Unbeknownst to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, a photograph of him taken this day on the balcony of the White House will prove to be his last. Soon, he will succumb to an assassin’s bullet. Far away in Florida, also this day, Confederate forces triumph in what will prove to be one of the South’s last…
While quietness masks Union maneuvering among the islands near Charleston this day, an unwelcome surprise awaits Union forces marching into Aiken. The opposition thus far to Sherman‘s advances in the state has been ineffective. Confederate General Joseph Wheeler, however, hopes to reverse the course of the war that has gone so badly awry for the…
Prior to the war and despite the growing abolitionist movement, discriminatory laws against black citizens were common in the North. Known as “black laws,” the regulations often prevented blacks from voting, serving on juries, testifying in court against a white person or signing contracts. Freedom, in short, while real nonetheless came with restrictions for black…