The month of February draws to a close with four major, strategic cities of the Deep South under Union control: Atlanta, Savannah, Columbia and Charleston. In addition, the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina is also occupied, leaving the Confederacy with no ports from which to sail naval vessels. With the Union coastal blockade now…
Today is Sunday, and a new Baptist church is born. But it is not a typical Baptist church. Union troops are now firmly in control of much of South Carolina’s coastline. One island town stands out above the others: Hilton Head, one of the wealthiest of the state’s towns prior to the war. Previously home…
The North Carolina port town of Wilmington, a quiet community of some 10,000 persons on the eve of the war, has been transformed into a center of “profiteering and money-laundering” that is a magnet for speculators, “rogues and desperadoes,” “crooks, confidence men, and prostitutes.” Many residents have fled from their homes to safer and more…