The American Civil War - Chronologically

Oct. 25 - Nov. 2, 1859 Trial of John Brown  Jefferson County Courthouse https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=170247 The Trial of John Brown Jefferson County Courthouse — Prelude to War — One of the most famous trials in American history was held in this building in 1859, when John Brown and his followers faced charges of treason against Virginia, inciting slaves to rebel, and murder. Judge Richard Parker presided. The trial began on October 25, a week after the raiders were captured, and ended on November 2. Those tried then and later included Brown, John Cook, John Copeland, Shields Green, Edwin Coppic, Albert Hazlett, and Aaron Stevens. Col. Lewis W. Washington, kidnapped by Brown's men from his home, Beallair, and held hostage, was a principal witness for the prosecution. The jury convicted Brown in forty-five minutes. Brown addressed the court, saying, "If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood furth...

October 16-18, 1859  John Brown's Raid  Harper's Ferry, WV * If I've said it once I've said it a thousand time: the Civil War began in [what is now] West Virginia. The first major battlefield I ever  deliberately visited [this was 8/10/21; ignore the "Published on" dates] was, appropriately enough, the five scattered locations that make up the Harpers Ferry battlefield. Of course, John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry, which tragically ended in this building, preceded the war. So too did the attempt by some local militias to also capture the garrison and weapons factory there. It could have been the opening shots of the war, but the Union troops just set the armory on fire to keep it from falling into rebel hands and left, so there was no battle. Yet. Control of Harpers Ferry changed hands many times during the war. [It gets several additional entries in this blog.] https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=4420 Here is a building with a curious past. Since its constructi...

Welcome, please allow me to explain what's going on here.  First off, this blog is arranged chronologically by date; the "published on" dates are fabricated and meaningless. The top of the blog will always be the end of the Civil War; scroll through the whole thing backwards for the start of the war at the bottom.  I started off trying to visit each Civil War battlefield in the Eastern Theatre in the order they occurred. That quickly spiraled out of control. Now, I'm just visiting every Civil War-related site I can, with an emphasis on the East (and especially my home state of Maryland), and then assembling my observations in chronological order. I try to minimize editorializing, and tend to just copypasta information directly from the sources I encounter and credit. Sometimes though, I can't help it. My acute interest is compounded by the fact that my neighbors and I still live on sacred ground soaked with the blood of the American Revolution and Civil War. These...