About the Writers
This page will be linked to pages with information about individual or family writers.
- Adams – Charles Frances, Sr.; Charles Frances, Jr.; and Henry – Union
- Belmont, August – Union; Democratic National Committee chairman.
- Brown, Spencer Kellogg – Union; kidnapped as a teen in Kansas by Missourians who thought him the son of John Brown; Union soldier; spy
- Chesnut, Mary Boykin Miller – Confederacy;
- Queen Bee of the Confederacy, N.Y. Times, by Catherine Clinton, May 26, 2011
- Dallas, George Miflin – United States Minister to England 1856 to 1861
- Eppes, Susan Bradford – Confederacy
- Favill, Josiah Marshal – Union soldier; private for initial 90 day enlistment; recruited 100 volunteers and reentered NY Volunteers as an officer.
- Forbes, John Murray – Union
- Hayes, Rutherford Birchard – Union
- Jones, John Beauchamp – Confederacy
- King, Horatio – Union
- McQuire, Judith White – Confederacy
- Miller, Dora Richards – Union; born on the island of St. Thomas; resided in New Orleans in 1861; married a lawyer January 18, 1862; moved to Arkansas, in Vicksburg during the siege.
- Paxton, Elisha Franklin – Confederacy
- Richards, Caroline Cowles – Union
- Russell, William Howard – British reporter
- Taft, Horatio Nelson – Union
- Wills, Charles Wright – Union soldier; initially enlisted as a private in the Eighth Illinois Infantry; near the end of the war he had been promoted to major in the One Hundred and Third Illinois Infantry.
- Woolseys – Union
- Welles, Gideon – Union; Secretary of the Navy
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I just wanted to tell you your blog is fantastic! Thank you for providing daily updates to the Civil War throughout this 150th anniversary. It is extraordinary and you’ve put a lot of work into it. It’s great!
Meg,
Thank you so much. I sort of had a dry run at this a few years back, when I had a blog following John Beauchamp Jones, Gideon Welles, and Horatio Nelson Taft. Sadly, I got behind on it and it foundered a few months shy of the end of the war.
I already had my sights set on the sesquicentennial, though. Through Google books and it’s short-lived Microsoft competitor, I had collected some books of diaries and letters, and I collected more over time.
This time, I have a spreadsheet that I use to keep me up on where I am with each of the writers. At this point I am three weeks ahead. Some of the writers’ works are done, with posts pre-scheduled through the end of the war and beyond. Others are partially done, to be picked up later as the war and my spreadsheet move forward in time. There are more that have yet to be started.
Hi Mike .. very interesting .. fascinating that you’ve actually put them up. Your reply to Meg is helpfully informative .. have you incorporated writings/journal entries from your old blog?
Cheers for now – Hilary
Hi Hilary,
Thanks. Actually, yes, I have and will incorporate some of the material from the old blog. Interestingly, John Beauchamp Jones and Horatio Nelson Taft are less interesting on a day to day basis than some of the entries by other writers. Gideon Welles has yet, at this point in the war, September 28, 1861, to have started writing in his journal on a regular basis.
Hi Mike .. I guess the less senior guys could in some ways be more observant of what was going on around them or their plans etc .. while the senior chaps had to be a little more cautious ..
Cheers – I’ll pick your updates via the RSS .. even if I just scan .. Hilary
I’m beginning to wonder if Horatio Nelson Taft ever gets beyond the daily weather report or his nightly trip to Willard’s! Seriously though, I do find the day-to-day observations very interesting, especially when two people comment on the same event or when there is a meeting of correspondents–such as “Willy” Lusk showing up in Eliza Howland’s letter yesterday! Keep up the good work.
Owen,
Thanks much for the encouragement.
I have to remind myself sometimes that some of the writers, like Taft, were writing their diaries more for themselves than posterity while John Beauchamp Jones was specifically trying to record his experiences and views for history.
I would like to get permission to use your image of Luman H. Tenney in uniform for an article about the battle he took part in Missouri. Thank you for your assistance.
Paul,
Of course. I’ll reply by email. The image is from a book published in 1914 and is thus in the public domain. I’ll send my largest version for your use.