| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://www.archive.org/details/diarycivilwar01gurouoft |
| Transcriber's Note |
| Obvious printer's errors have been corrected. Hyphenation and accentuation have been standardised. All other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been retained. |
BY
BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD,
SUCCESSORS TO PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO.
1862.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by
LEE AND SHEPARD,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District ofMassachusetts.
Dedicated
TO
THE WIDOWED WIVES, THE BEREAVED MOTHERS, SISTERS,
SWEETHEARTS, AND ORPHANS
IN
THE LOYAL STATES.
On doit à son pays sa fortune, sa vie, mais avant tout la Vérité.
In this Diary I recorded what I heard and saw myself, and what I heardfrom others, on whose veracity I can implicitly rely.
I recorded impressions as immediately as I felt them. A life almostwholly spent in the tempests and among the breakers of our times hastaught me that the first impressions are the purest and the best.
If they ever peruse these pages, my friends and acquaintances willfind therein what, during these horrible national trials, was asubject of our confidential conversations and discussions, what inletters and by mouth was a subject of repeated forebodings andwarnings. Perhaps these pages may in some way explain a phenomenonalmost unexampled in history,—that twenty millions of people, brave,highly intelligent, and mastering all the wealth of moderncivilization, were, if not virtually overpowered, at least so longkept at bay by about five millions of rebels.
GUROWSKI.
Washington, November, 1862.
MARCH, 1861.
Inauguration day — The message — Scott watching at the door of the Union — The Cabinet born — The Seward and Chase struggle — The New York radicals triumph — The treason spreads — The Cabinet pays old party debts — The diplomats confounded — Poor Senators! — Sumner is like a hare tracked by hounds — Chase in favor of recognizing the revolted States — Blunted axes — Blair demands action, brave fellow! — The