Main Street Across America

The first cross country road, the Lincoln Highway opened on October 31st 1913.

The Lincoln Highway the first road to cross the United States was promoted by Carl G Fisher. The Highway originally went through 13 states, California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It was re-routed in 1928 to include West Virginia. The Highway went coast to coast from Time Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco.

The Lincoln Highway was dedicated October 31st 1913, and was the first national memorial to President Abraham Lincoln. The Highway brought prosperity to cities and towns through which it past. It would become known as the “Main Street Across America”. The Lincoln Highway Association formed in 1913 to plan, sign and promote the highway, was re-formed in 1992 to preserve and promote the road. They have a national tourist center in Franklin Grove Illinois, housed in a building built by Abraham Lincoln’s cousin Harry Isaac Lincoln.

A web site to check out for more information History of the Lincoln Highway

Three Year Cavalry

The Union 5th Regiment of the Ohio Cavalry was mustered out on October 30th 1865.


Raised in seven southwestern Ohio counties the 5th Regiment Ohio Cavalry saw most its duty in the western theater with the Army of the Tennessee. The 5th Cavalry was a three year regiment formed under Colonel William H H Taylor. It was organized near Cincinnati Ohio at Camp Dick Corwin as the 2nd Ohio Cavalry between October 23rd and November 14th 1861. It became the 5th Ohio Cavalry in late November 1861. The 5th was sent to by boat down the Tennessee River in February 1862, and they took part in the Battle of Shiloh and the Siege of Corinth. In 1863 the 5th served as guard for the Memphis and Charleston Railroad in support of Ulysses S Grant during the Siege of Vicksburg.

The 5th was attached to Major General Judson Kilpatrick’s command in 1864 and took part in Sherman’s March to the Sea. In early 1865 they were part of the campaigning in North and South Carolina. After the end of the Civil War the 5th remained on duty doing picket duty in North Carolina. The 5th was mustered out of service on October 30th 1865. During the war the regiment had 170 casualties.

The Phantom General

Thomas Edwin Greenfield Ransom a civil engineer and Union General in the Union army died October 29th 1864.


Thomas Edwin Greenfield Ransom was born November 29th 1831 in Norwich Vermont the son of Colonel Truman B Ransom. Ransom’s father was killed in action at the Battle of Chapultepec when he was fourteen. In 1848 Ransom entered Norwich University or Norwich Military Academy, following three years in school he moved to Illinois. He lived with an uncle in Peru Illinois and become known as the “Boy Surveyor” and he joined in business with fellow Norwich graduate Grenville M Dodge.

Ranson was working for the Illinois Central Railroad when the Civil War started. He raised troops for what would become Company “E” of the 11th Illinois. By November 9th 1862 Ransom was commissioned Brigadier General and was in command of a brigade in the Sixth Division of the XVII Corps. He was wounded four times in the fighting, at Fort Donelson, during a skirmish near Charleston Missouri, the Battle of Shiloh, and at the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads. This last time his wound were bad enough that he was sent to Chicago for treatment. He was assumed to have been killed so many time that he became known as the “Phantom General”. Returning the command in Georgia he was struck with typhoid, which weakened him and led to his death. Just before Ransom died he said, "I am not afraid to die, I have met death too often to be afraid of it now." He died near Rome Georgia October 29th 1864 and is buried in the Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago Illinois.

The Artist And VMI Cadet

Moses Jacob Ezekiel a VMI cadet and Confederate veteran was born October 28th 1844.


Moses Jacob Ezekiel was born October 28th 1844 in Richmond Virginia, where he attended the common school. He was the first Jewish cadet to attend the Virginia Military Institute. In 1864 he and other cadets from the VMI marched from Lexington when summoned by Confederate General John C Breckenridge, about 80 miles where they fought in the Battle of New Market. Ezekiel was wound during the fight. After he recovered he served out the war in Richmond, training new recruit for the Confederate army and defending the city.

When the war ended Ezekiel returned to VMI and finished his education. He moved to Berlin Germany in 1869 to study at the Royal Academy of Art. While he was in Europe, Ezekiel completed many of the pieces he is famous for including the memorial at VMI for the 10 cadets who killed New Market. He was admitted to the Society of Artists in Berlin, and at twenty-nine won the Michel Baer Prix de Rome.

Ezekiel died in Rome Italy March 27th 1917 and was place in a tomb there. In 1921 his body was moved to the Arlington National Cemetery and placed at the foot of his Confederate Memorial there. The Confederate Memorial was commissioned in 1914 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and was designed by Ezekiel.

The Death Of Bloody Bill

Confederate guerrilla William T “Bloody Bill” Anderson was killed October 26th 1864.


William T Anderson was born 1838/39 in Kentucky. He grew up in Missouri, before moving to Kansas in 1857. Soon after arriving in Council Grove, settling on a land claim which belonged to his father, Anderson found himself involved in the fight that gave the area its name of “Bleeding Kansas”.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Anderson joined a group of pro-Union antislavery men known as “Jayhawkers”. Shortly after though he changed sides becoming a Confederate “Bushwhacker”. Anderson’s father was killed in 1862, and he and his brother Jim, found and killed the man responsible. Moving back to Missouri, Anderson began leading a band of about 40 guerillas. They road often with William Quantrill. When the group raided Lawrence Kansas, Anderson was said to have killed 14. Following the raid Anderson went to Texas for the winter. Returning to Missouri in 1864 with a band of about fifty, he embarked on a summer of violence, coming to a head on September 27th 1864 when they and some other gangs sacked the town of Centralia Missouri, massacring Union soldiers. Anderson’s band was caught just outside of Albany Missouri in an Union ambush. He took two bullets to the head on October 26th 1864. His body was taken to Richmond Missouri were it was placed on display and photographed.

Anderson kept track of the men he killed by tying knots in a rope. At the time of his death there were 54 knots in the rope.

Saved By Cotton Bales

In Arkansas the Battle of Pine Bluff was fought on October 25th 1863.


Union troops under the command of Colonel Powell Clayton took the town of Pine Bluff Arkansas on September 17th 1863. He garrisoned the town with the 1st Indiana and 5th Kansas Cavalries of about 600 men. At 8am on October 25th 1863 Confederate Brigadier General John S Marmaduke split his force of about 2500 into three and attacked the town, in an attempt to retake it. With the support of about 300 freed slaves, the Union soldiers put up a barricades with cotton bales around the courthouse square, and backed it up with nine cannon. Marmaduke attacked several time, but was unsuccessful in taking the square.

Confederate casualties were reported at around 40 killed or wounded. The Union lost 56 men. Marmaduke did take about 250 horses and bales of cotton.

The Need To Speak To California

The Transcontinental Telegraph was a United States milestone and was completed on October 24th 1861.

Once an efficient telegraph was developed in the 1830’s, and Samuel Morse’s experimental line between Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland was shown to be successful, telegraph exploded. Soon there were lines in all the eastern state. In 1850 California became a state, and the need for communication with the non-contiguous state and the eastern based government became priority. Congress made proposals for subsidies to build a telegraph line throughout the 1850’s.

With the passing of the Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860, a federal contract was awarded to the Western Union Company, whose president was Hiram Sibley. Sibley formed a constituency between his company and the telegraph companies operating in California. The newly created Overland Telegraph Company of California would build the line eastward while Sibley’s Pacific Telegraph Company of Nebraska would build westward. The lines were to meet in Salt Lake City, Utah. Construction began in 1861, and had to deal with constant shortages of telegraph poles crossing the Midwest and the Great Basin. The line moving westward from Omaha, Nebraska reached Salt Lake City on October 18th 1861. The line coming east from Carson City, Nevada reached the city and completed the line on October 24th 1861. [This made the Pony Express obsolete over night.]

The first telegram was sent to President Abraham Lincoln from San Francisco, California Chief Justice Stephen J Field ensuring California’s loyalty to the Union.