John Tyler is famous for being the first vice president in the history of the United States to assume the full power of the presidency upon the death of a sitting president. In what became known as the “Tyler Precedent”, John Tyler’s rise to the presidency happened rather fortuitously, as some may describe. It is…
Among the 5,000 grave markers for Confederate soldiers in the Soldier’s Rest section of Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg, Mississippi, one pays tribute to Old Douglas, the camel of the 43rd Mississippi Infantry, Company A, nicknamed “The Camel Regiment.” The Confederate States of America was established in February 1861. It is not known how Douglas,…
[Letter of the commissioners to the President] Washington, 28th December, 1860. Sir: We have the honor to transmit to you a copy of the full powers from the Convention of the People of the South Carolina, under which we are “authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery…
State of South Carolina Executive Office, State Department Charleston, 12 January 1861 Sir, The Governor has considered it proper in view of the grave questions which now affect the State of South Carolina and the United States, to make a demand upon the President of the United States for the delivery to the State…
Lewis Addison Armistead (February 18, 1817 – July 5, 1863) was a Confederate brigadier general in the American Civil War, who was wounded, captured, and died after Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.
John Y. Beall was a Confederate navy officer hanged as a spy by Union authorities at the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865). A militiaman who witnessed the execution of John Brown in 1859, Beall joined the Stonewall Brigade, fought with Turner Ashby, and participated in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign (1862), during which he became separated from his unit. He moved to Iowa and then to Canada, where he eventually joined the Confederate navy and planned and sometimes executed various clandestine missions. After capturing a Union merchant ship, Beall himself was captured and imprisoned briefly before being exchanged. He refused a commission in the Confederate secret service, but returned to Canada where he continued his clandestine work. After being captured again at Niagara Falls, this time when he attempted to derail trains carrying Confederate prisoners, Beall was tried for spying. The charges cited a failed attempt to seize a civilian passenger boat and use it to capture a Union gunboat, an aborted mission in which Beall disguised himself as a passenger. Beall was defended by a prominent New York City attorney and ninety-two members of the U.S. Congress signed a petition for his pardon, but he was hanged on February 24, 1865.
Horace King was the most respected bridge builder in west Georgia, Alabama, and northeast Mississippi from the 1830s until the 1880s. He constructed massive town lattice truss bridges over nearly every major river from the Oconee in Georgia to the Tombigbee in Mississippi and at nearly every crossing of the Chattahoochee River from Carroll County to Fort Gaines.
James Ronald Chalmers (January 11, 1831 – April 9, 1898) was an American lawyer and politician, a state senator in Mississippi, and United States Congressman for several terms from the state’s 6th congressional district, beginning in 1876.
(January 12, 1814 – March 13, 1890) was a United States Army officer who fought during the Mexican–American War and later served as a Confederate major general during the American Civil War. He also was a lawyer, politician, and businessman from the state of Alabama.
