As Union General Ulysses S. Grant makes ready his imminent spring campaign against the Confederate capital of Richmond, the Southern nation observes a day of fasting and prayer, as instructed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Of the many such days proclaimed by Davis during the war, today’s observances are probably the most widely observed, due…
The reconstruction of Southern states takes another step forward today when Louisiana delegates assemble in New Orleans to debate the wording of a new constitution that will abolish slavery and restore the state to the Union. Although prior to the war Louisiana claimed some of the richest counties in the nation due to the presence…
While three years of fragmentation have brought little healing between North and South, there are growing signs that reconciliation is possible, evidenced in a surprisingly positive response–from certain states in the South–to U. S. Abraham Lincoln‘s four month-old offer of amnesty and reconstruction. Yet even within the glimmers of reconciliation remains a stark reality: the…