In the midst of a harsh cold spell and a dwindling food supply for the Confederate Army, today Confederate President Jefferson Davis assents to Gen. Robert E. Lee‘s request for more supplies by ordering “impressment from stock [cattle] on hand for year’s consumption by private parties and corporations of so much as is required for…
The fortunes of the Confederacy have fallen enough that some white Southern intellectuals have, albeit quietly and discretely, begun contemplating the unpleasant possibility of defeat and the end of African slavery. The outlines of a post-war narrative of Southern defeat are already taking shape, involving themes of white supremacy, righteousness and faithfulness victimized by superior…
As the one year anniversary of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln‘s Emancipation Proclamation nears, a contraband (freedman’s) camp in Union-controlled Yorktown, Virginia continues to grow. This month the recently-formed 4th and 6th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment arrives, to the surprise of many new freedman who were not even aware that colored regiments were forming. Some excited…