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Jul 6

Edmond Pettus was born #OTD in 1821 in Limestone County, Alabama. He served as an officer in the Confederate Army and as a US senator after the War. He was also active in the Ku Klux Klan, serving as its Grand Dragon in Alabama. He is the namesake of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Born into an enslaving family, Pettus built a successful law career before enlisting in the Confederate Army when war broke out. While most of his home region of northern Alabama did not support secession, Pettus did. He was a pro-slavery ideologue steered by white supremacy.

During the War he rose to the rank of Brig. General and was captured as a POW three times. He was pardoned by Andrew Johnson on October 30, 1865. Pettus returned to Selma after the War and resumed his law practice.

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Jul 5

We at The Civil War and the Fight for the Soul of America seek to educate people about the REAL history of the mid-nineteenth century and the Civil War, through the film itself, public history, and social media. We need your help to continue with this vitally important project!

For far too long our history has been white-washed, made to fit a Lost Cause narrative. The North may have won the Civil War, but the white South won the cultural war - a crisis that continues to plague America today.

@gofundme

We have set up a @gofundme page to aid fundraising efforts with a goal of $23,000!

With your donation you create jobs for M.A. and Ph.D.-level historians to work as research assistants: every single dime goes to paying them!

You can find our page here: gofund.me/fa492df5

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Jul 5

#OTD in 1852 Frederick Douglass recited "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" before the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society at Corinthian Hall. Douglass attacked slavery by highlighting how white Americans could celebrate freedom while enslaving others.

Douglass referenced the Bible, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution to argue that as long as slavery existed that Independence Day would be a day of mourning for African Americans, especially the enslaved.

He proclaimed "...justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”

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Jul 4

#OTD in history Union General U. S Grant defeated confederate forces at Vicksburg, dealing a huge blow to the Confederacy by gaining control of the Mississippi River. Confederates we also defeated at Ft. Helena and Robert E. Lee began his retreat from Pennsylvania.

Regiments of the United Stares Colored Troops played a pivotal role in the Union victory at Ft. Helena in particular. With control of Vicksburg and Ft. Helena, the Union Army gained control of the strategically important Mississippi River.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis claimed that Vicksburg was “the nailhead that held the South’s two halves together.” Union control of Vicksburg splintered off Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas from the rest of the Confederacy.

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May 13

#OTD in 1862 Newton Knight reenlisted in the Confederate Army after being on furlough. He originally enlisted in July of 1861. He deserted in October of 1862 and headed home after he received word the Confederate Army had taken his family's horses for the war effort.

There is much debate and mystery surrounding Knight, his actions during and after the war, and what motivated him. However, Knight's life provides insight into conflicting ideas of race, class, and politics in Mississippi and the South writ large during the Civil War.

@vikki_bynum

Knight was a yeoman farmer in Jones County, Mississippi when the war broke out. According to historian @vikki_bynum, only 12% of the county's population was Black and most whites were subsistence farmers like Knight.

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May 12

The Battle of Palmito Ranch was fought in Texas #OTD in 1865. The Confederate victory is widely considered the last battle of the Civil War. The battle occurred over one month after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox and two days after Jefferson Davis was captured.

Both sides knew the war was virtually over, but a small contingent of Confederate forces refused to surrender near Brownsville, Texas. Many of the men serving under the Union Army there were members of the United States Colored Troops.

A fragile cease fire had been agreed to between the two sides on May 11. However, Confederate Lt. Gen. Edmund Smith of the Trans-Mississippi Department refused to accept the inevitable end of the war.

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