America's Civil War

The Personalization Experts Since 1951 *FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $50. USE PROMO CODE: HISACWS3 LILLIANVERNON.COM/ACW OFFER EXPIRES 4/30/23. ONLY ONE PROMO CODE PER ORDER. OFFERS CANNOT BE COMBINED. OFFER APPLIES TO STANDARD SHIPPING ONLY. ALL ORDERS ARE ASSESSED A CARE & PACKAGING FEE.…

I enjoyed John Banks’ “Who Are They?” article in the Autumn issue [P.30], especially the mention of two photographs in the collection of the former Museum of the Confederacy. I was president of the MOC from 2004 until its combination with another museum to become the American Civil War Museum, where I was co-CEO until my retirement at the end of 2019. We did indeed have fun with “Whose Little Girl Is This?” in 2012. That Associated Press article appeared in more than 500 newspapers around the world, and we got some “interesting” inquiries. A woman from California claimed that she could speak with the dead. If we would only fly her to Richmond, she would have a séance and ask the little girl to identify herself. Another man, also from California (aka…

The Library of Congress in November debuted an online exhibit mapping hundreds of portrait photographs from the Liljenquist Collection to events of the Civil War, including images of soldiers linked to the battles where they fought and died. The interactive map encompasses more than 100 battles, from Gettysburg and Antietam to lesser-known skirmishes. The faces of nurses are connected to the sites where they cared for the wounded. Prisoners of war are associated with the camps that confined them. Some of the portraits are mapped to more than one location, if, for example, the person was present at more than one battle. Likewise, there might be more than one portrait of the same person mapped at a location if multiple photographs of them exist in the collection. The Liljenquist Collection at the…

Former Confederate Brig. Gen. Francis R.T. Nicholls’ ascension to governor of Louisiana in 1888—his second, non-consecutive term in Baton Rouge—spelled the eventual death knell of the corrupt Louisiana Lottery Company. The end of that enterprise, however, also cut short an extremely lucrative deal for two other former notable generals in gray: P.G.T. Beauregard and Jubal Early. To be clear, Beauregard and Early were not part of the company’s notorious criminal endeavors. Their role was simply to be present when the lottery tickets were drawn, with both paid a princely sum of $20,000 per year (equivalent to $200,000 today) for the task. When founded in 1868, the company was given free rein by state legislators to conduct monthly lotteries for the next 25 years. It was at the time the nation’s only legal…

Match the officer with the battle (example: Phil Sheridan and Cedar Creek) to whose outcome he extensively contributed—positively or negatively. A. Ambrose Powell Hill (+) B. George H. Thomas (+) C. Manuel Chaves (+) D. Don Carlos Buell (–) E. Franz Sigel (–) F. John Bell Hood (–) G. Charles Zagonyi (+) H. John B. Magruder (+) I. Lew Wallace (+) J. David G. Farragut (+) 1. Perryville, 1862 2. New Orleans, 1862 3. Monocacy, 1864 4. Springfield, 1861 5. Glorieta Pass, 1862 6. Franklin, 1864 7. Antietam, 1862 8. Galveston, 1863 9. Chickamauga, 1863 10. New Market, 1864 Answers: A.7, B.9, C.5, D.1, E.10, F.6, G.4, H.8, I.3, J.2 COURTESY OF ALBERT R. LABURE; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS…

Officials in Virginia’s Mathews County have come up with a novel approach to keep one of its Confederate monuments standing for the foreseeable future. According to the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal, the county’s board of supervisors had prepared a quitclaim deed that, if approved, will hand possession of the monument and the plot of land upon which it stands to the Mathews War Memorial Preservation Inc., created by David M. “Sonny” Fauver, a member of the Lane Armistead Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The plot, adjoining the county courthouse, measures 80.97 square feet. The Gazette-Journal reported that the deed stipulates the corporation is responsible at all times for maintaining the property and monument in an “appropriate” manner, and does not allow the placement of any flag or banner on the ground…