Category Archives: 150 Years Ago This Month

The greenbacks are coming!

Last year I wondered how a local newspaper could know very accurately how much money was being sent home by Union volunteers. Apparently much of the money was funneled through a soldier’s captain, and the captain told the press. From … Continue reading

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Corporal Corpulent?

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in April 1863: A Young Corporal. The Rochester Union says that a private letter from an officer in the 20th Reg. N.Y.S.V., to a friend in that city states that a Corporal in … Continue reading

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Anticipation

More soldiers from the New York 33d Voluntary Infantry visited visited home 150 years ago, only two or three months before their two year commitment would be completed. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in March 1863: LIEUT. PRICE … Continue reading

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Present Arms

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper, presumably sometime in early 1863: Presentation to Capt. McDonald. Capt. JAS. H. MCDONALD, of the 50th Regiment, received on Monday evening, a very substantial present at the hands of his fellow-citizens, for gallant … Continue reading

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Burnside Exiled?

I guess if you’re a strongly Democratic party newspaper you have to pretty much criticize everything the Lincoln administration does. After the Battle of Fredericksburg a Seneca County, New York newspaper blasted the Lincoln and his War Department for the … Continue reading

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Sambo and Coffee

A Democratic Party oriented newspaper maintained that blacks would have to be drafted to fight for their freedom. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in March 1863: Drafting the Negroes. All the highly colored stories concerning negro volunteers at … Continue reading

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anger management

Sometimes when I reproduce racist articles I feel like me and 150 years are ganging up on the people in the story – I have no idea what my thoughts and actions would be like if I lived so long … Continue reading

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A lynching in Montgomery

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 23, 1863: A Spy Hung. –Saturday morning last the Vigilance Committee resumed the examination of Dan’l S. E. Starr, who was charged with having written an Abolition book, which we believe, was found in … Continue reading

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baptisms in a battle-scarred town

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 21, 1863: From Fredericksburg. [from our own correspondent.] Fredericksburg, March 17, 1863. On Sunday morning, in passing the Episcopal church, in which the religious exercises that, for the past three weeks, have excited so … Continue reading

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Back East

Based on its placement in a notebook full of clippings, I believe this article from a Seneca County, New York newspaper was probably published around March, 1863. Regular U.S. Infantry had come back from the West to fight the rebels … Continue reading

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