How the Hungarian Hussars Started a Fashion Craze
Hussars were light cavalry units with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. Famed for thundering into battle on horseback and fighting with sabers, they were fierce and not easily turned…
A Witness to the July 1863 New York Draft Riots
In her day, Elizabeth Oakes Smith was a national figure. Born in Maine in 1806, she and her family moved to New York City in the late 1830s, where she…
Most POWs Want to Go Home—But After World War II, Some Faced Death on Arrival
When the Second World War in Europe ended in May 1945, the United States military had custody of a staggering number of enemy prisoners of war: 4.3 million total worldwide,…
Kidnapped During World War II, These German Corpses Proved A Headache for the U.S. Army
As Germany crumbled in fire and rubble in the final months of World War II, Adolf Hitler issued orders for four famous Germans to be held hostage—not living Germans, but…
Civil War–Era Envelopes Bore Patriotic Messages—On the Outside
A massive amount of correspondence passed between Union armies and the home front. Chaplain Richard Eddy of the 60th New York Infantry, who also served as the regimental postmaster, noted…
Letters from the Sheridan Field Hospital
A gloomy and tragic scene—one with which the inhabitants of the oft-contested city of Winchester, Va., were unfortunately all too familiar—unfolded throughout the night of September 19, 1864, as thousands…
During the Vietnam War, These Colorful Posters Aimed to Win Hearts and Minds
The word “propaganda” evokes many images, few of them positive. We often think of propaganda as sinister attempts to brainwash a population into embracing authoritarian political systems, with posters typically…
This Excelsior Brigade Soldier Became an Accidental Journalist
When 21-year-old Arthur McKinstry left Chautauqua County, N.Y., in early June 1861 to join the Excelsior Brigade being raised by then-Colonel Daniel Sickles, he was better prepared to write than…
Gettysburg Had a Lasting Impact on Its Least Known Participants — Its Civilians
Although only minor National Park Service signage alerts you to the boundaries of the vast Gettysburg battlefield at its outer edges bleeding into neighboring counties, it’s almost impossible not to…
During the War Years, Posters From the American Homefront Told You What to Do — And What Not to Do
“The First World War saw the first widespread use of propaganda to stir patriotic fervour,” note Gill Saunders and Margaret Timmers in The Poster: A Visual History. “The need to…