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William Tecumseh Sherman

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William Tecumseh Sherman.

The Real Sherman

A new biography of William Tecumseh Sherman questions his reputation as the brutal "prophet of total war."
US Army soldiers sitting behind bison heads taken from poacher Ed Howell.

Why the US Army Tried to Exterminate the Bison

And then took credit for "saving" them.

“To Laugh in One Hand and Cry in the Other”

The story of William Higginbotham & the Black community in Civil War Rome.
A man plowing with a mule

Revisiting “Forty Acres and a Mule”

The backstory to the backstory of America’s mythic promise.
Dilapidated boathouse

The Brothers Who Spent Eight Years in Jail for Refusing to Leave Their Family's Land

Their great-grandfather had bought the land a hundred years earlier, when he was a generation removed from slavery.

Supporters of Confederate Symbols Have Less Knowledge of Civil War History

This negates a commonly used defense that Confederate symbols represent ‘heritage not hate’.
Gen. Lew Wallace, circa 1861.

The Incredible Life of Lew Wallace, Civil War General and Author of Ben-Hur

The incredible story of how a disgraced Civil War general became one of the best-selling novelists in American history.
Ulysses S. Grant finishing his memoir shortly before he died.

Grant vs. the Klan

New books reconsider how Ulysses S. Grant became a forceful defender of the rights of African Americans after the Civil War.

40 Acres and a Lie

We compiled Reconstruction-era documents to identify 1,250 formerly enslaved Black Americans given land—only to have it returned to their enslavers.

An Unholy Traffic: How the Slave Trade Continued Through the US Civil War

In a new book, Robert KD Colby of the University of Mississippi shows how the Confederacy remained committed to slavery.
Henry Grady’s Vision of a “New South.”

Civil War Memory, Reconciliation, and Social Media: A Cautionary Tale

The importance of contextualization and critical evaluation in historical analysis.
Bison drinking from a pond.

How the Iron Horse Spelled Doom for the American Buffalo

From homesteaders to tourists to the U.S. Army, railroads flooded the Great Plains with people who saw bison as pests, amusements, or opportunities for profit.
A herd of bison running.

Speaking Wind-Words

Tracing the transformation of the Great Plains to the widespread belief in “manifest destiny,” and weighing the power of words to shape landscapes.
Men standing around an archaeological site.

America’s Biggest Museums Fail to Return Native American Human Remains

The remains of more than 100,000 Native Americans are held by prestigious U.S. institutions, despite a 1990 law meant to return them to tribal nations.
Map of Beaufort, South Carolina during the time of Rose Goethe's life.

“They Cleaned Me Out Entirely”

An enslaved woman’s experience with General Sherman’s army.
A group of freedpeople with tools

What Is Owed

William Darity and A. Kirsten Mullen’s case for reparations.
Photo of Union commanders.

The Anti-Lee

George Henry Thomas, southerner in blue.
Restaurant with 'Help Wanted' sign
partner

‘Help Wanted’ Signs Indicate Lack of Decent Job Offers, Not People Unwilling to Work

The 19th-century antecedent to today’s complaints of labor shortage.
A group of formerly enslaved people at a county almshouse, c. 1900.

Juneteenth Is About Freedom

On Juneteenth, we should remember both the struggle against chattel slavery and the struggle for radical freedom during Reconstruction.
Illustration of black calvary officers with a Native American, circa 1874

Is This Land Made for You and Me?

How African Americans came to Indian Territory after the Civil War.