1862 One of the Civil War’s most pivotal months began as unpromisingly as ever for the Union in the East. President Lincoln continued trying to push his obstinate general-in-chief, George McClellan, into actually fighting. McClellan disagreed with Lincoln in public … Continue reading
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1862 The two warring American nations each had reason to rejoice—somewhat—as the new year opened. On January 1 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Confederate commissioners John Slidell and James Mason, released from U.S.custody, boarded a British ship bound for Europe. That meant … Continue reading
1861 So now came December and the approach of a new year–in a war the naive of both sides had assumed would not last three months. The conflict was already promising to bust budgets on both sides … Continue reading
1861 On November 6 Jefferson Davis, provisional president of the Confederate States of America, became no longer provisional. The former United States senator from Mississippi had been named the first–but provisional–president of the Confederacy in February by … Continue reading
1861 The cool of autumn pointed toward winter, when rain and sleet would drown the Confederacy’s inferior roads and slacken campaigning to an endless plod. So Presidents Lincoln and Davis settled into a longer war than most people … Continue reading
1861 Major General John C. Fremont’s August 30 proclamation of martial law and emancipation of rebel-owned slaves in Missouri caused a September sensation. Well, several sensations. The New York Times of Sept. 2 hailed Fremont’s emancipation edict as “by … Continue reading
1861 August brought the war’s second major battle. It underlined in blood the geographical breadth and scope into which the conflict had exploded. Unlike Bull Run–or, to Confederates, Manassas–this next bloodletting occurred three hundred miles west of the Mississippi … Continue reading
1861 The people of the North were restless. It had been two months since the Fort Sumter surrender, and no major move had been mounted to quash the Dixie rebellion. The longer what President Lincoln … Continue reading
1861 Vital struggles for the border states gathered momentum in June. Zealous Ohio Gov. William Dennison, working closely with President Lincoln, formed units to protect Ohio’s boundaries with Virginia and Kentucky. Then he, Lincoln, and newly-appointed Major General … Continue reading
1861 Each side could feel both confident and fearful of the war now upon them. The North, especially if it held its border states, had staggering manufacturing and population advantages. But in Abraham Lincoln it … Continue reading
Civil War & Civil Rights 