In Union-controlled Tennessee, formerly enslaved African Americans, many of them Baptist, are publicly expressing their sentiments to the state’s politicians, including Governor Andrew Johnson. African American attorney John Mercer Langston, born a slave, is one of the most prominent voices. On January 2, he addressed some 3,500 Unionists, 3,000 of them black, declaring that the…
Elijah P. Marrs, Company L, 12th U.S. Colored Artillery, experiences an adventure-filled day in Kentucky. A slave until running away mere months ago, the Union soldier and Baptist layman, his company tasked with recruiting new black soldiers, unexpectedly confronts the prospect of death at the hands of Confederate soldiers. Fortunately, the encounter takes place in…
Today in the far West a clash between Indians and U.S. soldiers takes place. In the Battle of Julesburg some 1,000 Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota Indians, seeking revenge for the Sand Creek Massacre less than two months earlier, defeat a small contingent of 60 soldiers and 50 civilians. In the weeks following, the victorious Indians…