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Posted by: Erin Allen
During the Civil War, cartographers invented new techniques to map the country and the conflict more accurately than ever before in the nation’s history. Since then, cartographic technology has evolved in ways never imagined, but many basic elements of mapmaking remain the same. The following is an article, written by Jacqueline V. Nolan and Edward …
Posted in: Civil War, Collections, Maps
Posted by: Erin Allen
What if Abraham Lincoln recorded his innermost thoughts as he moved toward the realization that he must end slavery? What if he lost that diary, but a recently discovered letter suggests that the diary is still out there? Such is the premise of “The Lincoln Letter” (Tor/Forge, 2012) by William Martin, his latest mystery novel …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Books, Capitol Hill, Civil War, Collections, History, LC Web site, Newspapers, Researcher Stories, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
Thanksgiving is just a day away, and I’ve been noticing on Facebook, friends posting what they are thankful for this holiday season. Those statuses certainly have given me pause to count my own blessings. First and foremost, I am thankful for my family, who, no matter how far away I am from them, help me …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Collections, Education, Events, History, LC Web site, Manuscripts, Photos, Today in History
Posted by: Erin Allen
With the November opening of the new exhibition “The Civil War in America” only a month away, media outlets picked up on the announcement of a new blog featuring historical voices from the war. The Associated Press wrote an announcement that many outlets ran with, including The Washington Post, WTOP, military.com and various broadcast affiliates …
Posted in: Blogging, Civil War, Exhibitions, National Book Festival, News, Newspapers, Poetry, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
While the Civil War imposed hardships on both sides, the South found it particularly difficult to adapt to new realities of daily life. The blockade of Southern seaports and the prohibition of trade with the North quickly depleted food supplies throughout the Confederacy. Farmers became soldiers, and a large percentage of crops were used to …
Posted in: Books, Civil War, Collections, History, Science
Posted by: Erin Allen
According to the 1860 census, the population of the United States that year was 31,429,891. Of that number, 3,952, 838 were reported as enslaved. The 1860 census was the last time the federal government took a count of the Southern slave population. In 1861, the United States Coast Survey issued two maps of slavery based …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Collections, Exhibitions, History, Maps
Posted by: Erin Allen
LeRoy Gresham (1847-1865) was a teenaged invalid who kept a diary for nearly every day of the Civil War, recording the news, his Confederate sympathies and perceptive details about life on the homefront as he experienced the conflict through newspapers, letters and personal visitors. The son of an attorney, judge, and plantation owner in Macon, …
Posted in: Blogging, Civil War, Congress Blogs, Exhibitions, History, Manuscripts, Uncategorized
Posted by: Erin Allen
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Collections, Exhibitions, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
For some Union soldiers, their exposure to southern slavery profoundly altered their views on the institution, even before President Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862. One such soldier, John P. Jones, wrote to his wife of his increasing sympathy for abolitionism after seeing the inhumanity with which slaves could be treated. He …
Posted in: Civil War, Collections, Exhibitions, History, Manuscripts