Abolitionism led to the failure of many lucrative Northern businesses. This was the assumption made by one advertisement of the Red Flag Store, whose proprietor had recently purchased quality Ready-Made Clothing from Pumperle, Geven & Co. following their bankruptcy. The store, like many others, had been shut down and its workers made unemployed. These stores had attracted business mainly from Southern...
Before the American Civil War a movement sprang up in abolitionist circles around the nation that to many represented an ideal solution that would end slavery without introducing millions of freed blacks into American Society. Colonization, as the name implies, had the goal of colonizing slaves in Africa in a country called Liberia. As such, there were numerous attempts to convince Africans to willingly...
Just as the issue of secession and the firing on Fort Sumter triggered the War Between the States, the issue of readmission (and arguably) the assassination of President Lincoln triggered an almost equally bitter conflict. This conflict, however, arose between the Executive and Legislative branches. It is quite possible that only a man of Lincoln's strength could have succeeded in handling the Reconstruction...
Courageously "march[ing] under a constantly increasing shower of shot and shell," General John Bell Hood and his fighting Texans battled their war towards a Union embankment and on to glory. The stage was the Battle of Gaines's Mills on June 27th, 1862, and it was up to Hood and his men to lead the charge to Confederate victory. This was the battle, as Hood describes it in his memoir, which launched...
In the winter and spring of 1865, Union forces smashed through South Carolina. The exploits of these Northern armies quickly became propaganda for Southern newspapers. The Milledgeville, Georgia Southern Recorder, hearing of the Union capture of Barnwell, South Carolina, reprinted a sensational letter from its correspondent, The Constitutionalist. The article, full of rhetoric and exaggeration, recounts...
When S. N. Stallings signed up for service in the army of the Confederate States of America, he sought glory and excitement in the defense of his home and values. By 1861, Stallings' dreams had faded. Rather than fighting against invading hordes of Yankees, he was guarding prisoners of war at the courthouse in Barnwell County, South Carolina. Worse, the Confederate government had little interest in...
By mid-1863 the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi was the final Confederate bastion on the Mississippi River, making it all that stood between General Ulysses S. Grant and the East/West division of the Confederacy itself, a goal stipulated in the Anaconda Plan. Since its capture would mean a major strategic victory for the North, the city held immense symbolic, as well as strategic, importance to both...
Although many regard war as good for absolutely nothing, the truth of the matter is that troops are not the only things that advance in war. In fact, some of the greatest advancements made by mankind in fields ranging from medicine to the arts can trace their roots to military necessity. One such example made in the field of Civil Rights during the American Civil War was Special Field Orders Number...
In July of 1867, African-Americans began their gradual assimilation into the United States in Tennessee. A large number of black Tennesseans joined The Colored League which advocated for civil rights and strongly supported the Republican Party. In Franklin, Tennessee, the League had a strong presence. In early July, African-American members of this group paraded around the outskirts of town where...
One could argue that it was the governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, who made the United States what they are today. Without him, and his efforts to build the Erie Canal, the United States would have experienced slower economic growth. He linked the Atlantic with the Great Lakes, via the Erie Canal running through New York State, empowering the North. DeWitt Clinton saw the opportunity for New York...