Harper’s Weekly – July 20, 1861

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | July 20, 1861

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from June 20 (reply #18).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3967980/posts#18

William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis, American

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued July 17 (reply #35).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3975717/posts#35

Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee, an abridgement by Richard Harwell

[Homer_J_Simpson]

1

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All for the Union: The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes, edited by Robert Hunt Rhodes

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Company Aytch, or a Side Show of the Big Show: A Memoir of the Civil War, by Sam R. Watkins

[Homer_J_Simpson]

William Cullen Bryant to John M. Forbes, August 21, 1861 (Evening Post publisher thinks War Secretary Cameron should be replaced.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/12/william-cullen-bryant-to-john-m-forbes.html

Charles Eliot Norton to James Russell Lowell, July 21, 1861 (Folks in Newport RI are anxious about news from Virginia)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/12/charles-eliot-norton-to-james-russell.html

Major Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, July 21, 1861 (Hayes is at Columbus, taking a break from army life.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/07/major-rutherford-b-hayes-to-sardis_26.html

Captain Charles Russell Lowell to Charles Elliott Perkins, July 21, 1861 (Lowell’s recruiting trip continues.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/11/captain-charles-russell-lowell-to.html

John Lothrop Motley to Mary Benjamin Motley, July 21, 1861 (“Perhaps before this letter is posted, two days hence, something definite may have occurred in the neighborhood of Manassas.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/03/john-lothrop-motley-to-mary-benjamin_29.html

Diary of William Howard Russell: July 21, 1861 (Russell’s lengthy account of the battle.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2019/12/diary-of-william-howard-russell-july-21.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: July 21, 1861 (“The President left the city this morning for Manassas, and we look for a battle immediately.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/04/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-july-21.html

Diary of Judith W. McGuire: Sunday, July 21, 1861 (“Perhaps there was no one present [at church] who had not some near relative at Manassas, and the impression was universal that they were then fighting.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/12/diary-of-judith-w-mcguire-sunday-july.html

Charlotte Cross Wigfall to Louise Wigfall, July 21, 1861 (“No news except that Gen. Johnston has joined Beauregard with a large force. A part of his troops are left still at Winchester, but the greater part are with him.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/07/charlotte-cross-wigfall-to-louise_18.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

This morning’s first posts:

“Team of Rivals,” reply #18
“Lincoln,” #19
John G. Nicolay, #20
“Jefferson Davis, American,” #21
George B. McClellan, #22
“Lee,” #23
Elisha Hunt Rhodes, #24
Sam Watkins, #25
Links to 9 items at Civil War Notebook, #26

[BroJoeK]

Apparently only 18,000 were actually engaged on each side.
All the rest never made it to the battle, most notably Union Gen. Patterson's 18,000 which could have turned the battle.

So...
If we count everybody within the battle's general vicinity, then:

• Union (including Patterson's 18,000): ~54,000
• Confederate: ~34,000

[BroJoeK]

Here again is the listing of engagements to date, now 24 resulting in over 4,000 total casualties:

Date	Engagement	Military Units	Losses	Victor
April 12-14	Fort Sumter, SC	Confederate artillery (Beauregard), Union garrison (Anderson)	None	CSA
April 15	Evacuation of Fort Sumter, SC	Union garrison	Two Union soldiers killed, four wounded by accidental explosion	N.A.
April 19	Baltimore Riots, MD	MA 6th, PA 26th vs secessionist crowd	4 Union soldiers killed, 12 civilians killed, hundreds wounded	USA
May 10	St. Louis Riots, MO	Union forces vs secessionist crowd	4 Union soldiers killed, 3 prisoners, 28 civilians killed	USA
May 18-19	Sewell's Point, VA	Union naval squadron vs Confederate shore artillery	10 total	inconclusive
May 29- June 1	Aquila Creek, VA	Union naval squadron vs Confederate shore artillery	10 total	inconclusive
June 1	Fairfax Court House, VA	detachments from CSA & USA armies	8 on each side, 1 each killed	inconclusive
June 3	Philippi, WVA	Union Dept of Ohio (McClellan) -3,000, CSA infantry (Porterfield) -800	Union 4, CSA 26 (killed or wounded)	USA
June 10	Big Bethel, VA	Union (Butler) -3,500, CSA (Magruder) -1,400	Union 18-killed 53-wounded, CSA: 1-K 9-W	CSA
June 15	Hooe's Ferry (near Mathias Point) VA	Union schooner Christina Keen; CSA Farmer's Fork Grays	none -- Christina Keen captured and burned	CSA
June 17	Vienna, VA	Detachments from both Union & CSA armies	Union: 8 killed, 4 wounded; CSA: none reported	CSA
June 17	Boonville, MO	Union Western Dept (Lyon) -1,700 vs. MO State Guard (Marmaduke) ~1,500	Union: 5-killed, 7-wounded, MO Guard 5-k 17-w	USA
June 18	Camp Cole, MO	Union Home Guards (~500) vs. Confederate State Guards (~350)	Union: 35 killed, 60 wounded 25 captured CSA: 7-K, 25-W	CSA
June 27	Matthias' Point, VA	Union gunboats ~50 vs. Confed garrison ~500	Union: 1-killed, 4-wounded; CSA none	CSA
July 2	Hoke's Run, WVA	Union Army of the Shenandoah (2 brigades, Patterson) -8,000 vs. Confederate Army of the Shenandoah (1 brigade, Stonewall Jackson) - 4,000	Union: 3-killed, 70-total; CSA 9-killed, 23-total	USA
July 5	Carthage, MO	Union Department of the West (Sigel) -- 1,000 vs. Confederate Missouri State Guard (Jackson) -- 4,000	Union: 44-total; CSA 200-total	CSA
July 5	Neosho, MO	Union 3rd Missouri vs. Confederate cavalry	Union: 137-total; CSA zero total	CSA
July 8	Laurel Hill, WVA	Union Dept of Ohio vs. Confederate Army of the Northwest	Union: 8-total; CSA unknown	USA
July 11	Rich Mountain, WVA	Union Department of the Ohio (McClellan & Rosecrans) -7,000 vs. Confederate Army (Pegram & Garnett) -1,300	Union: 46-total; CSA 300-total	USA
July 12	Barboursville, WVA	Union 2nd Kentucky vs. Confederate rangers & locals	Union: 16-total; CSA 1-total	USA
July 13	Corrick's Ford, WVA	Union Department of the Ohio (McClellan & Rosecrans) -20,000 vs. Confederate Army (Garnett) -4,500	Union: 53-total; CSA 620-total CSA Gen. Garnett killed	USA
July 17	Scary Creek, WVA	Union Department of the Ohio (Cox) -1,000 vs. Confederate Army of the Kanawha (Wise & George S. Patton) -800	Union: 51-total; CSA 10-total including Patton wounded	CSA
July 18	Blackburn's Ford, VA (pre-Manassas)	Union Department of NE Virginia (McDowell, Richardson) -3,000 vs. Confederate Army of VA (Beauregard, Longstreet) -5,100	Union: 83-total; CSA 70-total	CSA
July 21	Bull Run/Manassas, VA	Union Department of NE Virginia (McDowell, Patterson) -54,000 (18,000 engaged) vs. Confederate Army of VA (Beauregard, Longstreet) -34,000 (18,000 engaged)	Union: 2,708-total (481 killed); CSA 1,897-total (387 killed)	CSA

[Pikachu_Dad]

I was always curious as to why the Union forces did not include having Patterson attack.

His inaction allowed Johnston to slip his forces away without penalty.

But then the Union was ‘blessed’ with inactive General’s early on.

[BroJoeK]

Here is the battlefield as of the morning of July 21:

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from July 16 (reply #26).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3975717/posts#26

Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury

Continued from July 20 (reply #5)

James Lee McDonough, William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country, A Life

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Echoes of Glory: Illustrated Atlas of the Civil War By the Editors of Time-Life Books

[BroJoeK]

W.T. Sherman described an incident before the battle:

"About 9 o'clock I was well down to the [Bull Run] River -- with some skirmishers and observed two [Confederate] men on horseback ride along a hill, descend, cross the stream and ride out toward us." One Rebel waved his gun over his head, making himself conspicuous, and loudly shouted: "You D___d abolitionists, come on."

Seems like slavery was on the mind of that Confederate cavalryman that day.

• not the Morrill Tariff
• not bounties for "fishing smacks"
• not "money flows from Europe"
• not "northeastern power brokers"
• not even "states' rights"

Of course, nobody'd yet told that Confederate cavalryman that it wasn't politically correct to call Yankee's "d___d abolitionists" -- it took a few years for everybody to get that memo.

[central_va]

Abolitionists of the 19th century supported terrorism and many were themselves in fact terrorists. Abolitionists were hated in the North too. That’s why it was such an insult to be called one. The only worse thing was to be called a “Tory”.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The West Point Atlas of War: The Civil War, Chief Editor-Brigadier General Vincent J. Esposito

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from 9 a.m. (reply #32)

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Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury

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2

James Lee McDonough, William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country, A Life

[BroJoeK]

central_va: "Abolitionists of the 19th century supported terrorism and many were themselves in fact terrorists."

So, you & I would consider "terrorist" to be the bigger insult, and yet, interestingly, that's not what the Confederate cavalryman threw at W.T. Sherman's skirmishers.
The word in July 1861 he considered more insulting, or just more truthful, was "abolitionists".

Perhaps "terrorist" would be added later?

[the OlLine Rebel]

Seems you’ve missed a few articles in the Harper’s and the NYT. Wherein these issues are discussed.

Don’t make so much out of one glib comment yelled out in the rage of battle.

In this case, maybe it’s because it seemed so many Yankees cried on about slavery as BLM does today, so in a defiant, mocking cursing manner that’s what he called them.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I doubt “terrorist” was in the vocabulary.