Mathew Brady's American Civil War photography is an incredible documentation that sparked photojournalism. Learn more about his life and career.

Mathew Brady (1823-1896), was one of the first American photographers. He was the most prolific photographer of the nineteenth century. During his life,

The American Civil War lasted for just four years, from 1861 to 1865 and it is often also known as the War Between the States. It was the event where…

In 1936-39, Spain was torn apart by civil war. Monstrous atrocities on all sides took place and nations/ideologies and people from all over the world

Learn about and review major events in the American Civil War with a FREE printable civil war board games for elementary age students.

Kids love this Civil War activity! Focus on the important battles between the Union and Confederacy with an engaging lesson that gets your students up, moving, and learning about the Civil War!

True story. Once, here on the forum there was a discussion on Civil War hair. Swear, first reaction was going to the thread, an image of a clump of...

14th Connecticut Private Oliver Dart was grievously wounded at Fredericksburg on Dec. 13, 1862. (Image courtesy Alan Crane) A tattered CDV of Oliver Dart was found among papers in his pension file at the National Archives. Like this blog on Facebook | Follow me on Twitter Within a year of his regiment's ill-fated charge at Fredericksburg, Oliver Dart Jr. faced another great trial: a sitting for a photograph at a studio on Main Street in Hartford, Conn. The resulting carte-de-visite, found in the 14th Connecticut veteran's pension file in the National Archives, is difficult to view. Bundled in a heavy coat, the blue-eyed veteran with black hair and thick eyebrows stared at the Kellogg Brothers' photographer. A mangled lower jaw, mouth and nose — the awful effects of a shrapnel wound suffered during the attack on Marye's Heights — were obvious. We wonder how Dart summoned the fortitude to sit for the CDV, undoubtedly evidence for his pension claim. The CDV of Dart was taken by the Kellogg Brothers in Hartford. As he waited for his turn to be photographed that day, Dart's mind may have drifted to Dec. 13, 1862, and the Battle of Fredericksburg. Marching onto the battlefield via Princess Anne Street, the 14th Connecticut came under "a most galling fire" after crossing a causeway over a canal near the railroad depot. Then an artillery shell fired from high ground on the 14th Connecticut's right burst among prone soldiers in Company D. A 3 x 2-inch fragment smashed into the ground, firing sand into the eyes of Dart's brother-in-law, 14th Connecticut Corporal John Symonds, blinding him. A chunk of metal crashed into the arm and face of the 23-year-old Dart before striking a four-inch square, wooden post. Corporal Charles Lyman, lying next to Dart, recalled years later that the fragment surely would have ripped through his head and killed him had it not struck that obstacle. (In the charge on the well-defended stone wall at the foot of Marye's Heights, Oliver's cousin Charles, the 14th Connecticut's regimental color bearer, suffered a mortal wound.) Dart's wounds horrified another soldier in the regiment. "Poor Oliver Dart," he said. "As he rolled over he looked as though his whole face was shot away." In this enlargement of a war-time photo of Fredericksburg, Va., the Rowe House is shown. 14th Connecticut wounded, including Oliver Dart, were among Union soldiers cared for at the divisional hospital there. (Library of Congress). A circa-1940s image of the Rowe House at 607 Sophia Street in Fredericksburg. The house no longer stands. (Library of Congress) Frank Niederwerfer, descendant of Oliver Dart, holds an image of the 14th Connecticiut private at the site of the old Rowe house in Fredericksburg, Va. Dart was cared for at the divisional hospital there. May 1865 image of Stanton General Hospital in Washington, where Dart recovered from his wounds. (Library of Congress) Comrades carried Dart to a divisional hospital at the Rowe House on Sophia Street. The scene there stunned the 14th Connecticut regimental chaplain. "On the northern porch lay, among others, our Dart, his face torn off as though slashed away with a cleaver," Henry Stevens recalled, "and by his side lay Symonds, his eyes swollen with inflammation to the size of eggs, the sand grains showing through the tightly stretched and shining lids." On the day after Christmas, Dart was admitted to Stanton General Hospital in Washington, one of dozens of military hospitals in the capital. A doctor considered his chances of recovery slim — "wounded in battle," one wrote, "probably mortally." When his older brother George, a farmer, visited Oliver at the hospital, he found the conditions deplorable. A circa-1866 image of Oliver Dart with a bushy beard and mustache. (Image courtesy of Dart descendant Frank Niederwerfer) After five weeks in the Washington hospital, Dart was mercifully discharged from the U.S. Army and sent home to South Windsor, Conn. Miraculously recovering, he underwent an operation on his face at the home of his older brother, James. Oliver — the youngest of the six children of Amanda and Oliver Dart Sr. — underwent a second procedure on his face at the home of his father in South Windsor. "George Dart and his wife were almost constantly with their injured brother," a post-war account noted, "and gave him every care and attention." For three months in the summer of 1863, Oliver also spent time at a soldier's home in Hartford, where he received sustenance from a special cup because of his terrible face wound. In June 1863, Oliver filed for divorce from his second wife, Maria, claiming "a total neglect of all duties of marriage" Nearly three years later, the divorce was granted. Maria was the sister of John Symonds, the soldier who had suffered a wound next to Oliver at Fredericksburg. In December 1863, Dart filed for a government pension; the application was approved, and he initially received $8 a month. In 1869, Oliver married his third wife, Aurelia Barber, with whom he had his only three children. In an attempt to cover up his grievous war wounds, he grew a bushy beard and mustache. "In time he recovered," the post-war account noted, "though the wound was always visible and in later years his mind was somewhat affected, undoubtedly due to the shock and the suffering that ensued from the injury." Life remained an almost constant struggle for the Civil War veteran, and in the summer of 1879, consumption struck down Dart. Only 40 years old, he died on Aug. 11. He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Vernon, Conn., next to first wife Emily, who died in 1860, and Aurelia. Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here. SOURCES: Dart family history Oliver Dart pension file, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Page, Charles Davis, History of the Fourteenth Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, Meriden, Conn.: The Horton Printing Co., 1906. Stevens, H.S. Souvenir of Excursion to Battlefields by the Society of the Fourteenth Connecticut Regiment and Reunion at Antietam, September 1891, With History and Reminiscences of Battles and Campaigns of the Regiment on the Fields Revisited, Washington, D.C.: Gibson Brothers Printers, 1893. The Boys from Rockville, Civil War Narratives of Sgt. Benjamin Hirst, Co. D, 14th Connecticut Volunteers, edited, with commentary, by Robert L, Bee, The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tenn., 1998.

Explore paflip25's 3335 photos on Flickr!

In 1937 Gerda Taro became the first female war photographer to die on the front line, killed at the age of 26.

Biography of Southern Confederate Generals

This guide will show you the best things to do in Eze village. From where to go to what to see, it has everything you need for a great visit.

You can download and print this digital sheet music on 8.5 x 11 paper of any kind (or color) that will work in a printer. Perfect for "do-it-yourself" to use in a craft, or to print and frame. Julie Ward Howe received five dollars for her words to the Civil War battle song of the Republic. The hymn was published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1862. As Julia watched the troops march past in Washington, D.C., singing "John Brown's Body", - named for an abolitionist who was hanged for his efforts to have the slaves freed - her former pastor, who was visiting at the time, encouraged her to "write some decent words to that tune". In the early dawn of the next day, the words came to her. "I must get up and write these verses, lest I fall asleep and forget them!" she said to herself. She scrawled the verses with an old stump of a pen, almost without looking at the paper. Soon the entire nation was united in singing, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord..." to the tune of "John Brown's Body." The tune for "John Brown's Body" was in fact, the tune for an already existing Southern American camp meeting tune. The original purpose of the hymn of serving as a battle song for the Northern Republic during the Civil War was forgotten after the war.

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A man weeps of despair on the ground during the murderous era of World War I.

We have been focusing on the 20th Century for Blaze's history lessons this year. We are currently learning about the Great Depression, but we spent quite a bit of time learning about World War 1. The causes of WW1: We read the following two novels: When Christmas Comes Again was about a young military telephone operator during the war. After the Dancing Days was about a girl dealing with the loss of a beloved uncle during the war and the injured and deformed soldiers who returned to the United States after the war. Blaze was particularly interested in aviation during WW1. We found a simple model of the Red Baron's plane that Blaze was able to assemble without help, at a local hobby shop. We watched two movies about German pilots, The Blue Max and The Red Baron, along with some short documentaries about WW1 planes on YouTube. We then focused our attention on trench warfare. We also watched War Horse. Blaze used a shoe box to make a diorama of a WW1 trench with American soldiers. The soldiers were paper dolls that were originally printed in 1918 and can be found here. We didn't use the paper stands for the dolls, but instead glued them onto 1-inch wooded blocks, so they wouldn't tip over so easily. To give the shoe box diorama a real "hole in the ground" look, Blaze painted the entire box with school glue and sprinkled it with dirt. After the glue was dry, I sprayed the whole thing with clear coat, so the dirt wouldn't fall off. The sandbags were made from Crayola Model Magic. The culmination of all of our WW1 studies was Blaze's display for the Tallahassee Homeschool Group's International (Social Studies) Fair. Here is a recipe for the donuts that were passed out by the Salvation Army to soldiers during WW1: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/bread/sweet-bread/original-salvation-army-world-war-1-donut.html

History needn’t be dry if one looks at it as the stories of real life people and what they did in their lives. Consider Fort Sumter. Sumter was a fortified post built at the inlet of Charleston Harbor to protect Charleston from naval invasion. It was nineteenth century engineers who took measurements of the depths […]

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Cindy West shares her Slavery and Civil War Unit Study appropriate for elementary or middle school homeschoolers with living lit and project-based learning.

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