Virginia Vignettes

Throughout U.S. involvement in WWI, President Woodrow Wilson worked to guarantee that the war would be fought for some purpose other than territorial gain. In January 1917 he gave a speech titled “Peace Without Victory” that outlined peace terms, proposing the two sides negotiate as equals rather than as victor and vanquished. In January 1918 [...]

During the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson’s father’s church in Augusta, Georgia, was used as a field hospital and a holding area for Union prisoners of war. Wilson saw firsthand the destruction of war, and it shaped his view of war for the rest of his life. During his first term as US President, Wilson insisted [...]

During his tenure as president of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson built a national reputation as a progressive reformer, hiring the first Jewish and Catholic faculty members.  As Governor of New Jersey, he pushed numerous progressive reforms through the state legislature, including the institution of workers’ compensation and the regulation of state utilities and large businesses. [...]

Although he was sometimes caricatured as a northern academic, Woodrow Wilson, (1856-1924) twenty-eighth president of the United States (1913–1921), was born in Staunton, Virginia, and considered himself to be southern. As such, he was the first southerner elected president since Zachary Taylor in 1848, and brought to the office a progressive zeal for reform, both [...]

Winfield Scott was a hero of the Mexican War (1846–1848), the last Whig Party candidate for U.S. president, and commanding general of the United States Army at the start of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Known as “Old Fuss and Feathers” for his equal love of discipline and pomp, Scott by 1861 had served in [...]

After the fall of Richmond in April 1865, the state government briefly relocated to Lynchburg for four days. Lynchburg, which is located just east of the Blue Ridge Mountains on the banks of the James River, was founded by John Lynch, who established a ferry service there in 1757. On the eve of the American [...]

The America we know today is forever in debt to a pivotal decision made on December 15, 1791. On this day, the Bill of Rights, drafted by Virginian James Madison, went into effect as a vote of ratification came from Virginia, the 10th and final state to do so to gain the necessary two-thirds approval. [...]

Colonial Williamsburg is the restored and reconstructed historic area of Williamsburg, Virginia, a small city between the York and James rivers that was founded in 1632, designated capital of the English colony in 1698, and bestowed with a royal charter in 1722. It was a center of political activity before and during the American Revolution [...]

John Buchanan Floyd was born on the Smithfield plantation in Montgomery County, Virginia, on June 1, 1806, the son of John Floyd, who was governor of Virginia (1830–1834).  The younger Floyd was governor of Virginia (1849–1852), secretary of war in the administration of United States president James Buchanan (1857–1860), and a Confederate general during the [...]

Claude A. Swanson was a powerful Democratic Party leader and one of the most successful Virginia politicians of his era. He served seven terms in the United States House of Representatives (1893–1906), was governor of Virginia from 1906 until 1910, and U.S. senator from 1910 until 1933. In addition, Swanson served as secretary of the [...]