Emerging Civil War

08/24/2026

Question of the Week: What art from Civil War participants do you find most interesting?

What sort of artistic expression from Civil War participants do you find most interesting: paintings, drawings, newspaper woodcuts, poetry, creating dice in POW camps, something else?

08/23/2026

Employees of a Wartime Asylum
by Madeline Feierstein

Every building in Civil War Washington, D.C. was impacted by the capital’s transformation into a military command center. Last summer, I covered how the war took over the Government Hospital for the Insane, later renamed St. Elizabeths. Opened in January 1855 as the first federal psychiatric facility, Superintendent Charles Nichols not only allowed for soldier patients to be admitted, but offered the asylum grounds to the signal corps and various other encampments. Designed for 250 beds, the hospital was not prepared for the influx of wartime carnage which doubled the population. Patient admissions wavered from unstable citizens to physically and emotionally injured combat soldiers by 1862, and eventually onto traumatized veterans when it returned to normal operations in 1865.

Read more here 👇
https://emergingcivilwar.com/2026/08/20/employees-of-a-wartime-asylum/

08/22/2026

“War Is Hell, But Even Hell Has Rules: Prisoners of War Per the Lieber Code” by Kevin Donovan

The post is part of a series.

One of the many subjects addressed by the Lieber Code was the proper treatment of prisoners of war. This was among the most contentious issues arising during the Civil War. One author claims that “no controversy ever evoked such emotions as the mutual recriminations between Northern and Southern partisans over the treatment of prisoners of war…Throughout the war the complaints, charges and counter-charges, and the assertions of criminal intent fed the raging fires of propaganda.”

Indeed, the only Confederate executed after the war was Henry Wirz, the commandant at the infamous Andersonville POW camp, who was accused of war crimes over the treatment of Union POWs. Robert E. Lee was summoned before a Congressional committee that sought to uncover Lee’s knowledge of (and possible responsibility for) the suffering of U.S. POWs. Meanwhile, horrendous conditions at U.S. POW camps, including Elmira, New York (referred to as “Hellmira”) and Point Lookout, Maryland raise the question of what safeguards, if any, the Lieber Code afforded helpless non-combatants.

This post looks at what the Code had to say about this controversial POW issue. Read more on our website!

The post is part of a series. One of the many subjects addressed by the Lieber Code[1] was the proper treatment of prisoners of war. This was among the most contentious issues arising during the Civil War. One author claims that “no controversy ever evoked such emotions as the mutual recrimination...

08/21/2026

“You get out before I kick you out”: Morgan’s Raiders July 15, 1863
By Caroline Davis

On July 14, 1863, General Ambrose Burnside sent the following telegram Brigadier General Julius White stationed near Catlettsburg, Kentucky, along the Ohio River:

“Morgan is making for the Ohio River, near Ripley. He may be kept from crossing by the gunboats, and he may go above to cross. General Hobson is but 10 miles in his rear with a large cavalry force. They both camped in Clermont County, Ohio, last night. We hope to catch him.”

It had been a long and difficult journey tracking General John Hunt Morgan and his men through Ohio. Burnside hoped it would end soon. However, Morgan and his men still had some tricks up their sleeves in an attempt to out-ride their pursuers.

Read more here 👇
https://emergingcivilwar.com/2026/08/21/you-get-out-before-i-kick-you-out-morgans-raiders-july-15-1863

08/21/2026

This past Thursday, Emerging Civil War’s Neil Chatelain attended the Surprising Civil War: A Symposium of Scholars in Texas at Texas A&M University.

While there, Neil caught up with his almost
Naval history friend Professor Lorien Foote, to discuss a special anniversary and share their thoughts on Civil War

Texas A&M University

08/20/2026

During a recent trip to Gettysburg, Emerging Civil War’s Darren Rawlings met up with Chris Jones, one of the co-producers of the highly anticipated new movie Gettysburg 1863, inside the Shriver House Museum shop. Shriver House Museum at Gettysburg Gettysburg Film Commission

08/19/2026

Through the Storm: A Western Virginia Family’s Escape

ECW welcomes back guest author Christy Perry Tuohey.

Much has been written about the difficulties of fighting the Civil War in the rugged Eastern mountains. Add to that the harsh weather that pounded Virginia during the earliest days of the conflict. An unprecedented meteorological event doused much of the Eastern seaboard and Ohio River Valley in 1861, hampering soldiers and civilians alike. My own western Virginia ancestors found themselves dodging both raindrops and conscription as Confederate forces bore down on Appalachians loyal to the Union.

The summer of 1861 was unusually wet and muddy in Virginia. A Confederate soldier wrote from the Greenbrier River on August 6: “It was indeed a fearful summer. We were camped on Valley Mountain 43 days, and it rained 37 days out of that number.”

Read more here 👇
https://emergingcivilwar.com/2026/08/19/through-the-storm-a-western-virginia-familys-escape/

08/19/2026

“Angel’s Glow” at the Battle of Shiloh
by Brian Kowell

A friend of mine recently sent me an email with a link to an article published in Popular Mechanics. Authored by Elizabeth Rayne, the article was titled “Hundreds of Civil War Soldiers Were Destined to Die: Then Their Wounds Started Glowing.” While I possess limited mechanical ability (and I mean limited), the article intrigued me as I had never heard of this before. I was hooked and needed to know more.

Ms. Rayne described how over 16,000 soldiers lay wounded through the ravines, woodlands, and fields of the Shiloh battlefield. They lay where they had fallen that day in April 1862, shivering through a cold and rainy night before medical help could arrive.

When physicians reached the scene that night, they were taken aback by eerie, bluish lights that glowed in the darkness. Upon closer examination they discovered that the bluish lights were actually coming from some of the soldiers’ gaping wounds. They couldn’t explain it, but as time went by, it was noticed: “Even more strangely, the soldiers who had these eerie glowing wounds wound up having more of a fighting chance to survive.” Some began to believe that it was Divine Intervention and called the phenomenon “Angel’s Glow.”

Read more here 👇
https://emergingcivilwar.com/2026/08/19/angels-glow-at-the-battle-of-shiloh/

08/19/2026

ECW Podcast: The Devil’s Own Purgatory (with Robert Gudmestad)

“The Devil’s Own Purgatory” by Robert Gudmestad is the winner of the 2026 Emerging Civil War Book Award. ECW’s Chris Mackowski chats with Gudmestad about this groundbreaking new look at the Mississippi River Squadron during the Civil War.

This episode of the Emerging Civil War Podcast is brought to you by , the world’s largest open-air museum, offering more than 1,500 sites across six states. Request a brochure at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠civilwartrails.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to start planning your trip today.

The Emerging Civil War Podcast taps into ECW’s award-winning line-up of historians and great special guests—all of whom come from a wide variety of backgrounds with a wide variety of interests on a wide variety of topics.

Listen by tapping the link in our story.

You can also listen through the ECW Patreon page. A subscription to our Patreon page—which helps pay our podcast costs—also entitles you to exclusive free content. Sign up for as little as $1.99/month: https://www.patreon.com/emergingcivilwar.

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