Category: Fall 2014

1)  http://www.history.com/news/151-years-later-gettysburg-hero-awarded-medal-of-honor

This article is an interesting tale about a recent medal of honor awarded to the descendants of Union First Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing. Cushing was apparently twelfth ranked in his class at the U.S Military academy and was first lieutenant at the Battle of Gettysburg against the confederate command of Robert E. Lee when he made his last attempt to defeat the union troops in Pickett’s charge. Cushing is believed to have withstood being shot in the shoulder, groin, and intestines and when ordered to fall back by his commanding general he stayed on the front line holding his intestines in his hand giving commands to the union troops. This eventually allowed the union troops to penetrate confederate lines, defeat the charge, and help to win the war.

2)  http://www.history.com/news/lincolns-hard-fought-civil-war-re-election-150-years-ago

This article recounts the events leading up to President Abraham Lincoln’s re-election, feelings surrounding the election, and candidates that ran against him. Lincoln was very unlikely to be re-elected because he very passively tried to get the South to return as a part of the United States whereas a lot of political leaders wanted more aggressive measures taken specifically by means of invasion and forced reconstruction. Many of Lincoln’s own republican party didn’t even agree with how he commanded the country so Lincoln tried to fix his appeal by running as a National Unity party rather than Republican. For the Democrats McClellan ran with good chance of winning since he had such a grudge against Lincoln. And a new party known as the Radical Democrats formed by the doing of Frederick Douglas with nominee Fremont known for freeing slaves in Missouri before the Emancipation Proclamation. Fremont dropped out and with two union successful battles before the election Lincoln won all but three states.

3)  http://www.history.com/news/lincolns-peoria-speech-160-years-later

This article gives the two perspectives of Lincoln and Douglas on the Kansas-Nebraska act, given in Peoria Illinois 1854. Essentially when settling was enabled in Kansas and Nebraska settlers were looking for a distinction as to if the states were free or slave. Douglas with prior knowledge of popular sovereignty in New Mexico and Utah suggested the same thing in Kansas and Nebraska. Lincoln, a lawyer at the time, was highly opposed to popular sovereignty making  the strongest argument against popular sovereignty by referring to the Missouri Compromise and the fact that the climates in both states could support slavery unfortunately. This kick started Lincoln’s career as an abolitionist since he so strongly referred to how slavery should be put to rest “as our fathers intended.”

4) http://www.history.com/news/union-troops-capture-atlanta-150-years-ago

This article gives insight to the main generals in the civil war and how the union troops captured Atlanta rallying Northern support and getting Lincoln re-elected in office. Ulysses S. Grant the union general held the highest rank since George Washington and came up with a strategy to attack the confederates on multiple fronts but suffered tremendous losses around the southern capital of Richmond, Va. Thus the union passed the position onto general Sherman who took 100,000 soldiers from Tenessee to Atlanta. Confederate general Hood tried to stop Sherman in three separate battles but lost three times the number in each battle and continued retreating. After being defeated in Atlanta the South lost control of the center of most of their manufacturing and the victory was reported to Lincoln by telegram.

5)  http://www.history.com/news/the-british-burn-washington-d-c-200-years-ago

This article gives in detail the capturing and burning of Washington D.C. by the British and eventual treaty signed at the end of the war of 1812 where both Britain and the US agreed there was no need for a buffer state between the US and British Canada. The British when fighting broke out stationed general Cockburn in the Chesapeake bay where he for a long time fought small fights on the eastern coast against the US, but when Napoleon denounced his thrown in France the English shifted all their focus to the US moving a large quantity of troops to Cockburn’s station. With an intercepted anonymous letter, and a plea from the mayor of D.C. to protect the capital President Madison ordered a small army along with 10,000 Militia men to guard the capital. Unfortunately the Secretary of War did not take action on this until it was too late. Cockburn’s two divisions of troops had successfully taken D.C. stealing Madison’s personal items from the white house and burning the whole city with furniture and gun powder. Shortly after the British lost two major battles in Baltimore and Lake Champlain leading both sides to seek out a treaty.

6)  http://www.history.com/news/lincolns-battlefield-brush-with-death-150-years-ago

This article gives a recount of President almost getting shot in the Battle of Fort Stevens in 1864.  In the civil war Ulysses S. grant devoted a majority of 23,000 troops to trying to take over the Southern capital of Richmond, VA. When Robert E. Lee noticed how hard the union troops were pursuing the fall of Richmond he knew he needed to do something drastic thus he put Lieutenant Early in charge of a group of Confederate soldiers sent up through Maryland to attempt to take the Union capital. One afternoon Lincoln was supposed to evacuate at the end of the potomac river where the battle was occurring. Since D.C. was heavily fortified and it was so hot out Early did not send out an assault on the capital, but one of the confederate sharpshooters nearly hit Lincoln from 800 feet away when he was seen on the parapets of Fort Stevens. After this occurrence Lincoln returned to D.C. confident that it would hold up against any attack the confederates could bring, especially with more union troops rushing to the battle grounds. The confederates fought all day the next day and retreated at nightfall.

7)  http://www.history.com/news/scholar-questions-key-period-in-declaration-of-independence

Recently thanks to professor Danielle Allen a certain phrase in the declaration of independence is under question. In most copies of the declaration of independence we see that the second sentence stands as “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Yet in recent studies done by Allen she notes that the those who transcribed the declaration from one copy to another added the period after the word Happiness accidentally separating it from the third sentence regarding protection under the government. She feels as though this is a crucial misunderstanding of the text because the context that government exists as an aid to the citizens of their rights. Many of the copies of the declaration are taken off of a stone copy made in 1823, but seeing as there were 70 copies made from the time the declaration came out and when the stone was produced Allen believes that the stone also has the mistranslation. Evidence came about during the study that there is an ink mark after the word happiness, which is also in question to have been a comma rather than a period.

8)  http://www.history.com/news/deeper-roots-of-northern-slavery-unearthed

In the winter of 1757 one of the descendants of John Winthrop left Connecticut (new England) on a ship called “Africa” set sail for Africa. This descendant was named Dudley Saltonstall and was one of the wealthiest Northern colonists that the article places on par with John Rockefeller. He reportedly kept ship logs on the Africa of all of the slaves he was bringing back to new england as well as keeping logs of other goods and deaths aboard the ships. He reportedly brought back 6,000 slaves just to the state of Connecticut. This proves that the North had many more ties to slavery than it would like to admit to. At one point the article also points out that the North had over 40,000 slaves all working low pay factory/labor jobs at one period in time.

9)  http://www.history.com/news/remembering-the-first-presidential-inauguration-225-years-ago

After winning the Revolutionary War George Washington returned to his Virginia plantation in 1783 retiring from chief of the American army. He wanted to be done with politics, but realized how weak the articles of Confederation were and attended a constitutional convention in philadelphia in 1787. Here the constitution was drawn up, Washington quickly got it ratified in Virginia and nine other states also ratified it. Washington was then requested to be president of the united states, which he did not want to be, yet he was nominated unanimously by the 10/13 states that were able to vote. He was the only President to get all votes by the electoral college. Washington was incredibly nervous upon accepting office but the nation celebrated extensively.

10)  http://www.history.com/news/andersonville-150-years-ago

In 1863 the prisoner exchange system between the union and confederates ceased to exist due to the lack of agreement on the worth of prisoners. Thus there were 15,000 union troops captive in 1863 in Richmond, Va. The small quarters and large population was stressing the size of the camp and with the growing discomfort of having so many union troops contained within the confederate capital the confederates started to construct camp Sumter in Andersonville with the use of black slaves. In February 1864 100 union troops escaped the Richmond camp thus the confederates started transporting union troops to the unfinished 16.5 acre camp Sumter. There was a fresh water supply, and enough food to ration, but living conditions were poor because the shelters composed of stitched sheets and twigs rather than wooden compounds. Trains kept bringing union troops by the thousands bringing about a 10 acre expansion. This was no solution however when the population reached 33,000 union troops. Each troop had about 6 feet to the next troop, meals became scarce, and the once fresh water became drinking and sewage. Many troops died of disease or random shootings by the confederate guards. Deaths on both sides reached 50,000.

11)  http://www.history.com/news/remembering-the-proclamation-of-1763

The British and americans fought the French and Indians in the seven years war leading up to 1763. Upon winning against the French the British monarchy had obtained all of the land once in use by the French and Indians. Outraged by the British thinking they had the right to the new land Chief Pontiac organized the Pontiac’s rebellion in which 12 British forts were attacked and 8 of which were captured. Similarly brothers known as the Paxton boys attacked Indians that did not even cause any issues. To stop all of the unnecessary deaths King George issued the Proclamation of 1763 in which settlers were forbidden to cross the Appalachian mountains, but could now settle Quebec and Florida. This however did not stop the settlement west of the Appalachian mountains in the United States. Even George Washington himself tried to illegally buy land from Native Americans in 1767 before the Proclamation was repealed and another treaty was made with the Native Americans moving them further west.

12)  http://www.history.com/news/lincoln-spotted-among-throngs-in-rare-gettysburg-photo

Christopher Oakley, a professor and amateur historian at the university of North Carolina at Asheville recently discovered a sighting of Abraham Lincoln in one of his photos. Along with one of his classes at the university he was attempting to re-create the Gettysburg address so he had been doing research and touring battle grounds. One night he located John Seward the peculiar looking secretary of state at the time and knowing Lincoln usually sat near Seward he saw another face and blew up the frame to identify it as Abraham Lincoln. He sent the photo to the Library of Congress for a high resolution scan and when it returned it was confirmed to be Lincoln. The only issue was that in 2007 in the same photo another person, John Richter, identified Lincoln atop a horse. Both spottings have followers, but Oakley is more likely to be correct since he was looking for and doing a project on Lincoln.

13)  http://www.history.com/news/frederick-douglass-escapes-slavery-175-years-ago

Frederick Bailey was an enslaved African that attempted to escape the clutches of slavery twice and succeeded once. He had obtained sailor’s clothing and borrowed the Sailor’s pass of a free black friend of his. Frederick used this disguise because of his knowledge of waterfront and that many free black men worked in harbors as sailors. To avoid anyone checking the sailor pass he had obtained he jumped onto a moving train at the last second and entered the colored persons car. The description on the pass did not match Frederick’s appearance, but the conductor did not notice the description and instead focused on the official eagle allowing him to ride the train. He rode through Maryland and Delaware to arrive in New York. He was hidden away by David Ruggles until his free wife had arrived in New York. Together they moved to Bedford, Massachusetts where Frederick changed his last name to Douglas and bought his freedom with the aid of his activist supporters.

14)  http://www.history.com/news/archaeologists-discover-oldest-colonial-fort-in-u-s-interior

John Pardo, a Spanish explorer, reached the eastern coast of America in 1566 and landed in present day North Carolina. Under the direction of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés Pardo’s mission was to build a string of colonies from the Appalachian mountains down to the silver mines the Spanish possessed in Mexico. Pardo started the construction of Fort San Juan and small houses which he called the city of Cuenco. Cuenco was 300 miles inland of coastal North Carolina. Unfortunately he was not the first to settle the area, the native Mississippian tribe long preceded his arrival and responded by burning down the city and killing all but one of its inhabitants. The Spanish sold the area to the French and English where later mining efforts brought about a gold rush.

15)  http://www.history.com/news/remembering-the-only-civilian-to-die-at-gettysburg

Mary Virginia Wade was born in 1843 in the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. When the Battle of Gettysburg broke out in 1863 Wade, her family, and the child they took care of named Isaac Brinkerhoff moved in with her older sister Georgia McClellan. They believed they'd be safer, but the union troops retreated into the hills south of Gettysburg putting the McClellan household right in the center of the battle. Bullets flew through the windows and an artillery shell even crashed through the roof but never exploded. The next day Georgia’s husband went out for firewood. Shots crashed through the house one landing in the bed post next to Georgia McClellan, the next when straight through the back of Wade as she was kneading dough for biscuits. Hearing Georgia scream the union troops safely escorted the family to the cellar safely. Wade was wrapped in a blanket and was later re-located to a church to be buried. She was the only civilian casualty in the Battle of Gettysburg.

16)  http://www.history.com/news/evidence-of-cannibalism-found-at-jamestown

In 1607 John Smith along with 107 colonists arrived on  a peninsula in the James River where the Jamestown settlement was set up. Colonists were dying quickly due to inexperience farming in the area and disease so John Smith reached out to the Powhatan Natives to help them grow produce and provide them with food. In 1609 John Smith accidentally was burned with gun powder and returned to England to receive medical care, he never came back and left the town under the governor George Percy. That same winter the colonists suffered a large drought and had such little food that Percy recorded his citizens eating horses. Eventually the food became so scarce that they moved onto dogs, cats, and excavating the dead people killed off by disease or the harsh winter cold. There was no physical evidence of this until 2013 when Douglas Owsley found the bones of a little girl during an excavation with knife marks in the bone. It was then concluded that the colonists of Jamestown did resort to cannibalism for a food supply in the winter of 1609-1610.

17)  http://www.history.com/news/george-washingtons-revolutionary-st-patricks-day

During the Revolutionary war from 1779 to 1780 George Washington and the Continental army were stationed in Morristown, New Jersey for the hardest winter ever recorded in American history to that date. From November to April the encampment was hit by 28 different snow storms covering the camp in 6 feet of snow. Washington recognized that his mean were freezing, huddling for warmth and had little shelter from the weather. In order to boost their morale he gave them the day off on St. Patrick’s Day. A majority of the immigrants fighting in the war were Irish and back home in Ireland the Irish also strived to gain independence from Britain thus the army received a day off on March 16, 1760. This was most likely the most well behaved St. Patrick’s Day which did also involve the drinking of some rum purchased by the general. Yet this was the first time in America the holiday had been celebrated and lifted the spirits of troops that endured an incredibly harsh winter.