Untitled Backcover

June 2026

1min read

A- A+

March 1990

15 years ago By admin

Volume

41

Issue

2

George Thomas carried this pocket compass throughout the Civil War; now it belongs to his alma mater, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. A profile of the highly capable and oddly dimly remembered general appears within.

Stories published from "March 1990"

The American Civil War And The Origins Of Modern Warfare

Authored by: Edward Hagerman

Ideas, Organization, and Field Command

A War That Never Goes Away

Authored by: James M. McPherson

More than the Revolution, more than the Constitutional Convention, it was the crucial test of the American nation. The author of Battle Cry of Freedom, the most successful recent book on the subject, explains why the issues that fired the Civil War are as urgent in 1990 as they were in 1861.

The Slave Who Sued for Freedom

Authored by: Jon Swan

While the American Revolution was still being fought, Mum Bett declared that the new nation’s principle of liberty must extend to her, too. It took 80 years and a far-more-terrible war to confirm the rights that she had demanded.

The Fires of Norfolk

Authored by: Ivan Musicant

At war’s outbreak, a frightened commander was ready to give away the Union’s greatest navy yard.

Lee’s Greatest Victory

Authored by: Robert K. Krick

During three days in May 1863, the Confederate leader took astonishing risks to win one of the most skillfully conducted battles in history. But the cost turned out to be too steep.

The Rock of Chickamauga

Authored by: Peter Andrews

Lee. Grant. Jackson. Sherman. Thomas. Yes, George Henry Thomas belongs in that company. The trouble is that he and Grant never really got along.

Lincoln From Life

Authored by: Lloyd Ostendorf

Last year two scholars working separately uncovered a pair of previously unknown portraits of Abraham Lincoln. One of them—which seems to put us in the very presence of the man—turned out to be the first ever painted.

The Big Parade

Authored by: Thomas Fleming

Once the South was beaten, Eastern and Western troops of the Union army resented each other so violently that some feared for the survival of the victorious government. Then, the tension disappeared in one happy stroke that gave the United States its grandest pageant, and General Sherman the proudest moment of his life.

Untitled Backcover

Help us keep telling the story of America.