Hustling up to the front door, package in hand, I rang the doorbell. An older African-American man invited me in out of the cold. I stepped inside a small entryway…
Pounding drums, jeers, and yelling reached a cacophonous pitch on the ship of state. In retrospect, it was inevitable that the slavery debate would end in catastrophe. Historian Mark Noll…
Irene Hunt's grandfather told her what it was like to be a 9-year-old boy in Southern Illinois, with several brothers in the Union Army and one brother wearing gray. Hunt…
Like a Boy Scout leader with camera around his neck, Kenneth L. Lyftogt takes readers deep into the jungles of a long-ago land, filled with thorny branches, quicksand, and storm…
When I take a trip overseas, I plan what I'll carry on the plane and what gets stowed inside the plane. I cram my carryon bag with a few clothes,…
Returning to Davenport, Iowa, after the war, Spier Whitaker Jr. remembered his teenage friendships and the path that led to his freedom. Spier Whitaker Jr. was born in 1841 in…
Julia Douglass shifted the toddler onto her hip and glanced back at Fort Smith. Shortly after her husband and her brother-in-law enlisted, the Federals arrived and everything changed. The fort…
Donating a large cemetery plot, he decided, would help the town and bring him well-earned recognition. All he asked in return was to name the cemetery after him. George Washington…
I'm pleased to share my article published by Emerging Civil War blog. Here's the link to Draft Dilemma in Poweshiek County: The Murder of the Marshals. I'm grateful for the…
Bending over a map, Lt. Colonel Spier Whitaker softly ordered soldiers to search for Confederate deserters in Randolph County, North Carolina. Long experience in Iowa and North Carolina had taught…