Dec 26th, 2010 at 9:30AM:
A coded message sent to the beleaguered Confederate commander of Vicksburg has been cracked, the BBC reports.
The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond has had the message in its collection for more than a century. It had never tried to decipher the code of seemingly random letters until this year, when they sent it off to retired CIA codebreaker David Gaddy. While Gaddy is trained to ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
civilwar posts
Civil War secret message decoded
Dec 26th, 2010 at 9:30AM:
A coded message sent to the beleaguered Confederate commander of Vicksburg has been cracked, the BBC reports.
The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond has had the message in its collection for more than a century. It had never tried to decipher the code of seemingly random letters until this year, when they sent it off to retired CIA codebreaker David Gaddy. While Gaddy is trained to ...Remembering the Confederate dead
Dec 8th, 2010 at 11:00AM: Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. As state and local planning committees gear up for a host of events, a quiet spot in western Missouri has been commemorating the war for more than a century.
The Confederate Memorial State Historic Site in Higginsville, 53 miles east of Kansas City, opened as a retirement home for Confederate veterans in 1891. More than 1,600 ...The unquiet grave of Jesse James
Dec 3rd, 2010 at 12:00PM:
Jesse James never got any peace. He grew up in western Missouri in the 1850s, where a bitter border war with Kansas was the background to his childhood. He was a teenager when the Civil War started and got beaten up by a Union militia. Eventually he joined a group of Confederate guerrillas, and when the war was lost he was unable or unwilling to return to civilian life. His years as an outlaw ...Jesse James' greatest escape
Nov 29th, 2010 at 2:30PM: Jesse James was riding high. After the end of the Civil War he had rocketed to fame by committing a string of daring robberies in Missouri and neighboring states. In a region where ex-Confederates still felt bitter over losing the war, this former Confederate guerrilla earned sympathy and support. One of their own was striking back at the Yankees, and it didn't matter that some people got hurt in ...Frank James and the Civil War Battle of the Hemp Bales
Nov 26th, 2010 at 2:30PM:
Jesse James must have been jealous of his older brother Frank. Jesse was only 13 when the Civil War started. Frank was 18, the perfect age to go off to war. Coming from a slave-owning farm family Frank naturally joined the Confederate army.
Many Missourians, especially city dwellers and the large German immigrant community, remained loyal to the North, while the majority of rural farmers ...Jesse James robs his first bank
Nov 25th, 2010 at 1:30PM: The Civil War was over. In Missouri, defeated Confederate soldiers trudged home and tried to pick up their lives. This was harder in Missouri than many states. Many discovered their land had been seized during the war for nonpayment of taxes, and now Union veterans farmed their fields. New Missouri laws forbade ex-Confederates from voting, holding public office, teaching, or even preaching. Former ...The Jesse James farm
Nov 24th, 2010 at 12:30PM:
Jesse James grew up both lucky and unlucky. His father, Baptist preacher Robert Sallee James, owned a prosperous farm in Clay County. His slaves cultivated hemp and other cash crops, and Jesse and his older siblings Frank and Susan grew up in comfort. Robert kept a large library and both his sons became avid readers. Frank loved Shakespeare, while Jesse was more devoted to the Bible and ...Jesse James: the birth of a legend
Nov 23rd, 2010 at 2:30PM: Legends often start quietly, with ordinary people making ordinary decisions that change history. In 1946 in Tupelo, Mississippi, a working-class mother gave her son a guitar for his birthday. Elvis Presley wanted a bicycle, but he started practicing music anyway. In 1913, an unknown music hall comedian named Charlie Chaplin decided to try his luck with the new medium of motion pictures. His first ...Controversy over Wal-mart on Civil War battlefield
May 31st, 2010 at 11:00AM: A proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on the site of one of the Civil War's bloodiest battles is being challenged by local preservationists.
The case has gone into a new phase as a local court ruled that opponents to the Wal-Mart have the right to bring the company to trial, reports Civil War News.
When the Orange County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors approved the construction of a 138,000 ...Opposition growing to Gettysburg casino
Apr 4th, 2010 at 11:00AM: The fight for the future of Gettysburg National Military Park is heating up once again. Four years ago, the local community and thousands of history buffs stopped plans to construct a casino on the outskirts of town, and now a new attempt to build a casino is starting the battle once again.
David LeVan, who is behind the casino project, says it will bring much-needed jobs to the area, which ...Four forgotten Civil War battlefields
Nov 19th, 2009 at 10:30AM: Civil War battlefields are some of the most popular tourist destinations in the U.S. The most famous battlefields, such as Gettysburg and Shiloh, attract hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. But there are many other battlefields that are just as interesting but little-known outside their local area. Here are four that any history buff will enjoy. You'll notice all of them are west of the ...Philadelphia's oldest tavern toasts 150 years
Aug 6th, 2009 at 2:30PM: The oldest continuously operated bar in Philadelphia (and one of the oldest in the country) began celebrating its sesquicentennial this week. McGillin's Old Ale House opened in 1860, the year President Lincoln was elected, making it almost 150 years old.
While the anniversary isn't technically until 2010, McGillin's decided to start the party 150 days in advance, so if you find yourself in ...Two other anniversaries: the first Civil War battle and first Western gunfight
Jul 21st, 2009 at 2:30PM: The whole world is celebrating yesterday's 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, and while that amazing event deserves all the press it gets, there's just one problem--you can't walk around where it actually happened! Luckily there are two events that happened on this date that you can actually see where it all took place--the first major battle of the American Civil War and the first Old ...Russians predict demise of United States
Dec 30th, 2008 at 1:30PM: You had no idea, but the United States is on the verge of civil war. At least that's what Igor Panarin, a Russian professor and "expert" on American relations is saying. He's been saying it for years, actually, but just in these past weeks Russian media (and the Kremlin) has picked up his story and is running wild with it. According to the Wall Street Journal, Panarin's theory is that "mass ...Civil War driving tour in North Carolina: A trip on the Blue-Gray Scenic Byway
Nov 30th, 2008 at 11:30AM: A month ago, I wrote about a Civil War driving tour in Tennessee. Here's another one I found out about in an engaging article by Jodi Helmer in the November/December issue of AAA's Home and Away magazine.
Helmer followed North Carolina's Blue-Gray Scenic Byway on a quest to find historic sites connected to the Civil War. The journey was a hunt and ask venture that wound through small towns and ...Are looters saving Civil War history or destroying it?
Jul 1st, 2008 at 4:30PM: "This button is from the coat of a Confederate soldier--or a Union soldier" is something one might hear at a Civil War relic trade show and sale.
Or perhaps you might hear this at county historical society museum. Civil War relics are often among those items passed down through generations. At a museum, they are displayed in a case for everyone to enjoy instead of being tucked in a box in a ...Helen Keller: Women's history that shouldn't fade
Mar 7th, 2008 at 1:00PM: There's a story out about a rare and, perhaps, one of the best photographs of Helen Keller as a child with her teacher Anne Sullivan. As with many treasured photos, it was tucked in another family's album. The photograph is now in the care of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, a place for pouring over old documents, photographs and microfiche. Perhaps, you can see Helen's photo if you ...Memorial Day Type Place: Gettysburg
May 28th, 2007 at 8:47AM: If you live anywhere near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania perhaps you were one of those kids I saw on a field trip when I was on my own fifth grade outing. Here, on what now is pristine rolling hills and wooded countryside, 50,000 people died in three days during the American Civil War. A friend of mine, a Civil War buff, considers Gettysburg his most favorite place on the planet. He swears the place has ...The Truth Behind "Gravity Hills"
May 10th, 2007 at 1:00PM:
According to Wikipedia, a gravity hill "is a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces the optical illusion that a very slight downhill slope appears to be an uphill slope." The video above investigates a gravity hill just outside of Burkittsville, Maryland (also where the Blair Witch Project was filmed). The legend of this particular gravity hill goes that the ghosts of the dead ...
