A collection of short investigative essays and articles on topics in American Civil War lore:
A case of a smudged date?
How a misfiled paper obscured the existence of an important colonization meeting for almost 150 years.
The missing colonization office papers – Are the majority of Abraham Lincoln’s colonization records actually missing from the National Archives? A long and strange paper trail seems to suggest they are.
Did Lincoln really “slough off” colonization? – John Hay famously used this phrase to describe Lincoln’s shifting policies on colonization, but what did his cryptic word choice mean?
Did Ben Butler really meet with Lincoln in 1865? – Many years after the war the famous and always controversial Union general claimed he met with Abraham Lincoln to discuss colonization in Panama only a few days before the presidents assassination. Just how credible is Butler’s claim?
Colonization by the Numbers – Just how extensive was the United States government’s plan to resettle freed African Americans abroad?
Was there ever an order to arrest Chief Justice Taney? – This article examines the evidence for and against one of the most persistent and controversial rumors of the Civil War’s court battles.
Abraham Lincoln and the Corwin Amendment – Historical detective work on the failed and forgotten compromise attempt to prevent the Civil War
Thaddeus Stevens and Colonization – Did the famous Radical Republican congressman give his support to reestablishing a colonization office during Lincoln’s second term? A document bearing his signature suggests as much.