Thomas Wentworth Higginson to James T. Fields, January 1862

Dear Friend:

I send the “Letter to a Young Contributor,” which will cover nine or ten pages.

I am sorry to say that this household unites in the opinion that February is a decidedly poor number. Mrs. Howe is tedious. “To-day” grim and disagreeable, though not without power; “Love and Skates” [Theodore Winthrop] trashy and second-rate; and Bayard Taylor below plummet-sounding of decent criticism. His mediocre piece had a certain simplicity and earnestness, but this seems to me only fit for the “Ledger” in its decline. I could only raise one smile over the “Biglow” (“rod, perch, or pole”), but I suppose that will be liked. Whittier's poem is daring, but successful; Agassiz has covered the same ground often. Whipple uses “considerable” atrociously at beginning of last critical notice, and “Snow” has a direful misprint on page 195 (end of, paragraph) — South for Earth. I liked “Ease in Work,” “Fremont and Artists” in Italy.

The thing that troubled me most, though, was the absence of a strong article on the war, especially as January had none. I see men buying the “Continental” for its strong emancipatory pieces, and they are amazed that the “Atlantic” should not have got beyond Lowell's timid “Self-Possession.” For the “Atlantic” to speak only once in three months, and then against an emancipatory policy, is humiliating. Perhaps I ought to have written and offered one, but I could not write when busy about regiments and companies, and after that I supposed you had a press of war matter on hand, as no doubt you did some months ago; but public sentiment is moving fast if events are not, and it is a shame that life should come from the “Knickerbocker” and not from the “Atlantic.” You always get frank criticisms from me, at least, you know.

P.S. I see the papers treat the number well — but so they always do. At the lowest point ever reached by the magazine, just before your return from England, the newspaper praises kept regularly on.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 112-4

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: June 12, 1861

Have been looking at Mrs. O'Dowd as she burnished the “Meejor's arms” 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 all tenderly sentimental. No casualties yet, no real mourning, nobody hurt. So it is all parade, fife, and fine feathers. Posing we are en grande tenue. There is no imagination here to forestall woe, and only the excitement and wild awakening from every-day stagnant life are felt. That is, when one gets away from the two or three sensible men who are still left in the world.

When Beauregard's report of the capture of Fort Sumter was printed, Willie Ancrum said: “How is this? Tom Ancrum and Ham Boykin's names are not here. We thought from what they told us that they did most of the fighting.”

Colonel Magruder¹ has done something splendid on the peninsula. Bethel is the name of the battle. Three hundred of the enemy killed, they say.

Our people, Southerners, I mean, continue to drop in from the outside world. And what a contempt those who seceded a few days sooner feel for those who have just come out! A Camden notable, called Jim Velipigue, said in the street to-day: “At heart Robert E. Lee is against us; that I know.” What will not people say in war times! Also, he said that Colonel Kershaw wanted General Beauregard to change the name of the stream near Manassas Station. Bull's Run is so unrefined. Beauregard answered: '”Let us try and make it as great a name as your South Carolina Cowpens.”²

Mrs. Chesnut, born in Philadelphia, can not see what right we have to take Mt. Vernon from our Northern sisters. She thinks that ought to be common to both parties. We think they will get their share of this world's goods, do what we may, and we will keep Mt. Vernon if we can. No comfort in Mr. Chesnut's letter from Richmond. Unutterable confusion prevails, and discord already.

In Charleston a butcher has been clandestinely supplying the Yankee fleet outside the bar with beef. They say he gave the information which led to the capture of the Savannah. They will hang him.

Mr. Petigru alone in South Carolina has not seceded. When they pray for our President, he gets up from his knees. He might risk a prayer for Mr. Davis. I doubt if it would seriously do Mr. Davis any good. Mr. Petigru is too clever to think himself one of the righteous whose prayers avail so overly much. Mr. Petigru's disciple, Mr. Bryan, followed his example. Mr. Petigru has such a keen sense of the ridiculous he must be laughing in his sleeve at the hubbub this untimely trait of independence has raised.

Looking out for a battle at Manassas Station. I am always ill. The name of my disease is a longing to get away from here and to go to Richmond.

_______________

¹ John Bankhead Magruder was a graduate of West Point, who had served in the Mexican War, and afterward while stationed at Newport, R. I., had become famous for his entertainments. When Virginia seceded, he resigned his commission in the United States Army. After the war he settled in Houston, Texas. The battle of Big Bethel was fought on June 10, 1861. The Federals lost in killed and wounded about 100, among them Theodore Winthrop, of New York, author of Cecil Dreeme. The Confederate losses were very slight.

² The battle of the Cowpens in South Carolina was fought on January 17, 1781; the British, under Colonel Tarleton, being defeated by General Morgan, with a loss to the British of 300 killed and wounded and 500 prisoners.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 62

John Lothrop Motley to Mary Benjamin Motley, June 20, 1861

Washington,

June 20th, 1861.

My Dearest Mary, — I told you that I went with Seward in the evening of Monday to see the President. He looks younger than I expected — less haggard than the pictures — and on the whole, except for his height, which is two or three inches above six feet, would not be remarked in any way as ill- or well-looking. His conversation was commonplace enough, and I can hardly remember a single word that he said, except when we were talking — all three — about the military plans in progress, he observed, not meaning anything like an epigram, “Scott will not let us outsiders know anything of his plans.” He seemed sincere and honest, however, and steady, but of course it is quite out of the question for me to hazard an opinion on so short an acquaintance as to his moral or intellectual qualities.

Seward impresses me as being decidedly a man of intellect, but seems an egotist. . . . There is no doubt whatever that the early impressions of the Foreign Ministers here were favourable to the success of the rebellion, and that these impressions were conveyed to their Governments. Mercier, the French Minister, was most decided in his views and his sympathies, while Lord Lyons, calm and quiet as you know him to be, as well as sagacious and right-minded, had also little doubt, I suspect, six or seven weeks ago that the secession or revolution was an accomplished fact. Hence the anxiety of their Governments to be on good terms with the rebels, particularly after the astounding misrepresentations of the Southern commissioners. It amuses Americans very much when I tell them that the recognition of Mr. Adams was remonstrated against by those individuals.

I dined with Lord Lyons yesterday, and M. Mercier was there. Of course we spoke of little else but American affairs. There is no need of quoting the conversation, but it is sufficient to say that little doubt seems now to exist in the minds of either that the United States Government is sure to put down this rebellion and remain a great power—greater than ever before.

The encouragement which the rebels have derived from their premature recognition which they have received as belligerents, and still more by the exclusion of our ships of war as well as their pirates from the English ports all over the world, for the purpose of bringing in prizes, while on the contrary France does not exclude our ships of war, but only privateers, has already given the rebellion a new lease of life. Still more pernicious is the hope which is now entertained by the rebels, that so soon as the new cotton crop is ready to come forward — say in October — England will break up our blockade, and of course become instantly involved in war with us. I refuse to contemplate such a possibility. It would be madness on the part of England, for at the very moment when it would ally itself with the South against the United States, for the sake of supplying the English manufacturers with their cotton, there would be a cry of twenty millions as from one mouth for the instant emancipation of all the slaves.

Nothing could resist that cry. The sentiment of the Free States would be more overwhelming even than its manifestation so lately, which has surprised the world by the rising as it were out of the earth in the brief space of six weeks, of a well equipped and disciplined army of 250,000 men. The alliance of England with the South for the sake of re-opening the cotton ports would have for its instant result the total destruction of the cotton interest. An invading army at half a dozen different ports would proclaim the instant abolition of slavery.

There is not the slightest exaggeration in this. No logic can be more inexorable, and the opinion is avowed on all sides.

To break our blockade for the sake of getting cotton for Manchester, would lead to the total extermination of the cotton crop for many a long year. No English statesman can be blind to this, and therefore I do not fear any interference on the part of England. The South, however, does expect such interference, and will in consequence prolong its struggle a little.

I passed the whole of the day before yesterday on the other side of the Potomac — the “sacred soil of Virginia.” We hired a carriage and took it on board a small steamer plying to Alexandria. The sail for about half a dozen miles along the broad, magnificent Potomac, under a cloudless sky, but protected by an awning, was very pleasant. The heat is not excessive yet, and there is usually a good air stirring. The expanse of hill and dale and the wooded heights which surround the margin of the beautiful river make a delightful passage of scenery. Alexandria, but lately a bustling tobacco port, is now like a city of the dead so far as anything like traffic is concerned. It is the head-quarters of General McDowell, an experienced army officer, who commands all the Union troops (some 25,000) in this part of Virginia.

We went to the Marshall House, the principal hotel of the place, where, as I suppose you read in the papers, Colonel Ellsworth of the New York Zouaves was killed. He had gone in person to the top of the house to cut down a Secession flag, and was coming down the stairs with it, when he was shot by the master of the house, one Jackson, who in his turn was instantly despatched by a private in the regiment. Ellsworth is much regretted as a young officer of great courage and irreproachable character.

By the way, you should read in the Atlantic for June and July a very spirited account of the march of the New York 7th to Washington. It was written by Major Winthrop of New York, who was killed the other day in that unlucky and blundering affair of General Pierce at Great Bethel. These outpost skirmishes are of little consequence to their ultimate results, but they serve to encourage the enemy a little. On the other hand, they read a useful lesson to Government upon the folly of appointing militia officers to high command when there is no lack of able and experienced army officers. Of these there are plenty, and no idea is more ridiculous than that the South has got all the officers and all the military material. The bone and sinew of the Free States are probably the best raw material for troops in the world. General Scott told me last night that the Massachusetts volunteers in a few months would be equal to the best regulars. To an unsophisticated eye they are nearly so already.

A regiment marched into Washington yesterday morning— the Massachusetts 1st—and with their steady march, stout frames, good equipments, and long train of baggage waggons, drawn by admirable teams of horses, following them, they looked very business-like, I assure you. And this regiment is but a tenth part of the men whom Massachusetts has already contributed. As for New York, I am afraid to say how many are already here, and they are wonderfully well-drilled — at least 20,000 — and they can send on as many more as can possibly be required. The contention now among the States is to get the largest proportion of their regiments accepted. The manner in which these great armies have been so suddenly improvised is astounding to foreigners. “C'est le pays des improvisations” said Mr. Mercier to me yesterday. From Alexandria we went on to Shuter's Hill, one of the heights commanding Washington, where, under guidance of Colonel Wright, the engineer who built the works, we examined the very considerable fortifications which have been erected here.

It is very interesting to see the volunteers working with pick and spade under the broiling sun of Virginia, without complaint or inconvenience. They are men who have never doubted that labour was honourable.

We afterwards went to Arlington House, formerly the seat of Washington Custis, and now the property of General Lee. He is an excellent officer, and was, before his defection, a favourite of General Scott. The place has great natural beauties of hill and dale, lawn and forest, and commands a magnificent view of Washington and the whole valley of the Potomac; but the house is mean. It is now the head-quarters of General McDowell (I was wrong in saying further back that these were at Alexandria). Colonel Heintzelmann commands there, and there are some New York regiments encamped in the grounds. I observed one alley through the tents had been christened Fifth Avenue. The property is thoroughly respected, and the soldiers have even amused their leisure in planting little gardens about their tents instead of destroying or defacing anything.

Thus we passed the day in going about the lines from one point to another, receiving explanations of everything from most intelligent officers — generally of the regular army. The works at the Tete du Pont, to defend the mile-long bridge which crosses the Potomac from the Virginia side to Washington, are very thorough, and the attempt upon Washington, if made, must, I think, result in a total defeat. I passed an hour with General Scott last night at his house in Washington. He tells me still that he expects an attack daily along the whole line, says that the rebels are perhaps in greater number than those which he has in the immediate neighbourhood, but that his are much better troops. I could not make out that he had any reasons to expect an attack, except upon the logical ground that they must do it, or come to grief by remaining inactive. They are poorly provisioned, impatient, and in danger of disbanding. Meantime, Scott has secured Harper's Ferry, a most important strategical position, without striking a blow. They were forced to evacuate the place to escape being surrounded. “Eeate d savoir” how it will be at Manassas Junction. The General pleases me exceedingly. He is in manner quiet, but hale, vigorous, and full of energy, and has no doubt whatever of bringing the whole matter to a happy issue within a reasonable time. But the things which annoy him most are the lying telegrams of the newspapers and the general impatience of outsiders. I spent an hour and a half with Seward last evening, and afterwards called at the White House on Mrs. Lincoln. She is rather nice-looking, youngish, with very round white arms, well dressed, chatty enough, and if she would not, like all the South and West, say “Sir” to you every instant, as if you were a royal personage, she would be quite agreeable.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Volume 1, p. 382-7

Theodore Wintrhop to Elizabeth Woolsey Winthrop, June 1, 1861

HEADQUARTERS DEPT. OF VIRGINIA,

Fortress Monroe, June 1st, 1861.

My Dear Mother, — Somehow I find myself here on Gen. Butler's staff, acting military secretary at present, and here I shall stay, if the business remains as intensely interesting as now. Billy also writes me from Washington that I am to be appointed First Lieutenant in the Army. My rank as Secretary is, I suppose, Captain or perhaps Major, so you see I am in the line of promotion. Please write to me here, dear mother, at once. I cannot take time to write, for things thicken all the while. We shall not have fighting, but the preparations are busy. All the manuscripts in the drawer and the trunk please preserve with care, as they must make my fortune when I am a half-pay officer, with no arms or legs. Lively work presently. Address me for the present simply T. W., Care Maj.-Gen. Butler, Fortress Monroe, Virginia.

SOURCE: Laura Winthrop Johnson, Editor, The Life and Poems of Theodore Winthrop, p. 290

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, June 16, 1861

Shady Hill, 16 June, 1861.

. . . Here at home we are all well, — and leading such tranquil lives that the contrast between them and the labours, anxieties, and sorrows of the war, is brought very strikingly home to our hearts. I know you must have felt very deeply the death of Theodore Winthrop. The loss of such men as he makes us feel how heavy a price the country has to pay for the support of the principles that are at stake. It is sad that he should have fallen so early in the struggle, and in such fulness of life. But no lover of his country, of liberty or of peace, would desire to change the manner of his death. Few men in our days have been happy enough to be called to die for a principle, or for their country's sake. There is real glory and joy in dying while doing good service in this war.

I am told that Winthrop's article, which is to appear in the “Atlantic” this week is as full of spirit and manliness as the one that came out last month. But with what a solemn commentary will it be read.

Our regiments enlisted for the war are going off one after another. The best of them is Gordon's,1 — so called from its colonel who is a West Pointer. It is officered throughout by gentlemen, and its ranks are full of fine fellows. But, I forget, you know all about it, and your hearts will follow it and go with it wherever it goes. . . .

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 234-5

Theodore Winthop to L., May 31st, 1861 – 10 p.m.

Fortress Monroe, May 31st, 1861.

Dear L., — Thanks for your kind letter and the hamper. I saw Gen. Butler at Washington. He invited me here when the Seventh should return, and here am I, acting as his Military Sec'y pro tem. He will find me something to do. He is a character, and really was the man who saved Washington by devising the march to Annapolis — a place which nobody had ever heard of.

By Liberty! but it is worth something to be here at this moment, in the center of the center! Here we scheme the schemes! Here we take the secession flags, the arms, the prisoners! Here we liberate the slaves — virtually. I write at ten P. M. We have just had a long examination of a pompous Virginian, secessionist and slave owner, who came under safe conduct to demand back his twenty niggers who had run over to us. Half of his slaves he had smuggled over to Alabama for sale a week ago. But he was not lively enough with the second score. He said, with a curious mock pathos — “One boy, sir, staid behind, sir, and I said to him, John, they're all gone, John, and you can go if you like; I can't hold you. No, master, says John, I'll stay by you, master, till I die! But, sir, in the morning John was gone, and he'd taken my best horse with him! Now, Colonel,” said the old chap, half pleading and half demanding, “I'm an invalid, and you have got two of my boys, young boys, sir, not over twelve — no use to you except perhaps to black a gentleman's boots. I would like them very much, sir, if you would spare them. In fact, Colonel, sir, I ought to have my property back.”

It would have done Gay's heart good to have heard what Gen. Butler said, when this customer was dismissed. Then we had an earnest, simple fellow, black as the ace of spades, with whites of eyes like holes in his head, and sunshine seen through; who had run away from the batteries at Yorktown, and came to tell what they were doing there. It is prime, and growing primer all the time. I wish I could write more, but I am at hard work most of the day. In the afternoon I ride about, and the sentries present arms, though I am still in my uniform of a private. I left Billy in Washington. It broke my heart to leave the boy, but I shall work with him again. Dearest love to all in the house and region,

Yours,

T. W.

SOURCE: Laura Winthrop Johnson, Editor, The Life and Poems of Theodore Winthrop, p. 288-90

Theodore Winthrop to Elizabeth Woolsey Winthrop, May 10, 1861

Camp Cameron, Near Washington, May 10th, 1861.

Dear Mother, — I have been disabled from writing for several days by an inflamed eye. I had used it too much in writing in the Capitol by imperfect light, and the smoke of a guard fire on a wet night finished me. So, for a few days, I was invalided, and took refuge in town with a friend. He is an old soldier, and a fellow of infinite experience, and I have had a capital time with him. At camp things go on in order, and all our friends look finely.

Mr. Fiske sent me a letter to Seward. I have seen him twice, and am more than ever convinced of his capability to do his part in the crisis. You have read his masterly letters to Dayton. That is the only ground to take, as you know I have believed from the first. Seward and the others avow that they did not anticipate this total defection of one side, nor the total adhesion of the other, and so at first we were paralyzed. Now, everything will advance as fast as it can.

Mr. Seward gave me a letter to Cameron. I hope to get a Captaincy in the new army. But who can say? there are a dozen applications to one place. I shall manage somehow to see service. Active service for the army now collected here is hardly likely just yet, unless we are attacked, which we do not expect. Perhaps there will be before long an attack on Harper's Ferry. Great military movements southward will not take place before fall, so the chiefs say. For we are regiments, and not an array as yet, and we must move in an impregnable body, to reclaim the country.

SOURCE: Laura Winthrop Johnson, Editor, The Life and Poems of Theodore Winthrop, p. 287-8

Diary of Josephine Shaw Lowell: June 10, 1862

This is the anniversary of Theodore Winthrop's death, and we've just got used to missing him. As Mother said today, “It doesn't seem a year since he died, but it seems as if he had been dead years.” Think of his falling with Nellie's and my photographs in his watch! I can't realize it; a man who will be known in all history and who is now spoken of as a second Sir Philip Sidney.

SOURCE: William Rhinelander Stewart, The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell, p. 29

George William Curtis to John J. Pinkerton, July 9, 1861

North Shore, Richmond Co., N. Y.,

July 9, '61.

My Dear Pinkerton, — I have been long meaning to say how d’ ye do, and now your note is most welcome. No, I stayed at home, resisting several very tempting calls, nor shall I be lured to any college halls this year.

I have two brothers at the war, and my wife has one. My neighbor and friend, Theodore Winthrop, died, at Great Bethel, as he had lived. Many other warm friends are in arms, and I hold myself ready when the call comes. I envy no other age. I believe with all my heart in the cause, and in Abe Lincoln. His message is the most truly American message ever delivered. Think upon what a millennial year we have fallen when the President of the United States declares officially that this government is founded upon the rights of man! Wonderfully acute, simple, sagacious, and of antique honesty! I can forgive the jokes and the big hands, and the inability to make bows. Some of us who doubted were wrong. This people is not rotten. What the young men dream, the old men shall see. Well, I will not discuss Seward just now. I do not believe him to be a coward or traitor. Chase said to a friend's friend of mine last week, “Mr. Seward stands by my strongest measures.”

I should like greatly to sit with you and the P. M. and the D. A., and talk the night away, even if the newspaper did find us out and tattle! But I can only shake your hand and theirs, which I do with all my heart.

My wife sends her kind remembrance. We have a little girl, born on the day of the Proclamation.

Yours always,

George William Curtis.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 147-8

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, July 30, 1861

July 30, '61.

What a summer it is and has been! That nothing shall be wanting, we have a comet, too; a comet seen last when Charles Fifth was abdicating and Calais was falling, and Elizabeth was coming to the throne, and Ben Jonson and Spenser and the Dutch William were alive, and Philip Sidney was a gray-eyed boy of two. Can you see all that in the bushy swash of the comet's tail?

Winthrop's death makes a great void in our little neighborhood. We all knew him so well and loved him so warmly, and he was so much and intimately with us, that he seems to have fallen out of our arms dead.

Thank Jane for her most welcome letter. Give our dear loves to your dear mother, to Jane and Grace; and may God have us all and our country in his holy keeping.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 146-7