Today the Federal crimping of Confederate capabilities continues with the capture of the Lucy, one of few remaining Confederate blockade runners. The Lucy‘s signal officer, Sidney Lanier, is taken prisoner and transferred to Point Lookout prison in Maryland. Lanier (1842-1881), a native of Macon, Georgia, survives the war, marries, returns to his home town, and…
Today at Florence, Alabama, Confederate Lieutenant General John Bell Hood is finally positioned and ready to cross the Tennessee River into the state of Tennessee. Hood’s hope during his march through Alabama has been that Union General William T. Sherman will follow him, thus taking Sherman and his armies away from Atlanta. The Union general…
Today Nevada is admitted into the Union as the 36th state. Statehood arrives eight days prior to the 1864 presidential elections, and is earlier than originally planned in order to provide a voting edge for President Lincoln and the Republican Party. Hurrying Western territories into statehood is a broader strategy utilized during the war and…