North vs. SouthFrom 1861 to 1865, The Union faced secessionists in 11 Southern states grouped together as the Confederacy and waged war against America. It was the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history.
Soldiers Who Were Just Kids
The Creepiest, Most Haunting Photos
What People Ate to Survive
Real Photos from the Battlefield
It Was Definitely About Slavery
Stories from Gettysburg
What Happened in the Final Hours
Gettysburg Is Still Haunted
After the Rebels Surrendered
West Point GOATs
What It Was Actually Like to Fight
Post-1865 Intolerance in America
What Was Reconstruction Really Like?
The Origins of the Ku Klux Klan
How the South Lost Gettysburg
Cleanliness Among the Troops
Life as a Prisoner at Camp Sumter
Creepy Ghost Stories and Legends
Terribly Dark Moments
The Glory and Downfall of Ulysses S. Grant
The Confederacy's Response to Lincoln's End
Brutal Techniques in Anderson Prison
Colorized Photos of the Civil War
From a Horse's Perspective
Badass Spies
The Greatest Movies About the Civil War
How It's Taught in Different US States
Surgery on the Battlefield
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The Greatest Movies Set During the Era
Haunting Portraits
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Weird History
30 Haunting Civil War Portraits We Wish Our Teachers Showed Us In School
Updated February 4, 2021 19.6k votes 1.9k voters 81.7k views
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Vote up the images that bring the Civil War era to life.
In a precursor to the selfie craze, thousands of Civil War soldiers rushed into photo booths to document their dashing military outfits and put on their best game faces for the conflict ahead. It was one of the first instances of photography as a mass medium, and it left us with a cornucopia of images that help bring the 160-year-old conflict to vivid life. Civilians got in on the action too, whether it be adorable kids dressed in tiny "zouave" outfits, or young women photo-bombing their friends' (or brothers'?) portrait sessions.
Battlefield photos are powerful, but as these Civil War portraits from the Library of Congress's Liljenquist Family Collection attest, there's nothing quite like the human face to make the past feel like the present - particularly if you can project yourself, or a loved one, into the picture.
