Attempting to disrupt Union General William T. Sherman‘s operations in Georgia, the Confederate’s Army of the Tennessee takes advantage of the absence of Federal troops at Kennessaw and Big Shanty by seizing the rail lines and commencing operations to destroy the rails, hence cutting off the Federals’ supply route between Atlanta and Nashville. Unamused, Sherman…
The First Battle of Saltville takes place today in Virginia. Salt is an important war-time commodity. In today’s battle, Union forces attempt to seize saltworks controlled by Confederate forces. For three days the fighting rages, until at last Confederate soldiers, regulars and home front guards, although outnumbered, defeat the Federals. Upon defeating the enemy, irregular…
The Civil War has raised a host of issues for white Baptists of the South, a largely rural people who, echoing the early frontier ethos of their spiritual ancestors, frame religion as personal piety rather than social responsibility. Local church minutes of the 1850s and 1860s are often concerned with personal sins such as card…