On April 14, 1861, following the surrender of Fort Sumter, Washington was "put into the condition of a siege," declared Abraham Lincoln. Located sixty miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line, the nation's capital was surrounded by the slave states of Maryland and Virginia. With no fortifications and only a handful of trained soldiers, Washington was an ideal target for the Confederacy. The South echoed with cries of "On to Washington " and Jefferson Davis's wife sent out cards inviting her friends to a reception at the White House on May 1.

Lincoln issued an emergency proclamation on April...

This fascinating chronicle traces New York City's growth from Wall Street at the end of the Revolutionary War to Harlem at the turn of the twentieth century. Documenting the frantic construction and speculative frenzy that swept through Manhattan in the nineteenth century, it explores the development of the city's landmark neighborhoods as the rural landscape of Upper Manhattan gave way street by street to today's fashionable residential and commercial districts.
Compiled from newspaper archives and richly illustrated with historic images, Manhattan Moves Uptown reveals bygone days...