[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]

Talking Fish – 2
The Fighting Tiger of the King of Oude – 2-4
Editorials – 4-5
Correspondence – 5-6
The Lounger – 6-7
Weekly Market Summary – 7
The May Session of the Woman’s Rights Convention-The Orator of the Day denouncing the Lords of Creation – 8
Trumps, by George William Curtis, Ch. XXIX-XXX – 9-12
The Weekly Farmer – 12
The Emperor Napoleon III and the Generals of the Army of Italy – 13
The War in Europe – 14-17
Eleven O’Clock, Among the Fir Trees – 17-20
Chess Chronicle – 20
The New Drinking Fountains – 20
The Floating Hospital in the Lower Bay – 21-23
Humors of the Day – 23
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, Book II, Ch III – 24-27
Dreadful for Young Collegians – 27
Despairing Grog-Sellers – 27

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from June 10 (reply #10.)

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

[C19fan]

I wonder if Mr. Curtis whose serial “Trumps” is being published as the same time as one of Dickens’ great novels “Tale of Two Cities” feels a bit overshadowed. I looked up this Mr. Curtis, he was one of founders of the Republican party, and was a prominent abolitionist.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from April 15 (reply #13).

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Major Don Carlos Buell to Captain William T. Sherman, June 17, 1859

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 17, 1859.

DEAR SHERMAN: I received your letter this morning. It is unnecessary to make declarations when you already know so well that it would give me sincere pleasure to serve you. At present I see nothing of the kind you mention to suggest to you, but I will look about with hope that I may. There is no certainty of a vacancy in the Pay Department, though one of its members is now in serious difficulty about his account. If a vacancy should occur I know no reason why you should not endeavor to secure it, and succeed, too, if it were dependent on the merits which your case could be made to present.

You must remember, however, that in these times everything turns on political or other influence. If you can bring that kind of influence to bear on the President let it be done at once to secure a promise of the first vacancy; for it would be filled before I could even get the news to you by telegraph after it had occurred, so ready and pressing are the aspirants. . .

In the meantime, however, I enclose you a paper which presents an opening that I have been disposed to think well of. The only trouble is that the Academy has not yet been secured by state laws, though I think it altogether probable that it will be. If you could secure one of the professorships and the superintendency, as I think you could, it would give the handsome salary of $3,500. The paper is sent to me by [George] Mason Graham, General [R. B.] Mason's half-brother, and explains the whole matter. If you think well of it I have no doubt I can write him such a letter as will secure you a valuable advocate at first, and a useful supporter afterwards. You will observe there is not much time to spare. . .

[Endorsement by Sherman in 1889.]

This was the first suggestion received by me on this subject, and to Gen. Buell I owe my election as superintendent of the Louisiana Seminary of Learning. He was seconded by Gen. G. Mason Graham, half-brother to my old chief in California, Col. R. B. Mason. Generals Bragg and Beauregard did not even know I was an applicant.

W. T. S.

SOURCE: Walter L. Flemming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 22-3

civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com

Thomas Wentworth Higginson to Louisa Storrow Higginson, June, 17 1859

WORCESTER, June 17, 1859

DEAREST MOTHER:

* * * * * * * * * *

We have had the greatest heroine of the age here, Harriet Tubman, a black woman, and a fugitive slave, who has been back eight times secretly and brought out in all sixty slaves with her, including all her own family, besides aiding many more in other ways to escape. Her tales of adventure are beyond anything in fiction and her ingenuity and generalship are extraordinary. I have known her for some time and mentioned her in speeches once or twice — the slaves call her Moses. She has had a reward of twelve thousand dollars offered for her in Maryland and will probably be burned alive whenever she is caught, which she probably will be, first or last, as she is going again. She has been in the habit of working in hotels all summer and laying up money for this crusade in the winter. She is jet black and cannot read or write, only talk, besides acting.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 81

civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com