The boys of '61; or, Four years of fighting. Personal observation with the army and navy, from the first battle of Bull run to the fall of Richmond (1884) (14589622998)

Identifier: boysof61orfoury00coff (find matches)
Title: The boys of '61; or, Four years of fighting. Personal observation with the army and navy, from the first battle of Bull run to the fall of Richmond
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Coffin, Charles Carleton, 1823-1896
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, Estes and Lauriat
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries



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the house of a caterer who for-merly had provided sumptuous dinners for the Charlestonians.He was a mulatto, and well understood his art; for, notwith-standing the scarcity of provisions in the city, he was able toprovide an excellent entertainment, set off with canned fruits,which had been put up in England, and had run the gauntletof the blockade. Sentiments were offered and speeches made, which in otherdays would have been called incendiary. Five years before ifthey had been uttered there the speakers would have made theacquaintance of Judge Lynch, and been treated to a gratuitouscoat of tar and feathers, or received some such chivalric atten-tion, if they had not dangled from a lamp-post or the nearesttree. Lloyds Concert Band, colored musicians, were in at-endance, and Hail Columbia, the Star-Spangled Banner,lnd Yankee Doodle — songs which had not been heard for ars in that city, — were sung with enthusiasm. To standea,re, with open doors and windows, and speak freely without
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1865.) CHARLESTON. 481 fear of mob violence, was worth all the precious boon hadcost, — to feel that our words, our actions, our thoughts even,were not subject to the misinterpretation of irresponsible in-quisitors, — that we were not under Venetian espionage, butin free America, answerable to God alone for our thoughts,and to no man for our actions, so long as they did not in-fringe the rights of others. Henceforth there shall be free speech in Charleston. Aparty of twenty gentlemen began the new era on the 22d ofFebruary, and to me it will ever be a pleasant reflection that1 was one of the privileged number. Whilo dining we heard the sound of drums and a chorusof voices. Looking down the broad avenue we saw a columnof troops advancing with steady step and even ranks. It wasnearly sunset, and their bayonets were gleaming in the levelrays. It was General Potters brigade, led by the Fifty-FifthMassachusetts, — a regiment recruited from the ranks ofslavery. Sharp and shrill the no