Battle of Shiloh Ends

The stamped card with a 20¢ postage, depicting the Battle of Shiloh that ended on April 7, 1862, is one of the twenty cards corresponding to the twenty 32¢ American Civil War stamps issued at Gettysburg, PA on June 29, 1995.

The stamp set has 16 individual portraits and four battle scenes, chosen from a master list of 50 subjects including Presidents, generals, major battles, rank-and-file soldiers, women, African and Native Americans, and abolitionists. With those stamps, USPS intended to show the wide variety of people who participated in the Civil War.

Battle of Shiloh, named after a church on the battlefield, was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. Ironically Shiloh means “place of peace.” Confederates surprised General Ulysses S. Grant at Pittsburg Landing, TN, but lost General A. S. Johnston. Union counterattack at Shiloh Church forced the Southerners to withdraw. After this pivotal battle, it left Union armies in control of the central Mississippi River and large areas of western territories.

Casualties: 13,050 Union, 10,700 Confederate.

If Not Now, Then When?

June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, as declared in a proclamation by President Barack Obama on May 30, 2014, calling on Americans to eliminate prejudice “everywhere it exists.”

Presented by Human Rights Campaign, UNLV Spectrum, LGBT Bar Association and Freedom Nevada, a special preview screening of the HBO Documentary "The Case Against 8" was held at the Student Union Theater, University of Nevada, Las Vegas at 2 p.m. today. The film offered a behind-the-scenes look inside the historic case to overturn California Proposition 8 that bans same-sex marriage in the state. It highlights that "battles are won because they are fought!" The documentary will premiere in theaters on June 6, 2014 and debuts on HBO on June 23, 2014.

The postcard to Taiwan, one of several from the Cirque du Soilei show Zumanity, depicts a scene where "the lovers dance a tumultuous tango. Through their fierce choreography, a passionate story of love and anger unfolds. Again and again they attract and repel in intense conflict until the magnetic energy between them becomes more than they can bear."