You are currently browsing the daily archive for March 3rd, 2008.
March 3 - Congress passes the Conscription Act, calling for the enlistment in military service of all able-bodied males between 20 and 45 years of age for terms of three years.
March 6 - white mobs in Detroit riot in the black section of the city, killing several blacks.
March 10 – Faced with an estimated 125,000 deserters, Lincoln issues a general amnesty for all who will report back to duty.
The Civil War Gazette Civil War Timeline is a linear, chronological look at the important events related to the American Civil War, fought between April 1861 and April 1865. The timeline includes major battles and skirmishes, significant political events impacting the war, deaths of major military figures, as well as details of important battles including casualty numbers.
The execution of a Civil War Deserter, from Frank Leslie’s The Soldier in Our Civil War , 1893
Links to some online articles related to Mississippi Civil War action:
- Battle of Corinth
The strategic railroad town of Corinth was a key target for Confederate armies hoping to march north in support of General Braxton Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky. By Robert Collins Suhr
- Digging to Victory at Vicksburg - America’s Civil War
To the armies at Vicksburg, picks, shovels and manual labor proved as valuable as bullets and bombshells. By Michael Morgan
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Ulysses S. Grant thought his formidable Army of the Tennessee could take Vicksburg from a “beaten” foe by direct assault. He was wrong, thanks to near-impregnable fortifications, renewed Southern spirit, and surprisingly suspect Northern generalship. By Jeffry C. Burden
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U.S. Grant, bogged down outside Vicksburg, needed a diversion to ease his way. He got just that from a music teacher turned cavalryman–one who hated horses, at that. By Tim DeForest
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Murky facts and contradictions confuse the story of a purported 1863 drinking spree by the general. By Brian J. Murphy
March 3 – Union Congress creates the Freedmen’s Bureau.
The involvement of the Freedmen’s Bureau in the establishment of African-American family structure is rarely discussed as one of the Bureau’s major activities. Although the Bureau is though of having been ineffective overall, many historians credit the Bureau for having succeeded in the provid ing freedmen with education and the power of negotiating fair labor contracts. These two services are often cited because the right to education and the right to cho ose one’s employment are commonly thought of as the two most important rights that were denied to slaves. However, the cruelest aspect of slavery may have been the denial of a slave’s right to a secure family structure.
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The Civil War Gazette Civil War Timeline is a linear, chronological look at the important events related to the American Civil War, fought between April 1861 and April 1865. The timeline includes major battles and skirmishes, significant political events impacting the war, deaths of major military figures, as well as details of important battles including casualty numbers.
Congress passes the Conscription Act March 3, 1863, calling for the enlistment in military service of all able-bodied males between 20 and 45 years of age for terms of three years.
HARPER’S WEEKLY.
SATURDAY, JULY 25, 1863.
THE DRAFT.THE attempt to enforce the draft in the city of New York has led to rioting. Men have been killed and houses burned; worst of all, an orphan asylum—a noble monument of charity for the reception of colored orphans—has been ruthlessly destroyed, and children and nurses have lost every thing they had in the world.
The event should cause no surprise. It should have been anticipated. It was not reasonable to expect that the operatives of this large city—who have never been forced to realize the obligations of citizenship—should at once realize what is thoroughly understood by the people of almost every European town. It will take time to make them understand that every government must, for its own protection, enjoy the power of compelling its citizens to perform military service. And it will take still more time, reflection, and information to satisfy them that the Conscription Act passed at the last session of Congress is in reality fair, liberal, and humane; that it is far more generous to the operative class than the conscription laws of Europe, inasmuch as it tenderly guards orphans, widows, and aged parents from being deprived of their natural support, while it exempts very few indeed of the wealthier class.
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“Faith in God became the single greatest institution in the maintenance of morale in the armies. To the devout soldier, religion was the connecting link between camp life and home. As he prayed and sang hymns of praise, his thoughts could not help but wander to his home church wherein he felt a mother, a father, a wife, or a child might be united with him in asking for his speedy return.”
Cited in Soldiers Blue and Gray, Robertson: p. 172
