Harper’s Weekly – May 18, 1861

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | May 18, 1861

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, May 22, 1861 (“It is by no means certain that we shall get in, but we shall keep trying and sooner or later I suspect we shall succeed.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/05/rutherford-b-hayes-to-sardis-birchard_29.html

Diary of William Howard Russell: May 22, 1861 (95 in the shade in New Orleans. Russell meets merchants who have unrealistic thoughts on British recognition of the Confederacy.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/07/diary-of-william-howard-russell-may-22.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 22, 1861 (Confederate cabinet members debate best way to wage the war. Secretary of State Toombs is more bellicose than Secretary of War Walker.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-may-22.html

[M Kehoe]

Hi Professor.

Thanks for the class.

I’ll say it again. The illustrations are awesome.

5.56mm

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Home Letters of General Sherman, edited by M.A. DeWolfe Howe, 1909

[Homer_J_Simpson]

With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865, edited by Michael Burlingame

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, May 23, 1861 (“if the dispatches of this morning are correct, that the Government already has two hundred and twenty thousand men, and will accept no more, the question is settled.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/05/rutherford-b-hayes-to-sardis-birchard_31.html

Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood to the House of Representatives of the State of Iowa, May 23, 1861 (On clothing for the Iowa troops.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/08/governor-samuel-j-kirkwood-to-house-of.html

Diary of William Howard Russell: May 23, 1861 (At a formal dinner at the home of a New Orleans railroad president, one of the attending slaves is pointed out to Howard as a son of Andrew Jackson.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/07/diary-of-william-howard-russell-may-23.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 23, 1861 (On a possible attack on Ft. Pickens, the inevitability of death in war, and the expected secession of MO and KY.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-may-23.html

Charlotte Cross Wigfall to Louise Wigfall, May 23, 1861 (“. . . Congress has adjourned to meet in Richmond on the 20th July. The President has begged your father to act on his staff. . . .”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/07/charlotte-cross-wigfall-to-louise_60.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Today’s posts:

William Tecumseh Sherman, reply #24
John G. Nicolay, #25
George Templeton Strong, #26
Links to 5 items at Civil War Notebook, #27

[x]

One of the slave servants who waited at table, an intelligent yellow “boy,” was pointed out to me as a son of General Andrew Jackson.

Unlikely, but who knows?

None of the Southern gentlemen have the smallest apprehension of a servile insurrection. They use the univeral formula “our negroes are the happiest, most contented, and most comfortable people on the face of the earth.” I admit I have been struck by well-clad and good-humored negroes in the streets, but they are in the minority; many look morose, ill-clad, and discontented. The patrols I know have been strengthened, and I heard a young lady the other night, say, “I shall not be a bit afraid to go back to the plantation, though mamma says the negroes are after mischief.”

People have so many things in their heads that it's hard to conclude that slaveowners weren't worried about uprisings, or that they were obsessed by the fear of their slaves. Probably they were aware of the possibility, but didn't consider it anything like a certainty.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

one of the attending slaves is pointed out to Howard . . .

Russell, William Howard Russell. I seem to have trouble getting that straight.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Happily for us, the Harper brothers feel the same way. They are minimizing the amount of text filling the Weekly’s pages, and replacing it with additional illustrations. I’ve prepped the issues through August, and they consistently have but one item of fiction and minimal domestic and foreign news.

[M Kehoe]

Cool.

All I have to do is sit back and enjoy...

Up until the first battle of Bull Run...

Manassas...

Sumpter or Sumter?

5.56mm

[BroJoeK]

C.T.: "This period almost feel like the "phony war" during WWII just before the German blitzkrieg into the Low Countries and France."

H.J.S.: "I’m starting to see the place name Manassas Gap start to show up frequently."

There has already been a minor engagement at Sewell's Point, Virginia and before anything major happens at Bull Run there will be eight more minor & not-so-minor battles -- three in Virginia, three in West Virginia, two in Missouri.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from May 11 (reply #3).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3958133/posts#3

Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Two excerpts from Team of Rivals. The first is continued from April 29 (reply #16).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3954149/posts#16

The second excerpt is not a continuation.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals

[Homer_J_Simpson]

David Herbert Donald, Lincoln

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from April 15 (reply #38)

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3950227/posts#38

Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Volume One

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued May 16 (reply #29).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3958133/posts#29

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Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee, an abridgement by Richard Harwell

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan: Selected Correspondence 1860-1865, edited by Stephen W. Spears