On this day in 1861, a telegram arrived at Brierfield, Jefferson Davis’ Mississippi plantation, informing him that on the previous day, breakaway delegates meeting in Montgomery, Ala., had chosen him as the provisional president of the newly formed Confederate States of America. The former congressman and senator from Mississippi had resigned his Senate seat when…
The Revenue Act of 1861, formally cited as Act of August 5, 1861, Chap. XLV, 12 Stat. 292, included the first U.S. Federal income tax statute (see Sec.49). The Act, motivated by the need to fund the Civil War, imposed an income tax to be “levied, collected, and paid, upon the annual income of every person residing in the United States, whether such income…
Robert Ransom Jr. (February 12, 1828 – January 14, 1892) was a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. His brother Matt W. Ransom was also a Confederate general officer and U.S. Senator. Ransom was born in Warren County, North Carolina to Robert Ransom Sr. and Priscilla Whitaker Ransom. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1850. Ransom was assigned to the…
Alexander William Campbell (June 4, 1828 – June 13, 1893), was a Confederate States Army Brigadier General during the American Civil War. He was a lawyer in Tennessee before and after the war, mayor of Jackson, Tennessee, 1856, and an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for governor of Tennessee in 1880. Early life Alexander William Campbell…
In accordance with the authority conferred by this Congress, the Confederate President appointed John Slidell and James M. Mason diplomatic agents in October 1861, with the power to enter into conventions for treaties with England and France. They were commissioned to secure from these European powers recognition of the Confederate government as a nation, based…
Ladies and Gentlemen I accept the flowers as a memento of reconciliation between the white and colored races of the southern states. I accept it more particularly as it comes from a colored lady, for if there is anyone on God’s earth who loves the ladies I believe it is myself. This day is a…
In November 1861, Secretary of State William H. Seward told Lord Richard Lyons, British Ambassador to the United States, “My Lord, I can touch a bell on my right hand, and order the arrest of a citizen of Ohio; I can touch the bell again, and order the imprisonment of a citizen of New York;…
Juneteenth. So what is THAT? In a year’s time, we’ve gone from only a small percentage of people have even heard of that colloquialism referencing one town in Texas’s tradition to now it’s a national holiday? You’ll hear that it’s the date the last slaves were freed, found out they were free, or some version…
