Howell Cobb to His Wife. Montgomery [Ala.], 6 Feby., 1861. My Dear Wife, Since my election as President of the Congress I have been engaged all the time and had no chance to write. We have gone into secret session, and on pain of expulsion not permitted to divulge anything that is going on. The [...]
Howell Cobb to His Wife. Montgomery [Ala.], 3 Feby., 1861. My Dear Wife, I have been here for more than a day. . . . Most of the delegates have arrived, but there has been not much consultation. From all I hear there is a general disposition to make me president of the convention. It [...]
Augustus K. Wright[i] to Howell Cobb. Augusta, Ga., Feby. 1st, 1861. Dear Sir: Suffer me to presume upon a casual acquaintance many years ago and the intimacy that for many years existed between our fathers to ask for letters to such gentlemen of your acquaintance in the State of Maryland and at Washington as may [...]
Junius Hillyer to Howell Cobb.. Washington [D. C], Jan. 30th, 1861. Dear Sir: I wish you would take a few moments of your time to drop me a line. Things here are not working right. Since the Southern men have left Washington there seems to be nobody standing up for the Southern movement, and the [...]
The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to [...]
Fort Moultrie, in Charleston Harbour, South Carolina—The Secession Flag Flying Description from Fort Moultrie 1809-1930: The English-born correspondent Thomas Butler Gunn, representing himself as a reporter for the Illustrated London News (although he was also secretly filing stories with the New York Tribune and New York Evening Post), gained admission into occupied Fort Moultrie on [...]
Raphael Semmes[i] to Howell Cobb. Washington, D. C, Jan’y 26th, 1861. My Dear Sir: Permit me to remind you of the conversation we had just before you left Washington. I think States enough have gone out to determine me as to the course I shall pursue. If invited by the Confederacy of the Cotton States [...]
Richardson’ss New Map of the State of Texas 1861 Richardson’s New Map Of The State Of Texas Including Part of Mexico Compiled From Government Surveys And Other Authentic Documents. Published By Charles Desilver No. 714 Chestnut Street Philadelphia. Engraved Expressly For The Texas Almanac. Corrected By H. Wickland. 1861. Entered … 1861 by Charles Desilver [...]
George I. Durham[i] to Howell Cobb. Austin, Texas, Jan’y 17/61. Sir: I am directed by the Executive Committee to apprise you of the true condition of public sentiment in this State respecting our relations with the Federal Government. Our Executive is hostile to the present movement of the Gulf States and will use every means [...]
Jacob Thompson[i] to Howell Cobb. Washington, D. C, Jan’y 16th, 1861. My Dear Cobb, I was glad to receive your letter a few days since. It came the same day that I resigned, and I got Robt. M. McGraw to show it to the President. He folded it up very quietly and returned it to [...]
William Porcher Miles to Howell Cobb. Charleston [S. C], Jan. 14th/61. Dear Sir: I received your letter yesterday (Sunday) and this morning directed copies of all the ordinances passed and resolutions and addresses adopted by the convention of our state to be forwarded you at Macon. I will bear in mind your further request to [...]
William Henry Trescot[i] to Howell Cobb. E. (Private and confidential.) Barnwell Island, Near Beaufort, So. Ca., Jany. 14, 1861. My Dear Mr. Cobb, I reached home on Friday last with the intention of returning to Charleston today; but having been too late for the railroad I find time enough to do what I have been [...]
Robert Toombs to the Augusta, Ga., True Democrat.[i] Washington, D. C, Jan. 1, 1861. The cabinet is broken up, Mr. Floyd, Secretary of War, and Mr. Thompson, Secretary of the Interior, having resigned. Mr. Holt of Kentucky, our bitter foe, has been made Secretary of War. Fort Pulaski is in danger. The Abolitionists are defiant. [...]
Mrs. Robert Toombs to Alexander H. Stephens. Washington, D. C., Jan. 1st, 1861[i] Dear Sir: I write a few lines to you this morning to ask you what I shall do with your furniture that is in our house. I have despaired of the Union and will begin to pack up my own things today. [...]
The people are misled, and will see their course I fear when it is too late. Alexander H. Stephens to J. Henly Smith. Crawfordville [Ga.], Dec. 31st, 1860. Dear Smith, Yours of the 26th inst. was received last night. I do not think anything can be made of any of the propositions I have seen [...]
Crawfordville, Georgia, 30th December, 1860. Dear Sir,—Yours of the 22d instant was received two days ago. I hold it and appreciate it as you intended. Personally, I am not your enemy,—far from it; and however widely we may differ politically, yet I trust we both have an earnest desire to preserve and maintain the Union [...]
Charles F. M. Garnett to Howell Cobb. Lynchburg, Va., Dec. 28th, 1860. Dear Sir: I have thought much of the subject of defence in view of the present position of the South. Everybody knows the importance of artillery in modern warfare. Unfortunately the Southern States are entirely unprovided. Now I think Virginia can supply cannon, [...]
The Charleston Daily Courier, December 28, 1860 In order to ascertain truthful statements of the actual damage done to the forts, of the causes of the movement, and of the state of affairs generally, reporters were despatched to the scene during the forenoon. On the way across the harbor, the hoisting of the American flag [...]
This is an artist’s imagined rendering of an actual event that wasn’t much of an event. From the c1875 engraved print: United States Arsenal at Charleston, S.C. Seized by the State Authorities, December 28th, 1860 “At the time this picture was drawn the handsome arsenal of the government at Charleston was an object of great [...]
Robert Toombs to the People of Georgia (telegram).[i] [Washington, D. C, Dec. 23, 1860.] Fellow Citizens of Georgia: I came here to secure your constitutional rights or to demonstrate to you that you can get no guarantees for these rights from your Northern confederates. The whole subject was referred to a committee of thirteen in [...]
Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War, October 1861 Top: Representative Lawrence M. Keitt, Representative John McQueen, Representative Milledge Luke Bonham Middle: Senator James Chesnut, Senator James Henry Hammond Bottom: Representative William Waters Boyce, Representative John D. Ashmore, and Representative William Porcer Miles Note: Even though this was published late in 1861, the Harper’s Weekly [...]
To Alexander H. Stephens For your own eye only. Springfield, Ills. Dec. 22, 1860 Hon. A. H. Stephens My dear Sir Your obliging answer to my short note is just received, and for which please accept my thanks. I fully appreciate the present peril the country is in, and the weight of responsibility on [...]
Charleston Mercury broadside, December 20, 1860 We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the twenty-third day of May in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven hundred and eighty [...]
Cuthbert, Ga. Decr. 19, 1860. Dear Governor, I see by the papers you are to be in Macon tomorrow. I am glad to find you again upon Georgia soil; there is work to be done and nobody doing it. I am fearful of the consequences of such supineness and neglect. Where are all our speakers? [...]
Athens, Dec. 19/60. Dear Brother, Your appointments are received and a man sent around with hand bills to post them up in each county. I have barely time to write this to get it into the mail. A thousand cheers for So. Ca.! We have a torchlight procession tonight. From Annual Report of the American [...]