Before the Civil War and the Fourteenth amendment, there were free blacks who lived, thrived, and contributed significantly to the early history of the United States. Of course life as a free black American in the colonies was not easy, and they faced a myriad of challenges that related directly to the color of their skin. But many were able to live good and even remarkable lives that deserve to be remembered.
In August of 1918, as the armies of Europe neared exhaustion, American troops of the 28th “Keystone” division were thrown into a nearly forgotten battle that fully represented the horrors of the War to End All Wars.
Of the vaunted ironclad warships of the US Civil War perhaps the mightiest and most terrifying was the confederate ram Tennessee. On August 5, 1864, she would be put to the test in the largest naval engagement of the war, an engagement that defined the divided loyalties of the War of the Rebellion.