The Civil War
In This Issue
On the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, we present this commemorative issue featuring Atlantic stories by Mark Twain, Henry James, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, and many more. Order a print issue or access a digital copy in your subscriber library.
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National Portrait Gallery Perfecting Our Union
The president of the United States reflects on what Abraham Lincoln means to him, and to America.
Library of Congress Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?
“To speak as the slave would, to say that we are as happy for the Civil War as most Americans are for the Revolutionary War, is to rupture the narrative.”
Grapes of Wrath
What the 12 most famous words ever published in The Atlantic tell us about the spirit that inspired the Union
Part I: Pre-War
Where Will It End?
In its second issue, The Atlantic urged readers to take a stand against slavery.
Library of Congress Nat Turner’s Insurrection
An account of America's bloodiest slave revolt and its repercussions.
A True Story, Word for Word as I Heard It
In his first Atlantic contribution, the author tells the story of a mother’s surprise reunion with her son, a former slave.
The Freedman’s Story
An escaped slave recalls his violent showdown with slave-catchers.
AP Paul Revere’s Ride
The famous Revolutionary War poem that’s really about slavery
John Brown and His Friends
How a coterie of New Englanders—including the author—secretly funded the raid on Harpers Ferry
Bardic Symbols
The author’s first Atlantic poem
The Reign of King Cotton
In 1861, the grandson of John Quincy Adams argued that slavery could still end without war.
Sojourner Truth, The Libyan Sibyl
Harriet Beecher Stowe describes her encounter with the legendary African American activist.
Recollections of Lincoln
A journalist who covered the Lincoln-Douglas debates recalls the future president’s bawdy appeal.
The Election in November
In 1860, The Atlantic endorsed Abraham Lincoln for president.
Charleston Under Arms
A Northern journalist records his visit to Charleston during the Fort Sumter standoff.
Part II: The War
Our March to Washington
A dispatch from a Union soldier who was later killed in action
Voluntaries
A poem in praise of soldiers who gave up their lives for the Union
Bread and the Newspaper
In 1861, an Atlantic editor captured the anxious mood on the home front.
The Advantages of Defeat
A scholar argues that the Union debacle at Bull Run was not such a disaster.
Chiefly About War Matters, By a Peaceable Man
The novelist visits Washington in wartime—and is then censored by The Atlantic.
The Cumberland
A poem commemorating a mighty Union ship done in by the Virginia, a rebel “ironclad”
My Hunt After the Captain
An account of the author’s frantic search for his wounded son, who lived to become a Supreme Court justice
Barbara Fritchie
The classic poem mythologizing an old woman who flew her Union flag as the rebels marched past
The Man Without a Country
The famous short story about an Army officer who learns, too late, to love his country
American Civilization
An Atlantic founder argues vehemently for the emancipation of the slaves.
The President’s Proclamation
Seven months after his call to free the slaves, Emerson hails the Emancipation Proclamation.
Women, Unite Against Slavery
The author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin issues a call to action.
The Story of a Year
One of the earliest pieces published by the author, who was 21 years old at the time
The Ladies of New Orleans
A Union general is stymied by the ornery women of the South.
Leaves From an Officer’s Journal
The white colonel of the first official black regiment recounts his experience.
Life on the Sea Islands
A young black woman describes her experience teaching freed slaves.
The Brothers
Set in a wartime hospital, a short story about a family with a poisonous secret
History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty The Words That Remade America
The significance of the Gettysburg Address
A Rebel’s Recollections
A Confederate soldier from a plantation family provides a Southern perspective.
Lee in Battle
A Northerner pays tribute to the general’s humility and heroism.
Toward Appomattox
Reliving the war’s final battles
Late Scenes in Richmond
A reporter describes the rebels’ flight from Richmond, and Lincoln’s surprise visit two days later.
Part III: Post-War
The End, and After
A Confederate soldier recalls the chaotic days following surrender.
Assassination
Three months after Lincoln’s murder, The Atlantic seeks to make sense of it.
Ode to Lincoln
The magazine’s first editor gives poetic voice to the nation’s grief.
Three Months Among the Reconstructionists
In 1866, a journalist offered a scathing report on post-war life in the South.
The Mistress of Sydenham Plantation
The famous novelist’s tale of an elderly Southerner, oblivious to what the war had cost her.
The Case of George Dedlow
An absurdist short story about a Union doctor—which many Atlantic readers erroneously believed at the time to be nonfiction.
For the Union Dead
The classic 1960 poem pays tribute to the glory of the Civil War era.
Metcalf & Clark/National Portrait Gallery The Freedmen’s Bureau
A leading black intellectual surveys the government’s efforts to aid the freed slaves.
Reconstruction, and an Appeal to Impartial Suffrage
A former slave urges Congress to grant black Americans the vote.
The Death of Slavery
A poem hailing the demise of slavery’s “cruel reign”
The Result in South Carolina
A Southerner describes mounting racial tensions in the aftermath of Reconstruction.
The Awakening of the Negro
An educator’s controversial argument contends that blacks should advance by making themselves useful to whites.
Currior & Ives Lithography Company/National Portrait Gallery Of the Training of Black Men
Taking issue with Booker T. Washington, the author argues that blacks should attend college.
Strivings of the Negro People
Du Bois gives voice to the aspirations of black Americans in the post-Civil War world.
Features
Paul Philippoteaux / National Park Service The Great Illusion of Gettysburg
How a re-creation of its most famous battle helped erase the meaning of the Civil War
The 50 Most Powerful Images From the Civil War
These photos and lithographs bring the turbulent period to life.
Odd Facts About the Civil War Era
From facial-hair crazes to Lincoln's naughty sense of humor, a collection of surprising historical tidbits
