Harper’s Weekly – May 25, 1861

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | May 25, 1861

[Homer_J_Simpson]

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, May 31, 1861 (“The times are no better, and I see nothing which indicates an early termination of the war. We must make up our minds for hard rations and little money.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/06/rutherford-b-hayes-to-sardis-birchard_3.html

Theodore Winthop to L., May 31st, 1861 – 10 p.m. (An interesting description of the “contraband of war” policy in action.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/11/theodore-winthop-to-l-may-31st-1861-10.html

Francis Amasa Walker to Governor John Andrew, May 31, 1861 (A Massachusetts citizen wants the governor or the state Adjutant General to give him a commission.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2019/03/francis-amasa-walker-to-governor-john.html

Francis Amasa Walker to William Schouler, Adjutant General of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, May 31, 1861

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2019/03/francis-amasa-walker-to-william.html

Diary of William Howard Russell: May 31, 1861 (Russell tours the New Orleans jail and writes a long description. Then more about the city.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/09/diary-of-william-howard-russell-may-31.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 31, 1861 (Jones sets up the War Department offices, despite objections from other departments.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/02/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-may-31.html

[colorado tanker]

Judith McGuire was a very interesting person. She was the wife of an Episcopal churchman with their home in Alexandria. When Union forces seized the city she fled South with what possessions they could pack into a carriage. They abandoned their house, furniture and many possessions.

They were a family of modest means, owning no slaves. They could not afford Richmond and lived in various towns in Virginia during the war. She took a job as a clerk and was constantly worried about finding shelter and enough to feed her family. McGuire wondered what had become of her home and what would become of them after the War.

McGuire's story is very different from Mary Chestnut's. She was not born into wealth and she did not move in the same circles as high officials in the Confederacy or its Army.

Her world view is interesting. She had an unshakeable conviction that Virginia and the Confederacy were her "country" and never considered that the Union might have been such. She was convinced that if they ever fell into the hands of Union soldiers they would be subjected to barbarous acts.

McGuire's story does not at all fit the 21st Century narrative that all who supported the Southern cause did so out of racism and to support the institution of slavery.