Independence Day celebrations return to a nation undivided. For white Southerners, many impoverished in the wake of their Confederacy’s defeat, the day is the darkest July 4th ever as free blacks and U.S. soldiers parade through Southern cities and the Emancipation Proclamation is read alongside the Declaration of Independence. Evidencing little to no regard for…
Today in the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C. the Grand Review of the Armies takes place. Beginning at 9:00 a.m. sharp on a bright and sunny day, some 80,000 soldiers from the Union Army of the Potomac parade through the streets to the cheers of politicians, officials and citizens, including president Andrew Johnson, standing alongside…
Anxieties North and South are high. The moment of truth is mere days to come. The United States and Confederate States, both weary of war, steel for yet another season of bloodshed and anguish. This most uncivil of wars was never expected to last this long. The public is nervous, politicians are wary, and soldier…