Category: 1860s
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Swett 1: Adventures of a Deaf-Mute in the White Mountains
1865: Deaf-mute Henniker native William B. Swett begins his journey to the White Mountains…
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Colby 6: A Critical Inspection of the Teeth
1862: The 39th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment has high standards for its recruits…
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Colby 1: When the War Broke Out
1861: Freeman Colby (of Henniker) needs a break from the rigors of teaching… so he enlists to fight in the Civil War!
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Sarah Josepha Hale on Thanksgiving (1864)
Hale reflects on the national holiday she helped create in the midst of Civil War. (Note her “peculiarly” 19th century conceptions of politics, gender, charity, & religion.)
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We Go Without Mittens Very Well (Rogers, Nov. 20 1862, #2)
Rogers recounts recent experiences & dispenses domestic advice for the home front …
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Dear Sister (Rogers, Nov. 20 1862, #1)
In this early Civil War letter, Warner native Joseph S. Rogers stares across the waters at a looming battle…
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Letter to Lincoln (1863)
Newport native Sarah Josepha Hale appeals to President Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War, and instigates an official national holiday!
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Dix’s Letter to New Orleans (1861)
As the union begins to crumble, Treasury Secretary Dix orders a revenue cutter in New Orleans back North; the captain refuses, and Dix sends this telegram to his agent in the South: At a time when the outgoing Buchanan administration was doing little to avert the ongoing crisis of Southern secession, Dix’s order electrified both sides…
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Gen. John Adams Dix (State House)
A nine-foot-tall portrait of NH native John A. Dix, who, as President Buchanan’s Secretary of the Treasury, set “the hearts of the people everywhere ablaze”… NEXT: The famous “Shoot Him On the Spot” memo >> John Adams Dix (born in Boscawen, 1798) issued what the NY Herald called “the first command to shed blood that…
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“I tell you what it is, George” (First Bull Run)
From a letter by Private Charles Putnam (2nd NH Volunteers) to his brother George in Claremont…
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Unknown Soldier (Stoddard, 1864)
Henry Stevens finally joins the 18th NH volunteers, but he never makes it into battle… SOURCE: HSCC Monadnock Moment No. 029: Stoddard’s Unknown Soldier Originally published in Monadnock History Comics (Keene Sentinel, 2005) Discussion questions: This episode mentions the names of several historical figures. Which names do you recognize? Why are they famous? Abraham Lincoln William Tecumseh Sherman…
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5th NH: Deployment (1861)
The 5th NH suffers its first casualty on the train from Concord, long before the first battle…
Live Free and Draw 