Posted on 06/11/2019 6:31:35 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts
First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.
Posting history, in reverse order
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
I wonder if Mr. Curtis whose serial “Trumps” is being published as the same time as one of Dickens’ great novels “Tale of Two Cities” feels a bit overshadowed. I looked up this Mr. Curtis, he was one of founders of the Republican party, and was a prominent abolitionist.
June 15. Dined with Ellie yesterday at Mrs. Georgey Peter’s and went with her and Dr. Carroll to the Academy of Music for I Puritani; prima donna, the very distinguished amateur, Mme. de Ferussac (Colonel Thorne’s daughter). We expected a crowd and a grand excitement, but on entering our box – very late – twenty minutes behind time, we found two-thirds of the front boxes empty, and the parquette sparsely sprinkled with people, rari nantes in gurgite vasto.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Continued from April 15 (reply #13).
James Lee McDonough, William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country, A Life
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 17, 1859.
DEAR SHERMAN: I received your letter this morning. It is unnecessary to make declarations when you already know so well that it would give me sincere pleasure to serve you. At present I see nothing of the kind you mention to suggest to you, but I will look about with hope that I may. There is no certainty of a vacancy in the Pay Department, though one of its members is now in serious difficulty about his account. If a vacancy should occur I know no reason why you should not endeavor to secure it, and succeed, too, if it were dependent on the merits which your case could be made to present.
You must remember, however, that in these times everything turns on political or other influence. If you can bring that kind of influence to bear on the President let it be done at once to secure a promise of the first vacancy; for it would be filled before I could even get the news to you by telegraph after it had occurred, so ready and pressing are the aspirants. . .
In the meantime, however, I enclose you a paper which presents an opening that I have been disposed to think well of. The only trouble is that the Academy has not yet been secured by state laws, though I think it altogether probable that it will be. If you could secure one of the professorships and the superintendency, as I think you could, it would give the handsome salary of $3,500. The paper is sent to me by [George] Mason Graham, General [R. B.] Mason's half-brother, and explains the whole matter. If you think well of it I have no doubt I can write him such a letter as will secure you a valuable advocate at first, and a useful supporter afterwards. You will observe there is not much time to spare. . .
This was the first suggestion received by me on this subject, and to Gen. Buell I owe my election as superintendent of the Louisiana Seminary of Learning. He was seconded by Gen. G. Mason Graham, half-brother to my old chief in California, Col. R. B. Mason. Generals Bragg and Beauregard did not even know I was an applicant.
W. T. S.
SOURCE: Walter L. Flemming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 22-3
WORCESTER, June 17, 1859
DEAREST MOTHER:
We have had the greatest heroine of the age here, Harriet Tubman, a black woman, and a fugitive slave, who has been back eight times secretly and brought out in all sixty slaves with her, including all her own family, besides aiding many more in other ways to escape. Her tales of adventure are beyond anything in fiction and her ingenuity and generalship are extraordinary. I have known her for some time and mentioned her in speeches once or twice — the slaves call her Moses. She has had a reward of twelve thousand dollars offered for her in Maryland and will probably be burned alive whenever she is caught, which she probably will be, first or last, as she is going again. She has been in the habit of working in hotels all summer and laying up money for this crusade in the winter. She is jet black and cannot read or write, only talk, besides acting.
SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 81
One of the things this story brings to light is how “small” the country was at the time. In the military, the officers corps was small and pretty tight—everyone seemed to be connected with each other at some point. While they might not have been “friends”, they certainly all ran in the same circles.
These days, with a professional officer corps in the thousands such a war would be fought by strangers for the most part—except at the highest levels. I think that the knowledge of the man one was facing on the battlefield prevented the war from being even more savage than it was.
Hi.
Thanks for the class and curriculum.
In the fwiw department, Gen. Sherman is STILL reviled in much of GA.
Just sayin
5.56mm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.