It occurred to me, when I wrote my recent post about Webster, a runaway slave, that with digitized texts, it has now become possible to develop a biographical sketch of an individual slave simply by performing a keyword search of … Continue reading →
Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War is a small but powerful and revealing book. It takes place in the brief window of time when South Carolina and a few other Southern states had … Continue reading →
When I spoke at the Southern Festival of Books in Oct. 2013, a member of the audience asked if there were any African American troops fighting at Milliken’s Bend on the Confederate side. I replied that there were not. He … Continue reading →
In the final days of 1863, Col. Hermann Lieb’s report concerning the investigations into the death of Capt. Corydon Heath reached the United States Adjutant General’s office in Washington. Lieb included additional reports from Maj. John G. Davis and Gen. … Continue reading →
(continued from previous post) In early November 1863, Benjamin Sims traveled to Vicksburg to try to plead his case to Union authorities in person, but was turned away. He was told that his brother, M.W. Sims, was already steaming north … Continue reading →