15 May 1861

Peyton, William M., 1805-1868

Autograph letter signed

Title: to William Cabell Rives

Colonel Peyton discusses Virginia's recent secession from the Union, stating "I think Virginia would have acted more wisely ... if, with her prestige as the great head of the slave states, she had planted her foot upon the opening lid of this Pandora's box, and taken a position of armed neutrality." Outlines the events that provoked Virginia's secession. Discussing the Constitution of 1787, declares "It came to us baptized in the blood of the Revolution ... It goes from us besmeared, and begrimed, and defiled by immersion in the dirty pools of abolitionism ..." Referring to President…

GLC05021.01

after 15 May 1861

Printed document

Title: [Printed letter to William Cabell Rives discussing Virginia's secession]

Colonel Peyton discusses Virginia's recent secession from the Union, stating "I think Virginia would have acted more wisely ... if, with her prestige as the great head of the slave states, she had planted her foot upon the opening lid of this Pandora's box, and taken a position of armed neutrality." Outlines the events that provoked Virginia's secession. Discussing the Constitution of 1787, declares "It came to us baptized in the blood of the Revolution ... It goes from us besmeared, and begrimed, and defiled by immersion in the dirty pools of abolitionism ..." Referring to President…

GLC05021.02

1861

Mixter, Calvin Symmes, 1832-?

Diary

Title: [Civil War diary of Calvin S. Mixter]

Signed diary including printed almanac and eclipse calendar in the opening pages. Mixter writes from various locations. Relates the events of 1861, spending most of his time divided between his home in Hanson, Massachusetts, and his workplace in Boston. Reports political affairs, discussing the secession question with colleagues, and holding a Union meeting. Writes to various governmental officials, including Judge John J. Crittenden, but does not discuss the content of the letters. Reports moving to Boston. Records hearing of the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, 13 April,…

GLC06583.01

January 13, 1863

Confederate States of America. Congress

Printed document

Title: Joint resolutions on the pending war, and matters appertaining thereto

Confederate resolution stating they will only accept peace if they remain an independant and recognized nation, and if the Emancipation Proclimation is revoked. Peace talks can not begin until "the friends of peace in the North shall grow strong enough to constrain Abraham Lincoln and his flagitious Cabinent to withdraw said proclamation."

GLC08981.01

February 22, 1862

Moore, John, 1826-1907

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mary Moore Kelly

He refers to the Sanitary Commission's pretentious movement, and complains about their nurses. Laments the fact that while he and the Army medical department do all the work, and the government pays all the costs, they receive all the criticism while the Sanitary Commission ends up with all the credit. "The world you see is very much given to humbuggery. Even benevolence sometimes assumes that shape. Allow me to say, however, that the people mean well and freely give their money – give it more freely than I ever knew the bogus chivalry of the south to do, with all their flings and sneers at…

GLC04195.03

03 December 1860

Gourdin, M., fl. 1860

Autograph letter signed

Title: to George W. Cullum

Prominent South Carolinian writes of the secession of that state and the dissolution of the Union

GLC08143

February 1, 1861

Neeley, R.A., fl. 1861

Broadside

Title: Secession of Missouri

Secession of Missouri "Special election. To the qualified voters of Clay County." Calling for election of delegates to secession Congress

GLC08167

3 January 1861

Nixon, J.O., fl. 1861

Newspaper

Title: New Orleans daily crescent. [Vol. 13, no. 260 (January 3, 1861)]

Published at 70 Camp Street. In response to an article in the "Chicago Tribune," front page has an article mockingly titled "New Orleans Ruined!-Cotton Doomed!" that says the city's markets will survive if New Yorkers eliminate tolls on Erie Canal. Front page reference to the Henry Winter Davis proposal to keep the peace between North and South. The Daily Crescent rejects it out of hand. Front page essay titled "Secession vs. Co-Operation" by "A Citizen" rejects cooperation, i.e. talks, with the North and says "Redress for past injuries and security for the future are all that the people of…

GLC05960.02.02

4 January 1861

Nixon, J.O., fl. 1861

Newspaper

Title: New Orleans daily crescent. [Vol. 13, no. 261 (January 4, 1861)]

Published at 70 Camp Street. Only has first 2 pages of a usual full 8 page issue. Front page article titled "No Compromise," rejects the compromise efforts of Henry Winter Davis in Washington. Article titled "The State Conventions," gives updates on the secession efforts in the Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia state legislatures and predicts Florida will secede the next day. Short update on situation at Charleston. Says Fort Moultrie repaired and manned by South Carolinians. Short article says the Governor of Missouri is not in favor of secession. Long front page article on "The…

GLC05960.02.03

February 25, 1861

Nixon, J.O., fl. 1861

Newspaper

Title: New Orleans daily crescent. [Vol. 13, no. 305 (February 25, 1861)]

Published at 70 Camp Street. Article on University of Louisiana. Description of the New Orleans celebration of George Washington's birthday takes up three quarters of the front page. Describes an "Imposing Military Display." Short item on arrival of Mrs. Jefferson Davis in New Orleans to visit her father. Reference to the safe arrival of James Redpath and John Brown Jr. in Haiti with a group of "colored emigrants" -- the former news of their capture off the coast of Georgia was false. Printing of the "Official Journal of the Convention of the State of Louisiana" on page 2 and part of…

GLC05960.02.06

2 January 1861

Nixon, J.O., fl. 1861

Newspaper

Title: New Orleans daily crescent. [Vol. 13, no. 259 (January 2, 1861)]

Published at 70 Camp Street. Contains article "We Must Act Promptly" in regards to the "trouble between South Carolina and the General Government." This front-page article criticizes President Buchanan for inconsistencies in his actions towards South Carolina. The front page also contains infomration on South Carolina troops seizing the state arsenal and Arkansas and Alabama's secession status. An editorial on page 4 titled "Coercion" criticizes a recent article in the "New York Evening Post" which stated that Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana could not secede from the Union. The editor…

GLC05960.02.01

7 January 1861

Nixon, J.O., fl. 1861

Newspaper

Title: New Orleans daily crescent. [Vol. 13, no. 263 (January 7, 1861)]

Published at 70 Camp Street. Front page: List of the Louisiana Southern Rights Ticket at the State Convention; article titled "A Southern Congress," says South Carolina has called for a Congress of the seceded Southern states -- asks "Shall Louisiana be absent?"; article titled "Abolition Mendacity," which says "The Abolitionists now deny that there is such a thing as property in slaves" and goes on to say that the Founders recognized slaves as property in treaties with Britain; article on "Mr. Semmes Speech" -- Thomas Semmes was a member of the state convention considering secession;…

GLC05960.02.04

8 January 1861

Nixon, J.O., fl. 1861

Newspaper

Title: New Orleans daily crescent. [Vol. 13, no. 264 (January 8, 1861)]

Published at 70 Camp Street. Results of elections to State Convention from New Orleans. A full ticket of secessionists is to be sent. References to Mississippi state convention, military preparations in Mississippi - including a call for the resignation of Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson, and a secessionist majority in Georgia legislature. Copy of General John E. Wool's pro-Unionist letter. Brief paragraph on the murder of a slaveowner by his slave, who used an axe to commit the deed in Augusta, Georiga. Page 4 article on the destruction of "Die Union," an abolitionist German…

GLC05960.02.05

18 April 1861

Nixon, J.O., fl. 1861

Newspaper

Title: New Orleans daily crescent. [Vol. 14, no. 39 (April 18, 1861)]

Published at 70 Camp Street. Published 6 days after the start of the war. Issue filled with military news, including troops movements. Contains "Full Particulars" of the "First Day's Bombardment of Fort Sumter." Update on the Virginia state convention of secession. Includes news of Confederate policies from Montgomery. Page 2 article on European machinations in Mexico. Page 4 article says "every true Southerner" is subscribing to a loan for the defense of the Confederacy, causing an uptick in the Confederate markets. Page 4 blurb says "Mr. Lincoln's cabinet are very anxious to keep up…

GLC05960.02.08

22 April 1861

Nixon, J.O., fl. 1861

Newspaper

Title: New Orleans daily crescent. [Vol. 14, no. 42 (April 22, 1861)]

Published at 70 Camp Street. Three columns of local military news on front page. Story about a local abolitionist, John Pike, who was arraigned before the New Orleans mayor -- he was released since no one would appear against him. It is believed he left the city directly afterward. Update on secessionists in Missouri. Blurbs state the governor of Delaware has not responded to a call for troops, Major Robert Anderson was presented with a sword to cheers in New York, and the Arkansas state convention will meet on 6 May. Correspondence from Havana, Key West, Texas, and California. Latest…

GLC05960.02.09

10 October1861

Nixon, J.O., fl. 1861

Newspaper

Title: New Orleans daily crescent. [Vol. 14, no.187 (October 10, 1861)]

Published at 70 Camp Street. Only first 2 pages of the usual 8 page issue. Several columns of military notices and requests for volunteers. Description of the night attack on Santa Rosa Island in Florida. 1000 Confederate troops surprised a New York Zouave regiment. Update on affairs in Missouri. Printed proclamation of Kansas Jayhawker Brigadier General Jim Lane (for a broadside of this proclamation owned by GLC see GLC07349). Page 2 has short item on the arrest of an Episcopal clergyman for preaching a secession sermon in Alexandria (he was later released). Another item states that $75,…

GLC05960.02.13

8 April 1861

Newspaper

Title: Richmond weekly enquirer. [Vol. 57, no. 97 (April 8, 1861)]

Virginia State Secession Convention, Speech of George W. Randolph.

GLC05959.81.01

20 February 1862

Miller, Michael Murray, fl. 1861-1864

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Lile Miller

Written at Camp Pierpont to his wife. Writes, "...Please do not let one secession thought enter your heart for not for the world would i have you entertain one Secession principle... think of the stain that Rests on the second and third generation of the tories of the Revolution, and you will find that in after years the same stain will Rest on the children of the traitors now in the country we are not fighting to set darkeys free if they would make that the issue the army of the Potomac would Be Broke up Before two weeks, Dear Lile i am a stiffer Democrat now i think than i was when i…

GLC02155.035

21 August 1861

Miller, Michael Murray, fl. 1861-1864

Autograph letter

Title: to Lile Miller [incomplete]

Complains about his brother-in-law (Lile's brother). Writes, "...if we leave here for washington i do not think we will Return without fighting they are gathering an immence army there for that purpose but whether we will be engaged in the first Battle or not I cannot tell... i do not think we are in much danger of course we are liable to picked off [sic] by cecessionists for they have every chance while we are on picket... our picket has taken about between five and six thousand dols worth of contraband goods since we have been here..."

GLC02155.005

26 June 1861

Mortimer, Caleb C.E., 1835-1862

Autograph letter signed

Title: to his wife

Believes there will be a fight soon in Baltimore as it is "a hot Bed of secession."

GLC01898.03

circa 1861

Broadside

Title: Epitaph on the United States Of America.

Confederate Broadside published by Evans & Cogswell commenting on the Union, Freedom , Equality, etc., and listing nearly every argument for Secession. "Here lie the mutilated and disjointed remains of the noblest form of Government." A main target is "a 'government of black men' being the chief ill of the social ties between two races' never designed by Providence to live together."

GLC08297

15 April 1861

Tilghman, Lloyd, 1816-1863

Autograph letter signed

Title: to General P.G.T. Beauregard

"Allow me...to congratulate you on your brillant success on Sumter. The news came yesterday and has a most glorious effect on the "shreikers.' They to a man, yeild like men to their duty, and Kentucky is a unit from this time. She will go out of the Old Union for certain." [CSA General, KIA, 1863]

GLC08299

01 May 1861

Goldsborough, Louis Malesherbes, 1805-1877

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Captain A. Harwood

On board USS Congress, Montevideo, Uruguay, re: on -board experiments with sponges and the ship's guns; attacking secession: "no country on earth can stand universal Suffrage and secession.... The idea, too, that with us, one owes a higher and holier allegiance to his state than to his country is enough to destroy nationality and patriotism, and to disqualify anyone from holding a Federal trust."

GLC08302

2 January 1861

Moore, John, 1826-1907

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mary Kelly

Reports that New Year's Day passed enjoyably in the camp, where the "New York custom of calling on all your friends" was maintained. Although they "hear a good deal about secession, etc., it doesn't seem to oppress or weigh heavily on the spirits of the people in our camp." The camp continues to get news from the east, although the distance delays it seven to eight days. Written at Camp Floyd.

GLC04194.37

January 16, 1861

Moore, John, 1826-1907

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Mary Kelly

Discusses secession. Wishes South Carolina could leave the Union, and laments its power to rent the nation. Forcefully criticizes the leadership of President James Buchanan. Hopes President Abraham Lincoln will be prepared for the coming conflict. Mentions the eight-day delay in news from New York, which reaches them via telegraph and pony express. Unlike paymasters in the east, their paymaster has funds enough for six months. Wonders if his brother Robert, a doctor in Alabama, has "been run out of the country for being a northern man." Written at Camp Floyd.

GLC04194.38