C-SPAN, “devoted to providing access to the political process,” has developed programming on American history for years. But it was often sporadic and mixed in with political and judicial coverage. Now, however, the network has dedicated weekends on C-SPAN3 to the subject, naming it American History TV (AHTV). From Saturday morning to Monday morning, AHTV [...]
Archive for the ‘American Civil War’ Category
C-SPAN’s American History TV
Posted: July 5, 2011 in American Civil War, American Revolution, United States, World War II0
‘History Is the Soldier’s Gift’
Posted: May 30, 2011 in American Civil War, American Revolution, The Mexican War, United States, World War I, World War IIHere’s a great piece from Human Events on the importance of history and remembering those who’ve come before, particularly veterans of America’s wars. Remember where our heroes fell, and why. . . . . . . Today we honor men and women who were in the right place at the right time. All of history would have been different, if they had [...]
The First Memorial Day
Posted: May 29, 2011 in American Civil War, BOAL, Pennsylvania, United StatesThe newspaper in Council Bluffs, Iowa — The Daily Nonpareil — has a little-known factoid on the history of Memorial Day. It began in a town in the heart of Pennsylvania, a place where some my Irish and Ulster Scot ancestors settled. In fact, it was named after them. The first known “Memorial Day” observance [...]
On April 7, 1862, Union soldiers led by General Ulysses S. Grant defeated Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. The 55th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, in which two of my relatives served, was part of the battle. These two, Levi and James Goodell, had a younger brother named Hiram who joined a different [...]
Civil War Records
Posted: March 13, 2011 in 123rd Illinois Infantry, American Civil War, American Revolution, GOODELL, PARKERTags: Civil War
Don Gates, a cousin of mother, sent me copies of the Civil War files of four relatives in the summer of 2008. Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 From: sodakdon1@cox.net To: mrmayor@hotmail.com Subject: Civil War Records Aaron: I have civil war records for: — James Goodell [father of Levi Lincoln Goodell]. James was a private in [...]
I find the wonkish term SecDef quirky and cool. It’s short for Secretary of Defense. Right now, I am watching Secretary of Defense Robert Gates give testimony today before Congress on C-SPAN2. A friend of mine has a small, portable HD TV, which is plugged in to a Comcast signal. Some of the channels have terrific [...]
The Hampton Roads Conference, on February 3, 1865, was an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate an end to the American Civil War. (Hampton Roads is the name of the area encompassing the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach.) New York Tribune editor and abolitionist Horace Greeley provided the impetus for the conference when he contacted Francis Blair, a Maryland aristocrat and [...]
January 30, 1861
Posted: January 30, 2011 in Abraham Lincoln, American Civil War, GOODELL, Illinois, PARKERA writer with The New York Times has a great piece on Abraham Lincoln in Illinois just prior to heading to Washington for his inauguration. My Parker and Goodell relatives were living in the area at the time. I think it’d be hard not to know him. Lincoln was a lawyer and local politician for [...]
The first person to file a land claim, using the just enacted Homestead Act, was Daniel Freeman in 1863. Freeman was a doctor living in Ottawa, Illinois. He had enlisted in the 17th Illinois Infantry. Freeman filed his claim on the first of January for a plot in Beatrice, Nebraska Territory, just ten minutes after [...]
On December 18, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect in a proclamation by Secretary of State William H. Seward. AJH
