About Civil War-Civil Rights
Jack Hurst is a former longtime print journalist who has written three Civil War books: Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography (Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), Men of Fire: Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign That Decided the Civil War (Basic Books, 2007), and a second book about Ulysses S. Grant and Nathan Bedford Forrest, Born To Battle, published in June 2012 by Basic Books. He also had a desk in the rear of the cityroom of the Nashville Tennessean and watched David Halberstam go about covering the desegregation movement in Nashville in 1960-61 and himself covered some of the civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham for the Tennessean in 1963. He owes profuse thanks to Jennifer Kelland Fagan, copy editor extraordinaire and computer guru,for indispensable aid in the design evolution of this blog. Her eye-catching website can be accessed at www.hydraislandgreece.com.
1862 President Lincoln opened the final month of 1862 by making his annual speech to Congress on the state of the Union. He didn’t have to tell the lawmakers that the situation was precarious. In struggling to stay alive, the … Continue reading →
1862 November’s most important event—or non-event—occurred across the Atlantic. France wanted to intervene in America’s war, but only if Britain and its all-powerful navy would join in. So Confederate ministers James Mason in England and John Slidell in France, as … Continue reading →
1862 Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, issued on Sept. 22, began sinking in on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line—and the Atlantic Ocean. Internationally, the incipient measure produced the kind of wide reaction Lincoln had hoped to avoid. For that reason, … Continue reading →
1862 A Confederate tide now washed northward on both sides of the Appalachians. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac River into Maryland with titanic ambitions but reduced ranks. Thousands of its 55,000 men—worn-out, ill-fed, and reluctant … Continue reading →
1862 The Southern mindset now became more aggressive. Heartened by Robert E. Lee’s victories over the Union Army of the Potomac on the Virginia peninsula, Confederate leaders were desperate to recover Middle and West Tennessee. They also hoped to encourage … Continue reading →
1862 Fighting for the six consecutive days ending June, General Robert E. Lee and his outnumbered Confederates had separated, flanked, and stopped the Union Army of the Potomac, breaking an impending siege that had panicked the Southern capital. The Federals had … Continue reading →
1862 The botched battle of Seven Pines and the serious wounding of General Joseph E. Johnston resulted in a new Confederate commander in front of Richmond. General R. E. Lee, as he was known then, rode forward to replace Johnston … Continue reading →
1862 Abraham Lincoln seriously doubted whether General George McClellan’s just-begun campaign up the Virginia peninsula would fare better than a direct drive on Richmond. That was because Lincoln had long since learned to doubt McClellan’s stomach for war anywhere. The … Continue reading →
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1862 Dixie’s Virginia-to-Texas vastness was too large to be conquered, many in the South had assured themselves. But by the onset of this, the war’s one-year anniversary month, room for doubt had grown. The Federals had made alarming inroads. The Confederacy’s figurative back … Continue reading →
This gallery contains 4 photos.
1862 Neither contending government exhibited pride in the root of their war. Southerners shrank from broaching the topic of slavery around non-slaveholders, and Northerners were similarly reluctant among slaveholding unionists. Each had two more reasons on the other side of … Continue reading →
Civil War & Civil Rights 