In and around the battlefronts of Atlanta and Petersburg (and nearby Richmond), anticipation and apprehension is in the air. News of the Union victory in Mobile Bay is filtering out. With the shuttering of the port of Mobile, the Federals have further tightened their encirclement around the South. The strangling of the Confederacy involves that…
Union forces continue pressing Atlanta’s defenders, approaching within viewing distance of Atlanta from atop surrounding hills. For Atlantans, the situation is getting desperate. Yet even in the midst of the throes of their nation’s fortunes rapidly sinking against the onslaught of abolitionist foes (some white Southern Baptists having even gone so far as to call…
While in Virginia the North and South struggle over control of Petersburg–and hence the Confederate capital of Richmond–numerous minor skirmishes take place this summer throughout Virginia at large. One such clash occurs today when Confederate Col. John S. Mosby’s Rangers (or Raiders), a crack cavalry unit, attack 150 Union cavalrymen near the Mt. Zion Old…