Read how correspondent John Trowbridge described Gettysburg as it appeared in August 1865 to the readers of The Atlantic.
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Read how correspondent John Trowbridge described Gettysburg as it appeared in August 1865 to the readers of The Atlantic.
Crossroads 
I believe this article later became part of Trowbridge’s work “The Desolate South, 1865-1866: a Picture of the Battlefields and of the Devastated Confederacy.” It was published in 1870 and provides an interesting account of not only several battlefields but of life in the South in the immediate aftermath of the war.
I was unaware until I clicked on the link in your post that pieces of what became Trowbridge’s book first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly.
Yes. I have the book, but the Atlantic Monthly stuff was interesting.
Very interesting. It would have been fascinating to have walked the battlefields just a year or two after the clashes had taken place and been able to see the detritus of war.
I would think that the Atlantic Monthly pieces were unusual, too, in their first-person descriptive style.
A very well written descriptive and historical essay; the kind of writing that makes me despair that I could ever write anything that would even begin to approach this level of excellence in writing. The author’s historical perspective on the recent war, and how he was remembering the conflict was interesting and informative. Thank you for linking to this.
Excellent piece of literature. Two things struck me in particular, when Trowbridge writes of the serenity of the battlefields at Gettysburg he describes my own feelings whenever I visit the Park, I’m sure alot of people feel the same way, the second thing is when he asks the tavern owner where the battlefield is, permit me to relay an event which happened to me. I was walking down Baltimore Street late on night when I was approached by a group of college students, two of which were wearing Ivy League sweatshirts, they asked me for directions to the battlefield, I told them the were in the middle of it and they looked at me in a strange sort of way, not wanting to give a lecture at midnight I simply gave them directions to the first days field and explained the retreat through the town and the second and third days field, I also informed them that the Park closes at 10 pm. They told me they were looking for ghosts I wished them luck and walked away.
For discussion, does anyone think John Burns could pass the guide test?