There were few battles in the American Civil War that made Confederate soldiers look more gallant, or a Confederate general look more disgraceful, then Franklin.

Nineteen miles to the south of Nashville, Tennessee, John Bell Hood and his Army of Tennessee attacked entrenched Federals under the command of Brigadier General John Schofield. In a brave but costly assault that was compared to Pickett's Charge, the Confederates charged across two miles of open ground before coming into contact...

Porter (1822-1901) was born into a New Hampshire family that had contributed several men to the US Navy in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 (indeed, he was a relative of the Union admirals David Dixon Porter and James G. Farragut). He was a West Pointer whose pre-War experience included service in the Mexican and Utah wars.

It seems that Porter spent most of his military career lurking in the shadows of other men. In Mexico, the highest rank he achieved was brevet major....

Vicksburg, in Warren County, Mississippi, was named in honor of Newit Vick, a Methodist missionary from Virginia who settled in the vicinity in the 1820s; it was formally acknowledged as a city in 1825. By that year, Vicksburg had a population of some 2,500 whites and Indians, as well as nearly 10,000 slaves. It had become a center of commerce, and was home to banks, insurance businesses, jewelers, and doctors.

But Vicksburg's waterfront also became home to a thriving population of...

Double-spout and bridge water vessels are common in many South American cultures. Although used as far back as the Machallila culture (1430-830 BP) of Ecuador, [1] it is most often associated with the Paracas and Nazca cultures of southern Peru. The Paracas culture (700 BCE-1 CE) can be split into two subcultures, the Cavernas and the Necropolis. The Cavernas subculture was named thusly because...

Sir Charles Napier (1782-1853) was one of a host of 19th Century British military men to carry that surname. He was also the first, and one of the most colorful, British generals to distinguish himself during the reign of Queen Victoria. Napier was notable for both his courage and his bad luck during the Napoleonic Wars, being captured at Corunna and then suffering a miserable facial wound during the Peninsular Campaign. He held command of the 102nd Foot during the American War, known to his foes...