Category Archives: May

1864 New Union general-in-chief U. S. Grant’s much-anticipated campaign to try to end America’s three-year-old civil war got rolling on May 3. That night, Confederate scouts reported thick columns of Federals moving past campfires around Culpeper, Va., heading south toward … 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 →

  1861            Kentucky, arguably the Union’s most-needed state, and Tennessee, arguably the Confederacy’s, shared a 250-mile border across the heart of the central South. But their similarities were deceptive.             The Bluegrass was more dependent on trade with Cincinnati and … Continue reading →

1861             Civil war, shriekingly threatened off and on for decades, was now real.             To the joy of some Americans and the dismay of most, secessionists and unionists began to meet bloodily in small and scattered clashes while zealots of … Continue reading →