Today U.S. President Abraham Lincoln wires encouraging words to General Ulysses S. Grant, entrenched at Petersburg against a determined but outnumbered Confederate enemy. “Hold on with a bull-dog grip, and chew & choke, as much as possible,” Lincoln instructs the general, the objective being to wear down the enemy, no matter now long it takes.…
Today in the Second Battle of Dalton (Georgia), Confederate cavalry under the command of Major General Joseph Wheeler, in the midst of a campaign to disrupt Union supply lines north of besieged Atlanta, demand the surrender of the town’s Union garrison. The Federals refuse, driving off the Rebels by day’s end. A detachment of United…
Standing 6’2″, North Carolinian James Jenkins, 22 years of age, today musters into service with the 2nd North Carolina Colored Infantry at Portsmouth, Virginia. Jenkins is a free black, likely a mulatto. Service in the United States Army is important to the young man. After Private James Jenkins had gotten the brass letter, U.S., an…