In the pre-morning duskness at 4:30 a.m., Union forces begin today’s assault on Confederate troops in the ongoing Battle of Cold Harbor near Richmond, Virginia. Although the federals breach the heavily defended rebel lines in a few places, the day does not turn out well for the Union. In close fighting, often hand-to-hand combat, the…
Peter Barrow was born a slave near Petersburg, Virginia in 1840. As a child he was taken to a plantation in Alabama. Earlier this year, perhaps when Union naval and army forces invaded and gained control over the Mobile Bay area in February, Barrow, now a young man, managed to escape. Fleeing to Vicksburg, this…
The First Baptist Church of Northampton, Massachusetts burns today. While the building is not entirely destroyed, for the next eighteen months worship services are held in the Northampton Town Hall while the church meeting house undergoes repairs. Meanwhile, the Educational Association of Virginia is formed today in the basement of the First Baptist Church of…