Rhode Island History Journal: Volume 77 No. 2

Rhode Island History T HE JOUR NA L O F T H E R H O D E I S LAN D HISTORICA L SOC IETY Winter | spring 2020 · volume 77 · number 2

Rhode Island History

Winter | spring 2020 · volume 77 · number 2

51 Editor’s Note Published by The Rhode Island Historical Society 110 Benevolent Street Providence, Rhode Island 02906–3152 Luther W. Spoehr, chair Winifred E. Brownell, first vice chair Anthony Calendrelli, second vice chair Alek A. Dykeman, treasurer Robert H. Sloan, Jr., secretary C. Morgan Grefe, executive director Publications Committee Marcus Nevius, chair Charlotte Carrington-­Farmer Robert W. Hayman J. Stanley Lemons Craig Marin Lisa Melton Seth Rockman Luther Spoehr Evelyn Sterne

52 “The Price of Admission”: Daddy Black, Big Dan Whitehead, and the Money Game Robert Cvornyek & Fran Leazes 62 “I Would Like to Know What Our Country Will Be Good for after the Men Are All Killed off”: Letters from Home during the Civil War William Emerson 89 Collections Spotlight: Performing Arts Emma George 96 Books on Rhode Island History Recently Published

Staff Richard J. Ring, editor J. D. Kay, digital imaging specialist Silvia Rees, publications assistant Michael Russem, design & typography The Rhode Island Historical Society assumes no responsibility for the opinions of contributors.

© The Rhode Island Historical Society Rhode Island History (issn 0035–4619)

Rhode Island History is a peer-­reviewed journal published two times a year by the Rhode Island Historical Society at 110 Benevolent Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02906-­3152.

Postage is paid at Providence, Rhode Island. Society members receive each issue as a membership benefit. Institutional subscriptions to Rhode Island History are $25.00 annually.

Individual copies of current and back issues are available from the Society for $12.50 (price includes postage and handling).

Our articles are discoverable on ebscohost research databases.

Manuscripts and other correspondence should be sent to editor@rihs.org.

Editor’s Note

Although the pandemic and other factors have delayed this issue, I trust it will have been worth the wait. The next issue is already in the works. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment granting American women the right to vote, the RIHS and the Newport Historical Society (NHS) are planning to publish a special, combined issue of Rhode Island History and Newport History in the late fall of 2020. Our former editor, Elizabeth Stevens, will take the lead on that issue. This is only one of several initiatives our two institutions are working on collaboratively, having for the past several years very similar goals—after all, NHS was our “southern cabinet” until it became a separate entity in 1853. For now, I would like to introduce the contributors to this issue: Robert Cvornyek is an emeritus professor and former chair in the History Department at Rhode Island College who has written extensively on the intersection of race, sports, and cultural expression.

He is working on a documentary film supported by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities that explores the “money game” in Rhode Island African American baseball.

Opposite: Written just two weeks after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, this letter was sent to Governor William Sprague (1830–1915) from Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General, inviting Rhode Island to contribute “an infantry regiment of volunteers of African descent” which became the 14th Heavy Artillery regiment. Acquired at auction with the generous support of the Varnum Continentals, which owns both the Varnum House Museum and the Varnum Memorial Armory & Military Museum.

MSS 673, Subgroup 4, Box 7.

Francis J. Leazes, Jr. is currently a Professor of Public Administration at Rhode Island College, directs its Public Administration Program, and is the author of a number of professional books and articles. He established the Providence North Burial Ground Project which produces online walking tours of that historic cemetery. RIPBS recently broadcast his latest documentary on that subject. He is working with Bob Cvornyek to produce a documentary entitled The Price of Admission, a film focused on early 20th century professional black baseball in Rhode Island.

William Emerson is a retired engineer. He has published widely on history subjects. His forthcoming book “Once a Foe, Now a Friend”: Union & Confederate Veterans Recount Battles Lost & Won in Letters to George N. Bliss is soon to be published by History Publishing Company.

It features letters from a number of veterans, including four Southerners Bliss had wounded during the war.

Emma George (Brown ’22) worked as an intern at the RIHS in the summer of 2019, conducting research and compiling resources related to our 2020 theme of “Spotlight: RI, Performing Arts.” Originally from Toronto, at Brown University she is studying History and Comparative Literature. Among the items she encountered in the collections her favorites were 18th-­ and early 19th-­century broadside ballads because of the ways in which they integrate musical performance with popular politics.

Richard J. Ring Editor 51

ROBERT CVORNYEK & FRAN LEAZES

“The Price of Admission” Daddy Black, Big Dan Whitehead, and the Money Game

During the Jim Crow era, baseball, the national pastime, mirrored and reinforced the prevailing racial climate, but it also challenged the dominant construction of race, simultaneously reflecting and informing the formation of racial identity. This essay complements a growing body of popular literature that finds racial attitudes and boundaries were more fluid and less ingrained at the local sports level than they were nationally.1 Scholarship centered on professional black baseball, as played in the well-­known Negro Leagues (1920–1960), unintentionally narrowed the dialogue and excluded a broader examination of the multifaceted and sometimes contradictory experiences present at the community level. Focusing on the local game reveals an alternative narrative that demonstrates the variety of ways African Americans negotiated the boundaries of racial identity and paved the way for integration, not just on the playing field, but even by owning and operating local white teams. White owners and promoters historically controlled the financial interests of white teams, but Providence, Rhode Island, provides a noteworthy exception. In Rhode Island, the fluid nature of local sports integration during the 1920s also resulted in the presence of select white players on previously black teams and thus provides an evocative alternative to the traditional narrative on integration. Two men, Arthur “Daddy” Black and Daniel “Big Dan” Whitehead, demonstrate that baseball and integration at the local level deserve more attention than they have received to date.

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During the early 20th century, many African Americans left their southern farms to follow opportunities found in northern cities. The Great Migration intensified during World War II and markedly influenced racial identity in urban areas that included Providence. Baseball capitalized on the influx of newcomers and expanded to become one of the black community’s most popular social and economic institutions.

Although African Americans in Providence were never immune to the indignities of forced racial segregation, they did experience different degrees of separation and discrimination. By the 1920s, public recreational space, especially baseball fields, represented contested ground where African Americans renegotiated the boundaries of exclusion in favor of recognition and inclusion.2 With this migration came two archetypal figures, Black and Whitehead, both baseball men, both representing different styles to promote and finance the game. Black, known as “The Lottery King” in 1920s Providence, used his control of the numbers racket to profit himself and to boost the segregated economy when white political and financial institutions ignored the interests of black Americans.3 It should be noted that Black’s source of income was not unique in African American baseball. Gus Greenlee in Pittsburgh, Alex Pompez in New York City, and Abe Manley in Newark operated teams with money acquired in the numbers game.4 In 1924, Black partnered with the white owners of the Cleveland Colored Giants and formally incorporated the team in Rhode Island.5 Two

Arthur James Black, born in 1881 (one generation from slavery), came to Providence as a child with his mother Phebe and siblings Charles, Mary, and Anna. Not satisfied with life in Providence by 1899 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. For the next 20 years he learned the skills of a machinist, reaching the rank of Chief Machinist Mate. He earned commendations, respect, and promotions as he traveled the world from China to the Caribbean, where he immersed himself in Cuban Culture and its national passion for baseball. He married Louella Timberlake: their daughter Alma was born in Virginia. He returned to Providence in 1921 with his family and found that his experiences, helped forge business, political, and union relationships as he navigated the racially complex world of Prohibition Rhode Island. He worked as a machinist on the Mt. Hope Bridge and Industrial Trust Building, curried favor with Republican Party leaders, invested in the sports world (owning both white and black baseball teams in New England), and as was the case in so many black communities across the nation, became a source of black financial capital as he operated the numbers game in Providence. He was the “Lottery King” of Hoyle Square in Providence, but in the community he was Arthur “Daddy” Black, a man to be respected. (photo courtesy of Providence Police Archives)

On August 21, 1921, the Providence Independents battled the Cleveland Colored Giants at Rocky Point. The Giants, formerly of the Continental League, eventually found a new home in Providence under the ownership of James Gibbons and Arthur Black.

The Independents started Lizzie Murphy, Rhode Island’s premiere female baseball player, at first base. (Providence Journal, August 20, 1921).

years later, he became the sole owner of the Monarchs, a mostly Irish team from Providence’s West Side neighborhood.6 Black reached the pinnacle of his baseball career in 1931 when he purchased and restructured one of the most dominant African American teams in New England, the Providence Colored Giants. Black desired a professional team that included seasoned professional black ballplayers. He set his sights on Oliver “Ghost” Marcelle and Clifford Carter, both looking to sign with teams after the Great Depression resulted in the demise of the National Negro League.7 Both men accepted Black’s generous salary offers to play in Providence.

Whitehead’s affiliation with the game predated Black’s and lasted a lifetime. He created the Provi-

dence Colored Giants in 1905 and remained active in the game until his death in 1933. He played, managed, and promoted games for a host of teams, including the Providence Colored Giants, Providence All-­Stars, and Cleveland Colored Giants. He also organized contests between black teams as part of the community’s Emancipation Day celebrations held annually at Rocky Point on August 1.8 Whitehead’s relationship with baseball extended beyond local teams and embraced regional black professional clubs. These teams included squads from the newly formed Eastern Colored League (1923–1928), independent traveling teams such as the Brooklyn Royal Giants, and competitive nearby outfits such as the Boston Tigers.9 Whitehead carded many of these 53

games at Providence’s Kinsley Park, the city’s premier sporting venue.10 Black teams frequently played against white teams, and that arrangement drew an integrated audience. According to the Providence Journal, Whitehead alone “books colored baseball teams for this section throughout the season.”11 At the time above: The Harry Fearson letter establishes the absence of a tightly drawn color line in local baseball and the diversity of teams that sought and acquired his services. He addressed the letter to Ralph Lockwood who managed the Suits, a white team that practiced and played at Palace Garden. Fearson’s career included stops in Brooklyn, Providence, and Boston where he played on white and black teams at both the professional and semi-­ professional levels. In 1905, he pitched and played shortstop for the Providence Colored Giants during the team’s inaugural season. He remained an active player on the Giants roster until 1911. (author’s collection)

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of his death, these connections earned him the title “sports mogul” of black baseball in Rhode Island.12 Whitehead was forever the dreamer. A small-­market city like Providence never hosted a baseball team in the professional Negro Leagues, but that hardly meant money could not be made. When Whitehead arrived in the early 20th century, black baseball already had taken root in the city and throughout the state, but little money exchanged hands, and few paid for tickets. Whitehead changed all that. In 1905, he boldly announced in the Providence Journal that he had established a team of local and regional stars and coaches worth “the price of admission.”13 Whitehead’s Colored Giants opened their 1905 campaign before 1,700 paying fans.14 In the following year, he scouted and then added professional players from the Philadel-

phia Giants, Cuban Giants, and Georgia Professionals to his ball team.15 Despite some notable successes, Whitehead’s repeated attempts to attract and retain quality ballplayers and to schedule games with black professional ball clubs ultimately proved unsuccessful.

He lacked Black’s money and connections. For Whitehead, opportunities seemed to come and go. A lifelong baseball man, he influenced every facet of African American baseball in Rhode Island between 1905 and 1933. The decisions he made, the options he exercised, and the opportunities he created converged at critical moments in the game’s history.

The story of these men spans the years between their birth in the late 19th century and death, one year apart, in 1932 and 1933 and includes two historic games that serve as bookends for their story. The first

game, promoted by Whitehead and played at East Providence’s Crescent Park in 1914, witnessed a local black team that secretly “imported” Rube Foster, the father of American black baseball, for a game against the Major League St. Louis Cardinals. At the time, Foster was considered the finest black pitcher in baseball, and his arm was available for hire.16 The Cardinals had a weekend series against the Boston Braves, with games scheduled on Friday, Saturday, and Monday. Whitehead took advantage of Boston’s restrictive Sunday Law that prohibited baseball on the Sabbath to stage the game in East Providence. According to Armando Perry, sportswriter for the The Boston Chronicle, the Cardinals reportedly welcomed “the opportunity of killing an afternoon by making some easy money.”17 Whitehead secured bets against the local 55

Rhode Island History

team, composed of semipro and collegiate players, and takers gladly accepted the odds. Perry wrote that the bettors’ “grins of satisfaction gradually faded with each inning as Foster enjoying one of his best days simply mowed down the opposition with his famous ‘cannonball’ and tantalizing sinkers and curves.”

Whitehead recalled that he made almost $4,000 that day, of which $2,800 was pure profit. He paid Foster a flat fee of $150, but in appreciation of Foster’s splendid pitching, “Dan added another $50 to the ante.”18 The Crescent Park game showcased several important themes. By 1914, Whitehead had demonstrated the talent to book and promote quality baseball games that paid handsomely. Black baseball was emerging as one of the city’s most successful African American businesses, but it also invited gambling as money exchanged hands in the stands among fans. In contrast, neighborhood baseball teams remained true to the amateur ideal and fielded players reflecting black middle-­class sensibilities and representing local churches, athletic clubs, fraternal organizations, and civic associations. Commercialized sport leaned heavily on gambling, promotion, sales, and profitability to keep Whitehead and his teams in business. Both brands of ball, amateur and semiprofessional, existed side by side and attracted similar fans. The city’s black elite, however, sanctioned the local amateur game but scorned the moneymaking game as counterproductive to the community’s welfare and respectability.

The other illustrative game, one played at Kinsley Park in 1932, signaled the collapse of commercial black baseball under the combined weight of the Great Depression and the departure of Black and Whitehead 56

Oliver “Ghost” Marcelle served as captain of Daddy’s Black’s Colored Giants in 1931. Regarded as a fierce competitor, he propelled Providence to the championship of Boston’s highly competitive Twi-­Light League. Marcelle also led his team in non-­league contests against traveling teams like the Cuban House of David that featured rookie pitching phenomenon Luis “Bravo” Tiant. Black considered Marcelle a franchise player and offered him a lucrative contract to play in Providence after the Brooklyn Royal Giants released him in 1931. The Brooklyn team suspended operation in 1931 due to the Depression and did not return until the 1933 season. Marcelle, pictured in Cuba during the offseason as a member of the Santa Clara team, earned a reputation as one of the best black third basemen ever to play the game. (photo courtesy of the Baseball Hall of Fame)

Daniel Whitehead earned recognition as the czar of black baseball in Rhode Island for the power and influence he wielded over the black game. Whitehead’s innovative and lengthy association with baseball permitted him to realize several accomplishments during his lifetime. By 1904 he lived in Providence and the following year he established the Providence Colored Giants, the first commercially successful African American team in the state. He developed the finest black baseball players and won several state and regional championship titles. In 1926, his team integrated Providence’s Suburban League and, during the season, he incorporated white players on the team. As a promoter, he negotiated with legendary sports agents like Nat Strong to bring the best black traveling teams to Providence. (This photography has been reproduced before. It originally appeared in the Providence Journal in 1908.)

Andrew “Rube” Foster established the Negro National League in 1920 and served as president until his death in 1930. He entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1981 for his executive leadership, playing talent, and managerial success. Known as the “Father of Negro Baseball,” sport historians agree that Foster exerted the greatest national influence on the black game. In 1914, Foster, then a member of the Chicago American Giants, pitched against the major league St. Louis Cardinals in a game at Crescent Park arranged by Daniel Whitehead. The game secured Whitehead’s reputation as the region’s foremost promoter of black baseball. The Giants beat the Cardinals. (photo courtesy of the Baseball Hall of Fame)

from the game. In 1931, Black acquired the Providence Colored Giants from Whitehead. The Depression triggered Whitehead’s financial downfall, and he sold the team to Black, whose numbers operation netted an estimated $5,000 a day in 1932.19 Black successfully acquired several professional Negro League players recently released from their contracts following the bankruptcy of the league. He reportedly signed them to contracts that paid $40–$60 a week, a hefty sum for the time.20 During the season, Black arranged for

his team to travel to New York City to play the Harlem Stars, owned by entertainer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. The Stars, later to become the New York Black Yankees, defeated the Giants in a doubleheader played at the Polo Grounds, by scores of 6–4 and 8–1.21 Black believed his team had failed to play professional-­level ball. Later, he concluded that his team never reached its full potential or merited its heavy payroll.

Black turned the Colored Giants back over to Whitehead in 1932, with disastrous results. The local

black press reported, “Mutiny on the high seas had nothing on the episode which took place Sunday afternoon, April 24, at Kinsley Park in the city of Providence when members of the newly formed Providence Colored Giants flatly refused to go on with a twin bill against the East Side All-­Stars and Boston Collegians, composed of former big leaguers and semipros.”22 The players expected weekly salaries, but when it became apparent that they would split gate receipts with their opponents, they refused to play. Spectators 57

Rhode Island History

demanded their money back, and a near riot ensued at the box office. On the following day, several players left town, looking to sign contracts elsewhere in Boston, New York, and Baltimore. Providence had witnessed “the finis” of commercialized black baseball in that city.23 Whitehead told friends that he was through with baseball forever. “If he carries out this threat,” wrote sportswriter Armando Perry, “Providence will undoubtedly lose one of the most colorful figures in baseball.”24 Whitehead kept his word and “severed his relationship with his one-­time love.”25 The promise of the Foster game in 1914 ended in despair following the riot game in 1932.

Within a year after the riot game, Whitehead and Black were dead. Perry chose his column in The Providence Chronicle to eulogize the lives of his two close friends.26 He had written extensively about their careers and contributions to black baseball in Rhode Island, but after their deaths, he tried hard to understand how their lives had led them to two very different fates in two very different places.

Black died on September 24, 1932, from gunshot wounds suffered at his home in Providence’s West End neighborhood. Rival gangsters ended Black’s life after he refused to surrender his territory to Italian competitors.27 Whitehead died on December 27, 1933, in a flophouse on Burgess Avenue, of an aneurysm of the aorta.28 Black died with money on the table with his wife and daughter in the family dining room below.

Whitehead died penniless and alone, his body discovered by apartment-­house caretaker Flora Banks.

Perry remembered Whitehead as a true baseball man, a former player, manager, owner, and promoter of 58

Top: Joe Gomes (first on the left) led the East Providence High School baseball team to a state championship in 1928 and garnered all-­state recognition for his efforts. After high school, John McGraw, manager and co-­owner of the major league New York Giants, approached Gomes with a plan that would send the talented right-­handed pitcher to Cuba for a season or two with the idea that he would later join the Giants as a Cuban player. Gomes affirmed his heritage as a Cape Verdean and declined the offer.

Instead, Gomes played both baseball and football at Providence College. He later joined Daniel Whitehead’s newly configured Providence Colored Giants in 1932, but quickly departed the team after the riot game. Gomes successfully landed in Philadelphia as a member of Passon’s Bacharach Giants. The team was a member of the league of Independent Clubs that included the Kansas City Monarchs, Pittsburgh Crawfords, and New York Black Yankees. bottom: Red Smith (front row, second from the left) pitched for the Colored Giants during the team’s final season in 1932. Afterwards, he became Providence’s premier manager and promoter of amateur African American teams. During the 1930s and 1940s, his Providence Eagles dominated the local amateur black baseball circuit. His rise to prominence reflected the end of commercialized black baseball after 1932 and the rise of amateur teams connected to neighborhoods, churches, and civic organizations. (Photo courtesy of Raymond Venter)

the game. He was the “father” of black baseball in Rhode Island.29 Black was a numbers kingpin and past owner of the professional Cleveland Colored Giants and Providence Colored Giants. Black may not have known much about the game, but he knew how to make money.30 Like many African Americans who arrived in Providence during the Great Migration, Black and Whitehead had decisions to make. Moving north represented an initial step in a process of endless movement and constant resettlement, as well as an incessant struggle for economic survival. Both men drew upon skills and lessons from their baseball experiences to inform their choices, but each held a distinctive set of talents and skills. Their lives reflected the multifaceted and complex differences that existed among newcomers and emphasized divergent paths to attain success, both personal and professional. What initially brought them together and eventually drove them apart was baseball and the lure of easy money.

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Rhode Island History

In July 1931, Daddy Black’s Colored Giants traveled to New York City aboard the team’s private bus to participate in an elimination series for the Colored Baseball Championship of the East. The Giants opened the contest in a double-­header at the Polo Grounds against entertainer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson’s Harlem Stars.

The Stars defeated the Giants 6-­4 and 8-­1. Black expressed disappointment that his team did not perform to expectations. The Giants roster included several highly paid players recently released from their contracts because the Great Depression caused the collapse of the Negro League. Black’s roster included notable players such as Oliver “Ghost” Marcelle, Robert “Highpockets” Hudspeth, Elmore “Scrappy” Brown, and Peter “Tubby” Johnson. The New York Age advertised the game at a reduced grandstand admission rate that “resulted in a much larger attendance.” (Advertisement in New York Age, July 18, 1931, 6)

Endnotes 1. Representative works include Darrell J. Howard, “Sunday Coming”: Black Baseball in Virginia (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002); Rob Fink, Playing in Shadows: Texas and Negro League Baseball (Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press, 2010); Frank M. White, They Played for the Love of the Game: Untold Stories of Black Baseball in Minnesota (St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2016); and Todd Peterson, Early Black Baseball in Minnesota (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010). For a New England focus see Robert Cvornyek, “The Color of Baseball: Race and Boston’s Sporting Community,” Black Ball: A Negro Leagues Journal (Volume 6, 2013), 70–106.

2. Lawrence D. Hogan, Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African-­American Baseball (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2006), 127 and 153–156, and Sarah L. Trembanis, The Set-­Up Men: Race, Culture and Resistance in Black Baseball (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014), 22.

3. George P. Hassett and Robert Cvornyek, “Who Killed Daddy Black?,” The Providence Phoenix, (March 30, 2012), 8–11.

4. Jules Tygiel, “Unreconciled Strivings: Baseball in Jim Crow America,” in The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity, ed.

Lawrence Baldassaro and Richard A. Johnson (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002), 83.

5. The Cleveland Colored Giants incorporation papers are located in the Rhode Island State Archives C#0179. Rhode Island Secretary of State, Original Articles of Non-­Business Corporation, 1924 (Volume 7), 89.

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6. Providence Journal, April 19, 1926, 6.

7. Lawrence D. Hogan, The Forgotten History of African American Baseball (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2014), 164–165, and Michael E. Lomax, Black Baseball Entrepreneurs: The Negro National and Eastern Colored Leagues, 1902–1931 (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014), 412–425. For an economic overview of black baseball after 1931, see Neil Lanctot, Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

8. Robert Cvornyek, “Touching Base: Race, Sport, and Community in Newport,” Newport History, Volume 85 (Spring 2016), passim.

founder of the National Negro League, see Robert C. Cottrell, The Best Pitcher in Baseball: The Life of Rube Foster, Negro League Giant (New York: NYU Press, 2004); Larry Lester, Rube Foster in His Time: On the Field and in the Papers with Black Baseball’s Greatest Visionary (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012); and Phil S. Dixon, Andrew “Rube” Foster: A Harvest on Freedom’s Fields (Bloomington, IN: Xlibris, 2010).

17. Sportswriter Armando Perry provides the history of the 1914 game in his “Baseball Memoirs” located in the Boston Chronicle, May 9, 1936, 6.

18. Boston Chronicle, May 9, 1936, 6.

19. Providence Journal, July 9, 1932, 2.

9. Lomax, Black Baseball Entrepreneurs, 271–308.

20. “Baseball Ramblings,” Boston Chronicle, April 8, 1933, 6.

10. Providence Journal, August 20, 1924, 7.

21. New York Age, July 25, 1931, 6; New York Amsterdam News, July 7, 1931, 13; and Providence Journal, July 16, 1931, 9.

11. Providence Journal, June 19, 1925, 7.

12. Providence Chronicle, December 30, 1933, 1. For additional information on Whitehead’s role as a promoter, see Providence Journal, July 5, 1923, 6; July 15, 1923, 15; July 17, 1923, 6; August 15, 1924, 6; and August 16, 1926, 13.

13. Providence Journal, April 2, 1905, 6.

14. Providence Journal, May 29, 1905, 7.

15. Providence Journal, June 18, 1905, 3.

16. For an overview of Foster’s career as a player, manager, and

22. Boston Chronicle, April 30, 1932, 7, and Providence Journal, April 25, 1 and 5.

23. Boston Chronicle, April 30, 1932, 7.

24. Boston Chronicle, April 30, 1932, 7.

25. Boston Chronicle, May 9, 1936, 6.

26. See, for example, “Sports Mogul Dead: Big Dan Was Well-­ Known in Sporting Circles,” Boston Chronicle, December 30, 1933,

8, and “20,000 File by Bier of ‘Daddy’ Black,” Boston Chronicle, October 1, 1932, 1.

27. Hassett and Cvornyek, “Who Killed Daddy Black?” 8–11.

28. The details of Whitehead’s death are found in Rhode Island Public Health Commission, “Certificate of Death,” State File Number 254, December 27, 1933, located in the Rhode Island State Archives.

29. Boston Chronicle, March 18, 1933, 6.

30. Boston Chronicle, April 8, 1933, 6.

31. Gomes is one of three Rhode Islanders to play professional black baseball. Gideon Spence Applegate, another all-­state athlete from East Providence High School, played professionally for the New York Cubans and New York Black Yankees. He debuted under the name “Spearman” for the New York Black Yankees on June 22, 1945 while still a high school student. Spence would later desegregate the Boston Braves organization as a top prospect in their minor league affiliate in the Canadian Border League.

Charles Thomas enjoyed a successful professional career with the Newark Eagles playing for Hall of Fame owner Effa Manley during the War years from 1941 to 1943. With the Eagles, he played alongside Hall of Fame members Larry Doby and Monte Irvin. The Providence Chronicle newspaper characterized Thomas as a well-­known New England athlete who starred in football, basketball, and baseball and played semi-­professional football for the Providence Steam Rollers.

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Letters from Home during the Civil War

WILLIAM EMERSON

“I Would Like to Know What Our Country Will Be Good for after the Men Are All Killed off” Letters from Home during the Civil War

The Rhode Island Historical Society collections hold many hidden gems. In 2007, I stumbled upon a full set of letters written during the Civil War by my great-­grandfather, George N. Bliss. Bliss, a captain in a Rhode Island regiment, had written his close friend David V. Gerald from March 1862, when the regiment left Rhode Island, until the end of the war.

Fortunately, Gerald saved these candid and detailed missives, and they eventually found their way into the RIHS’s collection. Elizabeth Stevens and I recently published the full set.1 Among Bliss’s papers at the RIHS were fourteen additional letters written by others and sent to him during the war. He forwarded these to Gerald, and they, too, were saved. This article features letters from seven individuals, including his brother Charles, who served in his company. Each writer had his or her style of communication with this soldier in the field.

Bliss’s former college landlady, for instance, provided him with local gossip while expressing heartfelt concern for his safety. She once wrote, “I worried [about you] as much as your mother.” One friend, soon to go off and die in the war, reminisced about their college days in a peaceful country only months earlier. Charles Bliss wrote of his perilous scouting trips into enemy territory; dressed as a civilian, if caught, he surely would have been shot. A former girlfriend delicately announced her marriage to a minister while lamenting about Bliss’s spiritual life. And a flirtatious young 62

capital, as well as other cities, women rioted for food.

By the end of the war, the South had lost two-­thirds of its assessed wealth.4 By contrast, the war created minimal disruption in Union territory. Agricultural production quickly expanded, and despite the need to feed vast armies, food was always plentiful. To meet increased demand, new businesses and factories were built. Economically, the war was good for Northerners; wealth increased by fifty percent during the decade of the 1860s.5

woman penned a very short note that ended, “I am afraid I can think of no other happening.”

George Bliss Bliss (1837–1928) was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, in 1837 and spent his early years in Fall River, Massachusetts. After high school, the family moved to Pawtucket, and Bliss attended a private prep school, University Grammar, where he met Gerald. Two years later, both enrolled in Brown University. Some issue caused the two, along with friends Albert Washburn and Arnold Burges, to abruptly leave Brown after their sophomore year. Bliss later claimed the reason was, “[o]wing to some difficulty with the faculty as to the management of the college.” The four students entered Union College, in Schenectady, New York, in September 1858 and graduated two years later. The following year, all took degrees at Albany Law School.2 In September 1861, five months into the war, Bliss joined a regiment just being formed, the First Rhode Island Cavalry. During his nearly four years with the First Rhode Island, Bliss fought in some twenty-­seven battles. Captured in September 1864, his quick thinking, by identifying himself as a Mason, saved his life.

After the war, he married, built a home in East Providence, and raised his family there. A state politician for a number of terms, he became a judge and sat on the bench for fifty years. In the 1890s, he was awarded

George Bliss in 1860. Photograph courtesy of Special Collections, Schaffer Library, Union College.

the Medal of Honor for bravery. He died at age ninety-­ one in 1928 at his home on Taunton Avenue.3

The War The effects of the momentous conflict that was the Civil War were quite different in the two regions of the country. With fighting concentrated almost exclusively in the South, life there was completely altered. Invading armies caused thousands of civilians to abandon their homes and migrate elsewhere in the Confederacy.

Factories, bridges, and railways were destroyed. Crops were trampled, fields ruined. Early in the war, Bliss wrote, “Orchards [are] cut down also acres of woodland fences burned &c. You know nothing about the evils of war in R.I. but the inhabitants of this section fully appreciate it, an army like a flock of geese eat up everything in front and spoil everything in the rear.”

Food production plummeted, and in the Confederate

The Letters For me, the most interesting aspect in these posts is the stark contrast between the daily lives of those safe at home writing letters and the soldiers in danger receiving them. The hum of busy wartime lives clearly shows through. People worried, of course, about the dangers faced by soldiers, the loss of life, and even the future of the country; this last concern was well expressed by the lady who wrote the title line. But little or none of the upheaval occurring in the South is evident in the lives of Bliss’s correspondents. People continued to work, play, visit fairs, and enjoy ice cream parlors. Girls continued to flirt, and some got into “trouble.”

Bliss’s brother Charles, still in the fighting, expressed support for the war, as did many soldiers in the conflict. But there is no corresponding enthusiasm for it from the civilians writing Bliss. Further, there is the suggestion that the politicians and generals were doing a poor job and that ordinary citizens would do better running the government. One person wrote, 63

Rhode Island History

“I have been thinking of writing to Lincoln to let a few volunteers in the Cabinet to plan for them.”

For Bliss, a brave, tough soldier, these contacts with the folks back home must have been a comfort, proof that life might attain a certain normalcy after the war.

Note: These letters are presented in chronological order. When needed for clarity, punctuation has been corrected silently; minor spelling and grammatical errors have been left intact, with one exception. For ease of reading, widespread spelling errors in a letter from Bliss’s brother Charles have been corrected.

Albert Washburn of Amsterdam, New York.

Albert Gardiner Washburn (1839–1863) was the son of a Methodist minister and was close to Bliss and Gerald. They and their friend Arnold Burges had roomed with Charlotte and Walter McQueen while at college in Schenectady. After the four graduated from Albany Law School, Washburn took a job as editor of the Amsterdam [N.Y.] Daily Dispatch for six months; later he practiced law in Amsterdam. He soon married Belle Evans of Schenectady, and they had a son, Israel.

At the time of Washburn’s letter, George Bliss was a lieutenant and had completed six months of training in Rhode Island. He and his regiment had just arrived in Washington, D.C. Thousands of troops were stationed there, creating an outsized force to defend the capital from the Confederates across the Potomac in Virginia.

Bliss didn’t like the nation’s capital. He wrote, “Washington is not remarkable for architectural beauty with 64

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the exception of the public buildings, the[y] loom up like ‘diamonds in a dung pile’”6 In August of that year, Washburn joined the 134th New York Infantry Volunteers as a private; by November, he had been promoted to captain. He did not survive the war; see McQueen’s letter of circa February 10, 1863, below. In December 1862, Washburn was at the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg when he contracted typhoid fever. He died weeks later.7 My Dear Bliss

April 8 1862

Last evening I called on Walter McQueen & lady & was much pleased to find that they had a letter from you, together with a photograph of yourself in your uniform. If I mistake not I saw some indication of an “incipient mustachio” that ultimatum of [Arnold] Burges’ ambition. I cannot perhaps better express my admiration of your excellent appearance than by most distinctly enunciating the “immortal four.”

Since my friend[s] Burges & Gerald have put on judicial robes, I suppose the plastic hand of civil justice is even more soft & white, than buckskin could make it it. Of course Burges is overwhelming with dignity, but Gerald bears the honor well, I’m sure.

You have given expression to the fear that we shall never gather together again around the “smoking punch bowl.” I hope your fear is not well founeded [founded] for although I very seldom indulge the old propensity since the cares of a family impose upon me sobriety, yet if at any time, under any circirmstances, or in any possibly conceivable possition I could be induced to get outside of some good whis-

Albert Washburn in 1860, his senior year at Union College. Photograph courtesy of Special Collections, Schaffer Library, Union College.

key punch it would be when we were again gathered together as of yore in old ‘Dorp’ [i.e., Schenectady] or indeed I may say, in any other place, where the necessary ingredients are to be found for compounding the aforesaid punch. There is something to me truly poetic in those good old days & I am sure nothing would so much induce to our individual comforts, as that beverage, & much more certain am I, that no one thing would so admirably blend the tastes of all. You, my dear fellow, are in the army, Gerald is am [an] embryo lawyer, & myself, I am a “pater famillias,” who am bound to preserve all the outward semblances of calm deliberation.8 Burges – in justice to myself I place Burges last – is wrapped up in the sublime contemplation [of] Puffendorf’s “Law of Nations” & perhaps with a little practice in “mind upon matter matter” so much discouraged by all good physicians. His capacity – measured in the latter capacity – is truly remarkable judging from his continued residence here below & his perfect

abhorance of truth so essential an element of the hereafter as pictured by that “lawyer of old” who sat at the feet of Gamaliel & whose name either scared the Greeks or devil in something strongly resembling insanity tinctured with hydrophobia with a human appendage, but which we of the present day term christianity in its violent form. That last sentence rather staggers me & if you get what I mean you will do more than I. altho when I commenced it I did mean something or other. I guess I me[a]nt to say that St. Paul was the greatest Blower – reverently excepting John the Evangelist of Patmos notoriety – I ever read of & Burges the most intolerable liar I ever knew. I say then to go back a folio that we three will meet again provided no causualty befalls us, & around that glorious old altar of friendship send up everlasting hozannas for charity – which covers a multitude of sins. It is very pleasant to me to discover that when Mr. McQueen & others who knew us best speak of us they all give us the praise of having been men of more than ordinary ability.

I feel as tho’ this was rather a desultory letter, yet you must make it answer for the extent of my correspondence is very large besides having much writing in the office. I am glad Bliss you have so good a position & am certain that when the result depends on you alone – no fault will attach.9 I am in the largest office here & am doing well, which made me the more appreciate your success.

Very Truly Your Friend A. G. Washburn Amsterdam, N.Y.

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Charlotte McQueen of Schenectady, New York Charlotte McQueen, (b. 1821) born in Columbia County, New York, was about forty-­one. Bliss and three of his friends resided in McQueen’s boarding house at 76 Fonda Street while attending college. McQueen had four children: Daniel P. “Pete” McQueen, twenty years old; Jeannette (“Jennie”), fourteen; and four-­year-­old twins, Robert (“Bob”) and Henry (“Hank”). Her husband, Walter, originally from Scotland, was superintendent of the Schenectady Locomotive Works, a major employer in the small city.10 When he received this letter, Bliss’s regiment had just moved to Warrenton Junction on the “Scared Soil” of Virginia (a term commonly used to describe Confederate territory). The enemy had made no effort to resist the Union incursion.

April 14, [1862] George N Bliss I have delayed writing on many accounts incident to house keeping, hope you will excuse it if it ever reaches you for I suppose you may have moved your quarters since you wrote. I think you are getting into hot water down there with the Old Merrimac and others I for one feel very uneasy about this war.11 I think it is dreadful that so many of the flower of our country are cut off in their youth and lives sacrifi[c]ed for such a foolish thing in the first place but I suppose we have got our foot in it we must get out 66

the best way we can. I suppose your Mother carries and [an] anxious heart about 2 boys there.12 I am sure I should with one. [N]o more of this I will try and think of some news. We are all well, Bob and Hank are pretty large perheps would not play with Burgess [Arnold Burges]. [Henry] Billings has been here lately he has gone back to Worcester to reside.

Washburn was married the 8th of July to Miss Evans and they are boarding in Amsterdam. [H]e called here last Sabbath Evening and was bragging about his son Israel Washburne then 3 weeks old, I guess he is doing very well in the Law. I have had [Hiram D. W.] Hall ever since you left until now, he has had Chums named Sawyer and Burns all D K E of course as I will not room any other.13 They moved to Old Garry Van Vrankens 2 weeks ago and Hall was going to stay the vacation but they could not get along with the old maid so today they have moved again to Griffis Rooms, they say I have spoiled them for any other place. Mrs [Harriett] Stevens does not keep Boarder[s] now she has a little Daughter to take care of. Miss [Mary] Sharratt Boards at Mrs Lunnahall [Lannahill] in Church St. Mr [Walter] McQueen has lately joined The Masons so next time you write you can send him the grip in the letter. Pete is in Syracuse yet and Fanny is in Chicago so you see they have separated. Hall tends to Miss Lathrop as much as Nichols used too [sic], they are said to be engaged. [O]f course Will Gleason comes to see Huff Potter as usual. Black Elisae’s cleaning house for me this spring she often speaks of you.14 If this letter should never reach you I think the Dead letter folks would be interested dont you? I am sitting

by your old desk in old room where you used to have the punch bowl but these had not been used there since these boys did not imbibe and no one smoked but Hall. Our shop is doing a good business now you have been smashing up engin[e]s so much down south. We have had a great deal of snow this winter it is not all gone yet. Capt Truax is home he could not stand fire I guess he gets laugh[e]d at.15 [W]ell we are in an awful state of anxiety here expecting every day the great battle at Yorktown.16 Oh dear it is dreadful when will it end? I hope if you can do any thing it will be done. I rather think McClellan is not what we think he is. I hope he will prove himself good. I hope you write us again and may the God of Battles protect you and your Brother from any harm is the wish and prayer of your true friend Mrs McQueen. Write soon again and excuse me for not answering sooner.

Mary Sharratt of Schenectady, New York Bliss apparently knew Mary Sharratt, about 26 years old, from his days at Union College. She was living at Harriet Stevens’s boarding house, at 27 Church Street.17 At this time, Bliss was in Manassas, Virginia. The First Rhode Island Cavalry had yet to see action but was involved in a near mutiny. Governor William Sprague had appointed a French veteran, twenty-­ seven-­year-­old Alfred Napoleon Duffié, as colonel.

Nearly every officer resigned in protest believing a “foreigner” should not lead the regiment. Bliss, wisely, had not joined the rush of resignations. The fracas

Colonel (later general) Alfred Duffié, circa July 1862. From a carte de visite found in Bliss’s papers. (author’s collection)

quickly ended due to Duffié’s charismatic personality and recognizable military skills. Soon, Bliss was able to write, “Col Duffié is very much liked by every man and officer in the regt, I never saw a man with so much fascinating power.” The choice of Duffié proved to be brilliant; he led the regiment to many successes and became its most beloved commander.

July 14 [1862] George N Bliss I received your letter and am much obliged to you for your photograph – to add to my very small collection. I think you have changed very much. I did not know you at a first glance–You will perhaps be astonished to learn I am no longer at Mrs Stevens.

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I left her last October. And am now at Mrs Lannahill’s. Mrs Stevens is very well. Almost every nation of the earth has a representative at her table. There is a Turk, a Swede, a German and a Frenchman.

Mrs. Stevens was very glad to hear from you – and wished to be remembered to you.18 I am sorry you fail to remember the name of “the very dear friend” you so distinctly see with your “mind’s eye.” You do not take into consideration the inconstancy of the fair sex. Perhaps I have had a dozen very dear friends in the interim. How can I know to whom you “send greeting?” Miss Dorane is at Mrs Lannahill’s. Mrs Grant is boarding in the Upper part of Union St this summer. She has a sister with her from St Louis. An enthusiastic friend of Jeff Davis.’ She shocks our loyal ears with his praises.

My fair neighbor Miss Cecilia Levitts is to be married next week to Mr Hall of New York. I am afraid I can think of no other happening.

Hoping soon to have the pleasure of listening to reminiscences.

Truly yours Mary Sharratt–

Charlotte McQueen For a number of months in the spring and summer of 1862, Bliss had lobbied for an advancement in rank. At about the time of McQueen’s letter, he was promoted to captain of C Company (or Troop). He was satisfied with that rank and never sought nor received further promotion during the war.

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Charlotte McQueen’s August 20, 1862, letter. George N. Bliss Papers, MSS 298, Box 1 Folder 8. RIHS Collections RHi X17 3955A

Schenectady Locomotive Works19 Schenectady, N. Y. Aug 20 [1862] Much Esteemed Friend We were speaking of you at the breakfast table when the door bell rang and your letter appeared. We were glad enough to hear that you were yet in the land of the living, hope you may escape the dangers that surround you although it [is] a wonder to me how any one ever comes back from war. I called on Washburn and Lady at her fathers this afternoon and saw their wonderful boy Israel, Israel Was[h]burn has enlisted in Auty Yates Company as Luitt I believe intends to go next week. Prof Peissner is Col of a Regiment.

Charly Lewis his brother in Law is in one of his companies.20 Campbell that took the prize is Captain of a company. [Y]ou see we are busy sending men all the while it seems to me that you have used up a great many men for all the good that has been done. I have been thinking of writing to Lincoln to let a few volunteers in the Cabinet to plan for them for you know the Tower of Babel was built by the strength of men and the wil[l] of women, and I can assure you that I believe we could give them rebels what they deserve not be so lenient with them as our government has been. Mrs Stevens is well also Miss Sharrat and Mills, Mr Stevens enlisted in [General Ambrose E.] Burnsides expedition and is now actting as Secretary for Col Howard at Roanoke Island.

Celia Swils was married last week to a Mr Hull from Brooklyn they are on their wedding tour. [T]here is a great many marrying now the girls preferring to

be young widows than old maids. Pete [McQueen] is more anxxious to Run a Locomotive than he is to get married or go to war I dont think he or Walter will either of them go but will pay for a substitute cheerfully. Walter says you are fortunate if you are under a good Col that is a great draw back on our side I think. Poor officers I think the rebels ahead with them. [Hiram D. W.] Hall and [James I.] Burns graduated with high honors. Billings was here about the first of May he is in Worcester now I do not hear from Burgess [Arnold Burges] lately I owe him a letter. Will Gleason makes his annual visit of about 3 weeks to Hallie Potters I do not know when they will be marr[i]ed. Hall continued his attentions to Miss Lathrop while he staid. Bob and Hank go to school

every day they talk a great deal about going to war.

Oh I wish it would stop to morrow, I shall not veto your reunion but hope it may take place and I would give you the best Old Dorp [i.e., Schenectady] could afford.21 [Y]our friend Mary Risekerins [?] is married and got a fine boy she marr[i]ed Jo Pratt she has done very well. Mr McQueen has more than he can do in the shop men are scarce about 20 have enlisted out of the shop within a month. We think this county will not have to draft they will make out their number. Capt Truax has not much to say they call him the feather bed soldier he had rather make Ice Cream. Ill bet you would like a little of it too. How can you live without the good things Mrs S. used to have, Poor Corcoran he is let loose now 69

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and having his good time. I hope you will write often for I can assure you we look every paper careful for fear we shall see your name among the wounded hope you will feel the necessity of being prepared for whatever awaits you. [I]t wont hurt you if you live and it will be a comfort if you die to be at peace with God. I hope he will protect you from harm is the prayer of your friend Mrs Mc[Queen].

Walter and me went to the Capt [Steven Truax] last night and took Ice Cream and Sherry Cobbler and all s[l]urped to your success.

Elizabeth R. Ledford, formerly of Argyle, New York Bliss may have met Ledford when he was in Albany attending law school. Her family was from Argyle, a small town about fifty miles north of Albany, and she had attended Albany Female Academy.22 By this date, Bliss had been in a number of battles, including Groveton (where he wrote, “I gained a conception of hell”) and Second Bull Run. After these battles, the badly beaten Union Army had been driven from the field to the safety of fortifications outside Washington, D.C. Bliss blamed the generals for the defeats and wrote, “[W]hat I feared has happened, we have met the enemy and been licked like hell.” The battle at Antietam also had been fought. Bliss, at Seneca Mills, Maryland, was on the perimeter of that battle. The role of his regiment was to protect the capital by staying between Lee’s invading army and Washington, D.C.23

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My Dear Friend.

Argyle, [N.Y.] Oct 25th 1862

It is a long time since I have written to you, but circumstances and not want of inclination, have made me remiss.

I received a letter from you in the summer containing a ring, for which I am much obliged – the ring is most too small for me to wear on my finger, but I carry it on my watch chain. Your last letter I received about a week ago and was pleased to hear from you again.

Since I last wrote to you many changes have taken place in our little village and in our own family. In one of my letters I think I told you I had many things I wanted to say to you, but somehow I never succeeded in telling you. The most important thing of which I wished to inform you, was my intended marriage. I was married the 11th of June to the Rev. J. H. Ledford.

You may remember hearing me speak of him the last time you were in Argyle, though at that time I had no thought nor intention of marrying him.

I was not engaged when you saw me in Albany, but was thinking about it. I always said I should never marry a minister and I meant it when I said, but I changed my mind as young ladies very often do.

I think that you will be glad to learn that I am happily married. I am entirely satisfied with my choice, and feel that I shall never have reason to regret it.

I had no wedding, wedding cards, nor any fuss at all.

We went to St. Louis to visit my sister and then went to our new home which is in the north western part

of Pennsylvania, about sixty miles from Erie, and eighty miles from Pittsburgh. It is a pleasant country, and we live in a large business village. The people seem somewhat queer to me but they are very kind and I like them.

We have not commenced housekeeping yet nor will we till spring, so I do not know much about the cares and trials of housekeeping or of married life. I came home to Argyle three weeks ago. Was not intending to come this fall, but Mother sent for me to come and meet some friends who were visiting here. So I started off immediately. I return next week, stopping a few days in Albany on my way. It takes a day and night to go from Argyle to my new home-­ Brother Jimmie is in the army he responded to the call of “600,000 more.” Washington Co. has raised the required number of men, they formed a new regiment the 123d. They had their camp in Salem, they went on to Washington early in Sept. At present they are in Pleasant Valley, Md. not far from Harper’s Ferry. How I wish that you and Jimmie could meet. If it ever happens that you can find him, I wish you would. He would be glad to see you, for he always thought a good deal of you.24 I think your family have done nobly. Some of your brothers must be quite young, too young to go to war. I look upon every Soldier as a hero. I feel almost discouraged about the war and yet it does not seem right to make one word of complaint.

Now about the village news. If you were to call upon any of the ladies here, the first thing would be, “Did you go over to the marriage the other day?”

That is all the talk now, discussing Mrs. Parry’s marriage. She was married on Wednesday the 22nd at the Episcopal Church in Fort Edward. She married a Mr. Crocker, a widower with one child, his first wife was a Sandy Hill lady. They were very much in love.

Libbie Proudfit said Mrs. Parry was never so deeply in love before.

They will remain in Argyle this winter and after that I don’t know where they will live. I am afraid Libbie P__ will not stay in Argyle if Mrs. Parry leaves. Poor Libbie will have the care of the house and children I presume this winter. I feel sort of sorry for Lib. for she has really no home and is obliged to do something for her own support, and there she is so tortured with headaches. I have seen a good deal of Libbie since I came back – we are the best of friends – she was inquiring about you just the other day, and I read her your letter. She said she had half a notion to write to you. Dr. & Mrs. Savage are still in Salem and remember “Bliss.” I am glad that Gerald is succeeding well. Please remember me to him when you write. There was one remark in your letter I didn’t just like. You will forgive me for speaking of it. You say that “Gerald is the strongest tie that binds you to life now,” my dear friend it seems as if you ought to be bound to life by some other tie than that. You ought to live for high purposes.

I am sometimes afraid that to you life is not earnest enough. I shall always have solicitude for you as long as you live. Exposed as you are now to trials, temptations and death, how I wish that Christ was the anchor upon which you leaned. I feel the same anxiety for you that I do for Jimmie, I think that you 71

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have strength of character sufficient to withstand temptations but yet in regard to your eternal life and the salvation of your soul, you have always seemed reckless and indifferent. I know that you think about these things but yet you dont think in the right way, you depend upon your self too much, upon your own strength. You should just give your self to God “Commit your way to him and He will preserve you.”

If I was not sincerely your friend I would not talk to you in this way. I feel incapable of giving advice, I feel much more than I can express.

Poor Cousin Emma died in the spring – her disease Consumption.

I hope that you will write to me as often as you can.

I shall always be glad to hear from you, that you may be certain of. I think you would like my husband, and I hope you may meet sometime.

Please address.

Mrs. J. H. Ledford. West Greenville. Pa. And now good bye.

Yours Very Truly, E. R. Ledford.

Mary C____ of Edgartown, Mass.

It is not known how Bliss and Mary C____ met. He loved sailing, a sport he continued into his eighties, and had occasionally sailed to Martha’s Vineyard where she lived. Apparently, they met on one of those sailing trips.

By late December 1862, the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg had just occurred. Bliss was guarding the perimeter of the Union Army there under General 72

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Ambrose Burnside. While Bliss did not know it, only a few miles away, in an abandoned farmhouse, his friend Albert Washburn was dying of typhoid fever.

December 23, 1862 So my friend Bliss doesn’t fancy flirting. How can I argue with him on the subject, when I do think he very kind kindly flirts a little. Let me explain if I can plainly. For instance you are corresponding with a young lady in Edgartown. Send her your photograph ask for hers in return &c. Now really don’t you consider that a specie of flirting & Well! I do if you don’t, if she were at all fanciful, she might be silly enough to fancy you liked to w[r]ite her by corresponding so regularly. Ahem! Wonder what Mr. Bliss’s response will be. I wait patiently to learn.

I am almost crazy (sad) to learn that young gents name. Can’t you tell me without you have my picture, I would willingly send you one, had I any taken.

The gentleman that takes pictures has joined the army so Edgartown is left without an artist. Really I don’t feel at all like writing a letter tonight. My ideas seem to have departed. Sad! For my ideas are so brilliant, they are surely a great loss!!!

Allow me to congratulate you. I heartily wish you abundant success in your new [illegible] position. Have you a mate, Capt’s always have you know, I presume.25 Do you intend to be in Va. next summer or shall you enter Edgartown harbor in a fine little yacht from Providence. Do you recollect that fine sail we had that lovely foggy evening. No matter for the

David Gerald in 1860. Photograph courtesy of Special Collections, Schaffer Library, Union College.

fog as the company was so very entertaining. Fortunately for me I was among the number and claim a small share of the praise. Poor Bucklin no doubt thinks of that daring [?] Miss Worth – Well!26 I was rather too severe with my fun I’ll confess but I do often speak what I think be it for or against. Do you fancy that mode or are you against it as flirting. Your comments really pleased me, upon flirting. I’ll confess I admire your frankness but can’t agree with you fully. I’d like sometime to have conversation with you on the subject & perhaps will be able to furnish you with some graphic descriptions. Aren’t you most tired of war. I do confess I am although McClellan’s recent victories have somewhat encouraged my doubting mind.27 I am patiently waiting for Peace to be proclaimed. Won’t that be a happy moment.

I think so. Your friend Gerald is not as patriotic as you is he?28 Were you intending to practice law if you had not entered the army?

You’ll please excuse me from writing more tonight as tis getting late – Will you not soon write a long letter to Mary C? Regards to that unknown young man – Tell him a young lady has fallen in love with him & oblige Mary –

Edgartown [Mass.] [December] 23, 1862.

Write soon Write soon – Do you often hear from Gerald? Remember me to him when you write him. Is Mr. Gerald whole hearted & fancy free? Or has some young lady monoplized his affections? Now – Good night – Mary C. “Think not when the foe appears” “Make our b[l]eeding country blest with peace & liberty” Write soon–Write soon –

Charlotte McQueen The opposing armies in the Civil War rarely ventured out of their winter camps. Roads usually were impassable for troops, horses, and cannon, and conditions could deteriorate rapidly, stranding an army on the move. At this time, Bliss was in winter camp in Northern Virginia, near what was called Potomac Run Bridge.

Schenectady Locomotive Works Schenectady, N.Y. [Ca. Feb. 10, 1863] My Dear Friend Your letter received found me in great trouble my infant Daughter 8 months old was very sick has since died was buried the 20th it makes a great vacancy a sweet babe in a house but still when I think of the many mothers that have given up their darling boys 73

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for this time of trouble and think what anxious feellings they must have all the time and then finally hear they are cut off and suffer for a mothers care, I feel as if my trouble was small in comparison. Poor Washburn pen could never describe what that poor fellow suffered. [H]e had not the care of a brute and so many p[r]ofessed friends about him. If his Father had not found him I do not think he would ever been sent home, his Father came on Thursday and his Mother and Brother came Friday and his body did not arrive until Monday and was buried Tuesday afternoon from the Methodist Church. Danford and Sawyer and 4 more DKEs, were the bearers.29 Hickok T Lewis and Truman made good remarks his widow looks beautiful in her mourning apparel, his Parents were very much pleesed with her and I think she has the smartest boy I ever saw his name Albert Israel she calls him Berty. Washburn was very much loved in the camp circle and was called an Excellent officer was soon to have been made Major, which place Allen Jackson now occupies. I knew nothing of Waits death only your allusion in your letter. Did you know Henry Isham was dead he died in New York of Fever. I often see Miss Sharrat on the street suppose she is well. Mrs Stevens family are well, he is at Port Royal in a fort as Clerk is doing well. I think that reunion will never take place in this house as we intend to move in the spring up Union St. [W]e have bought that old house nearly opposite Hoags where Chedsey lived; hope you will come and see us there. When is this awful war going to end, it seems never. I do not see how you stand it so well.

Washburn’s Father is the most patriotic man I ever 74

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saw he went right back without going home he says live or die he will see it through. [H]e gave a short address in the church when he was here, to night we are to have one from another chaplain. Charly Lewis & Peissner are down there, we are having a very cold snap just now hope it is not so cold where you are.

I think you must suffer a good deal from cold and want of good provisions. Some of our Schenectady men that went with that 10 Regiment are laying off in a fort near New Orleans eating Oranges and camp in a field of white clover, think that might be very comfortable, Old Dorp seem to be improving on the strength of the ware [war]. There never was so much changing property and building in a great many years. Celia Swils is married and lives in New York.

Mrs Stevens still lives where she did rooms [for?] students. I do not know how Washburn[’s] widow will get along. I believe she has about $600 coming of his pay he was not paid while living.

Monday Morning I listened to a chaplains discourse laste evening on the privations and trials of a soldier’s life. I cannot imagine how you stand it at all. It is wonderful how human beings can endure what you have too and then it seems as if so many were sacrificed in consequence of neglect and exposure. I am getting almost discouraged about ever getting out of war. I do not think there is praying enough in the country. A lot of the country is full of black hearted traitors. I would like to see them hung up by their heels, we have enough of them here but they durst not say much.

Doct Nott has had his third stroke of Paralysis and

is lying very feeble they are expecting his death daily he does not know any thing much.30 They are building and [an] elegant stone Church in place of the 1st Dutch [i.e. Dutch Reformed] that was burnt here it is magnificent, Washburn asked his Colonel for his resignation when he got sick he would not grant it he then wrote him a very sausy letter and sent him his sword and told him to arrest him if he wanted too but the Colonel told him to lay there and ______was that not cruel in him? I suppose if they had took ordinary care of him he might have got home, as it was he was lying in a worse state than a brute when his Father found him in a common tent on some boards. [H] is Father found a house a[nd] carried him a mile to it and he lived from Wednesday till Monday. [H]is Father had to make a rough board box and lay him out himself-­was that not hard then brought him to Washington and got another coffin and sent it by express, and that is the end of all his worrying about his future cause it shows us the vanity of all things and the nescessity of being ready whenever the summons shall sound which sooner or later will come to all. I hope the Good Lord will shield and protect you from every danger and you may live to see our country again united and happy. May the day be not far distant is the wish and p[r]ayer of your sinsere friend Mrs McQueen.

Mary Sharratt Less than three weeks before Sharratt sent this letter, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had begun moving his massive army into the Shenandoah Valley as

he prepared his second invasion of the North. This advance culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg. Not knowing Lee’s intentions, Union commanders had sent the First Rhode Island Cavalry, consisting of about 275 men, on a poorly conceived mission directly into the center of Lee’s army. Soon surrounded by overwhelming forces, the regiment was nearly annihilated in the little town of Middleburg, Virginia. After putting up a stout defense, the men were forced to scatter and run for their lives. Bliss led his company down a narrow road through the woods, hotly pursued by the enemy.

He was on a very slow horse he had borrowed and soon found himself at the rear of his unit as bullets whizzed by. He later wrote, “[I] saw I must soon be shot or be taken prisoner unless I did something for myself with great swiftness, so I just dashed off sideways into the woods, a tree swept me from the saddle and I stopped while the horse went on.” Expecting at any moment to be captured or killed, he lay there as the rush passed by. Bliss managed to hide himself and six of his men; they eventually escaped by “footing it through the rebel lines, over Bull Run Mountains.” The regiment suffered six dead, twenty wounded, and 170 captured.

This was the most severe battle of the war for the First Rhode Island Cavalry.31 Schenectady July 12th/63 Your letter reached me last Friday. I have often thought of you during these terrible battles and am very glad to hear of your safety. I should like to “write you a good long letter and tell you all the news” but unfortunately I am in the habit of writing 75

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very short letters (for a lady) and omitting the happenings, I will make this attempt however pray give me credit for the intention. I must tell you first about Mrs. Stevens. She has been very unfortunate – and has given up her house, and is spending the summer with some friends in Wisconsin. The old house is converted into a restaurant and the boarders scattered. Miss Duane my sister and myself are at Mrs Lannahill’s – you remember Miss Duane and you used to play chess! – I believe she always beat you – she has a photograph of you – and under it she has written your name – to refresh her memory I suppose – Mrs [Ella] Groot (Is she the one I said was “ Digie’ [?] all the way through.” I don’t believe I ever said so -­-­I pause while you explain –Oh!) is keeping house in New York – we write to each other sometimes – I shall be sure to tell her you remember her – she will be very glad to hear from you – Your friend Mr. Bradley is in the Army in a Brooklyn regiment – as a private – I had occasion to go and see your old land lady Mrs McQueen one day last week – she has moved in a nice new house in Union Street just above Fonda St. She was lamenting she had not answered your letter received last February – I don’t think of any one else to tell you about – There is Miss Mills whose name you at last recall – I think Mr. Bliss you have a sad memory to forget the names of your friends – I have half a mind to make you out a list – Miss Mills says you don’t forget “it is all affectation” I suppose when you come to Schenectady, (I hope it may be soon) you will meet me with – “I really have forgotten your name, altho’ I remember you perfectly.”

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Many thanks for the photographs. Miss Mills desires her regards and tells me I must scratch out “affectation” please consider this word erased. Hoping all good things for you -­Truly yours -­ Mary Sharratt –

Charlotte McQueen In August 1863, Bliss was assigned to “detached service” in New Haven, Connecticut. His primary role in New Haven was training new troops; while there, perhaps because he was a lawyer, he occasionally participated in courts-­martial. For nine months ending in May 1864, Bliss was in New Haven and not in the fighting.

[Schenectady, N. Y.] 25th Feb [1864] Capt Geo N Bliss I received your very welcome letter and was glad to hear that you were still on christian grounds and not in the heathen land of Dixie. I wish you could visit Old Dorp and see what wonderful progress we are making, the city is not finished yet and there is room for improvement still. But I will tell you all the news I can think of First. Mrs Stevens and family are well as well as our own. Miss Sharratt was here yesterday and Miss Mills. Miss Sharratt said I must send her tender regards to you she is boarding to Mrs. Lannahills where Lib Groot resides. I presume you have heard of her misfortune she has a child without any father, is that not too bad. A good many students were scart [scared] about that time. Hattie

George Bliss in the summer of 1862 in his uniform as a lieutenant.

Soon after this photograph, he was promoted to captain. (author’s collection)

Potter still holds her engagement with Will Gleason and flirts with any student that comes along. Pete is not married yet but is running an engine between Rochester and Buffalo; he has no notion for war and I am glad of it for I think they are rather car[e]less with their shooting down there. [I]t is a wonder they

have not hit you in some of their skirmishes. I think if they had about 6 good smart wimen [women] in the Cabinet they would plan and manage better than they do now, at any rate I do not think they would be so good. I think they would not let them off so easy by taking false oaths. I am going to Albany to the great Sanitary Fair I suppose it is worth seeing32 Doct Nott still lives and is likely to out live the whole faculty. Macy & Deremor [?] are still Tutors. The Students train just as bad as ever they did when you were here so it was not all Burgess [Arnold Burges].

Black Elisa has recovered from her fright and has got married. We have had a course of lectures here this winter. [H]ad all the smart men of the country and strang[e] to say were loyal to the back bone only one Copperhead lectured and they hissed him.33 John B Gough lectures next Monday evening.34 I hope you will hurry them up when you go back and get through with this war soon. I hope you will not forget to write when you go back for your letters are very interesting if you will write one on purpose I will have it put in the paper to let them [know] that you still live.

[N]ext time you are picking oranges just eat one for me.35 The weather is quite moderate here, we have had very cold weather this winter. Mary Button lives in Troy she has a nice little girl her sister lives with me her name is Hattie. She is smarter than Mary.

[S]he has lived with me 3 years. Hattie and Jennie are big girls.36 Hat is taller than I am. Mrs [Belle] Washburn is here to her fathers in the market I suppose she has a very nice boy named Albert Israel, she was down with his friends some time this summer. Mr McQueen says you must pitch in and see if 77

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you cant finish it up soon this time. Now write soon and never let it be so long again without hearing from. I worried as much as your mother. Goodbye from your true friend Mrs Mc.

Charlotte McQueen In early May 1864, Bliss left New Haven to rejoin his regiment in Belle Plain, Virginia. A month earlier, Ulysses Grant had been promoted to general-­in-­chief of all federal armies. Soon, the tempo of war picked up.

[Schenectady, N. Y.] May 26th [1864] Geo. Bliss Esq. I have been waiting to find something new to write but news seems very small here the best news is we are all well and also Mrs Stevens. She has gone in Barret St, to board. I got tired of having so many more children with mine. I see her often and think a great deal of her, she is a very nice woman indeed.

I saw Miss Sharrat walking out with a new Proffessor his name is Lamorouff. I believe she flirts with him a good deal. Proffessor Gillispee has taken him a rib [i.e. wife] in his old days her name was Miss Bates from N York she is very pretty.37 I do not know as you will get this letter, I hope you are not gone to the fronts, in the worst danger. I would like to know what our country will be good for after the men are all killed off. I do not believe they will stop on either side as long as there is a man left and then the women will have to rule [for] sure. Miss Lathrop has lost a brother in the warr under [General Nathan78

Letters from Home during the Civil War

iel P.] Banks she feels very bad. I believe the time is set for her and Hall to be married the last week in August. Dont you think he is foolish to marry any one so much older than himself? Pete is running between Rochester and Buffalo he has wanted to go down and run for the government between Nashville and Chatanoga but his Father did not thing [think] it best. [H]e has got over girl on the brain, he is very steady at his business. Please write very soon whether you are still at New Haven or whether you have gone down to meet the foe, I wish it might be soon finished up but the Lord only knows when it will. The rebs are good stuff I am sure, I believe it is Northern Traitors that hinders us more than we think. I had a letter from G F Sawyer he room[ed] with me with Hall and Burns he is Asst Engineer on board of the Lancaster he was at Panama when he wrote. Mr Mc Queen is getting most discour[a] ged about this ever coming to a close how many hearts are crushed and houses and families thrown in mourning from this awful war. Tell [David] Gerald we shall expect him up to the Convention Commencement. I hope you and Burgess [Burges] will come too, write as soon as you recieve this and ease our minds as regards your being in battle.

Yours in haste Mrs McQueen

Charlotte McQueen By late summer 1864, Bliss was commanding the Provost Guard of General Philip Sheridan’s army in the

Shenandoah Valley. Grant had ordered Sheridan to clear the valley of Jubal Early’s Confederate forces.

While the successful campaign was underway, Bliss led a charge of troops from another regiment against the formidable Fourth Virginia Black Horse Cavalry. As he crashed into the enemy columns, he discovered he was alone, the other Union troops having turned away.

Bliss sabered four Confederates, and while attempting to escape, his horse was shot and he was captured. Seriously wounded, he was hospitalized under guard in Charlottesville, Virginia. A few days before this letter, Bliss had been moved from the hospital to Libby Prison in Richmond, where he remained for four months. Charlotte McQueen had not yet learned of Bliss’s capture nearly a month earlier.

Back home, the presidential election of 1864 was well underway. Lincoln, a Republican, was running against the former commander of the Army of the Potomac, George McClellan, a Democrat. The election was not a sure thing for Lincoln, and at one point that summer, he had feared he would be beaten badly by McClellan.

[Schenectady, N. Y.] Oct 20th [1864] My Dear Friend and Soldier I have been waiting so long and thinking you would write if you was dead or not, that I finally decided to write again to venture. I hope this will finds you safe. I thought you would write when you got the paper I sent you perhaps it did not reach you. You must have been busy down in the Valley accerding to all accounts. I hope all your hard work has not been

for nought and we shall have to give up to the rebels at last as our Democrats wants to have us. I know you use to be a Democrat but I think the party now in existence is Democrat only in name not in principle. I write as though you were on the right side, of course knowing your good sense, take for granted you will not fight one way and vote another. I dread Election I think we shall have riots here we have more loyal rebels here than there can be south. It is pefictly awful the treason that stalks about our streets untouched. I wish we were allowed to shoot every one that comes out boldly for the rebels, they took a vote in Union College 12 proffessor for Lincoln and 2 for McClellan 123 students for Old Abe and 23 for Little Mac. I only hope there will be as much difference all over the country.38 I had a letter from Burns he is in the Treasury Department at Washington he is very confident for Old Abe. Miss Sharrat wishes always to be remembered to you. She is very devoted to her Proffessor, I am afraid he [is] more attentive to her than to his studies. We have some good Union Meetings here we have one tonight. Mrs Stevens is keeping house with her two little girls. I think Gerald might write me once in a while and let me know about you when he hears it. Must be an effort for you to write with all your inconviences. Doct Nott still breathes. The college is flourishing as well and our society you know the boys said I was an honarry member. They have taken in three this term Old Mrs Rosekrans and Mary always enquire for [you?] also Old Garry Van Vranken where you used to hold forth where you practiced the arts of war before you went down.39 79

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Write soon and tell all you can think of but do not tell me and you go for McClellen if you want to keep in my good graces.

We have seen your name in the paper since, think you must be a good soldier. I cut the piece out and if I can find it will send it but am afraid it is lost. Take good care and dodge the bullets for I want you to come back and tell some good yarns. I will remember you in my prayers is all I can do for you.

Mrs Mc Write soon for we feell anxious not knowing where you are.

Charles Bliss Charles Bliss (1841–1896), four years younger than Bliss, was born in Fall River, Massachusetts. When war broke out, he was working as a mechanic. He stood five-­foot-­seven and was recorded as having hazel eyes and dark hair. The month the war started, Charles Bliss joined the First Rhode Island Detached Militia and served until the unit was mustered out that August. He joined the First Rhode Island Cavalry, his brother’s regiment, in December 1861. Serving in Troop A, Charles Bliss got into trouble celebrating the Fourth of July 1862, when he burned down a Confederate building, and Bliss arranged for Charles Bliss to serve as a private in “my own company [Company C].”

Reports indicate that he served as “one of Genl Sheridan’s scouts.”40 On February 5, 1865, after almost five months of 80

Charles Bliss’s February 12, 1865, letter. George N. Bliss Papers, MSS 298, Box 1, Folder 37. RIHS Collections RHi X17 3956A

captivity, Bliss was paroled by the Confederates. In poor health, he was sent to a hospital in Annapolis, Maryland, on the grounds of the Naval Academy.

Camp 1st R I. Cavalry Near Winchester Va. Feb 12th 1865 Dear Brother I received your letter of Feb. 5th which you wrote the morning you left Richmond. Lt. Dewey said that he will send you a copy of all changes that have taken place since you left.41 When your letter come I was out on a [scouting expedition?] There is nine of us detailed at the Division H.Q. There is three of us that go out together. I got in last night I made a capture of one his name G. W. Dillinger he belongs to Carpenter’s Battery Baxton’s Battalion. He belongs to Middletown. He was home on a furlough but got home last Monday night. I took him on the road to Buck Ford. He was going over the river. I stayed down by the river that night about two miles from the ford so in the morning I came across the lots to strike this road and found him making for the river.

I told him that I would take him in out of the bad weather where he could have a house to him in. He thought that we must want men pretty bad to take them when they was home on a furlough. I told him them was just the ones that I was looking for. I took him to Middletown so he could see his folks that was the hottest kinds of Rebels. I spoke about him taking the oath the old man spoke up George you are my son never take the oath the old lady said never take 81

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it never take it. They thought that we would have to fight some yet before we whip them. When I go out I stay one night and one day. I go to Strasburg then we come down on the Front Royal road, went to White Post then in Camp. I go again tomorrow night. There is one more to home on a furlough that lives the other side of the river but he comes over this side pretty often. Last Thursday we had two of our scouts captured. One was killed before [he] would give up. The other one was taken across the river yesterday morning. There was of the rebels 7 to three. One of them got in. The boys all want you to come back right soon whether Major [Preston Farrington] shall come back again to his regt or not.42 The weather is cold out here just now snow is one foot on Alend [?] The rebels haven’t troubled our pickets this winter. Some of our scouts at the army H.Q. captured major Gilmore and six privates at the same time.43 When we are out we pass ourselves as rebels so we get all of the news we want. I have been out three times. There aren’t but three that go together that creep right outside all of the time so if [John] Mosby’s men should try to make a raid on the picket they would know it before they would get there. I received a letter from Father last night informing me of your arrival at Annapolis. I hope that I shant take the same trip but I am in a fair way for it now I shall fight some before they take me. The chestnut mare is in the company she looks about the same as she did before you took your trip. The rebel mare was turned over and condemned. I turned them over as your private horses, one saddle complete, four blankets. I sent some home With Winson 82

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[Gaskins].44 I see a rebel Leut after your capture.

He was with one of his staff officers. He said that he see you after we fell back. This staff officer spoke up said that you fought well. This Leut said that you laid them right and left for a while. There is one letter here for you that come last night. I will send all letters to Pawtucket till you tell me to stop sending them. I have sent all that come to Father I suppose that you have got them before this time. I am well and tuff as ever. The boys all want to know whether you are coming back or not, write often. I will write you again in a few days.

Yours Truly Charles Bliss Troop C 1st R I Cavalry

Charlotte McQueen Schenectady, [N. Y.] Feb 15th [1865] Geo N Bliss Esq I recieved your letter with surprise and with joy that you was rescued from those awful prisons. I do not see how human nature can endure one week in such misery instead of months. Who is to answer for all this I wonder? I think they will get their pay with interest some time or other. Mary and other D the E [?] say you must be sure and make us a visit and I hope you will come without fail. [W]e are all well and Mrs Stevens says she wants to see you very much. Miss Sharrat that was and her husband are boarding at a private house seem very happy. [T]hey say he is worth 60 or 70 thousand.

Doct Nott is still in the land of the living. [T] hings are about the same up the college. They have two new Proffessors Chandler has gone to New York and Lamourux [Wendell L’Amoreux] has resigned so he will have time to devote to his bride is that not sensible?45 I would like to have Burgess[Burges] and Gerald come with you and see us. Pete is home.

Part of the time he takes out new engines for the shop. [H]e has been to Missouri; now he has gone to Philedelphia with one, he is kept on the road most of the time so he does not have time to think of getting married. That cousin of Mr. McQueen that was captured has been home and is back again now on Miles Staff. [H]is name was Capt John McEwan.46 Now write soon and tell us some of your adventures and say whether you will come or not.

Mrs McQueen

Corporal Lawrence Cronan Corporal Cronan was from England. He enlisted in the First Rhode Island Cavalry in December 1862 and was wounded in June 1863 at the battle of Middleburg.

Bliss related a story about Cronan at Middleburg: “[A] rebel soldier demanded . . . the surrender of the guidon, a small swallow-­tailed United States flag which he carried as a company color, and being refused he sent a bullet through Cronan’s left arm and breast; but to the astonishment of the rebel, Cronan rode off with the flag as though nothing had happened . . . [He] was sent to the hospital in Washington, where he soon recovered from his wound, rejoined his regiment and served until

the end of the war.” Cronan served his entire 3½ years in Company C of the regiment.47 After his release from prison, Bliss had considered rejoining his regiment. However, he was still recovering at Annapolis in April when the war ended. He was mustered out of the army in mid-­May 1865.

H”d Qrts Cavalry Mid Mil Division Office Provost Marshal, Winchester Va March 22/65 Cap’t Bliss Dear Sir’ I have the honor to forward you this little communication. Capt the spring campaign is about to commence – and as you are an Officer and a true patriot – we the members of Co “C” want you at our head once more -­As old company “C,” Kept her honor during the Rebellion – I hope she will leave the service with the same.

What she cannot do except she gets back her former commander – Capt since you have been a prisoner in the hands of the Enemy I have been detailed with the Provost Marshal at Cavalry H. Qrts. but I would willingly go back to my Company if you were only with us to lead us to Victory-­ I have the honor to be Very Respectfully Your Obedient Servant Corporal Lawrence Cronan

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Letters from Home during the Civil War

NOTES 1. William C. Emerson and Elizabeth C. Stevens, eds., “Don’t tell father I have been shot at,” The Civil War Letters of Captain George N. Bliss, First Rhode Island Cavalry (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2018).

2. Ibid, 5–6.

3. Ibid, 6–8, 229, 235, 238.

4. Gary W. Gallagher, The American Civil War (The Great Courses, Chantilly, VA, 2000), 153, 184.

5. Gallagher, Civil War, 184.

6. Emerson and Stevens, eds., “Don’t tell father,” 13–14.

7. Henry S. Burrage, Brown University in the Civil War: A Memorial (Providence: Providence Press Co., 1868), 206–208.

8. “Pater famillias” was Latin for “head of the household, father of the family.” It can be written ‘pater familias’: perhaps the double l was a mistake.

9. In saying “you have so good a position,” Washburn may have been referring to Bliss’s rank in the army. He was a first lieutenant.

10. U. S. Census for the Fourth Ward, Schenectady, N. Y, 105; 1860 Schenectady Directory, 70.

11. “The Old Merrimac” was a reference to the Confederate ironclad ship Virginia, formerly the USS Merrimack, that wreaked havoc on March 8, 1862, destroying two Union warships. With the ship still at bay, there was still much alarm in the North. (David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, A Political, Social, and Military History [New York and London: W. W. Norton and Co., 2000], 1348).

12. The “2 boys there” were Bliss and his younger brother Charles, who in April 1861 had joined the army. See Charles Bliss’s letter below.

13. “DKE” was Bliss’s fraternity at Brown, KE (Delta Kappa Epsilon).

V

14. “Black Elisae” may be Elisa A. Wendell, a fifty-­nine-­year-­ old African-­American neighbor of the McQueens. (1855 New York State Census for Third Ward of Schenectady, New York).

15. “Capt Truax,” was Steven Truax, who served in the New York

84

18th Infantry Regiment during the war. He enrolled in the army at Schenectady in May 1861, at the age of fifty-­two, and was mustered as captain of Company E to serve two years. He resigned in December 1861 and was operating an ice cream parlor. (Annual Report of the Adjutant-­General of New York [Albany: James B. Lyon, 1900], 19: 1071; 1860 U. S. Census for the Fourth Ward, Schenectady, N. Y., 159; Schenectady Evening Star, November 13, 1889).

16. The “great battle at Yorktown” was fought in April and May 1862. It was part of General George McClellan’s failed Peninsula Campaign. (Heidler and Heidler, Encyclopedia of Civil War, 2163–166).

17. 1860 U. S. Federal Census for Schenectady, N.Y, 139; Henry Y. Brandt, compiler, Schenectady City and County Directory (Schenectady, N.Y.: Young & Graham, 1862), 89.

18. Bliss had been told of Sharratt’s move to “Mrs Lannahill” in Charlotte McQueen’s April 14, 1862, letter (above). He may have forgotten; it appears his letter to Sharratt was sent via “Mrs Stevens.”

19. This letter is on stationary with “Office of the Schenectady Locomotive Works, Schenectady, N. Y. John Ellis, Pres.t, Walter McQueen, Sup.t” printed at the top.

20. “Auty Yates” was Austin Yates, twenty-­six years old when he enrolled at Schenectady in August 1862. He mustered in as private in Company H, to serve three years. He was promoted to captain in September 1862. (Annual Report of the Adjutant-­General of New York, “One Hundred and Thirty-­Fourth Infantry Roster,” 37: 746.) Professor Elias Peissner was from Munich and taught German and political economy at Union College. He was mustered in as lieutenant colonel of the 119th New York Volunteers in August 1862, at age thirty-­five, to serve three years. Promoted to colonel a month after his muster, he was killed in action at Chancellorsville, Virginia, on May 2, 1863. (Graduate Council, Union College Alumni in the Civil War 1861–1865 [Schenectady: Union College, 1915], 5). Charles F. Lewis was eighteen years old when he joined the 119th New York Volunteers in August 1862 as a private. He was promoted to first lieutenant soon after and was wounded at Chancellorsville the same day his brother-­in-­law, Peissner, was killed there. Lewis eventually reached the rank of major in July 1864, the

same month he was discharged for disability. (Graduate Council, Union College Alumni in the Civil War, 80).

21. Bliss occasionally wrote to Gerald of a much-­anticipated “grand reunion in the old room” in Charlotte McQueen’s boarding house. The intended participants were to be Bliss, Gerald, Washburn, and Arnold Burges.

22. Circular and Catalogue of the Albany Female Academy (Albany: Sprague & Co., 1857), 14.

23. Emerson and Stevens, eds., “Don’t tell father,” 84, 91.

24. “Brother Jimmie” was James M. Rowan. He enlisted as a private in the 123rd New York Infantry in August 1862, at age twenty-­one, to serve three years. He was promoted to sergeant in September of the same year. Wounded in action at Culp’s [Kolb’s] Farm, Georgia, June 22, 1864, Rowan died of his wounds two days later. (1860 U. S. Federal Census for Argyle, Washington County, New York; Adjutant-­General of N. Y., 36: 464). Apparently, Bliss did not encounter Rowan before he was killed.

25. Bliss had been promoted to captain in July 1862.

26. “Bucklin” is likely Bliss’s friend George Bucklin. Bucklin was part of a social cohort in Seekonk/East Providence that included both Bliss and Gerald. Bucklin entered the army as a private in Company D of the Tenth Rhode Island Infantry in May 1862. His company, a three-­month unit, served at Fort DeRussey in the defense of Washington and was mustered out in September 1862.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant in Company F of the Twelfth Rhode Island Infantry in October 1862. Bucklin fought at Fredericksburg with his regiment in December and was singled out for special praise by the colonel. He was commissioned first lieutenant in June 1863 and served under Burnside in Kentucky.

In November 1863, Bucklin was commissioned a captain in the Fourteenth Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, an African American unit. Bucklin served at Fort Esperanza, Matagorda Island (Texas), in early 1864, when the regiment’s designation was changed by general order to the “Eleventh United States Heavy Artillery (Colored).” After the war, Bucklin lived on a cotton plantation in Florida for several years. He died in Long Beach, California, in 1918 and bequeathed $300,000 to the Boy Scouts of Rhode Island.

His grave monument is located in Newman Cemetery, East Prov-

idence, Rhode Island. (Representative Men and Old Families of Rhode Island, Genealogical Records and Historical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and of Many of the Old Families [Chicago: J. B. Beers Co., 1908], 2: 852; U.S. Federal Census for Seekonk, Massachusetts, 1860, 5; Pardon E. Tillinghast, et al., History of the Twelfth Regiment, Rhode Island Volunteers, in the Civil War, 1862-­1863 [Providence: Snow & Farnham, 1904], 323; William H. Chenery, The Fourteenth Regiment Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (Colored) in the War to Preserve the Union 1861-­1865 [Providence: Snow and Farnham 1898], 289; William Hamlin, “Consolidated List of Soldiers of Class subject to do military duty in the First Congressional District. . . , June, 1863,” 14; Pawtucket Gazette and Chronicle, September 25, 1863; Elisha Dyer, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations for the Year 1865. Corrected, Revised, and Republished in Two Volumes [Providence: E. L. Freeman & Son, 1895], 2: 589, 607).

27. Mary C__ was undoubtedly referring to General George McClellan’s victory at Antietam in September 1862.

28. Mary C__ must not have known that David Gerald was unable to join the army because his health was seriously compromised undoubtedly due to tuberculosis; he died of the disease six years after the war. Still, he occasionally considered military service, which Bliss discouraged. “I do not think you would live three months if you joined the army, I have seen hundreds of strong men broken down by the privations of the campaign . . . [U]nless a man is strong and healthy he is an incumbrance on his comrades . . . you should dismiss all thoughts of drawing the sword personally. Nothing could pain me more than to learn you had joined the army.”

(Emerson and Stevens, Don’t tell father, 81).

29. Washburn had become ill during the Mud March, when the Union Army got bogged down after the Battle of Fredericksburg; these two events caused Lincoln to dismiss General Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Washburn was “refused permission to go to a hospital.” Instead, the young captain was “taken to a private home” in Falmouth, Virginia, where he died of typhoid fever on January 20, 1863. Washburn’s father, a chaplain for the 12th Massachusetts volunteers, was with his son when he died and took his body for burial to Schenectady.

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Washburn’s funeral was held in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Schenectady. (David V. Gerald, “Albert Gardiner Washburn,” in Burrage, Brown University in the Civil War, 206–207; Union College Alumni in the Civil War, 59–60).

In 1870, a newspaper reported on a “Decental [sic, decennial] Reunion of the Class of 1860.” Of the 105 graduates in 1860, fourteen had since died. Washburn was mentioned; his plot in Vale Cemetery, in Schenectady, was as yet “unmarked by a monumental stone . . .” The class had received permission, the newspaper reported, “to erect a suitable memorial in token of their respect and esteem for a true class mate and a brave soldier. . .”

Bliss played a key role in the effort to build a monument. Washburn’s wife had written Bliss in June 1870, “You have not only my permission but also my sincere thanks for the kind thought which prompted you and the class to take this step [i.e., building a memorial].” (Article from unknown Schenectady newspaper, ca. summer 1870, and letter from Belle Washburne, dated June 14, 1870, both in the possession of Bliss descendants).

Their Lives During the Late War in Defence [sic] of our Nation, 1861-­ 1865 [Albany: S. R. Gray, 1867], 25–30, 36–37).

tation to come back into the Union they would say ‘see you dead first.’” (Bliss to Gerald, September 6, 1864).

33. A “copperhead” was a Northerner, usually a Democrat, who opposed the war and favored a negotiated peace. (Garrison, Encyclopedia of Usage, 55). The term “copperheads” was used by Republicans to discredit the Democratic opposition to the war; this opposition was characterized as dangerous, like the bite of the venomous copperhead snake.

39. “Mrs Rosekrans” was probably Lucinda Rosencrans. “Old Garry Van Vranken” may have been Gerret Van Vranken, who lived on the same block of Union Street in Schenectady as did the McQueens. (1864 Schenectady City Directory, 34, 56).

30. Doctor Eliphalet Nott (1773–1866) had been president of Union College for sixty-­two years. Despite his condition, Nott remained president of the college until his death in 1866. (Union College, Union College, 1795-­1895; A Record of the Commemoration, June Twenty-­first to the Twenty-­seventh, 1895, of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Founding of Union College [New York, 1897], 48, 59).

36. “Mary Button,” about twenty-­two years old, had been a “servant” at the McQueen residence. Her sister Hattie has not been identified. “Jennie” was McQueen’s daughter Jeannette, about fourteen years of age. (1860 U. S. Federal Census for Schenectady, N. Y., 105).

31. Emerson and Stevens, eds., “Don’t tell father,” 142–144.

32. The “Great Sanitary Fair,” also called the “Army Relief Bazaar,” was open in Albany during February and March 1864.

One of many held in cities around the northern states, the purpose was to raise money for the Sanitary Commission, the largest Union relief agency in the country. In Albany, a large building had been erected in Academy Park, “in the form of a double Greek cross, the eastern nave being one hundred and eighty-­nine feet long, the western nave one hundred and sixty feet long, and the transept two hundred and five feet long . . .” The fair featured booths representing England, Ireland, Scotland, and Russia, to name a few, and an “Indian wigwam . . . attended by ladies in regular aboriginal costume.” (Rufus W. Clark. D. D., Heroes of Albany: A Memorial of the Patriot-­Martyrs of the City and County of Albany, Who Sacrificed

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34. “John B Gough” (1817–1886) was a reformed alcoholic who became an ardent and successful temperance lecturer in the United States and Great Britain. (Francis S. Drake, Dictionary of American Biography: Including Men of the Time [Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co.1879], 872).

35. Bliss on occasion accompanied new troops being transported by ship to regiments in the South. In mid-­January 1864, he visited Florida and South Carolina. He must have written McQueen about the oranges there.

37. The two professors mentioned may have been Wendell Lamoroux, Union College class of 1844, professor of modern language at the time this letter was written, and William M. Gillespie, professor of civil engineering and mathematics. Gillespie taught at Union from 1845–1868. (Union College, Centennial Catalog, Dedication page, xii, xiii).

38. The Democratic platform called for an immediate armistice and convention to negotiate a resolution of the conflict. Before his capture, Bliss wrote Gerald, “We took a vote among the officers here . . . Lincoln 237, McClellan 32, Fremont 1; these officers represented 250 regiments . . .The enlisted men also took a vote, the result was Lincoln 309, Mac 47, Fremont 5 . . .There is no doubt in my mind that the army vote will be almost unanimous for Lincoln . . . Soldiers do not believe in an armistice or a convention, they believe the South would take advantage of it to put everything in good shape for war and that then in response to an invi-

40. Charles Bliss served “4 years, 4 months, and 5 days,” or until August 1865, surpassing the length of service of his brother George, who served “3 years, 7 months, and 25 days.” In later life, Charles Bliss was a machinist in Pawtucket. (Bliss, Genealogy, 561). In 1895, he developed “dementia,” perhaps due to kidney and heart problems, and was unable to work or care for himself.

He was confined to the state insane asylum in Howard, a settlement in Cranston, Rhode Island, for about a year until he died in 1896. During Charles Bliss’s period of debility, George Bliss served as his guardian and caretaker of his affairs. Charles Bliss is buried at Walnut Hill Cemetery in Pawtucket.

41. In December 1864, the regiment, down to about 400 men, was formed into a single battalion of four troops. George Bliss, who by that time was in Libby Prison, was named captain of the “re-­ organized” C Troop, and Joseph E. Dewey became first lieutenant.

Dewey, from Hanover, New Hampshire, was relatively new, having joined the regiment as first lieutenant of G Troop in November, 1864, before the reorganization. He was “discharged” in February 1865. (Frederic Denison. Sabres and Spurs: The First Regiment Rhode Island Cavalry in the Civil War, 1861-­1865. Its Origin, Marches, Scouts, Skirmishes, Raids, Battles, Sufferings, Victories, and Appropriate Official Papers; With the Roll of Honor and Roll of the Regiment [Providence: The First Rhode Island Cavalry Veterans Association], 1876; 428–29, 579).

cavalry regiments, were sent out to scour the country for guerrillas, who were harassing our lines. Having marched one hundred and sixty miles in fifty-­five hours, they brought in as captives the noted guerrilla chief, Harry Gilmor, and twenty of his associates, with about a hundred horses.” (Denison, Sabres and Spurs, 433).

44. George Bliss often had more than one horse with him in army service. The “chestnut mare” and the “rebel mare” that was “condemned” were apparently two such horses. “Winson” was Winson Gaskin, George Bliss’s African American servant and groom at the time Bliss was captured by Confederates in September 1864. At Bliss’s request, Gaskin had been sent to live with David Gerald in East Providence.

45. Charles F. Chandler, PhD, had been the “Nott Prof. (No. 3), of Analytical Chemistry; and Curator of the Museum,” at Union College. (1864 Schenectady City Directory, 90).

46. Captain John McEwan was advocate on the staff of General Nelson A. Miles, who was in command of the First Division Second Army Corps as brevet major U. S. Volunteers. (United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, 47: 684).

47. George N. Bliss, Reminiscences of Service in the First Rhode Island Cavalry (Providence, RI: Sidney S. Rider, 1878), 20, 21; Denison, Sabres and Spurs, 237, 500.

42. Major Preston Farrington had recently been in command of the regiment. An excellent and fearless soldier, Bliss had once described him as “the bravest officer I ever saw.” Farrington did not return to the regiment. He was mustered out the previous December after serving three years. (Emerson and Stevens, eds., “Don’t tell father,” 145).

43. In his history of the regiment, Frederic Denison wrote, “On February 5, 1865 Sheridan’s scouts, with detachments from the

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EMMA GEORGE

Collections Spotlight Performing Arts

The Rhode Island Historical Society’s holdings of primary sources related to the performing arts and works of scholarship on performing arts history in Rhode Island are extensive. The sources highlighted here focus on music, theater, and dance—from tickets and playbills to posters and advertisements, as well as extensive manuscript records. The diaries, correspondence, ephemera, newspapers, business records, and creative works in the RIHS’s collections span three centuries and are a rich resource for cultural historians.

Theater The first professional performances of theater in Rhode Island were advertised in Newport in 1761, and in Providence in 1762, and featured music (vocal and instrumental), a tragedy, and a pastoral farce, all in one night! On July 19, 1762, it was resolved at a Providence town meeting that an act should be passed by the General Assembly to prohibit the performance of theater in Rhode Island. A citizens’ petition entreated them to “make some effectual law to prevent any stage-­plays, comedies, or theatrical performances being acted in this Colony for the future,” decrying them as “expensive amusements and idle diversions.” In August, the act was adopted. Fines were levied against anyone who wished to rent performance spaces.

The Providence Gazette reveals early Rhode Islanders’ tastes in theater and describes a 1769 performance Opposite: Providence Theatre playbill, printed in Providence on September 7, 1808. RIHS Collections RHi X17 4094

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of The Beggar’s Opera, performed to circumvent anti-­ theatrical laws by one man (famed for having “read and sung in most of the great Towns in America”).

As the Revolution unfolded, theaters were a controversial issue and were banned entirely in 1774 by the Continental Congress, which felt that playgoing (like cockfighting and horse racing) had to be discouraged as a “species of extravagance and dissipation.” After the Revolution, correspondence reveals a growing resistance to bans on theater in the 1790s. In the Jeremiah Olney papers, a two-­page letter that Olney signs “An Old Soldier” castigates “the pretended Guardians of the Peoples morals” who mistakenly believe “that all the immoralities, vices, and follies of the Inhabitants of Providence flow from the Theater.” The 1796 diary of Sarah Brown (in the Herreshoff-­Lewis family papers) reveals her theatrical tastes and admiration for celebrity performers, particularly her “favorite Mrs S Powel” [this would have been Mrs. Snelling Powell (née Harrison, 1774–1843), an English actress who made her American debut in Boston in 1794 as Miss Ogle in The Belle’s Stratagem]. Brown quotes her favorite plays, details her attendance at the theater, and remarks that “every time I see this Charming woman my esteem & admiration is increased.”

Greater in number than their eighteenth-­century counterparts, sources from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries further reveal Rhode Islanders’ relationships to the performing arts—and include both amateur and professional creative work. In the papers of the merchant (and playwright) Albert N. Brown are manuscript copies of incomplete plays from between 89

Rhode Island History

Ball at Nathaniel Mowry’s, 18 March 1825. Ephemera Collection: G 1173, Box 4: Invitations, Socials, Balls & Dances. RHi X17 3986

1890 and 1920, as well as fragments of poetry and summaries of plays Brown never began.

The theater-­programs collection contains hundreds of programs from theaters including the Academy of Music, the E. F. Albee Theatre, the Barker Playhouse, Pawtucket’s Bijou Theatre, the Trinity Repertory Theater, the Pawtucket Music Hall, Matunuck’s Theater-­by-­the-­Sea, and the Providence Opera House. While the majority of eighteenth-­, nineteenth-­, and twentieth-­century theater was based in Providence, theater in Warwick, Pawtucket, and other Rhode Island locations also are represented. A particularly extensive group comprises hundreds of early twentieth-­century programs from B. F. Keith’s Vaudeville theater in Providence, which includes playbills for everything from Bernard Shaw’s works, to séances, to “Comedy equilibrists.”

Another group are programs of the Sans Souci Gardens, documenting performances from 1879–1891.

Best known for a performance of H. M. S. Pinafore performed in water on an actual ship constructed for the show, the Sans Souci Gardens occupied a central place in Rhode Islanders’ memories of theater history long after its closure, especially in the ways in which it made use of new technologies.

Personal papers, like those of vaudeville performers the McMahon Sisters of Pawtucket and theater impresario Edward M. Fay, also contain notable ephemera.

In addition to membership cards, telegrams, letters, and contracts, the McMahon Sisters’ papers contain programs from their performances between 1914 and 1924 across the United States and Canada. Similarly, the Fay Theatre Records include theatrical ephemera,

in addition to business records, containing programs and newspaper clippings.

Besides playbills and posters, theater tickets are ubiquitous in the RIHS’s collections of ephemera, including those to vaudeville shows, traditional plays, variety performances, tableaus, Shakespeare, and programs with titles such as “Most Amusing Scenes in Mesmerism and Psychology.” Amateur and university productions unlikely to have been publicized on a large scale also are represented, e.g., a printed copy of an 1894 play, PRISCILLA; or, A Maid of Brown, written by students in Brown University’s Hammer and Tongs Society.

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Music Spanning three centuries, music-­related sources include manuscript and printed sheet music and librettos, ephemera (programs, tickets, etc.), correspondence, and the archives of several musical societies.

The Rhode Island Sheet Music Collection features in more than 200 items the works of Rhode Island composers of various eras and styles, from published composers to instrumentalists. Examples are the sheet music collection of Thomas C. Kenyon and the vocal and instrumental music of Oliver Shaw, often described as one of the first “American” composers.

Bound and printed scores from the mid-­1830s include Shaw’s vocal music, arranged for both choral and solo performances and drawing on a variety of sacred and secular texts. In addition to Shaw’s compositions, these music collections feature traditional and popular ballads and arias (with bilingual texts included) from popular operas of the day, providing insight into

the materials demanded by professional and amateur Rhode Island performers and their audiences.

In nineteenth-­century Rhode Island, musical societies began to flourish. Among them was Oliver Shaw’s Psallonian Society, dedicated to the performance of sacred music and established several years before the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston. Choral performance groups like the Psallonian Society were the descendants of eighteenth-­century singing schools, which, along with the itinerant singing masters who organized them, had become significant parts of New England community life. Shaw’s group performed both well-­known classical works and his own compositions, many of which survive in the RIHS’s collections of manuscript and printed scores. The collections of a second musical society—the Aeolian Society of Providence—are held by the RIHS, in the John R. Bartlett papers. An 1826 manuscript collection of popular tunes, arranged Bartlett for the society’s clarinet per-

formances, includes transcriptions of marches, popular dance tunes, and folk tunes. The Schubert Club (1915–83) is another example of a society dedicated to the performance, promotion, and appreciation of music.

The Herreshoff Music Collection includes mostly English and American music dating between 1790 and 1845, collected or copied by members of the Herreshoff family, many of whom were amateur musicians.

It includes bound instrumental and vocal scores and anthologies, in addition to manuscript copies and amateur compositions in manuscript by family members. Composers including Mozart, Haydn, Donizetti, Arne, and Strauss are present, as well as the music of Oliver Shaw, excerpts from popular Anglo-­American comic and ballad operas, minstrel songs, political and patriotic songs, and songs notable for their links to American history, such as “a favorite Sonnet composed by Major Andre.”

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Rhode Island History

Though fewer in number, songs in the RIHS collections copied in manuscript also survive from the eighteenth century. Examples include the 1775 “A New Song on Liberty” and a transcription of “The Rhode Island March as played by the RI Continental Regiments during the Revolutionary War,” likely from the 1780s or 1790s.

Above: William H. Hall comment cards. Ephemera Collection: G 1173, Box 5: Tickets, Balls & Formal Dances. RHi X17 3987

Dance Dance materials are generally related to performance, teaching, and social life. A pamphlet from 1788, printed in Providence at Shakespeare’s Head by the dancing master John Griffiths, includes the figures to various dances popular in the late eighteenth century. In 1989, Charles Cyril Hendrickson reconstructed, transcribed, and interpreted the tunes and figures featured in Griffiths’ collection; other printed dance manuals in the RIHS’s collections could serve as avenues for similar research into Early American dance and music history.

Early Federal-­era receipts from Newport reveal the social value of an education in dance, detailing Dr. Isaac Senter’s 1789 and 1790 payments to a teacher who “[promised] to School his Children” in his “Dancing School” for “four Spanish Mill’d Dollars.” Dance in eighteenth-­and early nineteenth-­century Providence is represented in newspaper advertisements for performances, schools, and social dances, such as those published in the Providence Gazette. Dancing masters and dancing schools used newspapers to market their programs to parents, and advertised social dances and performances. Visiting ballet companies and other itinerant groups also advertised in the paper.

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opposite: “New Song on Liberty” ca. 1776. Manuscript Collection: MSS 9001-N Box 1. RHi X17 3985

Tickets, dance cards, and invitations evoke the balls, masquerades, and commemorative dances enjoyed by Rhode Islanders over three centuries and include an 1852 ticket to the Warren Artillery Company’s Military and Civic Ball, an 1870 “Ladies’ Ticket” to a Liederkranz Masuqerade Ball at Harrington’s Opera House, and a 1924 Armistice Day Dance at Rhodes-­on-­the-­Pawtuxet.

Dance cards indicate the importance of social dance.

Small and well preserved, many are ornate, printed on high-­quality paper using colorful ink and adorned with ribbons and decorative miniature pencils. The earliest was issued for an 1851 Independence Day Concert-­ Ball-­Supper. An 1883 card for the Grand Calico Social in Manville, Rhode Island is printed on a piece of calico fabric. Two from 1901 and 1906 combine dance cards with programs for vocal and instrumental performances—to be followed by social dancing.

Finally, invitations survive from events such as the

Broadsides and the Performing Arts The RIHS’s collection of broadsides proves an invaluable resource for examining the role of the performing arts in the popular culture of eighteenth-­and nineteenth-­century Rhode Island. Some feature advertisements for products and retailers, including “Clapp & Cory, Dealers in All Kinds of Musical Instruments” (1858), while others describe news events (such as the 1824 “Reception of [General] Lafayette in Provi94

dence”) that featured musical performances. Broadside ballads, which were meant to be sung publicly as much as read, could provide musical commentary on politics and on current events (“Democratic Songs . . .

Espousing the cause of Thomas Wilson Dorr,” 1842), and could commemorate events in Rhode Island and U.S. history (“Settlement of Rhode Island,” 1868).

A 1762 broadside from the collection dates back to the beginning of Rhode Island’s theatrical history— and to a period where the performance of theater was widely perceived to be incompatible with public morality and religious life. Published in the same year that a law was passed prohibiting theatrical performances in Rhode Island, the broadside advertises a performance by David Douglass’s troupe of actors, who had arrived in America in 1758. In 1762, despite the authorities’ opposition to theatrical performance, Douglass and his company traveled to Providence. They established a Meeting Street “school house” that summer

to serve as a performance venue, though it was nearly destroyed by a mob. Theatrical performances around New England in this period were notable for the ways in which they were advertised—their organizers were unable to bill them as stage plays. Instead they advertised “moral lectures,” or “dialogues,” and were unable to perform in actual theaters, with large companies, or using extensive sets, props, and costumes.

The development of Rhode Island’s multifaceted musical life and its growth in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are similarly reflected in broadsides.

From an “American Independence Hymn and Ode” published in 1809, to 1816’s “Hymns to be sung at the dedication of the First Congregational Church,” broadsides advertise musical performances of every kind. Ballads explicitly linked the performing arts to politics. From 1772’s “A New Song, called the Gaspee” to 1863’s “Political Opera as Performed by the Candidates of the Loyal Manufacturers Party.”

Providence Theatre. Strakosh Grand Italian Opera, La Traviate, 11 October 1858. Broadside Collection: G 1157, Broadsides: 1858, No.1. RHi X17 3988

1871 Bachelors’ Ball at Infantry Hall and the 1883 Grand Calico Dress Ball. The earliest invitation dates from 1825 (“THE COMPANY OF Russell Procter. . . is requested to attend a Ball, at NATHANIEL MOWRY’S, on Friday, the 18th instant, at 4 o’clock . . .

Smithfield, March 14, 1825”), while the latest invites a guest to the 1955 “Breakers Ball . . . for the benefit of The Preservation Society of Newport County.”

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Books on Rhode Island History Recently Published

DeSimone, Russell J., ed. “Fighting Bob” Quinn: Political Reformer and People’s Advocate. Providence, RI: The Rhode Island Publications Society, 2020.

Desmarais, Norman, ed. The French Campaigns in the American Revolution, 1780–1783: The Diary of Count of Lauberdière, General Rochambeau’s Nephew and Aide-de-Camp. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2020. [Includes descriptions of the French army’s camp in Newport, Rhode Island.]

Desrosiers, Marian Mathison. The Banisters of Rhode Island in the American Revolution: Liberty and the Costs of Loyalties. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2020.

Falino, Jeannine J. The Newport Experience: Sustaining Historic Preservation into the 21st Century. New York, NY: Scala Arts Publishers in association with the Preservation Society of Newport County, 2020.

Ferguson, Cynthia Comery. Gleanings from Rhode Island Town Records: Barrington, Massachusetts, Town Meetings, 1718–1744. Hope, RI: Rhode Island Genealogical Society, 2020.

Geake, Robert A., Marilyn Harris, Janet Hatch, Rachel Pierce, and Margaret Skenyon. The Women of Cocumscussoc: A Cocumscussoc Reader Volume 2.

North Kingstown, RI: rifootprintspress, 2020).

Grandchamp, Robert. Rhode Island’s Civil War Dead: A Complete Roster. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2019.

Ocasio, Rafael. A Bristol, Rhode Island, and Mantanzas, Cuba, Slavery Connection: The Diary of George Howe. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019.

Verde, Tom. In a Class All Their Own: Unique and Historic Boats of New England. Lanham, MD: Globe Pequot, 2020. [Drawn from articles written for the Westerly Sun newspaper during the summers of 2014 and 2015.]

Williams, Roger. A Key Into the Language of America: The Tomaquag Museum Edition. Dawn Dove, Sandra Robinson, Lorén Spears, Dorothy Herman Papp, and Kathleen Bragdon, editors. Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2019.

outer covers: Howard Hall was Providence’s most celebrated place of public assembly from 1848 (when its first iteration was built) until around 1870. It was finally razed in 1956. According to a Providence Journal writer in 1957, “Entertainers, speakers, musicians, politicians, travelers and soul savers of assorted ranks and fame appeared on the various stages. Even as the third Howard Building was being taken down last fall brick by brick, it was possible to read over the Westminster Street entrance the words ‘Howard Hall’ incised in stone, a memento of the days when Charles Dickens and Jenny Lind thrilled the growing city of Providence.”

inside covers: “A View of Providence in 1808, From Federal Hill. Drawn from a Scene painted on an Old Drop Curtain, by Worrall, of Boston, and used from 1811 to 1832 in the Old Providence Theatre, which formerly stood on the present site of Grace Church.” Hand-colored engraving taken out of Welcome Arnold Greene’s The Providence Plantations for Two Hundred and Fifty Years. Providence: Reid, 1886, 69. RIHS Collections RHiX17 3688.

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