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The morning of April 6, 1862, did not begin with thunder. It began with birdsong, a detail that tells you almost everything about the state of the Union camps spread across the slopes above Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee. The thousands of men sleeping in those tents were mostly teenagers who had left farms and factories just … Read more

In April 1944, over the North Sea, a German fighter pilot watched a downed American airman sitting alone in a bright yellow life raft. The water temperature was barely above freezing, and the man was about 80 kilometers from land. Observers like this knew what usually followed: hypothermia, then death. Rescue was not expected. But … Read more

On the night of October 22, 1883, two opera houses opened in New York within an hour of each other, about 25 blocks apart. One was old, exclusive, and virtually impossible to enter. The other was brand new, built out of pure spite. The old house was the Academy of Music, the private clubhouse of … Read more

A frontier surgeon could handle a bullet. Lead balls pushed tissue aside, leaving a wound channel he could understand, and the body could sometimes wall one off with scar tissue, allowing a man to carry the lead inside him for years. An arrowhead offered no such negotiation. In 1862, U. S. Army surgeon J. H. … Read more

In April 1989, actress Sondra Locke returned to the Los Angeles home she shared with Clint Eastwood after a day on set and discovered the locks had been changed. Peering through the window, she saw her clothes and belongings boxed up inside. After more than a decade together, Eastwood had locked her out of their … Read more

On the afternoon of April 12, 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt was sitting for a portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia, when he suddenly said, “I have a terrific headache. ” Those were his last complete words. He collapsed and never regained consciousness. The woman beside him was not his wife. She was Lucy Mercer Rutherford, the … Read more

When the reinforcements finally reached the field of the Little Bighorn, the reality they found did not match the story that would be told to the nation. George Armstrong Custer was dead, stripped nearly naked, and lying among the fallen as though he had simply fallen asleep. His brother Tom was beside him, his body … Read more

In 1959, the Chicago Outfit made a concerted effort to expand its influence over the American Mafia Commission, a move that was captured in FBI surveillance files. That year, the FBI recorded a conversation between two of Chicago’s most powerful mob figures: Anthony Accardo and Sam Giancana. At the time, Giancana was the nominal boss … Read more

In February 1886, a small band of Chiricahua Apache warriors led by Geronimo eluded roughly 5,000 U. S. soldiers—about a quarter of the entire American army at the time—along with thousands of Mexican troops and civilian volunteers. The chase dragged on for months across the rugged Sierra Madre, a mountain wilderness so vast that even … Read more

Unlike his march through Georgia, Sherman knew his men couldn’t rely on foraging in the harsh terrain ahead. He needed a massive supply line, so he brought roughly 2,500 wagons and 600 ambulances, supported by 68 artillery guns. The entire train stretched about 25 miles, slowly churning through water and thick, soup-like mud. To keep … Read more