Slate's Vault blog describes a fascinating board g...  ...a fascinating board game made in the midst of the American Civil War . Charlton & Althrop, a publishing house in Ph...  ...xcept with a bit more bloodshed.The game shows an American bald eagle strangling a snake representing Southe...  ...ces sends th...

(Photo: US Navy)It’s not unusual for warships to change hands. When belligerent powers lose wars , they sometimes forfeit warships as prizes. And victorious powers may sell off the...  ....The Confederacy commissioned the construction of warsh...

(The Monitor vs. The Merrimac by Louis Prang &...  ...The Merrimac by Louis Prang & Co.)During the American Civil War , the US Navy blockaded Southern ports and largely...  ...most effective naval effort of the South was the warships that it sent far out to sea to capture and destro...  ...ged the Union...

It's Sam Houston (1793-1863), a man who lived an e...  ...xperience gave him a lifelong sympathy for Native Americans .Houston won battlefield fame under General Andrew...  ...ield fame under General Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812. Cultivated by Jackson, Houston rose in T...  ...were preparing for what th...

(Texas Military Forces Museum)It can be hard to de...  ...cisely which is the first or last engagement of a war or what qualifies as a battle. But one can plausi...  ...e can plausibly argue that the last battle of the American Civil War was the Battle of Palmito Ranch. This event occur...  ...Maj. Gen. John G....

(Image via the US Navy Art Collection)During the American Civil War , Confederate commandos and agents launched small...  ...s and Lake Champlain. By 1863, there was only one American warship on the Great Lakes: the 14-gun steamboat USS Mich...

Physically brave to the point of recklessness, thi...  ...ponies and their military counterparts during the American Civil War .Like Twilight Sparkle, U.S. Maj. Gen. Henry Jacks...  ...derstanding of the challenge.At the outset of the war , Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott was the senior general i...  ...tates Army. He w...

Jefferson Davis, the first and last President of the Confederate States of America, advocated a paternalistic approach to slaveholding. He believed that white rule over black slaves was beneficial and benevolent toward b...

During the American Civil War , the United States Navy blockaded Southern ports....  ...the Wright brothers flew, Powers tried to build a warplane :Although balloons were being effectively used for...

From April 6-7, 1862, Americans slaughtered one another near a small log church i...  ...re casualties those two days than in all previous wars combined. It was a horrible shock to the divided...  ...there were worse to come.Giles Hellum, an African American employee of the Unio...