The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It (Library of America #212)

The first volume in a four-volume series on the American Civil War—featuring first-hand writings from Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, and more This “mesmerizing and deeply troubling” glimpse into the Civil War era “will forever deepen the way you see this central chapter in our history . . . a masterpiece” ( Newsweek ). After 150 years the Civil War is still our greatest national drama, at once heroic, tragic, and epic-our Iliad, but also our Bible, a story of sin and judgment, suffering and despair, death and resurrection in a "new birth of freedom.” Drawn from letters, diaries, speeches, articles, poems, songs, military reports, legal opinions, and memoirs, The Civil War: The First Year gathers over 120 pieces by more than sixty participants to create a unique firsthand narrative of this great historical crisis. Beginning on the eve of Lincoln's election in November 1860 and ending in January 1862 with the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as secretary of war, this volume presents writing by figures well-known—Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Mary Chesnut, Frederick Douglass, and Lincoln himself among them—and less familiar, like proslavery advocate J.D.B. DeBow, Lieutenants Charles B. Haydon of the 2nd Michigan Infantry and Henry Livermore Abbott of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and plantation mistresses Catherine Edmondston of North Carolina and Kate Stone of Mississippi. Together, the selections provide a powerful sense of the immediacy, uncertainty, and urgency of events as the nation was torn asunder. Includes headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory endnotes, full-color hand-drawn endpaper maps, and an index. Companion volumes will gather writings from the second, third, and final years of the conflict. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries. ... Drawn From Letters, Diaries, Speeches, Articles, Poems, Songs, Military Reports, Legal Opinions, And Memoirs, 'the Civil War: The First Year' Brings Together Over 120 Pieces By More Than Sixty Participants To Create A Unique Firsthand Narrative Of This Great Historical Crisis ...--dust Jacket Flap. Calling A Secession Convention, November 1860. What Shall The South Carolina Legislature Do? November 3, 1860 / Charleston Mercury -- Alarms From The South : Illinios, November 1860. Memoranda Regarding Abraham Lincoln, November 5-6, 1860 / John G. Nicolay -- Going To Go, November 9, 1860 / New-york Daily Tribune -- The Threat Of Secession, November 1860. Jefferson Davis To Robert Barnwell Rhett Jr., November 10, 1860 -- The Need For Southern Cooperation, November 1860. Speech At Milledgeville, November 15, 1860 / Benjamin Hill -- Debating Secession, Georgia, November 1860. The Right Of States To Secede, November 16, 1860 / New York Daily News -- States Cannot Exist Disunited, November 1860. I Am For The Union As It Is, Texas, November 1860 / Sam Houston To H.m. Watkins And Others, November 20, 1860 -- Our Sore National Sickness : New York, November 1860. Diary, November 20, November 26-december I, 1860 / George Templeton Strong --^ ^this Dangerous Game : Missouri, November 1860 Diary, November 22, 1860 / Edward Bates -- The Wicked Spirit Of Secession : Tennessee, November 1860. William G. Brownlow To R.h. Appleton, November 29, 1860 -- Lincoln, And Slavery : December 1860. The Late Election, December 1860 / Frederick Douglass -- Secessionism In Louisiana, December 1860. William T. Sherman To Thomas Ewing Sr. And To John Sherman -- Washington, D.c., December 1860. From The Annual Message To Congress, December 3, 1860 / James Buchanan -- The Benefits Of Slavery : December 1860. The Non-slaveholders Of The South, December 5, 1860 / J.d.b. Debow -- Advocating Secession : Georgia, December 1860 / Joseph E. Brown To Alfred H. Colquitt And Others, December 7, 1860 -- Restating Positions On Slavery : December 1860 / Abraham Lincoln To John A. Gilmer, December 15, 1860 -- Rejecting Coercion : December 1860. The Right Of Secession, December 17, 1860 / New-york Daily Tribune --^ ^i Stand By The Union : December 1860. Remarks In The U.s. Senate, December 17, 1860 / Benjamin F. Wade -- A Compromise Over Slavery, December 1860. Remarks In The U.s. Senate, December 18, 1860 / John J. Crittenden -- Meanness And Rascality : Washington, D.c., December 1860 / Henry Adams To Charles Francis Adams Jr., December 18-20, 1860 -- A Confidential Message : Illinois, December 1860. Memorandum Regarding Abraham Lincoln, December 22, 1860 / John G. Nicolay -- Charleston, December 1860. South Carolina Declaration Of The Causes Of Secession, December 24, 1860 -- Occupying Fort Sumter : South Carolina, December 1860. From Reminiscences Of Forts Sumter And Moultrie In 1860-'61 / Abner Doubleday -- Urging Kentucky To Secede: December 1860 / Stephen F. Hale To Beriah Magoffin, December 27, 1860 -- The Tempest Bursting : 1860. Misgivings / Herman Melville -- Sad Foreboding: Georgia, January 1861 / Mary Jones To Charles C. Jones Jr., January 3, 1861 --^ All Depends On Virginia : Washington, D.c., January 1861 / Henry Adams To Charles Francis Adams Jr., January 8, 1861 -- Jackson, January 1861. Mississippi Declaration Of The Causes Of Secession, January 9, 1861 -- A Warlike Aspect. Washington, D.c., January 1861 / Elizabeth Blair Lee To Samuel Phillips Lee -- The Star Of The West : Sourt Carolina, January 1861 / Catherine Edmondston : Diary, January 9-13, 1861 -- Washington, D.c., January 1861. Farewell Address In The U.s. Senate, January 21, 1861 / Jefferson Davis -- The Evils Of Anarchy And Civil War: January 1861 / Robert E. Lee To George Washington Custis Lee, January 23, 1861 -- Hopes For Lincoln's Administration: March 1861. The New President, March 1861 / Frederick Douglass -- Washington, D.c., March 1861. First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861 / Abraham Lincoln -- That Wretch Abraham Lincoln : North Carolina, March 1861 / Catherine Edmondston : Diary, March 4, 1861 --^ Vindicating Slavery: Georgia, March 1861. Corner-stone Speech, March 21, 1861 / Alexander H. Stephens -- Relieving Fort Sumter: Washington, D.c., March-april 1861 / Edward Bates : Diary, March 9-april 8, 1861 -- Seward And Fort Sumter: Washington, D.c. March 1861. Memoir Of Events, March 1861 / Gideon Welles -- Challenging Lincoln: Washington, D.c., April 1861. Memorandum For The President, April 1, 1861 / William H. Seward -- I Must Do It: Washington, D.c., April 1861 / Abraham Lincoln To William H. Seward, April 1, 1861 -- The War Begins: South Carolina, April 1861. Diary, April 7-15, 1861 / Mary Chesnut -- Bombardment And Surrender: South Carolina, April 1861 / From Reminiscences Of Forts Sumter And Moultrie In 1860-61, Abner Doubleday -- New Yorkers Respond : April 1861. Diary, April 13-16, 1861 / George Templeton Strong -- Vindicating National Honor: April 1861. The People And The Issue, April 15, 1861 / The New York Times --^ Fighting The Mad Rebellion: April 1861. The War Begun : The Duty Of American Citizens, April 15, 1861 / Pittsburgh Post -- Celebration In Charleston: South Carolina, April 1861. From My Diary North And South, April 17, 1861 / William Howard Russell -- Infidel Enemies : Georgia, April 1861 / Charles C. Jones Sr. To Charles C. Jones Jr., April 20, 1861 -- Seccssionism In Richmond: Virginia, April 1861. Diary, April 15-22, 1861 / John B. Jones -- The Baltimore Riot: April 1861. From Historical Sketch Of The Old Sixth Regiment Of Massachusetts Volunteers / John W. Hanson -- I Have But One Sentiment Now: Illinois, April 1861 / Ulysses S. Grant To Frederick Dent, April 19, 1861, And The Jesse Root Grant, April 21, 1861 -- Montgomery, Alabama, April 1861. Message To The Confederate Congress, April 29, 1861 / Jefferson Davis -- Strike Down Slavery Itself: May 1861. How To End The War, May 1861 / Frederick Douglass -- New York, Spring 1861. First O Songs For A Prelude / Walt Whitman -- A Strategic Plan : May 1861 / Winfield Scott To George B. Mcclellan, May 3, 1861 -- Life In Army Camp : Michigan, May 1861 / Charles B. Haydon : Diary, May 3---12, 1861 -- Predicting A Short War: May 1861 / Ulysses S. Grant To Jesse Root Grant, May 6, 1861 -- Life In The Executive Mansion : Washington, D.c., May 1861 / John Hay : Diary, May 7---10, 1861 --^ ^fearing Attack In Alexandria : Virginia, May 1861 / Judith W. Mcguire : Diary, May 10, 1861 -- Rioting In St. Louis : Missouri, May 1861 / William T. Sherman To John Sherman, May 11, 1861 -- Slaves Seeking Freedom: Virginia, May 1861 / Benjamin F. Butler To Winfield Scott, May 24, 1861 -- Defining Runaway Slaves : Virginia, May 1861 / The New York Times : General Butler And The Contraband Of War, June 2, 1861 -- Our Cause Is Just : Louisiana, May 1861 / Kate Stone : Journal, May 15-27, 1861 -- A Visit To Washington : May-june 1861 / George Templeton Strong : Diary, May 29---june 2, 1861 -- Massachusetts, May 1861 : John Brown's Body -- The Writ Of Habeas Corpus : Maryland, May 1861 / Roger B. Taney : Opinion In Ex Parte Merryman, June 1, 1861 -- I Rejoice In This War : Virginia, June 1861 / Henry A. Wise : Speech At Richmond, June 1, 1861 --^ ^the Blinded, Fanatical North: Georgia, June 1861 / Charles C. Jones Jr. To Chrales C. Jones Sr. And Mary Jones, June 10, 1861 - -anglo-american Relations : London, June 1861 / Henry Adams To Charles Francis Adams Jr., June 10-11, 1861 -- Cherokee Neutrality : Indian Territory, June 1861 / John Ross To Benjamin Mcculloch, June 17, 1861 -- Emancipating Northern Opinion : June 1861 / James Russel Lowell : The Pickens-and-stealin's Rebellion, June 1861 -- Washington, D.c., July 1861 / Abraham Lincoln : Message To Congress In Special Session, July 4, 1861 -- An Unobserved Holiday: Louisiana, July 1861 / Kate Stone : Journal, July 4, 1861 -- Facing The Enemy: Missouri, July 1861 / Ulysses S. Grant : From Personal Memoirs Of U.s. Grant -- Defeats In Western Virginia: July 1861 / Sallie Brock : From Richmond During The War -- A Farewell Letter : July 1861 / Sullivan Ballow To Sarah Ballou, July 14, 1861 --^ Battle Of Manassas : Virginia, July 1861 / Charles Minor : From Letters From Lee's Army -- The Union Army Retreats : Virginia, July 1861 / William Howard Russell : From My Diary North And South -- Death And Confusion Everywhere : Virginia, July 1861 / Samuel J. English To His Mother, July 24, 1861 -- News Of Manassas : South Carolina, July 1861 / Emma Holmes : Diary, July 22-23, 1861 -- Straggling Soldiers: Washington, D.c., July 1861 / Elizabeth Blair Lee To Samuel Phillips Lee, July 23, 1861 -- A Terrible Shock: Washington, D.c., July 1861 / Walt Whitman : From Specimen Days -- Washington, D.c., July 1861 / Abraham Lincoln : Memoranda On Military Policy, July 23, 1891 -- Celebrating Victory : Virginia, July 1861 / Mary Chesnut : Diary, July 24, 1861 -- Noninterference With Slavery: July 1861 / Crittenden-johnson Resolutions, July 22-25, 1861 -- Assuming Command: Washington, D.c., July 1861 / George B. Mcclellan To Mary Ellen Mcclellan, July 27, 1861 -- Our Men Are Not Good Soldiers : July 1861 / William T. Sherman To Ellen Ewing Sherman, July 28, 1861 -- Our Late Awful Disaster: July 1861 / Horace Greeley To Abraham Lincoln, July 29, 1861 -- Washington, D.c., August 1861 / George B. Mcclellan : Memorandum For The President, August 2, 1861 -- A Measure Against Slavery: August 1861 / Confiscation Act, August 6, 1861 -- The Presdt Is An Idiot: August 1861 / George B. Mcclellan To Mary Ellen Mcclellan, August 8, 9, And 16, 1861 -- Battle Of Wilson's Creek : Missouri, August 1861 / E. F. Ware : From The Lyon Campaign In Missouri -- Confederate Artillery At Wilson's Creek : Missouri, August 1861 / W. E. Woodruff : From With The Light Guns In '61-'65 --^ ^freeing The Slaves Of Rebels: Missouri, August 1861 / John C. Fremont : Proclamation, August 30, 1861 -- Modifying A Proclamation : September 1861 / Abraham Lincoln To John C. Fremont, September 2, 1861 -- The Need For Black Soldiers: September 1861 / Frederick Douglass : Fighting Rebels With Only One Hand, September 1861 -- Revoking Fremont's Proclamation: September 1861 / Abraham Lincoln To Orville H. Browning, September 22, 1861 -- A Cherokee-confederate Alliance: Indian Territory, October 1861 / John Ross : Message To The National Council, October 9, 1861 -- Battle Of Ball's Bluff: Virginia, October 1861 / Henry Livermore Abbott To Josiah Gardner Abbott, October 22, 1861 -- Replacing Winfield Scott: October 1861 / George B. Mcclellan To Mary Ellen Mcclellan, October 25, 26, 30, And 31, 1861 -- I Am Tired Of Incompetents: November 1861 / Charles Francis Adams Jr. To Henry Adams, November 5, 1861 --^ ^preparing For The Next Battle : November 1861 / George B. Mcclellan To Samuel L. M. Barlow, November 8, 1861 -- Battle Of Belmont: Missouri, November 1861 / Ulysses S. Grant To Jesse Root Grant, November 8, 1861 -- A Doctor At Belmont : Missouri, November 1861 / Lunsford P. Yandell Jr. To Lunsford Yandell Sr., November 10, 1861 -- The Capture Of Port Royal : South Carolina, November 1861 / Samuel Francis Du Pont To Sophie Du Pont, November 13-15, 1861 -- A Former Slave Remembers : South Carolina, November 1861 / Sam Mitchell : Narrative Of The Capture Of The Sea Islands, November 1861 -- A Confederate Sermon : Georgia, November 1861 / Henry Tucker : God In The War, November 15, 1861 -- Richmond, Virginia, November 1861 / Jefferson Davis : Message To The Confederate Congress, November 18, 1861 -- The Army Of The Potomac : Virginia, November 1861 / Harper's Weekly : The Great Review -- Slavery And The Press: November 1861 / Ulysses S. Grant To Jesse Root Grant, November 27, 1861 --^ Shortages And Inflation : Virginia, Autumn 1861 / Sallie Brock : From Richmond During The War -- The Trent Affair : London, November-december 1861 / Benjamin Moran : Journal, November 27-december 3, 1861 -- War With England : London, November 1861 / Henry Adams To Charles Francis Adams Jr., November 30, 1861 -- Washington, D.c., December 1861 / Abraham Lincoln : Annual Message To Congress, December 3, 1861 -- Preparing To Enlist : Boston, December 1861 / Charles Francis Adams Jr. To Henry Adams, December 10, 1861 -- A Song Of The Contrabands : Virginia, 1861 / Let My People Go -- Not Relying On Foreign Aid : December 1861 / Robert E. Lee To George Washington Custis Lee, December 29, 1861 -- The President's Duty To Act : Washington, D.c., December 1861 / Edward Bates : Diary, December 31, 1861 -- Lincoln And Mcclellan : Washington, D.c., January 1862 / Irwin Mcdowell : Memorandum, January 10-13, 1862 --^ The Bottom Is Out Of The Tub : Washington, D.c., January 1862 / Montgomery C. Meigs, Memoir Of Meetings With President Lincoln, January 10-13, 1862 -- This Army Has Got To Fight : January 1862 / Exwin M. Stanton To Charles A. Dana, January 24, 1862. Edited By Brooks D. Simpson, Stephen W. Sears, Aaron Sheehan-dean. Maps On Lining Papers. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. After 150 years the Civil War still holds a central place in American history and self-understanding. It is our greatest national drama, at once heroic, tragic, and epicour Iliad, but also our Bible, a story of sin and judgment, suffering and despair, death and resurrection in a new birth of freedom. Drawn from letters, diaries, speeches, articles, poems, songs, military reports, legal opinions, and memoirs, The Civil War: The First Year brings together over 120 pieces by more than sixty participants to create a unique firsthand narrative of this great historical crisis. Beginning on the eve of Lincolns election in 1860 and ending in January 1862 with the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as secretary of war, signaling a new energy and determination to the Union war effort, this volume collects writing by figures well-knownUlysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Mary Chesnut, Frederick Douglass, and Lincoln himself among themand less familiar, like pro-slavery advocate J.D.B. DeBow, Lieutenants Charles B. Haydon of the 2nd Michigan Infantry and Henry Livermore Abbott of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and plantation mistresses Catherine Edmondston of North Carolina and Kate Stone of Mississippi. Together, the selections provide a powerful sense of the immediacy, uncertainty, and urgency of events as the nation was torn asunder. Secessionist appeals by Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown and Alabama legislator Stephen F. Hale give voice to the intense racial fears that helped drive the South toward disunion; Union corporal Samuel J. English and Confederate surgeon Lunsford P. Yandell evoke the shock, confusion, and horror of battle in Virginia and Missouri; memoirist Sallie Brock candidly records the impact of war on Richmond society; and Sam Mitchell recounts his liberation from slavery when the South Carolina Sea Islands fell to Union soldiers. The Civil War: The First Year includes headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory endnotes, endpaper maps, and an index. A master film critic is at her witty, exhilarating, and opinionated best in this career-spanning collection featuring pieces on Bonnie and Clyde , The Godfather , and other modern movie classics “Film criticism is exciting just because there is no formula to apply,” Pauline Kael once observed, “just because you must use everything you are and everything you know.” Between 1968 and 1991, as regular film reviewer for The New Yorker , Kael used those formidable tools to shape the tastes of a generation. She had a gift for capturing, with force and fluency, the essence of an actor’s gesture or the full implication of a cinematic image. Kael called movies “the most total and encompassing art form we have,” and her reviews became a platform for considering both film and the worlds it engages, crafting in the process a prose style of extraordinary wit, precision, and improvisatory grace. Her ability to evoke the essence of a great artist—an Orson Welles or a Robert Altman—or to celebrate the way even seeming trash could tap deeply into our emotions was matched by her unwavering eye for the scams and self-deceptions of a corrupt movie industry. Here are her appraisals of era-defining films such as Breathless , Bonnie and Clyde , The Leopard , The Godfather , Last Tango in Paris , Nashville , along with many others, some awaiting rediscovery—all providing the occasion for masterpieces of observation and insight, alive on every page. Drawn from letters, diaries, speeches, articles, poems, songs, military reports, legal opinions, and memoirs, this collection brings together over 120 pieces by more than 60 men and women to create a firsthand narrative of the first year of the Civil War. Beginning on the eve of Lincoln's election in 1860 and ending in January 1862 with the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of War, the selections provide a sense of the immediacy, uncertainty, and urgency of events as the nation was torn asunder. Includes headnotes, a chronology of events, and biographical and explanatory endnotes.--Adapted from publisher description