 Lincoln Fights Slavery in the
Capital
April 16, 1862 -
Abolition in the District of Columbia
Looking at the U.S. now, it's shocking to imagine slavery
existing throughout the country, or in the District of
Columbia, the nation's capital. President Abraham Lincoln
felt this all his life. On April 16, 1862, he signed an act
abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, an important
step in the long march toward freedom, citizenry, and equal
rights for African Americans. How big was the slave trade in
D.C.?
Before 1850, slave pens, slave jails, and auction blocks
were a common sight in the District of Columbia. Though
leaders like John Quincy Adams asked Congress to end slavery
back in 1828, Congress did not act for nearly 20 years. In
1849, Lincoln, then a young Illinois congressman, first
attempted to end the slave trade in the District of
Columbia. But it wasn't until he became president that
Lincoln could finally make it happen.
Lincoln saw slavery as morally wrong. He abolished slavery
in the capital, and five months later went on to issue his
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which threatened to
free all slaves in states in rebellion if those states did
not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. In 1866, on the
fourth anniversary of the District's Proclamation of
Freedom, African American citizens of Washington, D.C.,
staged a huge celebration. Some 5,000 people marched up
Pennsylvania Avenue past 10,000 cheering spectators,
rejoicing over that first step to freedom. |
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Go West, Young Farmer!
May 20, 1862 -
The Homestead Act Went Into Effect
Land available! Come and get it! This poster told Americans
about their opportunity to claim land and farm it, thanks to
the Homestead Act. President Abraham Lincoln signed the
Homestead Act on May 20, 1862, to spur Western migration.
How did a person get 160 acres of one's own? You had to be a
U.S. citizen and 21 years of age. By paying a filing fee of
$10 and residing on your new farm in the West for at least
five years, the land would be yours. A great deal, but it
took 20 years to get the Act passed. Why?
Northern businessmen thought free land would lower property
values and reduce the cheap labor supply. Southerners feared
homesteaders would add their voices to the call to stop
slavery. With the Civil War silencing the protests of the
South, the Homestead Act finally passed. By 1900,
homesteaders had filed 600,000 claims for 80 million acres.
Most pioneers moved to the Western Plain states such as
Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. They hoped for
prosperity, but knew the move was a gamble. Why?
The homesteaders knew it would be tough, farming the land
for the first time, living in unfamiliar territory, often
isolated from other people for long periods. Men such as
Daniel Freedman, pictured here, perhaps the first
homesteader, left family and community to try to win
prosperity with their new land. Some settlers went with
their families. They have left us stories about grasshoppers
devouring entire crops of corn. They also told about their
isolation, with no schools or social gatherings, as people
lived too far apart.
Despite hard times, some farmers succeeded and accumulated
more acres. With the railroads creating more access to the
East, and a rising demand for beef, ranches prospered too.
Between 1860 and 1880, the number of head of cattle in the
Plains states rose from 130,000 to 4.5 million! Would you
have applied for a homestead and moved west back in 1862? |
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A Final Resting Place
July 17, 1862 -
National Cemeteries Were Authorized
by the U.S. Government
What happens to soldiers when they die during a battle?
During the Civil War, soldiers who died on the battlefields,
in field hospitals, or in prison camps were buried where
they fell. At the end of the war, search and recovery teams
visited all the places where soldiers might have been
hastily buried and dug up the remains to bring them home. It
took five years to complete this process, and more than
250,000 sets of remains were recovered.
On July 17, 1862, President Lincoln signed legislation
authorizing the creation of national cemeteries by the U.S.
government. By 1870, 73 national cemeteries had been
established, many in the southeastern United States, the
site of many battles and field hospitals during the war.
"We here highly resolved that these dead shall not have died
in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth
of freedom--and that government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
President Lincoln spoke these words on November 19, 1863, as
he dedicated the national battlefield cemetery at
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His short speech became known as
the Gettysburg Address and is one of the most often-quoted
addresses in American history.
Of all the national cemeteries in the U.S., Arlington
National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, is the best known.
Soldiers who died in battle, other war veterans, U.S.
presidents, and government leaders are all buried there.
Arlington National Cemetery also includes the Tomb of the
Unknowns, a tomb in honor of the people who lay unidentified
on battlefields from wars fought for freedom and
independence. |
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A Race for Time at Manassas
August 30, 1862 -
The Second Battle of Manassas
For Major General John Pope, the Second Battle of Manassas
became a race against time. On August 30, 1862, that battle
ended a long campaign in northern Virginia. The events
leading up to it show strategies and fierce fighting typical
of the Civil War. It started when Pope's Union forces
attempted to invade the Southern capital of Richmond and
were defeated just miles from the city. After the defeat,
Pope's scattered Union troops clashed repeatedly with
Southern forces led by Major General "Stonewall" Jackson.
In the August 9 Battle of Cedar Mountain, Jackson's
Confederates outnumbered the Union soldiers two-to-one.
After an easy victory, Jackson led his men from the
battlefield. Union reinforcements arrived, and Pope's men
turned to face the troops of General Robert E. Lee along the
Rappahannock River. Meanwhile, Jackson's army managed to
maneuver around to Pope's rear to cut off his supply lines.
The race was on for Pope to find and destroy Jackson before
Lee could march his men to Jackson's aid.
On August 28, the Second Battle of Manassas began. Pope
marched his men right into Jackson's waiting forces near the
town of Manassas, where the Confederates had won a battle a
year earlier. They fought until night fell. In the morning,
Pope's Northerners broke through the Confederate defenses,
which moved back. Pope hoped they had planned to retreat.
Instead, General Lee had arrived with 30,000 reinforcements.
The Union was forced to retreat--the battle was lost. They
would have to try again later. The presence of the Union in
Northern Virginia, however, had a positive effect: it gave
many slaves the opportunity to escape to the North. |
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America's Most Tragic Battle
September 17, 1862 -
The Battle of Antietam
At dawn, the hills of Sharpsburg, Maryland, thundered with
artillery and musket fire as the Northern and Southern
armies struggled for possession of the Miller farm cornfield
during the Civil War. For three hours, the battle lines
swept back and forth across the land. More lives would be
lost on September 17, 1862, than on any other day in the
nation's history.
By mid-morning, General Robert E. Lee's Confederate troops
were crouched behind the high banks of a country lane. They
fired upon advancing Union troops, but the Union General,
George B. McClellan, held a strategic advantage--a scout had
discovered a copy of the Confederate army's battle plan.
An overwhelming number of Northerners broke through the
Confederates' line. Union bullets rained down the lane onto
Confederate soldiers, and the former Sunken Road came to be
known as Bloody Lane because of the tragic death toll
suffered there.
Covered by cannon fire from General Stonewall Jackson's
artillery, the Southerners retreated toward Sharpsburg,
while the Union troops fell back. New Southern troops
arrived in time to repel a second Union attack led by
General Ambrose Burnside.
By nightfall, the Confederates occupied the town of
Sharpsburg, but the battle was a Union victory. More than
23,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing in action. The
next day, Lee began his retreat across the Potomac River.
Lee's plan to find new recruits and supplies in Maryland, a
slave-holding state that remained in the Union, had failed.
The next year he would launch another assault into Union
territory, which came to a head at the 1863 Battle of
Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. |
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Mack Attack
December 22, 1862 -
Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy Was
Born
Connie Mack was a professional baseball catcher in the
1880s, when protective equipment was nearly nonexistent. His
shins were exposed and his mitt, mask, and chest protector
provided little cover. At 6 feet 1 inch and 150 pounds, Mack
was string-bean thin and could use all the protective gear
baseball had to offer.
Connie Mack, the "Tall Tactician" of major league baseball,
was born on December 22, 1862, in East Brookfield,
Massachusetts. His full name was Cornelius Alexander
McGillicuddy. In 1901 Mack became manager and owner of 25
percent of the baseball team called the Philadelphia Club.
Do you know what new name he gave the team?
Mack renamed his team the Athletics and remained the manager
and owner for 50 years. Mr. Mack, as he was respectfully
referred to, was easy to spot on the bench (and in this
photograph). He was the man in the business suit. He never
wore a uniform and rarely went into the clubhouse, except
for a pre-game meeting, a practice he began in the major
leagues. His habit of directing his players on the field by
waving his scorecard earned him the title "10th Man on the
Field." Whatever his particular style, Connie Mack had a
knack for creating a winning team.
Mack led the A's to their first pennant in 1902. He often
said that pitching was 75 percent of baseball, and strong
pitching was the hallmark of his winning teams. He had a
reputation for turning young pitchers into stars. Between
1910 and 1914, his club won four American League pennants
and three World Series.
In 1937, Mack was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He
was 87 years old when he retired from managing in 1950.
Connie Mack holds the record among managers for total games,
at 7,878. He also holds the all-time record for games won,
at 3,776. But because he was in the game for so long, he
also has the all-time record for games lost: 4,025! |
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Dying For Silver and Gold
February 24, 1863 -
Arizona Became a New Territory
How far would you travel for silver and gold? After Arizona
became a separate territory on February 24, 1863, New
Englanders searching for gold came to Arizona and founded
the town of Prescott.
When silver was discovered at Tombstone, Arizona, in 1877,
nearly 7,000 people came to the territory. Four years later,
the rough frontier town became the site of the famous
gunfight at the O.K. Corral. By the 1880's the Arizona
territory was bustling with fortune seekers from all around
the world.
In 1912, no longer a lawless frontier, Arizona became a
state, but precious metals and gunslingers were only a part
of Arizona's heritage.
Native Americans have always maintained a strong presence in
Arizona. When President Theodore Roosevelt visited Arizona
in 1913, the Hopi Indians honored him with a demonstration
of the ritual Hopi snake dance.
Today, fifteen distinct tribes, including Navajo, Hopi,
Papago, Apache, and Pima live on seventeen reservations in
the state. |
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Grant Against the Prairie Dogs
May 19, 1863 -
General Ulysses S. Grant Attempted to
Take Vicksburg, Mississippi
Vicksburg, Mississippi, was an important, well-protected
fortress for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. On
May 19, 1863, Union General Ulysses S. Grant attacked
Vicksburg--a direct assault with intent to take over the
city. The Union navy had already prevented other regiments
from joining Confederate General C. Pemberton at Vicksburg,
but the Southern city held strong that day. Grant, however,
did not stop there.
Grant settled down to a six-week siege, surrounding the
city, cutting off supply lines, firing upon Vicksburg
continually, and moving in so close that, at some points,
Union and Confederate soldiers held their lines within
shouting distance. By mid-June, 80,000 Union troops camped
on the Mississippi River bluffs above the city. To escape
shells, Vicksburg residents left their homes for caves in
the city's hills. The Union soldiers called this maze of
dugouts "Prairie Dog Village." The people of the village
were starving and tired but still held on to hope.
By the forty-fourth day, with no supplies coming into town,
the editor of Vicksburg's Daily Citizen was reduced to
printing the news on wallpaper. He wrote that General
Ulysses S. Grant wished to celebrate the Fourth of July
"dining in Vicksburg." Little did the writer know that on
July 4, 1863, Pemberton would surrender to the Union
general. Finding the newspaper, Grant's men added a
paragraph declaring that Grant had indeed dined in Vicksburg
and celebrated Independence Day! What else do you know about
Vicksburg, Grant, or the many conflicts of the American
Civil War? |
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Mountaineers Are Always Freemen
June 20, 1863 -
West Virginia Admitted as the 35th
State in the Union
"Mountaineers Are Always Free" is the state motto of West
Virginia. The phrase reflects the history and identity of
the state and indicates how West Virginia became the 35th
state in the Union on June 20, 1863. The land that formed
West Virginia used to be part of Virginia, but the two areas
differed in both surroundings and people. Pioneering
individuals, mountaineers, settled in the western portion,
while a slave-holding aristocratic society developed in the
eastern portion. Westerners wanted to separate from
Virginia, and first tried to in 1769, but were unsuccessful.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Virginia seceded from
the Union in 1861. Very few of the residents of the western
counties owned slaves, so they decided to stay with the
Union. As a result, West Virginia, where "Mountaineers Are
Always Free," was formed.
The Appalachian Mountains have always been an important
resource in West Virginia. Beneath them is the largest
supply of coal in the nation. Until the 1940s, many West
Virginians worked as miners. Nowadays, the tops of West
Virginia's mountains are blasted off to expose the coal
inside for extraction. The mountains have also attracted
different kinds of residents and travelers.
Many people have retired to West Virginia to enjoy its
wealth of natural resources. The state, with its Appalachian
Mountains, is the highest in elevation east of the
Mississippi. Forest covers about three-fourths of the state,
while farms cover many of the ridges and fertile valleys.
Tourists come from all over to visit West Virginia's 33
state parks, experience its world-class white-water rafting,
or encounter its unique cultural traditions in music and the
arts. Many West Virginians today would still boast their
motto to be true: "Mountaineers Are Always Free." |
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A Different Kind of Horsepower
July 30, 1863 -
Automobile Manufacturer Henry Ford
Was Born
Born on July 30, 1863, on his family's farm in Dearborn,
Michigan, Henry Ford enjoyed tinkering with machines from
the time he was a young boy. His work on the farm and a job
in a Detroit machine shop allowed him many opportunities to
tinker and experiment. By 1896, Ford had constructed his
first horseless carriage, but he wanted to do even more!
I will build a car for the great multitude," Ford
proclaimed. At first the automobile had been a luxury item
only for the wealthy. Henry Ford wanted to create a car that
ordinary people could afford, and in October 1908, he did
it. The Model T sold for $850. In nineteen years of
manufacture, Ford lowered the price to $260 and sold 15
million cars in the U.S. alone.
How did he make the Model T so inexpensive?
Ford invented the modern assembly line. He doubled his
workers' wages and cut the workday from nine to eight hours.
Ford did this to ensure quality work and allow a three-shift
workday. As a result, the company was able to make Model T's
twenty-four hours a day!
The automobile altered American society forever, changing
where and how we lived. As more Americans owned cars, the
organization of cities changed. The United States saw the
growth of the suburbs and the creation of a national highway
system. Americans were thrilled with the possibility of
going anywhere, anytime. Ford witnessed many of these
changes during his lifetime. In his later years, he spent
most of his time working on Greenfield Village, a restored
rural town modeled after his memories of Dearborn during his
youth. Next time you are out on the road, try to imagine
life without cars. Ask your family and friends how different
they think the world would be. |
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A Turn-of-the-Century Woman!
September 23, 1863 -
Activist Mary Church Terrell Was Born
In 1898, Mary Church Terrell wrote how African-American
women "with ambition and aspiration [are] handicapped on
account of their sex, but they are everywhere baffled and
mocked on account of their race." She fought for equality
through social and educational reform. Born on September 23,
1863, in Memphis, Tennessee, Terrell became an educator,
political activist, and the first president of the National
Association of Colored Women. Terrell understood the value
of education.
Terrell was one of the first American women of African
descent to graduate from college. She attended Oberlin
College in Ohio, America's first college to admit women and
among the first to admit students of all races. She earned
her master's degree from Oberlin in 1888 and began her
career as a teacher. After her marriage to Washington lawyer
Robert Terrell, she became active in the suffrage movement,
speaking out for women's right to vote, particularly on
behalf of African-American women.
Terrell found that black women's groups were routinely
excluded from national women's organizations during the late
19th century. They weren't even allowed to participate in
the planning of the 1893 World's Fair, but they could
attend. Because of this, Terrell and other black women
leaders formed the National Association of Colored Women
(NACW) in 1896, an organization that would support black
women's groups throughout the country. She and the NACW
worked to end discrimination based on gender and race. One
way was through educating the public. Passionate about
education, Terrell sold her speeches to raise money for a
kindergarten as well. |
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The Gettysburg Address, Timeless
Words
November 19, 1863 -
President Lincoln Delivered the
Gettysburg Address
A very famous speech starts "Four Score and seven years ago
. . ." Do you know what speech it is? On November 19, 1863,
President Abraham Lincoln delivered a short speech at the
end of the ceremonies dedicating the battlefield cemetery at
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That speech has come to be known
as the Gettysburg Address. In it, Lincoln paid tribute to
the Union soldiers who sacrificed their lives for union and
equality. Lincoln had no idea at the time how famous his
short speech would become.
Lines of the Gettysburg Address have been quoted and
referred to time and time again. They are even carved on the
walls inside the Lincoln Memorial: "We here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and
that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth."
The speaker before Lincoln, Edward Everett, was one of the
most popular orators of his day. He spoke for two hours. Yet
Everett admitted to Lincoln, "I wish that I could flatter
myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the
occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes." In spite
of Lincoln's disclaimer that "the world will little note,
nor long remember what we say here," his brief speech
continues to echo in the American memory. Where did you
first hear a line from the Gettysburg Address? |
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The Battle Above the Clouds
November 23, 1863 -
Fighting Commenced in the Battle of
Chattanooga
The three-day Battle of Chattanooga is one of the most
dramatic turnabouts in American military history. It began
on November 23, 1863, and when the fighting stopped, Union
forces had driven Confederate troops away from Chattanooga,
Tennessee, into Georgia, setting the stage for Union General
William T. Sherman's triumphant "March to the Sea" a year
later. Sherman wreaked havoc on Southern towns and freed
slaves as his troops blazed a path of destruction, burning
towns between Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia.
It was a strategic victory because of the town's steamboat
port and railway station. But in the early fall of 1863,
rebel forces moved into the mountains and bluffs overlooking
Chattanooga, trapping the Union Army.
Commanding posts at Lookout Mountain, almost 2,000 feet
above the Tennessee River Valley, Confederates fired
cannonballs down upon the Union troops at Chattanooga. They
aimed for river and rail traffic that entered the village
with supplies from Union-controlled western Tennessee.
Surrounded, with no supply lines, the Union troops seemed
destined to fall.
Their fate changed in mid-October with the fresh leadership
of Major General George Thomas. Shortly thereafter, Major
General Joseph Hooker moved into the area with 20,000 Union
soldiers. Union General Ulysses S. Grant followed. He
ordered Union engineers to construct a pontoon bridge west
of town, giving the army access to shipments of food and
ammunitions once again. When General Sherman arrived with
17,000 more men in mid-November, the Union Army was ready to
fight.
On November 23, Thomas's troops overtook Confederates
occupying Orchard Knob, between Chattanooga and the
mountains. The next day, in what is known as the "battle
above the clouds," Hooker drove his men on to victory at
Lookout Mountain. Some of the bloodiest fighting took place
there at Cravens House. On November 25, the last day of the
battle, the Union Army crushed the Rebel line, forcing the
Rebels to retreat further south into Georgia and,
ultimately, to their final defeat in the Civil War. |
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Honoring America's Soldiers
May 13, 1864 -
Arlington National Cemetery
How do you honor the people and events in your life that are
important to you? The United States has many monuments and
sacred sites to honor people, ideas, things, and events that
have left their mark on American history. Arlington National
Cemetery is one of those sites. Have you been there? It is
located in Virginia across the Potomac River from
Washington, D.C.
On May 13, 1864, a Confederate prisoner of war, who had died
at a local hospital, was the first soldier buried at
Arlington. The cemetery now contains the graves of soldiers
from every war in which the United States has participated,
including the American Revolution. What day do you think is
most honored at Arlington National Cemetery?
Each year, Memorial Day is honored at Arlington by placing a
wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns. Not all of the 240,000
people buried at Arlington are soldiers. You can also find
the graves of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The location itself is full of fascinating stories from the
past.
The grounds used to be part of Arlington House, where
General Robert E. Lee and his wife Mary Anna married and
lived until 1861. When Lee left to take command of the
Confederate troops, the Union Army turned his old home into
a military headquarters and the land around it into a camp.
The Arlington House has now been restored to its pre-Civil
War condition and is a memorial to Robert E. Lee. You can
visit it and imagine yourself traveling back in time to the
1830s. If you could build a monument or memorial, what or
whom would you honor? |
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Rich in Copper and Cattle
May 26, 1864 -
Lincoln Created the Montana Territory
It was a place rich in grazing land for cattle and sheep,
with long valleys and high mountains, producing gold and
copper. On May 26, 1864, President Lincoln signed an act
making it a territory of the U.S. What is it? It's the
wide-open spaces of the state of Montana, often called "Big
Sky Country."
During the dark days of the Civil War, Lincoln looked away
from the fighting momentarily and decided the area now known
as Montana needed governing. But violent clashes were to
occur in the new territory before it became the 41st state
in the Union on November 8, 1889.
Numerous Native American tribes lived in the vast area of
what we now call Montana: the Crow, Cheyenne, Blackfoot,
Flathead, and more. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were
the first white explorers to document their journey through
the lands of the Louisiana Purchase, but more settlers
followed. Combat between U.S. military and Native Americans
defending their land became frequent. Perhaps the most
famous of these battles occurred in Montana on June 25,
1876, when the Dakota (Sioux) and Cheyenne defeated General
George Custer's regular army during the Battle of the Little
Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand.
Despite the violence, Montana settlers kept coming, drawn by
gold, copper, and the chance to claim some of that rich land
for themselves as homesteaders. Native Americans were forced
onto reservations while pioneers poured into the territory
in the 1880s. Many of our images of Western cowboys came
from these early ranchers and travelers, like this shepherd
in Madison County, Montana. Have you ever visited the state
of Montana? |
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Saving the Big Trees
June 30, 1864 -
Yosemite Land Grant Signed
What would happen if land were not preserved? People would
probably develop it and build on it, right? Fortunately,
President Abraham Lincoln saw to it that no one would
develop Yosemite when he signed the Yosemite Land Grant on
June 30, 1864.
This land grant, or piece of legislation, provided
California with 39,000 acres of the Yosemite Valley and the
nearby Mariposa Big Tree Grove "upon the express conditions
that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and
recreation." Do you know what has happened to Yosemite since
then?
Because of the Yosemite Land Grant the incredible landscape
of Yosemite, with its impressive cliffs, massive trees, and
breathtaking waterfalls, has been preserved and open to the
public. Have you been to a national park? Was it crowded?
The problem of tourism soon overwhelmed Yosemite Valley and
the Big Tree Grove as they quickly became "must see"
vacation destinations. In 1890, the public wanted the park
returned to the federal government and, as a result,
Yosemite National Park was established. Today, Yosemite
includes nearly 1,200 square miles of the central Sierra
Nevada mountain range. With mountains as high as 13,000 feet
above sea level, the park preserves alpine wilderness,
groves of Giant Sequoias, and the Yosemite Valley's cliffs,
waterfalls, wildflowers, and impressive rock formations. |
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Damn the Torpedoes!
August 23, 1864 -
The Union Navy Captured Fort Morgan,
Alabama
"Damn the Torpedoes! Go Ahead!" Union Admiral David Farragut
shouted this famous line in a brave moment of the Civil War
on his way to Fort Morgan, Alabama. On August 23, 1864, the
Union navy captured the fort, breaking the Confederate
dominance of the ports of the Gulf of Mexico. The Union
fleet of 18 ships sailed into the channel on August 5. Boom!
One of the ships hit a mine, at the time known as a
"torpedo." "Torpedoes ahead!" came the warning. Did the
Admiral listen?
In reply to the warning, "Torpedoes ahead!" given by the
ships ahead, Farragut called out, "Damn the torpedoes!" and
taking the lead with his flagship the Hartford, sailed over
the double row of mines and into Mobile Bay in Alabama. The
bottom of the ship even scraped the mines. But none
exploded. The rest of the fleet followed Farragut's flagship
into the bay, and to victory against the Confederate fleet.
During the next weeks, the Union navy strengthened its hold
on Mobile Bay by destroying or capturing the Southern ships
and tightening the blockade (the ships surrounded the bay to
prevent passage of other ships). The surrender of Fort
Morgan was an important victory for the North. The South had
used the fort to ship and receive supplies. A great deal of
Confederate income came from shipping cotton and produce to
Europe. Ammunition and basic supplies that the South needed
were shipped there. Without the Fort in Mobile Bay, those
supply routes were cut off. With his brave and stubborn cry
Admiral Farragut and his fleet secured that naval victory
for the Union. |
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The Icy Battle of Nashville
December 16, 1864 -
Battle of Nashville: Union Troops
Broke Through the Confederate Line
Long before Nashville became the music capital it is today,
it was the scene of a devastating Civil War battle. On the
afternoon of December 16, 1864, in the heart of a cold, icy
winter, Union troops, led by General George H. Thomas,
crushed Confederate forces at Nashville, Tennessee. The
battle had begun the day before, when Thomas initiated an
attack. Finally, after two weeks of waiting, he had received
the troop reinforcements and favorable weather he needed to
begin. Why did the Battle of Nashville take place?
In November, Confederate General John B. Hood had led the
Army of Tennessee out of Alabama toward Nashville in an
effort to cut off Union General William T. Sherman's supply
line. But conditions were hard: the ground was frozen,
rations almost completely gone. Soldiers marching from
Atlanta to Nashville described the long walk: "Our shoes
were worn out and our feet were torn and bleeding . . . the
snow was on the ground and there was no food." But they made
the journey. Unfortunately for these weary Confederate
soldiers, the Union army had arrived in Nashville first.
The Union built fortifications, gathered up troops, and
planned Hood's demise. But for almost two weeks, both sides
waited. Ice from freezing rain delayed the inevitable clash.
As soon as the weather cleared, fighting began. Within less
than 48 hours, Hood's troops were in retreat. Union troops
trailed the Confederates for almost 10 days. By the time the
Southerners had re-crossed the Tennessee River, the Army of
Tennessee had disintegrated, as men were dying from cold or
famine or taking off for shelter in different directions.
This disarray ensured that the weakened Southern forces
could not invade the North. A few weeks later, Hood resigned
his command. |
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Want to Trade?
January 4, 1865 -
New York Stock Market Opened on Wall
Street
Do you trade baseball cards, videotapes or Pokemon cards?
Anything becomes valuable if someone wants it badly enough.
Have you heard about trading stocks and bonds on television
or at home? Stocks are shares in a business that you get
when you invest money in that company. Stocks are traded on
the Stock Market and, on this day in 1865, the New York
Stock Exchange opened its first permanent headquarters near
Wall Street in New York City. What do you think makes the
price of stock rise?
The more stocks you buy the bigger the piece of the company
you own. If the company becomes popular, many people will
invest their money, buy more stock, and the price of the
stock will go up. If the company becomes unpopular, the
stock price will drop.
Bonds are different from stocks. Bonds are loans, usually
made to your city, state, or the federal government, that
are repaid with interest at a certain date in the future.
Can you guess how the trading of stocks and bonds started?
Although the official Stock Exchange opened in 1865, the
trading of stocks and bonds began much earlier. The federal
government started the U.S. investment market in 1790 to
issue bonds (loans) that would help pay off the debt from
the American Revolution against Great Britain, which America
won in 1783.
Today the New York Stock Exchange is the biggest stock
exchange in this country and it is located just a few doors
away from this original stock exchange building. |
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The Yankees Are Coming!
February 18, 1865 -
Charleston Surrendered
Soldiers are coming! Yankee soldiers! Quick, pack your bags.
Imagine that tomorrow is February 18, 1865, the day the
mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, will surrender control
of the city to the Union Army. The Union General William T.
Sherman is on his way and you have to leave. What will you
take with you? Clothes? A favorite toy? Food? The citizens
of Charleston, South Carolina, had less than a day to decide
what to pack. In wagons and carriages, on horseback and on
foot, the people of Charleston moved sadly past war-damaged
buildings on their way out of the city.
South Carolina had been deeply involved in the Civil War
from the start. Like other Southern states, South Carolina
believed in and defended slavery. Before the war, the state
was the first to declare it no longer wanted to be part of
United States of America. Then, in April 1861, Confederate
troops attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor and the war
began. It took four years for the Union to recapture the
fort.
On July 10, 1863, the Union Army began an attack on the city
that continued for almost two years. People lost their lives
and many buildings were destroyed. When Charleston finally
surrendered to the North it was a sad day for Confederates,
but a happy day for those who did not like slavery and
wanted the Union to stay together. How would you feel if you
had lived in Charleston during the war? |
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Fayetteville Captured!
March 11, 1865 -
Sherman Captured Fayetteville
On March 11, 1865, the Civil War was in its final weeks when
a strong 60,000-man force, under the command of Union
General William T. Sherman, marched in through the
Carolinas, capturing town after town. They overcame the
Confederate soldiers led by General Joseph E. Johnston. The
Union Army captured and destroyed the Confederate arsenal, a
building where weapons were made and stored, in
Fayetteville, North Carolina.
In Fayetteville, North Carolina, and many other places,
North and South, women worked to manufacture arms,
ammunition, uniforms, and other supplies for the soldiers.
Prior to its destruction, women in the Fayetteville arsenal
made some 900,000 rounds of small arms munitions in 1864.
People were grateful for the contributions of women in the
war, and newspapers reported their accomplishments. Many
other services and supplies were also needed for the war
effort.
The women in Fayetteville formed groups like the Sick
Soldier's Relief Society and the Soldier's Aid Society. In
the South and in the North too, women made bandages for the
wounded and knit socks to keep the soldiers' feet warm and
dry. A few, Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, among
them, volunteered to nurse the wounded. What roles did women
play in other American wars? What roles should they play
now? |
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Petersburg Under Attack
April 2, 1865 -
Grant Attacked Petersburg, Virginia
At approximately 7 a.m. on Sunday, April 2, 1865, Ulysses S.
Grant's Union army attacked Confederate lines at Petersburg,
Virginia. By mid-afternoon, Confederate troops had begun to
evacuate the town. This victory was important for the Union;
it ensured the fall of Richmond, the capital of the
Confederacy, located just 25 miles north of Petersburg,
which in turn led to the end of the Civil War. As in most
cases with war, this victory did not occur overnight or
without loss.
The siege on Petersburg had been going for nine months
before Grant's army finally broke through the lines of the
Confederate soldiers holding Petersburg. The South was
outnumbered and had no reinforcements left. By the time the
Union had placed its flag on the Petersburg courthouse,
soldiers on both sides had been killed or wounded. General
Grant next captured the town of Richmond. The end of the war
was in sight. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia
to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9. One major
task was left for Grant--to capture the Confederate
president, Jefferson Davis. However, Davis had fled Richmond
as soon as he learned that Petersburg had fallen to the
Union.
President Jefferson Davis received word of the events in
Petersburg while attending services at St. Paul's Church in
Richmond. Late that night, he abandoned the capital,
boarding a train for Danville, Virginia. The city burned
behind him, as fires set by fleeing Confederates and looters
raged out of control. Davis was eventually captured by Union
soldiers, but not until a month later, on May 10, 1865. What
more do you know about the Civil War? Ask your family what
they know. |
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No More Bloodshed!
April 9, 1865 -
Lee Surrendered
"It would be useless and therefore cruel, to provoke the
further effusion of blood," said Confederate General Robert
E. Lee, "and I have arranged to meet with General Grant with
a view to surrender." After four years of fighting the Civil
War, Lee knew it was time to put an end to the fighting. Do
you know where General Lee and the Confederate Army of
Northern Virginia surrendered to the Union Army?
Shortly after noon on April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee
surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of all
United States forces, at the home of Wilmer McClean in the
village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The two
generals met in the house you see in the picture. Today, the
house at Appomattox is a replica of the original. With this
meeting, the Civil War was effectively over.
In the weeks that followed, Confederate forces surrendered,
and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured. The
bloody era that began four years earlier at Fort Sumter,
South Carolina, was over. General Grant and the Federal Army
had finally won. It was time for the people of both the
South and the North to rebuild their lives. Can you imagine
what that must have been like? |
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The Tragedy at Ford's Theater
April 14, 1865 -
The Assassination of President
Lincoln
Shortly after 10 p.m. on April 14, 1865, actor John Wilkes
Booth entered the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in
Washington D.C., and fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln.
As Lincoln slumped forward in his seat, Booth leapt onto the
stage and escaped through the back door. A doctor in the
audience rushed over to examine the paralyzed president.
Lincoln was then carried across the street to Petersen's
Boarding House, where he died early the next morning.
Lincoln was the first president assassinated in U.S.
history. Why did Booth do it? He thought it would aid the
South, which had just surrendered to Federal forces. It had
nearly the opposite effect, ending Lincoln's plans for a
rather generous peace. Booth did not act alone. This
"wanted" poster appeared everywhere, offering a reward for
the arrest of Booth and his accomplices. The conspirators
were all captured, and Booth was shot while trying to escape
from Union soldiers.
The whole country grieved the death of President Lincoln. As
the nine-car funeral train carried President Lincoln home
for burial in Springfield, Illinois, people showed up at
train stations all along the way to pay their respects. What
do you know about the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln?
Ask your family. |
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A President Is Captured!
May 10, 1865 -
Jefferson Davis Was Captured
Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, had been
captured!
Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), president of the Confederate
states (the South) during the Civil War, was captured when
the Union Army caught up to him on May 10, 1865, in
Irwinville, Georgia. His best general, Robert E. Lee, had
surrendered on April 9 at Appomattox in Virginia to General
Ulysses S. Grant, which effectively ended the Civil War.
When Lee surrendered to the North, Davis and his Cabinet
moved south, hoping to continue the struggle until better
terms could be secured from the North.
Davis recounted his capture in his book, The Rise and Fall
of the Confederate Government. He was accused of treason and
of planning the assassination of President Lincoln. Davis
was taken to Fort Monroe, Virginia, where he was treated
harshly. Although he was accused of high crimes, he was
never brought to trial. After two years in prison, he was
released and lived out the rest of his life in relative
peace.
When Davis was inaugurated president of the Confederate
States of America in 1861, he believed in the right of
Southern states to secede and defended his belief until his
death in 1889. He spent his remaining years in Biloxi,
Mississippi, at the Beauvoir plantation. Davis never asked
for, nor was he granted, a pardon for his actions. However,
in a speech at Mississippi City, Mississippi, he said: "The
past is dead; let it bury its dead, its hopes and its
aspirations. Before you lies the future, a future full of
golden promise, a future of expanding national glory, before
which all the world shall stand amazed." |
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Parading Down Penn Avenue
May 23, 1865 -
The Army of the Potomac Paraded Down
Pennsylvania Avenue
If the streets in your town could talk, would they have any
interesting stories to tell? You can imagine that stories of
Pennsylvania Avenue, the street that connects the White
House to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., would be
fascinating--so much has happened there! On May 23, 1865,
the Army of the Potomac celebrated the end of the Civil War
by parading down Pennsylvania Avenue. Only weeks before,
mourners watched Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession pass
by along the same thoroughfare. Many of the buildings were
still dressed in black crepe as the Infantry Unit came
marching up the avenue.
Pennsylvania Avenue, America's "Main Street," was one of the
earliest streets constructed in the federal city. Both
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson considered the avenue
an important feature of the new capital city. At first, this
"Grand Avenue" was just a dirt road that Jefferson had
planted with rows of fast-growing poplar trees. That stretch
of the avenue between the White House and the Capitol has
served the country well as a ceremonial heart of the nation.
What other things have happened on Pennsylvania Avenue?
Each U.S. president since Jefferson has paraded up
Pennsylvania Avenue after taking the oath of office. The
funeral processions of the seven presidents that died in
office followed this historic route. But the avenue is not
just the setting for official events. People who are not
famous have paraded and protested down that road. Jacob
Coxey led 500 supporters down Pennsylvania Avenue to demand
federal aid for the unemployed in the 1890s. Alice Paul
marched with the suffragists in 1913. And there was much
more. Ask your family what parades, protests, and events
they know of that were held on Pennsylvania Avenue. |
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The Hanging of Henry Wirz
November 10, 1865 -
Henry Wirz, Former Commander of
Confederate Prison Was Hanged
On the morning of November 10, 1865, Henry Wirz rose in his
cell at the Old Capitol and wrote a last letter to his wife.
The former commander of the infamous Confederate prison at
Andersonville, Georgia, was to be hanged that day in
Washington, D.C. When Swiss-born Wirz was arrested on May 7,
1865, at the end of the Civil War, he was the only remaining
member of the Confederate staff at the prison, so in the
eyes of his enemies, he represented them all.
Caught in the unfortunate position of answering for all the
misery that had occurred at the Andersonville prison, Wirz
stood little chance of a fair trial. A military tribunal
tried him for conspiring with Jefferson Davis, the
Confederate president, to "injure the health and destroy the
lives of soldiers in the military service of the United
States." He was convicted on all counts and sentenced to a
public execution. Why such a harsh punishment? What made the
Andersonville prison so horrible?
Until 1863, the Union and Confederate armies kept prisoners
of war to a minimum with regular trades of prisoners. But
when U.S. authorities ended prisoner exchanges, the number
of Union prisoners in Richmond swelled to an unmanageable
size. These exchanges ended because the Confederacy refused
to exchange black prisoners. The Andersonville prison was
hastily constructed, and its facilities were completely
inadequate. Nonetheless, prisoners were brought in, forced
to provide their own shelter, scrounge for whatever food
they could find, and drink from a contaminated water supply.
Many men died of starvation and disease. Of the more than
45,000 soldiers sent to Andersonville during 1864 and 1865,
approximately 13,000 died there.
Henry Wirz, led to the gallows with a black robe draped over
his shoulders, paid for all these events with his own life. |
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