February 23, 1861; The Charleston Mercury Hon. ROBERT TOOMBS was born in Wilkes County, Ga., July 2, 1810. Commencing his collegiate life at the University of Georgia, he subsequently went North, and graduated at Union College, Schenectady, N.Y. In 1836, he served as a captain of volunteers in the Creek war. In the next year [...]

February 23, 1861 Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington after the discovery of a potential assassination attempt that was to have taken place as the Lincoln party traversed Baltimore. The President-elect’s clandestine journey is lampooned by a number of newspaper cartoonists, who inflate wild rumors that he was disguised as a Scotsman. Texas citizens ratify [...]

February 22, 1861; The Charleston Mercury MONTGOMERY, ALA., February 18, 1861. The great event of the nineteenth century, initiated on the 20th day of December, 1860, has this day been consummated, and the last act necessary in its fulfillment is concluded. The Hon. JEFFERSON DAVIS, of the State of Mississippi, was this day, the 18th [...]

February 22, 1861; The New York Herald Mr. Lincoln, the President elect, and suite, left this city yesterday morning, en route for the White House. At Jersey City, at Newark, at Trenton, and at all the intermediate points, the populace turned out in crowds to see the President. Mr. Lincoln reached Philadelphia at four o’clock [...]

February 22, 1861; The Charleston Mercury The special despatches of THE MERCURY, announcing that a stealthy reinforcement of Fort Sumter had been determined on, and that Federal troops, in boats, might be expected at any moment, and that circumstances should happen to favor their attempt to reach the fort, were confirmed about nine o’clock last [...]

February 22, 1861; Richmond Enquirer Mr. Adams, the Master Armorer of the Richmond Armory, exhibited yesterday to the members of the Military Committee of both Houses, the new model gun for the State. The gun was made at the Springfield Armory. It is a combination of the United States musket, and the Enfield (British) rifle. [...]

February 21, 1861; The Charleston Mercury JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Provisional Government, was born in Christian County, Kentucky, in 1805. He commenced his education at the Transylvania University, Kentucky, but was subsequently appointed a Cadet at the West Point Military Academy, where he graduated in 1828. Since that time he has filled a number [...]

February 21, 1861; The Charleston Mercury CASTING PROJECTILES. Solid shot, case shot and shells are cast at ironworks from white forge iron; formerly iron moulds were used for these, but they had the effect of making the balls too hard on the surface, whereby the bore of the gun was injured. At present, therefore, all [...]

February 21, 1861; The Charleston Mercury WASHINGTON, February 18, 1861. LINCOLN’s Pilgrim’s Progress continues to occupy the greater part of the town talk. His speeches increase in asinine qualities, and excite almost as much disgust among the Republicans as other people. A few of their papers profess to admire them, but that is all bosh. [...]

February 21, 1861; The New York Herald Mr. Lincoln yesterday received his fellow citizens at City Hall. Mayor Wood delivered an address of welcome on the occasion to which Mr. Lincoln responded. In the evening Mr. Lincoln attended the Opera, and at midnight he was serenaded. Mr. Hamlin, the Vice President elect, arrived in town [...]

February 21, 1861; The Charleston Mercury The Flag which we will display this morning from our office, is a present to THE MERCURY. In order to have it properly displayed, we have had erected a staff twenty six feet high, from the roof of our office, from which elevation it will be thrown to the [...]

February 21, 1861; The New York Herald (From the Lafayette (Ind.) Journal, Feb. 18.) We were on Saturday night placed in possession of the astounding information that an attempt was made, on Monday last, to wreck the train bearing the President elect and suite, about one mile west of the State line. The particulars as [...]

February 20, 1861; The New York Herald The great metropolitan event yesterday was the arrival at three o’clock P.M. of Abraham Lincoln, President elect of the United States. In another column we give an interesting and detailed account of the ceremonies of reception from the time he left Albany until a late hour last evening, [...]

February 20, 1861; The Charleston Mercury MONTGOMERY, February 14, 1861. Upon one point there appears to be a fixed determination and straight forward action here. Reconstruction is dead. A Southern Confederation is established, and the Southern Confederacy is a fixed thing. But what sort of a Confederacy? Here the Convention is at sea; and vague [...]

February 20, 1861; The Charleston Mercury A glance at a map of the Southern States will be sufficient to impress the most superficial observer with the unprotectedness of our seacoast. Along a large portion of this shore line, extending from Cape Fear to the Rio Grande, and almost down to the first ripple of the [...]

February 20, 1861; The Charleston Mercury Our Richmond Correspondence. RICHMOND, VA., February 16, 1861. Politics are in a most perplexing and incomprehensible state here. The Convention is making little headway. Delay seems to be the object of two parties in the Convention. The one party, that probably constitutes a majority of that body, hope that [...]

February 20, 1861 P. G. T. Beauregard resigns from the U. S. Army. President-elect Abraham Lincoln and Vice-president-elect Hannibal Hamlin of Maine meet in New York City

Montgomery, Ala., February 19, 1861.–The brand-new Confederacy is making or remodeling its Constitution. Everybody wants Mr. Davis to be General-in-Chief or President. Keitt and Boyce and a party preferred Howell Cobb ¹ for President. And the fire-eaters per se wanted Barnwell Rhett. My brother Stephen brought the officers of the “Montgomery Blues” to dinner. “Very [...]

Abraham Lincoln, the President Elect, Addressing the People from the Astor House Balcony February 19, 1861 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen:—I am rather an old man to avail myself of such an excuse as I am now about to do, yet the truth is so distinct and presses itself so distinctly upon me that I cannot [...]

February 19, 1861; The Charleston Mercury The Inaugural Address, ETC., ETC., ETC. MONTGOMERY, February 18. – The Inaugural ceremonies are just over. The procession was the grandest pageant ever witnessed in the South. There was an immense concourse on Capitol Hill, consisting of ladies from all portions of this and neighboring States, the military and [...]

February 19, 1861; The New York Herald Jefferson Davis, the President of the Southern confederacy, was duly inaugurated at Montgomery, Alabama, yesterday. The spectacle is described as the grandest ever witnessed at the South. Mr. Davis delivered his inaugural address at one o. We print the document complete in our columns this morning. It is, [...]

February 19, 1861; Richmond Enquirer The Peace Congress, a body composed of most respectable gentlemen from, we believe, twenty one States, is now assembled in Washington, and they are looked to by the people of the United States for propositions of amendment, which shall restore peace to the country, and bring back the seceded States. [...]

February 19, 1861 Maryland Secession convention ends without a declaration of secession. Jefferson Davis appoints his Cabinet including fireeater Robert Toombs (State), Christopher Memminger (Treasury), LeRoy Pope Walker (War), Judah P. Benjamin (Attorney-General) and J. H. Reagan (Postmaster-General).

February 18, 1861; The New York Herald The news from the South this morning is of a very important character. The Southern Congress was proceeding with great vigor in the organization of their new government. President Davis arrived at Montgomery on Saturday last, and was received by the people with the wildest enthusiasm. In a [...]