A question posed in 1999 asked, “I’ve often read that there were 500,000 morphine addicts running around after the Civil War. Is this true? If so, did narcotics have a deleterious effect on the Old West? How many cowboys were wacko on these then-legal drugs?” According to one interesting source, the answer was… maybe: Still, even allowing for exaggeration by drug alarmists, you have to think the Civil War had…

On April 1, 1993 William B. Holberton, a veteran of World War 2, submitted his Master’s Thesis (Read it here) at Lehigh University. A thesis that would ultimately become a book published in 2001 by Stackpole Books. Hoblerton passed away in March, 2000, and the final editing was completed by several historians he worked with. Homeward Bound: The Demobilization of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1865-66 by William B. Holberton….

A little “Rebel Yell” anyone?

[This is one of more thoughtful and provoking reflections by a soldier concerning a battle that I have ever come across while curator for Soldier Studies. This account was published in the “Main Bugle” (January, 1894.) a short lived quarterly publication depicting the exploits and histories of various Maine regiments. The 1st Maine Heavy Artillery Regiment took part in one of the most intense and bloodiest engagements you will ever…

This past Veterans day saw several celebrations across the country honor Civil War participants. In Middleboro, Mass., the annual parade at 10 a.m. Friday will honor two Civil War soldiers: Andrew Freeman and Bernard Glancy. They will represent hundreds of other soldiers from the town who served in the war. The event will conclude with a ceremony at the Civil War monument on the town hall lawn. In Milton, Mass,…

Much has been written about the hardships of soldiering during the Civil War. However, what of the soldier when he returned home after the war? How did he reintegrate into society and what was left waiting for him? By the 1880s soldiers began to reminiscence about the war in memoirs and regimental histories. But yet there was still a population in both the North and South that drifted from soldier…