April 14, 1861 (Sunday)

Standing before the Red Sea,
the Lord said to Moses,
'Why do you cry to me?
Speak to the children of Israel
that they go forward.'
(sermon by Henry Ward Beecher)

Today, Rev. Dr. Henry Ward Beecher gave a sermon entitled 'What will you do?  Stand Still or Go Forward?  We are Americans" , New York Times -- read this wonderful sermon at the link provided...at the end of the article it states:

"The audience sat spell bound by the eloquence of the preacher, and awoke from their trance only to sing that magnificent anthem, commencing, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty, Of Thee I Sing," which was given with such a pronounced emphasis as to startle the neighborhood for blocks around, and caused the very blood of the listener to leap with patriotic fervor.

"My Country 'tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty"

The article that caught me today was one written by Adam Goodheart, "Surrender," Disunion--New York Times, April 13, 2011.  What an excellent article to read...  read all the way to the end...  WOW

The New York Times wrote an article entitled, "Thank Heaven we have a Government," thanks to the Blue Gray Review.


From the Civil War Daily Gazette, "The Surrender of Fort Sumter, First Union Dead." 

"News of the bombardment had spread to Washington, Boston, and New York...in Washington, President Lincoln attended church services at his regular New York Avenue Presbyterian while the church bells of Charleston rang out the news of surrender...."

From Diaries for today:

Diary of a Yankee in the Patent Office, Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War

Captain J. G. Foster's Journal of the Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Daily Observations of the Civil War

Letters of a Family During the American Civil War:  Awful Times, Daily Observations of the Civil War

"What awful times we have fallen upon!  The sound last night of the newsboys crying till after midnight with hoarse voice, 'Bombardment of Fort Sumter,' was appalling...this storm, which has been raging a day or two at the South, has just reached us, has scattered the fleet sent to reinforce and provision Fort Sumter, and the vessels can neither rendezvous nor co-operate with Major Anderson who is there without food, without help, and without instructions.  Is Providence against us too?"

From "Old Plantation Days" by Nancy Bostick De Saussure, The American Civil War