Today Union raiders create havoc in Wright City, Missouri, a town in a border state evidencing mixed, vocal loyalties. Targeting buildings where Southern sympathizers are known to gather, the militia first strike the Baptist church, torching the meeting house. As the church blazes, the raiders move on to two local businesses, setting fire to a…
Today the Union captures Little Rock, Arkansas in the Battle of Bayou Fourche. Afterwards, state Confederate forces retreat to Arkadelphia and Rockport and establish a new state capitol at Washington, in Hempstead County. The fall of Little Rock further fragments the Confederate nation as the Southwest is increasingly isolated from the rest of the South.…
The Tennessee city of Chattanooga, evacuated by Confederate forces, is today occupied by the Union army. Following a weeks-long Union offensive, the federals take over the city without a shot fired in opposition. Meanwhile, a little further west in Tennessee, readers of today’s Memphis Bulletin are treated to a summary of religious life in that…