This week the 118th United States Colored Troops regiment is forming in Kentucky. Many former slaves enroll today in Owensboro, eager to take up arms to help put down the Rebellion and free the remaining slaves in the Confederacy. Former slaves are now daily enrolling in the Union Army, and in so doing are ensuring…
With the spring battle season drawing nigh, United States General Ulysses S. Grant, now head of all federal forces, today sends notice to the Confederacy that prisoner exchanges benefiting the South will no longer be allowed. Grant’s new prisoner exchange policy disallows one on one prisoner exchanges which are beneficial to the smaller Confederate Army.…
Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant today writes U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, voicing his “hearty support” of arming blacks in the war against the Confederate States. For Grant, the letter reflects evolving convictions; earlier in the war, Grant had not voiced sympathy for the emancipation of slaves. Cairo Illinois August 23d 1863. Sir: Your letter of…