Category Archives: ’61

December ’61

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Civil War-Civil Rights

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 →

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November ’61

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Civil War-Civil Rights

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 →

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October ’61

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Civil War-Civil Rights

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 →

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September ’61

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Civil War-Civil Rights

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 →

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August ’61

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Civil War-Civil Rights

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 →

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July ’61

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Civil War-Civil Rights

    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 →

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June ’61

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Civil War-Civil Rights

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 →

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May ’61 (3)

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Civil War-Civil Rights

     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 →

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May ’61 (2)

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Civil War-Civil Rights

  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 →

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May ’61

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Civil War-Civil Rights

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 →

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