One day after President Abraham Lincoln‘s untimely death by the bullet of assassin John Wilkes Booth, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pulpits in the North and Union-occupied areas of the South address the president’s death. Many Baptist preachers speak of Lincoln, often weaving the president into the Easter theme of sacrifice and renewal. More common yet…
Today, four years to the day after the war began with the South’s assault upon Fort Sumter, the formal surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia takes place. The Federals await at Appomattox Court House as the Confederates break camp for the last time early this morning and march up the Richmond-Lynchburg Road to lay…
When the war began four years ago, Richmond, soon to become the Confederate capital, had a larger number of enslaved African Americans–some 500,000–than any other city in America. Today, the fourth day of freedom in Richmond, the city’s newly-freed blacks hold a “jubilee celebration” at the First African Baptist Church, the celebration including soldiers of…