Category Archives: Northern Society

honoring his mother …

Posted on January 18, 2014 by SUMPTER

and honoring her son From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in January 1864: PRESENTATION OF A BATTLE-FLAG. – The members of the 11th Regiment, Illinois Infantry, have recently presented their old battle-flag to Mrs. Rachel Nevius, of Lodi, in … Continue reading →

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using that Union instinct

Posted on January 16, 2014 by SUMPTER

150 years ago earlier this month Frederick Douglass made the case that the Civil War had to be primarily a war for abolition; there could never be a return to the old Union with its acceptance of slavery in the … Continue reading →

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“salutary school of affliction”

Posted on January 15, 2014 by SUMPTER

It’s been almost two years since we’ve put up a report on Frederick Douglass speaking at New York City’s Cooper Institute. 150 years ago this week he spoke there again. The war was dragging on, and it had to be … Continue reading →

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“a question of numbers and of time”

Posted on January 14, 2014 by SUMPTER

While on winter break in Philadelphia 150 years ago this week, General Meade, commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, was serenaded. He used the occasion to encouraged the walking wounded in the audience to rejoin the army and, … Continue reading →

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nurses should be paid

Posted on January 10, 2014 by SUMPTER

From The New-York Times January 10, 1864: Ladies’ National Army Relief Association. WASHINGTON, Thursday, Jan. 7, 1864. To the Editor of the New-York Times: Thankful for your courtesy in publishing my letter in your issue of the 3d, I desire … Continue reading →

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rosy outlook from dismal science

Posted on January 7, 2014 by SUMPTER

How can the Northern economy be doing relatively well given the labor and wealth wasted on the war? High labor productivity applied to a big and well-endowed country that can take in large numbers of immigrants, who add to the … Continue reading →

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cold snap

Posted on January 3, 2014 by SUMPTER

I thought 3 °F seemed kind of cold this morning – and I sure wasn’t outside for a whole guard shift From a Seneca County, New York in January 1864: During the recent cold snap, eighty soldiers on guard at … Continue reading →

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kudos

Posted on January 2, 2014 by SUMPTER

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in January 1864: GONE TO THE WARS. – The editor of the Seneca County Sentinel, disgusted with the newspaper business, has gone for a soldier, leaving the paper in his absence in the … Continue reading →

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objects lesson

Posted on January 1, 2014 by SUMPTER

In the first month of the new year a conservative editorial from a Democrat paper in the Finger Lakes region of New York State objected to what it saw as the war aims of the Lincoln administration -emancipation, increasing national … Continue reading →

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“billowed with their graves”

Posted on December 31, 2013 by SUMPTER

America in 1863. Democrat newspapers in central New York state thought that General-in-Chief Halleck underestimated the Union loss during 1863 in his year-end report. A couple articles from Seneca County, New York newspapers in December 1863: Our Losses for the … Continue reading →

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