Category Archives: 150 Years Ago This Week

News from 150 years ago

Beast on Broadway

Posted on November 7, 2014 by SUMPTER

General Benjamin F. Butler had yet another role to play for the Union cause – help keep New York City peaceful and orderly for the November 8th election. New Yorkers could read his orders 150 years ago today. From The … Continue reading →

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election day forecast

Posted on November 6, 2014 by SUMPTER

threats at home and from abroad Richmond editors shared some information they said they found in Northern papers about the upcoming Yankee presidential election: the United States government warned about a conspiracy to set fire to Northern cities on November … Continue reading →

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“blood-bought franchise”

Posted on November 4, 2014 by SUMPTER

I’ve gone to the polls many times, but I’ve never had to be concerned about the military interfering with my vote. Apparently not so in Civil War Kentucky. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 4, 1864: Governor Bramlette, of Kentucky, … Continue reading →

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October surprise?

Posted on November 3, 2014 by SUMPTER

As the 1864 presidential election neared, a Democrat paper claimed that a Union assault on the Petersburg-Richmond front was politically motivated to create good war news for President Lincoln; the administration then covered up the failed attack. From a Seneca … Continue reading →

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just “checker playing,”?

Posted on October 31, 2014 by SUMPTER

A Democratic paper reported lots of evidence that New York soldiers were voting for General McClellan in large majorities. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1864: The Vote in the Army Are the Soldiers for McClellan? A special … Continue reading →

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big purses

Posted on October 29, 2014 by SUMPTER

Despite the manpower shortage, rotten weather, and the annoying “Yankee invasion”, 150 years ago this week residents of Richmond could look forward to horse races at a local track. Apparently jockeys were exempt from the Confederate draft. From the Richmond … Continue reading →

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mail-in ballots

Posted on October 27, 2014 by SUMPTER

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in October 1864: SOLDIERS’ VOTES. – The votes of our soldiers are now being received in considerable numbers daily throughout the county. Those receiving them should be careful not to open the inner … Continue reading →

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in black and white

Posted on October 25, 2014 by SUMPTER

red all over … but a lot less than Democrats claim. Democrat newspapers claimed the public debt would be $4 billion by the end of the war. A Republican publication calculated the debt as of September 30, 1864 as about … Continue reading →

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heads game

Posted on October 23, 2014 by SUMPTER

From The New-York Times October 24, 1864: … MR. PENDLETON VISITS NEW YORK. Mr. PENDLETON, Democratic candidate for Vice-President, left Cincinnati incognito last Thursday, on a visit to the East. He was in Philadelphia yesterday, and to-morrow will reach New … Continue reading →

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self-defense

Posted on October 22, 2014 by SUMPTER

About three weeks before the U.S. presidential election the October 22, 1864 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the South) took a swipe at the peace-loving Democrats: War, cold steel … don’t forget plundering the civilian population, as the … Continue reading →

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