Today Lincoln’s funeral train departs D.C. en route to his hometown of Springfield, Illinois. The slow moving procession is scheduled to traverse seven states and 1,700 miles over the course of thirteen days. Accompanying Lincoln’s body is that of his son, Willie, who passed away three years earlier at the age of eleven. He will…
Today the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of Colored People is formed in Maryland. Supported heavily by Baptists, the organization’s focus is statewide. It is one of many such similar associations formed in the North, as well as in Union-controlled areas of the South, during the second half of the Civil War.…
With Atlanta now safely in Union hands, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is able to rest a bit easier. The capture of the Southern city bolsters the president’s re-election prospects, and, assuming Lincoln’s re-election (which is not yet a given, despite Atlanta) almost assures a United States victory over the rebellious Southern states. Against this backdrop,…