[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1861-1865: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: May 2025.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

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/4204432/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Each Harper’s Weekly contains 16 pages. My archived copy of the final edition for 1863 is missing 4 pages – 823-826 (the first edition each year begins with page 1). The end of this week’s installment of “Very Hard Cash” is missing. If there was a two-page centerpiece picture, that is also missing. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine – HJS.

Capture of the Steamer “Chesapeake” – 1-2
Hon. Schuyler Colfax: The New Speaker – 2
Christmas, 1863 – 2
The President’s Message – 2-3
The Rebel Message – 3
A New Bureau – 3
Merry Christmas – 3
Unmasking – 3
Literary – 3
Army and Navy Items – 3-4
Domestic Intelligence – 4-5
Foreign News – 5
Condition of the ‘Mining Bureau’ over which Jeff Davis is Sitting – 5
The Army of the Cumberland – 6-8, 11, 13
“Very Hard Cash,” by Charles Reade, Ch. Ch. LIV (truncated) – 9-10
Mr. Blueit’s Christmas Dinner – 10-11
My Vision – 11
Hon. John Brough – 12
Humors of the Day – 12

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of a Confederate Soldier: John S. Jackman of the Orphan Brigade, Edited, with an introduction, by William C. Davis

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, December 26, 1863 (“The Dictator, turret vessel, was launched this A.M. in New York. This is one of a class of vessels that has become famous. She is of greatly increased dimensions to any hitherto constructed.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/03/diary-of-gideon-welles-saturday.html

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: December 26, 1863 (“Some men tunneled out of the pen but were retaken and were made to crawl back through the same hole they went out of and the lieutenant kept hitting them with a board as they went down”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2017/02/diary-of-1st-sergeant-john-l-ransom.html

Diary of Private Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, December 26, 1863 (“The Eleventh and the Fifteenth Iowa returned from Redstone, and they report that there was no sign of the rebels out there. The rebels being out there was all a humbug. The regiments were sent out there so that the officers in town could have a spree on Christmas.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/10/diary-of-private-alexander-g-downing_25.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 26, 1863 (“No army news. No papers. No merriment this Christmas.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2020/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-december_46.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from December 18 (reply #38)

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4202973/posts#38

Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography, by Jack Hurst

[Homer_J_Simpson]

1

2

Johnny Green of the Orphan Brigade: The Journal of a Confederate Soldier, Edited by A.D. Kirwan

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: December 27, 1863 (“Some of the outside went and the rest go to-morrow. It is a sure thing — a general exchange and all will be sent away immediately.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2017/02/diary-of-1st-sergeant-john-l-ransom_7.html

General Robert E. Lee to Mary Custis Lee, December 27, 1863 (“It has pleased God to take from us one exceedingly dear to us, and we must be resigned to His holy will.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/02/general-robert-e-lee-to-mary-custis-lee_4.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 27, 1863 (“From Charleston we learn that on Christmas night the enemy’s shells destroyed a number of buildings.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2020/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-december_24.html

Diary of Private Louis Leon: December 27, 1863 (“We moved our camps from our picket posts seven miles from Orange Court House. On the turnpike from there to Fredericksburg, and commenced putting up winter quarters.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2023/08/diary-of-private-louis-leon-december-27.html

[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]

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, December 28, 1863 (“D. says, however, that there is an active, zealous, and somewhat formidable movement for Chase, and that Chase clubs are being organized in all the cities to control the nominating convention.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/03/diary-of-gideon-welles-monday-december_17.html

Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Mead, December 28, 1863 (“The President has written me that he desires to see me upon the subject of executing deserters; so, as soon as I can get time, I shall have to go up to Washington.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/08/major-general-george-g-meade-to_24.html

Letter from Adjutant E. H. King (The 11th and 15th Iowa regiments had their Christmas wrecked by orders to march to Red Bone MS to meet a possible rebel attack”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2008/06/letter-from-adjutant-e-h-king.html

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: December 28, 1863 (“For some reason or other no more being taken away and more despondent than ever. Very cold.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2017/02/diary-of-1st-sergeant-john-l-ransom_9.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 28, 1863 (“The Chesapeake, that sailed out of New York, and was subsequently taken by the passengers (Confederates), was hotly followed to Canada, where it was surrendered to the British authorities by the United States officers, after being abandoned.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2020/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-december_60.html

[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]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, December 29, 1863 (“Seward was not at the meeting of the Cabinet. Chase avoids coming in these days. Blair is ill.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/03/diary-of-gideon-welles-tuesday-december_19.html

Captain Charles Wright Wills: December 29, 1863 (“To-day, an officer of Ewing’s staff is here selecting our best horses, for the use of Sherman, Logan, etc. We think it confoundedly mean, but guess we’ll stand it.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/04/captain-charles-wright-wills-december.html

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: December 29, 1863 (“Nearly as cold weather as I ever saw at the North. Rebel officers all drunk during the holidays. snow an inch deep.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2017/02/diary-of-1st-sergeant-john-l-ransom_10.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 29, 1863 (“Gen. Winder reported to the Secretary, to-day, that there were no guards at the bridges, the militia refusing to act longer under his orders.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2020/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-december_18.html

General Robert E. Lee to Margaret Stuart, December 29, 1863 (“[Charlotte] was inexpressibly dear to me and held in my heart an equal place with dear Fitzhugh. How keen will be his anguish and how bitter to him his captivity.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/02/general-robert-e-lee-to-margaret-stuart_3.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, December 30, 1863 (“Not long since I was blamed for not building more of the turret vessels; just now the same persons and papers abuse me for building so many.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/03/diary-of-gideon-welles-wednesday_20.html

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, December 30, 1863 (“To-day I can do more with Admiral Porter or the Generals than any general officer out West except Grant, and with him I am as a second self. We are personal and official friends.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2013/03/major-general-william-t-sherman-to_24.html

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: December 30, 1863 (“[In the] evening, spoke to the men again about re-enlisting as veterans. I want three-fourths of the present.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2019/06/diary-of-colonel-rutherford-b-hayes.html

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: December 30, 1863 (“No rations issued yesterday to any of the prisoners and a third of all here are on the very point of starvation.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2017/02/diary-of-1st-sergeant-john-l-ransom_11.html

Martha Glover to Richard Glover, December 30, 1863 (Letter from, I suppose, a free black woman in Missouri to her husband in the Union army.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2020/08/martha-glover-to-richard-glover.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 30, 1863 (“The speech of Mr. Foote, relative to a Dictator, has produced some sensation in the city, and may produce more.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2020/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-december_68.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from December 25 (reply #34).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4204432/posts#34

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals

[Homer_J_Simpson]

All for the Union: The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes, edited by Robert Hunt Rhodes

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, December 31, 1863 (“The President has well maintained his position, and under trying circumstances acquitted himself in a manner that will be better appreciated in the future than now.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/03/diary-of-gideon-welles-thursday.html

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: December 31, 1863 (“Man wounded by the guard shooting, and ball broke his leg. Might better have shot him dead for he will surely die.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2017/02/diary-of-1st-sergeant-john-l-ransom_13.html

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Thursday, December 31, 1863 (“The last week of 1863, the Seventh will never forget in mid-winter-standing in the rain, snow and storm anxiously waiting for the finishing of the rolls.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2023/03/diary-of-private-daniel-l-ambrose.html

From the 8th Iowa Cavalry (W. D. K.) (“The boys say they will have revenge – they are exasperated, and woe be to the guerillas they capture hereafter, for death will be their portion”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2008/06/from-8th-iowa-cavalry-w-d-k.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 31, 1863 (“To-morrow the President throws open his house for a public reception: his enemies allege that this is with a view to recovering popularity!”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2020/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-december_29.html

Diary of Sarah Morgan: Thursday Night, December 31, 1863 (“Bring Peace and brighter days, O dawning New Year. Die, faster and faster, Old One; I count your remaining moments with almost savage glee.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/04/diary-of-sarah-morgan-thursday-night.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from December 9, 1863 (reply #27).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4201381/posts#27

David Herbert Donald, Lincoln

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from December 25 (reply #37).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4204432/posts#37

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, January 1, 1864 (“Went with my family to the Executive Mansion at 11 A.M. to pay our respects to the President.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/03/diary-of-gideon-welles-friday-january-1.html

Brigadier-General Thomas Kilby Smith to his sister Helen, January 1, 1864 (“It is exactly a year ago to-day since we withdrew from “Chickasas Bayou,” within six or eight miles from here after one of the severest contested battles I have been in.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/08/brigadier-general-thomas-kilby-smith-to_7.html

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard: January 1, 1864 (“My regiment has re-enlisted and a majority of the men and part of the officers have gone home.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2019/07/colonel-rutherford-b-hayes-to-sardis_14.html

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: January 1, 1864 (“I am Second Lieutenant of Company D (Capt. Samuel Darrah’s of Burlington, Vt.) of the same [10th VT Inf.] regiment, having been promoted from First Sergeant of Company B last spring.”)
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/128440405/lemuel-abijah-abbott

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/05/diary-of-2nd-lieutenant-lemuel-abbott.html

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: January 1, 1864 (“Robinson bought on the outside a dozen apples and gave us all a treat. Nothing but corn bread to eat and very poor quality.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2017/02/diary-of-1st-sergeant-john-l-ransom_14.html

Diary of Sergeant David L. Day: January 1, 1864 (“I shall not re-enlist, and my reasons are, first, I have no desire to monopolize all the patriotism there is, but am willing to give others a chance. My second reason is that after I have served three years my duty to the country has been performed and my next duty is at home with my family.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/08/diary-of-sergeant-david-l-day-january-1.html

Diary of Private Alexander G. Downing: Friday, January 1, 1864 (“May this war come to a close and our nation be at peace once more, and may slavery be wiped out so that there shall be no more slaves in America.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/10/diary-of-private-alexander-g-downing_31.html

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: January 1, 1864 (“Sixty-four is ushered in bleak and rough. The year has died, but its blood-wrought history will live co-equal with time.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2023/04/diary-of-private-daniel-l-ambrose_38.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 1, 1864 (“I am also breaking up some warm beds, for early vegetables, and spreading manure over my little garden: preparing for the siege and famine looked for in May and June”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2020/04/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-january-1.html

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: January 1, 1864 (“Had hardly gotten used to ‘63, when here is ‘64 upon me.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/05/diary-of-margaret-junkin-preston_26.html

Diary of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire: Sunday, January 1, 1864 (“how can we estimate the sadness of heart which will pervade the South when the war is over, and we are again gathered together around our family hearths and altars, and find the circles broken?”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/11/a-melancholy-pause-in-my-diary.html

Diary of Dolly Lunt Burge: January 1, 1864 (“Will another year find us among carnage and bloodshed? Shall we be a nation or shall we be annihilated?”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/06/diary-of-dolly-sumner-lunt-january-1.html