Today in the Second Battle of Dalton (Georgia), Confederate cavalry under the command of Major General Joseph Wheeler, in the midst of a campaign to disrupt Union supply lines north of besieged Atlanta, demand the surrender of the town’s Union garrison. The Federals refuse, driving off the Rebels by day’s end. A detachment of United…
John R. Bowles, born June 13, 1826 in Lynchburg, Virginia, is a free black and a Baptist minister. As a young man, Bowles settled near Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio, marrying Sarah Jane Bryant in 1848. There the couple grew their family, in addition to participating in the Underground Railroad. At thirty years of age,…
Prior to the war, “Lee Town” in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa became a refuge for escaped slaves fleeing from Missouri, as well as slaves freed by Missouri slave owners who came to oppose the peculiar institution. The Underground Railroad was nearby. Some freedman passed through Lee Town; others, finding protection, stayed. Soon after the Civil War…