Category Archives: 150 Years Ago This Week

News from 150 years ago

The New Wide-Awakes?

Posted on October 11, 2012 by SUMPTER

During the 1860 election campaign the Wide Awakes “was a paramilitary campaign organization affiliated with the Republican Party”. The following editorial is concerned that the Republican-led federal government is wide awake to punishing dissenting opinion. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch … Continue reading →

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Stop Drunk Ambulance Driving

Posted on October 10, 2012 by SUMPTER

According to Civil War Home, in August 1862 General McClellan ordered the creation of a more professional ambulance corps for the Army of the Potomac under the supervision of the army’s medical director. Apparently the results were still not too … Continue reading →

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Calling all men, women, and speculators!

Posted on October 9, 2012 by SUMPTER

The Army of Northern Virginia is in dire need of clothing, shoes, and blankets. By this time the North discouraged goods sent to soldiers as at best ineffectual and a logistics problem. Here a Richmond paper urges the entire Southern … Continue reading →

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Battling the Blockade … and Yellow Fever

Posted on October 8, 2012 by SUMPTER

It’s month old news but a fresh source of Confederate pride for the Dispatch editors. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch October 8, 1862: Brilliant Naval exploit. We doubt whether the late exploit of the Confederate shipsteamer Florida, in running the … Continue reading →

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Who would Jeff Davis vote for?

Posted on October 6, 2012 by SUMPTER

Democrat Horatio Seymour opposed Republican James S. Wadsworth in the 1862 race for New York governor. 150 years ago this week the Republican-leaning New-York Times published an editorial about a month from Election Day. There are three classes of Seymour … Continue reading →

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“Three cheers for the hope of America”

Posted on October 5, 2012 by SUMPTER

President Lincoln stopped in Frederick, Maryland on his way back to the nation’s capital after vising General McClellan and the Army of the Potomac at Antietam. Our correspondent saw the brief storm that hit Frederick during the president’s visit as … Continue reading →

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Cutting Wires

Posted on October 4, 2012 by SUMPTER

According to the Naval Historical Center, “A landing party from Thomas Freeborn cut telegraph lines stretching from Occoquan and Fredericksburg, Va., to Richmond, Va., on 4 October 1862.” It’s already been 15 months since the Freeborn’s commander, James Harmon Ward, … Continue reading →

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Evaluating Ullman

Posted on October 3, 2012 by SUMPTER

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch October 4 (or 3), 1862: A military Politician. –Among the latest arrivals of Yankee officers is Daniel Ullman, formerly the great gun of the Know Nothings of New York. He was operating on the line … Continue reading →

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At Club Mac

Posted on October 2, 2012 by SUMPTER

On September 29, 1862 a group of men in Seneca Falls, New York held an organizational meeting of a McClellan Club. Here’s a report from a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1862: Organization of a McClellan Club. A large … Continue reading →

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The mask laid aside

Posted on September 29, 2012 by SUMPTER

A southern editorial on Abraham Lincoln’s September 22, 1862 Proclamation of Emancipation. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch September 30, 1862: Lincoln’s proclamation. The Yankee Government has at last laid aside all disguise. Lincoln openly proclaims the abolition of slavery throughout … Continue reading →

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