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September 2, 1864: The Fall Of Atlanta
You are there: Fourteen months after the Confederate losses at Gettysburg (7/3/63) and Vicksburg (7/4/63), the fall of Atlanta seals the fate of the deep south. The battle matches two of the leading generals of the entire war: the rebels Joseph Johnston and William Tecumseh Sherman for the Union. Johnston is born in 1807 at […]
August 21, 1837: Nat Turner’s Black Uprising
You are there: On Sunday, August 21, 1831 the apocalyptic vision of enslaved people murdering white masters to win freedom becomes reality as Nat Turner strikes at Joseph Travis‘s farm near Jerusalem, Virginia, seventy miles south of Richmond. This uprising is preceded by four others, the most successful to date being the 1811 rampage led by […]
August 16, 1780: Britain’s Southern Strategy At The Battle of Camden, SC
You are there: As the Revolutionary War enters its third year, Britain makes a radical shift in its plans to prosecute the conflict. Instead of driving inland from its two northern garrisons in New York City and Philadelphia, it adopts what becomes known as its “Southern strategy” focused on taking control over Georgia, the Carolinas […]
August 8, 1846: The Wilmot Proviso Shakes The Foundation Of Congress
You are there: Fighting between American and Mexican troops begins along the Rio Grande border on May 3, 1846, and Congress officially declares war on May 13. By then, U.S. troops led by General Zachary Taylor have already won at Palo Alto and Resaca and are marching inland on their way to victories at Santa […]
The Real Day the Declaration was Signed
You are there: Despite some residual controversy, most historians believe that while agreement on the content of the Declaration occurs on July 4, the official day the declaration was signed is delayed until August 2, 1776. This conclusion is based on two facts. The first is that New York State doesn’t signal its approval until […]
Louis T. Wigfall
Louis Wigfall’s future is shaped by his origins. On his mother Eliza’s side he is descended from the Trezevant family, long among the South Carolina elites. Her husband, Levi Durand Wigfall, is a prominent merchant in Charleston with a plantation in Edgefield, where Louis is born in 1816. He is surrounded by wealth and the […]
July 23, 1885: America Mourns The Loss Of General Ulysses Grant.
You are there: after surviving years of front-line combat in the Mexican and U.S. Civil War, Ulysses Grant is finally felled by throat cancer, the result of smoking up to 20 cigars a day for most of his adult life. His 1862 victory at Ft. Donelson earns him the sobriquet “Unconditional Surrender Grant,” along with […]
July 11, 1804: Vice-President Aaron Burr Kills Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton In A Duel.
You are there: In the most notorious duel in American history, the sitting Vice-President, Aaron Burr, kills Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton. The bad blood between the two is long-standing. Both men serve nobly under Washington in the Revolutionary War, but the General always seems to favor Hamilton, a source of some early animosity. Burr fails to get […]
The Life of Lincoln Through Original Photographs
Experience the Life of Lincoln through original 19th-century photographs and words from Robert E. Drane. All of the photographs featured are from our collection, click on any of the photos for more information and to view the photo with our photo-viewer. The gallery of the Life of Lincoln Through Original Photographs can be viewed in […]
William Walker, American Filibusterer
The quest by Southerners to expand slavery outside of America’s existing borders is ongoing. It succeeds in 1836 with the founding of the Texas Republic on some 350,000 square miles of Mexican land. Then fails nine years later in Cuba when an invasion attempt backed by Mississippi Senator John Quitman, carried out by the Venezuelan […]