Civil War Era Photographic Portraiture #004 Title: [Five enlistees from Co. K, 11th Ohio Infantry Regiment, one in uniform and three in hickory shirts, at Camp Dennison, three with bayoneted rifles] Date Created/Published: [United States], [May 1861] Medium: 1 photograph : ambrotype ; plate 82 x 70 mm (sixth plate format), case 92 x 80 [...]

JUNE 15th—Another clerk has been appointed; a sedate one, by the name of Shepherd, and a former pupil of the colonel’s. I received several hints that the Chief of the Bureau was not at all a favorite with the Secretary, who considered him utterly unfit for the position; and that it could hardly be good [...]

Camp Wright, Hulton, Penm., Saturday, June 15, 1861. Dear Father:– Our camp this week has been the scene of a good deal of confusion and uneasiness. I clip an extract from this morning’s Dispatch that explains the cause. We have been told by some officers that “We were accepted; we were going to Chambersburg; we [...]

June 15, 1861 A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 Privateer “Savannah” arrived at New York a prize of the U. S. brig “Perry.” Gen. Lyon occupied Jefferson City, Mo. Gen. Price retreated to Booneville. Harper’s Ferry occupied by the Union forces. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America by Richard [...]

JUNE 14th—Col. Bledsoe has given up writing almost entirely, but he groans as much as ever. He is like a fish out of water, and unfit for office.

Charles Francis Adams To His Son London, June 14, 1861 My position here thus far has not been difficult or painful. If I had followed the course of some of my colleagues in the diplomatic line this country might have been on the high road to the confederate camp before now. It did not seem [...]

June 14, 1861 General Joseph Johnston begins to withdraw from Harpers Ferry by blowing up the 800-foot B&O trestle over the Potomac River Skirmish, Seneca Mills, Md. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 Rebels evacuated and burned Harper’s Ferry, destroyed the railroad bridge, and took the armory machinery to Richmond. Another street [...]

JUNE 13th. —Only one of the Williamsburg volunteers came into the department proper; and he will make his way, for he is a flatterer. He told me he had read my “Wild Western Scenes” twice, and never was so much entertained by any other book. He went to work with hearty good-will.

Cairo, June 13, 1861. I am converted to the belief that Cairo is not such a bad place after all. The record shows that less deaths have occurred here in seven weeks among 3,000 men, than in Villa Ridge (a higher, and much dryer place with abundant shade and spring water), in five weeks among [...]

June 13, 1861 A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 Fast day in the Confederate States, in accordance with the President’s proclamation. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America by Richard Swainson Fisher, New York, Johnson and Ward, 1863

June 12th.–Have been looking at Mrs. O’Dowd as she burnished the “Meejor’s arrms” before Waterloo. And I have been busy, too. My husband has gone to join Beauregard, somewhere beyond Richmond. I feel blue-black with melancholy. But I hope to be in Richmond before long myself. That is some comfort. The war is making us [...]

JUNE 12th.—Gen. Lee has been or is to be created a full general in the Confederate army, and will be assigned to duty here. He is third on the list, Sydney Johnston being second. From all I can see and infer, we shall make no attempt this year to invade the enemy’s country. Our policy [...]

JUNE 11th.—It is coming in earnest! The supposed thunder, heard down the river yesterday, turns out to have been artillery. A fight has occurred at Bethel, and blood—Yankee blood—has flowed pretty freely. Magruder was assailed by some five thousand Yankees at Bethel, on the Peninsula. His force was about nine hundred; but he was behind [...]

June 11, 1861 First session of the Second Wheeling Convention A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 Col. Wallace surprised and routed a rebel force of 800 at Romney, Va. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America by Richard Swainson Fisher, New York, Johnson and Ward, 1863

JUNE 10th. —Yesterday the colonel did not take so many letters to answer; and today he looked about him for other duties more congenial to his nature.

Boston, June 10, 1861 I am sorry to see what you say of the possibility of your demanding your passports. Stocks rose in New York on Saturday owing to the reported tenor of your despatches, which must however have been of a tone very different from your letter to me. Still I can’t help thinking [...]

June 10, 1861 Battle of Big Bethel: Confederate troops under John B. Magruder defeat a much larger Union force led by General Ebenezer W. Pierce in Virginia. A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 Battle of Big Bethel, Va.—Union force repulsed. Major-Gen. Banks assumed command of the Department of Annapolis. A Chronological History [...]

JUNE 9th.—Today the Secretary refused to sign the colonel’s letters, telling him to sign them himself—”by order of the Secretary of War.”

Camp Wright, Hulton, Penn., Sunday, June 9, 1861. Dear Sister L.:– I wish you could just step in and see us here, say on a dress parade. We are in just as beautiful a place as I ever saw. The lovely Alleghany rolls along at the foot of the hill, and the little country seats [...]

JUNE 8th—This morning Col. Bledsoe came in with his letters, some fifty in number, looking haggard and worn. It was, indeed, a vast number. But with one of his humorous smiles, he said they were short. He asked me to look over them, and I found them mainly appropriate responses to the letters marked for [...]

Camp Wright, Hulton, Penn., Saturday, June 8, 1861. Dear Sister H.:– You will see by the date of this that I have left Camp Wilkins and am now at the new camp called Camp Wright. We arrived here to-day. Oh, I tell you we have a splendid place, fifteen miles from Pittsburgh on the south [...]

June 8, 1861 Virginia turns its state militia over to the Confederate States of America By a vote of 108,339 to 47,233, Tennessee decides to secede from the United States A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1 North Carolina State Convention ratified the C. S. Constitution. Gen. Patterson’s advance moved from Chambersburg toward [...]

Along with the daily material from the civil war that I am publishing, I am also “collecting” other material, such as magazine stories and articles, from the war years that doesn’t fit well in the daily publication format.  I am publishing literary pieces eparately from the daily blog and linking them under Literary Works, available [...]

JUNE 7th.—We have a Chief of the Bureau of War, a special favorite, it is said, of Mr. Davis. I went into the Secretary’s room (I now occupy one adjoining), and found a portly gentleman in a white vest sitting alone. The Secretary was out, and had not instructed the new officer what to do. [...]