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The Civil War Years in Wonderland- 1860 – 1869

The Civil War Years in Wonderland- 1860 – 1869

Last updated on: September 26, 2024 at 7:22 pm by Mark Wilson

The Civil War Years in Wonderland- 1860 – 1869 2024-09-26T19:22:18-05:00 Mark Wilson

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Last Time on HOARATS

Stop and Pray the Angelus between 1850 – 1859

And now we enter into the 1860’s

Long Citations are taken from Dr. Wikipedia unless otherwise stated.

In the bloody Civil War that split our nation, American bishops worked for the success of the Union . . . and of the Confederacy! As Catholics slaughtered Catholics, pious priests on both sides prayed God to give success in battle. . . to their own side. Men in blue and men in gray flinched at the Consecration as cannonballs (fired by Catholic opponents) rained down on them during battlefield Masses.

Many are the moving and often surprising stories in these pages of brave Catholics on both sides of the conflict stories told by Fr. Charles Connor, one of our country s foremost experts on Catholic American history.

Through searing anecdotes and learned analysis, Fr. Connor here shows how the tumult, tragedy, and bravery of the War forged a new American identity, even as it created a new American Catholic identity, as Catholics often new immigrants found themselves on both sides of the conflict.

Fr. Connor s account shows that in the nineteenth century and on both sides of the conflict, the Church in America was a combination of visionary leadership and moral blindness much as is the Church in America today. From consideration of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, Catholics today will discover ways to bridge the gulf that today divides so many in our Church and in our nation.- Amazon Description

1860

Pope # 255 Bl. Pius IXwas supreme pontiff
from June 16, 1846 – February 7, 1878
(31 years, 236 days)

James Buchanan (1791–1868) was
President of the United States March 4, 1857 – March 4, 1861

The Mysteries of Glass Set in and around Kington and Lyonshall in rural Herefordshire in 1860/61, the story concerns Richard Allen, a young curate taking up his first position following the sudden death of his beloved father in whose steps he is following. He is determined to be of service to God and the people of his new parish, but then he falls in hopelessly love for the first time with Susannah Bowen, the wife of the vicar, who is himself dying of tuberculosis…

Picture This

1860 – Unboxing Revelation (sqpn.com) The Vision of John on Patmos by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

News of the World

April 3 1860 – The first successful United States Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins.
April 6, 1860 – The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, later renamed Community of Christ, is organized by Joseph Smith III and others at Amboy, Illinois.
April 9 1860– French typesetter Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville creates a recording of the French folk song Au clair de la lune with his phonautograph, producing the world’s earliest known intelligible sound recording of the human voice (however, it was not rediscovered until 2008).
June 29, 1860 – The 1860 Oxford evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History takes place.
October 8 1860 – The telegraph line linking San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, opens.
November 6 1860 – Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th President of the United States with only 40% of the popular vote, defeating John C. Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephen A. Douglas in a four-way race.
December 20 1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.

Arrivals

James Matthew Barrie (May 9, 1860 – June 19, 1937) Author of Peter Pan.
Saint Charles Lwanga (January 1, 1860 – June 3, 1886)
Juliette Gordon Low, 9October 31, 1860 – January 17, 1927) American founder of the Girl Scouts.

Departures

Saint John Neumann (March 28, 1811– January 5, 1860) Roman Catholic Bishop of Philadelphia (b. 1811)
Charles Goodyear, (December 29, 1800 – July 1, 1860) was an American self-taught chemist and manufacturing engineer who developed vulcanized rubber, for which he received patent number 3633 from the United States Patent Office on June 15, 1844.

Publications Hot of the Press

Paul Revere’s Ride (1860) by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Woman in White (1860) by Wilkie Collins

Good Sports

April 17, 1860— One of the most famous fights of the bareknuckle era takes place at Farnborough, Hampshire, when English Champion Tom Sayers meets American Champion John C. Heenan in what is effectively a World Championship bout. After 42 rounds, the crowd breaks into the ring and the fight is stopped, both boxers having taken heavy punishment, although Heenan seemingly had the advantage. The result is a draw.
National Association of Base Ball Players champion – Brooklyn Atlantics

Sanctifying Time

Nullis Certe Verbis – On the Need for Civil Sovereignty, by Pope Pius IX, 19 January 1860
American College established in Rome by Pope Pius IX

The Sound of Music and Other Cultural Milestones

Dixie” by Dan Emmett

Dan was an American composer, entertainer, and founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition, the Virginia Minstrels. He is most remembered as the composer of the song “Dixie“.

Lincoln and Liberty” words by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr.

Across Five Aprils is a novel by Irene Hunt, published in 1964 and winner of a 1965 Newbery Honor, set in the Civil War era. Hunt was close to her grandfather who told her stories from his youth, which she incorporated into Across Five Aprils. Across Five Aprils is often considered the first novel of the Young Adult genre.

1861

Rifles for Watie is a children’s novel by American writer Harold Keith. It was first published in 1957, and received the Newbery Medal the following year. Set during the American Civil War, the plot revolves around the fictional sixteen-year-old Jefferson Davis Bussey, who is caught up in the events of history. Amidst an ongoing guerilla war pro-slavery bushwackers raid the Bussey farm in Linn County, Kansas in spring 1861, leading 16-year-old Jefferson Davis Bussey and several friends of his to leave for Fort Leavenworth and enlist as a volunteer for the Union.

Picture This

Auguste Bonheur – La Sortie du pâturage

News of the World

American Civil War

January 1861– The South Secedes When Abraham Lincoln, a known opponent of slavery, was elected president, the South Carolina legislature perceived a threat. Calling a state convention, the delegates voted to remove the state of South Carolina from the union known as the United States of America. The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six more states—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas–and the threat of secession by four more—Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These eleven states eventually formed the Confederate States of America. 1861 | Time Line of the Civil War | Articles and Essays | Civil War Glass Negatives and Related Prints | Digital Collections | Library of Congress (loc.gov)

January 29 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state, being admitted as a free state.
February 4 – American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, the Provisional Confederate States Congress is formed by representatives from the first seven break-away states.
February 8 – American Civil War: The Confederate States of America are formed, comprising the first seven break-away States.
February 9 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected Provisional President of the Confederate States of America, by the Weed Convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
March 4
- Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as the 16th president of the United States.
- American Civil War: The “Stars and Bars” is adopted as the flag of the Confederate States of America.
April 12, 1861 – The American Civil War begins with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
April 17 – American Civil War: The state of Virginia secedes from the Union.
April 20 – American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army, in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.
May 6 – American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
May 7 – American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.
May 8 – American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.
May 13 American Civil War: Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues a “proclamation of neutrality“, which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
May 20 – American Civil War:
- Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which lasts until September 3, when Confederate forces enter the state.
- North Carolina secedes from the Union.
July 21 – American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run: At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war ends in a Confederate victory.

Soldier’s Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers is a historical war novella by Gary Paulsen aimed at the teenage market. It is a fictionalization of the true story of a Minnesotan farm boy, Charley Goddard, who at the age of 15 enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Charley lied about his age to join the First Volunteers of Minnesota and was involved in combat at Bull Run and Gettysburg. He returned home traumatized and suffering from “soldier’s heart” (Da Costa’s syndrome). Although some events and time sequences are not completely factual, the essential elements of the book’s story are true.

August 10 – American Civil War: The first major battle west of the Mississippi River, the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, is fought, with a Confederate victory.
December 10 – American Civil War: Kentucky is accepted into the Confederate States of America.
November 28 – Acting on the ordinance passed by the Jackson government, the Confederate Congress admits Missouri as the 12th Confederate state.

Other News of the Rest of America and the World

1861 – British Empire establishes bases in Lagos to stop the slave trade.
1861 – News of Henri Mouhot‘s discovery of Angkor Wat is published.
March 3 – Emancipation reform of 1861: Serfdom is abolished in Russia

A 1907 painting by Boris Kustodiev depicting the muzhiks listening to the proclamation of the Emancipation Manifesto in 1861

May 13 – The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales.

Sarah Emma Edmonds (December 1841 – September 5, 1898) was a British North America-born woman who claimed to have served as a man with the Union Army as a nurse and spy during the American Civil War. Although recognized for her service by the United States government, some historians dispute the validity of her claims as some of the details are demonstrably false, contradictory, or uncorroborated. She enlisted in Company F of the 2nd Michigan Infantry on May 25, 1861, also known as the Flint Union Greys. She disguised herself as a man named Franklin Flint Thompson.

Seymour Reit, the creator of Casper the friendly ghost, blended fact with fiction in his captivating tale about this woman who dared to go behind enemy lines as a spy for the Union Army.

August 1 – The first public weather forecast: measured and predicted correctly by Admiral Robert FitzRoy
August 19 – Weisshorn, the fifth highest summit in the Alps, is first ascended.
October 26 – The Pony Express American transcontinental mail service announces its closure.
November 5 – The first Melbourne Cup horse race is held in Melbourne, Australia.
December 21 – Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

Gone with the Wind is a novel by American writer Margaret Mitchell, first published in 1936. The story is set in Clayton County and Atlanta, both in Georgia, during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era. It depicts the struggles of young Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of poverty following Sherman‘s destructive “March to the Sea.” This historical novel features a coming-of-age story, with the title taken from the poem “Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae”, written by Ernest Dowson.

Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the book in 1937. It was adapted into the 1939 film of the same name, which is considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made and also received the Academy Award for Best Picture during the 12th annual Academy Awards ceremony. Gone with the Wind is the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime.