A soldier from Carbondale, PA spent a night in the very hallway where Colonel Elmer Ellsworth had been shot dead days earlier - the floor still stained with his blood. Then he shipped out to fight Confederate artillery on the Potomac River. He wrote home to describe all of it. Read the full letter.
The coal miners of the Ringgold Infantry had been in Washington less than a week — sleeping on bare floors, waiting on uniforms, short on food in the Civil War's early weeks. One of them picked up a pen and wrote home. His letter captures the chaos, the humor, and the strange excitement of the Civil War's earliest days. Read the letter.
“The people flocked in by thousands… it seemed as if its whole population had been poured forth.” On a cold April day in 1861, Pottsville, PA came to a standstill as hundreds of young men marched to the railroad depot and into a civil war that had just begun. Crowds filled the streets, handkerchiefs waved from every window, and the sound of cheers followed the train as it pulled away. The soldiers went into history as the "First Defenders." Read the Full Story.
In August 1963, dozens of residents from Scranton traveled to Washington, DC for the March for Jobs and Freedom, witnessing Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech firsthand. Their reflections capture a powerful moment during the Civil Rights Movement that felt, as one attendee said, like “This is America.” Read the Full Story.
Back in 2021, I led a virtual tour of the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum in Washington, DC. Check out the tour and learn more about Clara Barton's incredible work as a humanitarian during the Civil War-era. The tour also highlights the history of her boardinghouse rooms that became the Missing Soldiers Office after the Civil War. Check it out!
Experience a Pennsylvania soldier’s unique 1862 Christmas in Washington, D.C., as he shares festive camp celebrations alongside news of the Fredericksburg disaster. From decorated tents to races and somber reflections, this letter captures a wartime holiday like no other. Discover a vivid piece of Civil War history. Read the full story.
In this episodes, we chat about Manhunt and its portrayal of Reconstruction.
In our first podcast episode, we discuss the opening episodes of the new limited series "Manhunt."
In April 1861, soldiers from Pennsylvania's Coal Region raced to defend the US Capitol. 160 years later, some of those scenes repeated themselves.
The notorious Coal Region power broker died by his own hand in a Washington hotel room in 1889