PICTURES FROM AMERICA: Search results for grief

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Sunday, September 4, 2016

Harrison on the Eve of Battle 11

I must write you tonight as we look for battle tomorrow, and God only knows who shall come safely through it…May God in His great mercy give us a great victory and may the nation give Him the praise….

You will perhaps like to know how I feel on the eve of my first great battle. Well, I do not feel in the least excited, nor in any sense of shrinking. I am in my usual good spirits, though not at all insensible to grave responsibilities and risks which I must bear tomorrow. I am thinking much of you and the dear children and my whole heart comes out towards you in tenderness and love and many earnest prayers will I send up to God this night, should you lose a husband and they a father in the fight, that in His grace you may find abundant consolation and in His providence abundant temporal comfort and support. I know you will not forget me, “should I be numbered among the slain,” but let your grief be tempered by the consolation that I died for my country and in Christ. If God gives me strength I mean to bear myself bravely–come what will, so that you may have no cause to blush for me, though you should be forced to mourn.

But I have said these things only against the possibility of death, and not in any spirit of despondency, not to awaken needless anxiety in your heart. Probably this letter will not be sent forward until the issue of the battle is known and I will precede it by a telegram if I can get one through, though this is doubtful. You must not burthen your heart with too much anxiety, as doubtless you will be in suspense in God and wait the issue. If it be prosperous for our country and for me, let us lift a glad song of praise, and if adverse to either, let us humbly bow to the decrees of Him who doeth all things well.

…I must make this letter short, as we need a good rest tonight and shall probably be awakened early in the morning. I might say much more, but this is enough. I love you, my dear wife, with all the devotion of a full heart, and my children as the apple of my eyes. But the obligations of a soldier are upon me, and these dear domestic ties are only the stronger incentive to quit myself well in the fight.

May the large storehouses of God’s grace and providence always be open to you and them. My blessing rests upon you. Remember me affectionately to Irwin, Jennie and their families, also to Mr. Nixon, Mr. Sharpe, Mr. Ray and all of my family in the old P[resbyterian] Ch[urch]. who may inquire for me, and particularly to the members of my old Bible class and the dear Sabbath School. Should I come alive through the fight to get you home…I hope to see you in good time. Farewell and God bless you.

Letter to Caroline Harrison, May 13th, 1864.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Harrison Campaigns in Indiana, Fall 1864 11

Copperheads have a great deal to say about the cruelties of war. It is a cruel war–preeminently cruel–cruel in its inception, as being against a government which only touched subjects to bless them; cruel in its savage ferocity with which it is waged on the part of the rebels; cruel in that it has brought desolation and grief to the hearthstone of almost every household in the land. But all these horrors should not affright us, or make us hesitate one moment in our duty.

Indianapolis Daily Journal, October 20th, 1864.

Col. Harrison’s furlough came in the form of special duty. Gov. Morton ordered him back to Indiana to campaign for the Republican ticket. Democrats opposed the conduct of the Lincoln administration, and sought peace at the “earliest practicable moment.” The old party doctrine of state sovereignty Harrison denounced as “dangerous heresy, and a deadly poison to national life.” His praise for Lincoln was absolute: “the progress of Mr. Lincoln has been but the progress of the people.” The Emancipation Proclamation: “did but reflect the will of the people which clearly demanded a change of policy.”

He also had specific praise for those whom that Proclamation benefited most:

…Black men, in a hundred ways, did the work which would have otherwise fallen upon our brave soldiers.

…

Not a negro has escaped and made his way into our camps but has brought more aid to our cause than the entire brood of whining, carping Copperheads who object, in the interest of treason, to the employment of the black men.

The Republicans carried the election in Indiana: Lincoln, Morton, and Harrison.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

January 19th 1809: Edgar Allan Poe bornOn this day in 1809, the...

January 19th 1809: Edgar Allan Poe born

On this day in 1809, the American poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts. The young Poe barely knew his parents, with his father leaving the family and his mother passing away when he was just three years old. He lived with another couple as foster-parents, and was forced to gamble to pay for his tuition at the University of Virginia, which he had to drop out of due to financial difficulties. He soon joined the army and was accepted into West Point, though he was expelled after a year. After leaving the academy, Poe turned his full attention to his writing. He then traveled around Northern cities, including New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; it was in Baltimore, in 1836, that he married his young cousin Virginia. In Richmond, Poe worked as a critic for various magazines, occasionally publishing his original work which included short stories and poems. In 1841, Poe published his ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’, which many consider the beginning of the detective fiction genre. His most famous work, the poem ‘The Raven’, was published in 1845 to critical praise. Sadly, his wife died from tuberculosis two years later, leaving the writer grief-stricken and nearly destitute, as he never had great financial success. On October 3rd, he was found ill in Baltimore and taken to hospital, where he died on October 7th aged 40. It is still unknown what his precise cause of death was, but alcoholism is widely believed to have played a part. While not appreciated in his lifetime, Poe is now considered one of the great American writers.

“Lord, help my poor soul”
- Poe’s last words

Thursday, March 2, 2017

"I had once taken pleasure…in his nomination. Yesterday, all seemed to come back to me as a..." 11

“I had once taken pleasure…in his nomination. Yesterday, all seemed to come back to me as a cause of grief, and I seemed to stand, with all others, responsible for the shadow that has fallen upon those hearts that were so near to him.”

-

Benjamin Harrison, after the death of President Garfield.

Quoted in the Indianapolis Journal, September 21st, 1881.

Harrison had been instrumental in nominating and electing his friend James A. Garfield, and sounded a regretful note once his friend had died.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

October 7th 1849: Edgar Allan Poe diesOn this day in 1849, the...

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Gustave Doré's depiction of the final lines of 'The Raven'

Plaque marking Poe's birthplace in Boston

October 7th 1849: Edgar Allan Poe dies

On this day in 1849, the American poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809, the young Poe barely knew his parents, with his father leaving the family and his mother passing away when he was just three years old. He lived with another couple as foster-parents, and was forced to gamble to pay for his tuition at the University of Virginia, which he had to drop out of due to financial difficulties. Poe soon joined the army and was even accepted into West Point, though he was expelled a year into his studies. After leaving the academy, Poe turned his full attention to his longstanding hobby of writing. He then traveled around Northern cities, including New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; it was in Baltimore, in 1836, that he married his young cousin Virginia. In Richmond, Poe worked as a critic for various magazines, occasionally publishing his original work which included short stories and poems. In 1841, Poe published his ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’, which many consider the beginning of the genre of detective fiction. His most famous work, the poem ‘The Raven’, was published in 1845 to critical praise. Sadly, his wife died from tuberculosis two years later, leaving the writer grief-stricken and nearly destitute, as he never had great financial success. On October 3rd, he was found ill in Baltimore and taken to hospital, where he died on October 7th aged 40. It is still unknown what his precise cause of death was, but alcoholism is widely believed to have played a part. While not appreciated in his lifetime, Poe is now considered one of the great American writers.