Episodes Nearest to July 18, 1863: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment's Attack on Fort Wagner
    date July 18, 1863map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, War

    July 18, 1863 marked the first time an all-black regiment fought in the Civil War. The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment composed of only blacks and led by abolitionist Robert Gould Shaw, attacked Fort Wagner in a Union attempt to gain control of Charleston Harbor in Charleston, South Carolina. During the recruiting process of his regiment, Shaw experienced a difficult time attempting to recruit...

  2. Lincoln The Monster
    date February 7, 1863 to 1863map BEDFORD, Virginiatags Crime/Violence, Government, Law, Politics, Race-Relations, Slavery, War

    On January 7, 1863, the Lynchburg Daily Virginian posted an article that called President Lincoln a monster. Their opinion stated that President Lincoln was instigator of servile insurrection, including amongst his victims helpless women and children. Lincoln should be considered an outlaw and a reward offered for his head. Also, the paper said that a fitting response must be made in response to...

  3. William Hall Supports the Draft but Abhors the Riot (1863)
    date July 15, 1863map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Montgomery Blair, Immigration

    Buildings had beenburned, homes had been destroyed, and men, women, and children perished at the hands of angry citizens. In July of 1863, New York City became engulfed in a wave of mob violence that swept through the city. Irish immigrants made up the majority of the rioters in opposition to the Enrollment Act of Conscription set forth earlier that year by President Abraham Lincoln. The rioters...

  4. Gettysburg After the Battle
    date July 9, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Civil War, Environment, Battle

    "Little of the enclosure remains save the wicket gateway, from which the gates have been torn," Thomas Knox wrote in a dispatch published in the New York Herald on July 9, 1863. This was just one scene of the aftermath of Gettysburg, which was the single bloodiest and most memorable battle of the American Civil War. In many cases, the battle spilled out of the field into the town and destroyed...

  5. George Meade: Hero at Gettysburg?
    date July 1, 1863 to July 13, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags War: American Civil War, Civil War

    George Meade was the commander of the Union Army of the Potomac during one of the most well-known battles of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg from July 1-3, 1863, and he is one of the war's least well-known generals. As Meade learned of the escalating battle at Gettysburg, PA on July 1, he began ordering his army toward the town. At the end of the first day, the Confederate force failed...

  6. Bread in the South During the 1860s and 1870s
    date July 31, 1863map SHENANDOAH, Virginiatags Agriculture, Arts/Leisure, Economy

    Levi Pitman was a respectable southern gentleman living in the southern county of Shenandoah in Virginia during the Civil War. Levi kept a careful diary in which he would write the day to day activities he participated in and observed. In 1863 the Rebel soldiers were camped near Levi's home and he could go and watch them march for their leader. He and his wife met some of the soldiers and his...

  7. The Surrender of Vicksburg
    date July 4, 1863map WARREN, Mississippitags War

    After the Federal siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi during the Civil War that lasted from May 18, 1863 to July 4, 1863, the Confederates surrendered Vicksburg. It was the climax to the Vicksburg Campaign which was the Federals' attempt to relinquish the stronghold of the Mississippi River that the Confederates held through Vicksburg. Instead of attacking from the river, the Union chose to attack...

  8. Melville creates a literary Pickett's charge
    date July 3, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Civil War, literature

    In his poem "Gettysburg" written in 1866, Herman Melville, renowned writer and poet of the 19th century, who did not fight the war, gave a romanticized account of Pickett's charge.

    At Gettysburg, on the third of July 1863, the issue of the battle was still uncertain. General Lee decided to launch a decisive attack against the army of the Union with the Major General Pickett in command...

  9. A Disillusioned South
    date August 2, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Medicine, Civil War, War

    A month after the vicious Battle of Gettysburg, a Confederate surgeon wrote home to his wife, explaining that the Southern soldiers had nearly won but chose to retreat instead.  Spencer Glasgow Welch’s words encompass the view of many of the Confederate army and its supporters at the time: that despite their lack of food, clothing, and decent shelter, there was hope for a victory against the...

  10. The Tragedy known as Pickett's Charge
    date July 3, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Military, Civil War, Confederacy

    The veteran soldiers geared for the attack, confident in their strategy and ability, ready to accept nothing less than success.  As the enemy forces approached and the men “spearheaded the charge” with all that they had, it quickly became evident that it was not going to be enough.  The “Union artillery opened” on the Confederates’ “parade-ground ranks” and the group suffered greatly...

  11. Chamberlain's Defense of Little Round Top
    date July 2, 1863 to July 3, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags War, Civil War, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Gettysburg

    On July 2, 1863, Colonel Strong Vincent looked to Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine regiment to defend Little Round Top “at every hazard”.  It was vital for the Union army to not lose this hilltop position to prevent the Confederates from breaking through their lines. At Gettysburg, the 20th Maine and other Union troops took both Little Round Top and Big Round Top. They have become immortalized...

  12. The Burden of Defeat: The XI Corps Breaks at Gettysburg
    date July 1, 1863 to July 4, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Gettysburg, Union Army, European immigrants, 11th Corps, Political Generals

    The Burden of Defeat: The IX Corps Breaks at Gettysburg

         The specter of defeat seemed to hang over the military career of German immigrant and revolutionary statesman turned Republican politician and Union General Carl Schurz and bad luck stalk his every move. Poorly positioned at the extreme right flank of Hooker’s army at Chancellorsville, the Eleventh Corps, especially Schurz’s...

  13. The Irish Brigade Endures More Hard Fighting at Gettysburg
    date July 2, 1863 to July 4, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Civil War, Gettysburg, Immigrants

    "After a long and fatiguing march, we arrived on the evening of the 1st instant within about 3 miles of Gettysburg,” wrote Major Sergeant Clair Mulholland in his 1863 battlefield report.  There the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry, along with others of its Brigade, awaited orders to the sound of the surrounding battle.  In the late afternoon the Brigade finally marched toward the battle,...

  14. Slaves in the War
    date 1863map MOBILE, Alabamatags African-Americans, Law, Race-Relations, Slavery, War

    Throughout southern history, masters continually feared that their slaves would rise up against them. When the Civil War broke, this was exacerbated by the fear that slaves would join the Union army. Louis Hughes was a slave from Mississippi. As the war progressed, Union armies came closer and closer to his hometown until ultimately they came through and destroyed Panola. Masters feared for their...

  15. Fire and Steel: Weaponry of the Confederacy
    date 1863map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Science/Technology, War

    Cannons and rifles perform a cacophony of blood and thunder as the cold steel of bayonets slice through the enemy line. Deadly technology meets close quarters fighting and Napoleonic tactics, and the result is not pretty.

    These deadly weapons are listed in detail in Col. J. Gorgas' The Ordnance Manual for the Use of the Officers of the Confederate States Army....

  16. Chamberlain Holds His Ground at Little Round Top
    date July 2, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, War

    On July 2, 1863, the second day of Battle at Gettysburg, a crisis was at hand for the Union army. General Daniel E. Sickles, commanding the Third Corps, had moved his men off higher ground, which included Little Round Top, and created a line running from the Peach Orchard to Devil's Den. This placed the Union left flank open for an attack. Chief Engineer General Gouvernur K. Warren atop Little...

  17. The Burning of the Culp Home
    date July 1, 1863 to July 3, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Crime/Violence, Civil War

    In an effort to take revenge on the North, the ninth regiment of Alabama volunteers burned the Culp home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the Gettysburg campaign.  The reasons for this destruction are dictated by the volunteers, as after they burnt the Culp home they left a short, crudely handwritten note to the owners of the property.  The note clearly indicates the intentions of the Confederate...

  18. General Abner Doubleday at Gettysburg: Why is he not remembered?
    date July 1, 1863 to July 3, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Civil War, Gettysburg, General Abner Doubleday

    At approximately 10:15 AM on the morning of July 1, 1863, Major General Abner Doubleday was thrown into command of the forces along McPherson's Ridge when his immediate superior, General John F. Reynolds, was shot and killed in the early engagement between Union and Confederate infantry. Doubleday became responsible for the entire battlefield and holding back the Confederate advances until the...

  19. J.E.B. Stuart and His Performance in Gettysburg, or Lack of it!
    date July 1, 1863 to July 3, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Confederacy Calvary, Stuart, Gettysburg

    JE.B. Stuart rode into Gettysburg overdue by two gory days to General Lee’s disappointed relief.  Stuart’s role until then had been to serve as Lee’s eyes delivering updates of the Union’s movements.  Until Gettysburg, Stuart had built a strong and very public reputation all over the South for his flamboyance, skill and valor on the battle field.  A West Point graduate, he first garnered...

  20. General Ambrose P. Hill in the Battle of Gettysburg
    date July 1, 1863 to July 3, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Pickett's Charge, Civil War, Gettysburg

    General Ambrose Powell Hill viewed Gettysburg as his chance for redemption from a reputation as a cantankerous, argumentative and tardy leader in the Confederate Army, but the ill fate that befell his troops in the battle was not the ending he desired. It was day one of the Battle of Gettysburg and Ambrose Powell Hill was about to face his first battle as the promoted commander of the Third Corps,...

  21. Brigadier-General Harry T. Hays Leads the Tigers at Gettysburg
    date July 1, 1863 to July 2, 1863map ADAMS, Pennsylvaniatags Civil War, Military

    Harry T. Hays was the Brigadier General of the feared Louisiana Tigers.  During the Civil War, the Tigers gained a reputation in the North as one of the fiercest Southern brigades.  The Tigers are best known for their tremendous efforts at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where Hays said they, “advanced through the city of Gettysburg, clearing it of the enemy and taking prisoners at every turn.”

    The...

  22. A Five-Year-Old Girl Meets her Confederate Father
    date May, 1863 to August, 1863map SUMTER, South Carolinatags Civil War, Slavery, Family and Home Life, Military, Food/Provisions

    Mrs. Doane remembers the hard work that had to be done on her South Carolina plantation while her father was away at war.  Though they never saw any Yankees, Confederate soldiers were frequent guests at the Cumming’s home.  Ragged and half-starved, these desperate soldiers took full liberties to raid their provisions, passing in hordes and killing their chickens.  Mrs. Cummings, however, did...

  23. Pennsylvania Captain Writes His Final Letter Home
    date June 28, 1863map FREDERICK, Marylandtags Civil War, Pennsylvania Regiments

    Captain David Acheson, Company C of the 140th Pennsylvania Volunteers was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, about thirty miles south of Pittsburgh. Robert L. Stewart remarked that Acheson was "one of the most promising young men in the College Class" at the then Washington College (now known as Washington & Jefferson College). A very thoughtful and god fearing young man, Acheson enlisted during...

  24. On the Way to Gettysburg: John B. Gordon’s “Chivalrous” War Tactics
    date June 28, 1863map YORK, Pennsylvaniatags John Brown Gordon, Wrightsville, Civil War

    “It was a case of adherence to the letter and neglect of the spirit; but there was no alternative except good-naturedly to admit that my men had gotten the better of me that time”—so wrote General John B. Gordon about the regrettable conduct of his soldiers as they marched through Pennsylvania on their way to Gettysburg. Gordon, being a Southern Gentleman and a reputable man, sought to bring...

  25. An account of an engineering captain in the Graveyard Road approach during the Battle of Vicksburg of the Civil War.
    date June 19, 1863 to July 4, 1863map JACKSON, Mississippitags "Vicksburg", "Civl War", "Graveyard Road", "engineer"

           Dispersing an already short supply of soldiers, artillery, and engineers, who dug trenches and pushed sap rollers, which were spherical devices filled with cotton that guarded engineers, the two unsuccessful approaches of the Union army to penetrate the city of Vicksburg in 1863 demonstrate the highly complex, yet haphazard nature in which war was engaged during the battle and throughout...