NPG historian David C. Ward discusses Jefferson Davis. While traveling in the United States in 1849, English-born artist George L. Saunders painted this miniature of the future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. At the time, Davis was a senator representing Mississippi. A few years afterward, a contemporary recorded this impression of Davis: "His slender, tall and erect figure, his spare face, keen eyes and fine forehead . . . presented the well-known strong American type. There was in his bearing a dignity which seemed entirely natural and unaffected, that kind of dignity which does not invite familiar approach but will not render one uneasy by lofty assumptions." Recorded at NPG, April 24, 2013

Photography curator Frank Goodyear discusses an 1858 portrait of John Pelham by Mathew Brady. Frank Goodyear was interviewed by the National Portrait Gallery's Warren Perry in September 2011. John Pelham (1838 - 1863, born Benton County, Alabama) was within weeks of graduating from West Point in the spring of 1861 when he resigned to join the Confederate army as a lieutenant. Posted to Virginia, Pelham soon earned the admiration of cavalry general J.E.B. Stuart, who provided him with horses to transform his battery into a mobile unit. Demonstrating the effectiveness of this "horse artillery" at Antietam and Fredericksburg, Pelham won glowing praise from his superiors, including General "Stonewall" Jackson, who declared, "It is really extraordinary to find such nerve and genius in a mere boy." In March 1863, Pelham was mortally wounded in a cavalry engagement.

The NPG's Warren Perry visits the Fredericksburg National Military Park and discusses the Battle of Fredericksburg, which took placed on December 13, 1862. Filmed in December 2012. For more on the battle, see the NPG's blog at: http://face2face.si.edu/my_weblog/2012/12/the-battle-of-fredericksburg-part-i-burnside-and-the-road-to-richmond.html

Used as a hospital during the Civil War, the Patent Office Building (now home to the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum) holds a rich history -- Walt Whitman spent time there with soldiers recovering from their wounds. Filmed in April 2012.

Warren Perry, of the National Portrait Gallery, discusses Grant's victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, both in northwest Tennessee. Filmed in February, 2012.

Frank Goodyear, associate curator of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, discusses an ambrotype portrait of George A. Custer taken during his days as a student at West Point.

Warren Perry, of the National Portrait Gallery, discusses Munson's Hill and the battlefield trickery employed by JEB Stuart in September 1861.

Warren Perry, of the National Portrait Gallery, visits Manassas National Battlefield and discusses the battle that took place on July 21, 1861.

Jim Barber, historian at NPG discusses the exhibiton "The Death of Ellsworth"

Margaret Vining, National Museum of American History curator in Military History, talks about Varina H. Davis (1826-1906), first lady of the Confederacy. Recorded March 24, 2011. Image: Varina Howell Davis / John Wood Dodge / Watercolor on ivory, 1849 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Varina Webb Stewart