Union sentiment remains high in parts of Tennessee. By the thousands Union sympathizers flee to Kentucky to escape conscription into the Confederate Army, from whence many join the Union army. One such man is Lindsay Cooper, a Baptist who survives the war and becomes a successful preacher, missionary and evangelist in his home state: Lindsay…
United States forces occupy Fort Monroe in Virginia, with plans to transform the nearby town of Hampton into a base for quartering troops and former slaves who have escaped behind Union lines and to freedom under President Lincoln’s contraband policy. Upon reading this morning’s newspaper, Confederate Gen. John B. Magruder learns of Union intentions. Unwilling…
Today the informal emancipation of southern slaves begins, in the form of the United States’ Act to Confiscate Property used for Insurrectionary Purposes. While not mentioning slavery specifically, the Act approved by the President and passed by the Congress gives Union armies the power to confiscate the property of southerners – including slaves, the most…