Become a Supporter

You love history, I love history! It’s a great match, and I’m enjoying sharing historical news articles every day. Some are following a specific topic — like the US Civil War series — others range far afield or get very local.

Please consider becoming a sustaining supporter. You can do that via Ko-Fi or Patreon, whichever platform you prefer, and subscribers get access to all ebook content (more coming all the time), a chance to request topics of your choice, and some tiers get input into future projects. All that for a modest $3 or more per month!

November 4, 1861 – Correspondence from the 2nd NH

Camp of 2d N. H. Reg., Hill Top,
St. Charles County, Md., Oct. 28.

Since my last letter, the 2d Regiment have made considerable change in the locality of its camp. We are now encamped about 45 miles below Washington, near the Potomac, opposite the formidable line of rebel batteries extending from Mathias Point, several miles up the river. The division here is under the command of Gen. Hooker, now acting Major Gen., and comprises Sickles’ brigade and Hooker’s Brigade, (now under command of Col. Cowdin, of the Mass. 1st,) with a formidable force of cavalry and artillery. Our regiment occupies the left of the line. We have with us Doubledays’ battery of heavy guns, with the greater portion of the defenders of Fort Sumter. Our march here was a very interesting one, to us, and we will give your readers an account of it.

Seeking U. S. Help for Graf Pole Hop

Dr. Walter Bleistein Coming Here to Enlist Aid of Federal Government.

Co-operation of the United States Government and American scientific organizations in a proposed Arctic expedition of the German dirigible Graf Zeppelin will be sought here this week by Dr. Walter Bleistein. secretary and treasurer of the Aero-Arctic Society, who arrived In this country from Europe recently. Dr. Bleistein probably will arrive in this city tomorrow and will remain here two or three weeks, it is expected.

Dr. Bleistein will request the assistance of the War Department, Navy Department and Weather Bureau in arranging the details of the expedition, in setting up fueling and servicing depots and in maintaining communications and weather forecasting services while the big dirigible is in flight over the areas mapped for exploration. The scientific party aboard the Graf Zeppelin probably will be headed by Fridtjof Nansen, noted Arctic explorer. The Graf Zeppelin is to leave Friedrichshafen, Germany, its home base, some time in April, according to present plans, and proceed to Tromsoe, Norway, where a mooring mast has been erected.

November 2, 1861 – Startling News from Southern Kansas

Major Russell, of Osage, ten miles below Humboldt, arrived here on Monday night. He gives the most distressing accounts of affairs on our South-eastern border. He and his family have been driven from their home by rebels. A party of Secessionists, said to number 437, are now in Allen and Woodson counties, overrunning those counties and threatening to sweep thro’ the whole Neosho Valley. Major Russell fears that our next news will be that Iola and Leroy have followed the fate of luckless Humboldt. Citizens are leaving that portion of the State in the greatest haste, leaving all their furniture and goods behind. Scouts from Leroy report a force of 1,200 Missourians within thirty miles of Humboldt with the avowed purpose of making a raid upon Kansas.

No Secret Order Shall Rule Indiana!

THAT THE TIMES is Catholic—that it is fighting not the Ku-Klux Klan, but the Protestants—is the declaration from Klan quarters as a result of the attack being made by The Indianapolis Times against the Klan.

It is the same declaration that always comes when the Klan is under fire.

Now—

Just as a matter of information:

It so happens that every stock-holder (and there are no bond-holders) in The Times is Protestant.

It further happens that at the present time every corporate official and every operating manager of The Times is a Protestant.

Install Automatic Safety Signals

Automatic safety signals are being Installed on the Sand Hill and Brick Yard crossings on the Maine Central Railroad in Winslow. Several months ago hearings were held at the Winslow town hall relative to making these crossings safer and the decision rendered was to Install two electric safety signals at the Sand Hill crossing and one signal at the Brick Yard crossing which is on Bay street.

November 1, 1861 – Our Volunteers in Virginia

The Camden Volunteers, Capt. Kennedy.—The health of this Company has greatly improved. Lieut. Niles, who has been home since the last of August, having left the company on account of sickness, returned on Monday last, with a full supply of clothing, blankets, &c., for the men.

Capt. Cantey’s Company, we are glad to learn, is much improved in health; and are happy to say have not been forgotten by their friends, the ladies—of the Camden Association. Yet, so far as we are aware, there has been no uniforms sent them from here—owing to the difficulty in getting goods suitable to make up, as the Confederate army has engaged all the mills in Virginia and North Carolina. We hope they can and will be supplied there.

October 31, 1861 – Gifts from Litchfield

Sergeant Smith of the 4th Regiment, took back with him on Monday to his company a vast amount of comforts and luxuries for “the boys.” He had Hams, Cheeses, Tubs of fresh butter, Crackers, Shirts, Stockings, pipe and cigars, amounting in all to three large dry goods boxes and one barrel full! Something over seventy pairs of good, thick, warm wollen stockings were sent. Notable mothers, sisters and grandmothers, habituated to such labors, have plied their needles during the past fortnight more industriously than ever, and dainty fingers which never before manipulated anything harsher than Berlin wool, have bravely toiled over the heavy blue yarn, anxious to contribute something to the comfort of their brothers in the distant camp.