Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States (1829-1837), is an icon in American history. As a military leader he was so tough and determined that his admiring men called him “Old Hickory,” as he led the U.S. to important victories over the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, and over the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. As a president he fought for the rights of the “common man” and ushered in an era historians call Jacksonian Democracy. read more...
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The Confederacy was growing desperate in the spring of 1862. While it was holding its own in Virginia, the Western Theater had become a string of disasters. A young, relatively unknown Union general named Ulysses S. Grant won the first two major Federal victories of the war when he seized Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in February 1862. read more...
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In a courtroom described as “deathly silent,” Federal Judge Irving R. Kaufman stared sternly at Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on April 5, 1951, and sentenced them to death for the crime of espionage, guilty of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. “I consider your crime worse than murder,” he told the defendants. He also announced: “Plain, deliberate murder is dwarfed by your acts.” Clearly, this was not a judge inclined to show mercy. read more...
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By early April 1862 Union General George B. McClellan had completed an ambitious amphibious operation, transporting the massive Army of the Potomac to the tip of the Virginia Peninsula. His mission: begin the long-awaited march on the Confederate capital of Richmond. President Abraham Lincoln and the Northern public had been impatiently waiting for McClellan to attack ever since he was placed in charge following the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) back on July 21, 1861. read more...
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Susanna Salter and the small town of Argonia, Kansas, both made history when the town elected her mayor on April 4, 1887. She holds the distinction of being the first woman elected to a political office in American history. The significance of this achievement is not lessened by the fact that her election began as a mischievous prank. Nor is her pioneering accomplishment diminished by the fact that she was not a supporter of the women’s liberation movement. read more...
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In early April of 1861, the nation’s attention was on the Union garrison in Fort Sumter, situated in Charleston Harbor and surrounded by Confederate forts, militia, and 19 batteries of mortars and cannons. South Carolina had been calling for the surrender of the fort ever since it seceded from the Union in December 1860, and demands for the fort increased after the Confederate States of America formed in early February 1861. No hostile action on either side had been taken yet; everyone seemed to realize that the first shot fired would begin a civil war. read more...
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At 6:01 p.m. the evening of April 4, 1968, the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was gunned down by an assassin while standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Though rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital where doctors opened his chest and massaged his heart in a desperate attempt to save his life, Dr. King was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. He was 39 years old. A stunned nation lost its leading proponent of nonviolence, the civil rights movement lost its most visible leader, and many Americans deeply mourned. read more...
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It took a grueling ten-month siege and tens of thousands of casualties, but the North had cause for wild celebration when the Union army captured the Confederate capital city of Richmond, Virginia, on April 3, 1865. General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia had held out for as long as they could, but the overwhelming pressure brought to bear by the massive Union Army of the Potomac, led by General Ulysses S. Grant, was finally too much to withstand. read more...
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On April 3, 1865, after a ten-month siege that caused tens of thousands of casualties, the Union army captured the Confederate capital city of Richmond, Virginia. The stalemate had been long and costly, but Union General Ulysses S. Grant—leader of the massive Army of the Potomac—could afford his losses much more easily than Confederate General Robert E. Lee, whose surrounded and haggard Army of Northern Virginia was decimated by disease, hunger, casualties, and desertion—and had no hopes of receiving reinforcements. read more...
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In April of 1865 the Civil War was finally drawing to a close after four years of devastating fighting. One major, and elusive, prize remained for the Union: the capture of the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. For nearly ten months Richmond and the nearby city of Petersburg had been defended by the South’s main army, the Army of Northern Virginia, led by General Robert E. Lee. The force besieging the Confederate capital was the massive Union Army of the Potomac, led by General Ulysses S. Grant, and it dwarfed the Southern army in every way: men, arms, equipment, and supplies. read more...
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I understand that when writing a blog, it’s necessary to show a picture and say a few words about yourself, so that people don’t think a nameless, faceless committee or advisory board is running the show. Here I am, a real person. My name is Tony Pettinato, and I live in Deerfield, Mass. I did my undergraduate studies in English at Oberlin College, my graduate work in Journalism at UC Berkeley, and have been a reporter for six newspapers. For the past fourteen years I have worked at NewsBank, six of those as a managing editor for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set project – NewsBank’s acclaimed effort that digitized and indexed twelve million pages of primary source documents – that gratified my lifelong interest in American history. And that led me to editing this history blog!
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