Fifteen miles north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Confederate forces from Texas strike a Union supply area at Milliken’s Bend in an attempt to loosen U.S. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant‘s siege of Vicksburg. The supply depots and hospitals at Milliken’s Bend are guarded by black soldiers, many of whom were until recently enslaved men. Armed with inferior…
Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, unsuccessful thus far in capturing Vicksburg, Mississippi, today gives up assaulting the city and orders his commanders to deploy siege tactics. Thus begins a month-long plus effort to force the city to surrender. Meanwhile, readers of North Carolina Baptists’ Biblical Recorder learn of a good report from the Confederate army…
Today, a father and son – both Baptists – enlist in Company B, Thirty-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Marching off to war together, Edward T. Durant (born 1819) and son William E. (born 1843) serve the United States in its time of greatest need. Like many other soldiers, they are common folk: Edward is a farmer-turned-carpenter,…