Harper's Weekly was the most popular American publication during the Civil War. It's a great source for getting the mood of Americans during the ebb and flow of the war. Please glance through one of the 1865 issues of Harper's Weekly. You might find particularly interesting the January 14 issue that features Sherman's entrance into Savannah, the May 6 issue that focuses on Lincoln and his assassination or the May 13 issue that focuses on the aftermath of the assassination and the new president, Andrew Johnson. Please comment here on what the issue you read shows about America in 1865. Anything here that shows why it might have been difficult to reconcile North and South? Anything here that gives particular hope that the republic would be restored?
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Harper's Weekly
Harper's Weekly was the most popular American publication during the Civil War. It's a great source for getting the mood of Americans during the ebb and flow of the war. Please glance through one of the 1865 issues of Harper's Weekly. You might find particularly interesting the January 14 issue that features Sherman's entrance into Savannah, the May 6 issue that focuses on Lincoln and his assassination or the May 13 issue that focuses on the aftermath of the assassination and the new president, Andrew Johnson. Please comment here on what the issue you read shows about America in 1865. Anything here that shows why it might have been difficult to reconcile North and South? Anything here that gives particular hope that the republic would be restored?
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I read the issue about Lincoln's assassination. It shows that America was really damaged after the assassination. Lincoln was a great leader and without him, many thought the worst. It was difficult to reconcile the North and the South because of the different opinions on slavery, as stated in article. Hope for a new and great leader was stated.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Chastain
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ReplyDeleteI chose the April First edition and chose the page entitled "Jefferson Davis seizes Confederate Gold."
ReplyDeleteThe article I read was towards the bottom of the page, and its focus was on the "Rebels" obtaining money from the cotton industry, despite General Grant demanding "all commercial transactions with the rebels" quit. It is described that this demand is "plainest common sense." This is all within the first few paragraphs.
Obviously the prejudiced attitude here would raise the hair of most Southerners at the time. With such a bad attitude towards the Confederate states, even during reconstruction, one can see why rebuilding was such a tremendous effort, and why there was such strain. Many try to depict the South as the enemy in the Civil war, but when you see an article like this, it is easy to realize there are two sides to every story.
The article also speaks of "Yankee enterprise" and such a term was considered derogatory at the time. The article asks of those questioning Grants methods, "Is there any body in the country so dull as not to know that it was a trading and not a military expedition?"
From this one article it is really hard to assume that there was much hope at the time for a true unification of the nation again, yet surprisingly we managed to skirt around the hatred eventually and rejoin together.
I read the May 6th article of Harper Weekly. The article was about the death and funeral of President Abraham Lincoln. Harper briefly mentions that it was impossible to not feel the tenderness and heartbreak caused by the funeral. Among the best tributes was the one paid by Henry Ward Beecher, who delivered a discourse.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading the May 6th article concerning the aftermath of the assassination of president linking I found many things interesting about it, the accurate first hand descriptions of the process of his funeral and how he died was eye opening. Something i noticed was how divided the south and north were at the time. it seemed to the best interest of everyone that the be separated the south had no desire to stay in the union any long from what i read.
ReplyDeleteNathan Block
I read about the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, with it's focus on the assassinator and his family. The news spoke of the shame he brought to his country due to his cowardice, and the shame of his family.
ReplyDeleteThe newspaper says that the assassination of Lincoln might be enough to pull the North and the South together from the unity of their grief. I can't find anything in the page that says anything about restoring the republic, but the dark feeling the newspaper describes probably hints at no thought of the republic at all.
I read about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It took the nation by surprise and I believe the Americans at the time would have lost their hope for reconstruction because Lincoln seemed to be the only person capable enough to know what he was doing. Johnson surely did make a good attempt to continue the reconstruction plans that Lincoln had already set up before his untimely death, but, in my opinion, Lincoln could have done a much better job and could have gotten reconstruction running along a lot quicker and more smoothly than Johnson did had he not been assassinated.
ReplyDeleteThe capture and murder of John Wilkes Booth most likely brought hope back to America since now they know that the government is capable of doing something right without Lincoln. I'm not trying to say that the government is incompetent, because I can understand their bewilderment.
I found the details included about Lincoln's death and his funeral were very interesting. The amount of information then given about the his murderer were also very informative.
Meghan Conn
I read the issue form January 14, 1864 it covered the capture of savanna after Sherman’s “grand” march from Atlanta to Georgia. This article has a bias that favors the north, this is because it make no mention of Shaman’s scorched earth policy he executed in his “grand” march. It portrays union members as civil and orderly because the union generals asks the southerners to surrender. The southern mayor surrenders and the south troops retreated and left there forts they did take their ships portraying them as cowardly. This article is portrayed as huge northern victory because they north capture 150 guns (cannons) 13 Locomotives (important for moving troops, supplies for the troops, and other goods) and 35,000 bales of cotton (popular cash crop in the south). This article makes it sound like an easy going war with no atrocities meaning no obvious animosities but, anyone who knows little of our spices know there would be, because to kill another human or your fellow countrymen you must first pseudo-speciate your enemy, and that takes a lot of propaganda. You can see the north attempts at this by calling the southerners rebels, and looting savages.
ReplyDeleteAnthony M Johnson
I read the May 6th entry that talked about Lincoln's funeral. This put things into perspective for me and made me realize that this was a real thing at one time and not just something we learn about in history books today. It made me think about how the American people felt during this time and how I would feel if that were to happen today. This obviously caused tension in the entire nation so it probably made things harder for the north and south to reconcile.
ReplyDeleteI read the May 6th entry that talked about Lincoln's funeral. This put things into perspective for me and made me realize that this was a real thing at one time and not just something we learn about in history books today. It made me think about how the American people felt during this time and how I would feel if that were to happen today. This obviously caused tension in the entire nation so it probably made things harder for the north and south to reconcile.
ReplyDelete