Diary of Corporal Lawrence Van Alstyne, August 28, 1862

Have been down town and had my picture taken to send home by Herman and John. Have also been drilling, and altogether have had a busy day. The ladies of Hudson (God bless them) are going to give us a supper to-night, and H. and J. are going to stay.

Later. It is all over, except an uncomfortable fullness. Biscuit and butter, three kinds of cake, beef tongue, fruit of several kinds and LEMONADE. We gave the ladies three cheers that must have been heard across the river. There are lots of people here now. It seems as if I knew half of them, too. We entertained our visitors until they had to leave camp, and then had a prayer meeting and after it a stag dance, both of which I attended.

SOURCE:  Lawrence Van Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p. 12

In The Review Queue: Silent Witness

Silent Witness: The Civil War through

Photography and its Photographers

By Ron Field

The Civil War changed America forever. It shaped its future and determined its place in history. For the first time in military history, the camera was there to record these seismic events, from innovations in military and naval warfare, to the battles themselves; from commanders at critical moments in the battle, to the ordinary soldier tentatively posing for his first ever portrait on the eve of battle.

Displaying many rare images unearthed by the author, an acclaimed Civil War historian, this beautiful volume explores how the camera bore witness to the dramatic events of the Civil War. It reveals not only how the first photographers plied their trade, but also how photography helped shape the outcome of the war and how it was reported to anxious families across the North and South.

About the Author

Ron Field is an internationally acknowledged expert on US military history. Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1982, he taught History at Piedmont High School in California in 1982–83, and was Head of History at the Cotswold School in Bourton-on-the-Water in the UK until his retirement in 2007. In 2005 he was elected a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians, based in Washington, DC, and was awarded its Emerson Writing Award in 2013. In 2015 he became senior editor of Military Images magazine, devoted to the American military image of the nineteenth century. In 2014–2015 he also advised on the Confederate uniforms worn in the Civil War film Free State of Jones. He lives in the UK.

ISBN 978-1472822765, Osprey Publishing, © 2017, Hardcover, 328 pages, Maps, Photographs & Illustrations, Glossary, Notes & Bibliography, Index. $35.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Friday, November 18, 1864

Have had some photographs taken; went up to the State House this forenoon, and afternoon; had a torchlight parade this evening; village illuminated; speeches by Governors Holbrook, Dillingham, etc. General Stannard present; didn't get my teeth.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 230

Diary of John Hay: August 9, 1863

This being Sunday and a fine day I went down with the President to have his picture taken at Gardner’s. He was in very good spirits. He thinks that the rebel power is at last beginning to disintegrate; that they will break to pieces if we only stand firm now. Referring to the controversy between two factions at Richmond, one of whom believes still in foreign intervention, northern treason, and other chimaeras; and the other, the administration party, trusts to nothing but the army, he said: — “Davis is right. His army is his only hope, not only against us, but against his own people. If that were crushed, the people would be ready to swing back to their old bearings.”

He is very anxious that Texas should be occupied and firmly held in view of French possibilities. He thinks it just now more important than Mobile. He would prefer that Grant should not throw his army into the Mobile business before the Texas matter is safe. He wrote in that sense, I believe, to Grant to-day. . . .

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 91-2; For the whole diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 77.

Captain William Thompson Lusk to Elizabeth Adams Lusk, April 10, 1862

Beaufort, S. C., April 10th, 1862.

My dear Mother:

I was glad to get your photograph, as it does not look, as did the other one you sent me, as though you were the last inhabitant without a friend left in the world. This one is a thousand times more agreeable, though I have to make allowances for those very extraordinary expressions which play about your mouth, when photographically tortured.

The bombardment of Pulaski has begun to-day. Full accounts, I hope, of the “fall” will be taken North by the steamer bearing this. We can hear the guns booming in the distance, but our Brigade, with the exception of the 8th Michigan Regiment, is condemned to remain at Beaufort. So I shall see nothing, but hope soon to hear the fort is ours, and, indeed, so secretly, yet so securely have preparations been made, that we can hardly fail of success. It is dangerous though to make predictions, so often have I read similar sentences in “Secesh” letters written just previous to a defeat.

The atmosphere is most delightful to-day. I wish you could breathe such balmy, though invigorating air. It is hard to realize that it soon will change to an atmosphere deleterious in character.

It is strange to think how ordinary dangers lose all terror in these war-times. I have been almost constantly exposed to smallpox, yet never have so much as thought of the matter further than to assure myself that the vaccination was all right. It is wonderful too how perfect a safeguard vaccination is. Although smallpox has been so prevalent, it has been wholly confined to the negroes and young children, and a few backwoodsmen, to whom modern safeguards were not accessible, or who had neglected the common precaution. I think there has not been a case among our vaccinated soldiers. It is quite a relief to feel that this is so.

I am glad to hear of all my friends wheeling so enthusiastically into the service of their country. As far as I can ascertain, the position of an Allotment Commissioner is one that requires an earnest determination to do something, to tempt any one to accept it, and yet it is really a philanthropic act to perform its purposes.

I wish Charley Johnson would come down here. I would give him the best reception I know how, and this is a pleasant season to visit Beaufort. You ask for my photograph dear mother, and I meant long since to have gratified you, having had myself taken alone, in company with the Staff, and on horseback with the Staff — in a variety of positions, you see, to suit everyone. But I know not how it is that I have never been able to get a copy since they were first struck off, although we have had promises enough that they will soon be ready. I intended to surprise you, but despairing of success, I write the matter that you may not think I have not tried to gratify your wishes.

I am suffering great torments from the sand-flies which abound. These are the peskiest little creatures you ever saw, completely forbidding sleep on a warm night, and defying such flimsy obstruction as mosquito bars.

I wrote Sam Elliott a few days ago. Wm. Elliott has returned looking well, and disgusted with leaves of absence. He is really about the most efficient man in the Brigade. His education has given him great habits of self-reliance, which are invaluable in his profession. Give my love to Mrs. Walter Phelps, and tell her I expect she will send me a photograph of that precious baby of hers. Capital idea photographs are!

Love to all my dear friends.

Affec'y.,

 Will.

SOURCE: William Chittenden Lusk, Editor, War Letters of William Thompson Lusk, p. 136-8

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Monday, April 25, 1864

It has been a pleasant spring day; reported to General Silas Casey this morning; will be examined tomorrow; sat at Bradey's this afternoon for pictures. The streets are thronged with moving bodies of troops. General Burnside's Corps passed through the city this afternoon. President Lincoln reviewed it from the balcony over the ladies' entrance of Willard's Hotel on Fourteenth street. This is my first sight of President Lincoln and probably as good as I shall ever have. I was just across the street opposite on the curb and not crowded. He looked pale, very sad and greatly careworn. It depressed me to look at him. The remembrance will ever be vivid. Burnside's Corps has encamped near Alexandria for the night; saw Othello played at Grover's Theatre tonight (now the New National).

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 39-40

Diary of William Howard Russell: March 20, 1861

The papers are still full of Sumter and Pickens. The reports that they are or are not to be relieved are stated and contradicted in each paper without any regard to individual consistency. The “Tribune” has an article on my speech at the St. Patrick's dinner, to which it is pleased to assign reasons and motives which the speaker, at all events, never had in making it.

Received several begging letters, some of them apparently with only too much of the stamp of reality about their tales of disappointment, distress, and suffering. In the afternoon went down Broadway, which was crowded, notwithstanding the piles of blackened snow by the curbstones, and the sloughs of mud, and half-frozen pools at the crossings. Visited several large stores or shops — some rival the best establishments in Paris or London in richness and in value, and far exceed them in size and splendor of exterior. Some on Broadway, built of marble, or of fine cut stone, cost from £6,000 to £8,000 a year in mere rent. Here, from the base to the fourth or fifth story, are piled collections of all the world can produce, often in excess of all possible requirements of the country; indeed I was told that the United States have always imported more goods than they could pay for. Jewellers' shops are not numerous, but there are two in Broadway which have splendid collections of jewels, and of workmanship in gold and silver, displayed to the greatest advantage in fine apartments decorated with black marble, statuary, and plate

New York has certainly all the air of a “nouveau riche.” There is about it an utter absence of any appearance of a grandfather — one does not see even such evidences of eccentric taste as are afforded in Paris and London, by the existence of shops where the old families of a country cast off their “exuviӕ” which are sought by the new, that they may persuade the world they are old; there is no curiosity shop, not to speak of a Wardour Street, and such efforts as are made to supply the deficiency reveal an enormous amount of ignorance or of bad taste. The new arts, however, flourish; the plague of photography has spread through all the corners of the city, and the shop-windows glare with flagrant displays of the most tawdry art. In some of the large booksellers' shops — Appleton's for example — are striking proofs of the activity of the American press, if not of the vigor and originality of the American intellect. I passed down long rows of shelves laden with the works of European authors, for the most part, oh shame! stolen and translated into American type without the smallest compunction or scruple, and without the least intention of ever yielding the most pitiful deodand to the authors. Mr. Appleton sells no less than one million and a half of Webster's spelling-books a year; his tables are covered with a flood of pamphlets, some for, others against coercion; some for, others opposed to slavery, — but when I asked for a single solid, substantial work on the present difficulty, I was told there was not one published worth a cent. With such men as Audubon and Wilson in natural history, Prescott and Motley in history, Washington Irving and Cooper in fiction, Longfellow and Edgar Poe in poetry, even Bryant and the respectabilities in rhyme, and Emerson as essayist, there is no reason why New York should be a paltry imitation of Leipsig, without the good faith of Tauchnitz.

I dined with a litterateur well known in England to many people a year or two ago — sprightly, loquacious, and well informed, if neither witty nor profound — now a Southern man with Southern proclivities, — as Americans say; once a Southern man with such strong anti-slavery convictions, that his expression of them in an English quarterly had secured him the hostility of his own people — one of the emanations of American literary life for which their own country finds no fitting receiver. As the best proof of his sincerity, he has just now abandoned his connection with one of the New York papers on the republican side, because he believed that the course of the journal was dictated by anti-Southern fanaticism. He is, in fact, persuaded that there will be a civil war, and that the South will have much of the right on its side in the contest. At his rooms were Mons. B–––, Dr. Gwin, a Californian ex-senator, Mr. Barlow, and several of the leading men of a certain clique in New York. The Americans complain, or assert, that we do not understand them, and I confess the reproach, or statement, was felt to be well founded by myself at all events, when I heard it declared and admitted that “if Mons. Belmont had not gone to the Charleston Convention, the present crisis would never have occurred.”

SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 24-6

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: April 2, 1861

Governor Manning came to breakfast at our table. The others had breakfasted hours before. I looked at him in amazement, as he was in full dress, ready for a ball, swallow-tail and all, and at that hour. “What is the matter with you?” “Nothing, I am not mad, most noble madam. I am only going to the photographer. My wife wants me taken thus.” He insisted on my going, too, and we captured Mr. Chesnut and Governor Means.¹ The latter presented me with a book, a photo-book, in which I am to pillory all the celebrities.

Doctor Gibbes says the Convention is in a snarl. It was called as a Secession Convention. A secession of places seems to be what it calls for first of all. It has not stretched its eyes out to the Yankees yet; it has them turned inward; introspection is its occupation still.

Last night, as I turned down the gas, I said to myself: “Certainly this has been one of the pleasantest days of my life.” I can only give the skeleton of it, so many pleasant people, so much good talk, for, after all, it was talk, talk, talk à la Caroline du Sud. And yet the day began rather dismally. Mrs. Capers and Mrs. Tom Middleton came for me and we drove to Magnolia Cemetery. I saw William Taber's broken column. It was hard to shake off the blues after this graveyard business.

The others were off at a dinner party. I dined tête-a-tête with Langdon Cheves, so quiet, so intelligent, so very sensible withal. There never was a pleasanter person, or a better man than he. While we were at table, Judge Whitner, Tom Frost, and Isaac Hayne came. They broke up our deeply interesting conversation, for I was hearing what an honest and brave man feared for his country, and then the Rutledges dislodged the newcomers and bore me off to drive on the Battery. On the staircase met Mrs. Izard, who came for the same purpose. On the Battery Governor Adams² stopped us. He had heard of my saying he looked like Marshal Pelissier, and he came to say that at last I had made a personal remark which pleased him, for once in my life. When we came home Mrs. Isaac Hayne and Chancellor Carroll called to ask us to join their excursion to the Island Forts to-morrow. With them was William Haskell. Last summer at the White Sulphur he was a pale, slim student from the university. To-day he is a soldier, stout and robust. A few months in camp, with soldiering in the open air, has worked this wonder. Camping out proves a wholesome life after all. Then came those nice, sweet, fresh, pure-looking Pringle girls. We had a charming topic in common — their clever brother Edward.

A letter from Eliza B., who is in Montgomery: “Mrs. Mallory got a letter from a lady in Washington a few days ago, who said that there had recently been several attempts to be gay in Washington, but they proved dismal failures. The Black Republicans were invited and came, and stared at their entertainers and their new Republican companions, looked unhappy while they said they were enchanted, showed no ill-temper at the hardly stifled grumbling and growling of our friends, who thus found themselves condemned to meet their despised enemy.”

I had a letter from the Gwinns to-day. They say Washington offers a perfect realization of Goldsmith's Deserted Village.

Celebrated my 38th birthday, but I am too old now to dwell in public on that unimportant anniversary. A long, dusty day ahead on those windy islands; never for me, so I was up early to write a note of excuse to Chancellor Carroll. My husband went. I hope Anderson will not pay them the compliment of a salute with shotted guns, as they pass Fort Sumter, as pass they must.

Here I am interrupted by an exquisite bouquet from the Rutledges. Are there such roses anywhere else in the world? Now a loud banging at my door. I get up in a pet and throw it wide open. “Oh!” said John Manning, standing there, smiling radiantly; “pray excuse the noise I made. I mistook the number; I thought it was Rice's room; that is my excuse. Now that I am here, come, go with us to Quinby's. Everybody will be there who are not at the Island. To be photographed is the rage just now.”

We had a nice open carriage, and we made a number of calls, Mrs. Izard, the Pringles, and the Tradd Street Rutledges, the handsome ex-Governor doing the honors gallantly. He had ordered dinner at six, and we dined tête-atête. If he should prove as great a captain in ordering his line of battle as he is in ordering a dinner, it will be as well for the country as it was for me to-day.

Fortunately for the men, the beautiful Mrs. Joe Heyward sits at the next table, so they take her beauty as one of the goods the gods provide. And it helps to make life pleasant with English grouse and venison from the West. Not to speak of the salmon from the lakes which began the feast. They have me to listen, an appreciative audience, while they talk, and Mrs. Joe Heyward to look at.

Beauregard³ called. He is the hero of the hour. That is, he is believed to be capable of great things. A hero worshiper was struck dumb because I said: “So far, he has only been a captain of artillery, or engineers, or something.” I did not see him. Mrs. Wigfall did and reproached my laziness in not coming out.

Last Sunday at church beheld one of the peculiar local sights, old negro maumas going up to the communion, in their white turbans and kneeling devoutly around the chancel rail.

The morning papers say Mr. Chesnut made the best shot on the Island at target practice. No war yet, thank God. Likewise they tell me Mr. Chesnut has made a capital speech in the Convention.

Not one word of what is going on now. “Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh,” says the Psalmist. Not so here. Our hearts are in doleful dumps, but we are as gay, as madly jolly, as sailors who break into the strong-room when the ship is going down. At first in our great agony we were out alone. We longed for some of our big brothers to come out and help us. Well, they are out, too, and now it is Fort Sumter and that ill-advised Anderson. There stands Fort Sumter, en evidence, and thereby hangs peace or war.

Wigfall⁴ says before he left Washington, Pickens, our Governor, and Trescott were openly against secession; Trescott does not pretend to like it now. He grumbles all the time, but Governor Pickens is fire-eater down to the ground. “At the White House Mrs. Davis wore a badge. Jeff Davis is no seceder,” says Mrs. Wigfall.

Captain Ingraham comments in his rapid way, words tumbling over each other out of his mouth: “Now, Charlotte Wigfall meant that as a fling at those people. I think better of men who stop to think; it is too rash to rush on as some do.” “And so,'” adds Mrs. Wigfall, “the eleventh-hour men are rewarded; the half-hearted are traitors in this row.”

_______________

¹ John Hugh Means was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1850, and had long been an advocate of secession. He was a delegate to the Convention of 1860 and affixed his name to the Ordinance of Secession. He was killed at the second battle of Bull Run in August, 1862.

² James H. Adams was a graduate of Yale, who in 1832 strongly opposed Nullification, and in 1855 was elected Governor of South Carolina.

³ Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was born in New Orleans in 1818, and graduated from West Point in the class of 1838. He served in the war with Mexico; had been superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point a few days only, when in February, 1861, he resigned his commission in the Army of the United States and offered his services to the Confederacy.

⁴ Louis Trezevant Wigfall was a native of South Carolina, but removed to Texas after being admitted to the bar, and from that State was elected United States Senator, becoming an uncompromising defender of the South on the slave question. After the war he lived in England, but in 1873 settled in Baltimore. He had a wide Southern reputation as a forcible and impassioned speaker.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 25-9

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, February 19, 1863

I was off duty today and went to town to have my likeness taken.¹

__________

¹ Upon inquiring of Mr. Downing how he came to have his "likeness" taken twice so close together (see Feb. 7), he laughingly confessed that it was not because the first was not a good picture, but because it was not a proper picture. Said he, “To tell the truth, I had it taken dressed in a major's uniform, and it wouldn't have been safe to let it be seen.” He destroyed it and had another taken. — Ed.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 101

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, February 7, 1863

While waiting for orders, I went down to a daguerreotype gallery¹ and had my likeness taken. The water is still rising and the report in camp is that our division is to proceed up the river to Lake Providence, Louisiana, and cut the levee to let the water of the Mississippi through to the lake from which it would be carried into the Red river.

__________

¹ Among the numerous "camp-followers" was also to be found the picture man. — Ed.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 99

Local Matters

FOR cheap and good boots, gaiters, and slippers, go to Dow & Co.’s.

STEEL spring hoop skirts, the latest patent, are now selling at New York prices at Whisler’s, in LeClaire Row.

R. KRAUSE has a large stock of ready made clothing, of his own manufacture, which he offers at the very lowest prices.

GENTS Hats of all shapes, and every price, from the cheap palm, to the expensive beaver; Misses’ and infants’ straw goods, in great variety.  If you want a hat what is a hat, and want to by it cheap, cal on Farrand, corner of 2d and Main streets.

PERSONAL. – We were favored last evening with a Call from Mr. Chas. F. Aldrich, Chief Clerk of the House, and the editor of the Hamilton Freeman, one of the best and liveliest county papers in the State.  Mr. A. is on his way to Chicago.

THE peach crop hits hear is again a failure in Iowa.  We have not seen a blossom, while the severity of the winter has killed many trees.  Fruit raisers should persevere, however; if they get one good crop in ten years it will repay them for the trouble.

THE WEATHER yesterday was very much mixed, but managed to keep uncomfortably war through the whole day.  A couple of slight showers fell during the early part of the day, sufficient to lay the dust.  Clouds heavily charged with electricity floated about the sky all day, and there was sufficient lightning in the air to prevent the easy working of the telegraph wires.

HON. JO. KNOX. – The Chicago Journal announces the appointment, by Gov. Yates, of Hon. Jo. Knox, formerly of Rock Island, as prosecuting attorney for the Chicago district, in place of Carlos Haven, deceased.  The Journal truly says of him:  “Mr. Knox brings to the office a ripe experience, having been for very many ears one of the brightest ornaments of the bar in our State, and the public will feel satisfied that the Governor has entrusted his office to one who will do honor to the position.”

PEORIA MARINE AND FIRE INSURANCE CO. – We take pleasure in calling the attention of our readers to the advertisement of the Peoria Marine and Fire Insurance Company in this paper.  This company has been doing business in our city many years, and we have watched its progress, with an ardent desire that it might prove successful, from the fact that it is purely a Western Company, although managed by experienced insurance men from New England, and we are so proud to state that its foundation is as firm as a rock, that it has done and is doing a very prosperous business, and we bespeak for the old Peoria a full share of the great business of our city.

EASTERN WILD-CAT. – The financial article of the Chicago Tribune of the 14th, earnestly urges upon Western people the propriety and necessity of receiving only treasury notes and bills of good Western banks in payment for their produce.  Good advice.  The treasury notes are better than any other bank money, because they are based on the credit of the whole nation; while our own bank notes are better than any from the East which are likely to be circulated here.  Another consideration is, that many Eastern bills are now being shoved out with the signatures engraved.  These bills are worthless, if the banks are disposed to act dishonest about it.  This fact should make us very careful how we handle any Eastern money, unless it be that of well-known and responsible institutions, and of their issues very little comes here.  Let us, therefore, avoid being caught by banks where are hardly visible to the naked eye in their own ostensible localities and who do such a big business that their officers haven’t time to write their own signatures on their issues.

PHOTOGRAPHIC ALBUMS. – In our columns this morning will be found an advertisement of S. C. Griggs & Co., of Chicago, of Photographic Albums.  The Christian Advocate says: “About four months ago, Mr. Griggs brought on the first assortment of photographic Albums we had ever seen.  Their beauty and utility at once attracted public attention, and he enlarged his supply, securing all varieties from the cheapest up to the most elegant styles.  They at once became fashionable, and deservedly so, and we doubt if the business of the firm in that one article will fall short of $10,000 by the first of May!  Let our friends from the country call at Nos. 39 and 41 Lake street, and see them.  There is nothing more pleasant for the centre-table.

Insurance against fire and the perils of inland transportation, and life insurance, can be had of W. F. ROSS, general insurance agent, Metropolitan building, who will not represent any but the most reliable companies.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 17, 1862, p. 1

Photography is playing a prominent part in . . .

. . . the recent French military expeditions.  In China thirty photographers went with the staff of the commanding general, besides those who were organized in each corps.  In like manner General Lorencez has taken a body of photographers to Mexico with instruments of all dimensions.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 1

Local Matters

BOY WANTED to learn the Photographic business, at Morse’s Gallery.

TO BEE KEEPERS. – We are requested to state than an Apiarian Convention will be held at Tipton, Cedar Co., on the 10^th prox. at 9 o’clock A. M.

CHOICE STRAWBERRY PLANTS. – We refer to the advertisement of Mr. W. H. Holmes in to-day’s paper.  The plants are the best varieties in market.

VICTORINE LOST. – On Wednesday evening, on Rock Island street, between Fourth and Sixth streets.  The finder will confer a favor by leaving it at this office.

R. KRAUSE, at No. 36 West Second street, has now a nice stock of ready made clothing for spring wear, all of his own manufacture, which he will sell cheap.

THE TELEGRAPH was down again yesterday between Ottawa and Chicago.  We perceive that Chicago is not much better off than we, for dispatches.  The lines east of that city have also worked very poorly for some days, and news from the seaboard published by the papers of Chicago has been very meager.

SNOW. – Denizens of this region were much surprised on awakening yesterday morning to find about two inches of snow on the ground and everything outdoor presenting the appearance of midwinter.  Under the warm rays of the sun, however, it nearly all disappeared before night.  May we not say that this is the last snow of the season?

THE FEDERAL TAX. – The first installment of the tax due from our citizens toward liquidating the interest on the war debt, which is now called for, is two mills, or the same amount as the State tax.  Those who have paid their taxes, by examining their receipts, can tell exactly how much is now required of them.  The whole amount thus received from our State will be $354,901.93.

BAD ROADS AND MAILS. – The roads are just now in an awful condition to travel.  The stage that started for DeWitt yesterday morning, returned after reaching Duck Creek, the driver declaring he could not proceed further, as the roads were worse than the day before, when the mud and water were leg deep to his horses.  The carrier of the mail to LeClaire went up on horseback, while the one for Buffalo refused to go at all.  A few days of sunshine will make the roads passable.

THE RIVER was clear of ice at Burlington on Thursday evening, and was thought to be open as far up as Oquawka at that time.  The steamboats Hannibal and Die Vernon arrived at Keokuk on Sunday last, the ice having gone out that day.  We cannot find that there has been any movement of the ice at this point at all; it was reported to have started above the bridge, but we think incorrectly, as the meteorological authorities on that structure have seen nothing of the kind.  We are now having our semi-annual trouble about crossing, but it cannot last much longer.

COLLISION. The freight train coming to Rock Island, and that going east from Peoria collided not far from Ottawa on the R. I. R. R. night before last.  No lives were lost, but the road was blocked up, so that the express trains could not pass. They consequently exchanged passengers and mails, and each returned, the cars not reaching here till yesterday afternoon, several hours behind time.

DIED.

Of Consumption, on the 21^st inst, at  6 ½ o’clock A. M. at residence of Dr. J. McCortney, SAMUEL A. GREEN, aged 24 years.

The funeral will leave the residence of Dr. MCortney on Harrison street, Sunday, at 2 o’clock P. M., for Ste. Marguerite’s church, where services will be performed.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 22, 1862, p. 1

Review: Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography By R. B. Bontecou

Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography By R. B. Bontecou

By Stanley B. Burns, M.D.

Of all the photographs taken during the Civil War, none are more compelling than the clinical photographs taken of the wounded soldiers.  A large number of these photographs were taken by Dr. Reed Bontecou, and of these, most were at one time in the collections of the Army Medical Museum.  Over the years, the museum dispersed many of these photographs out of their collection.

Dr. Stanley Burns, an ophthalmologist by trade, has spent a large portion of the last 35 years tracking down these photographs, collecting and preserving them.  A few of the photographs in his collection, known as the Burns Archive, have been published in various publications over the years, but most have not, that is until now.  With the publication of “Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography By R. B. Bontecou,” Dr. Burns has begun a to publish his collection.  This volume, the first of several projected, depicts portraits of soldiers, photographed vertically, partially clothed, often in their uniforms with their wounds exposed.  The soldiers represent 101 regiments, most were wounded in the final battles of the war, and each holds a chalkboard identifying them.

The first 53 pages of the book, cover the history of the photographs, how and why they were taken, a biography of Dr. Reed B. Bontecou, new weaponry vs. old tactics, views of death and sacrifice in Civil War America, the final battles of the war (from which Dr. Bontecou would acquire a large number of his subjects), and Harewood Hospital where Dr. Bontecou did most of his work.  The rest of the book is dedicated to the photographs of the wounded soldiers.

The photographs were originally carte de visites and Dr. Burns presents them a little less than double their original size of 2⅛ × 3½ inches.  There is one photograph per page, and each is accompanied by text (sometimes only the identification written on the chalkboards and other times notes that were either written on the photographs or in the albums containing them).

There are indices of the represented regiments (page 57) and the battles at which his subjects received their wounds (pages 103 & 104), and a short bibliography of primary sources.

It is safe to say that due in part to Dr. Bontecou’s work medical practices and procedures were greatly improved during the latter decades of the nineteenth century, and through Dr. Burns, the medical history of the Civil War will be preserved for future generations.  This book is not only a must have for students of the American Civil War, but also those interested in photographic and  medical history.

ISBN 978-1-936002-05-4, Burns Archive Press, © 2011, Hardcover, 6.75 x 6 inches, 168 pages, Photographs, Bibliography & Indices. $50.00

Local Matters

NEW cassimeres and vestings just received at Erskine’s. Go and See them.

IF YOU want good ready made clothing call at Erskine’s.

ALL those wishing to get their money’s worth of good and choice goods, go to Whistlers.

THE WEATHER. – The beautiful weather of yesterday was about the first good day for farmers’ work the present season, and we have do doubt they took the biggest advantage of it, to make up for lost time.

JUST RECEIVED – Fort Doneslon, Monitor and Burns, de stiff brims. Soft hats and caps in great variety. Call on Farrand, corner of 2d and Main streets, and examine the assortment.

LITTLE CHILDREN. – Dow & Co. have the prettiest assortment of children’s shoes in Davenport. Mothers of taste should not fail to see them, if they do not purchase. No trouble to show goods.

THE MARKET CASE. – The long-standing contest, in which the city is defendant, relative to the market houses, was yesterday decided by the Supreme Court favorably to the City.

THE New building for Mr. D. Moore’s bakery, on Front street near Perry, is getting along finely. The side walls are to be of stone, the end of brick, and they are about ready to receive the joists for the second floor. The building will be three stories high, and one of the finest on that street.

STATE HAHNEMANN ASSOCIATION. – Notices have been issued in Dubuque, calling a convention to be held in Davenport on the 21st proximo, to for and Iowa Hahnemann Association. The Times says that the call is quite numerously signed and from the enthusiasm manifested and the character of those whose names are appended to it, no doubt a large meeting will obtain. The inaugural address will be delivered by Dr. E. A. Guilbert of Dubuque.

IF Davenport and Rock Island will put their shoulders to the wheel, and help to extend the Peoria railroad to some point on the Burlington and Chicago road, it will be of more essential service to both cites than anything they have done for the past five years. It can be done easily and cheaply, if the business men will work together and make the effort. Then Davenport and Rock Island could get freights either way at low figures. What do you say, Mr. GAZETTE? – R. I. Argus.

We are in favor of anything and everything that is right and proper which has a tendency to advance the interests of our citizens. Another outlet to Chicago would certainly be very desirable, and competition would no doubt reduce the price of freights, which would be to the direct advantage of our citizens. By all means put through the other route, neighbor, and if we can be of any assistance we will render it with pleasure.

DIAPHANOTYPES. – This is the name applied to the splendid colored photographs now being taken in this city at Morse’s Gallery by Mr. W. A. Watt. We examined some specimens yesterday and pronounce them altogether superior to anything of the kind we ever have seen. For beauty and correctness they cannot be excelled, while in the rich gilt, oval frames in which he places them they make a splendid parlor ornament. Mr. Watt will remain with us no longer than this week, unless he finds it impossible to finish the orders he has had.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, April 23, 1862, p. 1