Union Gen. Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts is commander of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina. Butler is hated among white Southerners for his distinction of authoring the designation of fugitive slaves in Union controlled-territory as “contraband,” an order he had issued in May 1861 while commanding the Department of Eastern Virginia. While prior…
Loyalties are not always clearcut in North Carolina. Although the state has contributed more soldiers to the Confederacy’s cause then any of her neighboring states, Union sentiment in the Tar Heel State is robust enough that eight Union regiments are ultimately formed from the state’s citizenry. Skirmishes between Confederate and Union loyalties have been ongoing…
Following U.S. President Abraham Lincoln‘s Emancipation Proclamation of January , 1863, a group of approximately 75 enslaved blacks escaped from Boone County, Missouri and made their way northward. Many if not most were of the Baptist faith. Accounts indicate that the runaway slaves traveled part of the way by river and were rescued and towed…