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Just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, Frederick, Maryland, was poised at the crossroads of the Civil War.

Here, Confederate troops passed west to the Battles of Antietam and South Monocacy, while Union troops marched north to Gettysburg and south to raid the resources of the Shenandoah Valley. Both heroes and villains were made in the spired city, such as Dame Barbara Fritchie, who is said to defied General Jackson; General Jubal Early, who threatened to put the town to the torch; and the local doctors and nurses who cared for thousands of wounded soldiers. Join local historian John Schildt as he recounts the fascinating history of Frederick in the Civil War.

Forgotten Fighters and Unknown Exploits

More than twenty thousand Hispanic Americans served in the Civil War. When Cuban-born Loreta Janeta Velázquez’s husband would not allow her to join him on the battlefield, she assumed the role of First Lieutenant Harry T. Buford to be near him. Philip Bazaar, born in Chile, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his courageous exploits during the assault of Fort Fisher. The spying efforts of Floridian Maria Dolores “Lola” Sánchez and her two sisters led to a Union defeat at the Battle of Horse Landing. Union Admiral David Farragut, of Spanish descent, was not only the navy’s first admiral, but he was also the man who uttered the famous phrase, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”

Delving into the lives of these figures and more, A.J. Schenkman uncovers this often-overlooked aspect of Civil War history.

Authors Ryan Starrett and Josh Foreman uncover all-but-forgotten elements of Vicksburg history.

Vicksburg had an especially inauspicious start when its inhabitants were massacred by locals. The generation of the city’s official founding beheld vigilantes, duelists and an early incel roaming its streets. Citizens experienced the horrors of war: hunger, diarrhea and death. About 150 years later, their descendants hid in fear from a deranged killer on the loose. In between, the city overloaded a steamboat with recently released POWs and contributed to the greatest maritime disaster in U.S. history. In the midst of war and suffering, an intrepid group of religious sisters worked to educate and nurse their fellow people. An immigrant family from Germany established a bottling empire that made them the embodiment of the American dream. Join authors Josh Foreman and Ryan Starrett as they explore the land and people who make Vicksburg one of the South’s most visited and recognizable cities.

Meet the men from Southwestern Illinois who served in the Civil War. Learn about their lives prior to enlistment, follow them into battle, and bear witness to their legacy.

The men of southwestern Illinois, both white and Black, rallied to the Union banner when the Civil War broke out. Lewis Martin, an escaped slave, enlisted in the Union army and suffered horrendous injuries at the Battle of the Crater. Shurtleff College’s entire 1864 class joined up, and so many men from McKendree College served in the Illinois 117th that it became known as the “McKendree Brigade.” Some of the volunteers came from pioneer American stock, like Franklin Moore, whose forefathers fought in the War of 1812 and the Revolution. Others, such as Swiss-born John Kuhn, were immigrants. Author John J. Dunphy follows the men from southwestern Illinois who risked their lives to end the Southern rebellion.

Lamar advertises itself as the city "where legends begin," and the city of four thousand lives up to that slogan. It was the place where frontier lawman Wyatt Earp first wore a star and where President Harry S Truman was born. When Truman successfully brought World War II to an end, the submarine fleets in the Atlantic and Pacific were commanded by Lamar High School graduates. Lamar's legends, however, are not limited to those who found fame after they left the city. Lamar was home to the longest-serving mayor in Missouri history, a legendary newspaperman, a football team that captured seven straight state championships and an infamous killer whose life was ended by a lynch mob. Author Randy Turner details these stories and much more.

Scientists and inventors who lived, worked or were educated in the Bluegrass State have made fundamental contributions to biology, chemistry, physics and technology. Biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan laid the foundation for modern genetics. Chemist William Lipscomb made important discoveries about the structure of molecules and chemical bonding. Astrophysicist J. Richard Gott is a leading expert on cosmology, general relativity and time travel. And inventor George Devol built the world's first programmable industrial robot. Kentucky scientists have also been awarded four Nobel Prizes. Science teacher Duane S. Nickell offers a glimpse into the lives of seventeen scientific heroes from Kentucky.

The free black community of Hinsonville sent its sons to serve the Union when called on. Author Dr. Cheryl Renée Gooch reveals the compelling stories of these brave men and their other Hinsonville comrades.

As members of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, brothers Wesley, William and George Jay survived the bloody battle at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, memorialized in the film Glory. George W. Duffy and Stephen J. Ringgold were part of the only black regiment to lead President Lincoln's funeral procession in Washington. William B. Fitzgerald, Abraham Stout, Samuel H. Blake and Isaac A. Hollingsworth fought with troops who cornered Robert E. Lee's army, forcing surrender at Appomattox Court House.

Much has been written about the horrors of Southern Civil War prisons, but very little has been written about the deplorable conditions inside Northern prisons. While deprivation affected even the civilian population of the South, the North used it as a tool to punish their prisoners. Twenty-five years after the war, a nationally prominent physician and medical researcher who had been incarcerated at Indiana's Camp Morton leveled accusations against that prison, making clear for the first time that it was as inhumane as Andersonville. This book details the cover up and denials by prominent Den of Misery: Indiana's Civil War Prison details the cover-ups and denials as well as the cruel realities of the prison camp and chronicles the efforts by Confederate veterans to make known the truth about their experiences. The author includes a full list of prisoners who died at Camp Morton and are buried in a mass grave in Indianapolis.
Union politicians and military officials, and includes a complete prisoner list.

Author and researcher Char McCargo Bah recounts the stories of the men and women buried in Alexandria's freedman's cemetery and the search for their descendants.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Federal troops secured Alexandria as Union territory. Former slaves, called contrabands, poured in to obtain protection from their former masters. Due to overcrowding, mortality rates were high. Authorities seized an undeveloped parcel of land on South Washington Street, and by March 1864, it had been opened as a cemetery for African Americans. Between 1864 and 1868, more than 1,700 contrabands and freedmen were buried there. For nearly eighty years, the cemetery lay undisturbed and was eventually forgotten. Rediscovered in 1996, it has now been preserved as a monument to the courage and sacrifice of those buried within.

Many of the unsung heroes of the Underground Railroad lived and worked in Washington, D.C.

Men and women, black and white, operatives and freedom seekers - all demonstrated courage, resourcefulness and initiative. Leonard Grimes, a free African American, was arrested for transporting enslaved people to freedom. John Dean, a white lawyer, used the District courts to test the legality of the Fugitive Slave Act. Anna Maria Weems dressed as a boy in order to escape to Canada. Enslaved people engineered escapes, individually and in groups, with and without the assistance of an organized network. Some ended up back in slavery or in jail, but some escaped to freedom. Anthropologist and author Jenny Masur tells their stories.