In the middle of the bitter winter cold, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, embedded in the trenches near Petersburg, writes to the Confederate Secretary of War in the nearby Southern capital of Richmond. The subject is army desertion. “I have endeavored to ascertain the causes [of the] alarming frequency of desertions,” the general writes. Lee…
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,…
The Second Battle of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, rages for a second day. Having landed on a nearby beach yesterday, the Federals now reinforce their position while Union naval ships bombard the northern battlement of the fort. More federal troops are prepared to come ashore on the morrow. Meanwhile, Sherman’s armies are now spread throughout…