Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This diary of a railroad and steamer trip chronicles the author's travels from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Midwest. The diary includes descriptions of scenery and cities in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa.

This diary of a railroad and steamer trip (88 pages) chronicles the author's travels from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Midwest. The diary includes descriptions of scenery and cities in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa.

The volume opens on April 21, 1857, the author's 30th birthday, and begins with a cross-county railroad trip on the Central Railroad from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Fom there, he traveled on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad to St. Louis, Missouri, where he arrived on April 25. In St. Louis, he noted the 55-minute time difference, went sightseeing, and met acquaintances from Delaware. His travels in the area included a trip to the Jefferson Barracks, which he recorded in detail (April 27, 1857), and several visits to nearby St. Charles, where he attended a Mormon church service (May 3, 1857). From May 6-12, he embarked on a boat trip to Leavenworth, Kansas, on the steamer Oceana, making frequent mentions of scenery in his diary. During his time in Kansas, he visited several local land offices, where he commented on inflated prices, and he discussed the recent history of the region, tainted by the violence of "Border Ruffians." From Kansas, he returned to St. Louis via Missouri River steamers and traveled up the Mississippi River to Quincy, Illinois, and Keokuk, Iowa. Throughout his journey, he recorded his incoming and outgoing correspondence, primarily to relatives in Delaware, and attended religious services of numerous Christian denominations. Additionally, he continued to meet friends and describe scenery and points of interest. He also occasionally made note of emigrants encountered along his travels, including a group of French socialist settlers in Nauvoo, Illinois (June 10, 1857) and other emigrants headed further west from Missouri and Kansas. The diary ends in Quincy, Illinois, on June 22, 1857, with the author setting out for Palmyra, Missouri, where he spent much of the last week of his travels.

The Bridgman "autobiography" consists of a typescript of a long series of letters sent by Edward P. Bridgman to a cousin, which form a continuous, sometimes rambling narrative of Bridgman's life from the time he travelled to Kansas in 1856 through the end of the Civil War.

The Bridgman "autobiography" consists of a typescript of a long series of letters sent by Edward P. Bridgman to a cousin (?), Sidney, between June 10th, 1894 and April 9th, 1895. The letters were transcribed by another relative, Frank, and form a continuous, sometimes rambling narrative of Bridgman's life from the time he traveled to Kansas in 1856 through the end of the Civil War.

Written retrospectively, almost 30 years after the end of the war, many of the details of Bridgman's service have been lost, yet he manages to display a strong, if somewhat selective memory for anecdotes and for the emotions of the events that remained in his dreams for so many years. "As I look over some of my army letters," he wrote, "and Bowen's history [of the regiment], march after march and camp after camp are an utter blank to me. But the terrible battle scenes are stamped vividly in my recollection; they can never be forgotten" (p. 42). A fine writer with a gentle sense of humor, Bridgman's letters offer an interesting insight into the way that selective memory and time shaped veterans' experiences of the Civil War. The battles, numerous as they were, form the focus of the narrative, but the suffering faces of the dead and wounded and the small pranks he played assume almost equal prominence.

Bridgman's descriptions of the battles in which he was engaged tend to be somewhat generalized, but the emotional impact of these events clearly remained strong with him. His descriptions of the costly capture of Marye's Heights during the Chancellorsville Campaign, of the battle of Chancellorsville itself, and of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Campaigns are noteworthy. Always, his letters make for engrossing reading, whether he is writing about wormy hardtack, lice, making beds, drinking tainted water from the mouth of a dead mule, or doing battle. Because he served intermittently, unofficially, as a nurse and surgeon for his regiment, Bridgman also provides several brief, but powerful accounts of medical care, the wounded and the dead.

William P. Fessenden was a founding member of the Republican Party and one of its most energetic antislavery voices. His papers consist almost entirely of incoming correspondence, written while he was serving as a U.S. Senator from Maine, 1855-1868. This correspondence reflects Fessenden's moderately progressive political views, and his interests in the abolition of slavery, economics and finance, the turmoil in Kansas in the late 1850s, and the Civil War.

The William P. Fessenden papers consist almost entirely of incoming correspondence addressed to Fessenden, written while he was serving as a U.S. Senator from Maine, 1855-1868. This correspondence reflects Fessenden's moderately progressive political views, and his interests in the abolition of slavery, economics and finance, the turmoil in Kansas in the late 1850s, and the Civil War. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the correspondence consists of requests for favors from acquaintances and constituents, usually in seeking recommendations for jobs, political appointments, or assistance in pressing legislation.

The major topics of interest covered in the collection include the national debate over slavery. Several letters relate to the political turmoil in Kansas between 1856 and 1860, and there are letters requesting that Fessenden address particular abolition societies, and one interesting item relating to slavery in Missouri that includes a small printed map depicting slave-holding patterns in the state (2:49).

The Civil War forms the context for approximately half of the letters in the collection. There is a small series of letters relating to increases in pay for naval chaplains and army surgeons, and several routine letters requesting commissions or transfers in the army. The most important items present include a letter written from New Orleans, 1864, complaining of Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut's apparent unwillingness to execute the government's orders to stop trafficking in cotton (Hurlbut's corruption appears to have been no secret); a letter describing the situation in Missouri in the midst of Sterling Price's Wilson's Creek Campaign, complaining about John C. Frémont's ineffectiveness; and a fine letter from a commander of a Maine independent artillery battery in the defenses of Washington, complaining of their inactivity. Finally, there is a brief obituary of Jesse Lee Reno, killed at South Mountain in 1862.

There are very few items that relate in any way to Fessenden's private life, but three letters include some discussion of the problems of his son, Samuel. The only letter written by Fessenden in this collection is addressed to Sam, advising him to behave himself and not to consort with bad company. Apparently, the Senator had good cause to worry for his son, since Sam apparently fell in with gamblers and fled for Canada after running up a sizable debt.