The Civil War Diary of Benjamin H. Ellicott continued

As the weather heated up in the summer of 1863, so did the Civil War, with the siege of Vicksburg finally completed, and then the momentous Battle(s) at Gettysburg. Benjamin Ellicott, writing from his home in Baltimore, struggled to make sense of what was happening, in an age when communications were still quite primitive, compared to our instant access to events. Despite telegrams and the telegraph, news was hard to get, and reliable news even harder. Ellicott’s journal shows us how different life is for civilians in a civil war compared to a war fought overseas, on someone else’s territory.¹

June 1863. The Civil War has been going on for over two years now, with no end in sight. Benjamin H. Ellicott, watching it all from his home in Baltimore, has written an amazing diary of events.¹ His skepticism about official reports and his access to both southern and northern newspapers makes him a valuable observer. And it doesn’t hurt that he was very articulate.

April 1863 was another very difficult month for the country. The biggest news was “affairs at or around Vicksburg.”

Benjamin H. Ellicott’s diary, continued.¹ See Ellicott’s Diary, January 1863 and Ellicott’s Diary, February 1863. The diary ends in August 1863. For the next five weeks, I will publish a month from the diary.