In August 2020, I wrote for The Telegraph a column titled “Grand Army of the Republic’s legacy lives on.” It dealt with the Parrott Rifle, sometimes called “the cemetery cannon,” which sits in Alton ...

Despite being far removed from the battle-torn southern and border states, Alton played a crucial role in the Civil War. We provided the Union armies with extraordinary soldiers such as Major Franklin ...

The nation is divided by war yet linked at last from coast to coast by a transcontinental telegraph this week in 1861.

Reprint of the 1882 ed. pub. by Jansen, McClurg & Co., Chicago. Introd. (titled Union signal communications: innovation and conflict) is reprinted from Civil war ...