Just call her General North Star

Harriet Tubman has (finally!) been posthumously recognized as a one-star brigadier general in Maryland’s National Guard. At a ceremony on Nov. 11, 2024, officials in her home state honored her military service during the American Civil War.

Born Araminta Ross about March 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman escaped slavery in 1849 and settled in Philadelphia.

She established the Underground Railroad and guided many "passengers" to freedom. Tubman then acted as a scout, spy, and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War, before she led an expedition of 150 Black soldiers of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry on a gunboat raid in South Carolina.

The Combahee River Raid (also known as the Raid on Combahee Ferry) was conducted on June 1-2, 1863, along the Combahee River in Beaufort and Colleton counties in the South Carolina Lowcountry.

There the Union ships rescued and transported more than 750 former slaves freed five months earlier by the Emancipation Proclamation, many of whom joined the Union Army.

Gov. Wes Moore called the Veterans Day occasion not just a great day for Tubman’s home state but for all of the United States.

“She knew that in order to do the work, that meant that she had to go into the lion’s den,” Moore said. “She knew that leadership means you have to be willing to do what you are asking others to do.”

Something many of our current leaders have forgotten.

General Tubman, I salute you.

It's what we drink around here

CBS This Morning

For those poor souls who have never heard of Vernors Ginger Ale, let alone tried it, I shall endeavor to give you a brief history.

Vernors is a ginger-flavored soft drink and the oldest surviving ginger ale brand in the United States - although there were a lot of commercial ginger drinks prior to 1866.

Vernors is a highly carbonated, sweet "golden" ginger ale that gets its color from caramel and has a robust flavor similar to ginger beer. The golden style was common before Prohibition, when "dry" pale ginger ale became popular. 

According to company legend, Detroit pharmacist James Vernor experimented with flavors in an attempt to duplicate a popular ginger ale imported from Ireland prior to the start of the Civil War. When Vernor went off to serve in the Civil War, he stored the ginger syrup base of 19 ingredients in an oak cask.

Vernor joined the 4th Michigan Cavalry on Aug. 14, 1862 as a hospital steward, was promoted to second lieutenant on Sept. 20, 1864, and was discharged on July 1, 1865. After returning in 1866, he opened the keg and found the drink inside had been changed by the aging process in the wood. It was like nothing else he had ever tasted, and he allegedly said it was "Deliciously different," which remains the drink's motto to this day. 

Some stories say it was created in 1866. However,  James Vernor, Jr., admitted in a 1936 interview that the formula was not developed by his father until after the Civil War was over. This was confirmed in a 1962 interview with former company president, James Vernor Davis. According to the 1911 trademark application, Vernor's ginger ale first entered commerce in 1880, not 1866. (As a reference, Coca-Cola was first sold on May 8, 1886, and in 1893, "Brad's Drink," became an overnight sensation. On Aug. 28, 1898, it was renamed "Pepsi-Cola.")

For most of its history, Vernors was a regional product only sold at soda fountain franchises. Later Vernors was bottled for home consumption. Vernors was not mass distributed nationally until the 1960s. Even after expansion, Michigan accounts for 80 percent of Vernors sales. Michigan, Ohio and Illinois are the highest-selling states, but it is also popular in Florida and Arizona, which has many retired mid-western residents.

A number of slogans have been associated with Vernors over the years. Advertising in the early 1900s used the slogan "Detroit's Drink." It began using the slogan "Deliciously Different" in 1921, and for a time in the mid-1980s Vernors used the slogan, "It's what we drink around here."


It is what we drink around here.

The Lincoln Special

Martyred president Abraham Lincoln's body lay in state in the East Room of the White House which was open to the public on Tuesday, April 18, 1865. On Wednesday, April 19, a funeral service was held and then the coffin was transported to the Capitol Rotunda, where a ceremonial burial service was held. The body again laid in state on Thursday, April 20 and early on the morning of Friday, April 21 a prayer service was held for the Lincoln cabinet. 

At 7 a.m. on Friday, April 21, 1865, the coffin was taken by honor guard to the funeral car and at 8 a.m. the train departed. At least 10,000 people witnessed the train's departure from Washington.

The funeral train consisted of nine cars, including a baggage and hearse car which contained the coffins of Lincoln and his son, William "Willie" Wallace Lincoln, who had died on Feb. 20, 1862 at the age of 11 of typhoid fever during Lincoln’s second year in office.

Lincoln's eldest son Robert Todd Lincoln rode the train to Baltimore and then returned to the White House to be with his mother and surviving brother, Tad. (Robert took a train to Springfield on May 1, 1865 to attend his father's final funeral.) Mary Todd Lincoln, who was too distraught to make the trip, didn't return to Illinois until May 22, 1865.

The train retraced most of the route president-elect Lincoln had traveled on his way to Washington and his first inauguration in 1861, and millions of Americans viewed the train along the route in the following cities:

• Washington, D.C.
• Baltimore, Maryland, April 21, 1865
• Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, April 21, 1865
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1865
• New York City, April 24, 1865
• Albany, New York, April 25, 1865
• Buffalo, New York, April 27, 1865
• Cleveland, Ohio, April 28, 1865
• Columbus, Ohio, April 29, 1865
• Indianapolis, Indiana, April 30, 1865
• Michigan City, Indiana, May 1, 1865
• Chicago, Illinois, May 1, 1865
• Springfield, Illinois, May 3, 1865

The train passed 444 communities, 180 cities, and seven states. (Lincoln was not viewed in state in New Jersey).

However, assassin John Wilkes Booth was still on the run as of April 21, 1865.

Booth was not the hero he thought he would be. Newspapers called him an "accursed devil," "monster," "madman," and a "wretched fiend." Even in the South, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston called Booth's act "a disgrace to the age," and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee expressed regret at Lincoln's assassination.

Not all were grief-stricken, however. In New York City, a man was attacked by an enraged crowd when he shouted, "It served Old Abe right!" after hearing the news of Lincoln's death.

(Momma's great-great-grandfather, who had mustered out of the 58th OVI on Jan. 8, 1865, was back in Hocking County, Ohio when he heard of the assassination. When a local man cheered at the news, Momma's great-great-grandfather punched him in the face -- knocking him off the split-rail fence he was sitting upon and breaking his jaw.)

Booth would remain on the run until cornered, shot, and killed in a tobacco barn just south of Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia on April 26, 1865.

Now he belongs to the ages

On the night Abraham Lincoln was shot, April 14, 1865, Associated Press correspondent Lawrence Gobright scrambled to report from the White House, the streets of the stricken capital, and even from the blood-stained box at Ford's Theatre, where, in his memoir he reports he was handed the assassin's gun and turned it over to authorities. Here is an edited version of his original AP dispatch:

___

WASHINGTON, APRIL 14 - President Lincoln and wife visited Ford's Theatre this evening for the purpose of witnessing the performance of 'The (sic) American Cousin.' It was announced in the papers that Gen. Grant would also be present, but that gentleman took the late train of cars for New Jersey.

The theatre was densely crowded, and everybody seemed delighted with the scene before them. During the third act and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors to enter, a sharp report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggested nothing serious until a man rushed to the front of the President's box, waving a long dagger in his right hand, exclaiming, 'Sic semper tyrannis,' and immediately leaped from the box, which was in the second tier, to the stage beneath, and ran across to the opposite side, made his escape amid the bewilderment of the audience from the rear of the theatre, and mounted a horse and fled.

The groans of Mrs. Lincoln first disclosed the fact that the President had been shot, when all present rose to their feet rushing towards the stage, many exclaiming, 'Hang him, hang him!' The excitement was of the wildest possible description...

There was a rush towards the President's box, when cries were heard - 'Stand back and give him air!' 'Has anyone stimulants?' On a hasty examination it was found that the President had been shot through the head above and back of the temporal bone, and that some of his brain was oozing out. He was removed to a private house opposite the theatre, and the Surgeon General of the Army and other surgeons were sent for to attend to his condition.

On an examination of the private box, blood was discovered on the back of the cushioned rocking chair on which the President had been sitting; also on the partition and on the floor. A common single-barrelled pocket pistol was found on the carpet.

A military guard was placed in front of the private residence to which the President had been conveyed. An immense crowd was in front of it, all deeply anxious to learn the condition of the President.

It had been previously announced that the wound was mortal, but all hoped otherwise. ...

At midnight the Cabinet, with Messrs. Sumner, Colfax and Farnsworth, Judge Curtis, Governor Oglesby, Gen. Meigs, Col. Hay, and a few personal friends, with Surgeon General Barnes and his immediate assistants, were around his bedside.

The President was in a state of syncope, totally insensible and breathing slowly. The blood oozed from the wound at the back of his head. The surgeons exhausted every effort of medical skill, but all hope was gone.

The parting of his family with the dying President is too sad for description....

___

Lincoln's death at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865 was reported by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

The Silent Witness

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his once formidable army of Northern Virginia to three Federal armies under General Ulysses S. Grant. The terms of surrender were set about noon during a one and a half hour meeting between the two generals in the parlor of the McLean Home.

(The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas, took place on July 21, 1861 at the farm of Wilmer McLean of Bull Run, Virginia. Soon after that battle the upper middle class family moved to the village of Clover Hill, Virginia - the name of which was changed to "Appomattox Court House.")

Wilmer and Virginia McLean had four daughters and a son. Sometime before Lee and Grant met that Palm Sunday afternoon, 7-year-old Lula McLean had left her favorite doll in the parlor.

The rag doll remained in the room where Lula had left it while the generals met. When the meeting ended, Union officers - anxious to obtain souvenirs of the event - plundered the McLeans' parlor appropriating items ... including Lula's rag doll.

Colonel Horace Porter of General Grant's staff, wrote: "A child's doll was found in the room, which the younger officers tossed from one to the other, and called 'The Silent Witness.'"

One of the cavorting Federal staff officers was Captain Robert Todd Lincoln, son of the President of the United States. The doll was taken from the home by Capt. Thomas W.C. Moore, of Major General Sheridan's staff. For well over a century, the Moore family kept the doll as a "war trophy" of sorts. Poor Lula never saw her beloved rag doll again.

Lula's descendants remembered the doll as "...lovingly handmade by a doting mother."

The body of the doll was made of coarse unbleached cotton and stuffed. Inked on the simple, round face were eyes and nothing more. Printed cotton fabric was stitched together to fashion a bodice, skirt and leggings.

Lula's doll was donated to Appomattox Court House National Historical Park in December 1992, and is now on permanent exhibit at the park.

http://www.nps.gov/apco/silent-witness.htm

This week in the Civil War: April 5, 1865

Lee Surrenders

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered this week 150 years ago in the Civil War, after four years of bloodshed that had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. After days of fighting and fleeing had left his forces haggard, hungry and surrounded, Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, to the Union's Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean House at Appomattox Court House. Grant allowed for the parole of the Confederate officers and enlisted men but said all weapons and war equipment would be surrendered. The end of Lee's fighting force came after federal troops had relentlessly pursued and pummeled Lee's troops westward across the Virginia countryside. The Associated Press reported the details of the surrender, noting Lee had crossed the Appomattox River and burned bridges, seeking a position away from the river. But Union forces "attacked them vigorously" in the hours before the end, convincing Lee the fight was over. AP cited accounts as saying "the road for miles was strewn with broken down wagons, caissons, and baggage of all kinds, presenting a scene seldom witnessed on the part of Lee's army." AP reported that "the rank and file of Lee's army are said to be well satisfied to give up the struggle, believing that they have no hope of success." And AP added that the formal surrender came later at the country home, leaving the Confederates forces 'at liberty to proceed to their homes or elsewhere, as they chose."

This week in the Civil War: March 29, 1865

Fall of Richmond, Virginia, seat of Confederacy

The forces of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee reached the breaking point this week 150 years ago in the Civil War. Lee ordered infantry and cavalry units to hold a key defensive line at Five Forks, Virginia, only to come under withering Union attack. Union forces took many prisoners as they beat back Lee's forces and soon cut off Lee's only remaining supply line for the Confederacy to Petersburg and nearby Richmond, Virginia, seat of the Confederacy. News reports of the week recalled bloody combat and thousands of Confederates taken prison as the Southern troops were rapidly becoming demoralized. The dire turn of events forced Lee to inform Jefferson Davis that both cities would have to be evacuated and the Petersburg-Richmond siege lines abandoned. After a hasty Confederate evacuation begun on April 2, 1865, Union troops entered Richmond the next day. "Richmond and Petersburg Taken!" blared the New York Tribune in bold headlines in its April 4, 1865, edition. It added: "Colored Troops the First to Enter the Slaveholders' Capital ... THE REBELS LEAVE IN HASTE. Gen. Grant Attempting to Cut Off Lee's Escape." That same day, President Abraham Lincoln would visit the city, greeted by jubilant former slaves. Lee's surrender would only be a matter of days.

This week in the Civil War: March 15, 1865

Latest Union victory in North Carolina

Days after President Abraham Lincoln began his second term, the Union scored a new victory in fighting in North Carolina 150 years ago in the Civil War. Troops under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and a fellow general collided with a Confederate force led by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston on March 19, 1865. The battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, came as Sherman's army was marching across North Carolina. Johnston attacked. Fierce fighting erupted. The Union counterattacked. Repeated Southern efforts to overrun the federal contingent failed after hours of hard fighting on March 19, 1865, and the combat would drag on two more days before the Confederates retreated. Though Sherman's advance was momentarily slowed by fighting at Bentonville, his forces continued their march across the Carolinas. One newspaper dispatch reported: "Sherman walks over the Carolinas as fearlessly and unconcerned as a giant." And it would only be a matter of weeks before the Union prevailed. The Cleveland Morning Leader signaled Northern morale was running high as it reported March 22, 1865, that some projections put a war-weakened Confederate army now at just over 120,000 troops. "Against this our forces, in the three armies of Grant, Sherman, and Schofield alone, muster more than 250,000 men. Who can doubt the result?"

This week in the Civil War: March 8, 1865

Renewed fighting in North Carolina

Fighting flared anew in North Carolina as Union forces sought to move inland from Wilmington, captured weeks earlier when the federal forces closed down the last major Atlantic seaport for the Confederacy. A Union force advancing under the command of Maj. Gen. John Schofield was halted by two Confederate divisions near Kinston, North Carolina, on March 7, 1865. The following day a Confederate attempt at an assault on the Union flanks began fiercely, but then broke down. By March 9, 1865, Union forces were able to repel further Confederate attacks and force the Southern divisions to retreat over days of hard fighting. Kinston, North Carolina, would fall later that week to the Union, 150 years ago in the Civil War.

This week in the Civil War: March 1, 1865

Lincoln's second inaugural address

Astride the momentum of a string of Northern battlefield victories, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in this week 150 years ago to a second term as U.S. president. Lincoln's second inauguration opened on a damp, muddy day on March 4, 1865, in Washington, D.C. Where his oath four years earlier had been administered amid a growing, warlike atmosphere, his second swearing-in came as many sensed war was nearing an end with the North prevailing. Tens of thousands gathered as he delivered his second inaugural address on a day with sun breaking from the clouds. He spoke in stirring words of healing a nation long divided by war. And he delivered the oft-recalled phrase as he concluded his speech: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nations wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

This week in the Civil War: Feb. 22, 1865

Another blow to the Confederacy: Fall of Wilmington, North Carolina

The Union army, in its latest blow to the Confederacy, captured Wilmington, North Carolina, this week 150 years ago in the Civil War. The federal victory meant President Abraham Lincoln's troops had shut down the last major East Coast port of the Confederacy — and a critical route for supplies to the Southern army. The fighting that led to the fall of Wilmington began in mid-February of 1865 as Union forces confronted Confederates defending Fort Fisher. Union gunboats pounded the fort and Confederates ultimately had to pull out the night of Feb. 18, 1865, and early the following day as Union forces marched toward the rear of the fort. Between Feb. 21 and 22 of that year, federal forces put up relentless pressure as the fighting forced the Confederacy to remove its forces and retreat from Wilmington.

This week in the Civil War: Feb. 15, 1865

Sherman's march on the Carolinas: Columbia, South Carolina, burned

Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's army advanced into Columbia, South Carolina, this week 150 years ago in the Civil War. The march into the Carolinas came after Sherman gained permission from Washington to move further to break the morale of the Confederacy after the capture of Atlanta and Savannah in neighboring Georgia in recent months. Tens of thousands of Union troops entered Columba, the state capital, on Feb. 17, 1865, and the mayor surrendered. Soon looting and fires broke out in the occupied city, and much of the downtown burned include a business district and residential area.

This week in the Civil War: Feb. 8,1865

Union raid on Confederate supply lines in Virginia

Union forces bidding to sever Confederate supply lines near Petersburg, Virginia, took the offensive against Confederate rivals this month 150 years ago in the Civil War. Union Cavalry fanned out down the Boydton Plank Road on a mission to search out and destroy Confederate supply wagons. Other Union troops taking part in the fight found themselves pushed back by fierce Confederate resistance. The fighting that began on Feb. 5, 1865, dragged on for two more days. In the end, Confederate soldiers thwarted the Union raiders but federal fighters at the end of the battle had gained new ground in what was part of the larger Richmond-Petersburg campaign.

This week in the Civil War: Feb. 1, 1865

Robert E. Lee made commander-in-chief of all Confederate forces, 13th Amendment proposal to abolish slavery passes U.S. House

Confederate Robert E. Lee was made commander-in-chief of all Confederate forces on Jan. 31, 1865, receiving the promotion even as the Southern war effort was faring badly. By early 1865, the secessionists were hard-pressed by the Union on several sides. In early February 1865, Union Gen. William T. Sherman's troops were beginning to enter the Carolinas after their destructive march across Georgia in late 1864. In other developments, The Associated Press reported that a group of "rebel peace commissioners" had apparently arrived inside Union lines in early February 1865. But their movements remained uncertain and there was no immediate report on their intent. The U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 31, 1865, passed the 13th Amendment proposing to formally abolish slavery. President Abraham Lincoln, noting the measure had passed the senate in April 1864, submitted the proposed amendment to state legislatures for their consideration. It would obtain ratification by the required number of states by December 1865.

This week in the Civil War: Jan. 25, 1865

Sherman's forces poised to enter the Carolinas

News reports this week 150 years ago in the Civil War focused on reports that Gen. William T. Sherman's Union forces — after reaching Savannah, Georgia before Christmas 1864 — were now poised to enter South Carolina. The Springfield Republican of Springfield, Mass., noted the speculation on Jan. 30, 1864, that a move was planned while other reports said Sherman's forces were still resting just outside the state. The Cleveland Leader, of Cleveland, Ohio, reported, meanwhile, of a "Great Panic in South Carolina." The Newark (N.J.) Daily Advertiser cited reports of residents of South Carolina fleeing in anticipation of Sherman's advance "accompanied by families, flocks, herds, cattle, servants." Other reports, this week in 1865, spoke of the retirement of the Confederate secretary of state, saying the Confederate government appeared to be disintegrating amid a settling gloom over war developments.

This week in the Civil War: Jan. 18, 1865

A blow to the Confederacy from winter storms, reports from Fort Fisher

The Associated Press reported in a dispatch Jan. 16, 1865, that conditions appeared to be deteriorating for Robert E. Lee’s Confederate forces in Virginia. The dispatch said heavy winter rains and flooding had destroyed “every culvert and bridge” along the Danville railroad that was a key supply route for Lee’s army in Virginia. “Lee’s army is likely to be out of rations altogether very soon,” The AP dispatch said, adding that reports foodstuffs were running so low that many Confederates were though to “suffer almost starvation.” It said the wipeout of the key rail supply line to Richmond marked a big blow for the Confederate capital. “As this is their main road by which they get their supplies to Richmond, it would not be strange if the state of affairs in this neighborhood should undergo an important change within a few days.” The AP report did not elaborate further on the possible impact. Meanwhile, reports were just reaching Northern newspapers of the Union’s successful on Fort Fisher in North Carolina. One account cited a report from the U.S. Flagship Malvern as saying big eleven-inch guns were used to bombard the fort hours. The dispatch added that “the fort was reduced to a pulp — every (Confederate) gun was silenced by being injured or covered up with earth, so that they would not work.”

This week in the Civil War: Jan. 11, 1865

Union closes last Atlantic seaport for Confederacy, storming Fort Fisher in North Carolina

A heavy Union bombardment and second assault within weeks led to the federal capture of Fort Fisher in North Carolina. For Southerners who only recently rejoiced over an early Confederate success in turning back a Union attack on the fort in December 1864, it was demoralizing news. The fall of the fort effectively shut off the last Confederate seaport on the Atlantic coast. In the attack this month 150 years ago in the war, nearly 60 Union vessels rained hundreds of shells down on the stout parapets. Within two days, the Confederate garrison in the fort was overrun and had surrendered. Union troops would then march inland to ensure Wilmington was shut off from the coast, enduring heavy casualties en route.

This week in the Civil War: Jan. 4, 1865

The Confederacy digs in

The Richmond Enquirer, in the final months of the Civil War, exulted in early January over news that Confederate troops at Fort Fisher near Wilmington, North Carolina, had successfully rebuffed a Union attack. According to the Southern paper, initial "apprehensions in the community were that Wilmington our last seaport would succumb to the immense force sent against it." But the paper noted that Union forces were turned back, boosting Southern moral. It said "the enemy having expended their utmost strength on Fort Fisher, an outpost of Wilmington, (has) been badly beaten" in a "most gratifying triumph" for the Confederacy in defending its last major seaport. Nonetheless, that news was tempered in the South by fresh reports about Union troops in Savannah, Georgia, which was captured by Maj. Gen. William Sherman. "Where the next blow will be struck is not developed; but every man in the army talks of a grand and overwhelming march" into South Carolina, reports speculated on Sherman's next moves. In the North, meanwhile, some were already seeking to profit from past tales of war, including a veteran of the 1st Regiment of New York Mounted Rifles who promoted sales of a story called "Life in The Saddle" with "most graphic, exciting and thrilling portraiture" of past military campaigns in Virginia.

This week in the Civil War: Dec. 28, 1864

Fighting at Fort Fisher in North Carolina

On Dec. 24, 1864, a Union amphibious expedition under the command of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler began shelling Fort Fisher, a Southern fortification defending Wilmington, North Carolina. The Northern objective: to shut down one of the last major seaports of the Confederacy still open in the South. But attempts by an infantry division that disembarked to probe the fort's stout defenses met with resistance and a Federal attack withered once Confederate reinforcements approached. Amid deteriorating weather conditions, Butler called off the expedition in late December 1864. A dispatch by The Associated Press dated Dec. 28, 1864, quoted reports as saying the fort was "much damaged" by the engagement with "all the barracks and storehouses burned" though Union forces failed to seize it. The dispatch noted that Northern infantry troops actually had gotten close enough to capture a rebel flag from the outer defense works before withdrawing.

This week in the Civil War: Dec. 21, 1864

Union occupation of Savannah, Georgia

Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William Sherman reached Savannah near the Georgia coast in December 1864, and the news spread quickly throughout Northern newspapers this week 150 years ago in the Civil War. "Savannah Occupied by Gen. Sherman" read one headline on a dispatch from The Associated Press dated Dec. 25, 1864. It said Sherman had recently taken 800 prisoners, guns and ammunition. And in a famous line remembered long after, Sherman wrote President Abraham Lincoln: "I beg to present to you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousands bales of cotton." AP dispatches said Confederate ironclad vessels were blown up and the navy yard burned at Savannah. The dispatch said the city of some 20,000 was quiet, and one officer called it an "almost bloodless victory."