On December 22, 1864, one of the most consequential campaigns of the American Civil War reached its dramatic conclusion when Savannah, Georgia, fell to Union forces under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman. Days later, Sherman sent a succinct but unforgettable message to Abraham…
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On December 20, 1860, a secession convention in South Carolina voted unanimously to secede from the Union. Fearing that Republican Abraham Lincoln’s administration would appoint antislavery officials who would undermine slavery, slaveholders chose to abandon the Constitution and form their own nation. To justify…
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December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William Seward officially proclaimed the Thirteenth Amendment ratified, officially ending slavery in the United States. Seward’s announcement was especially fulfilling to the New Yorker, who had spent much of his adult life fighting for the end of slavery.…
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In the winter of 1861, as the Union cracked under the pressure of secession and the first year of civil war drew to a close, the Confederate States of America undertook a ritual of nationhood it hoped would signal permanence. On December 4, 1861,…
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John Brown’s hanging on December 2, 1859, was a moment of profound historical significance, symbolizing the deep divisions over slavery in pre-Civil War America. The execution occurred in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia), just weeks after his failed raid on the federal armory…
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On December 1, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his second State of the Union Address, a landmark speech that emphasized the moral and strategic motivations behind the Union’s fight in the American Civil War. Delivered just ten weeks after the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln…
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On October 3, 1863, amid the turmoil of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation that would establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the United States. Lincoln’s declaration designated November 26, 1863, as a day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our…
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On November 24, 1863, Union forces launched one of the most visually dramatic and symbolically powerful actions of the American Civil War: the assault on Lookout Mountain, a towering, fog-shrouded massif that loomed over the desperately besieged city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The engagement—popularly remembered…
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In the middle of November, the sixteenth president was jotting down a speech as he traveled by train from Washington to Pennsylvania to dedicate the most famous battle in American history. The Gettysburg Address, delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863, is…
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Sherman’s March to the Sea was a military campaign conducted by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman during the American Civil War. The campaign took place from November 15 to December 21, 1864, and it was a significant and controversial aspect of the Union’s strategy.…
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