Episodes Nearest to August 8, 1865: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. The Constant Threat of Disease
    date August 8, 1865map MONTGOMERY, Alabamatags African-Americans, Health/Death, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On August 8, 1865, the Montgomery Advertiser warned its readers to look out for cholera. The article went on to say that it is reported in a state paper, that several well defined cases of cholera have appeared in New York City, and that each resulted fatally. We are no alarmists, but what can prevent terrible fatality, if disease in epidemic form should appear in our beautiful city? The houses...

  2. An Oath of Pretending
    date August 14, 1865map GREENVILLE, South Carolinatags Confederacy, Civil War

    Four months after the end of the Civil War, Edwin Ware leaned down and signed an oath of loyalty to the United States government, swearing his support and protection of the constitution and union of the states, including the recently emancipated slaves. The former slave owner was the 2,560th person in Greenville, South Carolina to complete such an oath. Ware had effectively signed over...

  3. A Sunday Snub
    date August 22, 1865map MONTGOMERY, Alabamatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Government, Law, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War

    On an August morning in Montgomery, Alabama, an elderly African-American woman found a seat in one of Montgomery's principal churches and waited for the service to begin. While she waited, however, she was...politely told that accommodations were prepared for her in another part of the building. The lady moved off quietly and took her place in the gallery. In an article in the Montgomery Advertiser...

  4. An Editorial on the End of the Civil War in Charleston
    date July 22, 1865map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Economy, Slavery, War

    On July 22, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina, a man by the pen-name of Juhl wrote an editorial in the Charleston Courier describing many elements of city life in the post-Civil War period. The writer's real name was Reverend Julius J. Fleming, a prominent and outspoken citizen of Charleston widely respected for his roles as a preparatory school principal, a Methodist preacher,...

  5. Freedmen's Bureau: Simply Welfare? Or Something More?
    date March 3, 1865 to 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Freedmen's Bureau, Freed Slaves, Political Cartoons, Freedmen

    The Civil War left the freedmen with no place to live, no food to put on their plates, and no opportunity for jobs. Responding to this problem, the government established The Freedmen’s Bureau. Launched on March 3, 1865, the Bureau provided relief to freed slaves, including giving out clothing, food, and medicine. The Bureau also confiscated land in some of the former confederate states to give...

  6. Thieving Soldiers Lead to Gunbattle
    date July 9, 1865map TWIGGS, Georgiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Government, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    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...

  7. The University in Wars Wake
    date July 7, 1865map ALBEMARLE, Virginiatags Education, War, Women

    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...

  8. One Family's Tragic Loss and Wartime Poverty
    date 1865map CADDO, Louisianatags Agriculture, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Economy, Government, War

    While aboard a steamer ship headed from Alexandria, LA for Shreveport, LA, J.M. Bundy, a northern soldier, witnessed human cruelty and the outrageous poverty encompassing much of the South. Bundy and his Union comrades were invited to ride up the Red River to Shreveport on the Confederate flag-of-truce boat before a conference with southern officers about terms of surrender. Flying towards this...

  9. Tobacco Business Revives Economy in Durham
    date 1865map ORANGE, North Carolinatags Agriculture, Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    In 1865, John Ruffin Green, a newcomer to Durham, bought a tobacco factory from Dr. Richard Blacknall. Green knew that there was a future in the manufacturing of tobacco because he noticed the extensive amount of its consumption in the Confederate Army and among university students. Green focused on the manufacture of smoking tobacco by buying only the best grades of leaf. Later that year, a terrible...

  10. Enslaving the Free: The Development of Southern Sharecropping
    date 1865map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Economy, Race-Relations, Slavery

    "We are going to work for ourselves and for nobody else." The newly-freed slaves of Thomas Pinckney took this stand when he called them to start working again after the Civil War ended. Pinckney, a plantation owner in South Carolina, did not expect these men to continue working for free, but he realized that without them, his plantation was destined for failure. He stated simply, "I acknowledged...

  11. The Day in the Life of a Union Prisoner of War: Disease and Deprivation
    date 1865map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Crime/Violence, Government, Health/Death, War

    The United States Sanitary Commission conducted a series of interviews following the conclusion of the Civil War. The Commission focused on the details of Union soldier's imprisonment during their service. The soldiers gave testimony as to their experience as a prisoner of war. The compilation of accounts details the suffering and privations of different soldiers both commissioned...

  12. Argues for a Racially Mixed America
    date 1865map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, War

    Miscegenation stirred the pot in the American courts for much of the nineteenth century. According to historian Warren Sollors, in 1727 a white woman abandoned her husband because she fell in love with a black man. As a result, laws in 1741 called attention to the interracial marriage of whites and blacks in America. A fine of fifty pounds was to be paid in addition to children of these marriages...

  13. An assistant surgeon reports on gangrene
    date January 1, 1865 to December 31, 1865map SUMTER, Georgiatags Civil War, prison, Health/Death

    Andersonville's prison had a hospital crowded with patients, due to the bad living conditions in the cells. The prison was overcrowded with prisoners crammed in rooms, inactive and secluded from society, lacking food, exercise and fresh air. The atmosphere was so polluted that people could hardly breathe. The promiscuity made sickness spread in a heartbeat, and in the winter of 1865, the prison...

  14. The Far-Fetched Illustration of Union Victory
    date 1865map HAMILTON, Ohiotags Civil War, War, Politics

    The Civil War ended with feelings of both celebration and relief at the war’s end in the North, and political cartoons such as “Freedom’s immortal triumph!  Finale of the “Jeff Davis Die-nasty”  illustrated the triumphant mood pervading the Union in 1865.  The Republican bias of the image is obvious as Union President Abraham Lincoln is rising towards heaven escorted by angels, while...

  15. The War Wasn't the only Factor!
    date 1865map WASHINGTON, Texastags Drought of 1865, Economy of the South, 1865

    Besides the war, what could possibly ruin the South’s economy in 1865?  By the end of the war, the South had been completely devastated by the fighting that they could not afford to have anything else happen to them, but it did.  Already suffering from the economic losses of the Civil War, the drought of 1865 left many farmers in the South unable to provide for their family.  The Columbia University...

  16. Conviction of Lincoln's Conspirators
    date June 30, 1865map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Health/Death

    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...

  17. South Carolina Delegates Discuss Reconstruction with President Johnson
    date June 26, 1865map BEAUFORT, South Carolina, Washington City, District of Columbiatags Reconstruction, Politics, Government

    On Saturday June 26, 1865 a delegation of South Carolinians visited President Johnson for a free exchange of ideas about the fate of South Carolina under the Reconstruction.  The delegates and the president alike expected a candid and honest discussion.  The President began the conversation by stating, “Union was preserved, it must be on the principle of fraternity, both Northern and Southern...

  18. Stand Watie Surrenders The Last CSA Forces
    date June 23, 1865map Unorganized, Oklahomatags The Confederate States of America, Civil War

    When the leaders of the Confederate Indians learned that the government in Richmond had fallen and the Eastern armies had been surrendered, they, too, began making their plans to seek peace with the Federal government. The chiefs convened the Grand Council on June 15, 1865, and passed resolutions calling for Indian commanders to lay down their arms and for emissaries to approach Federal authorities...

  19. Juneteenth
    date June 19, 1865map GALVESTON, Texastags African-Americans, Law, Slavery, War

    Julia Frances Daniels recalled her childhood experiences as a slave quite vividly. What she remembered most, however, was the sense of great jubilation that riddled her body one day in June 1865. On this day, Old Man Denman gathered all the slaves around and said, Mens and womens, you is free. You is free as I am. You is free to go where you wants... One interesting fact is that although many slaves...

  20. The Pardon of Basil Manly
    date September 12, 1865 to October 19, 1865map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Government, Slavery, War

    On September 12, 1865 President Andrew Johnson signed a full pardon of offenses committed under rebellion for Basil Manly, Sr. of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Included in Manly's offenses was the prayer at Jefferson Davis' inauguration to the presidency of the confederacy in February 1861. As part of a special group of ex-confederates who could not sign the typical oath of allegiance, Manly needed...

  21. Caught on Crosshatch: A Lynching in Anderson, South Carolina
    date June 8, 1865map ANDERSON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Women

    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...

  22. The Freedmen’s Record Reports on the Prosperity of Freedmen
    date October, 1865 to 1865map SUFFOLK, Massachusettstags African-Americans, Economy, Race-Relations, Slavery

    According to the Freedmen’s Record report, many southerners perceived freedmen as “a hopelessly lazy, sensual creature who, if he has enough to satisfy the lowest animal wants, will be content.” They feared that freedmen would resort to theft instead of working to fulfill their needs.  The Record attempted to change these perceptions by exposing the tremendous success of...

  23. Proof of Allegiance
    date May 27, 1865map DINWIDDIE, Virginiatags Government, Law, Politics, Race-Relations, War

    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...

  24. Ellen Long's Concern for Newly Freed Slaves
    date May 23, 1865map BREVARD, Floridatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Health/Death, Economy, Race-Relations, Slavery, War, Women

    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....

  25. Australians Fix Privateer Ship C.S.S Shenandoah.
    date February 18, 1865 to August 20, 1865map SHENANDOAH, Virginiatags War, Navy, Shenandoah Valley

    Built in Glasgow, Scotland, with the name Sea King, the C.S.S. Shenandoah would continue the Confederate fight long after the Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered. Named after the valley and county in Virginia, the C.S.S. Shenandoah had a C.S.A letter of Marque to sail towards the Indian Ocean to seek out, capture, or destroy Union military and commercial vessels....