Download or read book The Diaries of Reuben Smith Kansas Settler and Civil War Soldier written by Lana Wirt Myers and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2018-03-21 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1854, after recently arriving from England, twenty-two-year-old Reuben Smith traveled west, eventually making his way to Kansas Territory. There he found himself in the midst of a bloody prelude to the Civil War, as Free Staters and defenders of slavery battled to stake their claim. The young Englishman wrote down what he witnessed in a diary where he had already begun documenting his days in a clear and candid fashion. As beautifully written as they are keenly observant, these diaries afford an unusual view of America in its most tumultuous times, of Kansas in its critical historical moments, and of one man’s life in the middle of it all for fifty years. From his moving account of traveling from England by ship to his reflections on settling in the newly opened Kansas Territory to his observations of war and politics, Smith provides a picture that is at once panoramic and highly personal. His diaries depict the escalation of the Civil War along the Kansas-Missouri border as well as the evolution of a volunteer soldier from an inexperienced private to a seasoned officer and government spy. They take us inside military camps and generals’ quarters, to the front lines of battle and in pursuit of bushwhackers William Quantrill and Cole Younger. Later, they show us Smith as a state representative and steward of the Kansas State Insane Asylum in its early years. In historic scenes and poignant personal stories, these diaries offer a unique perspective on life in the Midwest in the last half of the nineteenth century. Editor Lana Wirt Myers’s commentary and extensive notes provide the context and information needed for a full understanding of Reuben Smith’s remarkable stories.
Download or read book Abolitionist of the Most Dangerous Kind written by Todd Mildfelt and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A controversial character largely known (as depicted in the movie Glory) as a Union colonel who led Black soldiers in the Civil War, James Montgomery (1814–71) waged a far more personal and radical war against slavery than popular history suggests. It is the true story of this militant abolitionist that Todd Mildfelt and David D. Schafer tell in Abolitionist of the Most Dangerous Kind, summoning a life fiercely lived in struggle against the expansion of slavery into the West and during the Civil War. This book follows a harrowing path through the turbulent world of the 1850s and 1860s as Montgomery, with the fervor of an Old Testament prophet, inflicts destructive retribution on Southern slaveholders wherever he finds them, crossing paths with notable abolitionists John Brown and Harriet Tubman along the way. During the tumultuous years of “Bleeding Kansas,” he became a guerilla chieftain of the antislavery vigilantes known as Jayhawkers. When the war broke out in 1861, Montgomery led a regiment of white troops who helped hundreds of enslaved people in Missouri reach freedom in Kansas. Drawing on regimental records in the National Archives, the authors provide new insights into the experiences of African American men who served in Montgomery’s next regiment, the Thirty-Fourth United States Colored Troops (formerly Second South Carolina Infantry). Montgomery helped enslaved men and women escape via one of the least-explored underground railways in the nation, from Arkansas and Missouri through Kansas and Nebraska. With support of abolitionists in Massachusetts, he spearheaded resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act in Kansas. And, when war came, he led Black soldiers in striking at the very heart of the Confederacy. His full story thus illuminates the actions of both militant abolitionists and the enslaved people fighting to destroy the peculiar institution.
Download or read book The Western Historical Quarterly written by and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Civil War Diaries of Charles E Smith Citizen Soldier written by Charles E. Smith and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 698 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Missouri Historical Review written by and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Civil War Diary of Josiah D Smith 1861 1865 Federal Army Company G 66th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry written by Josiah D. Smith and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Rough Introduction to This Sunny Land written by Tom Wing and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reissue of Henry Strong s diary will be a valuable asset to all who study the Civil War. It provides a view of the war from the perspective of a common soldier who witnessed many of the key events in the western part of Arkansas. From seeing the suffering of the civilian population to participating in Frederick Steele's doomed Camden Expedition, this young Kansan kept a meticulous record of daily events."
Download or read book The Lost Civil War Diaries written by Timothy J. Regan and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now after 141 years, these diaries originally compiled in two manuscripts, are being published for the first time unedited and in thier entirety. Rarely are any new discoveries made of the written material on the American Civil War and this may be the last major find of Civil War period literature.
Download or read book Spencer Kellogg Brown written by Spencer Kellogg Brown and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sam Richards s Civil War Diary written by Samuel P. Richards and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This previously unpublished diary is the best-surviving firsthand account of life in Civil War-era Atlanta. Bookseller Samuel Pearce Richards (1824-1910) kept a diary for sixty-seven years. This volume excerpts the diary from October 1860, just before the presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, through August 1865, when the Richards family returned to Atlanta after being forced out by Sherman's troops and spending a period of exile in New York City. The Richardses were among the last Confederate loyalists to leave Atlanta. Sam's recollections of the Union bombardment, the evacuation of the city, the looting of his store, and the influx of Yankee forces are riveting. Sam was a Unionist until 1860, when his sentiments shifted in favor of the Confederacy. However, as he wrote in early 1862, he had "no ambition to acquire military renown and glory." Likewise, Sam chafed at financial setbacks caused by the war and at Confederate policies that seemed to limit his freedom. Such conflicted attitudes come through even as Sam writes about civic celebrations, benefit concerts, and the chaotic optimism of life in a strategically critical rebel stronghold. He also reflects with soberness on hospitals filled with wounded soldiers, the threat of epidemics, inflation, and food shortages. A man of deep faith who liked to attend churches all over town, Sam often commments on Atlanta's religious life and grounds his defense of slavery and secession in the Bible. Sam owned and rented slaves, and his diary is a window into race relations at a time when the end of slavery was no longer unthinkable. Perhaps most important, the diary conveys the tenor of Sam's family life. Both Sam and his wife, Sallie, came from families divided politically and geographically by war. They feared for their children's health and mourned for relatives wounded and killed in battle. The figures in Sam Richards's Civil War Diary emerge as real people; the intimate experience of the Civil War home front is conveyed with great power.
Download or read book This War So Horrible written by Hiram Smith Williams and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2006-09-03 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hiram Smith Williams, born in New Jersey, was an unusual individual. A skilled carriagemaker and carpenter, he traveled throughout the Midwest in the 1850s as an organizer for the Know Nothing Party and the candidacy of Martin Van Buren. When Van Buren failed to win the presidency in 1856, Williams spent two years wandering around Missouri, teaching school and writing poetry. In addition to his political activities, he served as a correspondent for several midwestern newspapers." "In 1859, Williams settled in Livingston, Alabama, where he worked as a carriagemaker. He quickly identified with the people around him and when the Civil War erupted in 1861, he supported the Southern cause. In 1862, he enlisted in the 40th Alabama Infantry Regiment, and through 1863 he served on detached duty as a skilled naval carpenter in Mobile. While in Mobile, Williams was active in the cultural and social life of the city and frequently appeared in plays as a semi-professional actor." "In 1864, he was reassigned to his regiment, part of the Army of Tennessee, which was camped in Dalton, Georgia. From February 1864 until autumn of that year, he participated in the Atlanta campaign as a member of a Pioneer unit, which was composed of men with construction skills. In that capacity he helped build bridges, roads, and fortifications, came in close contact with various headquarters, and sometimes worked as a hospital orderly. In late 1864, he accompanied the remnants of the Army of Tennessee on its retreat from Atlanta into Alabama. He then rejoined the 40th on duty in defense of Mobile harbor until March 1865, when he rejoined the Army of Tennessee in its attempt to stop Sherman." "Williams was taken prisoner just a few days before the end of the war, and spent three months in a prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland. His diary records the anxiety of the prisoners in Federal camps immediately after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the harsh living conditions, and the continual desire for repatriation." "This War So Horrible is a remarkable diary. It provides a rare look at the concerns, activities, and experiences of the common soldier in a major Confederate Army during a critical campaign. What makes it so unusual is that Williams was well educated and literate. He did not write terse entries in his diary, but rather expounded at length on what he saw, felt, and hoped. While not anti-Southern, Williams was intensely anti-war and anti-military. Civil War students will find this diary useful because it is the only fully descriptive record of a member of the Pioneer Corps. Little is known about how these units operated and what the internal organization was like. The editors have deliberately chosen to let Williams speak for himself ... and the readers will find him lucid, cogent, compelling, and always interesting."--Jacket.
Download or read book A Diary of the Civil War written by John Cedric Spence and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Cedric Spence (b. 1809) was born in Murfeesboro, Tennessee to John and Mary Chism Spence. He spent his early years in Murfeesboro and then was a businessman in Sommerville and Memphis for a short time. In 1849 he returned to Murfeesboro where he became an important business leader of the community. During the Civil War he spent numerous hours chronicalling the war in his diary.
Download or read book The Civil War Diary of Charles A Leuschner written by Charles August Leuschner and published by Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum. This book was released on 1992 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leuschner's account of his experiences as a Confederate soldier, including his part in the Atlanta Campaign, and the Battle of Franklin, as well as his capture and imprisonment at Camp Douglas, Illinois.
Download or read book Civil War Diaries and Personal Narratives 1960 1994 written by Albert E. Smith and published by Library of Congress. This book was released on 1998-08-01 with total page 87 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Downing s Civil War Diary written by Alexander G. Downing and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Spencer Kellogg Brown written by Spencer Kellogg Brown and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-08-10 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography is of double interest just now when the Louisiana Centenary Exhibition brings the early days of the occupation of Kansas before the public. Spencer Kellogg Brown was a neighbour of the famous John Brown whose “body lies mouldering in the grave.” He was hanged by the Confederates as a spy at the early age of twenty-one, having been taken prisoner a few days after his marriage. The simplicity of an innocent boy is oddly mingled with the grave dignity of a man tried as by fire, and the diary is so charming that few will lay it down until it is read to the end. —The Review of Reviews, Volume 29 S. K. Brown had the ill-fortune to be growing into manhood at the time when the slavery trouble in the States was coming to a head. It is a dismal story of lawlessness and cruelty that the biographer has to tell of these early days. In January, 1861, Spencer Kellogg—the name of Brown was dropped — enlisted in the Northern Army. Some nine months afterwards he transferred himself to the Navy, being one of the crew of the 'Essex,' a ferry-boat converted into a gunboat. Shortly afterwards he was sent to examine the fortifications of the Confederates on the Mississippi, his name being reported as a deserter, to the great distress of his friends. Prom this service he came back safely; but the following year, after destroying a hostile ferry-boat, ho was taken prisoner. After moro than thirteen months of captivity he was executed as a spy. The sentence would have been just had he been captured during his secret-service expedition. This severity is a matter of self-defence. The man who gains illicit knowledge cannot be allowed to escape. But this execution was a matter of vengeance. S. K. Brown knew nothing then but what everybody knew, and was a simple prisoner of war. But the Confederates strained military law more than once. The famous affair of the captured locomotive was another instance of this kind of conduct. The hanging of this youth—he was but a month or so over twenty-one—looks like a bit of savagery. —The Spectator, Volume 92 The supply of books about the American Civil War is already so large that we doubt the necessity of giving to the world extracts from the diary of a promising young spy who was handed by the Confederates in his twenty-second year. Spencer Kellogg Brown was not related to John Brown of Harper's Ferry (whose body lies mouldering in the grave), but was a neighbour of his in Kansas. The boy had pluck and talent, but his meditations on religion—of which the present book is largely composed—might well have been left in his diary. The book throws no new light on the war, arid the odd situation in Kansas for some years before its outbreak has been often before described. Mr. Smith is more interested in theology than in tactics, and in a needlessly long book—the outcome of friendship with Brown's family—makes no attempt to discuss the interesting point in military law raised by Brown's execution. The boy when captured was an honest belligerent, and was hanged for a much earlier piece of secret service. —The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, Volume 97
Download or read book The Diary of Sam Watkins a Confederate Soldier written by Samuel Rush Watkins and published by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2005-01-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpts from the diary of a Confederate soldier from Tennessee, describing the battles he fought in during the Civil War.
