People, Locations, Episodes

José María Morales, Legislator, and Soldier born

*José María Morales was born on this date in 1818. He was an Afro Argentine tinsmith legislator, and soldier. From Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was the son of a military patriot who fought in the British invasions. He also followed a military career and was part of the troops of Manuel Oribe until the age […]

Benjamin F. Butler, Military Officer born

*Benjamin Franklin Butler was born on this date in 1818.  He was a white-American major general, politician, lawyer, and businessman.   Born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, Butler is best known as a political major of the Union Army during the American Civil War and for his leadership role in the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was a colorful and often controversial figure on the […]

The Battle of Grahamstown Occurs

*The Battle of Grahamstown took place on this date in 1819. This was part of the Fifth Xhosa War at the frontier settlement of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The battle was defended by the British garrison, aided by a group of Khoekhoe marksmen, against Xhosa warriors. When a British-led force […]

William T. Sherman, American Civil War Officer born

*William T. Sherman, a white American soldier, businessman, educator, and author, was born on this date in 1820. William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, near the banks of the Hocking River. His father, Charles Robert Sherman, a lawyer who sat on the Ohio Supreme Court, died of typhoid fever in 1829. He left […]

Woodford Anderson, Soldier born.

*Woodford Anderson was born on this date in 1820. He was a Black soldier, cook, and laborer. Woodford Anderson was born a slave in Burlington, Kentucky. When he was 20 years old, he was sold to George Curtley, a captain in the Confederate Army, who took Anderson to Waverly, Missouri, where Anderson was a cook. […]

Fort Snelling (Minnesota), a story

*Fort Snelling was established on this date in 1820. This is a former military garrison built with slave labor to advance white American land acquisition from indigenous communities. It is in Minnesota on the bluffs overlooking where the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers meet. The military site was initially named Fort Saint Anthony but was renamed Fort Snelling […]

Martin Becker, Naval Sailor, and Printer born

On this date we celebrate the birth of Martin F. Becker in 1820. He was a Black sailor, printer, administrator, and barber.

Nathan Forest, Confederate Officer born

*On this date in 1821, Nathan Forrest was born. He was a white-American slave trader and Confederate army officer.  Nathan Bedford Forrest was born into a poor settler family in a secluded frontier cabin near Chapel Hill, Tennessee. He was the first son of Mariam (Beck) and William Forrest. His father, William, was of English descent, and his mother, […]

Ulysses S. Grant, Soldier, and Politician born

*On this date, in 1822, Ulysses S. Grant was born. He was a white-American soldier and politician.   Hiram Ulysses Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, to Jesse Root Grant, a tanner and merchant, and Hannah Simpson Grant. Grant’s great-grandfather fought in the French and Indian War, and his grandfather, Noah, served in the American Revolution at Bunker Hill. Their son Jesse (Ulysses’s father) was a Whig Party supporter […]

Thomas Higginson, Abolitionist born.

*On this date, in 1823, Thomas Higginson was born. He was a white-American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier.   Thomas Wentworth Higginson was born in Cambridge, MA. He entered Harvard College at age thirteen and was elected Phi Beta Kappa at sixteen. He graduated in 1841 and was a schoolmaster for two years. In 1842, he became engaged to Mary Elizabeth Channing. […]

Andre Cailloux, Businessman, and Soldier born

*The birth of Andre Cailloux in 1825 is celebrated on this date. He was a Black businessman and soldier in the Civil War.

Joseph Godfrey, Slave, and Dakota Ally born

*The birth of Joseph Godfrey is celebrated on this date in 1835. He was an enslaved Black man and a Dakota fighter. Joseph Godfrey was born into slavery in Mendota, Minnesota. He was the son of a French-Canadian voyageur named Joseph Godefroi and Courtney, an enslaved African woman brought from St. Louis, Missouri, to Fort Snelling by […]

Benjamin Grierson, Teacher, and Officer born

*Benjamin Grierson was born on this date in 1826. He was a white-American teacher and a career military officer. Benjamin Henry Grierson was born in the borough of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, a section of Pittsburgh today. He was the youngest of five siblings. As a child, he was afraid of horses. In 1851, he became a […]

Clinton Fisk, Freedman’s Bureau Pioneer born

Clinton Fisk was born on this date in 1828. He was a White American soldier, prohibitionist, businessman, and educator.

Born near the Erie Canal in Western New York, Clinton Bowen Fisk was the son of Benjamin Bigford Fisk and Lydia Aldrich Fisk. His parents moved to what was then Michigan Territory while he was a baby. His father’s death caused him and his family to grow up in poverty.

Young Fisk did establish himself as a small banker in Coldwater, Michigan, where in 1850, he married Jeannette Crippen. Fisk’s bank business was ruined in the economic Panic of 1857.

Ignacio Zaragoza, Politician, and Soldier born

*Ignacio Zaragoza was born on this date in 1829. He was a Mexican government administrator, soldier, and abolitionist. He was born in the Mexican province of Texas, in the village of Bahía del Espiritu Santo, in Coahuila y Texas (now Goliad, Texas). He was the son of Miguel G. Zaragoza and María de Jesús Seguín. […]