The Great American History Blog

        Two of Virginia’s most unusual and colorful characters were Captain John Smith and the Native American princess Pocahontas.       ...

 Edgar Allan Poe    Each spring, the Mystery Writers of America present the Edgar Awards, the most prestigious award a mystery writer can ...

One of the most spectacular escapes from slavery made before the American Civil War was that of Henry Brown.  Henry Brown was born into slav...

       The national women’s suffrage movement began in 1848 and had gained a substantial following by 1916.   With the approach of the First...

    The Lakota Sioux were an aggressive and predatory warrior nation.  Since their adoption of the horse in the 1730s, the Sioux had becom...

 Confederate military prisons in Richmond became notorious during the Civil War.  Libby prison was for Union officers.   It was considered...

  Video Wilmer Mclean The Civil War virtually began in Wilmer Mclean’s kitchen in Manassas on July 18, 1861, when a Union shell dropped into...

  Sir James Gordon British forces routed American troops at the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24, 1814 and marched into Washington Cit...

  Sergeant Alvin C. York was one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War I.   He received the Medal of Honor for leading an att...

During the Civil War, the Union outfitted hospital ships to care for the wounded.  The Hospital Transport System was run by the United State...

 Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell      In the mid-nineteenth century, sex discrimination prevented women from pursuing medicine, and those few who di...