From 1865 to 1867, Emmala Reed, a young woman living in Anderson, South Carolina, kept a personal journal detailing daily life during one of the most volatile periods of Southern history, early Reconstruction. Such a complete picture of small-town Southern life is hard to come upon in the modern day, especially considering historian Robert Oliver's assertion that "many Southern women abruptly...
The Civil War would come to an end April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia with General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant. But what led up to this momentous event were a series of exchanges between the two belligerents. The beginnings of this process towards peace, at least for the sake of this article, begins in 1864. The fact of the matter is by 1864 the Navy blockade...
On June 30th, all eight convicted who conspired against Lincoln's assassination were found guilty. The penalties go as follows: Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlin received life sentences, Edward Spangler was given six years, David Herold, Lewis Payne, George A Atzerodt, and Mary E. Surratt were sentenced to be hanged. Several attempts and outcries were made in an attempt...
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...
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...
As John Minor, an esteemed law professor, sat in his office at the University of Virginia, he penned a letter to his sister in Galveston, Texas explaining the "unparalleled losses" suffered by Virginia. Previous measures of wealth such as "stocks and servants" lost all value; only land held its value. Minor estimated the total losses in Virginia at "little short of 400 million" noting that enrollment...
On a Georgia night in June of 1865, three federal soldiers sought out treasure and ended up wounded or dead. The soldiers had heard rumors of the great wealth of Georgia cotton planters. Now, with a freedman guide leading them to the house of Robert Paul where the ex-slave insisted they would find 15,000 in gold and silver, the soldiers hoped to seize a piece of that fortune for themselves.
The...
On May 25, 1865, John Herbert Claiborne took the oath of allegiance to the United States at the Office of the Provost Marshal in Petersburg, Virginia. He served as a surgeon with the title of Major in the Confederate Army during the war and continued to practice medicine after the surrender. In the terms of the oath he swore to "support and defend the Constitution" and to support all laws including...
Throughout the Civil War, Ellen Call Long had thought that the end of fighting would bring her great relief. However, when fighting did cease and Ms. Long saw the Union flag flying above Florida's capitol building, she instead felt crushed and disappointed. In her diary, she expressed her concerns for the future of the plantation economy, as well as for the welfare of the newly freed slaves....
Looking around the city of Baton Rouge, one could easily see the distress the people of the city were facing. The streets were adorned with black; it appeared to be a city in mourning. Sarah Dawson was riding on a trolley car with her daughter when a man from her past sat down beside her. When she was a young girl she greatly fancied him. But then he joined the Yankees and they had not spoken since....