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The Union Christmas Dinner
The festive period embodies a time for togetherness and absolution, where we graciously welcome loved ones, no matter the distance they have traveled or any past grievances we might harbor. What truly matters is our shared kinship. In the December 31, 1864, issue of...
Thomas Nast’s Christmas Eve
Thomas Nast created “Christmas Eve” for Harper’s Weekly in which he portrayed a wife separated from her soldier husband on Christmas Eve 1862. The sketch shows a family split apart by the Civil War. It is also one of the earliest images of Santa, in a sleigh, being pulled by reindeer.
The Civil War in Color Series – John Harrison Surratt Jr
John Harrison Surratt was born on April 13, 1844, the last child of Mary and John Surratt, Sr. Surratt's father managed to purchase a boarding house in Washington along with a tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, where he also served as the local postmaster. As a young...
Salome Sallie Myers – Civil War Nurse at Gettysburg
In late June 1863, Sallie Myers was a school teacher who had just turned 21. She was on summer vacation when Confederate forces invaded her hometown of Gettysburg and changed her life forever.
The Civil War in Color Series – Gettysburg Dead
Recently a friend of mine asked me to do a Then and Now overlay of some dead Confederate soldiers who were buried in the Rose Farm at Gettysburg. Based on some previous research, he was seeking out the original location where these brave soldiers were buried and...
Gettysburg Campaign – Henry Thomas Harrison – Confederate Spy
On June 28, 1863, an important event took place in the small town of Chambersburg, Pa that changed the course of Robert E. Lee'sInvasion of the North. A Confederate spy by the name of Harrison came into camp and reported on the movements of Union troops. General...
The Civil War in Color Series – Gettysburg Veterans
Battle of Gettysburg Reunion of 1913 From June 29 to July 6, 1913, 50 years after the Battle of Gettysburg, Union and Confederate flags flew side by side when more than 50,000 Civil War veterans converged on Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for a grand reunion. The...
Serenading President Lincoln with Dixies Land
On April 10, 1865, the day after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, despite rain and mud there were some 3,000 people in the streets of Washington celebrating. Crowds serenaded President Lincoln throughout the day. “At length,” wrote a reporter for the...