Thomas Wentworth Higginson to a Member of the Dabney Family, October 9, 1856

Steamboat Cataract

aground on a bank in the Missouri River

October 9, 1856

I know you would enjoy going to Kansas, for it is as genuine a sensation as we expect it to be; things and people are very real there. It is precisely like waking up some morning and stepping out on the Battle of Bunker Hill; one learns in a single day more about Greeks and Romans and English Puritans and Scotch Jacobites, and Hungarians and all heroic peoples, than any course of history can teach. The same process is producing the same results before your eyes, and what is most striking the same persons whom you saw a year ago in Boston, indolent and timid, are here transformed to heroes. Perhaps this brings down the dignity of our courage a little, showing it to be the child of circumstances, but still one sees great differences of temperament in Kansas as elsewhere. What struck me most was the unconscious buoyancy of the people. Living in the midst of danger, they recognize it as the normal condition of existence, and talk of it in the sort of way that sailors do. In the intervals of dinner (if dinner there be), they talk over the last fight as if it were a picnic. In fact it was plain that the excitement had become a necessary stimulus to them, and during the partial peace which existed while I was there, they confessed that they missed something. Women complained that there wasn't much to talk about. At Lawrence, when the evening drum beat to call out the guard (of United States troops, placed there by Governor Geary, for protection) somebody would always exclaim, “That sounds good!” And the patience is about as remarkable as the courage. People would describe their way of living, sick wife and children perhaps . . . and always end, “But we shall live or die in Kansas.” Of course there are exceptions; but the more men sacrifice there, the more they seem to love the country. The difficulty is, that there is not much left to sacrifice; everybody has grown poor. I hope nothing from Governor Geary; he means well and has energy of will, but no energy of character; he can take efficient single steps, but not carry out any systematic plan of action. . . . I have less hope that Kansas will be a free State than before I came here. Before this last interference of Governor Geary, the Kansas men under General Lane (who is a very remarkable man) had driven out the Missourians in all directions; but it is their policy not to resist the United States Government, and the Missourians are always ready to take the slightest advantage which that affords them. After the Presidential election the invaders will make a desperate effort; their success is certain if Buchanan is elected, and probably if Fremont is.

. . . On board I have thus far met no annoyance, though there is a company of young Virginians and Carolinians returning to their homes; they are of the race of “poor white folks,” commonly. My copy of “Dred” occasions some remarks. I trust your father will feel a becoming reverence when I say that I am a General in the Kansas Army, having been immediately presented with a commission to that effect by the redoubtable “Jim Lane” himself, the “Marion” of the age. I keep it as a valuable autograph, or to be used on my next visit to Kansas.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 142-4

William T. Sherman to George Mason Graham, October 23, 1859

ST. LOUIS, MO., Sunday, Oct. 23, 1859.

Dear SIR: . . . It is absolutely impossible for me to leave here before Thursday of this week, the 27th, as I have some old matters of business here which I have put off until now. I was delayed two or three days by the low water of the Missouri. Therefore, however much I would like to be with you on the “Lizzie Simmons,” I must not attempt it.

I will, if there be any faith in steamboats, be at Baton Rouge, Nov. 5 and I suppose I have made a mistake in promising to see the governor at all, instead of the committee of trustees, to whom is left the preparation of things; still, as I have written the governor to that effect, I must do so, but will not delay an unnecessary moment, but hurry on to Alexandria and there meet the committee.

Knowing, as you do, the rates of travel, you can better form a judgment when I can reach your Alexandria; and if your committee will have progressed in their work they may go on, with a certainty that I will zealously enter on any task they may assign me. It seems to me no time is to be lost in preparing regulations and circulars for very wide circulation among the planters whose sons are to be cadets.

But we will soon meet and go to work, and I begin to feel now that we have a noble task and are bound to succeed.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 42-3

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant George G. Smith: May 17, 1864

That General Smith was a joker was conceded by everybody, our friends, the enemy, as well as the union army. When we were in Alexandria I was on guard at the pontoon bridge. An Irishman, stood at the end of the bridge, smoking a clay pipe. Smith returning from a scouting expedition at the head of his forces, rode up to the Irishman coolly took the pipe out of his mouth and put it in his own, and rode on smoking contentedly as though nothing had happened. The Irishman laughed heartily, well pleased with the joke. Many stories were reported of his pleasantries with the enemy while covering our retreat from Alexandria. At one time coming down the plank road he left a baggage wagon on the road and placed a company in ambush within easy range. The rebel hangers on in the rear spied it and made for it on the gallop with a yell. At the proper time the ambush rose up and many saddles were emptied and riderless horses were seen cantering through the woods. The force was nearly all killed or taken prisoners. At two times cannon were left with similar results. Marched into Simsport about noon. The day was hot and the roads were dusty so that our clothes were saturated with mud as well as sweat. It was my practice, during the whole time I was in the army to bathe whenever an opportunity presented itself, and so here was a good one The water in the rivers and ponds we had been passing were generally almost milk warm and I thought this would be, so without further ado I plunged in. “O my! Holy Moses, how cold it was!” I could hardly swim to shore. But I did, and got out too but I did not go in any more that day. The reason of the water being so cold was on account of the rise in the Mississippi river at this time of the year, called the June rise. It is caused by the melting snows in the Rocky mountains, at the head waters of the Missouri and in the Northern part of Minnesota, where the Mississippi rises, and it is a little strange, that water is nearly as cold when it reaches the Gulf of Mexico as it is when it leaves the snows of the Rocky mountains. When this mighty river is high it backs up the Red river and discharges its surplus waters through the Atchaffalaya Bayou into the Gulf of Mexico, so that bayou is really one of the mouths of the Mississippi. It was my turn to go on picket guard that night, so we crossed the bayou on a steamer and went up that stream about a mile and posted the pickets in the woods across the bottom where we fought mosquitoes all night. It was a question which was the worse, the mosquitoes or the rebels. I was not feeling very well from the effects of my bath, so after the guard was posted I hunted the dryest place I could find and laid down, but the conditions were not very favorable for a good night's rest. It did not however last forever.

SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 117-9

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: June 25, 1861

More accounts of battles and massacres in Missouri and Kansas. I never thought the Yankees would be permitted to ascend the Missouri River. What has become of the marksmen and deer hunters of Missouri? There has been also a fight at Leesburg, and one near Romney, Va. Blood has been shed in all of them. These are the pattering drops that must inevitably be succeeded by a torrent of blood!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 55

Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood to Edwin M. Stanton, September 8, 1862 – 12:30 p.m.

DES MOINES, September 8, 1862 – 12.30 p.m.

Hon. E. M. STANTON:

I have reliable information that Yankton Indians on our western border, north of the Missouri River, have joined with the hostile Indians in Minnesota, and threaten our whole northwestern frontier. The settlers are flying by hundreds. I have ordered out 500 mounted men. We lack arms and equipments, and must have them. I beg you will order General Harney to Sioux City to take command and put down this outbreak. There is a regiment of infantry at this place armed and equipped for United States service, except tents. They had better be sent to the border to operate there under Harney, but must have tents. The danger is imminent, and nothing but prompt action can stop the terrible massacre. General Harney is just the man we need for this service. Another regiment of infantry is organizing at Council Bluffs. This regiment could be mounted and armed at once; it would be better than to send the infantry. Something must be done at once.

SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD,

Governor.

SOURCES: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and Times of Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor, p. 172-3; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 13 (Serial No. 19), p. 620

Senator James W. Grimes to Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood, January 28, 1861

Washington, January 28, 1861.

Your esteemed favor of the 17th inst. has reached me.

There appears to be a very great misunderstanding in the public mind, as to the present condition of affairs at the capital of the nation, and especially in relation to the demands of the disunionists upon the Union men of the North. I find that the impression prevails quite extensively that the “Crittenden proposition,” as it is called, is simply a reestablishment of the Missouri Compromise line. This is very far from the truth.

Mr. Crittenden proposes to extend the line of 36° 30' through to the Pacific Ocean, and to agree, by constitutional provision, to protect and defend slavery in all the territory of the United States south of that line. Nor is this all. He now proposes that this protection to slavery shall be extended to all territory that may hereafter be acquired south of that line. The sum and substance of the whole matter is, that we are asked, for the sake of peace, to surrender all our cherished ideas on the subject of slavery, and agree, in effect, to provide a slave code for the Territories south of 36° 30' and for the Mexican provinces, as soon as they shall be brought within our jurisdiction. It is demanded of us that we shall consent to change the Constitution into a genuine pro-slavery instrument, and to convert the Government into a great slave-breeding, slavery-extending empire.

Every man blessed with ordinary foresight must see what would be the inevitable and almost immediate consequence of the adoption of this provision as a part of the Constitution. It would disclose itself to be the very reverse of a measure of peace. Raids would at once begin upon the provinces of Mexico; war would ensue; the annexation of Sonora, Chihuahua, Cohahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, and other provinces, would follow; they would be converted, at the instant of their acquisition, from free into slave Territories, and ultimately be admitted into the Union as slave States. Much as I love peace and seek to pursue it, I am not prepared to pay this price for it. Let no man in Iowa imagine for a moment that the Crittenden proposition is for a mere restoration of the Compromise line of 1820. It is simply and truly the application of the Breckinridge platform to all territory now acquired, or hereafter to be acquired south of 36° 30', and would result, if adopted, in the acquisition and admission of new slave States for the ostensible purpose of restoring what is called the equilibrium of the sections. The restoration of the Missouri Compromise line has been offered to the disunionists and contemptuously rejected. Their maxim is “rule or ruin.”

I confess that I look with amazement upon the course of the Northern sympathizers with the disunionists. Six years ago they assisted to break down a compromise of thirty-four years' standing, and defended their action by what they claimed to be the right of the people to determine for themselves what should be the character of their own domestic institutions. There was much plausibility in their argument. They made a party creed of it. Now, after the lapse of six short years, they have become so pro-slavery in their opinions that they are willing to ignore the past, and recognize and protect slavery in the very country which they boasted that their own act had made free.

There are other provisions in the Crittenden resolutions which to my mind are wholly inadmissible, but let them pass. My objection is to any compromise. I will never consent to compromises, or the imposition of terms upon me or the people I represent, under threats of breaking up the Government. I will not “give reasons under compulsion.” No surer or more effectual way could be devised for converting this into a revolutionary Government than the adoption of a compromise expedient at this time.

Eight months ago the four political parties of this country, in their several conventions, announced certain abstract propositions in their platforms which each believed to be true, and which, if acted upon, would in their opinion most conduce to the prosperity of the whole country. The issue upon these propositions was submitted to the people through the ballot-boxes. One party was successful, as either might have been, but for the lack of votes; and now one of the vanquished parties seeks to overthrow the Government, because they were not themselves the victors, and will only consent to stay their work of demolition upon the condition that we will agree to make their platform, which is abhorrent to us, a part of the Constitution of the country. After taking their chances for success, and being defeated in a fair and manly contest, they now seek to overthrow the Government under which they live, and to which they owe their allegiance. How rapidly are we following in the footsteps of the governments of Mexico and South America!

I do not believe that the public mind is now in a condition to calmly consider the great questions involved in the amendments proposed. But suppose the people were willing and anxious that such amendments to the Constitution should be submitted to them; suppose they were in a proper frame of mind to weigh them and decide upon their adoption; suppose their adoption was not attempted to be enforced by threats, can we have any assurance that this is the last demand to be made upon us? Can we be certain that success in this instance will not whet the appetite for new concessions and new demands, and that similar threats of secession and revolution will not succeed every future presidential election? Will the demand for new guarantees stop here? Shall we not be as liable to have our trade paralyzed, our finances deranged, our national flag insulted, the public property wrested from us and destroyed, and the Government itself overthrown, four years hence, if we amend the Constitution, as we should be if we now stand firmly by our principles and uphold the authority of the Government?

The question before the country, it seems to me, has assumed gigantic proportions. It has become something more than an issue on the slavery question growing out of the construction of the Constitution. The issue now before us is, whether we have a country, whether or not this is a nation. Is this a Government which Florida, with eighty thousand people, can destroy, by resolving herself out of the Union and seizing the forts and arsenals within her borders? That is the question presented us for our decision. Can a great and prosperous nation of thirty-three millions of people be destroyed by an act of secession of some of its members? Florida and her sister revolutionary States answer in the affirmative. We deny it. They undertake to act upon their professed belief, and secede, or, as I term it, rebel against the Government. While they are in this attitude of rebellion a compromise is presented to us for adoption, by which it is proposed, not to punish the rebellious States, but to entice them back into the Union. Who does not see that by adopting these compromise propositions we tacitly recognize the right of these States to secede? Their adoption at this time would completely demoralize the Government, and leave it in the power of any State to destroy. If Florida and South Carolina can secede because of the slavery question, what shall prevent Pennsylvania from seceding because the Government declines to adequately protect her iron and coal interests, or New England because her manufactures, or New York because her commerce is not sufficiently protected? I could agree to no compromise until the right to secede was fully renounced, because it would be a recognition of the right of one or more States to break up the Government at their will.

Iowa has a peculiar interest in this question. If this right of State revolution be conceded, her geographical position is such as to place her completely in the power of revolutionary States. Will she agree that one State can secede and take from her the mouth of the Mississippi River, that another can take from her the mouth of the Missouri, and that others shall be permitted to deprive her of the right of passage to the Atlantic Ocean? If she will not agree to this, it becomes her people to insist that the Constitution of the country shall be upheld, that the laws of the land shall be enforced, and that this pretended right of a State to destroy our national existence shall be sternly and emphatically rebuked. I know the people of Iowa well enough to believe that appeals to their magnanimity, if not successful, will be kindly received and considered, while appeals to their fears will pass by them as the idle wind, and that they will risk all things and endure all things in maintaining the honor of the national flag and in preserving the national Union.

One word more and I close this letter, already too long. At the commencement of the session, before revolution had assumed its present gigantic proportions, before any State had pretended to secede except South Carolina, before the forts and arsenals of the United States had been captured, the flag of the country fired upon, and the capital of the nation threatened, I assented, as a member of the Senatorial Committee of Thirteen, to three propositions, which were to the following effect, viz.:

1. That Congress should never be permitted to interfere with the domestic institutions of any State, or to abolish slavery therein.

2. That the several States should be advised to review their legislation in regard to persons of color, and repeal or modify all such laws as might conflict with the Constitution of the United States or with any of the laws of Congress made in pursuance thereof.

3. To admit Kansas into the Union under the Wyandotte constitution, and then to admit the remaining territory belonging to the United States as two States, one north and one south of the parallel of 36° 30' with the provision that these States might be subdivided and new ones erected therefrom whenever there should be sufficient population for one Representative in Congress upon sixty thousand square miles.

Those propositions, if adopted, would have quieted the apprehensions of the Southern people as to the intention of the people of the free States to interfere with slavery in the States, and would have finally disposed of all the territory belonging to the Government. They would have made two very inconvenient States, but they would have settled a very inconvenient question. They could have been adopted without any surrender of principle by anybody or any section, and therefore without any party and personal humiliation. But they were spurned by the disunionists. They preferred to plunge the country into revolution, and they have done it. It only remains for us now to obey and enforce the laws, and show to the world that this Government is strong enough to protect itself from rebellion within as well as from assault without.

The issue now made up for the decision of the people of this country is between law, order, the Union, and the Constitution, on the one hand, and revolution, anarchy, dissolution, and bloodshed, on the other. I do not doubt as to the side you and the people of Iowa will occupy in this contest.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 133-8

John Brown to his Children, May 7, 1855

Rockford, Winnebago County, Ill., May 7, 1855.

Dear Children, — I am here with my stock of cattle to sell, in order to raise funds so that I can move to North Elba, and think I may get them off in about two weeks. Oliver is here with me. We shall get on so late that we can put in no crops (which I regret), so that you had perhaps better plant or sow what you can conveniently on “95.”¹ I heard from John and Jason and their families (all well) at St. Louis on the 21st April, expecting to leave there on the evening of that day to go up the Missouri for Kansas. My family at Akron were well on the 4th inst. As I may be detained here some days after you get this, I wish you to write me at once what wheat and corn are worth at Westport now, as near as you can learn. People are here so busy sowing their extensive fields of grain, that I cannot get them even to see my cattle now. Direct to this place, care of Shepard Leach, Esq.

 SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 193

Colonel Ulysses S. Grant to Jesse Root Grant, August 3, 1861

Mexico. Mo.,

Aug. 3d, 1861.

Dear Father:

I have written to you once from this place and received no answer, but as Orvil writes to me that you express great anxiety to hear from me often, I will try to find time to drop you a line twice a month, and oftener when anything of special interest occurs.

The papers keep you posted as to army movements, and as you are already in possession of my notions on secession nothing more is wanted on that point. I find here however a different state of feeling from what I expected existed in any part of the South. The majority in this part of the State are secessionists, as we would term them, but deplore the present state of affairs. They would make almost any sacrifice to have the Union restored, but regard it as dissolved, and nothing is left for them but to choose between two evils. Many, too, seem to be entirely ignorant of the object of present hostilities. You cannot convince them but that the ultimate object is to extinguish slavery by force. Then, too, they feel that the Southern Confederacy will never consent to give up their State, and as they, the South, are the strong party, it is prudent to favor them from the start. There is never a movement of troops made, that the secession journals through the country do not give a startling account of their almost annihilation at the hands of the State troops, whilst the facts are, there are no engagements. My regiment has been reported cut to pieces once that I know of, and I don't know but oftener, whilst a gun has not been fired at us. These reports go uncontradicted here and give confirmation to the conviction already entertained that one Southron is equal to five Northerners. We believe they are deluded, and know that if they are not, we are. Since I have been in command of this military district, (two weeks), I have received the greatest hospitality and attention from the citizens about here. I have had every opportunity of conversing with them freely and learning their sentiments, and although I have confined myself strictly to the truth as to what has been the result of the different engagements, the relative strength, the objects of the Administration, and the North generally, yet I think they don't believe a word.

I see from the papers that my name has been sent in for Brigadier General. This is certainly very complimentary to me, particularly as I have never asked a friend to intercede in my behalf. My only acquaintance with men of influence in the State was whilst on duty at Springfield, and I then saw so much pulling and hauling for favors that I determined never to ask for anything, and never have, not even a colonelcy. I wrote a letter to Washington tendering my services, but then declined Governor Yates’ and Mr. Trumbull’s endorsement.

My services with the regiment with which I now am have been highly satisfactory to me. I took it in a very disorganized, demoralized and insubordinate condition, and have worked it up to a reputation equal to the best, and, I believe, with the good will of all the officers and all the men.  Hearing that I was likely to be promoted, the officers, with great unanimity, have requested to be attached to my command. This I don't want you to read to others for I very much dislike speaking of myself.

We are now breaking up camp here gradually. In a few days the last of us will be on our way for the Missouri River, at what point cannot be definitely determined, wood and water being a consideration, as well as a healthy, fine site for a large encampment. A letter addressed to me at Galena will probably find me there. If I get my promotion I shall expect to go there for a few days.

Remember me to all at home and write to me.

Yours truly,

U. S. GRANT.

SOURCE: Jesse Grant Cramer, Editor, Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister, 1857-78, p. 43-6

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, April 26, 1863

CAMP BEFORE VICKSBURG, April 26, 1863.

My Dear Brother:

To-morrow I start with my corps to bring up the rear of the movement against Grand Gulf, and, maybe, Jackson, Miss. I feel in its success less confidence than in any similar undertaking of the war, but it is my duty to co-operate with zeal, and I shall endeavor to do it. ...

Grant came down by river, and his entire army, about seventy thousand, is now near here, but the whole country is under water, save little ribands of alluvial ground along the main Mississippi and all parallel bayous. One month ago my proposition was to fall back upon our original plan, modified by the fact that Yazoo River could be entered by its head and could be used as far down as Greenwood, which is the mouth of Yolobusha. If our gunboats could have passed that point, a real substantial advantage would have been gained, for it would have enabled the army to pass the Yolobusha, whereas now it is a serious obstacle like the Rappahannock, and will have to be fought for. . . .

McClernand’s corps marched from Milliken's Bend along a narrow road to Carthage. McPherson has followed, and I start to-morrow. Sixty thousand men will thus be on a single road, narrow, crooked, and liable to become a quagmire on the occurrence of a single rain. We hope to carry ten days’ rations with us. Seven iron-clad gunboats and seven transports have run the Vicksburg batteries; with these we can reach Grand Gulf below the mouth of Black River, whence there is a road to Raymond sixty-five miles, and Jackson. The destruction of this road isolates Vicksburg. Now if we can sustain the army it may do, but I know the materials or food, forage or ammunition, cannot be conveyed on that single precarious road. Grant has been opening a canal from the Mississippi to Willow Bayou, three miles, and Willow Bayou roundaway and Bayou Vidal form a connected channel for forty-seven miles, terminating at Carthage, but it is crooked, narrow, and full of trees. Large working parties are employed in removing trees, but at best it is only calculated that it can be used by scows drawn by small steam tugs. It is not even contemplated that the smallest transports can navigate it. The canal itself is far from being done. I went through it yesterday in a small boat, and estimate it will take one month to give it eight feet of water with the present stage, but the water in the river is now falling rapidly. We count on another rise in June from the Missouri, but these rises are accidental and may or not come. The great difficulty will be to support an army operating from Grand Gulf. ...

Between the two choices open to him I far prefer Grenada. One is sure and natural, the other is difficult and hazardous in the extreme. There is no national or political reason why this army should be forced to undertake unnecessary hazard. It is far in advance of Hooker, Rosecrans, or Curtis. We have done far more than either of these armies, but have encountered more calumny and abuse than all. . . .

Banks is afraid even to attempt Port Hudson, and from all I can hear is more likely to be caged up in New Orleans than to assist us against Vicksburg. . . .

Affectionately your brother,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 201-3

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Monday, February 3, 1862

The captain with eight men went out on a scouting trip to rout some “secesh” from an island in the Missouri river, where they were trying to recruit a company.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 32

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, October 1, 1862

MEMPHIS, Oct. 1, 1862.

Dear Brother:

I did not expect you would come if the confederates got possession of Kentucky. Even on the Mississippi the boats are fired on daily. I have been compelled to burn down one town and resort to retaliation. I understand Prentiss has ordered back from Helena a part of the forces towards St. Louis, on the ground that the confederates are again advancing on Missouri. I rather think you now agree with me that this is no common war, that it was not going to end in a few months or a few years. For after eighteen months’ war the enemy is actually united, armed, and determined, with powerful forces well handled, disciplined and commanded on the Potomac, the Ohio, the Missouri. You must now see that I was right in not seeking prominence at the outstart. I knew and know yet that the northern people have to unlearn all their experience of the past thirty years and be born again before they will see the truth. . . .

The South has united people and as many men as she can arm, and though our armies pass across and through the land, the war closes in behind and leaves the same enemy behind. We attempt to occupy places, and the people rise up and make the detachments prisoners. I know you all recognize in these facts simply that Mason is a coward, Ford an ass, McClellan slow, Buell over-cautious, and Wright timid. This may all be so, but the causes lie deeper. Everybody thought I exaggerated the dangers, so I have no right to an opinion, but I rather think many now see the character of the war in which we are engaged. I don't see the end or the beginning of the end, but suppose we must prevail and persist or perish. I don't believe that two nations can exist within our old limits, and therefore that war is on us and we must fight it out. . . .

When anybody tells you that I ever doubted your honesty and patriotism, tell him he says false. I may have said you were a politician and that we differed widely in the origin of this war, but that being in it, we fully agreed that it must be fought out. But you have more faith than I in the people. They are not infallible. People may err as much as men, as individuals and whole communities may err. Can the people of the North be right and the South too? One of the peoples must be wrong. . . .

Your brother,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 165-6

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, January 4, 1862

Some of the boys went out today on a ’possum hunt. They were very successful, as this is a good ’possum country, especially over on the banks of the Missouri river.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 28

Steamboat Arrivals

On Sunday last Key West No. 2 passed up the river heavily freighted for the Upper Missouri.

Thursday the Spread Eagle arrived on her way to Fort Benton.  She had large quantities of freight for the American Fur Company, and about one hundred passengers for the Gold Mines.

Friday morning the Emilie stopped for some time at the landing – on her way up to the head waters of the Missouri.  She had about 200 passengers on board for the Gold Mines.  Among the passengers who are taking a mountain trip for their health were Prof. Hoyt, G. F. Filley, Esq., and E. Jaccard, Esq., of St. Louis. – Sioux City Register.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 3