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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On November 8, 1861, the Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward found themselves caught in one of the most important diplomatic conflicts during the Civil War. Called the “The Trent Affair,” the incident involved the interception of a British mail steamer, the RMS Trent,…
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The Battle of Chickamauga, fought between September 19 and 20, 1863, marked one of the major conflicts of the American Civil War, involving the Union Army of the Cumberland and the Confederate Army of Tennessee. The battle took place in northwestern Georgia, near Chickamauga…
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On September 18, 1850, the United States Congress passed and President Millard Fillmore signed into law the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, one of the most divisive and consequential pieces of legislation in American history. As part of the Compromise of 1850—a fragile political…
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On September 17, 1862, the rolling fields and cornrows along Antietam Creek bore witness to the single bloodiest day in American military history. George B. McClellan’s Union Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia clashed in a desperate struggle…
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On August 21, 1858, in Ottawa, Illinois, two leading figures in American democracy launched a series of debates over a Senate seat, debating what it means to be free, democracy, and the purpose of the United States. The National Parks Service states that the first debate…
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On the morning of July 30, 1864, Union forces launched a bold yet catastrophically mishandled attempt to break the Confederate lines outside Petersburg, Virginia—an effort that would become known as the Battle of the Crater. As part of the larger Petersburg Campaign, the battle…
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