Bruce Catton was born October 9, 1899, in Petosky, Michigan, and died August 28, 1978, in Frankfort, Michigan. He attended Oberlin College. His various interests included archaeology, fishing, walking, and whittling. He served two years in the U.S. Navy during World War I. He won a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1954 for A Stillness at Appomattox as well as a special Pulitzer citation in 1961 for The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War. Awarded over 25 honorary degrees from colleges and universities across the United States, Catton began his writing career as a freelance writer, reporting for the Cleveland News in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to writing and teaching, he also served as information director in the federal government Departments of Commerce and the Interior. His many works include: A Stillness at Appomattox, 1953; U. S. Grant and the American Military Tradition, 1954; This Hallowed Ground: The Union Side of the Civil War, 1956; The Centennial History of the Civil War, 1961-65; and The Army of the Potomac, 1962-63.

Bruce Catton

From the The Michigan Historical Markers Web Site, this page provides a brief biography of Catton along with a photo of his home.

History Channel: This Day in Civil War History

An interesting site: information here provides web viewers with actual dates and years of key Civil War events.

The American Civil War Homepage

This University of Tennessee site contains a number of links, including: General Resources, The Secession Crisis and Before, Images of Wartime, and Biographical Information.

Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts