Civil War

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Experts Track 1st Black Male Slave Freed by Lincoln

William Henry Costley apparently died in a Minnesota psychiatric hospital

(Newser) - Abraham Lincoln helped free a black male slave long before the Civil War, and researchers say they've found the man's grave—in a former psychiatric hospital's cemetery, the AP reports. A budding lawyer, Lincoln won a case before the Illinois Supreme Court in 1841 that released Nance...

New Texas Texts: Slavery Was 'Side Issue' of Civil War

It was mainly states' rights that was war's impetus, per state education standards

(Newser) - About 5 million Texas schoolchildren will get their hands on brand-new social studies textbooks when school starts up again, the Houston Chronicle reports—textbooks that USA Today says are "misleading, racially prejudiced, and, at times, flat-out false." The beef with the new primers: They're in keeping with...

Navy Raising Civil War Ironclad That Never Fired a Shot

Team of divers to tackle the CSS Georgia in Savannah

(Newser) - The Navy is sending one if its premier diving teams to salvage a Confederate warship from the depths of Georgia's Savannah River. Before it ever fired a shot, the 1,200 ton ironclad CSS Georgia was scuttled by its own crew to prevent its capture by Gen. William Sherman...

US Civil War Didn&#39;t End at Appomattox
 US Civil War Didn't 
 End at Appomattox 
in case you missed it
May 16, 2015 3:04 PM CDT

US Civil War Didn't End at Appomattox

The Battle of Palmito Ranch really brought it to an end

(Newser) - It's common knowledge that the four bloody, thunderous years of the American Civil War came to a solemn end when Southern Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox—but it's not true. The final land battle of the war wasn't fought...

NC Man: Civil War Photo a Hoax We Set Up as Teens

John Potter says there never was an original photo of the CSS Georgia warship

(Newser) - For years historians have been trying to locate the original version of a copied photo of the CSS Georgia, a Confederate warship sunk off the coast of Georgia in 1865 by Confederate soldiers determined to keep it out of Union hands, the AP reports. Now a North Carolina man has...

After 150 Years, Civil War Slave's Story Rewritten

Death records show Hannah Reynolds died a free woman

(Newser) - A Civil War cannonball that ripped through the cabin of Hannah Reynolds' master made her a footnote of misfortune, the lone civilian death at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. She died a slave at 60, hours before the war to end slavery unofficially came to a close. Or maybe...

Civil War Vet's Son, Among the Last, Dead at 97

Luke Martin Jr. was a local hero in North Carolina

(Newser) - Luke Martin Jr. was born to a former Civil War soldier in 1917, when the father was in his 80s. Now, at 97, Martin has died, meaning the world has lost one of the last surviving sons of a Civil War veteran; only eight remain, according to a roster . His...

Gen. Sherman's War Spoils May Sit at Bottom of SC River

Tar-cleanup project in Congaree River could expose munitions

(Newser) - In 1954, a gas-producing plant closed near the Congaree River in Columbia, SC. But its presence lingers, in the form of roughly 40,000 tons of "taffy-like" black tar that need to be removed from the river. The State reports on a most unusual side effect of damming the...

Coded Civil-War Diary Dishes on 1st Lady's Race

Southern officer James Malbone pens diary behind the lines

(Newser) - A wounded Confederate officer found time for a little fun during the Civil War while working behind the lines—by gossiping in his diary, and in code no less. The diary of James Malbone, now at the New York State Military Museum, includes entries on the Confederacy's first lady...

Rare Photo Found of Robert E. Lee Slave

Image of Selina Gray discovered on eBay

(Newser) - The National Park Service has found—on eBay—only the second photo known to exist of a famous slave owned by Robert E. Lee and and his wife, reports AP . The image, bought by the service for $700, shows Selina Gray and two younger girls, possibly her children. Gray served...

151 Years After Gettysburg, Officer to Get Medal of Honor

Lt. Alonzo Cushing helped repel Pickett's Charge

(Newser) - A century and a half after his valiant death in the Battle of Gettysburg, a Union Army officer is being awarded the nation's highest military decoration, thanks to a decades-long campaign by his descendants and Civil War buffs. The White House announced yesterday that President Obama has approved the...

Gettysburg Skull Auction Hastily Canceled

Sometimes things seem like a good idea at the time...

(Newser) - The planned auction of a skull found at Gettysburg that purportedly was that of a Civil War soldier has been canceled rather quickly amid an uproar, and officials say the remains have instead been donated by the auction company for burial with honors. Estate Auction Co. of Hershey had listed...

'Flaggers' Unfurl 2nd Confederate Flag on Va. Highway

Confederate group stirred up lots of controversy last time

(Newser) - The Virginia Flaggers were so pleased with their first effort at decorating I-95 near Richmond with a giant Confederate flag that they've added a second, this one a 20-foot-by-30-foot "memorial battle flag" flying near Fredericksburg. The group, which says it's trying to honor the men who "...

Archaeologists Find Graves of Confederate Soldiers
Archaeologists Find Graves
of Confederate Soldiers
in case you missed it
May 31, 2014 11:27 AM CDT

Archaeologists Find Graves of Confederate Soldiers

Buried in a Virginia cemetery section created for Union soldiers

(Newser) - Archaeologists have in the last two months uncovered the unmarked graves of as many as 40 Confederate soldiers in Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Va. That adds to the tally of about 50 unmarked Confederate graves found in the same part of the cemetery last year—a section known as...

What Memorial Day Means in 2014
 What Memorial Day 
 Means in 2014 
OPINION
May 26, 2014 11:18 AM CDT

What Memorial Day Means in 2014

EJ Dionne Jr. on what the holiday teaches us

(Newser) - Most people today probably associate Memorial Day with barbeques and sales, but EJ Dionne Jr. takes a look at its history in the Washington Post and concludes that it's "a peculiarly appropriate holiday for our times." Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, honoring those who died in...

Found: Civil War Ship Taken by Slaves

Robert Smalls commandeered the Planter, gave it to Union

(Newser) - After the American Civil War, a storied ship was wrecked off South Carolina. Now, experts believe they've found the remains of the Planter, a Confederate supply ship commandeered by its crew of slaves and turned over to the Union, LiveScience reports. The ship's wheelsman, in charge of steering,...

Mystery of Confederate Sub Gets Chipped Away

Cleaning process could reveal why it sank

(Newser) - A century and a half after a legendary Confederate submarine mysteriously sank, conservationists in Charleston, SC, are still working to figure out why. Their latest step could be key: Experts yesterday placed the 40-foot HL Hunley in a solution that's 1% sodium hydroxide and 99% water, the Post and ...

Civil War Soldiers Used... Chemical Weapons?
Civil War Troops Used ...
Chemical Weapons?
in case you missed it
Apr 5, 2014 8:00 AM CDT

Civil War Troops Used ... Chemical Weapons?

Both sides developed weapons, but rarely used them

(Newser) - The US Civil War foreshadowed World War I in important ways—like trench warfare, new technologies, and violence against civilians—but few of us know about its forays into chemical warfare, the New York Times reports. For one thing, leaders on both sides saw the importance of disease before scientists...

12 Years a Slave Writer: Killed as Union Spy?

Solomon Northup vanished from history, and theories abound

(Newser) - Solomon Northup led an incredible life that inspired an Oscar-winning film, 12 Years a Slave—that much we know. But how Northup died remains a mystery that historians are still trying to solve, the AP reports. To recap, Northup was living with his family in upstate New York when two...

Hidden Fortress Found Under Alcatraz

Radar reveals long-lost Civil War-era buildings

(Newser) - A surprising find under what used to be America's most notorious prison: Texas A&M researchers using ground-penetrating radar have discovered the remains of an old military fortress long believed to have been completely destroyed, reports the BBC . The San Francisco Bay island was once the home of Fort...

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