19
Near Richmond.
very tired. A couple of shots were fired by our
pickets in the night which startled us, but nothing
further occurred.
28. Wednesday. Hurried up at 4 A.M.
by the zealous Whittemore, a breakfast, then
off. A useless detour, then a return through
the woods, to our late entertainers, who had got
their balloon inflated and were meditating a
brief ascent, not however quitting the earth entire-
ly but being connected with it by a rope, held
by one of the party, who pulled the aeronaut
down again when required. I wanted to
go up too, but was refused on some red tape
objection. The aeronaut descending told us
that he had seen a thick column of smoke
rising from Richmond, and sagely concluded
that the rebels were evacuating the beleaguered
city, previously firing it. (They may have been
burning some of the tobacco heaped in the ware-
houses.) The place might have been taken
again and again, if McClellan had had
any pluck, as history will confirm someday.
The day was very oppressively sultry. Present-
ly we got to horse again and set off towards
Hanover Court-House, parting with Hall at
a corner of the road, he being determined to
get back to New York. I lent him $5 at part-| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty: page twenty-seven |
| Description: | Regarding a test flight of a balloon, smoke rising from Richmond, and the departure of Hall. |
| Date: | 1862-05-27 |
| Subject: | Balloons; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Hall (artist); McClellan, George B.; Military; Peninsular Campaign (Va.); United States, Army of the Potomac, Balloon Corps; Whittemore |
| Coverage (City/State): | Richmond, [Virginia] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-07-17 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of his experiences as a war correspondent for ""The New York Tribune"" at Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, especially Hilton Head, Port Royal, St. Augustine, Key West, and the end of his experiences with the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign when he had to leave camp due to illness. |
| Subject: | African Americans; Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Diseases; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marches (U.S. Army); Medical care (U.S. Army); Military; Military camp life; Peninsular Campaign (Va.); Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Port Royal, South Carolina; Hilton Head, South Carolina; Key West, Florida; St. Augustine, Florida; Virginia |
| 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. |
