In this day and age, newspapers rarely print fiction. Of course, there is the occasional magical story written by a third grade class that appears every once a week in the Arts and Entertainment section of the paper, but for the most part, fictional stories of real substance are not published in newspapers anymore. This was not the case in the 1800's. Appearing in The Valley Star each week was...
Kansas militia led by Jim Lane and Doc Jennison rode into Western Missouri in the Summer and Fall of 1861, claiming they intended to protect the railroads. Instead, they gained a reputation for vicious looting; they were essentially bandits. According to the Charleston Mercury on October 30, 1861, “Even the St. Louis Republican, a fierce Abolition sheet, is ashamed of the brutalities of the...
On November 8, 1861, a group of East Tennessee Unionists led by William Blount Carter burned five bridges to hamper Confederate troop movements. Carter, a Presbyterian minister, had spoken with Lincoln about a plan to burn eleven key bridges between Alabama and Virginia. Many iron furnaces were located in Alabama, producing confederate cannon. Carter's hope was for Union troops to attack...
While residing in his hometown of Washington, DC, a Doctor Snyder was summoned by the Head Quarters City Guard to tend to the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac who were currently stationed in Virginia.However, in order to reach the Army in Virginia, where he was to spend four days, he had to first obtain a pass For Civilians from the Provost Marshal's Office in Washington.The pass was of great...
In May 1861, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America decided by a near unanimous vote to endorse the Republican Administration. Consequently, the national church breached the fundamental law of Presbyterianism, by making themselves party to sectional agitations. These resolutions passed by the national church require its members to maintain their allegiance...
Many Indians disagreed to Secession, but not necessarily agree to abolition, either. Families owned slaves and continued to throughout the Civil War. Opoethleyohola, a Muscogee Creek Chief also known as Gouge, wished to remain neutral. Many other neutral Creeks followed him North of Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma.
Colonel Douglas H. Cooper had been persuaded that 'Gouge'...
When S. N. Stallings signed up for service in the army of the Confederate States of America, he sought glory and excitement in the defense of his home and values. By 1861, Stallings' dreams had faded. Rather than fighting against invading hordes of Yankees, he was guarding prisoners of war at the courthouse in Barnwell County, South Carolina.
Worse, the Confederate government had little...
“I cannot refrain to write you a few lines” wrote Private Dirk Keppel, “because I am at the moment still in good health and I hope you may receive this letter in good health.” Keppel, just eighteen when he joined the 8thMichigan Infantry of the Union Army in 1861, began each letter he wrote home this way. His company moved...
Charles Furman had known Fannie Garden for only 13 days before he asked her to marry him. In all, they spent less than a month together before the Confederate government ordered him northward to fight the “soulless soldiers” of the “despised Yankee Nation." The letters they wrote in the years that followed captured both their own deepening love and the chaos and carnage of the American Civil...
Dr. A. Kaiser of Winston County passionately wrote down the concerns of his fellow Confederate supporters at the meeting conducted on November 30, 1861 in Alabama. Winston County is a small, rural county in the upper northwest corner of Alabama. The county was a pro-Union county that was creating a disturbance in the Confederate state. In Dr. Kaiser’s letter, he emphasizes the wishes of...