June Seventeenth
GENEROUS TRIBUTE OF A BRAVE FOE AND DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN SOLDIER AND CITIZEN
Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia never sustained defeat. Finally succumbing to exhaustion, to the end they were not overthrown in fight.
Charles Francis Adams
(Massachusetts)
June Eighteenth
Now, Ham, de only nigger whut wuz runnin’ on der packet,
Got lonesome in de barber-shop, an’ c’u’dn’t stan’ de racket;
An’ so, fur to amuse hese’f, he steamed some wood an’ bent it,
An’ soon he had a banjo made—de fust dat wuz invented.
De ’possum had as fine a tail as dis dat I’s a-singin’;
De ha’r’s so long an’ thick an’ strong,—des fit fur banjo-stringin’;
Dat nigger shaved ’em off as short as washday-dinner graces;
An’ sorted ob’ em by de size, f’om little E’s to basses.
Irwin Russell
(Origin of the Banjo on Board the Ark)
June Nineteenth
By Captain Winslow’s account, the Kearsarge was struck twenty-eight times; but his ship being armored, my shot and shell fell harmless into the sea. The Alabama was not mortally wounded until after the Kearsarge had been firing at her an hour and ten minutes. In the meantime, in spite of the armor of the Kearsarge, I lodged a rifled percussion shell near her stern post—where there were no chains—which failed to explode because of the defect of the cap. On so slight an incident—the defect of a percussion-cap—did the battle hinge.