Vicksburg Civil War Museum

08/10/2026

An Enslaved Preacher, Confederate Soldiers, and a Son in the USCT

During the Civil War, John Jasper was still enslaved in Richmond, Virginia.

He was also a preacher.

Jasper became well known for preaching funerals among Richmond’s Black community, and during the war he sometimes preached to sick and wounded Confederate soldiers at Chimborazo Hospital.

How inspiring did an enslaved Black preacher have to be for wounded Confederate soldiers to want him to talk to God on their behalf?

But there is an extraordinary irony in Jasper’s story.

While he was preaching and praying for the healing of wounded Confederate soldiers, his own son was serving in the United States Colored Troops.

Think about what that meant.

A father in slavery was praying for Confederate soldiers to recover.

A son in a United States uniform was fighting the Confederacy that kept his father enslaved.

And some of the men Jasper prayed would recover could potentially return to the battlefield and face men like his own son.

Jasper was asking God to heal men who were fighting to preserve a nation in which he remained enslaved.

Yet he prayed for them anyway.

Perhaps John Jasper gave new meaning to the scripture:

“Love your enemies… and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” — Matthew 5:44

John Jasper survived slavery and the Civil War and became one of Richmond’s most prominent Black ministers, later becoming famous for his sermon “De Sun Do Move.”

But perhaps the greatest sermon John Jasper ever preached wasn’t delivered from a pulpit.

It was the one he lived.

08/10/2026

We are excited for next month's release of A Glorious Fate by Kevin M. Levin. Our interview with Kevin will be on September 29, the book's release date. Order now and we will ship the book to you after the event! Preorder at this link https://alincolnbookshop.com/product/kevin-m-levin-a-glorious-fate-the-life-and-legacy-of-colonel-robert-gould-shaw-signed-on-bookplate/

08/09/2026

The Following Is a Pop Quiz I Give Visitors When They Visit the Museum

Who was President of the United States during the Civil War?
Abraham Lincoln.

Who was President of the Confederate States of America?
Jefferson Davis.

How many states actually seceded and joined the Confederacy?
Eleven.

How many stars appeared on the Confederate Second and Third National flags?
Thirteen.

Why were there thirteen stars if only eleven states seceded?
Missouri and Kentucky. The Confederacy recognized Confederate governments from both states and admitted them as its 12th and 13th states, although neither is generally considered to have legally or effectively seceded from the Union.

Where was Abraham Lincoln born?
Kentucky.

Where was Jefferson Davis born?
Kentucky.

08/09/2026

Who Really Writes the History?

For many years, I’ve heard the phrase, “The winners write the history.”

When it comes to the Civil War, I’m sure that is not true.

For generations, the White South played an enormous role in writing and interpreting Civil War history. The White North also developed and promoted its own interpretation of the war.

But there is another question we should consider:

How much of this history was written and interpreted by Black Americans—North and South?

Consider the Black soldier.

Nearly 180,000 Black men served in the United States Army during the Civil War. Many had escaped slavery, put on a United States uniform, and fought for their freedom and the Union.

Yet they have often received remarkably little attention in the traditional telling of the war.

And when Black soldiers do enter some Southern discussions, the conversation often becomes an attempt to prove that Black men served as Confederate soldiers—while the nearly 180,000 who unquestionably served in the United States Army are largely overlooked.

That is a powerful example of how history can be shaped not only by what we choose to remember, but also by what we choose to emphasize.

For generations, we found ways to debate generals, battles, states’ rights, tariffs, strategy, courage, monuments, and memory while pushing slavery and the voices of the enslaved toward the edges of the story.

But slavery isn’t simply another version of Civil War history.

It isn’t the entire story—but it is at the center of the story.

If we aren’t tired of discussing the Civil War every single day after more than 160 years, why should we be tired of discussing slavery—the institution at the center of its coming?

Maybe some people aren’t tired of hearing about slavery.

Maybe they are tired of slavery being talked about loudly enough to uncover the comfortable lie they have chosen to believe.

Black Americans were never silent about this history. But for too long, the people most affected by slavery had the least power to determine which version of that history America chose to remember.

08/09/2026

General Ulysses S. Grant, portrayed by Curt Fields, will be our first presenter on Day 2 of the symposium!

08/08/2026

Long afternoons in a river town have a way of making you think about the people who were here before us. In a place like this, the stories are never far away.

The rooms are packed with relics, uniforms, weapons, maps, and all the hard details that bring that era into focus. You can almost feel how much history sits in the walls before you even look closely.

Museums like this do an important job. They keep the past from fading into just another chapter we skim past.

I’m glad there are still places where you can stand still and let the weight of it all sink in.

🔗 https://dailywise.com/state/mississippi/this-mississippi-museum-shares-the-personal-civil-war-stories-that-history-books-left-out/?utm_source=mississippi&utm_medium=YM&utm_campaign=fb&utm_content=531961093345132&utm_term=activity-feature-v2-1

08/08/2026

Is Secession Settled Law?

The Constitution was voluntarily ratified by each state, but it contained no provision expressly giving states a right to withdraw and no provision expressly declaring the new Union perpetual.

Whether a state retained a unilateral right to leave therefore remained a disputed constitutional question.

By 1861, the seceding states claimed such a right. Lincoln’s government denied it.

After the Civil War, Texas v. White (1869) established as constitutional law that states do not possess a unilateral right to secede. However, the Court also recognized that separation could occur “through revolution, or through consent of the States.”

So here is the question:

Is secession settled law, or do you believe a state should still have the right to separate from the Union?

08/08/2026

08/08/2026

Unconditional

This is part of the accepted version of the conversation between John Pemberton and Ulysses Grant on July 3, 1863, at Vicksburg.

There is no contemporary documentation establishing this exact conversation. However, I sure do like the way it has been remembered:

Pemberton: “Will officers be allowed to take their private property with them?”

Grant: “By property, do you mean slaves?”

Pemberton: Nods yes.

Grant: “Horses, sidearms—no slaves. No slaves leave with you.”