Walker's government in Nicaragua was short-lived. He involved himself in an attempt to take over the Accessory Transit Company…. He chose the losing side in his support of this takeover effort and thus became the target of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt maintained control of the company and then set about obtaining the cooperation of Central American republics to overthrow Walker's regime. … With the specific assistance of Costa Rica, Walker's supply routes to the United States were severed, making his military defeat easy.

EVANS, Augusta Jane, author, b. in Columbus. Ga., 8 May, 1835. When a child she removed with her father to Texas, residing in San Antonio from 1847 till 1840, when the family settled in Mobile, Ala. She was educated almost entirely by her mother. While her parents lived in the frontier town of San Antonio the Mexican war was in progress, and that town was a place of rendezvous for the soldiers sent out to re-enforce Gen. Taylor. She afterward entered a school in Mobile, but delicate health compelled her to leave it.

The secession crisis of 1860-1861 alarmed Varina Davis, as she did not wish to leave Washington and return to the South, telling her mother that the Confederacy did not have the resources to defeat the North. She apparently also had private doubts about slavery, for years later she wrote that it was absurd to fight a war to preserve it. When her husband became Confederate president, she went reluctantly to Richmond, where she became a controversial figure. Her direct manner put off many people who expected her to play a more sedate, "ladylike" role.

John Krebs was born in Hagerstown, Maryland on May 6, 1804, the son of William and Ann Adamson Krebs.  The senior Krebs was a merchant and postmaster in the town and John received his early education there before he went to work as a clerk in his father's post office.  His father died in 1822 and soon after he became determined to join the Presbyterian Church. After instruction at the local academy, he entered Dickinson College in February 1825.  Krebs graduated in the class of 1827 with high honors and commenced pastoral studies under the Rev.

*Martin, John Henry – Born May 4, 1834, Hartford county, Md.; p., Daniel and Priscilla (Hopkins) Martin; entered 1854; A. B., 1858; M. D., 1862, University of Maryland; physician; practiced profession in Baltimore, Md., until 1902, when failing health compelled him to retire; U. P. society; married, August 28, 1867, Susan Frottor Jones of North Point, Md. Died August 20, 1903, at Aberdeen, Md.

Meigs was an irascible man who spent forty-six years in the service of his country. He was a talented architect and engineer, but his tenure as quartermaster general was perhaps more significant as it ushered in a new age of modern military bureaucracy. Meigs's appetite for staff work, insistence on departmental honesty, and attention to the minutiae of supplying troops in the field rendered him one of the most effective administrators of U.S. Army history. His unsung efforts certainly facilitated the eventual Union victory.

The memorable interview between Generals Grant and Lee took place a little after 2 P. M., in the "town" of Appomattox Court House. The town, according to description, had little indeed to recommend it for the scene of so great an event as the pacification of a continent. It might boast, indeed, its public building, the Court House, but it consisted solely of one street, and one end of that was boarded up to keep the cattle out. Such was the little place upon which fame, for centuries to come, was suddenly thrust, this Sunday afternoon, 9th April, 1860.

Although not a secessionist, Magruder resigned from the U.S. Army on 20 April 1861. Commissioned a Confederate colonel on 21 May (to date from 16 Mar.), he took charge of troops defending the Virginia Peninsula. On 10 June a portion of his command won a skirmish at Big Bethel. Magruder played scarcely any role in the triumph but trumpeted it as a decisive engagement. Newspapers praised him lavishly, and he soon ranked behind only P. G. T. Beauregard as a Confederate military idol. He was promoted to brigadier general on 17 June and to major general on 7 October 1861.

[Ellen Craft] was born on a plantation in Clinton, Georgia, the daughter of Major James Smith, a wealthy cotton planter, and Maria, his slave.  Ellen became a skilled seamstress and ladies' maid, esteemed for her grace, intelligence, and sweetness of temper. In Macon she met another slave two years her senior, William Craft, to whom she was legally wed in 1846…Because "the laws under which we lived did not recognize her to be a woman, but a mere chattel, to be bought and sold," as William wrote in the couple's autobiographical narrative, they devised a plan of escape.

In 1841 his owner, also named Craft, mortgaged William and his sister Sarah to a Macon bank. Later, when the slaveholder could not make the payments, the bank sold the slaves at an auction. Craft's new owner permitted him to hire himself out as a carpenter, and Craft was allowed to keep earnings over $220 annually. In 1846 William married Ellen, the daughter of a slave named Maria and her owner, James Smith.