Wilson Chinn

Image source - Civil War Image Database, Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War, Virginia Center for Digital History, University of Virginia
(http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/images_search_results.html?q=db:images).
Image date - 00-00-1863
Source - U. S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks
Subject type - African Americans
Title - Wilson Chinn, a branded slave from Louisiana, also exhibiting instruments of torture used to punish slaves

Pending the Ordinance / The Ordinance Passed

Image & text source: Union or Secession: Virginians Decide

What were Virginians thinking and discussing as the first Southern states withdrew from the United States following the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860? Why was Virginia’s decision critical to America’s fate in 1861 and key to the ultimate course and outcome of the sectional crisis?

Virginia was central to American identity for its role in the founding of the United States and its political principles. Both the Confederacy and the Union wanted to claim Virginia’s historical legacy. Union or Secession explores what Virginians thought and debated as the crisis unfolded.

Soldiers' Portraits - Aaron March

State of Delaware - The Civil War in Delaware - Soldiers' Portraits - Aaron March