Episodes Nearest to January 1, 1855 to May 31, 1870: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. An Appeal for an Organization Benefiting Freedmen
    date September, 1862map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Health/Death, War, Women

    It was the summer of 1862 and Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave, was walking down the streets of Washington, DC. She stopped when she came across a big festival with music and white women and men dancing together. Upon inquiry, she learned that the festival was a fundraiser for the sick and wounded white soldiers. Immediately, she contemplated the need for an organization that supported the black...

  2. Battle of Antietam
    date September 17, 1862map ALLEGANY, Marylandtags War

    Union General McCellan responded to Confederate General Robert Lee's plans of heading north by gathering his Army of the Potomac to counter them. Lee hoped to get to Pennsylvania to regroup, but instead confronted the Union army at Antietam Creek. Despite General McCellan's advantage in men Lee's troops were able to hold their ground. In the end Lee's army returned to Virginia,...

  3. Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation Issued
    date September 22, 1862map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Race-Relations, Slavery, War

    Encouraged by General Robert Lee's defeat at Antietam and hoping to bring in the Border States, President Lincoln decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. He declared that starting January 1, 1863, all slaves in rebellious slaves would be declared free. It stated that the executive government would enforce the freedom of the slaves and that no conducts of repression toward their freedom...

  4. War Governors Declare Loyalty to Lincoln
    date September 24, 1862 to September 25, 1862map BLAIR, Pennsylvaniatags Emancipation Proclamation, Governor Curtin

    General George McClellan's inability to secure victory on the battlefield in the summer of 1862 added turmoil to an already fragile situation. Many northern politicians were frustrated with the general's performance, not to mention their anguish over a costly war that was once expected to be a quick victory. Dick Yates, Governor of Illinois, emphasized through speeches and private...

  5. Mr. Guerrilla is Innocence Personified        
    date September 6, 1862map BEAUFORT, South Carolinatags Irregular Warfare, Civil War, Crime/Violence

         On Saturday September 6th 1862 an entertaining article was published in The New South paper in Port Royal regarding the antics of guerrilla warfare. This intriguing article describes the operations of guerrilla fighters during the Civil War. Guerrillas during this period fall into several different categories. Partisan, raiding, and bushwhacking are just several of the main focuses of...

  6. D.A. Mahony recounts his kidnapping by the Union Army in his book Prisoner of State.
    date August 14, 1862 to November 11, 1862map DUBUQUE, Iowatags Imprisonment, Civl War, War

    In the early morning of August 14, 1862, D.A. Mahony was aroused from his sleep by a man, representing the Secretary of War, named Mr. Gregory. With several Union soldiers surrounding his home and threatening to murder him and his wife if he resisted, Mahony found himself unable to escape his arrest.  Mahony was taken from his home by Gregory and the Union soldiers. The Democratic editor of the...

  7. Food Aid in New Orleans
    date September 1, 1862map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Health/Death, Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Devastation and upheaval occurred in areas throughout the South where the Union army had gained control. The Union's control meant the freeing of slaves. This led to a shortage of agricultural labor and a scarcity of resources. This situation was further heightened by slaves who fled from nearby areas to the sanctity of Union borders. <br />New Orleans was a particular example of this...

  8. “King Alcohol is More Formidable than Tyrant Lincoln”
    date October 1, 1862map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags Temperance, Religion, Civil War

    In 1862, throughout the war-ravaged Confederacy, the thoughts of all were turned to the War that tore apart the country.  The death and destruction that had already occurred seemed to foretell a conflict that would not soon be resolved.  In the midst of the fighting, soldiers struggled to remain vigilant and confident.  Romanticized visions of passionate soldiers, Confederates in particular,...

  9. Battle of Perryville
    date October 8, 1862map PERRY, Kentuckytags War

    General Braxton Bragg led his Confederate troops into Kentucky with high hopes. A win in Kentucky could be a possible turning point for the Confederate army, as it would probably add Kentucky to their side. However, Bragg failed to execute his troops efficiently and could not gather political support from the Kentuckians. Bragg's troops were largely outnumbered by Major General Don Carlos...

  10. Teaching our Slaves to Read
    date October 8, 1862map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags Education for blacks, Religion, Slavery

    “Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Newspaper supports illiteracy!” This confusing fictional phrase would have been the perfect attention grabber for The Confederate Baptist, a southern newspaper that did just that.  In its second ever publication, The Confederate Baptist included a column on its front page entitled “Teaching our Slaves to Read.”  The newspaper largely served as a religious...

  11. The Confederacy: Religion, Government, and – Diversity?
    date October 8, 1862map RICHMOND, Virginiatags Religion, Government, Civil War

    “Rulers,” insisted the editor of the Confederate Baptist, “were entitled elahim, gods, because, as the New Testament informs us, they are ‘God’s ministers,’ ordained for the temporal welfare of the body politic.” The October 8, 1862 article was written when the South and her religions were in the throes of the Civil War.

    Ironically, a newspaper which had advocated...

  12. Life of a Union Captain: Captain James Wren and Sulphur Springs
    date August 24, 1862map SCHUYLKILL, Pennsylvaniatags War

    The Civil War cost the United States over 620,000 men's lives; many of these men were officers in major divisions who fought in ten or more engagements. One of the veterans of the war was a man by the name of James Wren from Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Wren was a Captain for Company B in the 48th Pennsylvania Regiment. His diary excerpts show that being an officer was not as glorious as it could...

  13. Confederate Conscription Act
    date October 11, 1862map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Race-Relations, Slavery, War

    The Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln caused great fear of slave uprisings among Southerners. The Confederate Congress responded by issuing, “An act to Exempt Certain Persons from Enrollment for service in the Army of the Confederate States,' also known as the “Twenty Nigger Law.' The Confederate army's demand for while males left many plantation homes very vulnerable...

  14. Southern Women Help the War Effort in Florence, South Carolina
    date August 11, 1862map MARION, South Carolinatags Health/Death, War, Women

    On August 11, 1862, one month before Southern women were officially accepted as nurses, J. Bachman announced the importance women held in the medical effort in coastal South Carolina. She explained, in a local newspaper, a proposed arrangement concerning the delivery of imperative medical supplies to Florence, South Carolina. The Northeastern Railroad had been sending donated supplies free of charge,...

  15. The Burning of Bayou Sara, LA
    date October 25, 1862map WEST FELICIANA, Louisianatags War, Women

    On October 25, 1862, Narcissa L. Barksdale scribbled the words, "but no lives lost," as she wrote to her friend, Alcinda "Alice" Janney, describing the tragedy of how Bayou Sara, Louisiana, "was burnt by the crews of the gunboats." Barksdale showed her discontent with the behavior of the Union soldiers in saying, "I could write pages of outrages committed in that state, but I will desist- as...

  16. Governor Curtin Outlines Plan for Continuing Conscription
    date October 25, 1862map SCHUYLKILL, Pennsylvaniatags Riots, Immigration, Law, Civil War

    On October 25, 1862, Pennsylvania governor A.G. Curtin submitted his views and worries on the recent riots that had occurred in Schuylkill County to Secretary of War, E.M. Stanton. He described several scenarios for upholding the draft in the wake of these rioting men without jailing or punishing them. He wrote in the letter, “I think you would get the men more easily than by the use of force....

  17. Saving Grace: Creation of the United States Ambulance Service
    date August 2, 1862map CHARLES CITY, Virginiatags Health/Death, War

    Under the orders of General McClellan, the Army of the Potomac was the first section of the Union Army to derive benefits from an organized ambulance system. On August 2, 1862 General McClellan issued General Order No. 147 near Harrison Landing, Virginia. This order set up regulations within the Army of the Potomac for the creation, organization, and management of an ambulance train...

  18. Armed Slaves
    date June, 1862 to September, 1862map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Slavery, War

    Armed and prepared for confrontation, runaway slaves knew that their link to freedom was right before their eyes.It was the perfect opportunity to leave the plantation when the Union forces arrived in New Orleans. Many of their masters were away at war and the women were the only ones that stood in the way of freedom. In a period of three months in 1862, large groups of slaves armed with cane knives,...

  19. One women's reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation
    date November 8, 1862map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Politics, Slavery, Women

    Reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation, even among the common folk, was mixed and often violent. A letter to the Editor of the Harper's Weekly and published in the November 8, 1862 edition describes one reader's personal experience with such a reaction from a neighbor.

    Charity Grimes writes that her neighbor, Sarah Blue, and she do not always agree but on this one occasion...

  20. Confederate Refusal to Pledge Allegiance
    date July 24, 1862map WILLIAMSON, Tennesseetags War, Women

    For months Elizabeth McCavock Harding waited for her husband, William Giles Harding. Federal forces contained him in Fort Mackinaw, Michigan between April and September of 1862 as a prisoner of war. During that time Elizabeth wrote to him frequently describing the state of health of their family and the state of the town of Nashville, Tennessee. She very much wanted to visit him and worried about...

  21. Courageous Irish Brigade
    date November 18, 1862map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Race Relations: Irish, Civil War

           Their eager face showed no doubt or fear. Their hearts pumped full of excitement and pride. As the Irish Brigade took to the streets of New York City, the citizens of the metropolis rose up to cheer them on. The New York Times described in detail the farewell march of the 69th New York Volunteers’ otherwise known as the “Irish Brigade”. The Irish Brigade was...

  22. War preparation
    date 1862map ORLEANS, Louisianatags War

    In the midst of the war, factories were steady at work manufacturing gun carriages and turning cotton wagons and drags into army wagons. All commercial businesses were suspended and the ships were cleared out due to the notice of the Union blockade in the spring of 1862. New Orleans would have seemed a deserted city if it were not for the bustling movements of the Third Regiment of Louisiana Volunteers...

  23. Soldier Conditions and Morale
    date 1862map HENRICO, Virginiatags Health/Death, War

    Soldier conditions throughout the Civil War, especially for the Confederacy were far from inspiring. All units from Virginia through Texas experienced poor camp conditions. Many soldiers wrote home complaining about the high occurrence of death and the inability of the sick to recover.

    J.B. Robertson was a colonel in the fifth Texas Infantry and often corresponded with Governor Lubbock....

  24. Pauline Cushman Gains Trust of the Rebels: An Episode from Her Life
    date 1862map JEFFERSON, Kentuckytags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, War, Women

    Pauline Cushman was born Harriet Wood in the South, on June 10, 1833. Living the beginning of her life in New Orleans, she eventually moved with her family to northern Michigan where she first discovered her love of the theatre. By the age of eighteen she moved to New York to try her luck at being an actress and stage performer. In homage to Charlotte Cushman, her favorite performer, Harriet legally...

  25. Reverend McGill Offers His Religious Views on Slavery
    date 1862map PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvaniatags Church/Religious-Activity, Slavery, War

    Reverend Alexander T. McGill believed very strongly in the 1860s that slavery should be abolished because it "degrades and destroys the children of men."

    Slavery needed to be abolished immediately, but slaves needed to be educated first, because, "neither slavery perpetuated, for its own sake, nor slavery abolished before its subjects are educated for freedom will comport with the determination...