Today the U.S. Congress passes the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, an act creating the Freedmen’s Bureau. The bill is considered a major step in the early movement toward racial equality, providing assistance for former slaves in terms of food, housing, education and health care, in addition to oversight regarding employment contracts with private landowners. Black Baptists,…
While only minor skirmishes occur this day, in Virginia Union General Ulysses S. Grant orders Major General Phil Sheridan‘s force of some 10,000 cavalry to move south of Winchester on a mission to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad and James River Canal. In addition, Sheridan is tasked with capturing Lynchburg, if possible. Indeed, with Sherman…
South Carolina has fallen. Federals now operate out of Wilmington, North Carolina. Richmond is increasingly under pressure by Grant. Union naval vessels float off Florida’s Cedar Keys. The end is near for the Confederacy, evidenced not only by the successes of Federal armies in the South but also the growing number of slaves escaping behind…