Episodes Around: 18641014

  1. The Gruesome History of a Wartime Steamboat
    date 1863 to October 30, 1864map AVOYELLES, Louisianatags Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Migration/Transportation, War

    The Civil War diary of John L. Sharitt, Jr., a Confederate soldier, describes the repugnant state of war that he daily faced.Because of the hopelessness of the southern cause and his desire to return home before more destruction damaged Louisiana.On October 30, 1864, while aboard a boat at Norman's Landing, Louisiana, Sharitt reveals the history of the boat.The boat had been captured by the...

  2. Proud, Patriotic Song of an Arkansas Colored Regiment
    date 1863 to 1865map PULASKI, Arkansastags African-Americans, Agriculture, Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence, Government, Law, Politics, Race-Relations, Slavery, War

    Written in 1863 by the white Captain Lindley Miller, the First Arkansas Colored Regiment of the Union army proudly sang the Song of the First Arkansas to become excited for training and battle.According to Miller's notes, the marching song was sung to the tune of John Brown's Body, which is significant because they honored Brown, the well-known man who attempted a widespread slave insurrection...

  3. Hostile Northern Occupation of Little Rock Yields Friendship
    date September 10, 1863 to 1865map PULASKI, Arkansastags Politics, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War, Women

    New to the Little Rock area, John Levering, a U.S. colonel from Indiana, needed a place for his family to live.Recently re-stationed to the city from New Orleans, he found the best hotel in town uncomfortable and unsuitable for a Union officer.In January 1865, Levering encountered a desirable solution.Levering casually visited a local, celebrated lady of society, a Mrs. S--, and informed her that...

  4. Joshua Frier's Salt Solution
    date 1864map DUVAL, Floridatags Agriculture, Economy, Politics, War

    On his seventeenth birthday, Joshua Frier enrolled in a branch of the Florida Confederate militia which was eventually called the First Florida Reserves, Company B. The unit remained in northern Florida throughout its service, where the Union naval blockade intentionally caused serious import shortages on goods like coffee, tea, and salt. Salt was a commodity that was vitally necessary to preserve...

  5. Overseer's Place on a Southern Plantation
    date 1864map HENRY, Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy, Slavery

    In 1864 Thomas D. Bouldin was hired on a plantation in Henry County, Virginia. He signed a contract with Beverly Jones, a plantation owner and in this contract Thomas bound himself to the duties of a slave overseer. Thomas was given a list of assignments that he was to regularly do and another list of things he could do if he was finished with his own. The contract set that Thomas was set to receive...

  6. The End of the Civil War in Indian Territory
    date 1864 to 1865map Unorganized, Oklahomatags Native-Americans, Politics, War

    The war in the West went on long after Lee surrendered, and not just because it took a little while for news to travel. The Confederates appeared utterly defeated, and yet some still were willing to fight. But the South was not the only problem for the North. Corruption was rampant in Forts Smith and Gibson (Indian Territory, now Oklahoma); safe havens for both southern and northern refugees, from...

  7. A Negro Killed
    date January 28, 1864 to 1864map BROOKE, Virginiatags African-Americans, Arts/Leisure, Crime/Violence, Law, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    The crime was reported in the newspaper with a bit of contempt, as if it was a mildly amusing diversion in the late days of the Civil War. According to the Wellsburg Herald, the black population of Wellsburg had been meeting nightly at societies or parties at the residences of other free blacks. But on this particular night something went wrong, or as the local white-owned newspaper mused, [the...

  8. Threat of Conscription
    date February 15, 1864 to 1864map VAN ZANDT, Texastags Government, Law, Politics, War

    When Lizzie, granddaughter of the Gordon family living in Paris, Texas, wrote to her grandmother, she talked about the war. She said, Pa speaks of going in the army if they raise it to 55 Pa will have to go will not join until he is obliged to. The Gordon family was not unique in deciding the future of their family.

    Many families were torn with the heart-breaking decision whether or not...

  9. Conditions at Andersonville Reach All-Time Low
    date April 1, 1864 to April 1, 1865map SUMTER, Georgiatags Crime/Violence, Health/Death, War

    When Robert Kellogg was finally released from the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville in 1865, he had only the shirt on his back and his life to his name. He was fortunate to be a part of a soldier exchange that allowed him to return to the North, and when he boarded the steamboat to make the journey home, he was met with a new uniform, a new pair of boots, a bath, and a hot meal. However,...

  10. A Union Account: The Battle of The Wilderness
    date May 3, 1864 to October 16, 1864map SPOTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags "Milliken, Robert", "69th New York Infantry", "Irish Brigade", "Fightin 69th"

    Hindered by an uneven terrain covered with “tangled thickets of pine, scrub-oak, and cedar,” battle organization and tactics broke down as Captain Robert H. Milliken and other officers struggled to see the enemy and maintain unit cohesion. Consequently, the Battle of the Wilderness represented a definitive moment in the course of the Civil War - providing  an insightful perspective to a polysemic...

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