Author Archives: SUMPTER

“boots and saddles” no more

From the Seneca County Courier July 13, 1865: LETTER FROM A SENECA FALLS SOLDIER-BOY. The following interesting letter is from a native of this town, who was among the very first to respond to the President’s first call for Volunteers … Continue reading

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“devout joy at the salvation of the country”

From The New-York Times July 6, 1865: THE CELEBRATION OF INDEPENDENCE DAY. The observance of the National Anniversary was characterized everywhere throughout the country by a sober heartiness and earnest enthusiasm, in perfect keeping with the peculiarities of the occasion. … Continue reading

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“noble devotion”

From The New-York Times June 30, 1865: ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.; Maj.-Gen. Meade’s Farewell Order. WASHINGTON, Thursday, June 29. The farewell order of Gen. MEADE is published. It is as follows: HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, June 28, … Continue reading

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all over the space …

and the time Back on the day, I was absorbed in my own mini-liberation from almost-daily war posting. Here is General Gordon Granger’s June 19, 1865 order at Galveston Texas as the Unio army took control: General Order No. 3 … Continue reading

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The End.

The Library of Congress provides many photographs of the 1913 commemoration at Gettysburg including handshake, two flags, opposing sides, and Pickett’s men

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my only friend …

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in June 1865: The Papers. The war is over! and yet we hardly appreciate the fact. We have become so accustomed to look for and read attentively the details of battles, that the … Continue reading

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this is the end …

From The New-York Times June 22, 1865: THE SUICIDE OF RUFFIN.; The Man who Fired the First Gun on Fort Sumter Blows His Brains Out He Prefers Death to Living Under the Government of the United States. Correspondence of the … Continue reading

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“in the twinkling of an eye”

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in June 1865: Negro Suffrage. The radical element is very much excited over the President’s North Carolina proclamation, and an open rupture is threatened. The exclusion of the negro from the right of … Continue reading

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no war, no work

150 years ago today The Chicago Times reprinted a report from the one-time capital of the Confederacy. Richmond was swarming with former rebel soldiers unable to find work: The Chicago editors had a hunch that the war’s end meant bounty-jumpers … Continue reading

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Elmira bound

Three from Seneca County, New York newspapers in June 1865: There are 50,000 sick and wounded soldiers in the hospitals throughout the country. It is estimated that 120,000 men will be mustered out of the service of the United States … Continue reading

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