New Orleans documents for the years 1805 thru 1867

New Orleans, LA - 21 April 0

Mildred Lee letter to Dearest Emily...I have been such a gay society lady, that my time has been engrossed with the pomps & vanities...

New Orleans, LA - 12 March 1805

It gives me real pleasure to hear from every quarter that you stand in Kentucky at the head of your profession.

New Orleans, LA - 1 September 1808

Before I had the pleasure of your last very agreeable letter, the news of the death of our venerable friend [Colonel Hart] had reached us.

New Orleans, LA - 26 July 1812

Our communications in future must be altogether by land; and if the Indians should commence hostilities, even this will be a very precarious conveyance

New Orleans, LA - 14 September 1812

I am well pleased with the frequency of your letters, and with the letters themselves. Your hand is already very well formed, and your style will become more easy and elegant every time you write.

New Orleans, LA - 0 March 1813

I learn with very great affliction of the death of your cousin H. and the increased illness of your uncle. They are calculated to teach us that neither youth, talents, or fortune, can secure happiness here.

New Orleans, LA -

In pursuing your classical studies, I would recommend an attentive perusal of Livy, and even a translation of some of those passages whose beauty strikes you most.

New Orleans, LA - 19 January 1815

THOMAS B. JOHNSON letter to Dolly Madison...the American army in Louisiana has gained immortal glory.

New Orleans, LA - 0 July 1815

You are now in a country where politics form the principal, perhaps I may say with the exception of private business the only topic of conversation.

New Orleans, LA - 1 September 1815

I will write to you soon on the subject of your request to study at Philadelphia. There are great advantages attending it, and I believe, on the whole, it will be best.

New Orleans, LA - 1 October 1815

With all my confidence in you, my dear son, you cannot conceive my anxiety. I am doing a novel and a hazardous thing. I am trusting- a young man, not seventeen, to his own guidance, in the midst of the temptations of a populous city.

New Orleans, LA - 29 December 1815

The great number of persons with whom you must necessarily associate in a lodging-house will, I fear, interrupt the constant attention which is now necessary for your studies.

New Orleans, LA - 13 January 1816

There will, I believe, be no necessity for your entering your name in a lawyer's office until you see me, which I hope will be in the beginning of the summer.

New Orleans, LA - 16 March 1816

You have some reason to complain of the irregularity of my correspondence ; I am pleased, however, to find it has no effect upon yours.

New Orleans, LA - 29 April 1816

I doubt very much the accuracy of your observation that the best writers are those who understand no living language but their own ; on the contrary, I would cite many examples to contradict it.

New Orleans, LA - 28 October 1816

It is very difficult for me, my dear son, to direct your studies at this distance ; my general plan has been frequently communicated. Mathematics in almost all its branches, you know I consider as the groundwork of all useful science

New Orleans, LA - 26 December 1844

I discover from the papers that Mr. Benton intends to urge bis plan of annexation.

New Orleans, LA - 30 January 1845

I endeavored to sound Elliott in regard to his views about California and the occupation of the country between the Nuesos [Nueces] and the Rio Grande.

New Orleans, LA - 18 February 1845

In the meantime let me beg of you not to regard anything that has passed between us as the value of a tobacco stopper in regard to the Mission to England if it becomes half as desirable to you that you should occupy this Post

New Orleans, LA - 9 September 1845

E. Kirby Smith letter to wife - We left CINCINNATI on the twenty-ninth ultimo, having been strengthened by fifty recruits from the depot at Newport.

New Orleans, LA - 23 September 1846

E. Kirby Smith letter to wife - I have a sad tale to tell you of all my ill luck since I wrote you from CAIRO.

New Orleans, LA - 12 December 1859

W.T. Sherman letter to brother John Sherman...I hoped you would be theoretical and not practical, for practical abolition is disunion, civil war, and anarchy universal...

New Orleans, LA - 28 September 1860

sam clemens quick note to brother orion from new orleans

New Orleans, LA - 10 February 1861

Although not in service, I wish it distinctly understood that my professional knowledge and experience are at the command of my native State, even unto death

New Orleans, LA - 12 February 1861

I have come to the conclusion that I ought not and cannot accept that Colonelcy of Engineers and Artillery in the State army

New Orleans, LA - 6 February 1862

sam clemens writes to orion of his visit to a clairvoyant

New Orleans, LA -

Coming out of church this morning with Miriam, a young lady ran up with an important air, as though about to create a sensation.

New Orleans, LA -

Write me down a witch, a prophetess, or what you will. I am certainly something! All has come to pass on that very disagreeable subject very much as I feared.

New Orleans, LA - 3 April 1863

To-day, thousands of families, from the most respectable down to the least, all who have had the firmness to register themselves enemies to the United States, are ordered to leave the city before the fifteenth of May.

New Orleans, LA - 22 April 1863

Yesterday we arrived ; I thought we should never get here. Monday we had almost given up in despair, believing the schooner would never return.

New Orleans, LA - 26 April 1863

I am getting well! Bless the Lord, O my soul! Life, health, and happiness dawn on my trembling view again!

New Orleans, LA - 9 June 1863

There are no Southern young men left in town, and those who remain would hardly be received with civility by Miriam and myself.

New Orleans, LA - 14 June 1863

If I was a man, if I had the blessed privilege of fighting, I would be on the breastworks, or perchance on the water batteries under Colonel Steadman's command. But as I was unfortunately born a woman, I stay home and pray with heart and soul.

New Orleans, LA - 17 June 1863

Lydia has another boy! Letter has just come, and I am demented about my new godchild!

New Orleans, LA - 21 June 1863

How about that oath of allegiance? is what I frequently ask myself, and always an uneasy qualm of conscience troubles me. Guilty or not guilty of perjury?

New Orleans, LA - 26 June 1863

It is so delightful to see these frightened Yankees! One has only to walk downtown to be satisfied of the alarm that reigns.

New Orleans, LA - 10 July 1863

Day before yesterday came tidings that Vicksburg had fallen on the 4th inst. The "Era" poured out extras, and sundry little popguns fizzled out salutes. All who doubted the truth of the report and were brave enough to say so were fined or imprisoned

New Orleans, LA - 10 July 1863

What a scene I have just witnessed! A motley crew of thousands of low people of all colors parading the streets with flags, torches, music, and all other accompaniments, shouting, screaming, exulting over the fall of Port Hudson and Vicksburg.

New Orleans, LA - 15 July 1863

Dreadful news has come of the defeat of Lee at Gettysburg. Think I believe it all? He may have been defeated ; but not one of these reports of total overthrow and rout do I credit.

New Orleans, LA - 18 July 1863

It began by Miriam sending Mr. Conn a box of cigars when she was on Canal the other day, with a note saying we would be delighted to assist him in anyway. Poor creature!

New Orleans, LA - 23 July 1863

Put a creature you don't care for in the least, in a situation that commands sympathy, and nine out of ten girls will fall desperately in love.

New Orleans, LA - 14 August 1863

DOOMED to be bored! To-night Miriam drags me to a soiree musicale

New Orleans, LA - 24 August 1863

I consider myself outrageously imposed upon! I am so indignant that I have spent a whole evening making faces at myself.

New Orleans, LA - 10 September 1863

O my prophetic soul! part of your forebodings are already verified! And in what an unpleasant way!

New Orleans, LA - 6 October 1863

I hope this will be the last occasion on which I shall refer to the topic to which this unfortunate book seems to have been devoted.

New Orleans, LA - 9 November 1863

Another odd link of the old, stale story has come to me, all the way from New York.

New Orleans, LA - 22 November 1863

A report has just reached us that my poor dear Gibbes has been taken prisoner along with the rest of Hayes's brigade.

New Orleans, LA - 26 November 1863

Brother has applied to have him paroled and sent here, or even imprisoned here, if he cannot be paroled.

New Orleans, LA - 30 November 1863

Our distress about Gibbes has been somewhat relieved by good news from Jimmy.

New Orleans, LA - 31 December 1863

The last of eighteen sixty-three is passing away as I write...

New Orleans, LA - 3 February 1864

Not dead! not dead! O my God! Gibbes is not dead! Where O dear God ! Another?

New Orleans, LA - 0 March 1864

Dead! Dead! Both dead! O my brothers! What have we lived for except you?

New Orleans, LA - 2 November 1864

This morning we heard Jimmy is engaged to Helen Trenholm, daughter of the Secretary of the Confederate States.

New Orleans, LA - 31 December 1864

O sad, dreary, fearful Old Year! I see you go with pain! Bitter as you have been, how do we know what the coming one has in store for us?

New Orleans, LA - 19 April 1865

Thursday the 13th came the dreadful tidings of the surrender of Lee and his army on the 9th. Everybody cried, but I would not, satisfied that God will still save us, even though all should apparently be lost.

New Orleans, LA - 22 April 1865

For the more violently "Secesh " the inmates, the more thankful they are for Lincoln's death, the more profusely the houses are decked with the emblems of woe.

New Orleans, LA - 2 May 1865

While praying for the return of those who have fought so nobly for us, how I have dreaded their first days at home!

New Orleans, LA - 15 June 1865

Our Confederacy has gone with one crash - the report of the pistol fired at Lincoln.

New Orleans, LA - 20 March 1866

The papers or copies sent by Garland contain every thing that I have or can get in the shape of your letters and orders.

New Orleans, LA - 3 June 1867

I was much pleased to have the opportunity to hear Senator Wilson, and was agreeably surprised to meet such fairness and frankness from a politician whom I had been taught to believe harsh in his feelings towards the people of the South.