No Mean City - the free bibliography

So there I was, writing about the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War (though the story of Fernando Wood has obvious parallels to our modern world...), when all of a sudden we got involved in the Libyan Civil War, then killed Osama bin Laden. (Even this post is one I started a month ago.)

So one of these days I'll wrap up this saga, but below you'll some Civil War reading that won't cost you even a greenback, it's that part of the source material available free online. One of the more interesting (in my humble opinion) is the Whitman book, with several of Walt's short works on the war. (He was there - he'd be a milblogger today.) If you want something they really don't teach you in history class (albeit not only about the Civil War), try Headley's Great Riots. For something less violent, Haswell's Reminiscences.

If you're one of those people who doesn't like free books (or old books - even e-versions without that old musty smell), some of the more recent (as in not public domain) source material can be found here. The rest is below.

Prologue:

A Sesquicentennial moment
Here's how I know that big word: back when I was a kid my home state celebrated 150 years of statehood, a sesquicentennial. Some stuff you learn when you're a kid stays with you a long time. You might see that word more often in the near future, as we observe (unless we ignore) anniversaries like this one...

To go for a soldier
Judge Leander Stillwell was only 64 years old when he retired from the bench... A few years later he compiled his memoirs - not of his years on the bench, but rather of his youthful experiences as an enlisted soldier during the Civil War.

• Leander Stillwell, The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865, 2nd ed., 1920

Part One: No Mean City

The tale of Fernando and Abraham
"One hundred and fifty years and one day later," the New York Times reported from Montgomery earlier this week, "the South did it again." Now don't panic, dear Gotham readers - here's all that the yokels were up to...

• Walt Whitman, "Death of Abraham Lincoln," Specimen Days and Collect, 1882
• Fernando Wood, Mayor: Recommendation of the Secession of New York City (text of speech delivered January 6, 1861)
• John T. Headley, The Great Riots of New York, 1873
• "When the Band Played Dixie" The New York Times, August 11, 1907
• E. Hutchinson, "a citizen of New York," A Model Mayor: Early life, congressional career, and triumphant municipal administration of Hon. Fernando Wood, 1855
• Xavier Donald Mac Leod, Biography of Hon. Fernando Wood, Mayor of the City of New-York, 1856

No Mean City
"Then will a New Yorker be proud of his citizenship in this metropolis; it will bear him honorable reception throughout all civilized lands, for he can say with Paul of Tarsus, 'I am a citizen of no mean city'". ... His honor chose an interesting line of scripture to illustrate his vision for the city's future. Though his actual call for secession from the Union was still five years away, some of his listeners might have caught an air of sedition in the comparison to a free city of the Roman Empire...

• Mayor Fernando Wood, Annual Message, as reported by the New York Times, January 8, 1856
• Republicans at Cooper Institute.; Address by Hon. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. Remarks of Messrs. Wm. Cullen Bryant, Horace Greeley, Gen. Nye and J.A. Briggs. Speech of Wm. Cullen Bryant. Speech of Mr. Lincoln, New York Times, February 28, 1860
• Francis Curtis, The Republican Party: a history of its fifty years' existence and a record of its Measures and Leaders, 1854-1904, Vol. II, 1904
• William C. Gover, The Tammany Hall Democracy of the City of New York, 1875
• Daniel Van Pelt, Leslie's History of the Greater New York, Vol. 1, 1898
• Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855
• Gov. Seward in the Metropolis ... Attacks upon the Wide-Awakes New York Times, November 3, 1860
• Abijah Ingraham, A Biography of Fernando Wood: A history of the forgeries, perjuries, and other crimes of our "model" mayor, 1856
• Alex Crawford Chenowith, History of the Founding of Central Park, Letter to the New York Times, November 30, 1903

Part Two: Dangerous Visions

A Grim Forecast for New York City
The complete election reports have now been received. As anticipated, California, Oregon, Washington, and also Sonora (the new Pacific free state, formed of territory last purchased from Mexico) all have voted the ticket of the Republican party--as called by its members, or the Black Republican, or Abolition party, as designated by its opponents. William H. Seward of New York, is elected by a much greater majority than his predecessor, President Lincoln, obtained in 1860.

• Edmund Ruffin, Anticipations for the Future, to Serve as Lessons for the Present Time, June, 1860
• Ulysses S. Grant Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, 1885
• William T. Sherman, Memoirs of General William T Sherman, 1875
• Alexander Morrison Stewart, Camp, march and battlefield: or, Three years and a half with the Army of the Potomac, 1865

The View from Park Row
Having heard from those who for months prior to the 1860 elections were anticipating (perhaps even preparing for) secession and civil war - it's appropriate to acknowledge that theirs wasn't a universal view. There are other historical records.

• Charles Haynes Haswell, Reminiscences of an octogenarian of the city of New York (1816 to 1860), 1896
• William Leete Stone, History of New York city: from the discovery to the present day, 1868
• The Day After Election New York Times, November 8, 1860

Gunrunners (and other government officials)

• (Work in-progress)

The End of Edmund Ruffin
Mostly forgotten now, Virginian Edmund Ruffin - the man who forecast the Civil War - became an urban legend in his own time. Seventy-four years old at the outbreak of the war, he was lionized in the South - credited with firing the first shot at Ft Sumter and the critical shot that turned Union retreat into a rout at Bull Run... arguably, he fired the final shot of the Civil War, too...
The less imaginative will always deal with the ashes, and build anew.


Part Three: No Mean City (2)

Of Swords and Peace
March 4, 1861 was a windy day in Washington; the wind provided the only sound as the crowd gathered before the still under-construction capitol building quieted, straining to hear the words of the man they'd come to see inaugurated as president, Abraham Lincoln, of late from far west Illinois.
As he turned to face them, the same wind rustled the pages on which he'd composed his inaugural address.

Honor the Brave
He was more than just a model mayor - he was the model for every aspiring Democrat politician who followed him: "In 1849, at the age of thirty-seven, Wood retired from active business and entered a profession. Or to be precise, he created a profession, the science of politics." Others have refined it since, but few have done anything he didn't do first.

• The Week: The late revolt against the Boss, The Nation, Vol 27/No. 697, Nov 7, 1878
• "Never Before Published Letters of Famous General Worth", New York TImes, July 16, 1916
• "The Obsequies of General Worth; Imposing Procession. Dedication of the Worth Monument. Address of Mayor Wood." New York Times, Nov 26, 1857
• Euphemia Vale Blake, History of the Tammany Society; or, Columbian order from its organization to the present time, 1901

A Night at the Opera
"The speeches, the delegations, the hand-shakings, the serenades, need not be recounted," said Lincoln aid John G. Nicolay regarding Mr Lincoln's visit to New York; "it will suffice to reprint the description of the visit of the President-elect to the Academy of Music while the first act of the Opera 'The Masked Ball' was in progress."

No Mean City (2)

• (Work in-progress)