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On this day in the Civil War, a regiment of black soldiers, the 54th Massachusetts, leaves Boston to train in South Carolina.
The regiment is led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the son of a Boston abolitionist.
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
On this day in the Civil War, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney rules that President Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus is illegal.
Taney was the supreme court chief justice during the Dred Scott decision in 1857, which led America closer to Civil War.
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
On this day in the Civil War, the Union Navy blockades the Southern ports of Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Union gunboat USS Louisville
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
On this day in the Civil War, Federal troops are repulsed by Confederates under General John Bell Hood at the Battle of New Hope Church.
By this time in the war, General Hood rode strapped to his horse due to a crippled left arm and missing right leg.
General John Bell Hood
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
On this day in the Civil War, Union officer Elmer Ellsworth is killed while attempting to remove a Confederate flag from a hotel roof in Alexandria, Virginia. Ellsworth is the first Union soldier killed in combat in the Civil War.
The North makes Ellsworth a martyr for the cause of the Union. President Lincoln was a close friend of Elmer Ellsworth.
Elmer Ellsworth
(Photo Credit: Library of Congress)
The Civil War Book 