What was the real reaction of everyday people to the outbreak of the war?

FahanParish

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Following Fort Sumter I know the northern song "We Are Coming Father Abraham 300,000 Strong" was written and perhaps sung and I know the Gone With The Wind afternoon barbecue scene where joyous celebration breaks out at the news of Fort Sumter.
While I understand reactions can vary widely, does anybody have at hand first hand primary sources speaking to the reaction of any everyday people when the war became a certainty?
 
One may gain some insight to the "Uppercrusts" view of the situation by reading "A Diary From Dixie -Mary Boykin Chesnut". Her writings express trepidation and a full realization of what war can bring, but still a zealous need of independence.

Soldiers diaries general start a few weeks or a month after Fort Sumter, but I have found the following a typical expression of the Southern state of mind after Fort Sumter:
The sentiments of James W. Webb of Alabama were typical of many men in the South. “I feel today that death would be preferable to me than to see my country subjugated by our enemy who look upon me as their inferior, to whom I will have to look up. You who will be my witness, I enjoin it on you to teach my children in mildness that they are to treasure in their hearts rebellion, through long years, against a union in government with the Yankee. I honestly trust that my spirit is loyal to my creator, that no feeling of revenge rankles in my heart, that I am commanded alone by a love of constitutional liberty and a desire to uphold civil and religious liberty.”[1]

Of course, there were those young men that went "for the adventure", but their families certainly realize the possible implications.
"At the landing, the banks of the river were crowded with men, women, children, and servants waiting to see them off. Every heart was filled with grief; every eye was misty with unshed tears. From all over the country they had come – from Selma, Pleasant Hill, Burnsville, Summerfield, Harrell’s Roads, Orrville, and Portland – mothers, sisters, sweethearts, and wives, to bid a last farewell to their loved ones. As the boat floated off from the landing the band played the “Bonnie Blue Flag”. The soldiers shouted, handkerchiefs waved, women wept and watched lovingly until the steamer turned the bend in the river and passed from sight."[2]

[2]Confederate Veteran Magazine, Vol. XXIV, May 1916, page 216


[1] Letter of James W. Webb dated February 17, 1862 – Walton Family Papers #1437 in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill.
 
I wish I had some good advice for you, I don't.

One set of sources that I have found useful are documentary readers. These are books whose intent is to present multiple docs from the era. Decent sized libraries will have them.

For example:
o The Civil War: The First/Second/Third/Last Year Told by Those Who Lived It (Library of America)
- This is a 4-book series with primary sources.

o The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Documentary Reader by Stanley Harrold.

o The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Documentary Collection Paperback by William E. Gienapp

Again, these books are collections of documents from the era, but they might have useful content. Don't buy them, go to the library and see if you can find something useful.

Also look for Civil War diaries.

Finally, if you area has a local historical society, you might find somebody who's ready to help you.

- Alan
 
Following Fort Sumter I know the northern song "We Are Coming Father Abraham 300,000 Strong" was written and perhaps sung and I know the Gone With The Wind afternoon barbecue scene where joyous celebration breaks out at the news of Fort Sumter.
While I understand reactions can vary widely, does anybody have at hand first hand primary sources speaking to the reaction of any everyday people when the war became a certainty?

https://www.google.com/search?q=val...la:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb
 
All the published accounts I've read speak of wild enthusiasm on hearing of the outbreak of hostilities: spontaneous rallies, parades, patriotic speeches, men rushing to enlist, etc etc. But, that's what was expected ... what the press and the politicians wanted to hear.
Those who were fearful, doubtful, etc would most likely have kept it to themselves. In many instances it could be quite dangerous to disagree with the popular enthusiasm.
 
Following Fort Sumter I know the northern song "We Are Coming Father Abraham 300,000 Strong" was written and perhaps sung and I know the Gone With The Wind afternoon barbecue scene where joyous celebration breaks out at the news of Fort Sumter.
While I understand reactions can vary widely, does anybody have at hand first hand primary sources speaking to the reaction of any everyday people when the war became a certainty?
Mark speaks to the point of your request. Contemporary editorials. Personally, I would have been enraged, but I can't think of any any accounts of outrage, except the enlistments that followed.
 
All the published accounts I've read speak of wild enthusiasm on hearing of the outbreak of hostilities: spontaneous rallies, parades, patriotic speeches, men rushing to enlist, etc etc. But, that's what was expected ... what the press and the politicians wanted to hear.
Those who were fearful, doubtful, etc would most likely have kept it to themselves. In many instances it could be quite dangerous to disagree with the popular enthusiasm.

I'm pretty close to agreement. At the start most seemed to be on the bandwagon (one or the other). However, I have read a number of quotes by people who could see that war was likely to be more than pomp and circumstance. Sorry, but just don't have the instant recall on source citations that many here have but have definitely read that some at least weren't so enthusiastic as the masses. Obviously, they didn't carry the day. "Let's whup 'em good" did seem to be the more common sentiment (along with "I think I'll just wait and see what happens").
 
Another good source is letters from that time that have information about the war.

The reactions really really varied based on the time and place. Now if you are talking about the beginning of the war, when everyone thought that it would be a 90-day event maximum, there are a lot of sources:

- Letters of new volunteers back home (usually indicating how purposeful the new recruits feel, how good it feels to be in a uniform, how good the life of a soldier is because you have good food and buddies etc.)
- Newspaper articles and letters of civilians, indicating business as usual. And even more importantly:
- Descriptions of the hordes of Washingtonians who went at the hills of Manassas to have a pic nic while watching the battle (of First Bull Run/Manassas,) and what happened afterwards.

Of course things changed really fast for both sides.
 
Following Fort Sumter I know the northern song "We Are Coming Father Abraham 300,000 Strong" was written and perhaps sung and I know the Gone With The Wind afternoon barbecue scene where joyous celebration breaks out at the news of Fort Sumter.
While I understand reactions can vary widely, does anybody have at hand first hand primary sources speaking to the reaction of any everyday people when the war became a certainty?

In order to understand and answer your question, there needs to be some clarification. "We Are Coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 More" wasn't written after Fort Sumter (at that time, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers). The song is from the summer of 1862, when the call went out for the 300,000 more men. Incidentally, one of the regiments in this call was the 20th Maine Infantry, which included the Chamberlain brothers, Thomas and Joshua Lawrence... as in "Tom, don't call me Lawrence."
 
Here are some excerpts from a local abolitionist newspaper on April 24, 1861. It might surprise some people:

Shall the Impending War be a Good or an Unmitigated Evil?

A large portion of the wars of the historic ages have been fruitless of good, but terribly prolific of evil. With this great fact before us, we cannot forbear to press the question - how shall it be of the war now apparently pending? For manifestly it may become productive of immense good; or it may utterly fail of any good at all. And since the determination of this great issue is largely within the control of the Christian people of the free states, we are the more pressed to indicate some of the conditions on which this stupendous alternative of good or ill hangs:

1. This war will be an indefinitely great blessing if it puts an end to American Slavery. If it fails of reaching this result, it cannot possibly do much good.

For, American Slavery is the one only root of all this trouble. Every Southern man knows and avows that he fights for slavery; nothing more, nothing else. Slavery has begotten all this treason; the protection and promotion of slavery is the only object; nothing else is thought of.

Hence if Slavery can be removed, the first essential step is taken towards a stable peace...

2. We only put the same thing in another light when we say that if the war revives and invigorates the spirit of freedom as opposed to Slavery, it will do good; if it shows up in broad sunlight the unutterable abomination of Slavery and its perfect antagonism to any free Government and to the true idea of civil liberty, then it will do good...

3. What is to be the the animus of this war - the [illegible] whose power on the heart is to make the greatest of sacrifices a pleasure and a glory?

Shall it be nothing more or higher than common military ambition - the thirst for distinction, the excitement, daring and danger? Then we must look in vain for a gain to civilization, to Christianity, to humanity, or any thing of real value to mankind.

On the other hand if the men who go forth to war and if the people who remain behind to bear its burdens are all thoroughly inspired with patriotism, - an intelligent love for such a Government as ours and for the great principles of human rights that lie at its foundation, then this will be an anti-Slavery war, and its results will be advances towards the reign of universal liberty and downfall of slavery. So may it be!


- The Oberlin Evangelist, April 24, 1861

Source: http://www.gospeltruth.net/oe/oe61/oep070.htm
It's worth noting that this editorial was much more sober than the mood in the community at the time, and it's interesting that this is the first full article I found in this newspaper about the war, even though it's on the 6th page of the second issue published after the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

Tomorrow I'll be at the college archives and if I get a chance I'll post some excerpts from the much more hawkish newspaper in town, which probably reflected much more closely the mood of the community.
 
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The song is from the summer of 1862, when the call went out for the 300,000 more men. Incidentally, one of the regiments in this call was the 20th Maine Infantry, which included the Chamberlain brothers, Thomas and Joshua Lawrence... as in "Tom, don't call me Lawrence."[/QUOTE]

Thanks so much for the correction! Just musing - I have an interest in the connection between war and the music that it generates - what song might have been the first popular song to be written 'for the war'? I know George Root was a prolific composer for songs in the North - I don't know who wrote for the South.
 

For, American Slavery is the one only root of all this trouble. Every Southern man knows and avows that he fights for slavery; nothing more, nothing else. Slavery has begotten all this treason; the protection and promotion of slavery is the only object; nothing else is thought of.

Hence if Slavery can be removed, the first essential step is taken towards a stable peace...



On the other hand if the men who go forth to war and if the people who remain behind to bear its burdens are all thoroughly inspired with patriotism, - an intelligent love for such a Government as ours and for the great principles of human rights that lie at its foundation, then this will be an anti-Slavery war, and its results will be advances towards the reign of universal liberty and downfall of slavery. So may it be!

- The Oberlin Evangelist, April 24, 1861

Source: http://www.gospeltruth.net/oe/oe61/oep070.htm
It's worth noting that this editorial was much more sober than the mood in the community at the time, and it's interesting that this is the first full article I found in this newspaper about the war, even though it's on the 6th page of the second issue published after the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

Oberlin was a Friends' college committed among other things to abolitionism. This is a very interesting piece - thanks for posting it.
 
For, American Slavery is the one only root of all this trouble. Every Southern man knows and avows that he fights for slavery; nothing more, nothing else. Slavery has begotten all this treason; the protection and promotion of slavery is the only object; nothing else is thought of.

Hence if Slavery can be removed, the first essential step is taken towards a stable peace...



On the other hand if the men who go forth to war and if the people who remain behind to bear its burdens are all thoroughly inspired with patriotism, - an intelligent love for such a Government as ours and for the great principles of human rights that lie at its foundation, then this will be an anti-Slavery war, and its results will be advances towards the reign of universal liberty and downfall of slavery. So may it be!

- The Oberlin Evangelist, April 24, 1861

Source: http://www.gospeltruth.net/oe/oe61/oep070.htm
It's worth noting that this editorial was much more sober than the mood in the community at the time, and it's interesting that this is the first full article I found in this newspaper about the war, even though it's on the 6th page of the second issue published after the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

Oberlin was a Friends' college committed among other things to abolitionism. This is a very interesting piece - thanks for posting it.

You're welcome, although I should point out that Oberlin was not a Friends college (or community). It was founded by Presbyterian ministers and had a very strong Presbyterian/Congregationalist influence.
 
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"Aah, ******!!!!"

I'm pretty sure that was Forrest's initial reaction! However, he was like many - won't take long to teach the Yankees a lesson... :rolleyes:

I've not heard too much about the common person's reaction but an indication might be how people turned out to celebrate. Still, the farmers and other rural people weren't represented there, and neither were the slaves. They must have felt both elated and apprehensive.
 
Here is an article I wrote about the reaction of some German immigrant reactions:

http://www.longislandwins.com/news/detail/...and_the_war_came_to_immigrant_america

New arrivals like Friedrich Martens, who was only in the country a brief time when the sectional crisis began to come to a head, understood the causes of the war and explained them in letters home. Martens wrote to his family in Germany in the spring of 1861 that “civil war has broken out in this country. …[T]he states that are rebelling are slave states, and they want slavery to be expanded, but the northern states are against this, and so it’s civil war!”
 
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