Marching for Union

In January 1868, a Union veteran named Gilbert Bates set out from his Wisconsin farm for Vicksburg, Mississippi, to prove a point and win a bet: that he could safely walk across the post–Civil War South—alone, unarmed, with no money—while carrying the flag of the United States. The effort quickly riveted the attention of Americans everywhere, who weren’t yet sure the country could meaningfully reunite after their fratricidal war. Mark Twain believed Bates would be abused, attacked, possibly even