Writing War and Reunion

Writing War and Reunion

Selected Civil War and Reconstruction Newspaper Editorials by William Gilmore Simms

A collection of newspaper editorials written by one of the South's premier literary figures of the nineteenth century

William Gilmore Simms (1806–1870) was a novelist, poet, and essayist and was considered the South's premier literary figure at the height of his popularity. No less an authority than Edgar Allen Poe remarked of Simms that "he has surpassed, we think, any of his countrymen" as a novelist. Simms's literary achievements include more than twenty major novels, several volumes of poetry, and biographies of important figures in American history.

Perhaps the least considered parts of Simms's overall body of writings are those he did for newspapers, the most interesting of which are from the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Writing War and Reunion offers a selection of the best of those so that we can track Simms's thoughts about, and reactions to, the conflict, from its beginnings through to its conclusion and into the early years of Reconstruction. These works provide a valuable insight into how a prominent southern intellectual interpreted and participated in these momentous events in U.S. history.

In the decades following the Civil War, Simms's reputation suffered a steady decline. Because of his associations with the antebellum South, slavery, and Confederate defeat, as well as changes in literary tastes, Simms came to be regarded as a talented but failed Southern author of a bygone era. Today a robust scholarly literature exists that has reexamined Simms, his literary works, and previous scholarly judgments and finds him to have been an important figure in the development of nineteenth-century American literature and worthy of serious study.

  • Cover
  • WRITING WAR AND REUNION
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • CONTENTS
  • Foreword: A Biographical Overview
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • PART 1 The Pen as Sword: Simms’s Civil War Writings, 1860–65
    • The Charleston Mercury, September 7, 1860
    • The Charleston Mercury, September 8, 1860
    • The Charleston Mercury, September 29, 1860
    • The Charleston Mercury, October 2, 1860
    • The Charleston Mercury, March 2, 1861
    • The Charleston Mercury, May 11, 1861
    • The Charleston Mercury, July 9, 1861
    • The Charleston Mercury, July 16, 1861
    • The Charleston Mercury, July 20, 1861
    • The Charleston Mercury, August 31, 1861
    • The Charleston Mercury, November 13, 1861
    • The Charleston Mercury, November 24, 1863
    • The Columbia Phoenix, April 11, 1865
    • The Columbia Phoenix, April 15, 1865
    • The Columbia Phoenix, April 15, 1865
    • The Columbia Phoenix, April 17, 1865
    • The Columbia Phoenix, April 20, 1865
    • The Columbia Phoenix, April 22, 1865
    • The Columbia Phoenix, April 22, 1865
    • The Columbia Phoenix, April 26, 1865
    • The Columbia Phoenix, May 1, 1865
    • The Columbia Daily Phoenix, May 10, 1865
    • The Columbia Daily Phoenix, September 1, 1865
  • PART 2 From the Ashes: Editorializing Reconstruction, 1865–68
    • The Daily South Carolinian, December 20, 1865
    • The Daily South Carolinian, December 21, 1865
    • The Daily South Carolinian, December 22, 1865
    • The Daily South Carolinian, December 23, 1865
    • The Daily South Carolinian, December 28, 1865
    • The Daily South Carolinian, December 31, 1865
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 3, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 3, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 6, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 11, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 12, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 13, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 18, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 20, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 20, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 25, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 25, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 30, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 30, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, January 30, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 3, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 6, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 8, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 8, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 9, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 10, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 13, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 14, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 16, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 17, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 18, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 24, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 24, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 27, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, February 27, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 3, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 3, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 8, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 9, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 14, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 15, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 20, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 21, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 23, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 27, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, March 28, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, April 6, 1866
    • The Daily South Carolinian, April 14, 1866
    • The Daily Courier, July 30, 1866
    • The Daily Courier, August 9, 1866
    • The Daily Courier, August 20, 1866
    • The Daily Courier, February 27, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, March 8, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, March 14, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, March 20, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, March 28, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, April 5, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, April 16, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, April 25, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, May 8, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, June 7, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, June 11, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, June 12, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, June 24, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, June 25, 1867
    • The Daily Courier, June 27, 1867
    • The Baltimore Southern Society, October 19, 1867
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Index

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