America’s mourning continues as Lincoln‘s funeral train pauses in Cleveland this day. At the same time, many rejoice as local newspapers publish accounts of the death of John Wilkes Booth. The assassin’s death cannot right his evil deed, but at least a small amount of justice has been served. The wrath of the U.S. government…
The worst disaster in American Maritime history occurs today in the Mississippi River, exceeding even that of the Titanic many years later. During the war the steamship Sultana plied the Mississippi between St. Louis and New Orleans, often carrying military personnel. Now, with the war effectively over (former Confederate president Jefferson Davis yet in hiding…
Although Union General William T. Sherman and Confederate General Joseph Johnston a week earlier agreed on terms for a surrender of Jonston’s remaining army, the last large body of Confederate forces, officials in Washington D.C. rejected those terms as too lenient on the Confederacy. Subsequently, Jefferson Davis rejected Union demands for harsher conditions, and from…