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Bartlett, John Russell (1805-1886) The Barbarities of the Rebels...

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00267.355 Author/Creator: Bartlett, John Russell (1805-1886) Place Written: Providence, Rhode Island Type: Book Date: 1863 Pagination: 1 v. : 40 p. ; 24.2 x 14.5 cm. Order a Copy

Title continues, "...as Shown in their Cruelty to the Federal Wounded and Prisoners; in their Outrages Upon Union Men; in the Murder of Negroes, and in their Unmanly Conduct Throughout the Rebellion." Written by Bartlett as Secretary of State for Rhode Island, under the pseudonym of Colonel Percy Howard, supposedly late of the Royal Horse Guards. Printed privately and marked "printed for the author." The preface states that the author has seen wars in both Europe and Asia but "has been shocked with the barbarities with which the war has been conducted by the South; barbarities which no war of ancient or modern times has exhibited, and which the savages of America, Africa or Polynesia never approached." Bartlett compiled accounts of barbaritity from newspapers and official reports. Says it should be read by soldiers in the Union army, the Copperheads of the North, and Europeans. There are several articles on abused and murdered slaves.

I Nevins 186, III Dornbusch 600, Sabin 33275. In 1850-1853, Bartlett was the commissioner on the part of the United States for the survey of the boundary between the United States and Mexico, but owing to the lack of funds did not finish the work. After being superseded by another commissioner upon the accession of President Franklin Pierce, he published A Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua (2 vols., 1854), which, contains much valuable scientific and historical material concerning the south-west. In 1842, he joined ethnologist and public servant Albert Gallatin in founding the American Ethnological Society. He is chiefly remembered however, for his Dictionary of Americaitisms (1848), a pioneering work which, although supplanted by later dialect studies, is still of value to students of language and remains a valuable contribution to the subject. From 1855 to 1872 he was secretary of state of Rhode Island, and while serving in this capacity thoroughly re-arranged and classified the state records and prepared various bibliographies and compilations, relating chiefly to the history of the state.

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