Thursday, May 31, will mark the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Seven Pines. The two day battle was the culmination of the Union offensive leading to Richmond, VA, the Confederate capital. The Army of the Potomac, in the command of Gen. George McClellan, pushed to within a few miles from Richmond in late May. McClellan failed to press his advantage, and Richmond was not taken. Instead, the Battle of Seven Pines was inconclusive, and eventually McClellan would be pushed back nearly to Washington by the first week of July 1862. It was one of those moments in history that, if acted upon, might have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and years of war. Who knows how much shorter the war would have been if McClellan had attacked Richmond and taken the city in 1862?

The conflict was referred to as the Battle of Fair Oaks by Union soldiers, though Seven Pines is the official name.

Vermonters were deeply involved in the battle, including some Vermont Cavalry companies who made a daring escape from being encircled by Confederate forces. Companies A and G of the Vermont cavalry were protecting wagons of supplies and got caught in an ambush. In the chaos, the main body of men followed the lead of Major Tompkins who was aware of an escape route from previous knowledge of the area.

The June 6, 1862 edition of the Watchman & State Journal features a remarkable summary of the events as they transpired:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

This issue contains much more about the battle, discussion about Congress regarding a failed emancipation bill, and the debate leading up to the Confiscation Act of 1862. To see this issue online, click through here. We have also digitized other Vermont titles that have their own perspective on the battle, including the Burlington Free Press (see the June 6 issue here, and the June 13 issue here), and the Vermont Phoenix (see the June 5 issue here, and the June 12 issue here). The June 5, 1862 edition of the Phoenix has a remarkable account of the actions of Professor Thaddeus Lowe of the ill-fated Union Balloon Corps.:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

All of these titles contain letters from Vermonters at the front and perspectives from Vermonters “in the moment” as they hoped for a speedy end to the war and the well being of their sons, husbands, friends, and relatives fighting the war. Following the progress of the war on the pages of Vermont newspapers gives us an opportunity to see this terrible conflict through new eyes.

For more background, Wikipedia has a fine overview of the Battle of Seven Pines, and a descriptive article on the Union Army Balloon Corps.

Tom McMurdo

Vermont State Archivist Greg Sanford announced this week that he will retire in August of this year. Mr .Sanford has been an avid supporter of the VTDNP, and it is likely that the project would not exist without the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration. What Greg has done for Vermont is not easily quantified. As citizens of the state, we all owe him a great debt. It is fitting that the State Archives building in Middlesex will be named after him. His legacy will live on for years and generations to come.

Here are some links about Greg’s retirement:

WCAX story

7 Days story

Burlington Free Press story

– Tom McMurdo

The VTDNP is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a joint project between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress. The NDNP is approaching five million pages of historic newspapers from 26 states, with new states and titles being added. The Chronicling America main page my be seen by clicking here. If you want to see all of the available Vermont titles, click here. We have lots more content in process and will be adding titles all summer, so if you add these links to your bookmarks, you can often expect new content when you visit the site.

If you have ever spent much time looking through 1920s and early 1930s US newspapers you may have encountered a comic strip, “Mickie the Printer’s Devil.” This widely syndicated comic strip drawn by Charles Sughroe shows episodes in the life of Mickie, a printer’s apprentice. It was common for boys to learn the trade of printing as an apprentice pretty much since the advent of the art. Though the origin of the term is uncertain, such boys were called “printer’s devils.” Printer’s devils would do all manner of tasks in a printing office, including setting type and sweeping up. A number of famous people were printer’s devils, including Ambrose Bierce, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Mark Twain.

Here is a strip from the October 7, 1921 edition of the Middlebury Register in which Mickie mentions that Presdient Harding was a printer’s devil as well (click the strip to get a larger version):

The strips often depicted what daily life was like for a small town newspaper printer, showing conflicts with subscribers, amusing happenings, and the demands of running a print shop. This, no doubt, appealed greatly to small publishers, and explains Mickie the Printer’s Devil’s wide syndication. The strips below are from the 1920 and 1921  Middlebury Register (click the strip to get a larger version):

Mickie is always drawn with ink up to his elbows, and appears to be ready for just about any event in the print office.

The strip ran into the early 1930s. you can look for strips from 1920-1922 in the pages of Vermont newspapers like the Middlebury Register. These issues of the Middlebury Register are still in process, but they will be available on Chronicling America soon. This is just one more interesting item in our growing collection of online Vermont newspapers. At just over 72,000 pages from 1836-1922, growing monthly towards 130,000 Vermont newspaper pages, and closing in on five million pages total on Chronicling America, there are countless other interesting items in the collection. Enjoy!

Tom McMurdo

The VTDNP is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a joint project between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress. The NDNP is approaching five million pages of historic newspapers from 26 states, with new states and titles being added. The Chronicling America main page my be seen by clicking here. If you want to see all of the available Vermont titles, click here. We have lots more content in process and will be adding titles all summer, so if you add these links to your bookmarks, you can often expect new content when you visit the site.