Sgt. William H. Carney was the first African American to be
awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military
decoration, on this day in history, May 23, 1900, for his
efforts at protecting the American flag during the Civil War.
History.com.
Born as a slave in February of 1840, William Carney’s father
managed to escape and make his way north via the
Underground Railroad, ultimately earning the funds to
purchase his wife and son’s freedom.
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. Over the course of three days, more than
45,000 men were killed, injured, captured or went
missing.
The battle also proved to be the turning point of the war:
General Robert E. Lee’s defeat and retreat from Gettysburg
marked the last Confederate invasion of Northern territory
and the beginning of the Southern army’s ultimate decline.
On November 12, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman
ordered the business district of Atlanta, Georgia, destroyed
before he embarked on his famous March to the Sea.
When Sherman captured Atlanta in early September 1864,
he knew that he could not remain there for long.
His tenuous supply line ran from Nashville, Tennessee,
through Chattanooga, Tennessee, then one hundred miles
through mountainous northern Georgia.
The army he had just defeated, the Army of Tennessee, was
still in the area and its leader, John Bell Hood, swung around
Atlanta to try to damage Sherman’s lifeline. Of even greater
concern was the Confederate cavalry of General Nathan
Bedford Forrest, a brilliant commander who could strike
quickly against the railroads and river transports on which
Sherman relied.
Atlanta’s Union Station Destroyed by The Union Army.
A Bank Lay in Ruins After The Battle and Occupation of
Atlanta.
On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in the midst of the
Civil War , which set a date for the freedom of more than 3
million enslaved in the United States and would also recast
the Civil War as a fight against slavery.
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CAMILLE
BOHANNON
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept
through the central parts of London from Sunday, 2 September
to Thursday, 6 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval
City of London inside the old Roman city wall. The death toll is
generally thought to have been relatively small, although some
historians have challenged this belief.
The fire started in a bakery shortly after midnight on Sunday, 2 September, and spread rapidly.
