George Templeton Strong

George Templeton Strong (January 26, 1820 – July 21, 1875) was an American lawyer, musician and diarist. His 2,250-page diary, discovered in the 1930s, provides a striking personal account of life in the 19th century, especially during the events of the American Civil War. It covers 1835 to 1875.

Quotes

Allan Nevins (ed.), The Diary of George Templeton Strong, 4 vols. (1952)

• If disunion become an established fact, we have one consolation. The self-amputated members were diseased beyond immediate cure, and their virus will infect our system no longer.
  • January 26, 1861

• All the indications are that this treasonable inflammation—secessionitis—keeps on making steady progress week by week.
  • January 31, 1861

• The bird of our country is a debilitated chicken, disguised in eagle feathers. We have never been a nation; we are only an aggregate of communities, ready to fall apart at the first serious shock and without a centre of vigorous national life to keep us together.
  • March 11, 1861

• Today will be known as Black Monday. We are utterly and disgracefully routed, beaten, whipped by secessionists.
  • July 22, 1861 (7 p.m.)

• Poor old 1861 just going. It has been a gloomy year of trouble and disaster. I should be glad of its departure, were it not that 1862 is likely to be no better. But we must take what is coming. Only through much tribulation can a young people attain healthy, vigorous national life. The results of many years spent in selfish devotion to prosperous, easy money-making must be purged out of our system before we are well, and a drastic dose of European war may be the prescription Providence is going to administer.
  • December 31, 1861

See also

• The Civil War (documentary)

External links

• Encyclopedic article on George Templeton Strong on Wikipedia