[loose newspaper clipping]
From Flag to Flag is described on its title
page as A Woman s Adventures and Experiences in
the South during the war in Mexico and in Cuba, by
Eliza McHilton Ripley. This is a very unpretentious,
desirable, entertaining little book. It is exactly the
sort of book that it seems very easy to write and yet of
which there are very few. It is a natural, straightfor-
ward record of a woman s daily life, during a historical
period and amid the very events that were making the
history, and it is delightful to see them through this
novel domestic medium. There have been a number
of books similar in character published by Northern
women, but very few, and fewer still of merit have
come from Southern women, yet they had by far the
most entertaining lot, to hear about. Mrs. Ripley puts
two witty quotations on her title page: Faith! I ran
when I saw others run, (Henry IV.) and from the same
play, See here, my friends and loving countrymen,
this token serveth for a flag of truce betwixt ourselves.
She writes with freedom from narrow, sectional
prejudice; though she is provincial enough to be enter-
taining in her view of past Southern splendor, refer-
ring often to the spacious mansions and fluted
columns in talking about those rather bare and bad
style country houses in which Southern gentle folk
used to feel so touchingly fine, though they had less
luxuries than are often demanded these days by our
gentlemen farmers head gardeners. She writes well
in just the direct plain, but bright way that is wanted
and when she gets into Mexico and Cuba she has more
sense than most travellers as to what is significant and
interesting in her surroundings.
[Gunn s handwriting]
1889
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Fifteen: page two hundred and twenty-two |
| Description: | Newspaper clipping of a review of a book by Eliza McHilton Ripley. |
| Subject: | Books and reading; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Mexican War; Ripley, Eliza McHilton; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | Cuba; Mexico |
| Scan Date: | 2010-05-24 |
| 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. |
