Strange-but-true stories on the Civil War
Today is Emancipation Day for the District of Columbia. Some of you might immediately wonder if this is related to DC's current efforts to win representation and a vote, but it is a celebration for a different kind of freedom for the residents of DC. Eight and a half months before he signed the Emancipation … Continue reading Emancipation for DC
If Grover Cleveland were alive today, he would need to blow out 174 candles. And of course, he would need to be careful not to set his mustache alight as he bent toward the mighty blaze of his birthday cake. Grover Cleveland's election marked a turning point in Presidential facial hair. The beard was going … Continue reading Facial Hair Friday: Happy Birthday, Grover Cleveland!
The USS Monitor was the Navy's first ironclad vessel, but it was not the only one in Civil War waters. The Virginia had started life in 1855 as the Merrimack, a Union ship that had been burned to the waterline, sunk, and abandoned in the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, VA. The Confederates raised what … Continue reading A Submerged House: Ironclads and the Civil War
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. The Civil War was a spy's dream come true. With a porous border between the Union and the Confederacy, and little way to distinguish between friend and foe, spies were everywhere. Both sides used ciphers. Both tapped telegraph wires. Stories … Continue reading Confederate dirty laundry: spies and slaves
"Charge 1 . . . Gross neglect of Duty." "Charge 2 . . . Disobedience of Orders." On January 28, 1831, a court-martial convened at the U.S. Military Academy found the defendant guilty of these charges and "adjudg[ed] that the Cadet E. A. Poe be dismissed." So ended Edgar Allan Poe's short career at West … Continue reading Edgar Allan Poe’s military career? Nevermore!
Since April 2010, we've brought you more than 100 Pieces of History. Nothing too small, too strange, or too obscure has escaped the spotlight of our blog or the scalpel of your clever comments. And we are still discovering new pieces of history every day here at the National Archives! But before we go forward into … Continue reading Top Ten Pieces of History for 2010
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. The first use of the temporary insanity plea to beat a murder charge happened in 1859 and was employed in the defense of a man named Dan Sickles, who had killed his wife's lover. A story such as this might be … Continue reading A temporarily insane Congressman
Researching in original records often provides the researcher with surprises. Usually the surprise takes the form of an unknown letter, a reference to your topic in an unexpected place, or a lead that directs you to a new set of records to mine. Once in a great while, the surprise is something no one could … Continue reading Mole in place at the Archives
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. Today in 1860, 169 delegates convened in Columbia, South Carolina, to discuss the fate of their state. The decision was unanimous: South Carolina would secede from the Union. Declared in a terse four paragraphs, the Declaration of Secession set out … Continue reading Four paragraphs, five years of war
Today's post comes from National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications staff writer Rob Crotty. The year 1861 was a dire one for the United States. In its opening months, five southern states joined South Carolina in seceding from the Union. In the recent 1860 election, the victor Abraham Lincoln hadn't even appeared on the … Continue reading The other 13th Amendment
