Category Archives: 150 Years Ago This Week

News from 150 years ago

“A bark canoe in a tempest on mid-ocean”

Posted on May 23, 2015 by SUMPTER

150 years ago this week the Utica Morning Herald & Daily Gazette (at the Library of Congress) devoted its front page to a reprint of an article that assessed Abraham Lincoln’s historical significance. The president did not seem up to … Continue reading →

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exhumation impracticable

Posted on May 22, 2015 by SUMPTER

Family and friends weren’t allowed to exhume the remains of soldiers in Virginia, especially if they had been dead less than a year. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1865: The Removal of Dead Soldiers from Virginia. Colonal … Continue reading →

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what’s next?

Posted on May 18, 2015 by SUMPTER

President Lincoln wasn’t afraid to swap horses midstream of the rebel invasion back in 1863. Thankfully for the Union cause, George Gordon Meade, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, sure knew how to play defense against the … Continue reading →

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quiet kanawha

Posted on May 15, 2015 by SUMPTER

It had been real quiet for the New York First Veteran Cavalry in the Kanawha Valley, but our SENECA correspondent was able to report the April surrender of a small rebel force at Lewisburg on Appomattox terms. The veterans in … Continue reading →

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just another rebel?

Posted on May 13, 2015 by SUMPTER

If it turned out that Jefferson Davis was not implicated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, why should he be punished any more severely than all the other rebels who fought the United States for over four long years? From … Continue reading →

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lashless society

Posted on May 12, 2015 by SUMPTER

150 years ago today: “President Andrew Johnson appoints General Oliver O. Howard to head the Freedman’s Bureau.” A May 12th editorial argued that, just as the conduct of black soldiers upset preconceived Southern notions of African-American competence, free black labor … Continue reading →

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mutual respect society

Posted on May 9, 2015 by SUMPTER

An editorial wasn’t too happy that William T. Sherman kept reporters away from General Johnston’s April 26, 1865 surrender; apparently General Sherman thought the Confederate officers would be embarrassed giving up in front of the gawking Yankee press. America would … Continue reading →

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America still shackled …

Posted on May 8, 2015 by admin

… by a whole lot of debt A British publication related the American Civil War debt to the “the safety and expediency of democratic rule.” – especially given a democracy’s aversion to free trade. From The New-York Times May 8, … Continue reading →

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“Many said: Is it possible to save our nation?”

Posted on May 4, 2015 by SUMPTER

From The New-York Times May 5, 1865: THE BURIAL.; President Lincoln Again at His Western Home. The Mortal, Four Years Absent, Returns Immortal. Close of the Grandest Funeral Procession in History. Two Weeks’ Solemn March Among Millions of Mourners. The … Continue reading →

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here comes the Chief Justice

Posted on May 1, 2015 by SUMPTER

From The New-York Times May 2, 1865: AN IMPORTANT MISSION.; Chief Justice Chare Reorganizing the Southern Courts-The Freedom of Commerce. Special Dispatch to the New-York Times. WASHINGTON, Monday, May 1. Chief Justice CHASE was one of a small party who … Continue reading →

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