While quietness masks Union maneuvering among the islands near Charleston this day, an unwelcome surprise awaits Union forces marching into Aiken. The opposition thus far to Sherman‘s advances in the state has been ineffective. Confederate General Joseph Wheeler, however, hopes to reverse the course of the war that has gone so badly awry for the…
Inland from Beauford, Union General William T. Sherman is now in Hampton County, South Carolina, at “Duck Branch Post-Office, Thirty-one miles out from Pocotaligo.” Today’s march was eleven miles, yesterday’s twenty. Some of his troops having marched into South Carolina earlier, Sherman’s forces are now fully engaged in the invasion of the Palmetto State. Meanwhile…
Today U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment, thus sending it to the states for ratification. Also today, from Savannah Assistant Adjutant-General E. D. Townsend writes to the U.S. War Department concerning the January 12 meeting that took place between General William T. Sherman and “the colored ministers in Savannah.” From that meeting, during…