Tainted Breeze: The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas, 1862 by Richard B. McCaslin remains one of the most thorough treatments of this violent effort to bring in and subdue draft dodgers and perceived Unionists in an area of Texas that more »
In September 1863, two of the Confederate generals who had been involved, at a distance, in the battle of Milliken’s Bend began to consider the unthinkable – arming slaves. In the immediate aftermath of the battle in June, Trans-Mississippi commander more »
(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 more »
On Aug. 1, 1863, Judge Lewis Dent returned to Union lines, escorted by Confederate 1st Lt. Jesse Sparks. He was being exchanged under an agreement between Confederate general Paul Octave Hebert and Union general U.S. Grant. In return, a “civilian” more »
Lt. Col. Arthur J.L. Fremantle of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards was the Forrest Gump of the Civil War. He was everywhere. In the space of just three and a half months, he traveled from Brownsville, Texas through nearly every seceded more »