This month, Ulysses S. Grant became the top Federal commander and various skirmishes and raids set the stage for the impending spring battle campaign.

Apr 6, 2011 – Walter Coffey

Gunned down by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois, November 7, 1837, Elijah P. Lovejoy is considered by some to be the first casualty of the Civil War.

Apr 1, 2011 – Michael Rose

This month, the Confederacy resorted to desperate measures and Washington was plagued with political intrigue in preparation for the upcoming elections.

Mar 30, 2011 – Walter Coffey

The April 19, 1861 riot in Baltimore led to the first deaths of Union soldiers in the Civil War.

Mar 24, 2011 – David Harry

This month, both sides retooled as southerners began losing hope and northerners galvanized their resolve to win the war.

Mar 18, 2011 – Walter Coffey

Three days before being shot, Abraham Lincoln related to friends a haunting dream that was a premonition of his own death.

Mar 13, 2011 – Lawrence Koppy

This month, Federal pressure mounted as momentum shifted to the North and more people began believing that the South would lose the war.

Mar 9, 2011 – Walter Coffey

After demonstrating how advanced the Spencer Rifle was, President Lincoln was convinced enough to allow some to be used by the U.S Navy.

Mar 8, 2011 – Marquis Canaday

Governor Jackson, Sterling Price, Francis Blair, and Nathaniel Lyon bring Missouri into the Civil War on both sides.

Mar 6, 2011 – Greg Schroeder

The Confederacy moved its government from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond, Virginia for historical, strategic, and practical reasons.

Mar 3, 2011 – William L. Wunder

This month, Federals under Ulysses Grant tried fighting their way out of Chattanooga, and at Gettysburg President Lincoln delivered a historic address.

Mar 2, 2011 – Walter Coffey

General David E. Twiggs' surrender of the Federal installations in the Department of Texas was the most treasonous of many capitulations in early 1861.

Feb 20, 2011 – Greg Schroeder

Which institution would be worse to work under: chattel slavery or wage slavery?

Feb 17, 2011 – Tristan Devereux

The famous Confederate brigade was arguably the most effective fighting unit on either side of the Civil War.

Feb 15, 2011 – Philip Nightingale

A cynical forgery by the waning Confederacy or the first link in a chain of events leading to the Lincoln assassination?

Feb 12, 2011 – Philip Nightingale

This month, armies were stalemated in Virginia while Federal forces were trapped in Chattanooga. To break the siege, Lincoln turned to U.S. Grant for help.

Feb 11, 2011 – Walter Coffey

This month, Confederates in the West retreated and then counterattacked in one of the war's greatest battles. By month's end, the Federals were reeling.

Feb 10, 2011 – Walter Coffey

General Hood's invasion of Tennessee ends in disaster in front of the fortified city of Nashville.

Feb 8, 2011 – Brandon Place

This month, Federals continued pressing Charleston. The eastern armies regrouped in Virginia while a Federal advance on Chattanooga was imminent.

Jan 28, 2011 – Walter Coffey

The National Cemetery, Arlington, resides across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Its 624 acres contains graves of many prominent Americans.

Jan 27, 2011 – Diane Evans