Of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle sex
The seeming paragon;
To whom the better elements
And kindly stars have given
A form so fair, that, like the air,
'Tis less of earth than heaven.
EDWARD C. PINKNEY
("_A Health_")
December Seventeenth
Her every tone is music's own,
Like those of morning birds,
And something more than melody
Dwells ever in her words;
The coinage of her heart are they,
And from her lips each flows
As one may see the burdened bee
Forth issue from the rose.
EDWARD C. PINKNEY
("_A Health_")
December Eighteenth
... Nay, more! in death's despite
The crippled skeleton "learned to write."
"Dear mother," at first, of course; and then
"Dear Captain," inquiring about the men.
Captain's answer: "Of eighty-and-five,
Giffen and I are left alive."
FRANCIS O. TICKNOR
("_Little Giffen_")
_Francis O. Ticknor dies, 1874_
December Nineteenth
Word of gloom from the war, one day;
Johnston pressed at the front, they say.
Little Giffen was up and away;
A tear--his first--as he bade good-bye,
Dimmed the glint of his steel-blue eye.
"I'll write, if spared!" There was news of the fight;
But none of Giffen.--He did not write.
FRANCIS O. TICKNOR
_Crittenden's compromise opposed by dominant party in Congress, 1860_
Some of the manufacturing states think that a fight would be awful.
Without a little bloodletting this Union will not, in my estimation, be
worth a rush.
Z. CHANDLER
(_Senator from Michigan_)
December Twentieth
The Convention of 1787 was composed of members, a majority of whom were
elected to reject the Federal Constitution; and it was only after the
clause declaring that "the power granted under the Constitution being
derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them
whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury and oppression, and
that every power not granted thereby remains with them at their will," was
inserted in the ordinance of ratification, that six or more of the
majority opposed to the measure consented to vote for it. Even with this
accession of strength the Constitution was carried only by a vote of 89 to
79.
(_From Editorial Article in Charleston "Courier," 1861_)
_South Carolina secedes, 1860_
December Twenty-First
RESOLVED.... As the powers of legislation, granted in the Constitution of
the United States to Congress, do not embrace a case of the admission of a
foreign State or Territory, by legislation, into the Union, such an act of
admission would have no binding force whatever on the people of
Massachusetts.
(_Resolutions of Massachusetts Legislature, 1845. Nullification?_)
_President Tyler urges annexation of Texas, 1844_
December Twenty-Second
Bowing her head to the dust of the earth,
Smitten and stricken is she;
Light after light gone out from her hearth,
Son after son from her knee.
Bowing her head to the dust at her feet,
Weeping her beautiful slain;
Silence! keep silence for aye in the street--
See! they are coming again!
ALETHEA S. BURROUGHS
_Sherman enters Savannah, 1864_
_Reconstruction Act put in effect in Georgia, 1869_
December Twenty-Third
The glory of your virtues will not terminate with your military command;
it will continue to animate remote ages.
(_President of Congress, to General Washington_)
_Washington resigns his commission as Commander-in-Chief, Annapolis, 1783_
December Twenty-Fourth
CHRISTMAS EVE
The moon is in a tranquil mood;
The silent skies are bland:
Only the spirits of the good
Go musing up the land:
The sea is wrapped in mist and rest;
It is the night that God hath blest.
DANSKE DANDRIDGE
December Twenty-Fifth
To the cradle-bough of a naked tree,
Benumbed with ice and snow,
A Christmas dream brought suddenly
A birth of mistletoe.
The shepherd stars from their fleecy cloud
Strode out on the night to see;
The Herod north-wind blustered loud
To rend it from the tree.
But the old year took it for a sign,
And blessed it in his heart:
"With prophecy of peace divine,
Let now my soul depart."
JOHN B. TABB
(_Mistletoe_)
December Twenty-Sixth
Now praise to God that ere his grace
Was scorned and he reviled
He looked into his mother's face,
A little helpless child.
And praise to God that ere men strove
Above his tomb in war
One loved him with a mother's love,
Nor knew a creed therefor.
JOHN CHARLES MCNEILL
(_A Christmas Hymn_)
December Twenty-Seventh
Hear the sledges with the bells--
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars, that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells--
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
EDGAR ALLAN POE
December Twenty-Eighth
In the future some historian shall come forth both strong and wise,
With a love of the Republic, and the truth, before his eyes.
He will show the subtle causes of the war between the States,
He will go back in his studies far beyond our modern dates,
He will trace our hostile ideas as the miner does the lodes,
He will show the different habits born of different social codes,
He will show the Union riven, and the picture will deplore,
He will show it re-united and made stronger than before.
JAMES BARRON HOPE
December Twenty-Ninth
Slow and patient, fair and truthful must the coming teacher be
To show how the knife was sharpened that was ground to prune the tree.
He will hold the Scales of Justice, he will measure praise and blame,
And the South will stand the verdict, and will stand it without shame.
JAMES BARRON HOPE
_Texas admitted to the Union, 1845_
December Thirtieth
I changed my name when I got free
To "Mister" like the res',
But now dat I am going Home,
I likes de ol' name bes'.
Sweet voices callin' "Uncle Rome"
Seem ringin' in my ears;
An' swearin' sorter sociable,--
Ol' Master's voice I hears.
* * * *
He's passed Heaven's River now, an' soon
He'll call across its foam:
"You, Rome, you damn ol' nigger,
Loose your boat an' come on Home!"
HOWARD WEEDEN
December Thirty-First
'Tis midnight's holy hour--and silence now
Is brooding, like a gentle spirit, o'er
The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds,
The bells' deep notes are swelling. 'Tis the knell
Of the departed year. No funeral train
Is sweeping past; yet on the stream and wood,
With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest
Like a pale, spotless shroud; the air is stirred,
As by a mourner's sigh; and on yon cloud,
That floats so still and placidly through heaven,
The spirits of the seasons seem to stand--
Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form,
And Winter, with his aged locks--and breathe
In mournful cadences, that come abroad
Like the far wind harp's wild and touching wail,
A melancholy dirge o'er the dead Year,
Gone from the earth forever.
GEORGE DENISON PRENTICE
_Battle of Murfreesboro, Tenn., 1862_
Index
PAGE
_Alabama_, the, fight with the _Kearsarge_. June 19 140
Alamance Creek, Battle of. May 16 118
Alamo, the. Mch. 6 65
Antietam, Battle of. Sept. 17 212
_Arkansas_, the, destroyed. Aug. 6 180
Ashby, Gen. Turner. June 6 131
Assembly, first legislative in America. July 30 172
Atlanta, evacuation of. Sept. 1, 2 200
Audubon, John James. May 4 109
Bacon, Nathaniel, epitaph. Jan. 2 15
Bagby, George W. Aug. 13 185
Baltimore, in first bloodshed of the War. April 19 97
Benjamin, Judah P. May 6 111
_Bonnie Blue Flag_, the. Jan. 10, 12 21, 23
Boston, A Southern view. Mch. 12 69
Breckinridge, John C. May 17; Aug. 10 118, 183
Brooke, John Mercer, constructor of the first ironclad. Mch. 9 67
Brown, John, execution. Dec. 2 268
Raid at Harper's Ferry. Oct. 16, 17 230, 231
Calhoun, John C. Mch. 18 74
Nationalism of. Mch. 31 81
Carroll, Charles of Carrollton. Nov. 14 255
Charleston "Courier" on Secession. Dec. 20 280
Chickamauga, Battle of. Sept. 20 215
Clark, George Rogers. Feb. 23, 24 53, 54
Clark and Lewis, Northwestern expedition. May 14 116
Clay, Henry. June 29 148
Coercion, opposed by border States. Apr. 16, 17, 18;
May 20 94, 95, 96, 119
Confederacy, fall of. Apr. 8, 9, 10, 11 87, 88, 89, 90
Surrender of last army. May 26 122
Cornwallis, surrender of. Oct. 19 233
Crittenden, compromise of. Dec. 19 279
Crockett, Col. David. Aug. 17 188
Custis, Hon. John, epitaph. July 11 158
Davis, Jefferson. June 3; Dec. 6 129, 271
Imprisonment. May 23, 24 121
Democrats, negro view of. Dec. 7 272
Dixie, new version. Jan. 31; April 25; May 21 36, 102, 120
Easter, selections for. April 4, 5 86
Emancipation. Jan. 11; Feb. 12; Aug. 1, 2, 3;
Sept. 3 22, 45, 176, 177, 178, 201
Lincoln on. Sept. 22 216
Southern view of. Feb. 28; June 2; Oct. 16 58, 129, 230
Forrest, N. B. July 13 159
Address to soldiers. Oct. 27 239
Tributes to. Oct. 21, 26, 29, 30, 31 235, 238, 240, 241
Fort Sullivan, defence of. June 28 147
Fort Sumter, attempts to reinforce. Jan. 9 20
Capture of. April 14 92
Firing upon. April 12 91
Frederick, Md., occupied by Confederates. Sept. 9 206
Fredericksburg, Battle of. Dec. 13 276
Frietchie, Barbara, in reference to "Stonewall" Jackson. Sept. 6 204
Gettysburg, Battle of. July 1, 2, 3, 4 150, 151, 152, 153
Gordon, Gen. Geo. H., remarks on Jackson's soldiers. Aug. 28 195
Gordon, Gen. John B. Feb. 6 41
Grady, Henry W. April 24 101
Hampton, Gen. Wade. Mch. 28 79
Harris, Joel Chandler. Dec. 9 273
Hayne, Paul Hamilton. Jan. 1 14
Henry, Patrick. May 29 125
Hill, Gen. A. P. April 2 85
Hill, Gen. D. H. July 12 159
Houston, Samuel, inaugurated president of Texas. Oct. 22 236
Insurrection, the Southampton. Aug. 1, 2, 3 176, 177, 178
Jackson, Gov. C. F., declaration of secession. Aug. 5 179
Jackson, Andrew. Mch. 15 71
Jackson, "Stonewall." Jan. 21 30
Bill Arp's view of. Sept. 16 211
Capture of Harper's Ferry. Sept. 15 211
Death. May 10 113
Wounded. May 2 108
Jamestown, first legislative assembly met. July 30 172
Reference to. June 20 141
Settled. May 13 115
Jefferson, Thomas. April 13 92
On Louisiana Purchase. April 30 105
Johnston, General Albert Sidney. April 6 86
Johnston, General Jos. E. Feb. 7 41
Kansas, formed as territory. May 30 125
Kennedy, John P. Oct. 25 238
King's Mountain, Battle of. Oct. 9 226
Ku Klux Klan. Feb. 20, 21, July 31 50, 51, 173
Lanier, Sidney. Feb. 3 39
Tabb's tribute to. Sept. 8 206
Laurens, John. Aug. 27 194
Lee, Anne Carter, monument to. Aug. 8 182
Lee, Henrietta, letter to Gen. Hunter. July 19 164
Lee, Henry. Jan. 29 34
Lee, Robert E. Jan. 19 29
Accepts presidency of Washington College. Aug. 24 192
Elected president of Washington College. Aug. 4 178
First Northern invasion. Sept. 13 209
Hill's tribute to. Oct. 12 228
Issues Chambersburg order. June 27 147
Marries. June 30 148
Resigns commission in United States Army. April 20 98
Sent to the rear. May 12 114
Surrender at Appomattox. April 9 88
The unselfish leader. Oct. 14 229
Lent, selections for. Mch. 19, 20 74, 75
Lewis, Meriwether. Oct. 11 227
Lincoln, Abraham, death of. April 15 93
On abolition. Feb. 12 45
On negro suffrage. Feb. 11; Aug. 12 44, 184
Literature, first of the New World. Mch. 13 70
Louisiana Territory, acquired from France. Apr. 30 105
Manassas, first Battle of. July 21 166
Marshall, Chief Justice. Sept. 24 217
Meade, Gen. Geo. Gordon, Southern tribute to. July 1 150
Negro, status of. Sept. 11 208
New Orleans, Liberty Place Anniversary. Sept. 14 210
North Point, Battle of. Sept. 12 208
Nullification, Northern view of. Nov. 25; Dec. 21 263, 281
Southern view of. Nov. 24 262
O'Hara, Theodore. July 20 165
Old South, life in the. Sept. 11, 21 208, 216
Oliver, Thaddeus. Aug. 9 182
_Peggy Stewart_, burning of the. Oct. 19 233
Poe, Edgar Allan. Oct. 7, 8 224, 225
First monument erected to. Nov. 17 258
Pope, Gen. John, Address to the Army of Potomac. Aug. 26 193
Polk, James Knox. Nov. 2 244
Port Hudson, fall of. July 9 156
Prisoners, mortality of. Nov. 11 252
Of war, exchange of. Nov. 9, 10, 12, 13 250, 251, 253, 254
Raleigh, Sir Walter. July 16 162
Reconstruction. Jan. 4; Mch. 2; Aug. 21; Oct. 21;
Nov. 19, 22; Dec. 3, 4 16, 62, 190, 235, 259, 261, 269, 270
Bill Arp's view of. Oct. 18; Nov. 23, 29 232, 261, 265
End of. July 15 161
Foreshadowed. April 15 93
Negro oratory on. Dec. 4 270
A prophecy of 1869. June 26 146
Religious Freedom in Maryland. Mch. 25, 27; Apr. 21 77, 78, 99
Rumsey, James, letter to, from Geo. Washington. Sept. 7 205
Rumsey, trial of the steamboat. Dec. 10, 11, 12 274, 275
Ryan, Abram J. Aug. 15 186
Sandys, George, first author of the New World. Mch. 13 70
Secession. Jan. 9, 11; Apr. 17; Aug. 5 20, 22, 95, 179
From the Northern standpoint. Jan. 13, 26, 27;
Mch. 24; May 6, 11 23, 33, 77, 111
From the Southern standpoint. Jan. 10, 28;
Feb. 5, 8, 9, 10, 18; Mch. 30 21, 34, 40, 42, 43, 45, 48, 80
South Carolina. Dec. 20 280
Semmes, Admiral Raphael. Sept. 27, 28 219
Seven Days' Battle, beginning of. June 25 145
Sharpsburg, Attack at. Sept. 18 213
_Shenandoah_, surrenders last Confederate flag. Nov. 5, 6 246, 247
Slavery. Jan. 4; Feb. 9, 28; Aug. 1, 2, 3;
Sept. 3, 21 16, 42, 58, 176, 177, 178, 201, 216
Bagby's view of. Oct. 16 230
Northern view of. Jan. 13, 26, 27; Mch. 24;
May 6; Sept. 5 23, 33, 77, 111, 203
From the Southern standpoint. Jan. 10, 28;
Feb. 8, 9, 10, 18; Mch. 30 21, 34, 42, 43, 48, 80
_Star Spangled Banner_ Anniversary. Sept. 14 210
Stephens, Alex. H. Mch. 4 64
Stuart, Gen. J. E. B. May 11 114
Address to soldiers. Oct. 10 227
Suffrage, Negro. Nov. 1 244
Negro restriction of. Aug. 12 184
Tabb, John Banister. Mch. 22 76
Tariff, South Carolina's protest. Nov. 24 262
Taney, Chief Justice. Oct. 13 229
Texas. Mch. 23 76
Ticknor, Francis O. Dec. 18 278
Tilghman, Col. Tench, ride of. Oct. 23 237
Timrod, Henry. Oct. 6 224
Tribute to. Dec. 8 272
_Trent_, The, affair of. Nov. 8 249
Tyler, John. Mch. 29 79
Union, the, restored. July 15 161
Veteran, United Confederate, Northern tribute to. June 10 134
Virginia, conquering of Northwestern territory. Feb. 23, 24 53, 54
Opposition to Boston Port Bill. May 15 117
Cession of Northwestern territory. Oct. 20 234
Secession from, of West Virginia. June 20 141
Two views of. Mch. 11 68
University of. Mch. 7 65
_Virginia_, the, challenges _Monitor_. May 8 112
First iron-clad. Mch. 8, 9 66, 67
Washington, Geo. Feb. 22; Dec. 14 52, 276
Resigns commission. Dec. 23 282
War Times. Jan. 17, 18; April 26 27, 28, 103
Northern view of. Feb. 17, 26 48, 56
West Virginia, secession from Virginia sustained by
Federal Government. June 20 141
Wilde, Richard Henry. Sept. 10 207
Wilderness, Battle of. May 5 110
William and Mary College, Northern tribute to. Feb. 14 46
Wirz, Henry, execution of. Nov. 10 251
Women, the Southern. Mch. 3; June 5 63, 131
End of Project Gutenberg's The Dixie Book of Days, by Matthew Page Andrews