Peter Carmichael gave an overview of the Civil War in 1861. He touched on the social, political and military components that led to the start of the war. He encouraged scholars to help develop a ...

In May of 1861 Butler refused to send three fugitives back into the bonds of slavery and classified them as "contraband of war." This term meant that once the fleeing slaves crossed Union Army ...

When they emerge from their books and battlefields, the scholars and historians specializing in the original Civil War, from 1861-65, rarely believe that sort of starkly regional conflict would ...

Continue the deep dive into the American Civil War with Part 2, focusing on the crucial battles of 1861 that set the tone for years of bloody conflict. From Fort Sumter to Ball's Bluff, these early ...

In May of 1861, General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, commander of the United States Army, who had fought in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, was watching the country he served fall apart. Eight ...

In his marvelous new book, 1861: The Civil War Awakening, Adam Goodheart tries to capture what it felt like to live through secession and the opening months of the Civil War, at a time when it ...

A new collection of primary source documents, "The 1863 Stibbs Family Civil War Era Letters," is the third set of letters ...

Civil War troops from Massachusetts camped outside Washington open box of Christmas presents from home in this Winslow Homer drawing from Harper's Weekly of 1861.

May 2, 1861. Credit... The New York Times Archives. See the article in its original context from May 2, ... A war, therefore, to be short, must be sudden and must be offensive.

Lincoln and Civil War scholars debated why the Civil War didn't end in 1861, the year that it began. They discussed why the numerous advantages of the Union did not bring the war to a swift ...