Episodes Nearest to October 8, 1862: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. 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...

  2. 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...

  3. 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...

  4. 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...

  5. “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,...

  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. 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...

  8. 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...

  9. 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...

  10. 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....

  11. 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,...

  12. 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...

  13. 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...

  14. 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...

  15. 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...

  16. 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...

  17. 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...

  18. Blocking the Altamaha River
    date December 2, 1862map TATTNALL, Georgiatags Migration/Transportation, War

    In the autumn of 1862, in a strategic defensive move, Confederate forces in southern Georgia obstructed the Altamaha River to keep boats from passing up or down the waterway. Confederate Captain John Howard, under the instruction of Captain John McGrady completed the obstruction of the Altamaha near Lake Bluff, Georgia in late November ? successfully preventing future nautical passage in either...

  19. 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,...

  20. The Irish March on Fredericksburg
    date December 11, 1862 to December 15, 1862map SPOTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags Irish Immigration, Civil War

    On the eve of battle, war cries echoed throughout the valleys surrounding Fredericksburg Virginia in Spotsylvania County. Among the nearly 200,000 men preparing to engage in battle, just under two thousand were Irish Americans. These men, new to the land, had been conscripted into service almost as soon as setting dry-foot upon US soil. Despite the Irish immingrants' recent arrival, they were more...

  21. 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...

  22. 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,...

  23. General Braggs Carries Out Execution of Kentucky Youth
    date December 4, 1862 to December 26, 1862map RUTHERFORD, Tennesseetags Military, Civil War, Confederacy

    At eleven o’clock on the morning following Christmas Day, 1862, General Braxton Bragg of the Confederate Army forced his Company E, 6th Kentucky Infantry Regiment (part of the commonly denoted “Orphan Brigade”) to stand round their fellow soldier, Asa Lewis, who awaited execution. Exactly one hour later the firing squad of twelve men carried out the young soldier’s sentence. As...

  24. Burnside Rationalizes his moves at Fredericksburg
    date December 17, 1862map SPOTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags War, Crime/Violence, Politics

    General Ambrose E. Burnside, the newly appointed Commander of the Army of the Potomac, was regarded by General O. O. Howard as distrusting himself with the position, but was eventually persuaded to accept it. Along with the position came the responsibility for a plan of action that would differ from the failed plans of General George B. McLellan. It turned out that Burnside's plan of campaign...

  25. Call to Raise Money for Confederate Soldiers
    date December 12, 1862 to 1862map HALIFAX, Virginiatags Economy, Government, War

    James C. Bruce paid to place an advertisement in the Richmond Whig newspaper on December 12, 1862. The advertisement was a call for people of the county of Halifax to meet for the benefit of their Confederate soldiers. The ad called for the raising of money and clothing for our soldiers in the field. James C. Bruce paid 3 for the ad.

    James C. Bruce's call for war donations gives insight...