I got this book. I have never liked Henry Livermore Abbott, don't like his swinging his sword on his finger, don't like the things he wrote that I have read, don't even like his looks. So I got this book of his letters, Fallen Leaves. I really like the editor, Robert Garth Scott; he is a marvelous writer. Scott does like Abbott and maybe I will come to also.
Holmes and Abbott were buddies (I don't like Holmes.). In his 1884 Memorial Day address, Holmes asked his audience of Civil War veterans "Was it just community pressure that caused us to enlist?" To which I answered (unasked), "I think so," and in the next sentence Holmes answered, "I think not." Well, I think Holmes' pants were on fire in that answer, that's what I think. Abbott, despite being an admitted chicken, admits that is why he enlisted.
I have also gotten the impression repeatedly that for many young men enlisting in the Civil War was about proving their manhood. Did they have "the right stuff?" Or were they poofs? Especially privileged, aristocratic Harvards, like Abbott and Holmes. For them, at least at first, it was: "It's not a job. It's an adventure." I don't like that. First letter:
Dear Papa,
We are having an extremely pleasant time down here...the work is just hard enough to give you a rousing appetite...
Could you get me a commission? If I could be in Ned and Fletch's (brothers) division "it would really be bully." It would really be bully. "& I wish you would let ["mamma" send me] a bottle of Lacryna Crystina" (a wine). It would really be bully.
Second letter:
Dear Papa,
...I am very much grieved...that you should have such a very small opinion of me as you intimate in your letter, that I should be contented with PLAYING SOLDIER down here...I am really hurt that you should think me a MERE TRIFLER. (Emphassis ADDED)
Why on earth should papa ever think that?
My tastes are not warlike like Ned and Fletcher's, but literary & domestic...I don't think I should ever have tried [soldiering] untill [sic] there was an actual necessity for every able bodied (sic!) man, if it hadn't been for Ned and Fletch enlisting.
HELD: Holmes' pants were on fire.
Holmes and Abbott were buddies (I don't like Holmes.). In his 1884 Memorial Day address, Holmes asked his audience of Civil War veterans "Was it just community pressure that caused us to enlist?" To which I answered (unasked), "I think so," and in the next sentence Holmes answered, "I think not." Well, I think Holmes' pants were on fire in that answer, that's what I think. Abbott, despite being an admitted chicken, admits that is why he enlisted.
I have also gotten the impression repeatedly that for many young men enlisting in the Civil War was about proving their manhood. Did they have "the right stuff?" Or were they poofs? Especially privileged, aristocratic Harvards, like Abbott and Holmes. For them, at least at first, it was: "It's not a job. It's an adventure." I don't like that. First letter:
Dear Papa,
We are having an extremely pleasant time down here...the work is just hard enough to give you a rousing appetite...
Could you get me a commission? If I could be in Ned and Fletch's (brothers) division "it would really be bully." It would really be bully. "& I wish you would let ["mamma" send me] a bottle of Lacryna Crystina" (a wine). It would really be bully.
Second letter:
Dear Papa,
...I am very much grieved...that you should have such a very small opinion of me as you intimate in your letter, that I should be contented with PLAYING SOLDIER down here...I am really hurt that you should think me a MERE TRIFLER. (Emphassis ADDED)
Why on earth should papa ever think that?
My tastes are not warlike like Ned and Fletcher's, but literary & domestic...I don't think I should ever have tried [soldiering] untill [sic] there was an actual necessity for every able bodied (sic!) man, if it hadn't been for Ned and Fletch enlisting.
HELD: Holmes' pants were on fire.
