Articles from The National Park Service
A clearly written piece which sums up the climactic third day of the Gettysburg battle:
Night brought an end to the bloody combat at East Cemetery Hill, but this was not the time for rest. What would Meade do? Would the Union Army remain in its established position and hold its lines at all costs?
The Battle of Gettysburg: Day Three (National Park Service, 1954) Read More »
Second only to New Orleans, Richmond was the largest city in the Confederacy, having a population of about 38,000. It was also the center of iron manufacturing in the South. The Tredegar Iron Works, main source of cannon supply for the Southern armies, influenced the choice of Richmond as the Confederate Capital and demanded defense.
Click here to read about the heavy influence religion had in the Rebel states during the American Civil War.
Richmond Selected as the Capital of the Confederacy (National Park Service, 1961) Read More »
This 1956 article addressed the issue of Lincoln’s depression:
Lincoln’s story telling proclivities were well known in his own time. On the old eighth circuit in Illinois his humor and fund of anecdotes were proverbial. What was not so well known was that the tall, homely man needed a blanket of humor to suppress the fires of depression, gloom, and sense of tragedy that almost consumed him.
Click here to read about Lincoln, the joke teller.
The Depression and Humor of President Lincoln (National Park Service, 1956) Read More »
Situated where the Tennessee River passes through the Cumberland Mountains, forming gaps, Chattanooga was called the Key to East Tennessee and Gateway to the deep South. The possession of Chattanooga was vital to the Confederacy, and a coveted goal of the Northern armies. Chattanooga’s principal importance during the Civil War was it’s position as a railroad center.
Click here to print American Civil War chronologies.
1863: The Importance of Chattanooga and East Tennessee (National Park Service, 1956) Read More »
Situated where the Tennessee River passes through the Cumberland Mountains, forming gaps, Chattanooga was called the Key to East Tennessee and Gateway to the deep South. The possession of Chattanooga was vital to the Confederacy, and a coveted goal of the Northern armies. Chattanooga’s principal importance during the Civil War was it’s position as a railroad center.
Click here to print American Civil War chronologies.
1863: The Importance of Chattanooga and East Tennessee (National Park Service, 1956) Read More »
Situated where the Tennessee River passes through the Cumberland Mountains, forming gaps, Chattanooga was called the Key to East Tennessee and Gateway to the deep South. The possession of Chattanooga was vital to the Confederacy, and a coveted goal of the Northern armies. Chattanooga’s principal importance during the Civil War was it’s position as a railroad center.
Click here to print American Civil War chronologies.
1863: The Importance of Chattanooga and East Tennessee (National Park Service, 1956) Read More »
Before his 1860 address at the Cooper Institute (presently known as Cooper Union) Abraham Lincoln was known in the East chiefly as a rather obscure western lawyer who had gained some prestige a little over a year earlier in the debates with Douglas during the Illinois senatorial contest. The day after the address Horace Greeley’s NEW YORK TRIBUNE remarked:
No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience.
This speech put within Lincoln’s grasp a chance for the Presidency.
Attached, you will find his very powerful conclusion to the address.
Click here to read about the Confederate conscription laws.
Lincoln’s Address at Cooper Union (The National Park Service, 1956) Read More »
These four paragraphs first appeared on the pages of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE and were written by a reporter named of Horace White at the conclusion of Lincoln – Douglas debates of 1858. The journalist did a fine job in describing the excitement at the debates and the spirit of the participating candidates.
Douglas ended in a whirlwind of applause…and Lincoln began to speak in a slow and rather awkward way. He had a thin tenor, or rather falsetto voice, almost as high pitched as a boatswain’s whistle.
The debates resulted in a close election that returned Douglas to the U.S. Senate and Lincoln to his law practice.
The Lincoln – Douglas Debates Observed (The National Park Service, 1956) Read More »
Here is the brief text to President Lincoln‘s very eloquent second inaugural address, that was delivered during the closing weeks of the Civil War.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (National Park Service, 1956) Read More »
Shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, William H. Herndon (1816 – 1891), Lincoln’s law partner, devoted much of his life to collecting as much original source material on the man as he could possibly find. Indeed, scholars have pointed out that there never would have been an accurate word written about Lincoln if not for the efforts of Herndon. The following description of Lincoln is from a lecture delivered by Herndon in 1865.
Lincoln Remembered (National Park Service, 1956) Read More »
