Images

Burnside's Bridge at the Antietam Battlefield (also known as Sharpsburg Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Maryland). So-called because Union General Ambrose Burnside wasted countless numbers of Union soldiers' lives trying to cross it during the...

Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor: 12th & 13th of April, 1861, the attack that started the American Civil War, colored lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1861. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The U.S.–Mexican War (1846–1848) marked a decisive moment in the territorial and political transformation of North America. The conflict was triggered by the U.S. annexation of Texas (1845) and a disputed southern boundary, claimed by the...

French Army troops operating a captured German Maxim MG 08 machine gun at Fort Douaumont at the Battle of Verdun (Feb-Dec 1916) during the First World War (1914-18). Imperial War Museums.

Aerial view of the fortress of Douaumont, part of the Verdun complex of fortresses fought over in the Battle of Verdun (Feb-Dec 1916) during the First World War (1914-18). Photographisches Bild- und Film-Amt

A pin badge of the French general Philippe Pétain (1856-1951), who became a national hero after the successful defence of Verdun in the Battle of Verdun (Feb-Dec 1916) during the First World War (1914-18). Imperial War Museums.

The Mississippi Rifles, under Colonel Jefferson Davis, stop a Mexican charge at the Battle of Buena Vista, watercolor by Samuel Chamberlain as published in his My Confession: The Recollections of a Rogue, c. 1860.

Confederate States of America president Jefferson Davis and his cabinet, print by Thomas Kelly, 1866. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The Starting Point of the Great War Between the States, chromolithograph by Strobridge & Co., c. 1878. Depicted here is the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as the provisional president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery...

A print depicting former Confederate president Jefferson Davis imprisoned at Fort Monroe after the American Civil War, drawing by Alfred R. Waud, 1865. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.