The new paradigm of Southern freedom poses a challenge for white citizens. Following two centuries of enslavement, blacks, now free, have little interest in maintaining close associations with whites. At the same time, a general lack of education, housing and jobs among freedmen ensures that relations with whites will have to continue, at least to…
While men typically occupy the front lines of Civil War narratives, war-time hospitals created space for women to play significant roles. Millions of soldiers were injured during the war, with hundreds of thousands requiring hospitalization to various degrees. The sudden necessity of large volumes of nurses to work in the hundreds of temporary war-era hospitals…
Union troops under the command of Brigadier General Alexander Schimmelfennig, making their way up the South Carolina coast, today reach James Island near Charleston. In what becomes known as the Battle of James Island or the Battle of Grimball’s Causeway, the Union thus takes the offensive against Charleston for the first time since September 1863.…