Harper’s Weekly – July 20, 1861

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | July 20, 1861

[central_va]

Was John Brown a terrorist or just another “staunch abolitionist”? You tell me.

[BroJoeK]

theOlLine Rebel: "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."

Understood, I'm simply noticing that what the Confederate cavalryman did not call Sherman's skirmishers included:

• "You d____d Morrill tariffers!"
• "You d____d fishing smackers!"
• "You d____d money flow-ers from Europe!"
• "You d____d northeastern power brokers!"
• "You d____d Federal power grabbers!"

None of that.
No, the Confederate cavalryman threw at Sherman's skirmishers the word which meant the most to him: he called them "d____d abolitionists".

It's worth noticing, I think.

[BroJoeK]

the OlLine Rebel: "I doubt “terrorist” was in the vocabulary."

That's an interesting point, I might even agree.
What I know for certain is:

1. The words "terrorism" or "terrorist" were coined during the French Revolution referring to Robespierre's Reign of Terror, circa 1793.

2. Those words were soon used (1795) by men like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison to describe events in France.

3. By 1813 Adams also used "terrorism" (writing to Jefferson) in reference to events in the USA such as Shays Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion & Fries Rebellion.

4. "Terrorism" first appeared in Webster's dictionary in 1840, with a very generalized definition, but "terrorist" did not appear until 1864 and it then referred specifically to the French government's revolutionary tribunal in 1793.

All of this seems to confirm your suggestion that while those words were coined long before the Civil War, they were not commonly used as we use them until long after.

Good point.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from 12 p.m. (reply #37)

Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury

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

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[M Kehoe]

Good stuff.

5.56mm

[the OlLine Rebel]

ROFL it certainly flows better.

I’m sure we can come up with better epithets covering the other issues. Maybe if you keep reading.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from 2 p.m. (reply #44).

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Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury

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

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

[DiogenesLamp]

This page takes forever to load. This is why I stay away from Homer J Simpson threads. They literally take forever to load on my slow internet connection.

And I have no interest in discussing battles of the civil war. With 4 to 1 odds, it was inevitable that the larger army would eventually grind down the smaller army.

I don't follow the "trial by combat" theory of addressing questions of law or philosophy.

The confederates, just like the slaves, had a right to leave, but a more powerful group kept them in bondage.

[central_va]

There is some good writing in these stories. Especially describing how panicked stricken the federal troops were running back to DC. I forget Old Man Ruffin himself was at the battle. The Union troops were screaming about how the terrifying Confederate Cavalry was going to catch them all...

[Hebrews 11:6]

Thank you for this well-done report, Homer. The book excerpts and sequential battle maps are very illuminating. I'll be following closely henceforth.

Twenty years ago I read Shelby Foote's three-volume history. Will you be using it, too?

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I love Foote’s 3-volume CW Narrative, but he was date- and chronology-averse. That is not surprising since he considered himself more of a novelist than a historian, but it makes excerpting for a timeline difficult. Bruce Catton’s Army of the Potomac trilogy is the same way. Fortunately for me his Civil War Narrative trilogy is easier to take apart in bite-sized bits of history.

[x]

The word “terrorist” was around and was used by Jefferson, Madison, and Adams, but it primarily referred to state violence on the model of the French Revolution. The word was evolving and might possibly have been used in different ways in the Civil War era, but it was the late 19th century Russian revolutionaries and anarchist assassins who laid the template for the modern idea of terrorism. According to Google ngrams the word “abolitionist” was many, many, many times more common than the word “terrorist” in the 19th century.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from 4 p.m. (reply #48, Part 1).

Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from July 21, 8 p.m. (reply #54).

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This ends . . .

Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from July 21 (reply #18)

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from July 21 (reply #19).

David Herbert Donald, Lincoln

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from July 3 (reply #28)

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3971894/posts#28

Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Volume One

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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