Recent Posts
Celebrate National Park Week Next Week
I went to four National Park sites this year. Last year I visited seven including Yosemite. Two years ago I went to Montezuma’s Castle, the…
A Black Man Tells Congress What African Americans Faced in the South During Reconstruction: Henry Adams
During Reconstruction, African Americans formed committees to record the violation of human rights by various white supremacist organizations like the Knights of the White Camelia…
Wayne N.Y. Dedicating New Civil War Statuary Group “True Valor at Gettysburg” on Saturday August 22, 2026
The Wayne County Historical Society in Wayne County New York is holding a new Civil War monument unveiling at the county seat of Lyons. The…
A Fate Worse than Hell: American Prisoners of the Civil War by W. Fitzhugh Brundage
A Fate Worse than Hell: American Prisoners of the Civil War by W. Fitzhugh Brundage published by W. W. Norton & Company (2026) When people…
Civil War Memorial Bainbridge, New York
When you are driving in Upstate New York you will often find Civil War monuments in the smallest of towns. This one is in Bainbridge,…
Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
The Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania is a new addition to the commemoration of the Civil…
How the Klan Was Taught to Kids Before the 1980s
In the 1920s, Nathan Bedford Forrest’s grandson, who had the same name, attracted quite a bit of attention when he announced that he was setting…
James Buchanan Mansion Lancaster, Pennsylvania
In June of 2026 I was able to visit the mansion of our fifteenth president, James Buchanan, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This is about an hour…
Using the Media to Try to Control the Klan
By the time of 1868’s presidential campaign, the Ku Klux Klan had fastened itself onto America’s political imagination. In early 1866 the Klan did…
Kommercialization of the KKK: How Businesses and Charities Kashed In
I have been posting about Reconstruction for the last five years on Emerging Civil War, and several readers have asked me why so few of…