Civil War

Amos Cross Brewster and his nephew, Joseph Orin Cross, had a nuanced heritage of African and Native American descent and were swept up in the tumult of war. With ties …
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I have lived with the ghosts of the past for over twenty years. Since early in 2000 when I discovered that I had a great-great-great uncle, Alfred Sheldon Knight, who …
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The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ranks as one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on the American continent. Fought from May 9 to 21, 1864, in central Virginia, it …
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On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the victor in a tight, four-way race for president. The country was bitterly at odds—more divided than an any point of its history. …
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I believe that one of the most remarkable (and fortuitous) events in American history was Abraham Lincoln’s nomination as the presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 1860. Early in …
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There is something special in being last, especially when it comes to being the last survivor of a particular event. From Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic to …
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At the outbreak of the Civil War, thousands of men flocked to enlist in newly established companies and regiments in the Union Army then organizing in small towns throughout the …
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Foster, Rhode Island is one of the few places in Rhode Island that maintains a Nineteenth Century charm. Indeed if the Civil War veterans of Foster were to return, they …
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On the night of June 17, 1863, a small group of men galloped for their lives out of Middleburg, Virginia. Tired, out of ammunition, and surrounded deep behind enemy lines, …
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After I published my book on the history of Kingston in 2004, a Narragansett Times reporter asked me who my favorite character in the book was. She expected me to …
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