164
Return to New York City,
stars and moon overhead. All day the vessel
rolled from side to side, with a long uneasy
motion very uneasy, I should say, to those
prone to sea-sickness. Scribbled up diary,
idled, took cigars on deck. Four passengers
grouped near the chimney-pipe talking Secession
found it not interesting or novel. Turned
in by 9. And thus passed my thirty-fifth
birthday. I knew Hannah had prayed for
me and that I was thought of at home, lit-
tle imagining where I might be, and I hoped
God might let me get back to them someday.
16. Saturday. Fine weather, but colder.
Making good progress northwards. Talk with
a young Trojan (N.Y.) of Southern proclivi-
ties. Loafing, packing up &c. By 7 P.M.
we reached New York, when it was cold enough,
with ice-flakes in the river. Half-an-hour s
disembarkation with a rain-accompaniment.
In carriage with three fellow-passengers, one
a woman, who all got out at the Astor House,
I kept on to Bleecker. It was a beastly,
drenching night, but how glad and familiar
Broadway seemed to me! how curious it was
to feel in perfect safety! to have no secret
consciousness of being in indefinite peril! Ar-| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Fifteen: page one hundred and seventy-five |
| Description: | Describes his journey back to New York by ship from Charleston. |
| Date: | 1861-02-15 |
| Subject: | Bennett, Hannah; Birthdays; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Ocean travel; Travel |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, [New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | Bleecker; Broadway |
| Scan Date: | 2010-05-20 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Fifteen |
| Description: | Describes Gunn's experience as a correspondent for ""The New York Evening Post"" in Charleston, South Carolina, in the aftermath of South Carolina's secession from the federal government, including a conflict between A.H. Colt and Mr. Woodward, a visit to Sullivan's Island, John Mitchel's tale of assisting with the lynching of an abolitionist, attending a celebration in honor of Benjamin Mordecai, Will Waud's arrival in Charleston, the scene in Charleston the day the ''Star of the West'' was fired upon by the Morris Island battery, pistol and rifle practice with various Charlestonians, a rumor in New York about his having been tarred and feathered in Charleston, a visit to the quarters of the ''Richland Rifles,'' witnessing a slave auction, and a visit to Colonel Bull's home. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Books and reading; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Military; Publishers and publishing; Secession; Slavery; Slaves; Travel |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Charleston, South Carolina |
| 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 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
