2025's Top 12 Picket posts: Relocated Civil War house, Virginia battlefields, wagon wheel remnant, Enfield rifles conservation, bomb squad -- and much more

Burial at Fredericksburg, Medal of Honor train ride, Georgia bomb squad, house on the move

Posts about a Georgia Civil War house moved to another county, a belated funeral in Fredericksburg and a train ride with living Medal of Honor recipients were big reader draws in 2025. The top 12 Civil War Picket posts – by Blogger page views – covered a wide array of topics.

We’ve got a few items in the works (Nashville's Fort Negley, a fascinating medical kit and a haunting photograph) and we look forward to rolling out those and more in 2026. Thanks so much for your continued interest. Please tell a friend or two about us. And Happy New Year!

We’ll start with a few honorable mentions and then delve into the top 12.

Honorable mentions: A rebuilt Civil War monument in Ohio, USS Cairo wood degradation, a USCT regiment that fought in Georgia and unusual Confederate forts called Shoupades.

12. GETTYSBURG VANDALISM: A man etched initials on a bronze tablet at the “Castle” monument on Little Round Top, enraging the public and park officials. – Read more

11. FINALLY LAID TO REST: Ten years after the discovery of their partial remains, three Federal soldiers were rendered full honors when a small casket holding leg, toe, finger and other bones was buried at the national cemetery in Fredericksburg, Va. – Read more

10. 11^TH VIRGINIA FLAG GOES FOR BIG BUCKS: A Confederate battle flag captured during Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg sold at auction for $390,000, four years after it surfaced at a Civil War show in Dalton, Ga. – Read more

9. ARTIFACTS GALORE IN SOUTH CAROLINA: I have been fascinated by the remnants of a wagon wheel believed destroyed on Feb. 19, 1865, when Federal forces sacked the South Carolina capital and dumped captured Confederate ammunition and materiel into the Congaree River.–  Read more

8. RARE USS MONITOR TURRET DRAINING: Conservators were able to access the turret of the USS Monitor for the first time in more than five years, following the draining of the 90,000-gallon tank that surrounds the remarkable artifact. – Read more

7. WHEN THE BOMB SQUAD COMES CALLING: “We deal with Civil War ordnance more than other local bomb squads due to Kennesaw Mountain, Cheatham Hill, Pickett’s Mill and other historic sites,” says Cobb County (Ga.) Police Sgt. Joel Cade. – Read more

6. REMEMBERING BRANDY STATION  (right) AND MORE: The growing staff at Virginia’s Culpeper Battlefields State Park is learning more about the power and potential of Civil War properties it will manage once they are transferred from the American Battlefield Trust.. – Read more

5. HISTORIC GEORGIA HOME SOLD (Part 1):  An Atlanta-area home that was caught in the middle of Civil War cavalry clashes and briefly served as headquarters for a Union general was sold for $1 and stipulations to a couple who will relocate the residence to a neighboring county.. – Read more

4. HISTORIC GEORGIA HOME MOVED (Part 2):  The relocation of the Robert and Eliza McAfee House from Cobb County to adjoining Cherokee County cleared the way for consideration of a possible gas station on the site. Movers had to slice the residence into six pieces before hauling it away. – Read more

3. CRAFTSMAN HAS A WINDOW TO HISTORY:  Robert Schmitt (right) is helping repair windows at the Dawkins House, a Union, S.C., residence at the center of an interesting chapter in Civil War history. Union briefly served as the capital of the state after Columbia fell to Union forces in 1865. – Read more

2. ENFIELD CONSERVATION SUCCESS? Conservation in Georgia of 20 Enfield rifles has reached a significant milestone, with the first walnut stock emerging from treatment and appearing to be doing well outside a wet environment.. – Read more

1. MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS RELIVE ANDREWS RAID:  In September, a dozen Medal of Honor recipients climbed aboard a train in Kennesaw, Ga., to travel back in time while retracing the daring escapade of warriors first awarded the nation’s highest military award for valor. – Read more