Category Archives: 150 Years Ago This Week

News from 150 years ago

tech times

150 years ago today The New-York Times headlined some remarkable technology. The world’s largest ironclad was launched three months after the Civil War ended, and some people imagined trains running up in the air over Broadway. The USS Dunderberg was … Continue reading

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“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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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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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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patriots’ monuments

150 years ago today two monuments were dedicated on the Bull Run battlefields. It seems to have been an all Yankee occasion on Virginia soil. Well, the North lost both the battles but won the war. You can view a … Continue reading

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