While in office, Presidents George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison all proclaimed national days of Thanksgiving, but in the years that followed, the majority of these celebrations were restricted to specific states or territories. Journalist Sarah Josepha...
On July 14th, 1861, Major Sullivan Ballou wrote a letter to his wife Sarah at home in Rhode Island one week before he fought and died in the First Battle of Bull Run. Sullivan Ballou was born to Hiram and Emeline Ballou, a distinguished Huguenot family in...
John Harrison Surratt was born on April 13, 1844, the last child of Mary and John Surratt, Sr. Surratt’s father managed to purchase a boarding house in Washington along with a tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, where he also served as the local postmaster. As a...
In late June 1863, Sallie Myers was a school teacher who had just turned 21. She was on summer vacation when Confederate forces invaded her hometown of Gettysburg and changed her life forever. She wrote in her diary that “on June 26 they came, spent...
On June 28, 1863, an important event took place in the small town of Chambersburg, Pa that changed the course of Robert E. Lee’sInvasion of the North. A Confederate spy by the name of Harrison came into camp and reported on the movements of Union troops. General...
