Since the Union capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi this past summer, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman has focused his attention eastward to Meridian, another strategic town in Mississippi. Slowly but surely and through a veil of feints and unusual maneuvers, Sherman has confused Confederate defenses in the ensuing months. Today the Union general and his army finally…
In the heart of winter a military campaign in North Carolina offers a glimpse into the likely outcome of the war. The town of Newbern (or New Bern) came under attack earlier in the month … by Confederate forces. Located in eastern North Carolina, the Union-controlled town represented an unwelcome dilemma for the Confederacy. In…
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…