[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/4293226/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Capture of Fort Fisher – 1-3, 11
Free Missouri – 3
More “Blessings in Disguise” at Hand – 3
The Consent of the Governed – 3
Peace-Making – 3
“National” or “Federal” – 3-4
The Soldiers’ Rest – 4
From an English Friend of America – 4
Mrs. Hutchins – 4
Domestic Intelligence – 4-5
Foreign News – 5
Interesting Items – 5
John Bull’s Occupation Gone – 5
The Army of the Potomac Receiving the News of the Capture of Fort Fisher – 6
Lieutenant S.W. Preston – 7
Lieutenant B.H. Porter – 7
Love and Fate – 7-9
Admiral Porter’s Fleet Celebrating the Surrender of Fort Fisher – 8
Our “Liddy Lizer” – 9
My Mother’s Grave – 9
Two Ways of Using Strength – 9-10
The Most Northerly Town in the World – 10, 12
“Blessed to Give” – 12
Story of an Australian Detective – 12
A Love-Tale, by an Old Fogey – 12-14
A Soldier’s Diary – 14
Humors of the Day – 14
Unionists Escaping across the Montains of East Tennessee – 15
General Adelbert Ames – 16
Destruction of the Rebel Ram “Savannah” – 16-17
General A.H. Terry – 16
Correspondence: Letter from Washington – 16-18
General Kilpatrick’s Head-Quarters in Savannah, January 11, 1865 – 18
The Atlantic Telegraph Cable – 19

[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]

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

[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, February 4, 1865 (“In going the President acted from honest sincerity and without pretension. Perhaps this may have a good effect, and perhaps otherwise.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/10/diary-of-gideon-welles-saturday_13.html

Edwin M. Stanton to Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, February 4, 1865 – 12:20 p.m. (“The President desires me to repeat that nothing transpired or transpiring with the three gentlemen from Richmond is to cause any change, hindrance, or delay of your military plans or operations.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/02/edwin-m-stanton-to-major-general_7.html

Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, February 4, 1865 (“At the present moment, 8 P. M., the artillery on our lines is in full blast, clearly proving that at this moment there is no peace.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/major-general-george-g-meade-to_29.html

Captain Charles Wright Wills: February 4, 1865 (“the Rebels evacuated an impregnable position (if there is such a thing), and our brigade was saved thereby from making some more history, for which I am grateful.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/02/captain-charles-wright-wills-february-4.html

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: February 4, 1865 (“In the evening we cross over into the Palmetto State and go into camp three miles from the river”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/03/diary-of-1st-lieutenant-daniel-l_21.html

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, February 4, 1865 (“General Mower’s division lost several men here at the bridge yesterday morning about the time that we were crossing below.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/11/diary-of-5th-sergeant-alexander-g_69.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: February 4, 1865 (“The great struggle will be in Virginia, south of Richmond, and both sides will gather up their forces for that event.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-february_70.html

The Confederate Senate to General Robert E. Lee, February 4, 1865 (Recommending putting Gen. Johnston in command of the Army of Tennessee.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-confederate-senate-to-general.html

General Robert E. Lee to General Samuel Cooper, February 4, 1865 (“I received your telegram of the 1st inst. announcing my confirmation by the Senate as general-in-chief of the armies of the Confederate States.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/04/general-robert-e-lee-to-general-samuel.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 3 (reply #43).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4293226/posts#43

David Herbert Donald, Lincoln

[Homer_J_Simpson]

This photograph of Lincoln was made when the burden of the presidency had taken its toll. President Lincoln visited Gardner's studio one Sunday in February 1865, the final year of the Civil War, accompanied by the American portraitist Matthew Wilson. Wilson had been commissioned to paint the president's portrait, but because Lincoln could spare so little time to pose, the artist needed recent photographs to work from. The pictures served their purpose, but the resulting painting- a traditional, formal, bust-length portrait in an oval format—is not particularly distinguished and hardly remembered today. Gardner's surprisingly candid photographs have proven more enduring, even though they were not originally intended to stand alone as works of art.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_photographs_of_Abraham_Lincoln

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Captain Charles Wright Wills: February 5, 1865 (“Only moved four miles to-day, and will probably lay here a few days as Sherman told Wood we were four days ahead of time”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/02/captain-charles-wright-wills-february-5.html

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: February 5, 1865 (“The seventy thousand are now making a terrible stride in South Carolina, moving through the swamps, the favorite haunts of the slave hunter and his blood hounds.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/05/diary-of-1st-lieutenant-daniel-l_41.html

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, February 5, 1865 (“The boys brought in smoked bacon by the wagon load, also great quantities of corn meal, sweet potatoes, honey and other good things.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/11/diary-of-5th-sergeant-alexander-g_88.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: February 5, 1865 (“This fruitless mission, I apprehend, will be fraught with evil, unless the career of Sherman be checked”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-february_9.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 3 (reply #42).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4293226/posts#42

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from January 21 (reply #3).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4291545/posts#3

William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis, American

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from January 13 (reply #31).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4288550/posts#31

Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee, an abridgement by Richard Harwell

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, February 6, 1865 (“The earnest desire of the President to conciliate and effect peace was manifest, but there may be such a thing as so overdoing as to cause a distrust or adverse feeling.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/10/diary-of-gideon-welles-monday-february.html

Captain Charles Wright Wills: February 6, 1865 (“Sherman said he’d chance them for the railroad with what troops there are up. We took the road this morning.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/02/captain-charles-wright-wills-february-6.html

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: February 6, 1865 (“General Corse [has] orders to move across the country and form a junction with the corps now moving from Pocataligo.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/05/diary-of-1st-lieutenant-daniel-l_38.html

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Monday, February 6, 1865 (“were all day in marching ten miles, the country being so very swampy. We had a great deal of corduroy to build”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/11/diary-of-5th-sergeant-alexander-g_23.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: February 6, 1865 (“Now the South will soon be fired up again, perhaps with a new impulse and WAR will rage with greater fury than ever.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-february_7.html

General Robert E. Lee to Samuel Cooper, February 6, 1865 (“The enemy moved in strong force yesterday to Hatcher’s Run.” Battle ensued.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/03/general-robert-e-lee-to-samuel-cooper.html

Diary of Malvina S. Waring, February 6, 1865 (“This wild talk about the Federal Army and what it’s going to do is all nonsense. Coming here! Sherman! Why not say he’s going to Paramaribo?”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/02/diary-of-malvina-s-waring-february-6.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 2 (reply #36).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4293226/posts#36

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, February 7, 1865 (“Strange how men in prominent positions will, for mere party, stoop to help the erring and the guilty. It is a species of moral treason.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/10/diary-of-gideon-welles-tuesday-february_13.html

Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, February 7, 1865 (“The next day (yesterday) Warren attacked the enemy, and after being successful all day, he was towards evening checked and finally compelled to retrace his steps in great disorder.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/major-general-george-g-meade-to_30.html

Brigadier-General Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, February 7, 1865 (“But if I take it I am brought right into the Army of the Potomac, and I can’t bear to lose my Western boys, or the broad Savannahs in the South”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/09/brigadier-general-thomas-kilby-smith-to_5.html

Captain Charles Wright Wills: February 7, 1865 (“Our regiment led the corps to-day. The 17th Corps strikes the railroad at Midway, three miles to our right, and the 20th to the left five miles.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/02/captain-charles-wright-wills-february-7.html

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: February 7, 1865 {“We cross Black Water swamps and go into camp at Hickory Hill, making a distance of ten miles.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/05/diary-of-1st-lieutenant-daniel-l_60.html

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Tuesday, February 7, 1865 (“We marched out on the Augusta and Charleston railroad to burn the bridge over the Edisto river, but the pickets, on hearing our approach, for it was too dark to see anything, all hastened across the bridge and set fire to it themselves.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/11/diary-of-5th-sergeant-alexander-g_24.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: February 7, 1865 (“Congress will soon be likely to vote a negro army, and their emancipation after the war—as Lee favors it.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-february_32.html

Diary of Malvina S. Waring, February 7, 1865 (“Tis a pretty come to pass when $75 of Confederate currency is not the equivalent of an ordinary pair of Massachusetts made shoes!”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/02/diary-of-malvina-s-waring-february-7.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: February 8, 1865 (“We cross Whippie Swamp about noon to-day and go into camp for the night.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/05/diary-of-1st-lieutenant-daniel-l_69.html

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, February 8, 1865 (“Our division started out on the railroad at 7 o’clock this morning and destroyed about ten miles of track.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/11/diary-of-5th-sergeant-alexander-g_29.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: February 8, 1865 (“It is reported by Gen. Lee that the losses on both sides on Monday were light, but the enemy have established themselves on Hatcher’s Run”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-february_15.html

General Robert E. Lee to James A. Seddon, February 8, 1865 (some of the men had been without meat for three days, and all were suffering from reduced rations and scant clothing, exposed to battle, cold, hail, and sleet.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/04/general-robert-e-lee-to-james-seddon_8.html

General Robert E. Lee to Senator Louis T. Wigfall, February 8, 1865 (Sen. Wigfall wants to send the Texas Brigade home to recruit. Gen. Lee says no.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/11/general-robert-e-lee-to-senator-louis-t.html

Diary of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire: February 8, 1865 (“I can’t keep a regular diary now, because I do not like to write all that I feel and hear.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/04/diary-of-judith-brockenbrough-mcguire_12.html

Diary of Malvina S. Waring, February 8, 1865 (“Saw that young Englishman again today. He isn’t half the idle dreamer he pretends to be. In truth (but let me whisper it softly), I believe he’s a spy!”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/02/diary-of-malvina-s-waring-february-8.html

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, February 9, 1865 (“I note you have seen the report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, about the Mine. You have done Grant injustice; he did not testify against me”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/major-general-george-g-meade-to_31.html

Major Charles Wright Wills: February 9, 1865 (“Late Confederate papers say that Thomas has started south towards Montgomery, leaving Hood behind him.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/02/captain-charles-wright-wills-february-9_16.html

Major Charles Wright Wills: February 9, 1865 (“Rear guard on our road to-day. Made about a dozen miles, very disagreeable march. Snowed a little in the morning and terribly cold all day.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/02/captain-charles-wright-wills-february-9.html

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Daniel L. Ambrose: February 9, 1865 (“The roads still continue desperate, and in consequence we move slowly. In the evening we cross the little Saltkatchie swamp.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/05/diary-of-1st-lieutenant-daniel-l_16.html

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, February 9, 1865 (“A great deal of property is being destroyed by our army on this raid.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/11/diary-of-5th-sergeant-alexander-g_42.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: February 9, 1865 (“There is to be public speaking in the African Church to-day, or in the Square, to reanimate the people for another carnival of blood.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/03/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-february_24.html

General Robert E. Lee’s General Orders No. 1 (“I assume command of the military forces of the Confederate States.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/04/general-robert-e-lees-general-orders-no.html

Diary of Malvina S. Waring, February 9, 1865 (“Finished Les Miserables, Victor Hugo’s grand work. What munificence of power! What eloquence! What strength! How sublime even its absurdities!”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2024/02/diary-of-malvina-s-waring-february-9.html