Albion Tourgee: Born May 2, 1838.

Albion Tourgee was born on this date—May 2—in 1838 in Williamsfield, Ohio, located in Ashtabula County. He became known in his lifetime not only as a novelist, but also as a  judge, lawyer, soldier, and diplomat. He was educated at Kingsville Academy in Ohio and the University of Rochester in New York. When the Civil…

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April 19, 1861: Ambrose Bierce enlists in the Indiana Volunteers.

On this day in 1861, author Ambrose Bierce became the second man in Elkhart County, Indiana to enlist for service in the Union volunteers after President Lincoln’s call for troops following the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Bierce, who was born in Meigs County, Ohio, was working in a local business that was a…

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January 1, 1864: Albion Tourgee is discharged from the Union Army

January 1, 1864: Albion Tourgee is discharged from the Union Army. Albion Tourgee is one Ohio writer who deserves to be better known. Tourgee was a novelist, lawyer, soldier, and judge who made much of his life’s work the advancement of black Americans. Tourgee went south after the Civil War and was one of the…

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