On June 18th 1865 Union Brigadier General Gordon Granger and approximately 2,000 federal troops landed on the beach at Galveston, Texas, to take control of the last unoccupied Confederate state. Although many enslaved people had already learned that they were freed, on June 19th Granger made the news of freedom official. He stepped onto the balcony of Ashton Villa, the […]

The Contents of General Order No. 3