Author:   Abram Bogart Date:1863 Annotation: Black soldiers participated in the war at great threat to their lives. The Confederate government threatened to summarily execute or sell into slavery any captured black Union soldiers–and did sometimes carry out those threats. Lincoln responded by threatening to retaliate against Confederate prisoners whenever black soldiers were killed or…

Author:   Christian M. Epperly Date:1863 Annotation: The four days between July 1 and July 4, 1863 marked a major turning point of the Civil War. Beginning in mid-May, Ulysses S. Grant’s troops had begun a siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Located on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi, Vicksburg allowed the Confederacy to control river traffic…

Author: Samuel Shenk Date: 1863 Annotation: After the Battle of Antietam, Lee’s forces retreated into Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley with almost no interference. Frustrated by McClellan’s lack of aggressiveness, Lincoln replaced him with General Ambrose E. Burnside (1824-1881). In December 1862, Burnside attacked 73,000 Confederate troops at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Six times Burnside launched frontal assaults on…

Author:   Joseph M. Maitland Date:1863 Annotation: By early 1863, voluntary enlistments in the Union army had fallen so sharply that the federal government instituted an unpopular military draft and decided to enroll black, as well as white, troops. Indeed, it seems likely that it was the availability of large numbers of African American soldiers…

Author:   William Tecumseh Sherman Date:1863 Annotation: As the war dragged on, enthusiasm faded and class tensions flared. In the North, the worst mob violence in American history took place in New York City in July 1863, two weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg. About 120 people were killed, mainly by police and soldiers. Irish…

Author:   Daniel H. Hill Date:1863 Annotation: By early 1863, the Civil War had begun to cause severe hardship on the southern homefront. Not only was most of the fighting taking place in the South, but as the Union blockade grew more effective and the South’s railroad system deteriorated, shortages grew increasingly common. In Richmond,…

Author:   Samuel P. Chase Date:1863 Annotation: During the war, the Republican-controlled Congress enacted a series of measures which carried long-term consequences for the future. The Homestead Act of 1862 provided public land free to pioneers who agreed to farm the land for five years. The Morrill Act of 1862 helped states establish agricultural and…

Author:   A soldier in the 12th Vermont Militia Date:1863 Annotation: There can be no doubt that some northern soldiers who were willing to fight to preserve the Union were unwilling to fight to abolish slavery. An unidentified soldier in the 12th Vermont militia expresses his opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation. Document: We are going…

Author:   Amos Lewis Date:1863 Annotation: A Northerner reflects on the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect sixteen days before this letter was written. Document: The partial Proclamation has gone forth from the White House that the slaves of rebels shall be free while the slaves of union men are to remain…

Author:   Rufus Blanchard Date:1863 Annotation: In recent years, it has sometimes been charged that Lincoln’s proclamation did not free any slaves, since it applied only to areas that were in a state of rebellion and explicitly exempted the border states, Tennessee, and portions of Louisiana and Virginia. This view is incorrect. The proclamation did…