The worst maritime disaster in American history occurred on April 27, 1865, when the steamship Sultana exploded and burned on the Mississippi River while dangerously overloaded with passengers. The Sultana, a typical side-wheeler coal-burning steamer, was built in 1863. It made frequent trips up and down the Mississippi River between New Orleans and St. Louis…
The Confederate attack during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg overran the Union III Corps and, in one place, reached the crest of Cemetery Ridge. On July 2, the day of the Battle of Gettysburg’s Peach Orchard conflict, Army of the Potomac commander Maj. Gen. George Meade had inspected the ground on his army’s left…
The hard-fighting brigade of Kentucky Confederates etched a remarkable chapter in Civil War history as the ultimate example of divided loyalties. On April 15, 1861, three days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteer troops. Their purpose was to augment the Federal Army that would put…
Legendary Rebel Lies In Remote Grave The Dallas Morning News, March 27, 1965 By Thomas E. Turner, Central Texas Bureau Of The News Maysfield, Milam County — The ancient but neat Little River Cemetery is tucked away in a remote section of the eastern Milam County. Nestled between the Brazos River and the misnamed Little…
American soldier, lawyer, and politician from Paris, Texas, United States. He was a Major General for the Confederacy in the Civil War and later represented Texas in the U.S. Senate. Early life Samuel was born in Tompkinsville, Kentucky, to Rice and Lucy (Bell) Maxey. His father was a lawyer, and in 1834 he moved the…
George Wythe Randolph was a lawyer, Confederate general, and, briefly, Confederate secretary of war during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The grandson of former U.S. president Thomas Jefferson, Randolph hailed from an elite Virginia family but largely shunned public life until John Brown‘s raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. He supported secession, founded the Richmond…
On the front line The outbreak of the Civil War challenged traditional American notions of feminine submissiveness and domesticity with hundreds of examples of courage, diligence, and self-sacrifice in battle. The war was a formative moment in the early feminist movement. In July of 1863, a Union burial detail at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania made a startling discovery near Cemetery…
March 19-21, 1865 The Battle of Bentonville Following his March to the Sea, Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman drove northward into the Carolinas, splitting his force into two groups. Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum commanded the left wing, while Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard commanded the right. The plan was to march through the Carolinas, destroying railroads and disrupting supply…
July 22, 1864 The Battle of Atlanta Bald Hill, Leggett’s Hill On July 21, 1864, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s three armies were separated on the outskirts of Atlanta. Better yet for Confederate commander Lt. Gen. John B. Hood, his cavalry commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler reported that Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s Army of the Tennessee, facing…
Robert Hopkins Hatton (November 2, 1826 – May 31, 1862) was a lawyer, politician, United States Congressman, and Confederate officer during the American Civil War.
