On Hilton Head Island on the coast of South Carolina a convention of Colored Baptist churches assembles this day at Mitchelville. The South Carolina coast since 1862 has been home to tens of thousands of freedmen. The initial free blacks in the area were liberated during the war by the Union Army during the war…
Today Robert Smalls, a hero of the war, is discharged from military service. Smalls is a former slave who during the war daringly escaped from slavery in Charleston by capturing a Confederate steamer, the Planter. His heroics were celebrated throughout the North, where he conducted speaking tours. In addition, he was made captain of the…
While quietness masks Union maneuvering among the islands near Charleston this day, an unwelcome surprise awaits Union forces marching into Aiken. The opposition thus far to Sherman‘s advances in the state has been ineffective. Confederate General Joseph Wheeler, however, hopes to reverse the course of the war that has gone so badly awry for the…