Author Archives: SUMPTER

trick or treat

You can read about this 1862 political carton at the Library of Congress. After being caned by Preston Brooks in the U.S. Senate in May 1856, Charles Sumner needed over three years to be able to fully recover from the … Continue reading

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sick and beyond sick

Back in August Dr. Charles Hoyt wrote a letter praising the valor of the New York 126th’s color bearers’ at Gettysburg. The surgeon caught a fever and had to come home to recuperate. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper … Continue reading

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“monstrous fraud and swindle”

The New-York Times saw the state election in November 1863 as a chance for voters to express their support for the Lincoln election and its vigorous prosecution of the war. A Democrat paper in upstate New York saw a vote … Continue reading

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Tredegar still hiring

Big surprise – the South’s war economy is still going great guns. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch October 28, 1863: Wanted–1,000 negroes. –We wish to hire for the year 1864, one thousand Negroes, to be employed at the Tredegar Iron … Continue reading

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just a manpower issue

From The New-York Times October 28, 1863: Another Speech by Major-Gen. Rosecrans. CINCINNATI, Tuesday, Oct. 27. Gen. ROSECRANS, in a speech at the Merchants’ Exchange yesterday, where he was most enthusiastically received, said, it was his firm belief that if … Continue reading

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veteran foragers make it to DC

The 1st New York Veteran Cavalry Regiment had been pretty much recruited. 150 years ago this week a large contingent traveled to the Washington, D.C. area. In a strange kind of time warp our SENECA correspondent said the regiment left … Continue reading

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satire is the best medicine

A New York paper says it is republishing an article from a Richmond newspaper, no date given, that comments on worsening conditions in the Confederacy. How do you house and feed three million people in the Southern capital? The writer … Continue reading

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black gold

Inflation in the Confederacy wasn’t just wreaking havoc on prices for basic needs like flour. Slave prices were at their highest ever in Richmond. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch October 24, 1863: High prices. –The highest prices yet paid for … Continue reading

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Richmond voters against maximum prices

150 years ago yesterday a referendum was held in Richmond so that voters could let their state representatives know whether or not the voters supported the “maximum bill” (price controls) that was being considered by the Virginia legislature. It didn’t … Continue reading

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Richmond referendum

As inflation was ravaging the Confederacy 150 years ago, the Virginia state legislature was mulling over a “maximum bill” to regulate prices on a variety of goods. The Richmond city council called a referendum so that Richmond legislators would know … Continue reading

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