#The battle at fort Sumter

[failingatlifespectacularly]

Very normal history project, I swear

[macaron-n-cheese]

Today (April 13th) I am 18! It's also Neil's 18th anniversary of banging out the tunes (I gave him a little sweater hehe). Also Jefferson's 281st birthday. And surrender of Fort Sumter's 163rd anniversary.

Me:

(thank you person on pinterest who posted a bunch of photos of 1776 Jefferson)

[murdrdocs]

BATTLE??? this sounds like WAR babe

no i swear it’s just a small battle okay it’s not even the shot heard around the world like this is nothing.

[rabbitcruiser]

American Civil War: Battle of Fort Sumter. 

The war began with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston on April 12, 1861.   

[madnessr]

Vagabond

Vagabond — wandering from place to place without any settled home

Poly Lost Boys x GN Reader Synopsis: Forgiveness is a fickle thing. When four souls find each other, the world finds its equilibrium once more; until the absence of another tips the scale forever. What happens when a familiar face shows itself back at the boardwalk after twenty years of absence?

Warnings: slight angst, lots of historical information in the beginning

Word Count: 3k

By issuing the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776, the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain. 

You had been ten during the conflicts between America and Great Britain, young and impressionable. Your family came with Puritans, who set sail to America back in 1630. Unlike the Pilgrims, who had left ten years earlier, the Puritans did not break with the Church of England but sought to reform it. All that happened before you were born; your ancestors had settled down and spread their roots into American soil. 

You recalled little of the American Revolution; after all, you were very young back then, but you remember December 15th, 1791, vividly. Your mother couldn't stop crying that day, and your father had pulled out the oldest whiskey they had that day. America was finally severed from the tyrannical rule of George III. 

You came to understand the significance of those dates more as you aged, growing into a strong individual as you helped your family on their farm. You never intended to marry; it wasn't something you had ever desired or looked forward to. The same year you had gotten married was the day you lost your immortality; both events are related but not necessarily connected. You were introduced to the vampiric community in New Orleans, a city that used the day to sleep off the mistakes you made throughout the rambunctious night. 

You had lived through the formation of the Constitution of the United States of America in 1787 when the founding fathers sought to implement more structure into the now independent country. 

The infamous whiskey rebellion. American drunks apparently were not too keen about Alexander Hamilton implementing a liquor tax to try and raise money for the national debt; asserting the federal government's power back in 1794. 

Only nine years later, the Louisiana Purchase happened in 1803. The small land purchase for only $27 million created room for the states of Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, along with most of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Minnesota.

Throughout the 1810s and 1830s, you had moved on from New Orleans and left for New York, seeking human connections and reconnecting with the younger generations. During that time, the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 and the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 seemed to fly past you. 

Then, signed on February 2nd, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo finally brought closure to the Mexican-American war. At this time, you were no stranger to political conflicts anymore, and the stench of blood and sweat staining battlefields was, unfortunately, no stranger. 

Life moved on regardless, no matter the horrid realities life provided. For a short while, life had finally come to a stand-still, guns tucked away as the world in America resumed its development. Until April 12th, 1861, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor at 4:30 A.M., A day that changed America forever, the beginning of the American Civil War. 

The Emancipation Proclamation, The First Conscription Act, The Battle of Chancellorsville, The Vicksburg Campaign, The Gettysburg Campaign, The Battle of Chickamauga, The Battle of Chattanooga, The Siege of Knoxville. The list continued, and the coppery smell of wasted humanity tainted the air, the wind carrying the cries of victims throughout the nation. 

The war ended in the Spring of 1865. Robert E. Lee surrendered the last major Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9th, 1865.

The number of soldiers who died throughout those four years eventually got estimated to be around 620,000.

Only 47 years later, on July 28th, 1914, the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, beginning the cruel trench warfare of World War I. In early April 1917, America aided the effort to join a war to end all wars. You had entered the war effort, like everyone capable at the time; from soldiers to nurses, everyone gave aid. 

On November 11th, 1918, the war ended. Although the Allies won, you found no reason to celebrate. Not when mothers sold their homes since there wasn't a reason to have a multiple-bedroom house anymore, when graveyards overflowed with the dead, when people mourned their losses, when mothers' only answer to their missing sons was a notice declaring their child missing in action. 

The stock market crashed in 1929, kicking off the Great Depression that would last for more than a decade. 

On September 1st, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Kicking off World War II and beginning one of the most brutal warfare's, Blitzkrieg. On May 8th, 1945, Germany surrendered. After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on September 2nd, 1945, and the Second World War came to an end.

The war ended, and the surviving soldiers returned with missing limbs and broken spirits. You were a firm believer that humans were not meant to witness so much death; it tainted them; it dulled them. Although you were a vampire, a creature supposedly made for horror, you could not forget what you had witnessed in only the span of 21 years. 

You were 201 years old now, relatively young in the grand scheme of time, but you had lived through a few of the greatest horrors the world had ever seen. 

189 years of traversing the lands, you watched grow in a desperate search to find one of your own. Since you were turned and left New Orleans, you had not met a single vampire. You watched with sorrowful wisdom in your eyes as the world passed through you, virginity in people's expressions you wish you had. A gaze untainted by warfare, civil unrest, and brutality. 

Although you have met the occasional human to brighten your own world, it did not cure you. Your search was desolate—fruitless. 

Your feet had carried you to Santa Carla, the year now being 1963, and just as the five stages of grief had settled on acceptance. You bumped into a group of four rambunctious bikers that would change your life forever. That had been the first time you had met, and you had continued to live together, going on to live through the Civil Rights movement and grieving the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

But on August 12th, 1967, you left Santa Carla. Your absence is only justified by a delicately written letter standing in your place. You had grown to love the boys, but you had lived differently compared to them. 

Marko and Paul were younger vampires than you, having been turned while The Great Depression was bulldozing America. Dwanye had been older, abandoning his immortality in the 18th century along with David. All of them possessed the innate ability to move on from the past, a talent you, unfortunately, did not possess. 

No matter how hard you tried, you could not find peace or excitement in the future. The uncertainty corrupted you, tormented you and your experiences, so you left. Not with the intent to abandon but to sort out whatever you had to sort out. Away from the prying eyes of those you loved, those who you did not want—couldn't disappoint.  

Santa Carla, the town you had never been able to forget. It was 1987 now; twenty years had passed since you had seen the four vampires. You had missed them—a melancholic weight having nestled its way into your heart ever since you left. You regretted the way you had left through a simple letter. A cowardly move; you were wise enough to understand that. But at the time, you couldn't bring yourself to say it to them. How could you? Look someone in the eyes, someone like you—your own pack that never did anything but love you—and tell them you were leaving? 

You didn't have the heart, and if you were a little more honest, you didn't have it now, either. But you missed them more than your hurt pride by walking what felt like a walk of shame as you wandered around the busy boardwalk. One thing you never could get used to was the constant shift in fashion, it felt like the ins became the outs overnight, and you never were able to keep up with it. 

Bright colors were the most fashionable now, with teased hair and loud makeup. You enjoyed it, your knowing eyes watching over the crowd. The smell of hairspray permeated the air, wafting towards you as you passed people. Bulky and oversized clothes were spotted throughout the crowds, some men and women wearing specific member-only jackets. Ah, it seems the surfer nazis still haven't given up on Santa Carla yet. 

The amusement park was new; back in 1867, the boardwalk had small shops littered around—like a market. Originally it mostly sold food and groceries, fish caught fresh from the sea, and farmers selling their produce. 

How has the pier changed so significantly? If it wasn't for the bold, attention-seeking sign that said Santa Carla Boardwalk; you would've thought you were at the wrong address. But stepping on those old wooden floorboards of the pier that occasionally creaked or sunk under your feet was an all too familiar feeling. The smell of salt, rotting seaweed that had washed onto the shore, and the fresh street food made you feel all too at home. 

It felt like you had never really left. 

Your appearance had changed quite a bit since you left Santa Carla, so you didn't expect either the boys or Max to really recognize you. But although you were willing to stay under the radar for the boys, Max was another story. He was a head vampire, a coven leader, and therefore needed to be notified of your presence. 

Entering Max's video store made you feel nostalgic, the same old grimy bell still hanging atop the doorframe signaling your arrival; you had been the one to put that there to originally annoy Max. You were surprised he kept it. The wooden floorboards and furniture gave off a distinct, homey smell. You had been there when the store was built, and the shiny coating across the floors now had grown mat, occasional wood panels brighter in color than before. 

"I never thought I'd meet the day I saw you walk through those doors again." 

Turning around, you met the stern gaze of Max. His outfit made you smile, a desperate attempt at blending in with the crowd. Max was always a stickler for blending in; if he had no intention of turning you; you had no business knowing who; or rather what, he was. 

"It's good to see you." 

"I'm flattered, but I doubt that I am the sole reason you returned." Max always carried that knowing tone, as if he's watched out every move you'd make before you made them. It reminded you that Max had a coven before the boys and you, one he rarely conversed about. Perhaps Max really had seen this turn out before, but analyzing that surprised expression, you could only assume who had left never did come back. 

"How right you are," You sighed, shoulders dropping as you hopped onto the cashier counter. It was before opening, meaning you and Max had some time to chat privately. 

"Twenty years is a long time," Max hummed, a low and almost chiding tone. "What made you come back?" 

"To us, it isn't," You weakly argued back. The cumbersome feeling, or rather an awareness that you were in the wrong, was nearly unbearable. You were smart enough to understand that denial was a fruitless endeavor, and yet you couldn't help but let those desperate attempts escape you. 

"For people waiting for you, it's an eternity." Max sighed in a calm but chiding tone. Although Max never did have to scold you the way he did with the boys, from not committing arson to preventing fights. Max instead focused his guidance towards you on a more emotional level, the morality; a bit ironic being taught by a vampire—but he did his best. 

You glanced outside, through the glass walls of Max's shop, watching the bustling crowd pass you. Twenty years to a vampire was nothing, but somehow the short span of time felt arduous. Why did you come back?

"I never intended on staying away forever. I knew that when the time was right, I'd return." You explained, stealing a quick glance at Max. The older man had a frown etched onto his face, eyebrows furrowed as his own gaze lingered on the rambunctious humans outside. So unaware of the constant and unrelenting passage of time. It was cruel to be immortal; the passage of time no longer hindered you. But emotions are bendable and are the only aspect of ourselves that remains from who we were. Emotions were mortal. 

"Santa Carla has changed, Y/N. It is not what you left behind; they are not the same as they were alongside you." Max recalled, his voice disapproving. 

You knew Max was correct; you knew deep in your wrenching and twisting gut. You jumped off the counter, your feet hitting the floor like gravity had shifted around you, sinking your body into the floor. "I know," you knew; perhaps the boys didn't even want to see you; they could curse you out and send your name to hell for all eternity. They deserved to do it too. 

But they loved you once, and perhaps you can't help shake the feeling that they might love you again this time too. 

Max sighed, walking over to his front door and twisting the closed sign around, and pronouncing the store now open. Each tap of his foot, synced with his steps, was like a thundering echo inside you. It prompted you to get up and to provide closure for the others. You reach the door, opening midway before Max leaves you with some parting advice. 

"I hope you find what you came here for, Y/N. But the time might be right for you now, but it might not be for them."

You nodded, not looking back as you walked out of the store. The air was warmer, humid from the ocean breeze mixing into the air, the notorious assassin for any styled and teased hair due.

Laughter was one of your favorite sounds. As cliche as that might sound, it felt rejuvenating to hear. Whether it was a loud cackle mimicking the call of a hyena or a high-pitched wheeze or whistle. There was a beauty in people's expressions, how their noses tended to scrunch up, or how others held their stomachs and nearly doubled over. Laughter was infectious, and you loved observing the dopamine spread to others. Strangers connecting over a similar sense of joy; there was a beauty in it. 

The boardwalk was filled with it, people brushing shoulders against shoulders as they walked. Groups cackling and shoving each other as they enjoyed the youngness of the evening. Music booming from different directions, punks blasting the newest rap or metal music, hippies tuning out to a gentle jam, but the loudest seemed to be a distant concert down the boardwalk and closer to the pier. Like a bee sensing some honey, you followed. Dodging the occasional passerby, ducking out of the way from shop owners lugging their merchandise around. 

The music got louder, and a small thread of excitement seemed to push you further, faster. Your small stroll transformed into a quickened step, your ears guiding you and your eyes following the crowd. The music was loud; a tight smosh-like pit had formed before the stage where people grind and brushed against each other to the beat of the music. 

Looking around, you scanned the faces of teenagers and young adults. There was an eager but dreaded nervousness to your gaze at the thought of seeing a face that looked familiar. But it wasn't your eyes that caught their presence, but rather your sense of smell. 

 Copper. 

Although it was harder to pick up when the wind stills its prancing, the occasional breeze led you further towards the pier. Away from the smosh pit, and where people stood to enjoy the music but not risk getting mulled over by a hormonal teenager. 

There they stood, strikingly familiar. Although some of the fashion had changed, most of their originality stayed intact. That tiny red flag tied around Dwayne's waist was something the two of you had stolen from a stingy bar owner back in 1964; Markos jacket still had all too familiar patches sewn into its denim fabric; Paul still wore those bracelets you gave him, and David wore the most prominent reminder of you, his oversized coat. 

The wind picked up around you, a cold and mocking breeze flowing through your hair and betraying your presence to the four men you had left behind all those years ago. One by one, heads lifted, smiling ceased, and laughter died. Although you had spent years preparing yourself for this moment, nothing felt so gut-wrenchingly real than standing before them. 

How do you look someone in the eyes after you've abandoned them?

How do you move past that moment when the world around you stills and halts. When you lose yourself in the blear of the world when mortality reaches its hand around your heart and squeezes. A vice-like grip, a feeling blooming within your chest so heavy–so unspeakable. When you see those eyes, recognize the sorrow behind them and realize you were the perpetrator. You were the one who put that agony, that sadness there.

The burden of your actions ties itself around your throat like a noose, tight and unyielding, as you realize the cruelty was done by none other than yourself. And there is no way, in any shape or form, you could reverse the damage you've done. Pain is immortal, it might yield to its throbbing, but it never forgets. 

A world with your boys back in 1967 exists now only in your memory. The four men, cold as the autumn waters, were your reality now. 

"Hello, boys."

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Hello! I've been enjoying your writing references and notes, thank you for sharing! I was wondering, do you have any for something set during the Civil War? I've been sitting on the idea of writing a short story inspired by Little Women and I want to do it some justice at least. I would be happy with whatever you can offer <3

Writing Notes: The American Civil War

A four-year war (1861–65) between the United States and 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.

The two sides fought over the enslavement of African Americans and the rights of individual states.

The economy of the South relied on enslaving Black people to work on plantations of cotton and tobacco, while in the industrialized North, public opinion was in favor of ending slavery.

The war ended in 1865 with a Union victory.

THE UNION AND THE CONFEDERACY

By February 1861, 7 southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas) had broken away from the rest of the US.

On 4 February, they agreed to form a separate government, the Confederate States of America.

The first shots of the war were fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina on 12 April, and within 3 months, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee had joined the Confederates.

23 states remained in the Union, including the slave-owning “border states”.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

The US Civil War was one of the first industrial wars in history, making use of modern technologies developed during the course of the 19th century. The war was fought across a wide area, so railways were critically important in carrying troops and supplies to where they were needed on the front lines. Generals were able to communicate with each other by telegraph.

Weapons. Fast-firing repeating rifles, such as the Spencer rifle, were used for the first time in the Civil War. The widely used “Napoleon” field gun could hit a target up to 1,600 m (5,250 ft) away. Also developed at this time was the Gatling gun, an early machine gun.

Ironclad battleships. Steam-powered battleships protected by iron or steel plates were known as ironclads. The first-ever battle between ironclads was fought in the Civil War in 1862, on the James River estuary in Virginia.

Modern Communications. In the Civil War, railroads moved troops around, aerial balloons spied across enemy lines, and the telegraph (above) sent and received instant information. Its receiver machine recorded messages on paper tape in Morse code, which uses dots and dashes to represent numbers and letters of the alphabet.

WAR PHOTOGRAPHY

The Civil War was one of the first conflicts to be extensively photographed. Dozens of photographers toured the battlefields, and their stark images of soldiers, dead and alive, brought shocking scenes of the war to the public around the world.

A Continental War. Most of the fighting in the war took place in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in the east. There were also battles in Kentucky and Tennessee in the west and down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. In 1864, General William T. Sherman (above) conducted a major campaign in Georgia and the Carolinas.

TIMELINE

A nation divided. When 7 US states seceded (broke away) from the Union to form the Confederacy, President Lincoln refused to recognize the new government, and called on them to rejoin the Union. The Confederates refused, and tried to gain control of federal forts in the south. The stage was set for a bloody war that would last for the next 4 years.

12 April, 1861: Fort Sumter attacked. Confederate troops under Brigadier General Beauregard fired on Union soldiers who were guarding Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. These were the first shots to be fired in the Civil War.

17 September, 1862: Battle of Antietam. The bloodiest day of fighting in the entire war took place at the Battle of Antietam, in which nearly 23,000 soldiers were wounded or killed. The Union army suffered the most casualties, but managed to halt the advance of General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate forces into the Union state of Maryland. The next day Lee was allowed to lead his shattered army back to Virginia.

13 December, 1862: Confederate victory. Fortune swung back to the Confederate side at the Battle of Fredericksburg, in Virginia. General Burnside, newly appointed by Lincoln to command the Union army, led 120,000 troops to attack a Confederate force of 80,000 – by far the largest number of men to meet in any conflict of the Civil War. Burnside was decisively defeated – a victory that gave fresh hope to the Confederates and led to complaints that the Union’s generals were doing a bad job.

1 January, 1863: All slaves to be free. President Lincoln gave new purpose and direction to the war by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. This was an order freeing all slaves in the Confederate states. Of course, this could not happen until the Union had won the war against the Confederates, but his words would eventually lead to the freeing of millions of African American slaves.

3 March, 1863: First African-American regiment. The first official regiment of African-American soldiers, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, was formed to fight in the Union army.

4 July, 1863: Vicksburg captured. Union troops captured the Confederate fortress of Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River, after a 2-month siege. It was a major turning point in the war, coming a day after the Union victory at Gettysburg. The Union now controlled the length of the Mississippi River, dividing Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas from the rest of the Confederate states, and cutting off supplies.

15 November, 1864: March to the Sea. The capture of Atlanta in Georgia by Union General William T. Sherman in September was a heavy blow to the Confederates. Although deep inside enemy territory, Sherman decided to march his army all the way from Atlanta to the coast at Savannah. He ordered his men to live off the land and destroy farms and factories on their way. This brutal “scorched earth” policy inflicted lasting damage.

9 April, 1865: Lee surrenders to Grant. The Confederate capital of Richmond, in Virginia, fell on 3 April. The Virginian Confederate army was exhausted. To avoid further losses, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. By May, all the Confederate armies had stopped fighting. The war was finally over.

14 April, 1865: Assassination of Lincoln. President Lincoln was shot while attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. He died the next morning. A funeral train took 14 days to transport his body back for burial in his hometown of Springfield, in Illinois.

The Battle of Gettysburg. The most famous battle of the Civil War was fought over three days, from 1 to 3 July 1863, around the small town of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. The Confederates attacked, confident they would win, but the Union army did not give way and eventually won. The battle had the heaviest casualties in the war. An estimated 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or listed as missing. Four months after the battle, President Lincoln visited the site and delivered a famous speech known as the Gettysburg Address. In it, he said that the US was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”.

The Abolition of Slavery. On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all enslaved people in the Confederacy from January 1, 1863. In 1865 Congress passed the 13th Amendment (law change) to the US Constitution, making slavery illegal across the soon-to-be reunited country.

RECONSTRUCTION

African Americans Voting in Richmond in Virginia, 1871

The slow process of rebuilding the economy of the south, left in ruins after the war, is known as Reconstruction. Before rejoining the US, each state of the Confederacy had to agree to amendments to the US Constitution – the supreme law of the nation – that ended slavery, granted citizenship to African Americans, and gave the vote to all male citizens.

Reconstruction ended in 1877, and many southern state governments immediately reversed the new rights given to African Americans, making it hard for them to vote, go to school, or find paid work. They introduced laws that legalized discrimination against Black people that remained in place for almost a century.

Below are objects that serve as evidence of the turmoil leading up to the election and the events that happened immediately after.

Below are objects that show how the Union and the Confederacy dealt with money problems, while also exploring what was considered money then and who produced it.

The objects below belonged to the men and boys who fought on the front lines for both Confederate and Union forces. They represent what soldiers wore, what they ate, how they coped, and what they held dear to them. These items, more often than not, were the only possessions soldiers kept while enlisted; on many are personal touches added by the owner.

Below are a few objects used as weapons by both Confederate and Union armies.

Below are a few objects used by or presented to the leaders of Union and Confederate forces.

For many Americans, both civilian and military, who lived through the conflict, the Civil War was the monumental event of their lifetime. They collected relics as they adjusted to the immediate consequences of the war. The nation grappled with the residual effects of the Civil War for more than a century. Below are objects that evoked different memories from the war.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: Notes & References

It's nice to hear this, thanks so much! <3 Hope these notes help as quick references. Further research might be needed if you're planning to write something more detailed.

[ripstefano]

Early American CW Uniforms

"We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to be equal with every other man. In this great struggle, this form of Government and every form of human right is endangered if our enemies succeed."

Lincoln

The war's first major clash occurred at the First Battle of Bull Run (or Manassas) on July 21, 1861. Union forces under Brigadier General Irvin McDowell launched an offensive against the Confederate army led by Generals P.G.T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston near Manassas, Virginia. What began as a hopeful march toward a quick Union victory turned chaotic; inexperienced troops on both sides struggled with logistics and command. Ultimately, Confederate reinforcements arrived, turning the tide and forcing Union troops into a frantic retreat toward Washington, D.C. The battle revealed that the war would be longer and bloodier than anticipated, foreshadowing the brutal conflict that lay ahead.

From Lincoln's 90-Day Volunteers 1861: From Fort Sumter to First Bull Run

[fanofspooky]

The Twilight Zone S3E4

The Passerby

“This road is the afterwards of the Civil War. It began at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and ended at a place called Appomattox. It's littered with the residue of broken battles and shattered dreams. In just a moment, you will enter a strange province that knows neither North nor South, a place we call - The Twilight Zone.”

[mapsontheweb]

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861 with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. From 1863, after the Battle of Gettysburg, the Unionists gradually gained ground to prevail definitively in 1865 with the capitulation of General Lee at Appomatox

by @LegendesCarto

[dchan87]

"The Union Must Stand", a song from Lincoln: A Punk Rock Opera

Background: A few years ago, when visiting the Lincoln museum in Springfield, I had an inkling for a Hamilton-inspired punk rock opera. I was too lazy to write it. Until today! Well, one song, at least.

My fellow Americans Our house fights against itself I fear we cannot stand

The south fired on Fort Sumter yesterday but no one died My administration is following the situation The army will be mustered, to kick the south’s backside They will pay for their attempted insurrection

FIGHT FOR US! Our boys in blue FIGHT FOR US! Our cause is true FIGHT FOR US! To save our land FIGHT FOR US! Now take a stand!

The union must stand, the union must stand! It’s a civil war, us against US The union must stand, the union must stand! Brothers fight brothers, for justice! The union must staaaaaand!

We march on Virginia at dawn, McDowell to lead They’ll be sure to keep foundation steady Justice is coming for Jeff Davis and Bobby Lee Hear the battle hymn singing and be ready

FIGHT FOR US! Our boys in blue FIGHT FOR US! Our cause is true FIGHT FOR US! To save our land FIGHT FOR US! Now take a stand!

The union must stand, the union must stand! It’s a civil war, us against US The union must stand, the union must stand! Brothers fight brothers, for justice! The union must staaaaaand!

A house divided against itself, as I said before Cannot stand upon a wind-swept shore The ground itself is shaking with a mighty roar Must I be the one to meet the moment in this hour I don’t have a real mandate to exercise my power I fear mine eyes will see the glory of the Lord

FIGHT FOR US! Our boys in blue FIGHT FOR US! Our cause is true FIGHT FOR US! To save our land FIGHT FOR US! Now take a stand!

The union must stand, the union must stand! It’s a civil war, us against US The union must stand, the union must stand! Brothers fight brothers, for justice! The union must staaaaaand!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 1, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 1, 2024

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed his name to the Emancipation Proclamation. “I never in my life felt more certain that I was doing right,” he said, “than I do in signing this paper. If my name goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.”

The Emancipation Proclamation provided that as of January 1, “all persons held as slaves” anywhere that was still controlled by the Confederate government would be “then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

Historian Richard Hofstadter famously complained that the Emancipation Proclamation had “all the moral grandeur of a bill of lading,” but its legalistic tone reflected that Lincoln was committed to achieving change not by dictating it, which he recognized would destroy our democracy, but by working within the nation's democratic system.

Although Lincoln personally opposed human enslavement, he did not believe the federal government had the power to end it in the states. With that limitation, his goal, and that of the fledgling Republican Party he led, was only to keep it from spreading into the western territories where, until the 1857 Dred Scott decision, Congress had the power to exclude human enslavement. The spread of enslaved labor would enable wealthy enslavers to dominate the region quickly, they thought, limiting opportunities for poorer white men and gradually turning the entire country over to enslavers.

When the war broke out in 1861, the newly elected Lincoln urged southern leaders to reconsider leaving the Union, reassuring them that “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” When Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, the federal fort at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, Lincoln called not for a war on slavery, but for “all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid [an] effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union.”

From the earliest days of the war, though, Black Americans recognized that the war must address enslavement. Immediately, they began to escape across Union military lines. At first, hoping to appease border state residents, Union officers returned these people to their enslavers. But by the end of May, as it became clear that enslaved people were being pressed into service for the Confederate military, Union officers refused to return them and instead hoped that welcoming them to the Union lines would make them want to work for the U.S.

In August 1861, shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run left the Union army battered and bleeding, Congress struck a blow at enslavement by passing a law that forfeited the right of any enslaver to a person whom he had consented to be used “in aid of this rebellion, in digging ditches or intrenchments, or in any other way.”

When northern Democrats charged that Republicans were subverting the Constitution and planning to emancipate all southern enslaved people, Republicans agreed with the old principle that Congress had no right to “interfere with slavery in any slaveholding state,” but stood firmly on a new argument: the war powers the Constitution assigned to Congress enabled it to pass laws that would help the war effort. That included attacking enslavement.

As Confederate armies racked up victories, Republicans increasingly emphasized the importance of Black people to the South’s war effort. “[I]t has long been the boast of the South…that its whole white population could be made available for the war, for the reason that all its industries were carried on by the slaves,” the New York Times wrote. Northerners who before the war had complained that Black workers were inefficient found themselves reconsidering. The Chicago Tribune thought Black workers were so productive that “[F]our millions of slaves off-set at least eight millions of Northern whites.”

At the same time, Republicans came to see Black people as crucially important in the North as well, as they worked in military camps and, later, in cotton fields in areas captured by the U.S. military. While Democrats continued to harp on what they saw as Black people’s inability to support themselves, Republicans countered that “[n]o better class of laborers could be found…in all the population of the United States,” and Republican newspapers pushed back on the Democratic idea that Black families were unwelcome in the North.

By July 1862, as Union armies continued to falter, Lincoln decided to take the idea of attacking enslavement through the war powers further, issuing a document that would free enslaved southerners who remained in areas controlled by the Confederacy. His secretary of state, William Henry Seward, urged him to wait until after a Union victory to make the announcement so it would not look as if it were prompted by desperation.

When U.S. troops halted the advance of Confederate troops into Maryland at the September 17 Battle of Antietam, Lincoln thought it was time. On Monday, September 22, he issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation under the war power of the executive, stating that in 100 days, on January 1, 1863, enslaved persons held in territories still controlled by the Confederacy would be free. He said to a visiting judge: “It is my last trump card…. If that don’t do, we must give up.”

The plan did not sit well with Lincoln’s political opponents. They attacked Lincoln for fighting a war on behalf of Black Americans, and voters listened. In the 1862 midterm election, held a little over a month after the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln and the Republicans got shellacked. They lost more than 25 seats in the House of Representatives and lost control of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. Democrats did not win control of Wisconsin and Michigan, but they made impressive gains. Voters were undoubtedly unhappy with the lackluster prosecution of the war and concerned about its mounting costs, but Democrats were not wrong to claim their victory was a repudiation of emancipation.

Voters had spoken, and Lincoln responded by offering to give Democrats exactly what they said they wanted. In his message to Congress on December 1, 1862, he called for it to consider amendments to the Constitution that would put off emancipation until January 1, 1900, and pay enslavers for those enslaved people who became free. Slavery was going to end one way or another, he made it clear, and if Democrats wanted to do it their way, he was willing to let them lead. The ball was in Congress’s court if congressmen wanted to play.

But Democrats had won the election on grievance; no lawmaker really wanted to try to persuade his constituents to pay rich enslavers to end their barbaric system. Northerners recoiled from the plan. One newspaper correspondent noted that compensated emancipation would almost certainly cost more than a billion dollars, and while he seemed willing to stomach that financial hit, others were not. Another correspondent to the New York Times said that enslavers, who were at that very moment attacking the U.S. government, were already making up lists of the value of the people enslaved on their lands to get their U.S. government payouts.

Lincoln won his point. On December 31, 1862, newspapers received word that the president would issue the Emancipation Proclamation he had promised. Black congregations gathered that afternoon and into the night in their churches to pray for the end of enslavement and the realization of the principle of human equality, promised in the Declaration of Independence, starting a tradition that continues to the present.

And the following day, after the traditional White House New Year’s Day reception, Lincoln kept his word. Because his justification for the Emancipation Proclamation was to weaken the war effort, the areas affected by the proclamation had to be those still held by the Confederacy, but the larger meaning of the document was clear: the U.S. would no longer defend the racial enslavement that had been part of its birth and would admit Black men to national participation on terms of equality. Lincoln welcomed Black men into the service of the U.S. Army—traditionally a route to citizenship—and urged Black Americans to “labor faithfully for reasonable wages.”

In less than two years, the nation had gone from protecting enslavement to ending it, completely reworking the foundations of our government. But while the victory was moral, Lincoln and the Republicans had achieved it within the confines of a system that allowed the vote only to white men, a significant number of whom opposed ending enslavement altogether. Thanks to pressure from Black Americans and public opinion, they were able to thread a narrow political needle, preserving democratic norms while achieving revolutionary ends.

Lincoln concluded: “[U]pon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.”

The sausage-making of the Emancipation Proclamation had long-term repercussions. The redefinition of Black Americans as superhuman workers undercut later attempts to support formerly enslaved people as they transitioned to a free economy, and the road to equality was not at all as smooth as the Republicans hoped. But that such a foundational change in our history emerged from such messy give and take, necessary in order to preserve our democratic system, seems a useful thing to remember in 2024.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

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The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a slow-burning crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two. On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston: Fort Sumter.   Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.”   At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.   Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.

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Things we love to see

“This is my great-grandma, Christina Levant Platt at age 100, weeding her garden. She was born into slavery. Her “owner” was a wife that taught my great grandma to read and write secretly, which was illegal and quite dangerous at that time for both of them. She learned to read the Bible.

She had 11 children, she lost two, one son was one of the first black attorneys in US. She sent the 4 boys to college in Boston. Exceptional in those days.

She passed 5yrs before I was born but I love her as if I knew her. Family tells me she would say “ I put prayers on my children’s children’s heads”.

Around April 12, 1861, Christina was at the 1st battle of the CIVIL WAR, in Fort Sumter at Charleston Bay, South Carolina, working in the cotton fields.

She said “the sky was black as night” from cannonball fire. She saw a man decapitated by a cannonball.

She was the water girl for the other slaves as a young girl and “ the lookout” for the slaves in the fields for the approaching overseer on horseback as they secretly knelt and prayed for their freedom.

She would watch for the switching tail of the approaching horse and would alert the slaves to rise up and return to picking cotton before he saw them.

She eventually married a Native American from the Santee Tribe. John C, Platt.

After freedom, Christina insisted upon taking her children north as she knew they would not get a good education in the south, and that’s all she cared about. She died at age 101 in 1944, where she and her husband had built a home in Medfield, Massachusetts, the first black family to move there.

With great respect, I honor my great grandmother.

So much more I could say about this miraculous woman. She gave me much strength in my hard times.

Whenever I thought I was having a hard day, I would think of her and shrug it off.

-Brenda Russell

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Sullivan Ballou was a successful, 32-year-old attorney in Providence, Rhode Island, when Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers in the wake of Fort Sumter. Responding to his nation's call, the former Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives enlisted in the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry, where he was elected major. By mid-July, the swirling events in the summer of 1861 had brought Ballou and his unit to a camp of instruction in the nation's capital. With the movement of the federal forces into Virginia imminent, Sullivan Ballou penned this letter to his wife.

His concern that he "should fall on the battle-field" proved all too true. One week after composing his missive, as the war's first major battle began in earnest on the plains of Manassas, Ballou was struck and killed as the Rhode Islanders advanced from Matthews Hill.

Continue reading (link also contains full transcript of video contents)

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Events 4.12

240 – Shapur I becomes co-emperor of the Sasanian Empire with his father Ardashir I. 467 – Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. 627 – King Edwin of Northumbria is converted to Christianity by Paulinus, bishop of York. 1012 – Duke Oldřich of Bohemia deposes and blinds his brother Jaromír, who flees to Poland. 1204 – The Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade breach the walls of Constantinople and enter the city, which they completely occupy the following day. 1606 – The Union Flag is adopted as the flag of English and Scottish ships. 1776 – American Revolution: With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain. 1807 – The Froberg mutiny on Malta ends when the remaining mutineers blow up the magazine of Fort Ricasoli. 1820 – Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organization to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece. 1831 – Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, cause it to collapse. 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Sumter. The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. 1862 – American Civil War: The Andrews Raid (the Great Locomotive Chase) occurs, starting from Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw). 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Fort Pillow: Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee. 1865 – American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama, falls to the Union Army. 1877 – The United Kingdom annexes the Transvaal. 1900 – One day after its enactment by the Congress, President William McKinley signs the Foraker Act into law, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule. 1910 – SMS Zrínyi, one of the last pre-dreadnought battleships built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, is launched. 1917 – World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans. 1927 – Shanghai massacre of 1927: Chiang Kai-shek orders the Chinese Communist Party members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front. 1927 – Rocksprings, Texas is hit by an F5 tornado that destroys 235 of the 247 buildings in the town, kills 72 townspeople and injures 205; third deadliest tornado in Texas history. 1928 – The Bremen, a German Junkers W 33 type aircraft, takes off for the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west. 1934 – The strongest surface wind gust in the world at the time of 231 mph, is measured on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. It has since been surpassed. 1934 – The U.S. Auto-Lite strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers. 1937 – Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England. 1945 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes President upon Roosevelt's death. 1945 – World War II: The U.S. Ninth Army under General William H. Simpson crosses the Elbe River astride Magdeburg, and reaches Tangermünde—only 50 miles from Berlin. 1955 – The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective. 1961 – Space Race: The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first crewed orbital flight, Vostok 1. 1963 – The Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish straits. 1970 – Soviet submarine K-8, carrying four nuclear torpedoes, sinks in the Bay of Biscay four days after a fire on board. 1980 – The Americo-Liberian government of Liberia is violently deposed. 1980 – Transbrasil Flight 303, a Boeing 727, crashes on approach to Hercílio Luz International Airport, in Florianópolis, Brazil. Fifty-five out of the 58 people on board are killed. 1980 – Canadian runner and athlete, Terry Fox begins his Marathon of Hope Run in St. John's, NF. 1981 – The first launch of a Space Shuttle (Columbia) takes place: The STS-1 mission. 1983 – Harold Washington is elected as the first black mayor of Chicago. 1990 – Jim Gary's "Twentieth Century Dinosaurs" exhibition opens at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is the only sculptor ever invited to present a solo exhibition there. 1992 – The Euro Disney Resort officially opens with its theme park Euro Disneyland; the resort and its park's name are subsequently changed to Disneyland Paris. 1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a civil lawsuit; he is later fined and disbarred. 2002 – A suicide bomber blows herself up at the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda Market, killing seven people and wounding 104. 2007 – A suicide bomber penetrates the Green Zone and detonates in a cafeteria within a parliament building, killing Iraqi MP Mohammed Awad and wounding more than twenty other people. 2009 – Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwean dollar as its official currency. 2010 – Merano derailment: A rail accident in South Tyrol kills nine people and injures a further 28. 2013 – Two suicide bombers kill three Chadian soldiers and injure dozens of civilians at a market in Kidal, Mali. 2014 – The Great Fire of Valparaíso ravages the Chilean city of Valparaíso, killing 16 people, displacing nearly 10,000, and destroying over 2,000 homes.

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Civil War Tales - Philippi, the First Land Battle

(Publisher’s Note: This is the first of a series of historical accounts composed by local educator and historian Pete Chacalos. Pete, a former Ohio County Board of Education member and a retired science teacher who spent more than three decades in classrooms, will offer LEDE readers tales about how the Civil War impacted areas that would become the 35th state in the Union, West Virginia, on June 20th, 1863.) Fort Sumter fell on April 14, 1861. The next day, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 state militiamen to put down the rebellion. Thousands in the Midwest immediately volunteered. In Ohio, Governor William Dennison lobbied George McClellan to assume command of Ohio’s militia forces. McClellan accepted on April 23, 1861. Governor Dennison sent McClellan to Columbus to evaluate the state of Ohio’s arsenal. McClellan, accompanied by Jacob Cox, found crates of rusted muskets, mildewed harnesses, and some inoperable cannons. This did not deter him from creating an exceptional force of volunteers. McClellan’s efforts were noticed in Washington. The buildup of forces in the Midwest following Sumter's fall was so swift it outpaced the existing structure. This lack of organization was evident when, on May 3, 1861, the Union War Department issued General Order Number 14 to consolidate regiments from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois into the Department of the Ohio. Later, regiments from Missouri would be added. On this day, McClellan rejoined the Army, was promoted to Major General, and assigned to command the Department of the Ohio, headquartered in Cincinnati. Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee had cast his lot with the Confederacy. He was appointed to command military forces in Virginia. On May 4, 1861, he sent Colonel George Porterfield to Grafton to organize troops that were being raised there. Grafton was a key strategic point in western Virginia, as it was at the junction of the Parkersburg-Grafton Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Lee, however, did not foresee the amount of resentment that the people west of the Alleghenies had for the so-called elitist populace of the Tidewater region. The few men who rallied to the Confederate cause had little or no training. Ammunition was lacking, and some of the few companies raised in nearby towns didn’t have weapons.   As Porterfield would later say in his report:  “This force is not only deficient in drill but ignorant, both officers and men, of the most ordinary duties of the soldier. With efficient drill officers, they might be made effective, but I have to complain that the field officers sent to command these men are of no assistance to me and are, for the most part, as ignorant of their duties as the company officers, and they as ignorant as the men.” Col. Benjamin Franklin Kelley Porterfield received intelligence that Federal troops were approaching from Wheeling. Realizing that he could not hold Grafton (a pro-Union town) with the 800 troops at his disposal, Porterfield withdrew 25 miles south to Philippi (a secessionist town). As he retreated, Porterfield burned a few bridges to slow any pursuit from the federals. On Sunday, May 26, General McClelland received word that bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in western Virginia had been burned the previous night. The B&O was a vital link between Washington and the Midwest.  It provided an easy path through the Appalachian Mountains but passed through Confederate “territory” in three places.  McClellan launched an invasion into Virginia to protect against the B&O and the loyal citizens in western Virginia.  He ordered the 1st Virginia, the 9th Indiana, the 16th Ohio, and some companies from the 2nd Virginia to advance from Wheeling towards Fairmont and the 14th and 18th Ohio to advance from Parkersburg towards Grafton. Early on May 27, the 1st Virginia, commanded by Colonel Benjamin Franklin Kelley, left Camp Carlile on Wheeling Island and marched across the Suspension Bridge to the B&O depot. On May 29, the train picked up the regiments of the 16th Ohio at Camp Buffalo on the way to Fairmont. As Kelley moved east on one branch of the B&O Railroad, he was under orders to take no risks. If confronted by a force superior in manpower or firepower, Kelley was to observe and send for support. Kelley’s main objective was to protect the railroad and bridges on the way to Fairmont. The Battle of Philippi resulted in the retreat of Confederate forces to avoid capture by Union soldiers. The casualty totals - four Union and 26 Confederate - were considered to be light at that time. The 14th and 18th Ohio, based in Marietta, crossed the Ohio River, marched to Parkersburg, and boarded a train heading east towards Grafton. In Indianapolis, Brigadier General Thomas A. Morris received orders to prepare for a move, with the 6th and 7th Indiana, to Grafton. General Morris arrived at Grafton on the evening of June 1. He met with Colonel Kelley, who had organized an expedition against the Confederates at Philippi that night. After conferring with Kelley, Morris determined that the attack would occur the following night. At 9 a.m. on June 2, four regiments, organized into two divisions, left Grafton and headed for Philippi. One division (the left column) of 1,600 troops, under the command of Colonel Kelley, consisted of six companies of Kelley’s First Virginia, six companies of Colonel Irvine’s Sixteenth Ohio, and nine companies of Colonel Milroy’s Ninth Indiana. The left proceeded east on the B&O Railroad for six miles. This was intended to give the illusion of an advance on Harper’s Ferry. The men then disembarked and marched (on a little traveled road) southeast the remaining twenty-five miles to Philippi. The march was regulated, so the column arrived at its designated spot, behind the town (south) as close to 4 a.m. as possible. Colonel Ebenezer Dumont (commanding the right column) proceeded by rail to Webster with a force of 1,400, including the eight companies of his Seventh Indiana regiment. At Webster, Dumont was joined by Colonel Steedman and five companies of the Fourteenth Ohio, along with two field pieces, and by Colonel Crittenden, with six companies of his regiment, the Sixth Indiana. From Webster, the right column marched to Philippi, so it arrived in front of the town (north) at 4 a.m. The objective of Dumont’s column was to divert attention until the attack made by Colonel Kelley and to aid him if resistance was offered. Once the two columns joined, the force was to be under the command of Colonel Kelley. Both columns advanced on Philippi through torrential rains. Porterfield was aware of the approaching Federals. After conferring with his officers that evening, Porterfield decided the only hope of avoiding capture was a retreat (at daybreak) to Beverly. Most likely due to the storm and a lack of training, the Confederates had not set pickets that night to warn of any approach by the enemy. The covered bridge in Philippi was constructed in 1852 and is the oldest and longest in the state of West Virginia. Colonel Dumont’s column arrived on a ridge east of the town known as Talbot Hill. An artillery battery was placed here to support the column as it crossed the covered bridge into town. Dumont was to wait for a signal (a single shot) from Colonel Kelley indicating his troops were in place before commencing the bombardment. At this point, Kelley should have been circling around town and approaching from the south. The plans, however, had already gone awry.  Kelly’s column had taken a wrong fork in the road and ended up on the same side of town as Colonel Dumont’s men. As Kelley’s column approached Philippi, it passed by the home of Matilda Humphreys. Mrs. Humphreys sent her son to Philippi to warn of the approaching Federals.  He was immediately captured. Mrs. Humphreys fired a single shot from a pistol at the men capturing her son. Hearing the shot, Dumont ordered the battery to commence firing to support his advancing troops. Colonel Porterfield ordered two companies to prevent the Federals from crossing the covered bridge. They put up a light resistance, but it was too late. Colonel Frank W. Lander, seeing this resistance, made a mad dash (on horseback) down the hill through heavy underbrush to rally the men in their attempt to enter the town. At the same time, Kelley was advancing into town. Upon seeing two Federal columns entering the town, the Confederate forces panicked and ran.  Kelley and Lander entered the town simultaneously.  As he led his men through the town, Kelley was shot through the chest and fell from his horse. It was reported by Brigadier General Thomas A. Morris, in his report to the adjutant general’s office, that Colonel Lander personally captured the man who shot Kelley. Kelley’s wound was thought to be mortal.  The June 7 edition of the Richmond Enquirer reported Kelley’s death. Kelly, however, would recover and go on to command the Department of West Virginia. Pete Chacalos taught science for over 30 years at Wheeling Park High School and is an avid historian of the Civil War era of America. The Confederates withdrew southward and reached Beverly that evening. The next evening, they withdrew even further to Huttonsville. They remained there until General Richard Garnett arrived with reinforcements to relieve Colonel Porterfield. On July 4, A court of inquiry convened at the request of Porterfield. He was praised for his coolness and courage during the retreat but was censured for not taking precautionary measures beforehand.  He never held command again. There were conflicting reports on the number of casualties. Some indicated dozens killed and wounded, while others reported none killed. It can be said, however, that casualties were extremely light considering the carnage that was to come. Had Kelly’s column not gotten lost, the Confederates, running south as fast as they could, would have likely been captured. Hence, the Battle of Philippi (more a skirmish than a battle) became known as The Philippi Races. Cincinnati Rover Guards, Ohio History Central, https://ohiohistorycentral.org/index.php?title=Cincinnati_Rover_Guards&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop Battle of Philippi, http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-philippi Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. II, No. 1, Reports of Colonel George A. Porterfield Ruth Woods Dayton, The Beginning Philippi,1861 http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh13-1.html McClellan Orders Invasion of Virginia, http://civilwardailygazette.com/mcclellan-orders-invasion-of-virginia Ibid Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. II, No. 1, Reports of Brigadier General T. A. Morris Ibid Ruth Woods Dayton, The Beginning Philippi,1861 http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh13-1.html Battle of Philippi, http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-philippi Historical marker, The Battle of Philippi – Talbott’s Hill, Philippi, WV Ruth Woods Dayton, The Beginning Philippi,1861 http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh13-1.html Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. II, No. 1, Reports of Brigadier General T. A. Morris Battle of Philippi, Richmond Enquirer, June 7, 1861 Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. II, No. 1, Reports of Major General George B. McClellan Read the full article