Harper’s Weekly – May 4, 1861

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | May 4, 1861

[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]

Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete War Diary of John Hay, edited by Michael Burlingame and John R. Turner Ettlinger

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Captain Joseph E. Hamblin to Hannah Sears Hamblin, May 10, 1861 (The 5th New York Regiment is off to war.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/07/captain-joseph-e-hamblin-to-hannah.html

Diary of Rutherford B. Hayes, May 10, 1861 (On the start of the war and the response in Cincinnati.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/05/diary-of-rutherford-b-hayes-may-10-1861.html

James A. Garfield to Corydon E. Fuller, May 10, 1861 (Garfield plans to get into the war but sorry, can’t lend any money at this time.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/08/james-garfield-to-corydon-e-fuller-may.html

Charles Russell Lowell to John M. Forbes, May 10, 1861 (A Massachusetts agent is needed at Washington)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/10/charles-russell-lowell-to-john-m-forbes_14.html

Theodore Winthrop to Elizabeth Woolsey Winthrop, May 10, 1861 (“Great military movements southward will not take place before fall, so the chiefs say. For we are regiments, and not an array as yet, and we must move in an impregnable body, to reclaim the country.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/11/theodore-winthrop-to-elizabeth-woolsey.html

George L. Stearns to his Mary Elizabeth Preston Stearns, May 10, 1861 (Arming in Kansas.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/09/george-l-stearns-to-his-mary-elizabet.html

Diary of William Howard Russell: May 10, 1861 (During his riverboat trip to Mobile, Russell gets a demonstration from fellow passengers to show that the slaves are “the happiest people on the face of the airth!”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/04/diary-of-william-howard-russell-may-10.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 10, 1861 (Exalting the southern warriors.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-may-10.html

Diary of Judith W. McGuire: May 10, 1861 (From “Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War.” Things are tense in Alexandria.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/11/diary-of-judith-w-mcguire-may-10-1861.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Today’s Posts:

“The Coming Fury,” reply #39
“Team of Rivals,” #40
John Nicolay, #41
John Hay, #42
Links to 9 items at Civil War Notebook, #43

[BroJoeK]

I see where Catton does report the Confederate Declaration of War on May 6, though he says the Confederate Congress passed it on May 3.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I see where Catton does report the Confederate Declaration of War on May 6, though he says the Confederate Congress passed it on May 3.

So they did. So much for my reading retention.

[BroJoeK]

"Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete War Diary of John Hay, edited by Michael Burlingame and John R. Turner Ettlinger"

Here we see in the war's earliest days, Lincoln's aids discussing the destruction of slavery, not as to whether, but only as to when & how.
They clearly recognize slavery's importance to the Confederate war effort, but are concerned with methods & timing for abolition.

So our Lost Causers have long claimed that Confederates didn't fight to defend slavery, and the Union didn't fight to abolish it.
And yet even in the war's earliest days the Lincoln administration understood that destroying slavery would be essential to defeating the Confederacy.