Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, solidly under the control of the United States military, is the Union’s southern headquarters for the war and a major military supply depot. Fort Howell, a hospital, barracks, and other structures support a force that at times exceeds 30,000 men. Strategically, the island is staging grounds and supply headquarters for…
On this last Thursday of November, many Northerners celebrate a day of Thanksgiving. The day is not yet recognized as a national holiday (this will not take place until next year), but is increasingly recognized as a localized or even statewide event throughout the Northern states. And while Northerners find much for which to be…
Today the First Kansas Colored Infantry, the first African Americans recruited in the Northern states for service in the Civil War, experience their first battlefield engagement. At Island Mound in Missouri’s Bates Country, a detachment of some 225 Kansas African American soldiers clash with five hundred Confederates. Although ten Kansas soldiers are killed and twelve…