1861 — Century Dispatch Archive

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January

New Orleans on the Edge: Last Days Before Secession (Jan. 1, 1861)

The Southern Senator Who Warned Secession Was Treason—Two Weeks Before the...

New York's Governor Warns of Rail Apocalypse for Canals—Just Months Before...

Three weeks after South Carolina seceded: A Maryland town's newspaper captures...

Four Weeks Before Secession: What New York Readers Were Arguing About on...

Cotton, Elopements & Secession: Memphis on the Brink (Jan. 6, 1861)

Nashville in January 1861: Still Selling Homes & Sewing Machines While the...

The Letter That Almost Stopped a War: Buchanan's Doomed Negotiation with South...

A Pennsylvania Newspaper Watched Hope Flee America—Ten Weeks Before the Civil...

Hawaii on the Eve of War: A 1861 Newspaper Reveals Colonial Commerce & Moral...

A Connecticut Town's Last Week of Peace: What Was for Sale in Willimantic When...

"Perpetual Union"? A Louisiana Paper Argues the South Has Every Right to Leave...

The Last Normal Day: How Nashville's Merchants Advertised While the Union...

"The Union Must and Shall Be Preserved"—What Papers Printed 74 Days Before Fort...

Nashville Goes About Its Business As the Nation Crumbles: What This January...

A Southern Paper's War Cry: "We Will Unleash Privateers on Northern Commerce" —...

January 1861: A Border Town's Ordinary Thursday—75 Days Before Everything...

Maryland Lawyers Debate Secession in January 1861: The Moment Before the Civil...

One Month Before Lincoln: How a New York Newspaper Masked Its Terror in...

A Convict's Confession and Prayers Erased: Memphis on the Brink of Secession...

The South's Final Economic Argument for Leaving: A Secessionist Editor Reveals...

Four Days Before the Secession Vote: Richmond's Last Normal Newspaper

Nashville's Last Ordinary Day: What a 1861 Newspaper Reveals About the Brink of...

Wall Street Panics as Union Crumbles: What New York's Markets Reveal About...

A Vain Choir Tenor, a Dairy Girl's Right Hook, and the Day a Parish Fell Apart...

Inside Louisiana's Secession Convention: When 128 Delegates Met to Leave the...

Nashville on the Edge: A City Still Selling Shoes and Whiskey as the Union...

Inside Fort Sumter as Secession Accelerates: A Letter from a Soldier Watching...

Eight Weeks Before Fort Sumter: A Nashville Merchant Sends Cash to Arm South...

Civil War Looming: How New York Sold Books About Secession While Drilling...

A Border Town's Last Moment of Peace: What Cumberland's Newspaper Looked Like 3...

February

Tears in the Senate: Jefferson Davis Says Goodbye Before the War (Feb. 1, 1861)

The Day Before the Confederacy: New York City's Unclaimed Letters & the Workers...

A Reverend's Desperate Prayer Before Secession: How the South Justified Slavery...

As War Looms, New York Still Sells: The Classifieds That Show What Americans...

How Massachusetts Nearly Broke: The Cattle Plague That Made Doctors Kill by the...

Six Weeks Before War: What Shreveport's Merchants Were Selling on February 6,...

Inside Louisiana's Secession Convention: The Day They Debated How to Leave...

Nashville Boasts of Progress Days Before the Civil War—What They Didn't Know

Inside Louisiana's Secret Courtroom Crisis: How One State Tried to Steal the...

Nashville on the Brink: How a Sleepy Insurance Page Masked the Coming Civil War

Feb. 11, 1861: A Farmer Forces His Daughter's Suitor to Win Her Through...

The Last Normal Day in Richmond: What a Virginia Newspaper Sold on Lincoln's...

Louisiana's Last Marketplace: The Front Page Frozen in Time (Feb. 1861)

A Nation Preparing for War—But the Classifieds Tell the Real Story (Feb. 14,...

Six Weeks Before Fort Sumter: Congress Debated Territory Law While Evansville...

A Southern Gazette on the Brink: Why This 1861 Newspaper Ignored the Civil War...

One Week Before Lincoln's Inauguration: Washington Prepares for War While Peace...

Actors in Gray: The Day New Orleans Comedians Traded the Stage for War (Feb 18,...

Chaos at the Station: Inside Lincoln's Frantic Arrival in Albany (Feb. 1861)

A Woman's Confession, a Lawyer's Gamble, and Justice Perverted: How One...

Two Presidents, Two Trains, One Collision Course—Read Davis's Full Inaugural...

The Day Before the Storm: What Nashville's Businessmen Were Buying and Selling...

Mrs. Davis Serenaded, Medical School Thrives: New Orleans Dreams Big One Month...

New Orleans on the Brink: Fashion, Cotton, and the First Taste of Confederacy...

Six Runaways, One Murdered Master, and a State on the Brink: What Arkansas's...

March

Six Weeks Before Fort Sumter: A Maryland Editor's Last Stand Against the Coming...

Tragedy & Ice Breaks in Iowa: What One Town's March 1861 Paper Reveals (Five...

"O Thou! Whose High Voice..." — Memphis Hails Davis as Confederacy Forms (March...

March 4, 1861: Lincoln Takes Office While New York Sells Horses and Canary...

The Last Parade: How New Orleans Celebrated While Its Government Joined the...

Shreveport, March 1861: The South's Last Peaceful Ledger—Before Everything...

Five Weeks Before Fort Sumter: A Confederate Newspaper Defends Slavery With...

Nashville, March 1861: A City Still Selling Real Estate While the Nation Breaks...

While America Fractures, Arkansas Merchants Advertise Spring Fashion &...

6 Weeks Before the War: What Nashville Looked Like When It Still Thought Peace...

ONE MONTH BEFORE FORT SUMTER: Lincoln's Gamble As the Union Crumbles Around Him

One Month Before Shots Fired: Memphis Newspapers Show America Still Hoping...

Maryland on the Brink: Why Gov. Hicks's Refusal to Call a Convention Might Have...

Six Weeks Before the War: How One Kansas Paper Tried to Stop America from...

March 15, 1861: Inside Louisiana's Convention as the South Votes to Transfer...

Nashville, March 1861: One Last Day of Ordinary Business Before Everything...

Three Weeks Before Fort Sumter: Nashville Pretends Everything Is Normal (It...

Week Before Fort Sumter: Paris Warns Europe About the Cotton War About to...

Andrew Johnson Called a 'Southern Traitor'—And the South Would Soon Make Him...

Texas Joins the Confederacy—While Its Governor Refuses: A State Fractures...

When Hawaii was a foreign country: A Hawaiian newspaper from March 1861, just...

Mysterious War Ships, Cotton Prices, and a City Still Planning Railroads: New...

One Month Before Virginia Secedes: A Port City's Last Ordinary Day (March 25,...

"Let the Independence Be Acknowledged": A North Carolina Paper's Last Plea...

Inside the Confederacy's Chaotic First Days: How the South Almost Lost Quorum...

March 28, 1861: Why Memphis's Last Peacetime Paper Predicted the Civil War...

First Shot: The South's $5 Million War Bet on Cotton (March 29, 1861)

One Week After Secession: What Arkansas Was Still Buying and Selling

Lincoln Burns a Protest in Front of Guests—And Fort Sumter Is Being Abandoned...

April

Nine Days Before Fort Sumter: The South Arms Itself, and Sam Houston Says No

Fort Sumter Just Fell—But Nashville's Newspapers Still Want to Sell You Coal...

Nine Days Before Fort Sumter: A Louisiana Port City's Last Peaceful Newspaper

"We Are Masters of the Situation": Confederate Confidence on the Eve of Fort...

April 5, 1861: Evansville's Last Day of Peace (Before Everything Changed)

April 6, 1861: New Orleans celebrates as $1M in orders flee New York's...

A Nashville Newspaper from 3 Days Before the Civil War Started—and Nobody...

April 8, 1861: New York's Last Normal Monday—Three Days Before Everything...

Fort Sumter Burns While Cleveland Debates Sewers: A City Unaware of War

The Day After Fort Sumter: What Worcester Worried About on April 10, 1861

April 11, 1861: The Day Fort Sumter Fell—and Arkansas Newspapers Still Sold...

The Day the War Began (But Nobody Told Rockville Yet)

A Newspaper from 4 Days After Fort Sumter—and It Doesn't Even Know the War Has...

April 14, 1861: Memphis Reads Romance While Fort Sumter Burns

April 15, 1861: New Orleans Celebrates as Fort Sumter Falls—and a Nation Tears...

April 16, 1861: Richmond's Merchants Sell Spring Hats While America Burns (3...

Five Days Into the War: New Orleans Mobilizes While Betting Everything on...

One Week Into Civil War, Worcester Paper Reprints Charleston's 1776 Glory—A...

War Just Began—But This Indiana Newspaper Has No Idea (April 19, 1861)

Lincoln's Message to Virginia: The Letter That Ended Peace and Started a War...

Half a Million New Yorkers Marched for War—What They Were Really Saying (April...

Blood in Baltimore: The Riot That Made the Civil War Real—April 22, 1861

Confederate Troops Seize Harper's Ferry Arsenal—And a Chicago Firm Plans to...

War Started 2 Weeks Ago—But NYC Was Still Selling Farms and Hiring Servants

Week Two of War: How New York City Mobilized in 14 Days (With Ads for Cartridge...

Maryland's First Blood: When Union Troops Marched Through Baltimore and...

Fort Sumter Fired 16 Days Ago—Arkansas Still Selling Goods Like Nothing Happened

Days Before Secession: Nashville Advertised Lamps & Slaves While History Turned

Virginia Joins the Confederacy, Maryland Votes to Follow—and a Cavalry Unit...

War in One Week: How Richmond Merchants Panicked on April 30, 1861

May

May 1861: New Orleans Mobilizes for War—What $13 Bounties Tell Us About...

Inside Honolulu's War-Era Newspaper: When Hawaii Learned America Was Fighting...

New Orleans, May 1861: Steamboats & Soldiers—A City Caught Between Commerce and...

Nashville on the Brink: The Last Ordinary Newspaper Before Tennessee Seceded...

Fort Sumter Fired On Six Weeks Ago—See How Worcester Soldiers Joked About War...

War Comes to New Orleans: Inside the Day the City Began Mobilizing (May 7, 1861)

A River Town's Last Commercial Hurrah: Shreveport, Louisiana, May 1861

New Orleans Goes to War: A City Drills While Business Continues (May 9, 1861)

May 1861: When Evansville's Business Page Mattered More Than the War

New Orleans on the Brink: How a City Mobilized for War (While Still Selling...

Nashville on the Brink: May 1861 Newspaper Shows a City Choosing War Over Union

"The South Will Soon Be With Us"—What the Confederacy Predicted (and Got Wrong)...

General Butler Seizes Baltimore Under Cover of Darkness—The Union Tightens Its...

Maryland's Governor Denies Sneaking Conspirators Into His Bedroom—May 15, 1861

The Day Arkansas Chose War: A Governor's Message & the Humanity Hidden in the...

A City at War: New Orleans Mobilizes in May 1861—Military Orders, Bounties, and...

The Last Ordinary Day: What Little Rock's Newspapers Looked Like in May 1861

War Breaks Out—and Nashville's Merchants Just Keep Selling Flour: May 1861

"Your Homes Are in Danger": Tennessee's Elite Issues Desperate Call to Arms...

May 1861: Inside a Southern Boomtown One Month Into the Civil War—When...

"Volunteers Wanted—Help Build a New Nation": How New Orleans Mobilized for War...

May 24, 1861: The Day Evansville's Merchants Had No Idea What Was Coming

Virginia Braces for Battle: Why the North Thinks It's Already Won (May 1861)

Bonnets, Boots & Bondage: Richmond's Last Normal Day (May 1861)

The Week the South Started Recruiting: How New Orleans Prepared for War (May...

Six Weeks Into the War: Northern Ministers Already Declare Slavery Must Die

Six Weeks Into the Civil War, Worcester Still Reads About Hidden Fortunes—and...

Six Weeks Into Secession: New Orleans Mobilizes for War (May 31, 1861)

June

The Last Normal Day: What Arkansas Was Selling When the Civil War Started

June 1861: Nashville Advertises Seeds and Cordials While the South Prepares for...

Two Months Into War, Evansville Still Dreams of Peacetime Commerce—See What...

A Washerwoman's Dollar: How One Woman's Conscience Pierced the Civil War's...

Soldiers Wanted Immediately: How Civil War Recruitment Took Over New York's...

Six weeks into the Civil War, Worcester papers were obsessed with one thing:...

Stephen Douglas's Last Stand: The Speech That Couldn't Save the Union...

"The Union Will Never Be Dissolved": A Kentucky Senator's Desperate Defense,...

Yesterday Tennessee Seceded—And Nashville's Front Page Still Sold Patent...

June 1861: Balloons, Battlefield Orders & the Last Funeral of the Old Republic

Six Weeks into the War: How One Southern City Drilled for Battle While Selling...

When Shreveport Still Shopped for French Silks: A City on the Brink of War,...

War Comes Home: How New York Mobilized in June 1861—Seen Through One...

War Ballads & French Saber-Rattling: What Worcester Read the Week After Lincoln...

June 1861: New York Churches Preach War While a Child's Prayer Feeds the Hungry

Nashville's Last Gasp of Normalcy: What a 1861 Newspaper Reveals About a City...

June 1861: Evansville Merchants Advertise Boots & Bullets as the Civil War...

June 1861: An Indiana Town Selling Revolvers, Wool Socks & Normalcy—Before...

June 1861: While Fort Sumter Burned, This Maryland Town's Paper Advertised...

Flags & Fighting: A New Orleans Paper Celebrates the Confederacy (Just Months...

A Southern Newspaper's Eerie Calm: Why This June 1861 Gazette Shows Business as...

Two Months Into War, Nashville's Merchants Were Still Selling Miracle Cures &...

June 1861: How the Civil War Shattered New York's Treasury in 60 Days—And What...

A Song Divides a Nation: How 'Yankee Doodle' Became a Civil War Battlefield...

June 1861: Inside an Indiana River Town Just Before the War Changed Everything

June 1861: While America Burns, Evansville's Merchants are All Business

Two Months Into Civil War, Evansville Merchants Sell Silk Flagging and Maple...

The War That's Not Quite Started Yet—Why Nobody Knew What Came Next in June 1861

A Nation at War, Selling Sarsaparilla: What Ohio's Papers Weren't Saying in...

July

ONE MONTH INTO CIVIL WAR: The Tribune's July 1861 battle cry reveals a nation...

July 1861: When New York's Newspapers Became Weapons of War—Patent Medicine Ads...

July 3, 1861: As the Civil War Begins, New York Still Plans Its July 4th...

July 4th, 1861: The Day America Couldn't Celebrate Together—Inside the Fraying...

July 1861: Vermont's Boys Head to War—and Baltimore Explodes | Century Dispatch

When War Came to Evansville: A Town Selling Buttons Instead of Breaking News...

Nashville, July 1861: How a City Sold Land Schemes and Snake Oil While Arming...

Civil War Comes Home: A Louisiana Officer Falls, New Orleans Grieves (July 8,...

The Day the North Realized: It's Not a 5-Year War, It's a $320 Million Crisis...

Three Months into Secession: How Shreveport Sold Honey Cures and French Calico...

Two Weeks Into the War: How New York Mobilized (And What They Were Reading...

A River City Prepares for War: What Evansville's July 1861 Newspaper Reveals...

72 Hours Before Bull Run: A Newspaper's Last Breath of Civil War Optimism

Lumbermen with Axes, Floating Bombs & The North's New War: July 1861

Three Weeks Into the War: Liszt Throws a Teacup, A Woman Escapes the Gallows,...

Garibaldi Says He'll Fight for America—But Only if Lincoln Abolishes Slavery...

July 1861: How a Worcester Paper Fought Back After Bull Run—and Why One...

July 1861: While America Burns, Honolulu's Merchants Ignore the War

July 1861: Maryland Sold Coffee Roasters While the Nation Burned

One Day Before Bull Run: How a Southern Newspaper Pretended the War Wasn't...

Three Days After Bull Run, Nashville's Newspaper Was Still Selling Land in...

EXCLUSIVE: "Union Victory at Bull's Run!" (And Why Chicago Papers Got It...

Three Days After Bull Run: How the Union Plans to Strangle the South (With...

Invisible Punches & Cursed Lives: The Gothic Horror That Captivated Wartime...

A Wealthy Man's Curse: When a Dagger Becomes a Black Bird (Worcester, 1861)

July 26, 1861: Pennsylvania Democrats Blast Lincoln as War Rages—'They've...

Lincoln Personally Orders Arms to Iowa as Civil War Reaches the Border (July...

July 1861: Nashville's Last Peacetime Newspaper? A City Selling Coal Oil Lamps...

America's First War-Time Newspaper: Jobs, Teeth Extraction, and Life Going On...

When NYC Realized This Wasn't Going to Be a Short War (July 30, 1861)

War's First Months: See How Evansville Still Sold Cheese & Furniture (July 1861)

August

Three Months Into the Civil War: How One Indiana Town Prepared for Battle...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Final Poem—And Why 1861 America Was Obsessed With...

One Month Into the Civil War, New York Asks About Grammar and Lost Love—Not...

Nashville, August 1861: When a City Sold Patent Medicine & Railroad Dreams...

A City Going to War: What New York's Job Ads Reveal About August 1861

August 1861: A Confederate Newspaper Still Selling French Wine & Northern...

Inside a Border-State Newspaper as America Burns: What Cumberland, Maryland Was...

War Comes to Evansville: What This August 1861 Newspaper Reveals About...

A Bootmaker, His Bullfinch, and Broadway in August 1861—When War Still Felt...

Garibaldi Takes Up Arms for Lincoln—Plus the Prince Napoleon Scandal That...

Romance, Theatre & Bootmakers: What Worcester Read While America Burned (August...

Treason Arrest in Washington: Lincoln's Government Tightens the Noose on...

How Lemon Juice Nearly Framed a Man for Murder: The Pacific Commercial...

Occupied New Orleans, August 1861: War Tightens Its Grip—and the Police Still...

General Lyon Dies at Springfield: The Union Learns War Won't Be Quick

War Diary: The Rebel Army Marches Toward Washington—And a Union Doctor...

Should the North Fight for the Union or for Freedom? A 1861 Debate That Changed...

When Enslaved People Plotted with the British (and a Planter Found Out): 1861

General Lyon's Last Stand: How a Doomed Charge Changed the Civil War

Connecticut Goes to War: The Forgotten Statute That Organized 150,000 Soldiers...

Iowa Rallies for War: Governor Returns from Washington as Civil War...

Bull Run Victory in Nashville: The South's Finest Hour—or So They Thought

Mutiny in the Union Army + The First Flag Captured from Yankees: A Confederate...

A Doctor's Supernatural Vision Comes True—On the Very Night It Happened (1861)

August 1861: Louisiana's Merchants Still Betting Big—While War Rages Nearby

How a Confederate General Fooled the British (and Almost Fooled the Union)

What Evansville Was Selling When the Civil War Started (Spoiler: Oysters &...

When Lincoln's Government Destroyed Newspapers & Arrested Spies: Inside the...

September

September 1861: Nashville Newspapers Still Selling Miracle Cures While the...

Richmond's Last Peacetime Markets: What Merchants Were Selling When the Civil...

War Raging, but Evansville's Brooms Cost 15 Cents: Life at the Border in 1861

A General's Horse and a Congressman's Prison Debates: September 1861

How Cincinnati Cracked the Code to American Wine (While the Civil War Raged On)

Why didn't the Confederates march into Washington? Russell's stunning dispatch...

No War News Here: Inside a Border City Pretending the Civil War Wasn't...

Kentucky's Neutrality Collapses: Read the Secret Letters That Warned of Civil...

Dogs Gone Mad, Counterfeits, and Parade Day in Wartime New Orleans (Sept. 9,...

September 1861: How Northern States Panicked and Dumped $1.3M in Southern Bonds

While the Civil War Raged, Evansville's Merchants Sold Rat Traps: A Forgotten...

September 1861: How New York Recruited an Army—One Front Page at a Time

Stephen Douglas's Final Call to Patriots: A Democrat's Last Letter Supporting...

A Massachusetts Newspaper Calls to War (And Tells a Haunting Story About Duty)

Confederate Legal Warfare: How Nashville's Government Turned Neighbors Into...

Inside Berdan's Sharpshooters: How the Union's Deadliest Marksmen Were Born...

Ohio Boys Dig In: Inside the Trenches of Virginia, September 1861

September 1861: New Orleans Mobilizes for War—See the Orders, Bounties & Bank...

Escape and Snobbery: What Americans Read While Their Nation Burned (Sept. 1861)

New York Goes to War: Inside the Military Recruitment Blitz of September 1861

Confederate Victory Lap: Nashville Celebrates Manassas—and Wildly Overestimates...

New Orleans, September 1861: Gunboats, Duels, and the Panic of Early War

A City Preparing for War: The Last Peacetime Newspaper from Confederate New...

"Missouri Is Ours": How the Confederacy Legally Invented a State It Didn't...

Exclusive: How Democrats Tried to Win the Civil War (Without Freeing the Slaves)

A Knife Blade, a Love Letter, and a Jury Foreman's Terrible Secret: The Arson...

Confederate Nashville Goes All-In: How a Southern Capital Legalized War (Sept....

September 1861: While the Nation Bleeds, a Farmer's Almanac Reveals What Really...

October

Six Months Into Rebellion: New Orleans Prepares for War (While Attending...

"I Will Cling to That Flag": A Confederate General's War Letter from October...

1861: A Young Grocer Abandons His Dreams for Gold—Should He Take the Bet?

A Maryland merchant's wife learns gratitude in October 1861—while the Civil War...

The War Isn't Ending Soon—And the North Is Finally Beginning to Realize It

Nashville Celebrates "Great Victory" at Bull Run—Six Months Before Union...

Slaves Freed, Forts Fallen: The Civil War's True Nature Emerges (October 1861)

"We Will Never, Never Reconstruct": Confederate Virginia Stakes Its...

October 1861: How New York's Newspapers Turned Into War Machines

War, Transatlantic Trade & Snake Oil: What New York Was Actually Selling in...

When the World's Mightiest Ship Met the Sea—And Lost (Plus: McClellan's Big...

A Zouave's Grit and Tammany's Schemes: New York at War (Oct. 1861)

How the Confederacy Built Its War Machine: Laws from Nashville, October 1861

October 14, 1861: War Gets Real—Armies Mobilize, Rails Gouge Farmers, and...

Nashville Celebrates Bull Run Victory—But a Dangerous Letter Delivery System...

While the South Burned: How Shreveport Merchants Kept Selling Honey Recipes and...

From October 1861: When NYC Newspapers Became Recruitment Centers—and Sold...

1861: While the Civil War Raged, New York Kept Selling Cheap Boarding Rooms &...

October 1861: Confederate Congress Authorizes Torture, Builds Bureaucracy, and...

Why One Massachusetts Judge Bet the Union's Survival on Corn Instead of Cannons...

October 1861: New Orleans Goes All-In—See the Moment the Confederacy Seized...

Nashville's Last Normal Week: What One Wartime Newspaper Reveals About a City...

Two West Point Rivals Face Off at Edward's Ferry—Plus the Piracy Trial That...

October 1861: While America Bled, This Pennsylvania Paper Ran a Ghost Story...

October 1861: New York Rallies for War—Horace Greeley, Recruitment Drives & a...

When the Confederacy Couldn't Even Clothe Its Soldiers: Inside October 1861's...

October 1861: How New York Profited While America Bled—A Single Page Tells the...

Lincoln's Secret Weapon: Trading with the Enemy (Even in Wartime)

Wash Tub Prison Break & Lincoln Removes His Most Popular General (Oct. 30, 1861)

October 1861: Inside the Confederate Government's First War Elections—and a...

November

Maryland Under the Boot: A London Times Reporter's Shocking Account of Federal...

How New Orleans Prepared for War: November 1861's Volunteer Calls, Benefit...

Cannons on the Potomac: Inside the Union's Secret Naval Strike (Nov 3, 1861)

When the North Needed Heroes: How a 1861 Worcester Paper Called for Total War

New Orleans on the Brink: How One City Mobilized for War—Six Months Before It...

War Comes Home: New Orleans Militia Mobilizes (Nov. 7, 1861)

A Federal Judge Admits Defeat: Military Power 'Must Prevail' Over Courts (Nov....

Henry Ward Beecher Heads to England to Defend the Union—Plus a Murder Mystery...

McClellan's Army Impresses in the Rain—And Napoleon May Be Eyeing the...

"Pitch in When the Yankees Come": New Orleans Celebrates War Heroes Just Before...

How the North Weaponized Europe—And Why Winfield Scott Fled in Secret (Nov. 12,...

War Rages While Evansville Sells Furniture: A Border Town's Strange Normalcy,...

Arkansas Goes to War: A Governor's Desperate Plea, Confiscated Enemy Property &...

New Orleans on the Brink: Military Drills, Sugar Trades & the Last Days Before...

Port Royal Falls: The Union Breaks Through—And Enslaved People Vote With Their...

November 1861: The South Fractures as Executions Loom and North Carolina...

Rebel Diplomats Captured at Sea: How Two Confederates Nearly Started a War With...

When America Was at War but Evansville Kept Selling Stoves: November 1861

A Railroad Engineer Races Midnight to Save His Company—100 Years Ago Today in...

In the Shadow of War: How One Indiana Town Kept Selling Watches and Wine in...

November 1861 Nashville: While War Rages, Merchants Sell $5,000 Houses & Havana...

How New York City Churches & Politicians Mobilized for War (November 1861)

Jefferson Davis Declares Separation 'Final': Confederate President Claims...

Burning Wagons & Guerrilla Chaos: How Missouri Became Ungovernable in Fall 1861

The Trent Affair: How Two Captured Diplomats Almost Brought Britain Into the...

Racing, Recruiting & Denial: New Orleans in November 1861 Still Planning Jockey...

"Good to Be There": A Chaplain's Letter from the Civil War Campfire

New Orleans Drills for War (While Still Selling Lamps): A Confederate City at...

November 1861: While the War Raged, Evansville Advertised Cheaper Stoves and...

December

Soldiers' Letters from the Potomac: What Bullets Sound Like When They Sing Past...

Lincoln's War Message Arrives as Confederate Missouri Begs for Soldiers...

A Soldier Shoots a Waiter Over Oysters—And a Town Nearly Lynches Him (Dec. 3,...

December 1861: New York Women Are Sewing the Civil War Into Being—One Blanket...

December 1861: New Orleans Drills for War as a Boy Dies on the Rails

December 1861: Inside a Confederate City Preparing for War—The Hats, the...

New Orleans Under Arms: The Last Peaceful War Drills Before Occupation (Dec. 7,...

A Soldier's Final Stand: Nashville Paper Reports Desperate Battle as Patent...

Last Call for Order: New Orleans Drills for War (December 1861)

Traitor or Patriot? The 70,000 Weapons That Almost Lost California to the...

A Brother Escapes Richmond, Tennessee Burns Bridges, and a Woman Knits...

New Orleans Drills for War: The Day a Great City Became a Military Camp (Dec....

December 1861: As the Civil War Deepens, New York's Churches Become...

How the North Already Won (Before the Real Fighting Started): A December 1861...

New Orleans Newspaper Mocks Lincoln's War Cabinet (and Badly Underestimates the...

How Americans Spent Christmas 1861 (Hint: Not Thinking About the War)

DECEMBER 1861: New Orleans Converts to War—Banks, Streetcars, and Militia...

A Confederate Woman's Scorching Letter to Lincoln's Secretary: Rose Greenhow...

Love, War & Scandal: How This 1861 Gazette Captured America Tearing Itself Apart

War With Britain? The Trent Affair Nearly Ended the Union—Here's How Close We...

War and Commerce Coexist: What Columbus Was Buying in 1861

Dunked in Mud & Demoted: How One Volunteer's War Went Sideways (Dec. 23, 1861)

Christmas 1861: While New York Shopped for Furs, the Army Begged for Soldiers

Christmas 1861 in Memphis: How a Confederate City Went to War (One Blacksmith...

While the Civil War raged, Iowa's newspaper editor fought to teach German in...

New Orleans at War: Inside a Confederate City's Last Days of Normal (Dec. 1861)

A Locksmith's Moral Crisis: How One Worcester Newspaper Sold Redemption Over...

How New York's Sunday Paper Ignored a War (and What That Tells Us About 1861)