Harper’s Weekly – May 25, 1861

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | May 25, 1861

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

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 Harper’s Weekly thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3960175/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Not Dead – 1
To Our Southern Readers – 1, 3
Willard’s Hotel, Washington, Saved by the New York Fire Zouaves – 2
Are the Montgomery Privateers Pirates? – 3
The Lounger – 3-4
Jeff Davis Snuffing Out the Light – 4
Humors of the Day – 4
Domestic Intelligence – 4-5
Foreign News – 5
The Second Reinforcement of Fort Pickens – 5, 8, 10, 12
Camp Cameron, Georgetown, D.C., the Encampment of the Seventh Regiment New York State Militia – 6
Service by Rev. Dr. Weston, Chaplain of the Seventh Regiment, at Camp Cameron, on Sunday, May 5, 1861 – 6
Evening Parade at Fort Pickens-Colonel Brown Announcing to His Men Major Anderson’s Gallant Defense at Fort Sumter – 7
Galleries Under the Senate Chamber Converted into Granaries – 8
Bread Ovens in the Basement of the Capitol, Washington – 8
Cooking and Eating Arrangements in the Court-Yard of the Treasury Building, Washington, D.C. – 9
Departure of Volunteers from Dubuque, Iowa, April 22, 1861 – 10, 16
The Eighth Massachusetts Regiment in the Rotunda of the Capitol, Washington – 11
The Seventy-Ninth Regiment (Highlanders) New York State Militia – 13
Scott, York, Pennsylvania, Occupied by Pennsylvania and Ohio Volunteers – 14, 15
Winans Steam Gun – 15
Our Army at Washington – 15-16
The Washington Junction Viaduct, Commanded by the Winans Gun and Federal Artillery – 16
The Relay House, Washington Junction, Now Occupied by Federal Volunteers – 16
Another War Map – 16-17
Camp of United States Volunteers at the Relay House – 18
Late Head-Quarters of Colonel Ellsworth, of the N.Y. Fire Zouaves, at the Capitol at Washington – 19
The New York Fire Zouaves Quartered in the House of Representatives at Washington – 20
The Coming of the Spring – 21
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, Ch XL-XLI – 21-22
Guests at the Great Inn – 23
Northern Lights – 24
Northern Soldiers: What they say of us & What we are – 25

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher

[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]

Mary Chesnut’s Diary, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary

[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

[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]

Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood to Capt. Grenville M. Dodge, May 25, 1861 (Gov. Kirkwood desires arms for Iowa.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/11/governor-samuel-j-kirkwood-to-capt.html

Charles Russell Lowell to Anna C. Jackson Lowell, May 25, 1861 (Lowell sneaked into VA and dined at Arlington.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/10/charles-russell-lowell-to-anna-c_19.html

Diary of William Howard Russell: May 25, 1861 (The invasion of Virginia and the deaths of Ellsworth and Jackson with a southern spin. Amazing how fast the details of the affair got to New Orleans. The Telegraph is more powerful than I thought.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/08/diary-of-william-howard-russell-may-25.html

Colonel Robert E. Lee to Mary Custis Lee, May 25, 1861 (Gen. Lee to Mrs. Lee, on losing her home to the Union army.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2020/07/colonel-robert-e-lee-to-mary-custis-lee.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 25, 1861 (“. . . the wrath of the Southern chivalry will some day burst forth on the ensanguined plain, and then let the presumptuous foemen of the North beware of the fiery ordeal they have invoked.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-may-25.html

Diary of Judith W. McGuire: May 25, 1861 (McGuire and company are at Fairfax, VA, refugees now. She recounts yesterday’s events at Arlington and Alexandria, including the deaths of Ellsworth and Jackson, the innkeeper who shot Ellsworth.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/12/diary-of-judith-w-mcguire-may-25-1861.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Today’s posts:

Lincoln letter to parents of Late Col. Ellsworth, reply #3
John G. Nicolay, #4
Mary B. Chesnut, #5
George Templeton Strong, #6
George B. McClellan, #7
Sam R. Watkins, #8
Links to 6 items from Civil War Notebook, #9

[Demiurge2]

New York journalists view Southerners as ignorant, violent barbarians to be chastised. Some things never change...

[BroJoeK]

These are the words of Sam R. Watkins, a Confederate soldier regarding "this time" in the Civil War:

"The Federal army was advancing all along the line.
They expected to march right into the heart of the South, set the negroes free, take our property, and whip the rebels back into the Union.
But they soon found that secession was a bigger mouthful than..."

Certainly sounds as if abolition was at the forefront of a Confederate soldier's mind, even as he projected it onto the motive of invading Yankees.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The caveat for Sam Watkins' memoirs is the same as the one for Mary Chesnut. He first published them in 1882, so his mind and memory had 20 years to work out the details and fill in any gaps. At least "Company Aytch" is presented as a memoir and not a contemporaneous diary, as Chesnut's is.

That said, if Watkins was going to whitewash his story, he might have left out the part about setting the negroes free and focused on the invaders from the north angle. So it seems probable to me that it was part of his thinking in 1861.

[BroJoeK]

"New York journalists view Southerners as ignorant, violent barbarians to be chastised. Some things never change..."

Only "if they suppose" -- read the article, "To our Southern Readers":

"...But our Southern friends must be very blind indeed, and very ignorant of the impulses which sway human nature, if they suppose that when, in the progress of their attempt to destroy our Government, they begin to cut the throats of our brothers and our brave boys, we shall be so compliant in this.
We should be rendering them a very poor service if we allowed them to harbor such a delusion without endeavoring to dispel it.
It is better that they should understand the case clearly from the start.
The United States, as a nation, have no concern with slavery.
But from the hour that rebels shed the blood of citizens of the United States, war will be waged upon them by the most crushing and overwhelming methods; and among those methods the liberation of the slaves will naturally occur.

We say this, not in passion or from feeling, but simply as the calm statement of a fact as obvious as may be fixed in science.
Actual war between Salve and Free States ultimately involves abolition.
Tis for the Border States to reject or accept the issue."

So, it seems that abolition was on the minds of Union leaders & apologists from Day One.

[central_va]

If you say so....

[central_va]

In case anyone hasn't read Co. Aytch here is the link. It is an excellent read IMO.

Link here

[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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of William Howard Russell: May 26, 1861 (Implications of moving the Confederate capital to Richmond and Russell’s prediction sent to the Time of London on the nature of the coming war. “there can be no doubt large losses will be incurred whenever these masses of men are fairly opposed to each other in the open field.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/08/diary-of-william-howard-russell-may-26.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 26, 1861 – First Entry (Descriptions of the Episcopal minister in Montgomery and several government figures.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-may-26.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 26, 1861 – Second Entry (President Davis is sick today. Speculation on the size of the Confederate army and how to organize it.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-may-26_30.html

Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, May 26, 1861 (Hayes calculating the chances of his regiment being accepted into the Union army.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/06/rutherford-b-hayes-to-sardis-birchard.html

[BroJoeK]

Very interesting to notice Strong’s mention of purchasing Sharp’s rifles at $45 each.
That was a large sum in those days, but it seems that regiments so armed would have huge advantages over others with older muskets.

In hindsight we have to wonder why that was not so obvious then, or later.