A Hand Grenade
Northerners tried several infantry assaults on the Vicksburg trench lines. In those attacks, they sometimes used Ketchum hand grenades. These weapons exploded when they landed on the detonation plates fixed to their noses. Confederates stopped these grenades by catching them in blankets and throwing them back at the attacking Union troops. Citizens of new england and the Midwest were stunned when the Southern states left the Union. Many had believed their family of state would never break up....
European Observers
Civil War photographers liked to pose important visitors for pictures. Here are three titled French military men from the left, the Duc de Chartes, the Prince de Joinville, and the Comte de Paris. They are all members of the same French titled family, and served with Union Major General George McClellan's staff in 1862. TWO GERMAN BROTHERS The Midwest produced many regiments made up of men from Germany and Scandinavia. These two soldiers from Illinois, George and Herman Grothe, were both born...
The Murder Of A President
This old Lithograph illustrates the events of April 14, 1865. After the shooting, the unconscious president was carried across the street from the theater to the small home owned by a tailor named Petersen. Lincoln passed away there near dawn the next day. This is a playbill for the feature performed at Ford's Theatre the night of April 14. Laura Keene, the star of Our American Cousin, knew Booth. She was briefly detained by the police. However, she had no part in the plot to kill the...
Writing Home
In these years before electronic communication, a letter was the quickest way for a soldier to get a message home. Telegraphic messages were expensive and, during the war, controlled by the military. These are some writing implements of a Union soldier, as well as a letter, some patriotic stationery, and a rolled-up lap desk. The desk is made from small slats of wood. When it was unrolled, the desk provided a smooth writing surface for a soldier seated on the ground. During the Civil War,...
Starr Army Revolver
The Union government bought pistols from companies other than Colt and Remington. The Starr Arms Company of New York State made .44 caliber revolvers like this one for the North. It has two triggers. The trigger farther from the grip cocks the gun the other one fires it. With this clumsy arrangement, the pistol was not popular. Long before the Civil War, the U.S. Army gave soldiers who fired cannons these short swords. They were modeled on the swords carried by soldiers in the army of ancient...
An Assortment Of Uniforms
Clothing was a problem for both armies at Bull Run. Many volunteers showed up to fight dressed in uniforms that neither side recognized. Some Northerners wore gray uniforms. Some Southerners wore blue uniforms. Others, such as men who joined Zouave regiments, wore gaudy outfits. The Zouaves took their name and flamboyant clothing from French regiments that, in turn, had modeled their uniforms on the clothes of fighters of the Zouava tribe of Algeria in Africa. The lack of standard military...
Percussion Caps
These brass caps are filled with a small amount of explosive. They fit on a metal nipple underneath a rifle's hammer or at the end of a revolver's cylinder. Soldiers carried a supply of caps in a separate small Cup to create a hollow base in a bullet Worm screw, which attaches to a ramrod to remove stuck bullets from a barrel
U S Grant
Before the war, Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois considered himself a failure. After a West Point education, he tried army life, left that to try business, and ended up impoverished. But his military training won him the rank of Union army colonel in the war's first days. Early success earned him promotions. After his victory in April, 1862, at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, he was given greater responsibilities. He was later named general in chief of all Union armies and defeated Robert E....
A Battle Drum
This drum was found on the battlefield. It was used as a model for a drum that is seen in a famous painting of the fight by artist Peter Rothermel. Drummers were often young boys who went into combat. They beat out signals on the drum that directed the troops to move one way or another. Strapping to keep the drum head taut Strapping to keep the drum head taut Small grove of trees that marked the center of Meade's lines , Vicksburg, mississippi, is a town on the east bank of the Mississippi...
The Leader Of The Confederate Troops
General P.G.T. Beauregard led the main Confederate army in the First Battle of Bull Run. Here he is wearing his old U.S. Army uniform. Most of his prewar experience involved army engineering projects, not combat. However, his success in capturing Fort Sumter in April, 1861, led to Beauregard's being appointed one of the highest-ranking generals of the Confederacy. These brass epaulets were worn on the shoulders of General Beauregard's dress uniform. They were stored in a large hard leather case...
Stonewall Jackson
Born Thomas Jackson, this Southern general was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute when the Civil War began. He won his nickname, Stonewall, for his tough action as an officer at the First Battle of Bull Run. He won his fame as an expert in strategy and tactics and for victories in the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson was also a victim of bad luck. In May, 1863, he was wounded by North Carolina troops in an accident at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, and died several days later....
Parttime Ambulance Workers
In both the Union and Confederate armies, cooks and musicians worked as stretcher bearers during battles. In this photograph of Union Zouave troops performing an ambulance drill, the discarded drum hints that these men made music when not carrying the wounded. Their ambulance had few springs, so its bumpy ride was painful for its injured passengers. Zouave turban Litter or stretcher hanging stretchers , Rolled canvas A MEDICAL MAN'S UNIFORM This is the homespun butternut uniform of Confederate...