Aboard the River Queen at Union-controlled Hampton Roads, Virginia, leaders of the United States and Confederate States meet to discuss the possibility of peace. Present are U.S. president Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward for the Union, and for the Confederates, vice president Alexander H. Stephens, Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell,…
Today, while his forces are fanning out north of Savannah, U.S. General William T. Sherman is at Hilton Head, South Carolina. His movements are designed to convince Confederate forces that an attack on Charleston is imminent. The ruse works, confusing the enemy. In reality, Sherman’s goal is Columbia, the state’s capital. Meanwhile, in Springfield, Illinois…
More than two years have passed since U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Since that day, emancipation of slaves has come about bit by bit, and is yet far from complete. Today the latest chapter in this ongoing saga takes place in Kansas City, Kansas, where the city’s remaining black slaves are emancipated,…