Lee surrendering to Grant at Appomattox

Which General Was Better? Ulysses S. Grant or Robert E. Lee?

The historic rivalry between the South’s polished general and the North’s rough and rugged soldier is the subject of a new show at the Portrait Gallery

A humanitarian crisis is underway in Sinjar, Iraq, and the surrounding towns.

Trending Today

Thousands of Iraqi Refugees Are Trapped Without Food or Water on Mountains Surrounded by Militia

Delivering help by land or air is impossible, humanitarian aid experts say

Smoke rises over a Syrian village that has been recently shelled

Cool Finds

People are Traveling to War Zones for Tourism

Because adventure travel just hasn’t gone far enough

Night attack at Fort Stevens on July 11, 1864

Washington, D.C.

When Washington, D.C. Came Close to Being Conquered by the Confederacy

The year was 1864, and the South was all but beaten, yet Jubal Early’s ragged army had D.C. within its grasp

Rachel Daniel, mother of one of the abducted Nigerian school girls, holds up a picture of her still-missing daughter.

Trending Today

Some Women Held Captive By Boko Haram Managed to Escape Last Friday, But More Than 200 School Girls Are Still Missing

When fighting broke out, 60 women and girls seized the opportunity to flee their terrorist captors

Syrian refugees cook outside a tent at the Majdal Anjar refugee camp in Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border in eastern Lebanon, September 9, 2013.

Trending Today

In Lebanon, 1.1 Million Syrian Refugees Are Now a Fifth of the Country’s Population

There are 1.1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, with another 400,000 expected by the end of the year

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko talks to the media after this morning's EU meeting in Brussels, Belgium.

Trending Today

Ukraine Just Signed the Trade Deal That Was at the Heart of Its Revolutionary Uproar

When former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned a EU trade deal, he sparked protests. His successor just signed it.

The U.S. Coast Survey map calculated the number of slaves in each county in the United States in 1860.

These Maps Reveal How Slavery Expanded Across the United States

As the hunger for more farmland stretched west, so too did the demand for enslaved labor

Protesters in front of the Nigerian Embassy in London.

Trending Today

Boko Haram Video Says What the Group Wants in Exchange for Freeing Abducted Girls

If let go, they have a good chance of being able to recover emotionally

Cool Finds

Women Fought in the Civil War Disguised As Men (And So Do Today’s Re-enactors)

Some women dressed up as their husbands, or even fought alongside them

Students at a school in Nigeria.

Trending Today

A Militant Group Is Fighting to Keep Nigerian Students From Education

Islamic extremists from the group Boko Haram have kidnapped 200 girls from a boarding school

Tear gas being used on protesters in Caracas in February.

Cool Finds

Here’s a Six-Minute Explainer for the Turmoil Currently Underway in Venezuela

The 2014 protests have affected not just political activists but ordinary citizens, too

Troops in Crimea.

Trending Today

U.N.: Kidnappings, Torture, Propaganda Preceded Crimea’s Secession Vote

The conditions around Crimea’s secession vote were not clean, says a draft U.N. report

Anti-government protests in Maidan Square, Kiev, earlier in the year.

Trending Today

After Crimea, Donetsk May Be the Next Region to Leave Ukraine

Pro-Russian protesters took control of government buildings in three Ukrainian provinces over the weekend

George Washington standing at Mount Vernon and an angel with the American flag. Addressed to Mr. S.H. Haggy, Etna, Licking Co., Ohio.

Civil War Envelopes Featuring the Star-Spangled Banner

Supporters of the Union and the Confederacy alike used envelopes like these to advance political and social issues

Comrades now, veterans in gray and blue shake hands at the 1913 Gettysburg reunion, much of the old animosity healed after a half century of peace.

The Last Civil War Veterans Who Lived to Be Over 100… Or Did They?

As America prepared to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Civil War, two centenarians told their tales — only one was telling the truth

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Why the Smithsonian Just Can’t Quit Studying the Civil War

150 years later, the war is still in focus

American South

A Cutting-Edge Second Look at the Battle of Gettysburg

New technology has given us the chance to re-examine how the Civil War battle was won and lost

Print.  Battle of Gettysburg.  AF*65353M.

The Civil War

Gettysburg Artifacts From the Smithsonian Collections

150 years after the battle, the Battle of Gettysburg still looms large over the American imagination

The "rectal acorn"

The Civil War

Seven Obscure Facts You Didn’t Know About the Civil War

Amid the vast literature of the Civil War, it’s easy to lose sight of some of the stranger facts, coincidences and quirks of character

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