Episodes Nearest to April 4, 1863: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. 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...

  2. 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....

  3. 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...

  4. 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...

  5. 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...

  6. 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...

  7. 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...

  8. 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...

  9. 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...

  10. 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....

  11. Brady Photographs Artillery
    date April 30, 1863map SPOTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Science/Technology, War

    The artillery attentively prepared for the battle of Chancellorsville as Mathew Brady snapped the photo. In a photograph in The Photographic History of The Civil War in Ten, dozens of recently axed tress and stubs cover the ground and surround the cannons beside which the men listen alertly to the officer (20- 21). A few men stand at ready to insert the cannonballs before a misty field...

  12. A Woman's Valiance on the Battlefield
    date May 2, 1863map FRANKLIN, Tennesseetags Health/Death, Migration/Transportation, War, Women

    Mrs. Holstead became a widow when her husband died in the Civil War. Her husband, Dr. Holstead, was a surgeon who enlisted in the Eightieth Illinois regiment. Mrs. Holstead was a nurse. Filled with the fury after his death, Mrs. Holstead became passionate about helping the Union cause. She left her two daughters at home in Knoxville, Illinois, and for over a year helped the wounded at war directly...

  13. Female Confederate Spies
    date May 2, 1863map WILLIAMSON, Tennesseetags War, Women

    Miss Fanny Battle and Miss Booker smuggled mail from Nashville, Tennessee mail south into Camp Chase to aid the Confederacy with Union intelligence. Though Tennessee was a confederate state, in May of 1863 the Union forces still occupied Nashville. Upon return to Nashville the women used their power of femininity to cross back into the Nashville border unquestioned. For weeks the two ladies reveled...

  14. Battle of Chancellorsville
    date May 1, 1863 to May 4, 1863map SPOTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags War

    The battle at Chancellorsville, Virginia, pitted the Confederate General Robert E. Lee against Union Major General Joseph Hooker. Stonewall Jackson came up with a plan to send Lee around to attack the left flank with only 12,000 troops. Lee won a decisive victory here, even though Hooker's troops numbered well over 70,000. After the victory, Jackson rode out to scout the terrain, and was wounded...

  15. 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...

  16. 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...

  17. Death of Stonewall Jackson
    date May 10, 1863map SPOTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Health/Death, War

    Thomas Jefferson “Stonewall' Jackson, shot just above his left elbow by his own soldiers who, on May 2, did not recognize him at the Battle of Chancellorsville, died from pneumonia that he caught as a complication of his wound. Immediately following the incident, one newspaper reported, “his condition is very favorable,' while others lamented that his wounds are “so bad.'...

  18. Runaway Property
    date May 12, 1863 to May 13, 1863map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Economy, Race-Relations, Slavery

    In the back of the Staunton Spectator, May 12, 1863, there appeared a section for Advertisements and Lost Property. Directly under and advertisement of ten pigs for sale, there is the section of lost property, for which rewards are offered. There are six articles that report lost animals or slaves. 50 is offered for a stolen black horse, as well as 50 for a dark bay mare. Intermixed with...

  19. Faith during the Civil War
    date January 29, 1863 to August 24, 1863map PRINCE GEORGES, Marylandtags Church/Religious-Activity, Health/Death, War

    In 1863 Priscilla Munnikhuysen Bond wrote in her personal diary about the hardships the Civil War brought upon her. Bond wrote regularly about her faith and how the "Lord [will] direct our ways and grant we may follow them." Although a Maryland native, Bond moved to Louisiana in 1861 because of her husband Howard Bond's service in the Confederate Army. His departure invoked many of the religious...

  20. Battle of Jackson, Mississippi
    date May 14, 1863map JACKSON, Mississippitags War

    Part of the Vicksburg campaign, Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederate army led by General Joseph Johnston in a battle that was relatively insignificant for military strategy, but contributed greatly to turn the tide of public sentiment. Grant overwhelmed the Confederate army, because Johnston and his troops, though they rushed back towards the capital of Mississippi, could...

  21. Laura Merrick Entertains Union Soldiers
    date May 21, 1863map EAST FELICIANA, Louisianatags Arts/Leisure, War, Women

    While many of their husbands and fathers went to fight in the Civil War, Southern women were often left at home to care for their families. In Union occupied areas, soldiers made themselves comfortable in the homes of these Southern women. One rainy evening, while Laura Merrick was socializing in her parlor, five Union soldiers entered to take solace from the weather. They strangely requested that...

  22. 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...

  23. 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...

  24. Infantry in the Failed May Attacks on Vicksburg
    date May 22, 1863 to May 23, 1863map WARREN, Mississippitags Fifty-fifth Illinois, William C. Porter, Union, Vicksburg, Civil War

    While the city of Vicksburg eventually fell to Union forces on July 4, 1863, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River, several failed assaults occurred prior to the successful siege.  Two of the assaults took place on May 19 and 22, and Vicksburg’s defenses held against the Union infantry and artillery forces on both these occasions.  Infantry forces in the Civil War often engaged in...

  25. Heroines of the South
    date May 25, 1863map DE KALB, Alabamatags Roles of Women, Women of the South, Southern Women

    As General Forrest frantically searched for an alternate route across the Black Creek Ford about three miles from Gadsden, Alabama, the enemy was quickly approaching.  The stream was overflowing and the bridge was broken so General Forrest retreated into the town in hopes of locating another way around the flooded creek.  Upon entry into the town, General Forrest knocked upon a stranger’s door. ...