Category Archives: 150 Years Ago

Lost in Lexington

Posted on July 4, 2018 by SUMPTER

According to documentation at the Library of Congress, Washington College in Lexington, Virginia held commencement exercises on June 18, 1868. A northern newspaper was disgruntled by a report from an unnamed source about some activities (toasts) during an alumni supper … Continue reading →

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fictional preservation?

Posted on May 5, 2018 by SUMPTER

An editorial in the April 25, 1868 issue of Harper’s Weekly lamented all the historic Revolutionary War era structures that were being left to deteriorate and hoped that three other “sacred” buildings could be preserved. One of those structures related … Continue reading →

Posted in 150 Years Ago, Aftermath, American Culture, American History, Monuments and Statues, Postbellum Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Johnson vs. Grant

Posted on February 11, 2018 by SUMPTER

In August 1877 President Andrew Johnson suspended Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and named General Ulysses S. Grant Secretary of War ad interim. The president’s actions complied with the Tenure of Office Act enacted the previous March. When the … Continue reading →

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Letter to the Loyal Alabamans

Posted on January 2, 2017 by SUMPTER

A document at the Library of Congress indicates that 150 years ago today the Grand Council of the Union League of Alabama wrote an epistle to its local branches. The letter began by thanking God that thanks to federal soldiers … Continue reading →

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dress code

Posted on December 30, 2016 by SUMPTER

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper presumably sometime in 1866: [pointing finger] A FEMALE CANAL DRIVER. – On Thursday last a canal driver was arrested in Lockport, on suspicion of being a woman in male attire. On being taken … Continue reading →

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restoration and readmission

Posted on July 24, 2016 by SUMPTER

On July 18, 1866 Tennessee became the third United state (and first ex-Confederate state) to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. On July 24, 1866 both houses of the United States Congress began accepting representatives from Tennessee. … Continue reading →

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