Civil Wars Story Briefs

When Americans disagreed on the power of individual states to control their respective governments and institutions, they fought a war, between themselves, during 1861 to 1865. Other countries have also fought "civil wars." These stories focus on those people, places and events.

It's July 3, 1863 and "Pickett's Charge" is about to begin. It ends in disaster for the Confederacy on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

In this clip, from "Gettysburg," General Longstreet instructs Colonel Alexander and General Pettigrew on the details for an attack which has since bee...

During the American Civil War, both sides agreed on specific terms for prisoner exchanges.

General Lee loves his horse, Traveller, but what do we really know about their special relationship?

This image depicts members of the Uralsoveta (Ural Soviet) who were in power when the Romanov family was murdered.

Samuel Clemens first used his pen name, Mark Twain, while working for Territorial Enterprise, a newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada.

Samuel A. Mudd was a young doctor with several children when he met John Wilkes Booth in the fall of 1864.

During the summer of 1864, Union engineers from Pennsylvania dug a tunnel under Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia, planning to detonate a huge...

This image depicts Thomas Jonathon Jackson, known later in his life as Stonewall Jackson, as he appeared circa 1851.

Abraham Lincoln originated America's annual Thanksgiving Day when he issued a proclamation, in 1863, declaring the last Thursday of November as a nati...

The body of "Bloody Bill" Anderson, depicted with revolver-in-hand.

The last days of the Romanov family begins with these words: ''At midnight, Yakov Yurovsky, the leader of the executioners, came up the stairs to awak...

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