“The education of a man is never completed until he dies” is a statement attributed to Robert E. Lee, whose education was completed in 1870 as death reached him only five years after surviving the U.S. Civil War as the head of the Army of the Confederate States of America (CSA). General Lee died in…
September 1847 was a volatile and critical month in the Mexican American War. Although an armistice between the U.S. and Mexico was signed on August 24, 1847, it was short-lived and hostilities resumed with battles at Molino del Ray (September 8) and Chapultepec (September 12-13) just outside Mexico City. General Winfield Scott ultimately claimed Mexico…
The Society of the War of 1812 Applications is the newest title in Fold3’s growing War of 1812 Collection. Thousands of names, dates, and relationships are available in over three hundred membership applications. The Society, founded September 14, 1814, is comprised of thirty-two state societies, one of which is the District of Columbia whose application…
The Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863 What can we say today about an event as historically significant and perpetually reviewed as the Battle of Gettysburg? It is seared into our consciousness like no other military engagement—probably as a result of Lincoln’s impassioned Gettysburg Address. Or perhaps because the casualty count was the highest ever…
Before joining the Fold3 team last year, my wife and I spent twenty-four years in Oregon. There our daughter was a member of the marching band for one of our two community high schools (our sons opting out of that opportunity). As “band parents” we gathered funds for the band, with the stipulation that the…
In partnership with the National Archives, Fold3 recently finished scanning and publishing the complete set of compiled military service records of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). The collection is comprised of over 3.6 million document images for the 1st through 138th USCT Infantry, the 1st through 6th USCT Cavalry, and the USCT Artillery. Notably,…
The first military conscription in the United States occurred during the Civil War, but the military draft process we are familiar with today originated with the Selective Service Act of 1917, passed by Congress on May 18, 1917. Six weeks earlier, the United States had declared war on Germany and it was soon apparent there…
