Today U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is presented with a note proposing a meeting of “commissioners” from the North and South to explore possible paths to peace. This initiative results in behind-the-scenes diplomacy in the coming weeks. Also in Washington, D.C. this day, Kentucky Baptist and U.S. Congressman Green Clay Smith delivers a speech in favor…
The New York Times today reprints a speech on slavery delivered by Kentucky Baptist layman and U.S. Congressman Green Clay Smith (1826-1895). Smith served as a Second Lieutenant in the Army during the Mexican War, after which he graduated from Transylvania University and then practiced law with his father, John Speed Smith, an attorney and…
South Carolinian Robert Smalls, a former slave who had worked in Charleston’s shipyards, became a hero to the North in May 1862 when he commandeered the Confederate transport CSS Planter in Charleston Harbor and steered the ship to safety and freedom for himself and his crew of slaves and their families, behind nearby Union naval…