The Proclamation to the People of the Territory of Arizona: August 1, 1861
After the expansion of the New Mexico Territory in 1853, the fate of the nearby Arizona Territory was in question. In 1856, a petition was presented to the U.S. Congress requesting organization of...
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857): The U.S. Supreme Court Issues a Shocking Decision, and the Battles Lines Are Drawn for the Impending Civil War
We’ve written several articles about the mounting tensions between the North and South during the first half of the 19th century, much of which turned on the question of whether the newly created...
February 8, 1887: The Infamous Dawes Act Becomes Law, Targeting Native-American Reservations for Extinction
The Dawes Act We’ve written a number of stories about the slow and steady erosion of Native-American tribal lands in the 19th century due to the encroachments of white settlers—the natural...
The 170th Anniversary of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854: Prelude to the American Civil War
Americans almost always view the Civil War of 1861-65 as a war between North and South, and specifically between the anti-slave states of New England and the mid-Atlantic, and the slave states of the...
Remembering Julia Ward Howe
The women’s suffrage movement in America culminated in 1920 with passage of the 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote. The movement began long before that,...
Remembering Robert E. Lee
The American Civil War was a watershed moment in American history, a four-year battle that was the culmination of decades of hostilities over the issue of slavery. In its final years, the War...
Remembering Ulysses S. Grant
One of the greatest figures in American history is Ulysses S. Grant, the general who led the Union Army to victory in the Civil War, and who later served as a two-term president of the United States....
The Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas)
Background and Prelude to Battle The Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the American Civil War, was fought in Prince William County, Virginia, near the small stream known as Bull Run,...
Remembering Abraham Lincoln
It would be an impossible task to write a commemoration of Abraham Lincoln in a few short paragraphs, so we will not even attempt it; it simply can’t be done. Lincoln is a towering figure in...
April 1865—A Month to Remember
This month marks the 160th anniversary of two major events in American history: the end of the Civil War following the surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, and the...
