Four of the bloodiest years in American history began when
Confederate shore batteries under Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard
opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s
Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861.

On April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort and
two days later, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation
calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern
“insurrection.”

Four years after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the
Confederacy was defeated at the total cost of 620,000 Union
and Confederate soldiers dead.

Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard
(May 28, 1818 – February 20, 1893)

Robert Houstoun Anderson
(October 1, 1835 – February 8, 1888)

Abraham Lincoln
(February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)

On March 13, 1865, with the main Rebel armies facing long
odds against much larger Union armies, the Confederacy,
in a desperate measure, reluctantly approved the use of
Black troops.

The situation was bleak for the Confederates in the spring
of 1865. The Yankees had captured large swaths of Southern
territory, General William T. Sherman’s Union army was tearing
through the Carolinas, and General Robert E. Lee was trying
valiantly to hold the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia,
against General Ulysses S. Grant’s growing force.

On November 19, 1863, at the dedication of a military cemetery
at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War,
President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most
memorable speeches in American history. In fewer than 275
words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary
public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought some four months earlier,
was one of the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War.

Reception of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was initially mixed,
divided strictly along partisan lines. Nevertheless, the “little
speech,” as he later called it, is thought by many today to be
the most eloquent articulation of the democratic vision ever
written.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014)

Williams was an actor and comedian. Known for his
improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters
he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on
film, in dramas and comedies alike. 

He is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of all
time receiving numerous accolades including an Academy
Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, six Golden Globe
Awards, five Grammy Awards, and two Screen Actors
Guild Awards. Williams was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille
Award in 2005.

On this day in 1863, the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg,
Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s last attempt at breaking
the Union line ends in disastrous failure, bringing the most
decisive battle of the American Civil War to an end.