Episodes Nearest to December 1, 1866 to December 31, 1866: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. South Carolina General Assembly Refuses to Ratify Fourteenth Amendment
    date December 1, 1866 to December 31, 1866map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags Law

    When South Carolina's legislature reconvened in December of 1866 the governing body was faced with the task of responding to two recent, significant national events: the radical Republicans domination of that year's Congressional election and the proposal of the Fourteenth Amendment. As South Carolinian leaders gathered in Columbia, they quickly tackled the Fourteenth Amendment decision....

  2. Supreme Court Publishes ex parte Milligan Decision
    date December 1, 1866 to December 31, 1866map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Crime/Violence

    With the publication of ex parte Milligan, the Supreme Court gave leverage to arguments that attacked the legality of Freedman's Bureau courts and military commissions during 1865 and 1866. In the decision, the Court reversed the wartime conviction of Lambdin P. Milligan, an Indiana resident, and declared that “no citizen, not in the military service, [could] be tried and sentenced by...

  3. Indian Massacre Stuns the Nation
    date December 21, 1866map DATOKA TERRITORY, Territorytags Government, Native-Americans, Politics, War

    "They were mutilated horribly, stripped naked, their bodies cut open and scalped, even to the beards from their faces," reported a New York Times correspondent from Fort Laramie, in what was then the Dakota Territory. On December 21, 1866, a detachment of 81 soldiers under the command of Captain William Fetterman was lured out of Fort Phil Kearny, ambushed by a coalition of Indians, and...

  4. War Poetry Lives On in Song
    date January 1, 1867map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Arts/Leisure, Education, Government, War

    Many Southerners before the Civil War viewed the Northerners as tyrants similar to King George III. In War Poetry of the South, "Poet Laureate of the Confederacy" Henry Timrod wrote "Carolina" and the words on page 113:

    The despot treads thy sacred sands, Thy pines give shelter to his bands, Thy sons stand by with idle hands, Carolina

    Without a date, one might believe Timrod...

  5. Display of the Confederate Flag in Richmond Sparks Anger in Congress
    date February 17, 1867 to February 18, 1867map RICHMOND, Virginiatags Government, Politics, Race-Relations, Law

    On February 17, 1867 the New York Times reported on an act of reoccurring rebelliousness that happened within the city of Richmond, Virginia.  The incident that sparked all of the emotion was the display of the Confederate Flag during an event within the city.  Members of Congress and other Union loyalists decided that this act of rebelliousness proved that some of the southern states...

  6. The First Reconstruction Act is passed
    date March 2, 1867map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans

    The First Reconstruction Act, also known as the Military Reconstruction Act, passed into law on March 2, 1867 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The act applied to all the ex-Confederate states in the South, except Tennessee who had already ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. It split the states into five military districts, each under the control of a Northern General whose responsibility...

  7. The Irish Riot on Saint Patrick’s Day
    date March 17, 1867map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Irish Immigration, St. Patrick's Day

    Four leaf clovers adorned the street corners of New York City, soft bagpipes in the background-accompanied fiddles, and the whiskey flowed forth with a seemingly endless supply. The stereotypes of St. Patrick’s Day are numerous, and all derogatory towards the Irish immigrants who migrated to this land for a better life than the turmoil they were facing due to the Great Famine. These images are...

  8. The Second Reconstruction Act is passed
    date March 23, 1867map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans

    The Second Reconstruction Act of March 23, 1867 supplemented the First Reconstruction Act. The First Reconstruction Act left the Southern States in confusion to whose role it was to reinforce the legislation. The Second Act answered this problem. It established and clarified that the military commanders held responsibility to register voters and hold elections in their territories. The Second Reconstruction...

  9. First Recorded Sit-In.
    date March 27, 1867map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    On March 27, 1867, after the end of the Freedmen's meeting in Charleston, a group of African-Americans decided to test their right to ride on the Charleston Street Cars. The Streetcar Company's rules denied them this right. At 5 o'clock two to five men entered a streetcar on the King Street line, and sat among the white customers. Conductor Rivers endeavoured to explain the rules of...

  10. The Formation of the Republican Party in North Carolina
    date March 27, 1867map WAKE, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    On March 27, 1867, the North Carolina Republican Party officially formed at a meeting in Raleigh. Holden set the tone of the Republican Party. He wrote in the Raleigh Standard, “let our loyal people, and especially the colored people, trust no man who will not promptly say he is a Republican' (Raleigh Standard, April 4, 1867). The party, according to Albert Tourg?e, revealed men of “ignorance,...

  11. Following the Westward Expansion through a Kansas Trip in 1866
    date September 5, 1866map Unorganized, Kansastags Westward Expansion, Railroad, Pacific Railway, Union Pacific, Agriculture

    D. F. Drinkwater advertised that “‘Kansas’ bottom lands are exceedingly rich, and bring large crops of corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, sugar cane and vegetables, as well as hemp and cotton. The successful raising of the latter is no longer an experiment here.” But he added one more fact to make his call pertinent. It became easy and comfortable to come to Kansas by train. Who could claim...

  12. President of The National Bank of Atlanta investigates Georgia's gold specimens
    date March 13, 1867 to April 16, 1867map BALDWIN, Georgiatags Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War

    During March and April, 1867, John Rice, the President of the National Bank of Atlanta arrived in the Cherokee Gold Belt of Georgia to investigate the quality of recently mined minerals. He declared the beauty and high value of the gold and quartz specimen qualities. Rice's arrival in the Gold Belt reflected the rapidly growing interest in the mining of minerals in Georgia. Many had declared...

  13. Working Women
    date August 26, 1866map LOUISA, Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy, Women

    Anne Watson was part of a wealthy Virginia plantation family that flourished in the 19th century in Louisa County. She lived a life of luxury and refinement until tragedy struck and she lost several children and her husband, all by 1853. After her husband's death, she was forced into a dominant role in the running of the household, in both the domestic and business spheres.

    This new...

  14. Beating of a Young Girl in Chesterfield County
    date August 20, 1866map CHESTERFIELD, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    A young girl aged fourteen named Martha Ann Cogbill was walking throught the woods one day near Belona Arsenal in Chesterfield county when she was brutally attacked by a black man named Caesar Willards. Willards stopped the young girl and began to beat her with a musket stock until it broke. Willards continued by choking her and committing more outrageous acts and then left her for the dead in the...

  15. Equal Rights Association (ERA) Affiliates Itself with the Union League
    date August 1, 1866 to September 1, 1866map DOUGHERTY, Georgiatags African-Americans

    In 1865, shortly after the Civil War had ended, freedmen from Wilkes County, Georgia formed the Dougherty County Equal Rights Association (ERA). Members of the ERA felt that the Freedmen's Bureau, though helpful, could not meet all their needs, and therefore set out for themselves to secure political equality and education for blacks. Secrecy was an important part of the ERA's operation....

  16. Concerns over the building of the Tennessee Rail Road
    date April 9, 1867 to May 1, 1867map KNOX, Tennesseetags Agriculture, Economy, Migration/Transportation

    During April and May, 1867, a number of letters arrived into the Brownlow's Knoxville Whig newspaper. The letters, sent by a number of farmers expressed concerns over the delay of the railroad construction. <br /><br />The farmers worried over two possible delays. The first resulted from the recent state appropriation of 500,000 to the building of the railroad. As a condition for...

  17. Letter Detailing Jefferson Davis's Imprisonment at Fort Monroe Published in Georgia Paper
    date August 6, 1866map MACON, Georgiatags Crime/Violence

    Jefferson Davis was imprisoned without trial for nearly two years after the conclusion of the Civil War. This letter, published at a midpoint in his imprisonment details the habits of Davis at Fort Monroe, and describes the ways in which he was already fast becoming a martyr for ex-Confederate Southerners. Davis is portrayed in this letter as a pious and reflective man: Davis's “main...

  18. Writing for the South: William Gilmore Simms and Southern Intellectualism
    date May 1, 1867map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, Education

    In 1867, Charles Warren Stoddard sent the well-known author William Gilmore Simms a sample of poetry that he, a hopeful young author, had written. On May 1, 1867, Simms replied, congratulating Stoddard on the quality of his poetry and discussing his desire to help young authors whom he felt merited encouragement. These letters began a correspondence between the young author and his mentor that would...

  19. Freedmen and Republicans Murdered in New Orleans
    date July 30, 1866map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Politics, Race-Relations, African-Americans, Crime/Violence

    The New Orleans Riot occurred on July 30, 1866 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Whites instigated the riot and targeted freedmen. However, this riot was different from those of its time because it centered primarily on disagreements regarding Reconstruction policies. Radical Republicans were unhappy with former Confederates gaining power and influence under Governor Wells. Wells himself eventually noticed...

  20. White Response to African American Mob
    date May 9, 1867map RICHMOND, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    An escalating series of events led to armed soldiers charging at an African American mob of one thousand. Although the evening had started with a small group of African Americans watching a trial of engines between the Richmond and the visiting Wilmington, Delaware Fire Companies, police soon arrested an African American man who allegedly attacked the firemen. A riot followed, with the mob hurling...

  21. Jefferson Davis freed from prison.
    date May 13, 1867map HENRICO, Virginiatags War

    On May 13, 1867, Jefferson Davis walked free from prison on bail from Fort Monroe Virginia, after just three months of legal litigation. His bail cost 10,000. The United States had kept him in prison for two years after the collapse of the Confederacy, when the Union army had captured and imprisoned him on May 10, 1865 for treason. Even at the time of Davis' release people predicted that his...

  22. Mother Files Complaint with Freedman's Bureau about Apprentice Law
    date July 1, 1866 to July 31, 1866map YAZOO, Mississippitags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    When former slave Laura Taylor attempted to leave the plantation of her former owner, Mr. Allen, at Christmas in 1865 she was allowed to go, but her two children remained bound, legally, to Mr. Allen and his property. Mr. Allen was the children's legal guardian under Mississippi's apprentice law of November 22, 1865. This law operated under the illusion that it was protecting young black...

  23. Southern Opinion on the National Union Convention of 1866
    date July 11, 1866map MONTGOMERY, Alabamatags Government, Politics, War

    "The object of the convention is to sustain the President and reunite the country on his policy of Reconstruction." With this statement, the Wednesday, July 11, 1866 edition of the Montgomery Daily Advertiser outlined the purpose of the upcoming National Union Convention that was to take place on August 14, 1866. With the end of the war, the issue of reuniting the country was topic of both local...

  24. Ex-Confederates Move Way Down South
    date 1866map YOUNG TERRITORY, Texastags Civil War, The Confederate States of America, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    For some Confederates at the end of the war, defeat was too much to bear. By the 1870, the Census Bureau estimated that there was a net loss of more than 300,000 migrants in nine former Confederate states. The ones that left the United States altogether and went by way of Brazil and Mexico were known as "confederados" and built their homes in Santarem in the Amazon basin and Santa Barbara D'Oeste...

  25. Kind Words for Sunday School Children teaches children to live a Christian lifestyle.
    date 1866map FULTON, Georgiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Christianity, Baptists, sunday school

    Once a month, children all over Atlanta, Georgia would rush to the front yard to gather up the newspaper. With their Bibles in hand, they eagerly flipped to their favorite section labeled Kind Words for Sunday School Children. These “kind words” were stories written for the Christian children to read and to take away important lessons that the Bible teaches. These stories were stories from the...