Charles Carleton Coffin: War Correspondent, Traveller, Author, and Statesman

by William Elliot Griffis

W. E. G.

Ithaca, N. Y., May 24, 1898.

Contents

• CHAPTER PAGE
  
• I. [Introductory Chapter.] 13
  
• II. [Of Revolutionary Sires.] 19
  
• III. [The Days of Homespun.] 30
  
• IV. [Politics, Travel, and Business.] 41
  
• V. [Electricity and Journalism.] 55
  
• VI. [The Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln.] 66
  
• VII. [The War Correspondent.] 79
  
• VIII. [With the Army of the Potomac.] 95
  
• IX. [Ho, for the Gunboats, Ho!] 107
  
• X. [At Antietam and Fredericksburg.] 119
  
• XI. [The Ironclads off Charleston.] 132
  
• XII. [Gettysburg: High Tide and Ebb.] 141
  
• XIII. [The Battles in the Wilderness.] 151
  
• XIV. [Camp Life and News-gathering.] 162
  
• XV. ["The Old Flag Waves over Sumter".] 175
  
• XVI. [With Lincoln in Richmond.] 183
  
• XVII. [The Glories of Europe.] 189
  
• XVIII. [Through Oriental Lands.] 204
  
• XIX. [In China and Japan.] 215
  
• XX. [The Great Northwest.] 229
  
• XXI. [The Writer of History.] 238
  
• XXII. [Music and Poetry.] 256
  
• XXIII. [Shawmut Church.] 268
  
• XXIV. [The Free Churchman.] 284
  
• XXV. [Citizen, Statesman, and Reformer.] 294
  
• XXVI. [A Saviour of Human Life.] 308
  
• XXVII. [Life's Evening Glow.] 321
  
• XXVIII. [The Home at Alwington.] 333
  
• XXIX. [The Golden Wedding.] 341

Charles Carleton Coffin

INTRODUCTION.

Charles Carleton Coffin had a face that helped one to believe in God. His whole life was an evidence of Christianity. His was a genial, sunny soul that cheered you. He was an originator and an organizer of happiness. He had no ambition to be rich. His investments were in giving others a start and helping them to win success and joy. He was a soldier of the pen and a knight of truth. He began the good warfare in boyhood. He laid down armor and weapons only on the day that he changed his world. His was a long and beautiful life, worth both the living and the telling. He loved both fact and truth so well that one need write only realities about him. He cared little for flattery, so we shall not flatter him. His own works praise him in the gates.

He had blue eyes that often twinkled with fun, for Mr. Coffin loved a joke. He was fond to his last day of wit, and could make quick repartee. None enjoyed American humor more than he. He pitied the person who could not see a joke until it was made into a diagram, with annotations. In spirit, he was a boy even after three score and ten. The young folks "lived in that mild and magnificent eye." Out of it came sympathy, kindness, helpfulness. We have seen those eyes flash with indignation. Scorn of wrong snapped in them. Before hypocrisy or oppression his glances were as mimic lightning.