Civil War Washington, D.C.

150 years ago today, Congress established the first Federal military draft in U.S. history.   The Enrollment Act required all male ci...

Today, the National Gallery of Art’s West Building stretches along the north side of the National Mall  from Fourth to Seventh streets at ...

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day,  began to be observed in the North soon after the Civil War's end.  100 years ago on Ma...

150 years ago today, Brigadier General William A. Hammond, the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army, ordered the establishment of the Army Medi...

 In April 1862, Washington's small wartime Jewish community observed Passover, the annual commemoration of the Israelites' liberati...

 In the 1860s, a cesspool of filth literally lay at the foot of Congress.  The Washington City Canal, once envisioned as a key artery lin...

In mid-March 1862, the Alexandria waterfront was the scene of  a whirlwind of activity.  General McClellan's beloved Army of the Potomac...