1.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
2.
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
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Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, later renamed Leslies Weekly, was an American illustrated literary and news magazine founded in 1852 and published until 1922. It was one of several magazines started by publisher and illustrator Frank Leslie, the Illustrated Newspaper was founded in 1852. John Y. Foster was the first editor of the weekly, there were 30 copies of the first edition printed. By 1897, its circulation had grown to an estimated 65,000 copies, after Leslies death in 1880, the magazine was continued by his widow, the womens suffrage campaigner Miriam Florence Leslie. The name, by then a well-established trademark, remained also after 1902 and it often took a strongly patriotic stance and frequently featured cover pictures of soldiers and heroic battle stories. It also gave extensive coverage to less martial events such as the Klondike gold rush of 1897, among the writers publishing their stories in the weekly were Louisa May Alcott, H. Irving Hancock, Helen R. Martin, Eleanor Franklin Egan, and Ellis Parker Butler. Several notable illustrators worked for the publication, including Albert Berghaus and Norman Rockwell, who created covers for the magazine in its latter years, and Fernando Mirando y Casellas. Surviving copies of the magazine at present fetch handsome prices as collectors items and are considered to give a picture of American life during the decades of its publication
3.
Louisiana
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Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the state in the U. S. with political subdivisions termed parishes. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana is bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, Texas to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Much of the lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh. These contain a rich southern biota, typical examples include birds such as ibis, there are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a process in the landscape. These support a large number of plant species, including many species of orchids. Louisiana has more Native American tribes than any other state, including four that are federally recognized, ten that are state recognized. Before the American purchase of the territory in 1803, the current Louisiana State had been both a French colony and for a period, a Spanish one. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves in the 18th century, many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture. Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 to 1715, when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane. The suffix -ana is a Latin suffix that can refer to information relating to an individual, subject. Thus, roughly, Louis + ana carries the idea of related to Louis, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened, Louisiana slowly developed, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Tertiary Era, some 60 million years ago, the history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearings Roadside Geology of Louisiana. The sediments were carried north to south by the Mississippi River
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Confederate States of America
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The Confederate States, officially the Confederate States of America, commonly referred to as the Confederacy, was a breakaway country of 11 secessionist slave states existing from 1861 to 1865. It was never recognized as an Independent country, although it achieved belligerent status by Britain. A new Confederate government was established in February 1861 before Lincoln took office in March, after the Civil War began in April, four slave states of the Upper South – Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina – also declared their secession and joined the Confederacy. The government of the United States rejected the claims of secession, the Civil War began with the April 12,1861, Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, a Union fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. In spring 1865, after four years of fighting which led to an estimated 620,000 military deaths, all the Confederate forces surrendered. Jefferson Davis later lamented that the Confederacy had disappeared in 1865, Missouri and Kentucky were represented by partisan factions from those states, while the legitimate governments of those two states retained formal adherence to the Union. Also fighting for the Confederacy were two of the Five Civilized Tribes located in Indian Territory and a new, but uncontrolled, Confederate Territory of Arizona. Efforts by certain factions in Maryland to secede were halted by federal imposition of law, while Delaware, though of divided loyalty. A Unionist government in parts of Virginia organized the new state of West Virginia. With the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1,1863, the Union made abolition of slavery a war goal, as Union forces moved southward, large numbers of plantation slaves were freed. Many joined the Union lines, enrolling in service as soldiers, teamsters and laborers, the most notable advance was Shermans March to the Sea in late 1864. Much of the Confederacys infrastructure was destroyed, including telegraphs, railroads, plantations in the path of Shermans forces were severely damaged. Internal movement became increasingly difficult for Southerners, weakening the economy and these losses created an insurmountable disadvantage in men, materiel, and finance. Public support for Confederate President Jefferson Daviss administration eroded over time due to repeated military reverses, economic hardships, after four years of campaigning, Richmond was captured by Union forces in April 1865. Shortly afterward, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, President Davis was captured on May 10,1865, and jailed in preparation for a treason trial that was ultimately never held. The U. S. government began a process known as Reconstruction which attempted to resolve the political and constitutional issues of the Civil War. By 1877, the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction in the former Confederate states, Confederate veterans had been temporarily disenfranchised by Reconstruction policy. The prewar South had many areas, the war left the entire region economically devastated by military action, ruined infrastructure
6.
Nathaniel P. Banks
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Nathaniel Prentice Banks was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War. A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies, always a political chameleon, Banks was the first professional politician to serve as Massachusetts Governor. But he failed to reinforce Grant at Vicksburg, and badly handled the Siege of Port Hudson and he then launched the Red River Campaign, a failed attempt to occupy eastern Texas that prompted his recall. Banks was regularly criticized for the failures of his campaigns, notably in tactically important tasks including reconnaissance, Banks was also instrumental in early reconstruction efforts in Louisiana, intended by Lincoln as a model for later such activities. In his later years he adopted more liberal progressive causes, Nathaniel Startle Prentice Banks was born at Waltham, Massachusetts, the first child of Nathaniel P. Banks, Sr. and Rebecca Greenwood Banks, on January 30,1816. His father worked in the mill of the Boston Manufacturing Company. Banks went to local schools until the age of fourteen, at point the familys financial demands compelled him to take a mill job. He started as a boy, responsible for replacing bobbins full of thread with empty ones, working in the mills of Waltham. Because of this role he became known as Bobbin Boy Banks and he was at one time apprenticed as a mechanic alongside Elias Howe, a cousin. Recognizing the value of education, Banks continued to read, sometimes walking to Boston on his days off to visit the Atheneum Library and he attended company-sponsored lectures by luminaries of the day including Daniel Webster and other orators. He formed a club with other mill workers to improve their oratorical skills. He honed his oratorical and political skills by emulating Robert Rantoul, Bankss success as a speaker convinced him to quit the mill. He first worked as an editor for two short-lived political newspapers, after they failed he ran for a seat in the legislature in 1844. He then applied to Rantoul, who had been appointed Collector of the Port of Boston, Banks again ran unsuccessfully for the state legislature in 1847. Company leaders could effectively compel their workers to vote for Whig candidates because there was no secret ballot. This brought Banks, along with fellow Democrats Rantoul and George S. Boutwell to form a coalition with the Free Soil Party that successfully gained control of the legislature and governors chair. The deals negotiated after the win in the 1850 election put Boutwell in the governors chair. His role as speaker and his effectiveness in conducting business raised his status significantly
7.
Red River Campaign
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The Red River Campaign or Red River Expedition comprised a series of battles fought along the Red River in Louisiana during the American Civil War from March 10 to May 22,1864. It was a Union failure, characterized by poor planning and mismanagement, Taylor successfully defended the Red River Valley with a smaller force. The Union had four goals at the start of the campaign, to capture Shreveport, Louisiana, Confederate headquarters for the Trans-Mississippi Department, control the Red River to the north, and occupy east Texas. To confiscate as much as a hundred thousand bales of cotton from the plantations along the Red River, to organize pro-Union state governments in the region. Union strategists in Washington thought that the occupation of east Texas, Texas was the source of much needed guns, food, and supplies for Confederate troops. Other historians have claimed that the campaign was motivated by concern regarding the 25,000 French troops in Mexico sent by Napoleon III. Shermans forces in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and under the command of Brigadier General A. J. Smith, Smiths forces were available to Banks only until the end of April, when they would be sent back east where they were needed for other Union military actions. Banks would command this force of 35,000, which would be supported in its march up the Red River towards Shreveport by Union Navy Rear Admiral David Dixon Porters fleet of gunboats. This plan was ready to be set in action in early March 1864, after somewhat belated communication initiated by Banks to inform Sherman, most of Banks men, accompanied by a large, poorly trained, cavalry force would march north toward the middle river. Banks would allow cotton speculators to come along, and Porter was bringing barges to collect cotton as lucrative naval prizes. The Confederate senior officers were confused as to whether the Red River, Mobile, Alabama, the commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, General Edmund Kirby Smith, nevertheless started moving many of his men to the Shreveport area. The Union forces consisted of four elements, the first three of which worked together,1,10,000 men from XVI Corps and XVII Corps from the Army of the Tennessee under A. J. Smith. The Mississippi flotilla of the US Navy, commanded by Admiral Porter, consisting of ten ironclads,7,000 men under General Steele in the Department of Arkansas. Confederate forces consisted of elements from the Trans-Mississippi Department, commanded by E. Kirby Smith, the District of West Louisiana, commanded by Richard Taylor, contained approximately 10,000 men, consisting of two infantry divisions, two cavalry brigades and the garrison of Shreveport. The District of Arkansas, commanded by Sterling Price, contained approximately 11,000 men, as the campaign began, Smith ordered two of Prices infantry divisions to move to Louisiana. The District of Indian Territory, commanded by Samuel Maxey, contained approximately 4,000 men in three cavalry brigades, the District of Texas, commanded by John Magruder,15,000 men, mostly cavalry. As the campaign began, Smith ordered Magruder to send as many men as he could, over the course of the campaign almost 8,000 cavalry came from Texas to aid Taylor in Louisiana, however, it arrived slowly and not all together. The Confederate Navy based in Shreveport had the ironclad CSS Missouri, the gunboat Cotton, Franklin, commanding the advance divisions of Bankss Army of the Gulf, began his march from southern Louisiana on March 10
8.
Historian
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A historian is a person who researches, studies, and writes about the past, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race, if the individual is concerned with events preceding written history, the individual is an historian of prehistory. Although historian can be used to describe amateur and professional historians alike, some historians, though, are recognized by publications or training and experience. Historian became an occupation in the late nineteenth century as research universities were emerging in Germany. Modern historical analysis usually draws upon other social sciences, including economics, sociology, politics, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, while ancient writers do not normally share modern historical practices, their work remains valuable for its insights within the cultural context of the times. Understanding the past appears to be a human need. What constitutes history is a philosophical question, the earliest chronologies date back to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, though no historical writers in these early civilizations were known by name. Systematic historical thought emerged in ancient Greece, a development that became an important influence on the writing of history elsewhere around the Mediterranean region, the earliest known critical historical works were The Histories, composed by Herodotus of Halicarnassus who later became known as the father of history. Herodotus attempted to distinguish between more and less reliable accounts, and personally conducted research by travelling extensively, giving accounts of various Mediterranean cultures. Although Herodotus overall emphasis lay on the actions and characters of men and he was also the first to distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event, while his successor Xenophon introduced autobiographical elements and character studies in his Anabasis. The Romans adopted the Greek tradition, while early Roman works were still written in Greek, the Origines, composed by the Roman statesman Cato the Elder, was written in Latin, in a conscious effort to counteract Greek cultural influence. Strabo was an important exponent of the Greco-Roman tradition of combining geography with history, livy records the rise of Rome from city-state to empire. His speculation about what would have happened if Alexander the Great had marched against Rome represents the first known instance of alternate history, in Chinese historiography, the Classic of History is one of the Five Classics of Chinese classic texts and one of the earliest narratives of China. Sima Qian was the first in China to lay the groundwork for professional historical writing and his written work was the Shiji, a monumental lifelong achievement in literature. Christian historiography began early, perhaps as early as Luke-Acts, which is the source for the Apostolic Age. Writing history was popular among Christian monks and clergy in the Middle Ages and they wrote about the history of Jesus Christ, that of the Church and that of their patrons, the dynastic history of the local rulers. In the Early Middle Ages historical writing often took the form of annals or chronicles recording events year by year, muslim historical writings first began to develop in the 7th century, with the reconstruction of the Prophet Muhammads life in the centuries following his death. With numerous conflicting narratives regarding Muhammad and his companions from various sources, to evaluate these sources, they developed various methodologies, such as the science of biography, science of hadith and Isnad
9.
Louisiana Tech University
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Louisiana Tech University, colloquially referred to as Louisiana Tech or La. Tech, is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. Also, the FAA named Louisiana Tech to the National Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, the university is known for its engineering and science programs. Louisiana Tech opened as the Industrial Institute and College of Louisiana in 1894 during the Second Industrial Revolution, the original mission of the college was for the education of students in the arts and sciences for the purpose of developing an industrial economy in post-Reconstruction Louisiana. Four years later in 1898, the constitution changed the schools name to Louisiana Industrial Institute. In 1921, the changed its name to Louisiana Polytechnic Institute to reflect its evolution into a larger. Under the leadership of Dr. F, Jay Taylor, the college continued to grow and change over time. Louisiana Polytechnic Institute became desegregated in the 1960s and officially changed its name to Louisiana Tech University in 1970 as the school developed into a research university. Louisiana Tech enrolled 12,694 students in five academic colleges during the Fall 2016 academic quarter including 1,400 students in the graduate school, Louisiana Tech fields 16 varsity NCAA Division I sports teams and is a member of Conference USA of the Football Bowl Subdivision. Ruston College, a forerunner to Louisiana Tech, was established in the middle 1880s by W. C and this institution lasted for seven years and had annual enrollments of about 250 students. Friley subsequently from 1892 to 1894 served as the first president of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, on May 14,1894, the Lincoln Parish Police Jury held a special session to outline plans to secure a regional industrial school. The police jury called upon State Representative George M. Lomax to introduce the legislation during the upcoming session. Representative Lomax, Jackson Parish Representative J. T. M. Hancock, and journalist, lawyer, holstead fought for the passage of the bill. On July 6,1894, the bill was approved as Act No.68 of the General Assembly of Louisiana. The act established The Industrial Institute and College of Louisiana, an institute created for the education of white children in the arts. In 1894, Colonel Arthur T. Prescott was elected as the first president of the college and he moved to Ruston and began overseeing the construction of a two-story main building. The brick building housed eight classrooms, an auditorium, a chemical laboratory. A frame building was built nearby and was used for the instruction of mechanics
10.
Mansfield, Louisiana
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Mansfield is a small city in and the parish seat of DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,001 at the 2010 census, a decline of more than 10 percent from the 2000 tabulation, Mansfield is 77 percent African American. Mansfield is part of the Shreveport–Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area, the Battle of Mansfield, a Confederate victory under General Richard Taylor, was fought here on April 8,1864. This battle turned 42,000 Union troops away from their conquest of the Louisiana Confederate capital, Shreveport, the battle is commemorated at the Mansfield State Historic Site some four miles south of Mansfield off Louisiana Highway 175. The first womans college west of the Mississippi River, Mansfield Female College, was founded by the Methodist Church there in 1855, a two-year college, its first class graduated in 1856. In 1930, Mansfield Female College merged with Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport, in 2003, the Louisiana State Legislature moved to convert the main building of Mansfield Female College, the Lyceum, into a future museum. The film The Great Debaters was partially shot in Mansfield and released on December 25,2007, the story line involves a 1930s debate team from Marshall, Texas. The downtown scenes of Marshall, however, were shot on location in downtown Mansfield. The film stars Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker and was nominated for a Golden Globe award in 2008, Mansfield is located at 32°1′58″N 93°42′9″W and has an elevation of 335 feet. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 3.7 square miles. As of the census of 2010, there were 5,001 people,2,500 households, the population density was 1,515.4 people per square mile. There were 2,298 housing units at a density of 623.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city in 2000 was 34. 13% White,64. 26% African American,0. 13% Native American,0. 27% Asian,0. 47% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 59% of the population. 29. 6% of all households were made up of individuals and 14. 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.20. In the city, the population was out with 29. 6% under the age of 18,8. 7% from 18 to 24,25. 2% from 25 to 44,19. 6% from 45 to 64. The median age was 35 years, for every 100 females there were 82.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.2 males, the median income for a household in the city was $21,981, and the median income for a family was $26,683. Males had an income of $30,239 versus $19,854 for females
11.
Charles Pomeroy Stone
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Charles Pomeroy Stone was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, and surveyor. He fought with distinction in the Mexican–American War, earning two brevet promotions for his performance in the conflict, after resigning and surveying for the Mexican Government, he returned to the U. S. Army to fight in the American Civil War. Stone was reportedly the first volunteer to enter the Union Army, held responsible for the Union defeat, Stone was arrested and imprisoned for almost six months, mostly for political reasons. He never received a trial, and after his release he would not hold a significant command during the war again. Stone later served again with distinction as a general in the Egyptian Army, Stone was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, a son of Alpheus Fletcher Stone, the towns doctor, and his wife Fanny Cushing. In 1841 he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated four years later and he was appointed a brevet second lieutenant of ordnance on July 1,1845. Stone stayed at West Point, serving as an assistant professor and teaching geography, history, afterwards he was posted to the Watervliet Arsenal in New York as Assistant Ordnance Officer, and then to Fortress Monroe at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, both in 1846. While there Stone worked in the arsenal and was an assistant to Capt. Benjamin Huger. Fighting with Maj. Gen. Winfield Scotts army in the Mexican–American War and he first saw action during the Siege of Veracruz from March 9–29, then the skirmishing near Amazoque on May 14, and the Battle of Contreras on August 19–20. Stone then fought notably during the Battle of Molino del Rey on September 8, on September 13,1847, Stone participated in the Battle of Chapultepec, and was appointed a brevet captain for his conduct on that day. He then fought in the Battle for Mexico City until September 15 and he was an original member of the Aztec Club of 1847, a military society formed by U. S. Army officers who had served in Mexico. After the war with Mexico ended, Stone returned to the Watervliet Arsenal in 1848 and he then was granted a leave of absence from the U. S. Army, and proceeded to Europe to study military practices of the armies there for two years. In 1850 he resumed duty at the Watervliet Arsenal briefly, later that year Stone was appointed Chief of Ordnance for the Pacific Department, a post he held until 1855, and also began construction of the Benicia Arsenal in California that year. During this time he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, on November 17,1856, he resigned his commission in the U. S. Army, finding the pay inadequate for his family. He briefly became a banker in 1856 in San Francisco, Stone then went back to Mexico, where he worked in various government jobs. From 1857 to 1860 he surveyed the Mexican state of Sonora, also from 1858 to 1859 Stone served as acting consul at Guaymas, Mexico, the municipal center of Sonora. In 1860 he moved his family back to the U. S. settling in Washington, in 1861 he published his survey findings, entitled Notes on the State of Sonora. At the outbreak of secession, Stone found himself in Washington writing his report on Sonora, in this role, he secured the capital for the arrival of President-elect Abraham Lincoln, and was personally responsible for security at the new presidents inaugural
12.
Edmund Kirby Smith
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Edmund Kirby Smith was a career United States Army officer who served with the Confederates during the Civil War, as one of only seven officers to reach the rank of Full General. The area included most actions east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the Mississippi River, in 1863, Smith dispatched troops in an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the Siege of Vicksburg. After Vicksburg was captured in July, the isolated Trans-Mississippi zone was cut off from the rest of the Confederacy, and became virtually an independent nation, nicknamed Kirby Smithdom. In the Red River Campaign of Spring 1864, he commanded victorious Confederate troops under General Richard Taylor, on May 26,1865, he surrendered his army at Galveston, Texas, before fleeing abroad to avoid arrest for treason. After the war, Smith worked in the telegraph and railway industries, Smith was born in 1824 in St. Augustine, Florida, as the youngest child to Joseph Lee Smith and Frances Kirby Smith. Both his parents were natives of Litchfield, Connecticut, where their children were born. The family moved to Florida in 1821, shortly before the elder Smith was named a Superior Court judge in the new Florida Territory, acquired by the US from Spain. Older siblings included Ephraim, born in 1807, sister Frances, born in 1809, and Josephine, who died in 1835, likely of tuberculosis. In 1836, his parents sent him to a boarding school in Virginia. On July 1,1841, Smith entered West Point and graduated four years later, while there he was nicknamed Seminole after the Native Americans of his state, and brevetted a second lieutenant in the 5th U. S. He was promoted to lieutenant on August 22,1846. In the Mexican–American War, he served under General Zachary Taylor at the Battle of Palo Alto and he served under General Winfield Scott later, and received brevet promotions to first lieutenant for Cerro Gordo and to captain for Contreras and Churubusco. His older brother, Ephraim Kirby Smith, who graduated from West Point in 1826 and was a captain in the regular army, Infantry in the campaigns with both Taylor and Scott. Ephraim died in 1847 from wounds suffered at the Battle of Molino del Rey, after that war, Kirby Smith served as a captain in the 2nd U. S. Cavalry, primarily in Texas. Kirby Smith collected and studied materials as a botanist, like other military officers. Some of the items from his collecting at West Point, he donated to the Smithsonian Institution, Kirby Smith was assigned to teaching mathematics at West Point, from 1849 to 1852. According to his letters to his mother, he was happy with this environment, on May 13,1859, he was wounded in his thigh fighting Indians in the Nescutunga Valley of Texas. On January 31,1861, Smith was promoted to major and his sister Frances Webster remained loyal to the Union although married to Lucien Bonaparte Webster, a Confederate officer, who died during the war
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