did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

9780226333304

The Complete Civil War Journal and Selected Letters of Thomas Wentworth Higginson

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780226333304

  • ISBN10:

    0226333302

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 1999-12-01
  • Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr
  • Purchase Benefits
List Price: $46.00

Summary

"I desire to record, as simply as I may, the beginnings of a momentous military experiment, whose ultimate results were the reorganization of the whole American army and the remoulding of the relations of two races on this continent. . . . I can only hope that the importance of the subject may save me from that egotism which makes great things seem little and little things seem less in the narrating." So wrote Thomas Wentworth Higginson about his role in one of the most compelling and fascinating episodes in the history of the United States. As the colonel of the first regiment of black men in the Union army during the Civil War, Higginson was an early, articulate, and powerful crusader for civil rights, and his journal and letters, collected for the first time in this volume, present some of the most extraordinary documents of the Civil War. Higginson was a politically engaged intellectual at the forefront of radical antislavery, labor, and feminist causes. Born in 1823 to a formerly wealthy but still prominent Brahmin family, he became one of America's leading social activists and a prominent writer, minister, and reformer. With the publication in 1869 of his classic Army Life in a Black Regiment, which drew on this journal, Higginson became one of the most important chroniclers of the Civil War. The Complete Civil War Journal and Selected Letters of Thomas Wentworth Higginson is the first comprehensive edition of his journal. Sensitively and thoroughly annotated by Christopher Looby and supplemented by a large selection of Higginson's wartime letters, this volume offers the most vivid and intimate picture of the radical interracial solidarity brought about by the transformative experience of the army camp and of Civil War life. "The immediacy of Higginson's reflections, as well as their sharp insights, make this journal both distinctive and enduringly compelling . . . . Higginson's vivid texts can once again educate, gratify and delight readers."--Publishers Weekly "This volume will enrich our understanding of the transformations that emancipation and war wrought."--Library Journal

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xix
Introduction 1(32)
Note on the Texts 33(4)
WAR JOURNAL NOVEMBER 22, 1862 -- APRIL 25, 1864 37(184)
WAR LETTERS AUGUST 4, 1861 -- MAY 18, 1864 221(148)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, August 4, 1861
``a bouquet on every bayonet''
223(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 1, 1861
``people must act up to their consciences''
224(3)
To James Freeman Clarke November 5, 1861
``My proposed regiment seems to be under very fair headway''
227(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 24, 1861
``I confidently expect to go in some way''
227(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, August 15, 1862
``the uncertainties of human life...seem hardly greater in war than in peace''
229(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, August 22, 1862
``I have now 27 recruits''
230(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, August 29, 1862
``I have...had a street drill of my company''
231(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, September 7, 1862
``I don't think I ever did anything better than I have done all this''
232(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, September 14, 1862
``Tomorrow I go into barracks''
234(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, September 26, 1862
``nine hundred men snore in concert in one vast hall''
235(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, October 4, 1862
``Old Higgie is so strict, so strict''
237(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, October 13, 1862
``a divertisement of men alone''
238(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, October 26, 1862
``I have to give all the nervous energy I can spare''
239(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 2, 1862
``our rather monotonous life''
241(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 3, 1862
``We have orders to leave''
243(1)
To Thomas Wentworth Higginson, from Gen. Rufus Saxton, November 5, 1862
``I take great pleasure in offering you the position of Colonel''
243(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 9, 1862
``ours will be a splendid regiment''
243(1)
To Thomas Wentworth Higginson, From Rev. James H. Fowler, November 10, 1862
``the demands of the movement''
244(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 12, 1862
``We have marching orders''
245(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 16, 1862
``this letter...may change all my plans''
246(1)
To Brigadier General Rufus Saxton from Colonel Augustus B. Sprague, November 19, 1862
``a man of marked ability and of indomitable perseverance''
246(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 28, 1862
``if I don't come home jet black you must be very grateful''
247(2)
To James T. Fields, (No Date)
``I enjoy it all exceedingly, I assure you''
249(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, December 10, 1862
``the vexed ghosts of departed slave-lords of the soil''
250(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, December 10, 1862
``I seem like Rajah Brooke in Borneo''
251(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, December 22, 1862
``these will yet have to fight to get the promise fulfilled''
253(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, December 26, 1862
``How happy I was''
254(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, January 2, 1863
``The Freedom Jubilee''
255(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, January 6, 1863
``nothing in the landscape to show aught but beautiful peace''
256(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, January 7, 1863
``lovely weather, rosebuds, moonlight and soft airs''
257(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, January 9, 1863
``You don't know how pastoral I feel''
258(2)
To Mary Channing Higginson, January 14, 1863
``I feel like Hosea Biglow's militia officer''
260(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, February 1, 1863
``one of the most daring expeditions of the war''
261(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, February 16, 1863
``the regiment goes on improving''
262(1)
To Ralph Waldo Emerson, February 20, 1863
``the personal experience of these men has been a liberal education''
262(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, February 24, 1863
``a very good test of the men''
263(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, March 3, 1863
``I liked the absence of cant''
264(1)
To---, March 6, 1863
``we sail for Fernandina''
265(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, March 12, 1863
``A little skirmishing at present, but no great danger''
265(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, March 19, 1863
``we have had rather an anxious time''
266(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, March 22, 1863
``The colors are better apart, for military service''
266(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, March 27, 1863
``Probably my regiment will go farther up the river''
267(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, (No Date)
``shells are not so very dangerous''
268(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, March 30, 1863
``We are ordered to evacuate Jacksonville''
268(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, April 8, 1863
``we have happened into the most fascinating regions and life''
269(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, April 10, 1863
``This charming life among Cherokee roses & peach blossoms''
270(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, April 16, 1863
``These are queer creatures, these freedmen''
270(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, April 22, 1863
``heap o'howdy''
272(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, April 23, 1863
``people won't write all on one side''
272(1)
To James T. Fields, May 6, 1863
``I want the Atlantic''
273(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, May 6, 1863
``Intensely human''
274(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, May 9, 1863
``sympathy, success, approbation''
275(3)
To Mary Channing Higginson, May 16, 1863
``thus do great events link on to small ones''
278(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, May 18, 1863
``All quiet along the Coosaw''
280(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, May 26, 1863
``still here and likely to stay''
282(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, June 5, 1863
``I wash my hands in de mornin'glory''
282(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, June 10, 1863
``Cabals and intrigues''
283(3)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, June 10, 1863
``show soldiers & real soldiers''
286(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, June 19, 1863
``I will have none but civilized warfare in my reg't''
288(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, June 19, 1863
``burning & pillaging I utterly detest''
288(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, June 22, 1863
``no one dares to treat us otherwise than well''
289(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, June 26, 1863
``Any artist would prefer to have his soldiers black''
290(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, July 2, 1863
``It was very boarding schooly, the box''
291(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, July 8, 1863
``We are peacefully here & likely to remain''
293(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, July 12, 1863
``I had a knock on the side''
294(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, July 12, 1863
``It only felt like a smart slap''
294(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, July 14, 1863
``why it is Arcadia, Syrian peace''
295(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, July 14, 1863
``a black & blue spot, as big as my two hands''
296(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, July 27, 1863
``a twenty days furlough''
297(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, July 31, 1863
``I am well enough''
298(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, August 7, 1863
``myself `me one' as my men say''
298(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, August 12, 1863
``my piece in the next Atlantic''
299(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, August 16, 1863
``I feel very well & quite fit to go''
300(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, August 19, 1863
``I want to see my black babies''
301(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, August 23, 1863
``The Mark Tapley element in me''
302(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, August 28, 1863
``our camp is at a very beautiful place''
303(2)
To Mary Channing Higginson, August 30, 1863
``My trip home was a dear little oasis''
305(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, September 8, 1863
``it looked pleasant morally if uncomfortable bodily''
306(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, September 8, 1863
``rheumatiz is a citizen of the world''
307(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, September 15, 1863
``They do drill so pretty''
308(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, September 24, 1863
``Scroby' the indomitable''
310(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, October 1, 1863
``I am in rather a state of collapse''
310(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, October 2, 1863
``Doing well only `powerful weak''
311(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, October 9, 1863
``a sort of good natured Hurly Burly Hall''
311(2)
To Mary Channing Higginson, October 10, 1863
``every patient...wants to be pulsed & thumped & auscultated a little''
313(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, October 17, 1863
``I lead a rather agreeable single-gentleman life''
314(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, October 19, 1863
``I continue to gain strength, though slowly''
315(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, October 24, 1863
``thrust through & through by malaria without knowing anything about it''
316(2)
To Mary Channing Higginson, October 25, 1863
``the pet and belle of the island''
318(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, October 26, 1863
``staying about as ladies do''
320(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 2, 1863
``We are going out on picquet''
321(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, November 6, 1863
``The men are singing tremendously tonight''
322(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 10, 1863
``a d---d saucy Yankee as they ever met''
323(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, November 18, 1863
``building castles in the air for the future''
324(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 19, 1863
``5 Colonels, 3 very fat, standing in a row''
326(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, November 19, 1863
``comfortable in my tent''
327(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, November 26, 1863
``the negroes are the true owners of the soil''
329(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, November 26, 1863
``Coming soon enough for you''
330(2)
To Mary Channing Higginson, November 27, 1863
``Every colonel has to struggle...to keep his chickens together''
332(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, December 5, 1863
``doing tolerably well''
333(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, December 5, 1863
``Lieutenant White in place of a Lt. Brown''
333(2)
To Mary Channing Higginson, December 12, 1863
``not sick & not quite well''
335(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, December 13, 1863
``a rather formidable gathering of Ethiopia''
337(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, December 19, 1863
``What do we have to eat?''
338(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, December 21, 1863
``to be the officers of law in the scene of their old bondage''
340(2)
To Mary Channing Higginson, December 21, 1863
``every Colonel is court martialed first or last''
342(2)
To Mary Channing Higginson, January 8, 1864
``as if made of better clay''
344(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, January 10, 1864
``the results now gained for the colored people & the nation''
346(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, January 14, 1864
``my blameless Ethiopians''
347(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, January 22, 1864
``Baby flourishes & so do we all''
348(2)
To Mary Channing Higginson, January 28, 1864
``I have done my duty entirely''
350(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, February 7, 1864
``a great flurry & hurry & for nothing at all''
351(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, February 9, 1864
``I certainly do not intend to be an invalid for life''
353(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, February 12, 1864
``waiting day by day''
354(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, February 23, 1864
``Peace evidently has its defeats no less than war''
356(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, March 2, 1864
``we think of...demanding 35 days furlough to Africa''
357(2)
To Sarah---, March 4, 1864
``the fascination of perfectly naive broken-English''
359(2)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, March 6, 1864
``trying to throw the blame of his own folly on the colored troops''
361(1)
To Mary Channing Higginson, March 11, 1864
``my theory of the greater dangers of peace & Main St.''
362(1)
To---, March 20, 1864
``not a soul but was entirely deceived''
363(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, April 2, 1864
``I expect to wilt''
363(2)
To Mary Channing Higginson, April 4, 1864
``The literary trade is probably good like all others now''
365(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, April 20, 1864
``We are leading our usual picnic life''
366(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, April 27, 1864
``I have sent in my surgeon's certificate''
367(1)
To Louisa Storrow Higginson, May 18, 1864
``the event of coming home fr. the wars''
368(1)
Chronology 369(10)
Index 379

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program