Episodes Nearest to May 25, 1863: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. 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. ...

  2. Analysis of the contributions of the engineers of the Seventeenth Army Corps under Union General John Logan along Jackson Road during the Battle of Vicksburg.
    date April 17, 1863 to July 4, 1863map JACKSON, Mississippitags "Civil War", "Vicksburg" "engineer", "Jackson Road"

            Exhibiting adaptability and skill in constructing trenches and mines to counter Confederate resistance, Captain Andrew Hickenlooper, chief engineer of the Seventeenth Army Corps under Union General John Logan, had an integral role in shaping the Union course of events at the siege of Vicksburg in the spring and summer months of 1863 by overseeing one of three efforts in constructing...

  3. 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...

  4. 54th Massachusetts regiment sent to South Carolina
    date May 28, 1863map BEAUFORT, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, War

    The first African American regiment, this group left Boston to head south to Port Royal, South Carolina, to fight for the Union army and demonstrate the capabilities of black soldiers. The enthusiasm of the troops was matched only by their numbers, a full regiment of fresh soldiers. In Boston, the regiment received a warm send-off, and the cheering crowds wishing them well were as vast as “have...

  5. 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...

  6. 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...

  7. 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...

  8. 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...

  9. Battle at Milliken's Bend
    date June 7, 1863map MADISON, Louisianatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, War

    A very bloody battle, here African American soldiers fought alongside Caucasian soldiers for one of the first of many times during the war. Nearly fifteen hundred Union troops, mostly African-Americans, fought side by side against the two or three thousand Confederates stationed there. However, there still was not racially equal treatment of the soldiers, as the white soldiers rode forward on horseback,...

  10. Waul's Texas Legion in the Battle of Vicksburg
    date May 12, 1863 to July 4, 1863map WARREN, Mississippitags Vicksburg, Civil War, Waul's Texas Legion, May 22, 1863, Colonel T.N. Waul

    The morning officially began at 10:00 AM as the war-weary men of Waul’s Texas Legion lined up shoulder to gray-clad shoulder in Vicksburg, Mississippi; the perfect time for brunch.  But it would forever remain in the minds of the Confederates as the beginning of a fight for their everything-- land, honor, freedom, liberty, property—at the one site most important to hold for any chance of Confederate...

  11. 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.'...

  12. Battle of Brandy Station
    date June 9, 1863map CULPEPER, Virginiatags War

    This battle was the largest cavalry battle during the war, despite the terrain not being suited to cavalry battles, full of rolling hills with scattered clumps of trees, and it represented the height of the superiority of Confederate cavalry skill. Previously, the Confederate cavalry had consistently demonstrated its superior ability, but the prowess of the Union troops was on the rise, and subsequent...

  13. Battle of Vicksburg
    date May 18, 1863 to July 4, 1863map WARREN, Mississippitags War

    Rather than an imminent clash, this battle was a protracted siege occurring of over the better part of two months. Half of the confederate army had been killed in previous battles, but a Union general reported that between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand Confederates remained holed up in Vicksburg. Each day the Confederate force grew weaker as they were plagued by disease and starvation. Continued...

  14. Entitled 31st Alabama Infantry’s Stand at the Railroad Redoubt in Vicksburg.
    date May 18, 1863 to July 4, 1863map WARREN, Mississippitags Civil War, Vicksburg

    “It was a tornado of iron on our left, a hurricane of shot on our right…we passed through the mouth of hell.” These are the words of a Union soldier who was part of the 21st Iowa Infantry Regiment that led the federal assault on Confederate fortifications along the Southern Mississippi Railroad in Vicksburg. Major George W. Mathieson, commander of the 31st Alabama Infantry, unleashed this...

  15. Entitled Confederate Artillery in Defense of the Mississippi River along Vicksburg.
    date May 18, 1863 to July 4, 1863map WARREN, Mississippitags Artillery, Vicksburg, Civil War

    A citizen of Vicksburg observed that during the siege "nothing was spared by the shells; the churchs fared especially severly, and the reverend clergy had narrow escapes." This was brought upon by Ulysses S. Grant, who had taken control of the entire Mississippi River save the couple miles being guarded by the Confederate troops at Vicksburg. Grant launched his attack on Vicksburg on May 18, 1863....

  16. 19th Arkansas Infantry in the Battle of Vicksburg
    date May 18, 1863 to July 4, 1863map WARREN, Mississippitags Civil War, Vicksburg, Colonel Thomas P. Dockery, 19th Arkansas Infantry

    The colonel paused briefly before moving his troops into line to make eye contact with his superior and friend Brig. General Martin Green. Colonel Thomas P. Dockery grew up in a rich railroad dynasty family so he understood the importance the coming battle had to the protection of supply lines, specifically those running through the Mississippi River. Commanding an outstanding infantry of the Second...

  17. The Burning of Darien
    date June 12, 1863map MC INTOSH, Georgiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, War

    With the exception of two white women and two African Americans, the town of Darien, Georgia was deserted when the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, the first all black regiment of the Union army, and the Second South Carolina Volunteers, a regiment of freed slaves, marched in on the afternoon of June 12, 1863. Neither the town nor its four inhabitants posed any threat to the Union forces....

  18. Union Battery in the Campaign for Vicksburg
    date May 2, 1863 to July 27, 1863map WARREN, Mississippitags Second Iowa Battery, Joseph R. Reed, Union, Vicksburg, Civil War

    The Union Army achieved a decisive victory in the battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi, with the city surrendering to General Ulysses Grant on July 4, 1863.  The battery divisions effectively utilized the large guns and cannons of the army, which were crucial to the Union victory at Vicksburg.  First Lieutenant Joseph R. Reed of the Second Iowa Battery in the Union Army belonged to one of these battery...

  19. Siege of Port Hudson
    date May 21, 1863 to July 9, 1863map EAST BATON ROUG, Louisianatags African-Americans, War

    Port Hudson was another confederate stronghold of 6,800 troops. Nearly forty thousand Union troops arrived here and began a full assault, but the Confederates successfully defended themselves, as the Union regiments were uncoordinated, and the Confederates had spent the past year preparing the terrain for an assault. The terrain was varied and difficult to traverse: “a series of ridges;high...

  20. 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...

  21. 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...

  22. 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...

  23. Rachel Cormany Recounts Her Experiences of Gettysburg Campaign
    date June 15, 1863 to June 18, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags War, Women

    Rachel Cormany recorded her experiences of the civil war in her diary of the time that the Gettysburg campaign was taking place. She lived in a place close by called Chambersburg. On June 15, 1863 she wrote how she saw all sorts of wagon trains make their way through the town. She experienced the panic that shot through the town due to the Rebels. There had been a cry that the Rebels were in...

  24. 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...

  25. 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....