The Lord of War
Admiral John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren, also known as the ‘father of American naval ordnance,’ was a United States Navy officer who led the Union Navy’s ordnance department during the Civil War. He designed several different kinds of arms and cannons that were credited as part of the reason for the Union’s victory.
Dahlgren designed a smoothbore howitzer that was capable of adapting to many sizes of craft and shore installations. He later introduced a cast-iron muzzle-loading cannon with increased range and accuracy, which became known as the Dahlgren gun. It eventually became the Navy’s standard armament.
Robert Smalls
Smalls was born a slave in South Carolina. During the American Civil War, he freed himself, his crewmate, and their families by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, the CSS Planter, an armed Confederate military transport, by dressing as the captain. He then sailed toward the Union lines, waving a white sheet as a flag. His example and persuasion are what helped convince President Abraham Lincoln to accept African-American soldiers into the Union Army.
After the war, Smalls went on to serve in the United States House of Representatives, representing his state, South Carolina.
The Alton Military Prison
Built in 1833, the notorious Alton prison was the first state penitentiary in Illinois; it later closed in 1857. In 1862, during the Civil War, the prison was reopened to house the growing population of Confederate prisoners of war. Thousands of Union men died of starvation and disease there.
This federal prisoner was nearly starved to death in Alton, also known as Camp Sumter. The picture was taken when the prisoner was released, around 1865.
"Whipped Peter"
"Whipped Peter," or Gordon, was a slave from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The scars are a result of a whipping by an overseer, Artayou Carrier, who was fired by the "master" after the incident, as it took two months for Peter to recover from the horrific beating.
The photograph was taken sometime in 1863 and was widely distributed in the North during the war as proof of the brutality of slavery. Peter later enlisted in the Union Army and gained his freedom.
Children of the Civil War
When war broke out children from both sides of the battle said goodbye to their families, as their fathers, uncles, and cousins left for battle. Some children tended to their family's farms and other businesses while their parents were away, while other young boys and girls joined the military themselves, serving as drummers, fifers, nurses, and even soldiers. The minimum recruiting age for Union soldiers was 18, but many people willingly overlooked the law, while the Confederacy never bothered to set an age minimum.
These young children had to endure the horrors of war and were often killed in battle or suffered physical and mental wounds that they would carry for the rest of their lives. One famous example was Edward Black (1853–1872), a Union drummer boy, who is considered to be the youngest wounded soldier of the war. At only twelve years old, he was severely injured after his hand and arm were shattered by an exploding shell.