Civil War Digital Scrapbook
By: Isabella Campo
July 19th, 1860
July 26th, 1861
The war has started and another battle was recently fought called Bull Run. I have been told that the Union ran from the South but the South soldiers did not run after us. I also heard that people in the South brought picnic baskets and blankets to watch the battle. It is hard to imagine who in the right state of mind would do that. The North has a few advantages in the war and so does the South. I think that our best advantage is the amount of factories. All the factories will make production of guns go faster. The South’s best advantage is how they have all the agriculture and so getting food is easier for them. Today while my mother was cooking I overheard her, and father talking about President Lincoln. They say that Lincoln thinks the south is rejecting democracy. I didn’t know what democracy was so I asked Father and he said it was government by the citizens. Mother said that she heard about how some of the republican parties said that he wasn't being aggressive enough towards the Confederacy but others thought opposite. My family mainly worries about Percy because we haven’t received a letter since the last battle and he usually sends one every other day. In the last letter he said that the base camps seemed nice enough for being in the middle of nowhere. He also said that everyone around him would write to people any chance they got. One sad thing is that many soldiers are dying at the base camps because of the diseases and illnesses going around. Here is a drawing of what I imagine the camps to look like.
February 16th, 1862
The Union has finally won their first battle at the Battle of Fort Henry we had captured a port in Tennessee and so that prevented them from continuing trade. Percy wrote about a plan that the Union will use called the Anaconda plan. He said that it’s supposed to capture main waterways, blockade the South so they cannot trade, and defend Washington D.C. Percy said that if we capture the Mississippi River that we could split the South in half which would give us an advantage. I think that it is a brilliant idea and I hope it works. Since this was our first win a lot of morale was boosted and also with the soldiers according to Percy. The printing press has not been making a lot of money recently which has been bothering father. This is because most men have gone off to war and so the wives don’t have interest in politics and the news so hardly anyone has been buying the news.