[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Transatlantic Ballooning – 2-4
Old News – 4
Editorials – 4-6
The Lounger – 6-7
The New Air-Ship “City of New York – 8
Trumps, by George William Curtis, Ch. LIII-LV – 9-11
Camp Massachusetts – 12-13
A Good Fight, by Charles Reade, Ch. XXII-XXIV – 13-15
A Tale of Arsenic – 15-16
Husband and Wife – 16
The “Great Eastern – 17-18
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, Book III, Ch I – 19-21
Humors of the Day – 21-22
In Central Park – 23

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from September 19 (reply #7.)

The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Jeremiah Anderson is part of John Brown’s band. The Harper’s Ferry action is imminent.

Jeremiah G. Anderson to His Brother in Iowa, Late September 1859

Our mining company will consist of between twenty-five and thirty well equipped with tools. You can tell Uncle Dan it will be impossible for me to visit him before next spring. If my life is spared, I will be tired of work by that time, and I shall visit my relatives and friends in Iowa, if I can get leave of absence. At present, I am bound by all that is honorable to continue in the course. We go in to win, at all hazards. So if you should hear of a failure, it will be after a desperate struggle, and loss of capital on both sides. But that is the last of our thoughts. Everything seems to work to our hands, and victory will surely perch upon our banner. The old man has had this operation in view for twenty years, and last winter was just a hint and trial of what could be done. This is not a large place,2 but a precious one to Uncle Sam, as he has a great many tools here. I expect (when I start again travelling) to start at this place and go through the State of Virginia and on south, just as circumstances require; mining and prospecting, and carrying the ore with us. I suppose this is the last letter I shall write before there is something in the wind. Whether I shall have a chance of sending letters then I do not know, but when I have an opportunity, I shall improve it. But if you don't get any from me, don't take it for granted that I am gone up till you know it to be so. I consider my life about as safe in one place as another.

_______________

2 Haper’s Ferry.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 545

civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from September 17 (reply #4.)

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Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher