When George Parker decided to risk everything and flee the bondage of a Murfreesboro (NC) plantation for the safety of the Union Army encampment in Suffolk, Virginia he didn't know how his story would end. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was a military order, establishing George's status as "not slave." But the proclamation came no where close … Continue reading What I’m Reading: Troubled Refuge
American Civil War
On This Day: The Discharge of Captain Ira Sayles
As the sun set one hundred fifty years ago, Ira Sayles glumly faced life as a civilian. The New York abolitionist had enlisted in the summer of 1862, joining Alfred neighbors and friends in forming Company H, 130th Regiment of the New York Volunteers. Their first deployment was in Portage Station, New York, to be … Continue reading On This Day: The Discharge of Captain Ira Sayles
Shoots, Roots, and Leaves 