Gettysburg’s outcome ripples outward North and South, impacting the lives of countless soldiers, officers, civilians and politicians. One impacted Union officer is Charles H. Banes (1831-1897), a Baptist businessman from Philadelphia and member of the city’s Second Baptist Church. Banes this month is promoted to the rank of major in the Union Army’s Philadelphia Brigade.…
Today Union troops, having landed the previous day on Morris Island in Charleston harbor, begin a campaign to capture the island’s Fort Wagner (also known as Battery Wagner), a well-guarded Confederate fortress built upon beach sands south of Charleston. Controlling the fort would put a little more pressure on the nearby South Carolina coastal city.…
Today the Confederate fortress of Port Hudson, Louisiana, located on the Mississippi River, finally surrenders to sieging Union forces. Rebels are forced to give up due to the unbearable hot summer climate and lack of water and food. The entirety of the Mississippi River is now firmly under control of the United States, separating the…