Impressment was the informal and then, beginning in March 1863, the legislated policy of the Confederate government to seize food, fuel, slaves, and other commodities to support armies in the field during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The tax-in-kind law, passed a month…
The Revenue Act of 1861, formally cited as Act of August 5, 1861, Chap. XLV, 12 Stat. 292, included the first U.S. Federal income tax statute (see Sec.49). The Act, motivated by the need to fund the Civil War, imposed an income tax to be “levied, collected,…
Robert Ransom Jr. (February 12, 1828 – January 14, 1892) was a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. His brother Matt W. Ransom was also a Confederate general officer and U.S. Senator. Ransom was born in Warren County, North Carolina to Robert Ransom Sr. and Priscilla Whitaker…
In October 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation of thanksgiving, calling upon the nation to set aside the fourth Thursday of November to pause and give thanks to God. Lincoln was far from the first to do this; during…
John Whiting owned and operated a book store in Lancaster, Massachusetts from 1794 to 1810 located on the busy stage coach route from Boston to Worcester and further points west, both locations of which can be seen on an 1831 map…
There were instances of misconduct in Abraham Lincoln’s administration, especially in the War Department and the army. And there were scandals, too, though none was ever linked to the President himself or to any member of his official family except…
Sergeant William Jasper (c. 1750 – Oct. 9, 1779) of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment fought at the Battle of Fort Sullivan, South Carolina, on June 28th, 1776. His daring and courageous action that day was recorded by those present, later…
The Civil War Battle of Hampton Roads was the first engagement of ironclad warships, the USS Monitor nor the CSS Virginia. While neither side could claim victory, the battle demonstrated the viability of ironclad technology and provided a glimpse into the future of naval warfare.
February 24, 1761 INTRODUCTION By 1760 the British seemed poised for victory in the French and Indian War. But as the expense of the war weighed on the British treasury, Parliament eyed the North American colonies as a source of…
Born on February 6, 1833, James Ewell Brown (“Jeb”) Stuart was one of the more colorful cavaliers in the Army of Northern Virginia. Stuart enrolled at the the US Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1854. His first service was…
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,…
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…
