Hyperlocal History: Secession Vote

Local history buffs owe it to themselves to check out John Hennessy's nascent series on how Fredericksburg voted to secede from the United States in the opening months of the Civil War.

Writing in the first rate local history blog Fredericksburg Remembered, Hennessy's first post in the two part series takes us to the day of the vote, May 23, 1861 and examines the scene outside of the Fredericksburg Courthouse on Princess Anne Street (the same one city leaders are thinking about replacing). It tells the story of former 5th Circuit Court Judge John Tayloe Lomax, 80 at the time of the vote, and his prophetic remarks to an assembled crowd. 

Part two has yet to be posted, but Hennessy writes that it will examine the less-than democratic political climate in which the vote took place. I can't wait to read it.