Month: April 2020

U.S. Grant’s Civil War Spy Network

In conducting his Civil War campaigns in Mississippi in 1862-63, Union General Ulysses S. Grant put together a network of spies to provide him with military intelligence. He recruited a young brigadier general to run the operation and they often provided valuable information that enabled him to win several major battles and carry out a…

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April Events in the American Civil War History

During the American Civil War, April lived up to the moniker later bestowed by T.S. Eliot as the “Cruelest Month.” The start of hostilities at Fort Sumter in 1861 initiated the war that defined America and President Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 both occurred in April. The Battle of Shiloh and the Fall of New Orleans…

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April Events in History: Civil War and WWII

Mark takes a look at some significant events that took place in April during the Civil War and WWII. “April is the cruelest month” according to T.S. Eliot, but how accurate is that historically? You decide. Here are some major happenings and a few occurrences that are not so well known: Fort Sumter, Shiloh, Eel…

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Armchair Travel to the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House

This Good Friday, Mark goes back to Good Friday of April 1865 and President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theatre in Washington with Dorothea Barstow, the curator of the Dr. Samuel Mudd House and Museum. Later that night, assassin John Wilkes Booth, on the run and in desperate need of medical attention for his broken leg,…

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Women in History

In a retrospective of Women’s History month, Mark takes a look at notable women starting with Medieval times and jumping to the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War and WWII. He features a range of heroines from Joan of Arc, who at age 17 led a French army in the Hundred Years…

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