This is helps to fill the gap of time between the Pilgrim's and the Revolutionary war.

The Pilgrim's migrated form England and comprised of the Separatist's and the Puritans. I have tried to separate them so you will know them apart one from the other.

Alice Carpenter was born to Alexander and Pricilla Carpenter on August 3, 1590 in Wrington, Somersetshire, England. Alice was one of 6 children born to Alexander and Pricilla.  Alice was very well educated for a woman during that time. In about 1600 Alice and her family moved to Amsterdam, Holland because of the persecution in The Church of England, soon after moving to Holland they became members of the Separatist congregation. A few years later they moved to Leyden, Holland.

William Bradford was courting Alice but her parents did not agree to the match based on social reasons (I could not find evidence supporting this but thought that it was interesting if it is true).

So Alice married Edward Southworth on May 28, 1613 in Leyden, Holland. Soon after in 1614 they had their first child a son so  they named him Constant Southworth a few years later in 1617 his younger brother was born Thomas Southworth.

In the year 1621 Edward died leaving Alice a widow their 2 children.

Alice Southworth and her son Thomas Southworth moved with her brother In-law and sister on the ship Anne headed to Plymouth in 1623. Alice left her son Constant Southworth behind to follow them to America (he did follow about five years later 1628/1629). Soon after arriving Alice Carpenter Southworth and William Bradford decided to marry on August 14, 1623.

The marriage of William Bradford and Alice Carpenter Southworth was noted in a letter written by Emmanuel Altham to his brother Sir Edward Altham in September, 1623 :

"Upon the occasion of the Governor's marriage, since I came, Massasoit was sent for to the wedding, where came with him his wife, the queen, although he hath five wives. With him came four other kings and about six score men with their bows and arrows - where, when they came to our town, we saluted them with the shooting off of many muskets and training our men. And so all the bows and arrows was brought into the Governor's house, and he brought the Governor three or four bucks and a turkey. And so we had very good pastime in seeing them dance, which is in such manner, with such a noise that you would wonder...

"And now to say somewhat of the great cheer we had at the Governor's marriage. We had about twelve pasty venisons, besides others, pieces of roasted venison and other such good cheer in such quantity that I could wish you some of our share. For here we have the best grapes that ever you say - and the biggest, and divers sorts of plums and nuts which our business will not suffer us to look for."
Sidney V. James, Jr., editor, Three Visitors to Early Plymouth
(Plymouth, Mass. : Plimoth Plantation, 1963), p. 29-30.

William Bradford had married Dorothy May, But in 1620 Dorothy May Bradford accidently fell overboard the Mayflower and drowned leavening William a widower for they had one son who was in Holland with their friends there.

Soon after their happy wedding Alice and William Bradford gave birth to their first son on June 17, 1624 they decided to name this son after William so their first son was to inherit the name William Bradford (Jr). Then on May 22, 1627 Alice and William had their first daughter they decided to name her Mercy Bradford. Then in 1630 their second son was born to them  they named him Joseph Bradford.

Wherever Alice Southworth Bradford was known "she was loved and highly esteemed for her generous nature, her willingness to help others, and also for her strength and steadiness of character."

Sadly on May 9, 1657 the love of her life William Bradford died.

Then on March 26, 1671 Alice died in New Plymouth, Massachusetts, America!

Even thou Alice had died God was not done with her yet He had plans for the generations that came after her. While researching about Alice I found this very interesting chart.

•    Alice Carpenter* (1589/90-1657), and her first husband, Edward Southworth, had a son:
•    Capt. Thomas Southworth, who married Elizabeth Raynor, and had a daughter:
•    Elizabeth Southworth, who married Joseph Howland, and had a son:
•    Nathaniel Howland, who married Martha Cole, and had a son:
•    Joseph Howland, who married Lydia Bill, and had a daughter:
•    Susan Howland, who married John Aspinwall, and had a daughter:
•    Mary Rebecca Aspinwall, who married Dr. Isaac Roosevelt, and had a son:
•    James Roosevelt, who married Sarah Delano, and had a son:
•    Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), 32nd. President of the United States. Elected for 4 terms, and served 1933-1945.

References:
Thank you to http://www.concentric.net/~pvb/GEN/acarp.html for the chart!
And thank you to http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordalicerecords.htm for the eye witness of Emmanuel Altham to his brother Sir Edward Altham in September, 1623.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jakratzner/carpenter_alice.htm The only place I found that said Alice and William were “sweethearts”.

Dorothy May was born in 1597 in Wisbeech, Cambridge, England. Dorothy was born into an upper middle class family. Sometime in the early 1600’s Dorothy and her family moved to Amsterdam, Holland where she met the handsome William Bradford. William was a hard worker and earned a good living as a weaver of heavy cottons and fabrics he had bought a house of his own so he was able to take care of a family.

On December 10th 1613 Dorothy May married William Bradford. They had their first child John Bradford in 1617.

During this time the congregation (who William had come over with) from Scrooby, England. Who had come to Holland for freedom to worship God in the way they felt was right by separating from the Church of England and starting their own Church. Felt like their children as well as themselves were losing their heritage. Their children were forgetting their mother language and the traditions of the English.
So they decided to move the congregation from Leyden, Holland. To take the big step as well a very dangerous step and move to the “New World”.

So the Bradford’s after much prayer seeking the face of God and after spending much time talking about it decided to go to the New World. They would leave there son John behind with some Dorothy’s parents who were not going.
The next few years were spent getting ready for this big life changing move to the unknown.

In the year 1620 they were ready to go to the New World they boarded the Speedwell spending all that morning and the previous evening in prayer and fasting for the journey ahead to and the New Life God had in store for them. They made their way to England to meet with the Mayflower and start for the New World. After turning back 3 times because the Speedwell was having troubles they finally deemed it unsafe for the voyage out on the sea so some of the pilgrim’s decided to stay behind.

So the Mayflower was able to take everyone who still wanted to go to the New World.  So all together on the Mayflower there were a little over 100 people aboard. They made it to the New World in 64 days landing on Cape Cod on November 9, 1620.

William along with several other men volunteered to scout out a place to build and live. They were gone much of November and December.

On December 7th 1620 while William was away Dorothy was walking the deck when she probably slipped on black ice and fell overboard and drowned before anyone could save her.

References:

Thank you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bradford_%28Plymouth_governor%29

http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/DorothyMay.php

http://www.geni.com/people/Dorothea-Bradford-May-Mayflower-Passenger/6000000001643820277

• The Magna Charta, by James Daugherty

• The Story of Liberty, by Charles Carleton Coffin

God bless America,
Land that I love,
Stand beside her and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above;

From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.

Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew;
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom's shield and hope.
Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

John Hancock
Button Gwinnett
William Hooper
Samuel Chase
Robert Morris
William Floyd
Josiah Bartlett
Lyman Hall
Joseph Hewes
William Paca
Benjamin Rush
Philip Livingston
William Whipple
George Walton
John Penn
Thomas Stone
Benjamin Franklin
Francis Lewis
Samuel Adams
Edward Rutledge
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
John Morton
Lewis Morris
John Adams
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
George Wythe
George Clymer
Richard Stockton
Robert Treat Paine
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Richard Henry Lee
James Smith
John Witherspoon
Elbridge Gerry
Arthur Middleton
Thomas Jefferson
George Taylor
Francis Hopkinson
Stephen Hopkins
Benjamin Harrison
James Wilson
John Hart
William Ellery
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
George Ross
Abraham Clark
Roger Sherman
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Caesar Rodney
Samuel Huntington
Carter Braxton
George Read
William Williams
Thomas McKean
Oliver Wolcott
Matthew Thornton

Final Section of John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity" (City on a Hill)

It rests now to make some application of this discourse, by the present design, which gave the occasion of writing of it. Herein are four things to be propounded; first the persons, secondly, the work, thirdly the end, fourthly the means.

First, for the persons. We are a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ, in which respect only, though we were absent from each other many miles, and had our employments as far distant, yet we ought to account ourselves knit together by this bond of love and live in the exercise of it, if we would have comfort of our being in Christ. This was notorious in the practice of the Christians in former times; as is testified of the Waldenses, from the mouth of one of the adversaries Aeneas Sylvius "mutuo ament pene antequam norunt" --- they use to love any of their own religion even before they were acquainted with them.

Secondly for the work we have in hand. It is by a mutual consent, through a special overvaluing providence and a more than an ordinary approbation of the churches of Christ, to seek out a place of cohabitation and consortship under a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical. In such cases as this, the care of the public must oversway all private respects, by which, not only conscience, but mere civil policy, doth bind us. For it is a true rule that particular estates cannot subsist in the ruin of the public.

Thirdly, the end is to improve our lives to do more service to the Lord; the comfort and increase of the body of Christ, whereof we are members, that ourselves and posterity may be the better preserved from the common corruptions of this evil world, to serve the Lord and work out our salvation under the power and purity of his holy ordinances.

Fourthly, for the means whereby this must be effected. They are twofold, a conformity with the work and end we aim at. These we see are extraordinary, therefore we must not content ourselves with usual ordinary means. Whatsoever we did, or ought to have done, when we lived in England, the same must we do, and more also, where we go. That which the most in their churches maintain as truth in profession only, we must bring into familiar and constant practice; as in this duty of love, we must love brotherly without dissimulation, we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burdens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren.

Neither must we think that the Lord will bear with such failings at our hands as he doth from those among whom we have lived; and that for these three reasons:

First, in regard of the more near bond of marriage between Him and us, wherein He hath taken us to be His, after a most strict and peculiar manner, which will make Him the more jealous of our love and obedience. So He tells the people of Israel, you only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your transgressions.

Secondly, because the Lord will be sanctified in them that come near Him. We know that there were many that corrupted the service of the Lord; some setting up altars before his own; others offering both strange fire and strange sacrifices also; yet there came no fire from heaven, or other sudden judgment upon them, as did upon Nadab and Abihu, whom yet we may think did not sin presumptuously.

Thirdly, when God gives a special commission He looks to have it strictly observed in every article; When He gave Saul a commission to destroy Amaleck, He indented with him upon certain articles, and because he failed in one of the least, and that upon a fair pretense, it lost him the kingdom, which should have been his reward, if he had observed his commission.

Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with Him for this work. We have taken out a commission. The Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles. We have professed to enterprise these and those accounts, upon these and those ends. We have hereupon besought Him of favor and blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath He ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it; but if we shall neglect the observation of these articles which are the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, and be revenged of such a people, and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.

Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as His own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, "may the Lord make it like that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.

And to shut this discourse with that exhortation of Moses, that faithful servant of the Lord, in his last farewell to Israel, Deut. 30. "Beloved, there is now set before us life and death, good and evil," in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our Covenant with Him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it. But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other Gods, our pleasure and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it.

Therefore let us choose life,
that we and our seed may live,
by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him,
for He is our life and our prosperity.

The Mayflower Compact

Original version as recorded by William Bradford

In ye name of God Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by ye Grace of God, of great Britaine, Franc, & Yreland, King, defender of ye Faith, &c.

Haveing undertaken, for ye Glorie of God, and advancements of ye Christian faith, and the honour of our King & countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northern parts of Virginia; Doe by these presents, solemnly & mutualy, in ye presence of God, and one of another; covenant & combine ourselves together into a Civill body politick; for our better ordering, & preservation & furtherance of ye ends aforesaid; and by vertue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just & equal Lawes, ordinances, Acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for ye generall good of ye Colonie; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witnes wherof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cap-Codd ye 11 of November, in ye year of ye raigne of our soveraigne Lord King James, of England, France, & Yreland, ye eighteenth, and of Scotland ye fiftie fourth, Ano: Dom. 1620.

"Modern" version

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.:

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith, and the honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another; covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.

Signers

John Alden
Isaac Allerton
John Allerton
John Billington
Richard Bitteridge
William Bradford
William Brewster
Peter Brown
John Carver
James Chilton
Richard Clark
Francis Cooke
John Craxton
Edward Doten
Francis Eaton
Thomas English
Moses Fletcher
Edward Fuller
Samuel Fuller
Richard Gardiner
John Goodman
Stephen Hopkins
John Howland
Edward Leister
Edmund Margeson
Christopher Martin
William Mullins
Digery Priest
John Rigdale
Thomas Rogers
George Soule
Miles Standish
Edward Tilly
John Tilly
Thomas Tinker
John Turner
Richard Warren
William White
Thomas Williams
Edward Winslow
Gilbert Winslow

@Living Document

1860 -

November 6 Abraham Lincoln elected president

December 20 South Carolina secedes from the Union

1861 -

January 9-26 Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana secede from the the Union

February 1 Texas convention votes for secession from the Union

February 18 Jefferson Davis inaugurated as provisional president of the Confederacy

March 4 Abrahan Lincoln inaugurated as president of the United States

April 12 Confederates open fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carlina

April 17 Virginia convention votes for secession from the Union

May 6 Arkansas secedes from the Union

May 6 Tennessee legislature passes secession ordinances

May 20 North Carlina secedes from the Union.

May 20 Kentucky proclaims neutrality

June 8 Tennessee voters approve secession from the Union

July 21 First Battle of Manassas, Virgina (Confederate victory)

November 6 Jefferson Davis elected to six-year term as the First President of the Confederacy

1862 -

February 16 Union capture of Fort Donelson, Tennessee

March 9 Battle of the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, Virginia (no clear victory)

March 17 McClellan begins Peninsular Campaign

April 6-7 Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee (Union victory)

April 25 Union Capture of New Orleans, Louisiana

May-June Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Campaign (Confederate victory)

June 25 Seven Days Battles Begin. They Conclude on July 1 ending the Peninsular Campaign

August 29-30 Second Battle of Manassas, Virginia (Confederate victory)

September 17 Battle of Antietam, Maryland (Union victory)

September 22 Lincoln announcers Emancipation Proclamation

December 13 Battle of Fredrricksburg, Virginia (Confederate victory)

1863 -

January 1 Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation

April 16 Union launches campaign to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi

May 1-4 Battle of Chancellorsvill, Virginia ( Confederate victory)

July 1-3 Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (Union victory)

July 4 Vicksburg Mississippi, surrenders to the Union

July 13-16 New York City draft riots

September 9 Union troops occupy Chattanooga, Tennessee

September 19-20 Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia (Confederate victory)

September 23 Confederate troops begin siege on Chattanooga, Tennessee

November 19 Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

November 23-25 Battle of Chattanooga,Tennessee (Union victory)

December 10 Battle of the Burg, Gatlinburg Tennessee (Union victory)

1864 -

May 5-6 Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia (no clear victory)

May 7 Sherman begins Atlanta Campaign

May 8-19 Battle of Spotsylvania (Union victory)

June 1-3 Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia (Confederate victory)

June 15 Union begins siege of Petersburg, Virginia (Union victory)

June 19-July 2 Battle of the Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia (Union victory)

July 22 Battle of Atlanta, Georgia (Union victory)

July 30 Battle of the Cater, Virginia (Confederate victory)

August 5 Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama (Union victory)

September 2 Union occupies Atlanta, Georgia

November 8 Lincoln reelected president

November 15 Sherman begins March to the Sea after burning Atlanta

December 21 Union troops occupy Savannah, Georgia

1865 -

March 4 Lincoln inaugurated for second term

March 13 Confederate Congress authorizes the use of slaves as militia

April 2 Petersburg, Virginia, falls into Union hands

April 3 Union occupies Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia

April 9 Lee surrenders the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House, Virginia

April 14 Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth

April 15 Lincoln Died and is succeeded by Andrew Johnson

April 26 John Wilkes Booth killed by federal troops

May 10 Jefferson Davis Captured be federal troops at Irwinville, Georgia

May 10 President Johnson declares rebellion at an end

Samuel Rush Watkins was born on June 26, 1839 near Columbia, TN.  He was known as Sam Watkins. He attended Jackson College at Columbia and worked as a store clerk. In the spring of 1861, when he was 21, Sam enlisted as a Private in the First Tennessee Infantry, Company H, as the men called it, in the Confederate Army.  He was part of the Maury Grays. Of the 120 original recruits, Sam was one of 7 who survived.

He wanted to fight simply because he believed the North, and northerners, had no business in the South and he believed in states rights. He loved Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.  He was a devout Christian and he did not take clothing from the dead.

Sam was on every march that was ever made by the First Tennessee Regiment during the whole Civil War. He served throughout the war and fought in just about every famous battle and many that nobody knows today.

While in Chattanooga, on the Tennessee River, where it was ¼ mile wide, the Confederate soldiers were hungry and saw a cornfield across the river. Sam swam across the river, with a couple of his fellow soldiers and picked the corn. There was no way to get it back across the river, so they tied the green parts of the corn together into a long, long rope of 100 ears of corn. They put the corn rope in their mouths and swam back across the Tennessee River. The Johnny Rebs munched on cooked corn.

Sam Watkins was at his picket duty across the bridge. Picket duty is where you stand guard and if there be any Yankees, you holler “Who goes” and if a Yankee calls, you shoot him.  Sam stood on his picket one day and saw a huge snowstorm coming. He was there with two Dutchmen who could not speak English worth a cent. It started lightening and thundering for awhile and then it started snowing big clumps about goose egg size. All the sudden, he felt so hot that he wanted to take off his jacket, but he was freezing. Sam started thinking about his mother and home. Then he fell asleep. The Dutchman woke him up and started hollering, “Here’s your mule.” He kept hollering it. Then all the sudden they saw two horses galloping toward them to go across the bridge, then they heard Yankee firing. So then they got up and Sam woke up completely and the Dutchman was still hollering “Here’s your mule” and then they went across and told the rest of the Confederate Army that Yankees were near.

On one of Sam’s long marches during the winter, it was a very cold night march. Sam started freezing on the march. His feet froze almost stiff and he came very close to freezing to death marching. 20 years later, he still suffered from his frost bitten feet.

Sam was on picket another night and he was going to relieve 5 men. They had just gotten there and they saw something that chilled their bones. All 5 men they were relieving had frozen to death. One was standing with a loaded gun, frozen, with icicles hanging from his gun. Another leaning on a post, writing a letter. One sitting by a fire that was out, holding a cup of something. Two were pacing back and forth, frozen, with their feet up high in march style.

Sam fought in many major battles in Tennessee including Chattanooga, Franklin, Nashville, Shiloh, Spring Hill, Stones River, and battles in Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia.

Sam came home, married his sweetheart Jennie and had a “house full of young rebels clustering around my knees and bumping my elbows.” Sam Watkins died on July 20, 1901.

My country, 'tis of Thee,
Sweet Land of Liberty
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountain side
Let Freedom ring.

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills,
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.

A GREAT POEM FOR JULY 4TH WEEKEND

He was getting old and paunchy

And his hair was falling fast,

And he sat around the Legion,

Telling stories of the past.


Of a war that he once fought in

And the deeds that he had done,

In his exploits with his buddies;

They were heroes, every one.


And ‘tho sometimes to his neighbors

His tales became a joke,

All his buddies listened quietly

For they knew where of he spoke.

Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding;
And there we saw the men and boys,
As thick as hasty pudding.

Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

There was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion,
A-giving orders to his men,
I guess there was a million.

God Bless the USA Lyrics
by Lee Greenwood



If tomorrow all the things were gone
I'd worked for all my life,
And I had to start again
with just my children and my wife,
I'd thank my lucky stars
to be living here today,
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom
and they can't take that away.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?