cut off Port Hudson, Louisiana during the Civil War. The Union’s “Anaconda Plan” was a strict blockade of…
Did you know this man is the only American to be hanged for treason?
The New Orleans Mint is a historic structure not only because it is the oldest structure that was once a U.S. Mint that is in shape after all these years, but also because…
Only two Confederates were executed for war crimes during the Civil War
Henry Wirz and Samuel “Champ” Ferguson could not have less in common. They both served the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War, but they have different origin stories, different lives,…
Why Robert E. Lee wasn’t hanged as a traitor after the Civil War
The United States Constitution defines treason as “levying war against them [the U.S. government], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Under this definition, every Confederate…
4 Southern counties that seceded from the Confederacy during the Civil War
It’s well known that after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, 11 states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. The subsequent Civil War would…
This is what other countries thought about the US Civil War
It may seem weird that another country would just show up to war to have a look, but it used to be a fairly common activity, one the United Nations still practices. A military observer is a diplomatic representative of sorts, used by one government …
Today in military history: Siege of Knoxville begins
On Nov. 17, 1863, Confederate General James Longstreet laid siege to the city of Knoxville, Tennessee. In the fall of 1863, Union Major General Ambrose Burnside occupied Knoxville where a…
The northernmost Confederate attack was a raid on Vermont
We hear a lot about how Gettysburg was as far north as the Confederate Army could get, while that may be true for the Army of Northern Virginia, it wasn’t true for the entire Confederate armed forces. The actual northernmost fighting took place in …
This Civil War battle literally saw brother against brother
On an early June morning in 1862, two brothers from Scotland were fighting for their lives and their adopted homeland on a South Carolina battlefield. They had come to America less than two decades prior, and each had come to love his new homeland. …
5 reasons why the US Civil War was more brutal than other wars of the time
War is never clean, but measures can be taken to minimize the suffering of those who fight the wars and those most affected by them. Casualty counts in wars of…