Episodes Nearest to February 16, 1863 to March 17, 1863: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Conscription Act
    date March 3, 1863map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Economy, War

    An act was passed by Congress and signed by the President providing for the mandatory enlistment of Union citizens. It subjected all able-bodied men between the ages of 20 and 45 to military conscription. The guidelines were later clarified so that even those “of foreign birth who shall have declared on oath his intention to become a citizen of the United States' would be subject to conscription.<br...

  2. Still Life in Camp: Union Soldiers Waiting for Action
    date February 16, 1863 to March 17, 1863map RAPPAHANNOCK, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, War

    Life as a Civil War soldier involved fighting and immense amounts of sitting and waiting. Soldiers from both sides of the war wrote letters home to loved ones describing the daily events and occurrences in camp life. Life as a soldier required patience. Many soldiers recounted the long periods of time spent sitting in camp waiting for their chance to fight. At camps soldiers could actually...

  3. A drummer boy writes about his experience of the war
    date March, 1863 to 1863map HAMILTON, Indianatags Civil War, camp-life, letters

    The letters of a drummer boy are a gathering of the letters of a sixteen years old drummer boy in the 47th Indiana Regiment during the Civil War. His letters to his parents show how an adolescent would see the war from the front. The 47th was active in the Western theater during the whole war, aside from the Vicksburg campaign, but the little everyday facts show better what war was like.

    The...

  4. A Soldier Complains of the Army Life
    date February 16, 1863map STAFFORD, Virginiatags Health/Death, Government, Politics, War, Crime/Violence

    On February 16, 1863, a Union soldier from Huntingdon County Pennsylvania wrote home to describe the war as he saw it.  “Here we are yet stuck in the mud, crushing the rebellion, over the left, and enjoying our hard tack as usual.”  The soldier described the boring life that the Army of the Potomac went through as they were in camp.  The man known as “TIMBER DOODLE” in his writings was...

  5. A Union Soldier Celebrates a Victory
    date February, 1863map ASCENSION, Louisianatags Arts/Leisure, War

    Union troops had finally secured Fort Butler in Donaldsville. Excitement was everywhere. George Smith was one of the proud soldiers who witnessed the raising of the Union flag. The soldiers had worked relentlessly to secure the fort and the moment was very emotional. By late morning the regiment was ready to celebrate. Cannons sounded. The Star Spangled Banner rang loud from the band. Miss Weber...

  6. The Despotism of Jefferson Davis
    date March 24, 1863map WAKE, North Carolinatags Government, Politics

    The Confederate government extended its legislative powers to all spheres. The Raleigh Standard urged North Carolina citizens to take precautions against the Confederacy?s encroachments. A bill introduced in the Confederate Senate allowed the government to impress all the cotton in the Confederate States and then paid for it in Confederate bonds at fifteen cents per pound. In an attempt to pay its...

  7. Reverend Aughey On Poor White Education in the South
    date March 24, 1863map BEAUFORT, North Carolinatags Education, Social Class

    An extract of Reverend J.H. Aughey's book The Iron Furnace or Slavery and Secession appeared in the Altoona Tribune on March 24, 1863. Aughey wrote that the poor whites of the South were "exceedingly ignorant" and claimed that not one in twenty could read. He also remarked that these whites "scarcely" spoke English. He specifically cited an old woman that said her daughter...

  8. Action on the Mississippi
    date January 24, 1863 to February 24, 1863map LAUDERDALE, Tennesseetags African-Americans, Race-Relations, War

    Walter Guion wrote a letter dated Saturday, January 24, 1863, to Miss. Bessie Guion, his sister, in Adams County, Mississippi, describing his experiences as a Confederate soldier and relaying some of his emotions about the war. In the letter, Walter spoke of a fight that broke out on the fourteenth of January against a Yankee gunboat near Lauderdale, Tennessee. The Confederate gunboat that Walter...

  9. Sickness In the South
    date February 9, 1863map ROCKBRIDGE, Virginiatags Health/Death, War

    In the common way of the times during the Civil War one brother would often write to another informing him of events occurring at home while the other brother would write back with news from the battle line. This is what happened in the Bowman family. In one letter dated February 9, 186[3] one brother wrote from home telling his brother about the illness spreading through town. Andy is better but...

  10. A Jewish Rebuke to Confederate Anti-Semitism in Richmond
    date March 27, 1863map HENRICO, Virginiatags Religion, Civil War, Judaism, Anti-Semitism, Richmond, Confederacy

    On March 27, 1863, Reverend M. J. Michelbacher, rabbi of the Bayth Ahabah synagogue in Richmond, delivered a sermon on a day of prayer declared by Jefferson Davis. Michelbacher was a prominent Jewish leader in the Confederate capital.  Although he had moved from Philadelphia in 1846, he was a fervent supporter of the Confederate cause even prior to secession. In the sermon, Michelbacher responded...

  11. Women Soldiers in the Civil War
    date March 29, 1863map FAIRFAX, Virginiatags Civil War, Women

    Union and Confederate uniforms were symbols of purpose and bravery for the soldiers who wore them, but for some they were merely a disguise. Over 4 million people fought in the Civil War, whether recruited or serving as volunteers. Among those who served were approximately 400 women disguised under male aliases. Among these 400 documented women was Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, a member of the 153rd Regiment....

  12. Samuel Langhorne Clemens adopts pseudonym Mark Twain
    date February 3, 1863map MARION, Missouritags Arts/Leisure

    In 1863, Samuel Clemens was writing for Territorial Enterprise, when he wrote a humorous account of his travels, signing his piece with the pseudonym Mark Twain, the call he used as a riverboat pilot to signal that the water was two fathoms deep, safe for a boat's passage. This name he would continue to use when publishing in the future. At the time he was writing humorous columns reporting...

  13. Ambush in the Darkness of the Sam Gaty
    date April 4, 1863map JACKSON, Missouritags Irregular Warfare, Civil War, Crime/Violence, Slavery

         April 4th 1863 at two in the morning the steamboat Sam Gaty stopped on the Independence River at Sibley and was ambushed by band of bushwhackers, that killed fifteen “contrabands” and two other whites. There was a resentment at the Union for the acceptance of the escaped slaves, whom some had been undertaken as labor to the Union forces. "Contraband" described former...

  14. Matt Turner Writes Home From Shelbysville
    date April 12, 1863map CHOCTAW, Alabamatags Civil War, Medicine/Health

    Writing home to his mother on April 12, 1863, Assistant Surgeon to the 22nd regiment of Alabama Infantry, Matt Turner captured the sentiments of many others in the Confederate Army as he spoke of wishing to return to his home.  Turner wrote his letter from a “camp near Shelbysville Tennessee,” where he was “alone except the agreeable company of the lame, the halt and the blind...

  15. Porter Under the Guns of Vicksburg
    date April 16, 1863map WARREN, Mississippitags War

    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...

  16. Grant Issues Order No. 11
    date January 18, 1863map MC CRACKEN, Kentuckytags Government, Politics, Race-Relations, Church/Religious-Activity, Economy

    In January of 1863 Union General Ulysses S. Grant issued an order that excluded anyone from the Jewish descent from his military department. Order eleven read, “The Jews, as a class, violating every trade regulation established by the Treasury Department, also Department orders, are hereby expelled from the department within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.”  The order then...

  17. Calvin Shedd Reports Confederate Lynching in Southern Florida
    date January 16, 1863map DADE, Floridatags African-Americans, Health/Death, Education, Race-Relations, Slavery, War

    Calvin Shedd struggled to make sense of his surroundings while stationed at Fort Jefferson, a Union garrison in Key West, Florida, the southernmost city in the United States. He saw little or no action in the war for his first eighteen months of service, but he heard reports from members of his regiment who scouted the movement of the Confederate army. He was taken aback when he heard that Confederates...

  18. Remembering Our Gallant Dead
    date January 14, 1863map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags highdeath toll, Civil War

    Dealing with death is as unavoidable as death itself.  Grief that weighs on the hearts of those who have lost someone dear to them is a great burden to bear.  Imagine then the amount of sorrow and mourning in the Confederate States at the height of the American Civil War.  Ways of thinking about and dealing with the amount of loss of life during the Civil War were diverse.  William C. Davis...

  19. Preserving the Union
    date January 9, 1863 to January 14, 1863map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Government, War

    In January 1863, Horatio Nelson Taft wrote in his daily diary of an increasing desire to see the terrible Civil War ended "Negro or no Negro, Slavery or no Slavery." Taft, a Unionist, felt that the underlying ideology of the preservation of the Union was the main reason to fight. He said, "we can do to hold our own and hope for success without bringing Slavery into the question." The people of...

  20. Battle at Suffolk
    date April 11, 1863 to May 4, 1863map PRINCESS ANNE, Virginiatags Government, Politics, War

    As Confederate troops marched towards Suffolk led by General James Longstreet they could hear the shells and see the signal lights over the site of the battle. They were marching to Suffolk because a Union garrison had taken over Hill?s Point and Fort Huger, which opened the Union to shipping. When they arrived at Suffolk the Confederates attacked a Union garrison led by Brig. Gen. John Peck. The...

  21. Lieber Code Provides Definition and Punishment for Confederate Spies
    date April 24, 1863map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Francis Lieber, Government Laws, Civil War, Espionage, Abraham Lincoln

    Issued in April of 1863, General Orders 100, also referred to as the Lieber Code, provided the Union Army with clear instructions as to how to deal with captured Confederate soldiers,  as well as non-combatants during the Civil War. Created at the request of Abraham Lincoln, the Lieber Code provided soldiers with rules and expectations for their conduct. The Code devoted an entire section to spies....

  22. Zillah's Sacrifice
    date January 9, 1863map SUMTER, Alabamatags Church/Religious-Activity, Health/Death, War, Women

    Zillah Haynie Brandon, wife of a plantation owner in Sumter, Alabama, relied on her devout Christian beliefs to see her through life's trials and tragedies. As the proud mother of two Confederate soldiers, James and Hines, Zillah found strength in her Bible. In her diary, Zillah wrote of her fear for her sons' safety and her pride in their dedication to the Confederate struggle for independence,...

  23. Southern Wartime Humor Concerning President Lincoln
    date January 7, 1863map WAKE, North Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, Government, Politics, Slavery, War

    On January 7, 1863 the Raleigh Register published a song by Smith Webb mocking President Lincoln and his ability to keep the Union together. The song contained seven verses that used sarcastic remarks and comparisons to criticize the President's actions. The song began using sarcasm after deriding the President by stating, "Fifty Yanks it is said won't make one good Confed; would a million...

  24. Jefferson Davis Speaks In Raleigh
    date January 7, 1863map WAKE, North Carolinatags Government, Politics

    Jefferson Davis, called "This Man of the Age, whose name will stand on the scroll of Fame as second only to that of the Father of his Country" by The Raleigh Register, had a lot of support among Confederate citizens, including the citizens of North Carolina. In January 1863, on his way from Charlotte to Richmond, Davis stopped in Raleigh to deliver a speech. In his speech, Davis mentioned...

  25. Wyatt's Imprisonment
    date January 5, 1863map NELSON, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Economy, Race-Relations, Slavery

    The common practice of hiring out one's slaves ensured that even when work was less plentiful on the plantation, a master's investment in a slave would still be lucrative. A slave in this position identified only as Wyatt landed himself in jail after attempting repeatedly to be sold back to the plantation where his family resided. The current owners who had been trying to sell him wrote...