8 battlefields win government grants

More than $1.2 million in grants from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program were awarded this week to a variety of national battlefield projects including eight Civil War sites in six states: Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia. • Article

Rare Zouave uniform lent for display

The Peekskill (N.Y.) Museum sent the one-of-a-kind uniform of John L. Hughes, a Civil War volunteer who joined the Hawkins Zouaves, and a garrison flag to The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in North Carolina.

An exhibit there will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Confederate attack on Cape Hatteras and the Outer Banks. • Article

Veteran is finally laid to rest in Kansas

Nearly 150 years after Pvt. George McCarthy served in the U.S. military, a detail of Civil War re-enactors carried his cremated remains slowly up the hill to his final resting place in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. McCarthy died at age 102 in Missouri, but for nearly seven decades years his ashes went unclaimed, resting on a shelf a funeral home storage facility in Kansas City. • Article

Only so much real stuff in people's attics

Most curators and experts in the field of War Between the States artifacts say the proliferation of counterfeit pieces says as much about the economy as the 150th anniversary of the conflict. There's big money in Civil War collectibles. • Article

On the eve of battle, a poignant letter home

The Battle of Bull Run marked the start of some of the fiercest early fighting of the Civil War. In the days before the Union army attacked Confederate troops, Union Army Maj. Sullivan Ballou wrote a heartbreaking letter to his wife in Rhode Island. • Article

Tale of two wars told in the gear

The 19 New York state regiments that took the field in the First Battle of Bull Run 150 years ago Thursday were equipped by the state. It cost $42 in 1861 dollars, or $1,080 in today's money, to outfit each soldier for battle. Today, $18,087 is spent to arm and dress each member of the New York State Army National Guard for battle. • Article

Stonewall belt buckle on loan for anniversary

Manassas National Battlefield Park kicked off the week marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s first major battle by unveiling an exhibit featuring a belt buckle worn on the field by famed Confederate general Stonewall Jackson and a shotgun carried by partisan leader Col. John Singleton Mosby. • Article

Reality set in at Manassas Junction

This week thousands of reenactors, spectators and history buffs are returning to the fields around the once-remote railroad junction near Bull Run to remember the day the fledgling armies from North and South first met in 1861 — shadowed by picnickers, unaware of the dark future ahead. • Article

Marker dedicated to African-American unit

A marker is being dedicated in South Carolina to the 55th Massachusetts, a black Union regiment that fought in the Civil War.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reports the remains of 19 Union soldiers buried during the war were found at nearby Folly Beach in 1987.

Two life-size busts depicting the reconstructed faces of two soldiers will be on display Friday when the historic marker is dedicated at Folly River Park. • Article

Poignant moment captured in bronze

A life-size bronze sculpture depicting brothers, perhaps on opposing sides in the Civil War, has been placed inside Virginia's State Capitol to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Virginia's participation in the bitter conflict. • Article

Remembering early Missouri battle

Re-enactors, enthusiasts and other residents gathered Saturday in Carthage’s Central Park to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Carthage. Fought on July 5, 1861, the clash was one of the first set-piece battles of the war. • Article

Sign recalls Cleburne's call to free, arm slaves

The Georgia Historical Society will unveil a marker recognizing Confederate Gen. Patrick Cleburne's futile proposal to emancipate and arm slaves.

The July 14 dedication will be held outside of the Dalton headquarters of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, where Cleburne's proposal occurred in January 1864 as the South faced a military manpower shortage.

Michael Thurmond, former Georgia labor commissioner and author of "Freedom: Georgia's Antislavery Heritage, 1733-1865," will provide the keynote address at the dedication.

A portion of the sign's text:

"Almost all the other generals present opposed the idea of black Confederate soldiers because it violated the principles upon which the Confederacy was founded. Gen. Patton Anderson said the proposal "would shake our governments, both state and Confederate, to their very foundations," and Gen. A.P. Stewart said it was "at war with my social, moral and political principles." Considering the proposal treasonous, Gen. W.H.T. Walker informed President Jefferson Davis, who ordered any mention of it to be suppressed. In March 1865, with defeat looming, the Confederate Congress approved enlisting slaves, but few did and none saw combat. Conversely, nearly 200,000 free African Americans served in the U.S. armed forces."

The Georgia Battlefields Association helped fund the marker, part of the observance of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

Dedication: 10 a.m., July 14, 314 N. Selvidge St., Dalton, Ga. 30720

These women re-enact as men

Hoop skirts and washboards don't appeal much to Joyce Henry, so she found another way to relive the Civil War — as a man. With her breasts tightly bound, shoulder-length red hair tucked under a shaggy auburn wig and upper lip hidden by a drooping mustache, Henry impersonates Confederate Lt. Harry T. Buford. • Article

Lightning strike on tent injures 5

A lightning strike at a camp of Civil War reenactors in Gettysburg, Pa., has sent five people to hospitals. The Gettysburg Anniversary Committee says in a statement that during a severe thunderstorm at about 2:45 a.m. Sunday, lightning struck a tent pole in the Confederate artillery camp. • Article

Country singer supports preservation

Country music star Trace Adkins has joined a national Civil War Trust effort to help preserve 20,000 acres of land over the next five years in Gettysburg and at other historic sites. • Article