We are still living with the bitter consequences of his wife’s revisionist narrative today. George Pickett – Major General George E. Pickett – was our family’s marquee Confederate relation, distant cousin though he was. Every schoolchild in America has heard of him, thanks to the ill-fated infantry charge at the Battle of Gettysburg. For a[…]
Secession and the Civil War were about slavery and race. Introduction In his second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln recalled, “All knew that” the “peculiar and powerful interest” in slaves “was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even[…]
John Brown first became a nationally known figure in 1856 through his actions in the Kansas Territory, three years before Harper’s Ferry. Who Was John Brown? “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.” John Brown, shortly before his execution, 1859[…]
From the beginning of the war, Merrick was suspected of disloyalty. The American Civil War was not just a conflict between North and South. Indeed, many smaller conflicts pervaded both sections of the divided nation. In the South, for example, Jefferson Davis had to deal with noncompliant and obstructive governors in North Carolina and Georgia.[…]
Not until sixteen months after Appomattox, on August 20, 1866, did the President formally declare an end to the war. Introduction Appomattox. To many Americans the word Appomattox is synonymous with the end of the Civil War. The war, however, did not officially conclude at that tiny village west of Petersburg, Virginia. But what happened[…]
His story represents the lives of many African American leaders who remain in the shadows of history during Reconstruction and beyond. Introduction The period in American history known as “Reconstruction” began a social revolution that changed the South forever. For 14 years (1863–1877), persons of African descent once held in chattel slavery worked and served[…]
Why did Americans fight each other with a ferocity unmatched in the Western world? The Civil War had a greater impact on American society and the polity than any other event in the country’s history. It was also the most traumatic experience endured by any generation of Americans. At least 620,000 soldiers lost their lives[…]
The federal government was able to spur innovation to meet the needs of the crisis. Introduction The current COVID-19 pandemic, the largest public health crisis in a century, threatens the health of people across the globe. The U.S. has had the most diagnosed cases – surpassing 6 million – and more than 180,000 deaths. But[…]
The victory provided a renewed strength of the U.S. government and allowed shifting resources to fight external intervention. Introduction The outcome of the Civil War resulted in a strengthening of U.S. foreign power and influence, as the definitive Union defeat of the Confederacy firmly demonstrated the strength of the United States Government and restored its[…]
The Lincoln administration understood that it would be unwise to risk a possible armed conflict while already in the midst of a war. Introduction On November 8, 1861, Charles Wilkes, a U.S. Navy Officer, captured two Confederate envoys aboard the British mail ship, the Trent. Great Britain accused the United States of violating British neutrality,[…]
Examining the initial fractures, course, and ultimate resolution of the Civil War that divided the nation. Decade of Crisis Slave Resistance During the 1850s, Americans witnessed a decade of sectional crises that threatened the very existence of the Union. Ralph Waldo Emerson was right in predicting that the Mexican Cession would reignite the explosive issue[…]
Taking a look at some of the key figures who played important roles during one of our nation’s most divisive times. Abraham Lincoln February 12 1809 – April 15 1865 Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States and the first Republican elected to that office. Lincoln was president during the Civil War,[…]
Each state had to figure out how the men at the front would submit their votes. Some of the eligible voters from Highland County, Ohio were not at home for the state election in October 1864. Service with the Union army had brought them to Atlanta, Georgia. However, with a recent provision enacted by the[…]
Lincoln was presiding over a bloody civil war with waning popularity. But he steadfastly rejected pleas to postpone the election. Introduction The outlook was not promising in 1864 for President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection. Hundreds of thousands of Americans had been killed, wounded or displaced in a civil war with no end in sight. Lincoln was[…]
An unusually civil armistice in the most punishing conflict ever fought on American soil. One hundred and fifty years ago, on April 9, 1865, a lone Confederate horseman violently waving a white towel as a flag of truce galloped up to the men of the 118th Pennsylvania Infantry near Appomattox Court House and asked for[…]
The loudest booms people had ever heard and the powerful stench of death on a staggering scale. In rhetoric and substance, wars are generally fought for ideals that are noble, dignified, and lofty. Leaders justify waging war—and endeavor to inspire those who fight them—by appealing to powerful abstractions: liberty, self-determination, and national identity. In turn,[…]
The Harriet Lane engaging in a battery at Pig’s Point By Sara Hale My Grandfather’s account of the escape of the Harriet Lane through the Union blockade of Galveston. The letter is addressed to “Friend Phillips” the then editor of the North AdamsTranscript, North Adams, Massachusetts. On board U. S. Steam Sloop “Lackawanna” Off Galveston,[…]
Alena Kuzmina/Shutterstock.com Christmas tends to assume a strong sense of its own significance in times of protracted conflict. By Dr. David Anderson / 12.22.2016 Senior Lecturer in American History Swansea University Shortly before Christmas Day 1864, Abraham Lincoln received an extraordinary Christmas present – Savannah, Georgia. Union General William Sherman presented the captured city to the president[…]
A One Hundred Dollar Confederate States of America banknote dated December 22, 1862. Issued during the American Civil War (1861–1865) / Wikimedia Commons What was the economic impact of the Civil War on American life? By Dr. Burton W. Folsom / 03.23.2011 Senior Fellow in Economic Education Mackinac Center for Public Policy Even after 150[…]
The Hunley submarine / Wikimedia Commons War makes governments willing to try nearly anything, no matter how insane it sounds. By Francis Horton / 05.17.2017 If there is anything that drives innovation in science and technology, it’s a good old-fashioned war. When you need to kill your enemies faster and deader than they kill you,[…]
Looking at at a group of white slaveholders who adopted Southeast Indian boys (Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw) into their plantation households in the decades following the US Revolution. By Dr. Dawn Peterson / 09.14.2017 Assistant Professor of Early North American and U.S. History Emory University In 1811 a prominent Choctawwoman named Molly McDonald placed her eleven-year-old son[…]
She took the international abolitionist stage during the Civil War. By Adam McNeil / 07.13.2018 PhD Student in Black Women’s Intellectual and Political History University of Delaware The meaning of the American Civil War has been, and still is, one of the most contentious issues facing the United States today. An aspect of the war that seems[…]
Wedding photograph of Jefferson Davis and Varina Howell, 1845 / New York Public Library By Kimberly J. Largent Editor Charge the Cannons Publishing The Early Years The Briars in Natchez, Mississippi, birthplace of Varina Anne Banks Howell Davis in 1826 / Library of Congress Varina Anne Banks Howell Davis was born to William Burr Howell and[…]
American Civil War Museum By Kimberly J. Largent Editor Charge the Cannons Publishing Growing Up at Arlington Mary Custis Lee, great-granddaughter of First Lady Martha Washington, has been often portrayed in a negative light wherever her name appears in the annals. It is written that her debilitating arthritis turned her into a constant complainer and that[…]
Freedmen voting in New Orleans, 1867 / Library of Congress By Dr. Allen Carl Guelzo / 02.04.2018 Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Director of Civil War Era Studies Gettysburg College There is no Society for Historians of Reconstruction. That should tell you something. There are also no Reconstruction re-enactments, and no museums[…]
The Confederates marched on Gettysburg on account of their need for … shoes. By Dr. Catherine L. Thompson and Declan Cronin / 06.24.2018 Thompson: Visiting Assistant Professor of History Cronin: 4th-Year Student College of the Holy Cross On the eve of the 155th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, does anyone remember why it[…]
A group of Mosby’s Rangers (Mosby center) By Robert Naranjo In the pre-dawn hours of August 13, 1864 part of the 525-wagon convoy carrying supplies to Sheridan’s army stationed near Winchester, Virginia came to a rest stop near Berryville. Unnoticed by the guards, several gray-clad figures converged upon two Union cannons. Moments later Mosby’s Rangers[…]
General Ulysses S. Grant / Library of Congress By Scott Laidig Senior Fellow Potomac Institute for Policy Studies The Civil War has been alternatively described as the last of the Napoleonic Wars or the first of the modern wars.[1] Clearly it was a transitional war and one man, more than any other, can be credited[…]
By Kimberly J. Largent Editor Charge the Cannons Publishing The Early Years Mary Todd Lincoln, the most criticized and misunderstood first lady, experienced more than her share of tragedy during her lifetime. From the time she was six, her life took a melancholy turn from which she never recovered. She suffered from depressive episodes and migraine[…]
Anderson Prison (Camp Sumter) / Wikimedia Commons By Jerry Staub INTRODUCTION General William Tecumseh Sherman as a major general in May 1865. The black ribbon of mourning on his left arm is for U.S. President Lincoln. Portrait by Mathew Brady. / Wikimedia Commons In April 1864, Sherman embarked on his mission to strike at the heart of[…]