80
Talk of the Fight at Bull s Run.
the sturdy Baker came over in his shirt sleeves
and we had an evening together. We talked the
defeat at Manassas Junction, and I read a good
portion of it from Stedman s account in this
weeks World, obtained at the Post-Office. It
is a good account; though a little sophomorical,
here and there, after the writer s wont. He seems
[newspaper clipping]
AN INCIDENT OF THE RETREAT.
{Correspondence of the Philadelphia Inquirer.}
The enemy appeared in sight, firing their guns,
the balls raining upon us thick; emerging from the
valley we saw the reporter of The World, with the
standard of the Massachusetts Fifth, waving it
over him and pleading for the men to rally around
him; but it was in vain, they heeded him not. An
officer asked the privilege of riding behind
him. It was granted, and before they had gone a
hundred yards a shot from the thicket struck the
officer in the head, and he reeled off. Mr. Stead-
man wrapped up the standard and galloped about
a mile ahead, and afterwards succeeded in rallying
a large force.
[Gunn s handwriting]
Greatly exaggerated.
[Gunn s diary continued]
to have behaved very
pluckily; credit be ac-
corded him therefore.
The Major Rawlings
killed (two days before
the battle) appears to
have been the brother
of the braggart once attached to Frank Leslie s. I
have heard him spoken, as worthy of the relation-
ship. He had employment on the rival illustra-
ted paper, as an advertisement solicitor, and
wrote exceedingly stupid and ungrammatical letters
to it. Alf Waud and Sol Eytinge disliked him
(as they do everybody else about the office) and
the former caricatured him as a spotty-faced ple-
beian, in a picture published in the paper.
My auditors were diversely interested. George
who had previously sneered at the Americans, say-
ing that both parties were afraid of fighting, now
talked about their running away. Baker, who| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seventeen: page eighty-nine |
| Description: | Regarding discussing the First Battle of Bull Run while in Canada. |
| Date: | 1861-07-27 |
| Subject: | Baker, Jemmy; Battle of Bull Run, First (Va.); Bolton, George; Civil War; Eytinge, Solomon; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, 5th; Military; New York world.; Rawlings, Augustus; Rawlings, T.E.; Stedman, Edmund Clarence; Waud, Alfred |
| Coverage (City/State): | [Paris, Ontario, Canada] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-06-09 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seventeen |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of the scene in New York at the commencement of the Civil War; his visits to military camps in and around New York City as a reporter for ""The New York Evening Post;"" boarding house living; a bridal reception at the Edwards family's residence in honor of the marriage of Sally Edwards and Thomas Nast; a visit to the Heylyn and Rogers families in Rochester; and his trip to Paris, Ontario, to visit George Bolton and the Conworths. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marriage; Military; Publishers and publishing; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Paris, Ontario, Canada ; Rochester, 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 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
