166
An Irish Lieutenant.
handsome, chased, gold pencil case, assert-
ing that the latter had been given to him by
a planter or farmer s daughter, with whom he
had passed the night, outside the pickets. I
suppose he lied.) Singing, speeches and reci-
tations in order did not suffice to suppress
his drunken egotism, and on Merrill s giving
us a really interesting speech, involving parti-
culars of the state of affairs at Baton Rouge,
a dead set was made at the nuisance, particu-
larly by little Shaw, when O Gorman fell
into a drunken sleep. At about 11, I left
the party, all pretty sober except the Irishman
two had left early in the evening. O Gorman
was accommodated with a mattress, on which,
booted and spurred, he slept till morning.
The fellows made a noisy interruption into my
room at about midnight, but, cleared out, on
a little judicious anathematization.
14. Wednesday. O Gorman, awaking
about 7, presented himself upstairs to annoy
Hills and Shaw, then abed, to whom he brought
up a bottle of bitters of which they refused to
partake. So he went down stairs, ordered
the negroes to prepare half a dozen eggs for his
breakfast, got two, devoured them, pocketed
our tobacco and cleared out by the back en-
trance. Breakfast. Out for a stroll with| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty-One: page one hundred and eighty-two |
| Description: | Regarding a social evening at Baton Rouge. |
| Date: | 1863-01-13 |
| Subject: | Civil War; Drunkenness; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Hills, A.C.; Merrill, Captain; O'Gorman, Lieutenant; Shaw, Charles P.; Slaves |
| Coverage (City/State): | Baton Rouge, [Louisiana] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-11-18 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty-One |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of his experiences as a war correspondent for ""The New York Tribune"" at New Orleans, Louisiana, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; boarding house living; a visit to the Rawlings family; a fight with Mr. Blankman at his boarding house; his journey on the North Star with the Banks expedition; the re-occupation of Baton Rouge by Union forces; a visit to a sugar plantation in Louisiana; and Fanny Fern's daughter Grace Thomson's death. |
| Subject: | African Americans; Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Military; Publishers and publishing; Transportation; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; New Orleans, Louisiana; Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| 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. |
