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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: Civil War

Civil War stories: 16 news summaries
VETERANS DAY

 Best War Movies Ever 

Watch clips from Patton to Glory to Full Metal Jacket

Nov 11, 09 7:29 PM CST
(Newser) - In honor of Veterans Day, the Huffington Post runs down the best war movies of all time:
  • Apocalypse Now: Vietnam War
  • From Here to Eternity: Pearl Harbor
  • Patton: World War II
  • Braveheart: Scotland’s battle for independence
  • Lawrence of Arabia: World War I
  • Band of Brothers: World War
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Somalia • veterans • World War II • Vietnam War • Civil War • Korean War • Veterans Day • Pearl Harbor • World War I • movies • films • Jay-ZTV

(Newser) - Ben Stein loves Wal-Mart—just don’t put one smack-dab in the middle of a historic Civil War battlefield in Orange, Va. The 1864 Battle of the Wilderness was a turning point in the conflict, Stein writes in the American Spectator, and the “battlefield is incredibly important environmentally and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
United States • America • Virginia • development • Civil War • Ben Stein • Wal-Mart • national park • Ulysses Grant • Battle of the Wilderness • Robert E. Lee

Lost-and-Found Letter Shows Lincoln's Terse Side

Embattled prez had more to deal with than Civil War

May 29, 09 10:59 AM CDT
(Newser) - A handwritten note dated just a few days before Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has finally made its way back to the National Archives, the Washington Post reports. The terse communication from the president to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase addressed corruption charges against a Lincoln appointee. "Even though this... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Abraham Lincoln • Civil War • National Archives • letter • American history • Salmon P. Chase

 Woman Won 'Male Rights' 
 Fighting in Civil War 

Soldier remained in her disguise for better jobs, voting rights

May 24, 09 6:50 PM CDT
(Newser) - A veteran of 40 Civil War skirmishes and battles kept one secret under wraps: her breasts. Union Army soldier Albert Cashier was really Jennie Hodgers, one of hundreds of women who fought in the war. "The country needed men, and I wanted excitement," Hodgers said. She also benefited... More »

MORE ABOUT:
military • Civil War • 19th century • American history • Union soldier • Albert Cashier • women in the military

Time to Stop Fighting the
Civil War in History Class

Obama means 'honest' discourse on race

Apr 20, 09 11:56 AM CDT
(Newser) - Ask a Northerner what caused the Civil War and he'll say slavery, while Southerners are likely to say states’ rights, or economic differences. That self-justifying shorthand is reflected in what's taught in schools, too. But with the election of Barack Obama, historians say new ground has been broken in the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
education • race • history • Civil War • slavery • secession • President Obama

(Newser) - A Virginia college has a missing library book back—145 years after a Union soldier stole it during the Civil War. An Illinois man who inherited the book from friends tracked down the original owner and returned it to Washington and Lee University in Lexington, reports the Washington Post. The... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Virginia • soldier • Civil War • campus • Washington and Lee University • library

(Newser) - A legend about a DC watchmaker who etched a secret message inside Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch is true, the Washington Post reports. Smithsonian officials opened the watch today and found it amid the tiny gears: "Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861. Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Washington DC • Abraham Lincoln • Civil War • legend • Smithsonian Insitution • Fort Sumter • pocket watch • message

(Newser) - If anyone has a right to be tired of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, it's writer and producer David Grubin. As a sixth-grader, he had to write it out 100 times or so—his teacher's favorite form of punishment. The actual words meant little to him as a 12-year-old, but their... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Gettysburg • Abraham Lincoln • Civil War • speech

(Newser) - The bicentennial of Lincoln's birth will be celebrated Feb. 12, so expect endless tributes to the president beloved by ordinary citizens and historians alike. Unless, of course, you're south of the Mason-Dixon line, where anti-Lincoln views "aren't particularly radical," writes Alex Beam of the Boston Globe. Lincoln is... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Boston • America • history • Abraham Lincoln • Civil War • South • Dixie

OPINION

The Civil War Ended Last Night; Time for Reconstruction

Already a historic prez, Obama can be great

Nov 5, 08 8:48 AM CST
(Newser) - The American Civil War finally ended last night, writes Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. The struggle that began at Bull Run was brought to a close when white America elected a black American president—the ‘Bradley effect” trumped by the “Buffett effect” of rich... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Barack Obama • race relations • Obama 2008 • Franklin D. Roosevelt • Civil War • racial equality • Election 2008 • President Obama

Ike Uncovers Mystery Shipwreck

Wooden wreck on Alabama beach could be remains of Confederate schooner

Sep 20, 08 5:44 AM CDT
(Newser) - The waves of Hurricane Ike uncovered a wooden shipwreck on an Alabama beach that experts think could be a Civil War schooner, the Mobile Press-Register reports. The wreck's length matches that of the Monticello, which ran aground in the area in 1862 while trying to sneak past the US Navy... More »

MORE ABOUT:
shipwreck • ship • Alabama • Civil War • Confederacy • Mobile, Alabama • Hurricane Ike

 Lincoln Letter 
 Sells for $3.4M 

Letter contains Lincoln's reply to kids' plea to free slave children

Apr 4, 08 10:08 AM CDT
(Newser) - An 1864 letter from Abraham Lincoln to Massachusetts schoolchildren fetched a record $3.4 million at auction yesterday, a record for an American manuscript, CNN reports. In the letter, Lincoln responded to a petition from 195 youngsters asking him to "free all the little slave children of this country"... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Sotheby's • auction • letters • Abraham Lincoln • Civil War • slavery

Don't Know Much About History...

US teens have big holes in history, lit education: study

Feb 26, 08 7:00 PM CST
(Newser) - US teens know little history and less literature, says a study out today. Only 52% of 17-year-olds could name the theme of George Orwell's 1984, and 43% knew when the Civil War was fought. Students faired far better on topics that schools cover, however, such as Pearl Harbor and Martin... More »

MORE ABOUT:
education • literature • history • student • Martin Luther King Jr. • Civil War • George Orwell • Pearl Harbor

Wait a Second! Sub Watch Raises More Questions

Confederate ticker no clear clue to sinking

Dec 15, 07 8:59 AM CST
(Newser) - Scientists had hoped that the watch belonging to the commander of the HL Hunley would give them some clues as to why the Confederate submarine sank in 1864. But they've been left only with more questions, AP reports. The watch stopped quickly rather than winding down—possibly because of an... More »

MORE ABOUT:
archaeology • submarine • Civil War • Confederacy

Football Rivals Still Fighting
the Civil War

Kansas, Missouri
Hold Grudges
150 Years Later

Nov 24, 07 7:21 AM CST
(Newser) - Kansas and Missouri play a huge football game today, one that could decide the national champion, and fans on both sides will be fighting a battle that goes back to the Civil War. Look no further than Kansas' nickname, the Jayhawks, which comes from abolitionist guerrillas who killed and raped... More »

MORE ABOUT:
NCAA football • Kansas • Civil War • Bowl Championship Series • BCS • Missouri Tigers • Big 12 Conference

Study Traces Europe's Bets on Civil War

This re-enactment
uses Confederate bonds, not weapons

Nov 16, 07 8:44 AM CST
(Newser) - Studying sales of Confederacy bonds in Amsterdam during the US Civil War, two economists say they're able to judge how European traders saw the South's chances of victory, the Wall Street Journal reports. Investors pegged the rebels' odds at 42% early on, but their 1863 defeat at Gettysburg sank bond... More »

MORE ABOUT:
economics • Abraham Lincoln • Civil War • National Bureau of Economic Research • Confederacy • Union

16 Stories


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