Harper’s Weekly – December 31, 1864

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1861-1865: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: May 2025.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous Harper’s Weekly thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4286258/posts

Continued from December 14 (reply #27).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4283626/posts#27

Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee, an abridgement by Richard Harwell

Home Letters of General Sherman, edited by M.A. DeWolfe Howe, 1909

All for the Union: The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes, edited by Robert Hunt Rhodes

The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas

Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, December 31, 1864 (Another Wilmington campaign is being organized. No leaks this time.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2021/08/diary-of-gideon-welles-saturday.html

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, December 31, 1864 (“Not a waver, doubt, or hesitation when I order, and men march to certain death without a murmur if I call on them, because they know I value their lives as much as my own.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2013/09/major-general-william-t-sherman-to.html

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Saturday, December 31, 1864 (“I shudder when I think how many have been killed out of our little band, yet I am spared perhaps for some good purpose” Abbott added a footnote many years later on what that “good purpose” might have been.)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2017/08/diary-of-1st-lieutenant-lemuel-abbott_19.html

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, December 31, 1864 (“The Eleventh Iowa has done its part and suffered severely, Company E alone having lost seven men by bullet in the siege of Atlanta”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/10/diary-of-5th-sergeant-alexander-g_17.html

Diary of Corporal Charles H. Lynch: December 31, 1864 (“The inclosure is so large and high it cannot be seen from the outside, making it safe from the shots of the guerillas, scouts, and bushwhackers.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/09/diary-of-corporal-charles-h-lynch.html

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 31, 1864 (“His army diminishes, rather than increases, under the manipulations of the Bureau of Conscription. It is a dark and dreary hour, when Lee is so despondent!”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2023/10/diary-of-john-beauchamp-jones-december.html

Diary of Sarah Morgan: Saturday Night, December 31, 1864 (“I am afraid of eighteen sixty-five, and have felt a vague dread of it for several years past.”)

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/05/diary-of-sarah-morgan-saturday-night.html

Today’s posts:

“Lee,” reply #3
Gen. Sherman letter to his father-in-law, #4
Elisha Hunt Rhodes, #5
George Templeton Strong, #6
Lincoln note to Sec. Stanton, #7
Links to 7 items at Civil War Notebook, #8