As has typically been the case in the history of the American South to the this point, slave marriages are rarely recognized as legitimate by masters, courts or churches. Yet some exceptions do exist, at least in part, as is evidenced by a marriage ceremony that takes place this day at the May’s Lick Baptist…
The Battle of Cold Harbor, now full-fledged trench warfare, continues in Virginia near Richmond. Battle clashes have been replaced with occasional shots from sharpshooters and the whine and explosion of lobbed artillery shells. Heat, dust and a lack of water, food and medical care in the trenches bodes ill for the soldiers in this new…
Included in the United States’ battle preparations for the coming spring engagements is the use of large numbers of black soldiers, former slaves who are ready and willing to fight for the freedom of their families and friends yet enslaved in the Confederate States. A number of “colored regiments” proved their mettle during the battles…