Barbara Noe Kennedy 
Historian Karen Needles has undertaken quite the task. Since 2002 she has been digitalizing all executive, legislative, judicial and military federal records created during the presidency of our 16th President. We’re talking 30 million records that are being scanned and housed in one place. To date, about 60,000 have been uploaded, including newspapers, documents, maps, … Read more
In our studies of the Civil War, we often focus on the pivotal importance of the Battle of Gettysburg, its strategies and tactics that ended the Confederate’s chance for a quick victory in the North. But how did the armies get there in the first place? Acclaimed historian Bert Dunkerly, who leads BGES’ “Great Invasion, … Read more
As Dixie’s largest city, New Orleans buzzed during the Civil War with commercial, shipping, and manufacturing verve. The Union coveted it for all of the above, resulting in the Farragut-led Battle of New Orleans and subsequent Union occupation. In his upcoming tour on April 5-8, 2019, “Civil War New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,” BGES’ … Read more
While Gettysburg and Vicksburg and other significant battles get all the attention, the Civil War was fought across the expanse of the North and South … and beyond, in places one might not expect. Here are some lesser-known Civil War sites that, while not as famous or visited as their celebrated battlefield brethren, all played … Read more
Williamsburg flaunts its colonial heritage, and rightly so–it served as the capital of the Virginia Colony between 1699 and 1780. But after the state government moved to Richmond in 1780, the old colonial capital fell into decay. Civil War came to its doorsteps in 1862, as part of the Peninsula Campaign, in which General George … Read more
Neither the North nor the South had much of a navy before the Civil War. But at the war’s outbreak, both sides realized the strategic importance of the sea, to cut off supply routes, control rivers, and support land operations. One of the greatest developments? The ironclad ship, which could fend off explosive shells capable … Read more
Robert E. Lee was a new commander in June 1862, when he looked out on Chickahominy River with the expectation that Confederate troops would be arriving to help bring the rest of his army across the river to face the Army of the Potomac–the largest army ever to assemble in North America, poised to take … Read more
Fanatical abolitionist. Rebel. Martyr. Lunatic. Criminal. People view John Brown in different ways, but one thing is sure: His place was written into history at the dawn of the Civil War, during his brazen attack on the US armory at Harper’s Ferry. Here are some of the places that tell the life story of this … Read more