off for a ball. Alf called in and we walked back together.
Talk of next May, and our proposed vagabondize. Finished letter
for home. Very unwell and low spirited.
{27th Wednesday. Each day, and night, save Thursday at the Office,
28 Thursday working like a fiend. Elevations finished, and
29. Friday.} big perspective commenced. Very weary work, and
when I woke up at night from unrefreshing sleep my mind would be
dwelling on corinthian capitals and anticipating over sleeping myself in
the morning. During the evenings young Anderson kept me com
pany. Tuesday, on coming in to tea was told that a Mr
Barth had called, and would again in a few minutes. And so it
was Five years gone, since in that glorious August evening I saw
the last of him, his face leaning over the sides of the Quebec, off
Gravesend. Strangely has the space been passed by him; much he
talks of marchings and countermarchings; of Old Zach and Scott,
of the taking of Mexico, of slaughtering dagos, of bivouacking, of
lying on the cold wet earth with nought twixt himself and God
but a blanket and the like. Divers stories did he tell and many
of them good. How after the taking of Mexico, he, kenning but
little Spanish, would judge of words by their sounds, and in an instance
a comical result ensued. Entering a barbers, having had the
operation of shaving scientifically performed, the operator refusing renume-
ration, Barth must needs invite him to imbibation, to the which
end they sallied out together. Passing along the street bottles are
seen in a window; Barth intimates the same, and spite
of some depreciatory remarks, induces the Mambrino manipu-
lator to enter. Glasses of anisetta are called for
the bar-keeper (?) somewhat astonished, produces a liquid| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Two: page sixteen |
| Description: | Discusses a visit from William Barth and hearing Barth's stories of the Mexican War. |
| Date: | 1850-11-26 |
| Subject: | Anderson, Fred; Architectural drawing; Barbers; Bars (Drinking establishments); Barth, William; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Mexican War; Military; Scott, Winfield; Taylor, Zachary; Waud, Alfred |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York]; Mexico |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-07 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Two |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of Gunn's attempts to find drawing work among New York publishers, brief employment in an architectural office, visits to his soldier friend William Barth on Governors Island, boarding house living, drawing at actor Edwin Forrest's home at Fonthill Castle, and sailing and walking trips taken with friends. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Books and reading; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Military; Publishers and publishing; Religion; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2011 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
