Seven letters, approximately twenty-six total pages, most about 8 x 5 inches. One letter dated 1862; one dated 1863; two dated 1
1869 · United States, Germany, and others
by [Civil War - Politics - Americans Abroad] Peck, Tracy
United States, Germany, and others, 1869. Seven letters, approximately twenty-six total pages, most about 8 x 5 inches. One letter dated 1862; one dated 1863; two dated 1864; one dated 1869; two without date. Two of the letters are written in French (untranslated). Some appear to be missing initial and/or final pages. Generally very good or better with one showing water damage, though legible.. Tracy Peck (1838-1921) was born in Bristol, Connecticut, to a family who had been in the Hartford area since the 17th century. According to his obituary in The Classical Journal (Vol. 17, No. 6), Peck studied at Yale and then abroad in Germany, returned to the United States to teach Latin at Cornell and Yale, and then went back to Europe again, where he served as the Director of the American School of Classical Studies in Rome until his death.
Offered here is a group of letters from friends and family to Peck, mainly written during the American Civil War, when Peck was studying in Germany. The letters update Peck on the war, politics, and the activities and fortunes of various friends.
Many of Peck's friends were academics, and avoided involvement in the Civil War nearly as well as Peck himself did. Not all were so lucky, though. A friend, probably a Yale classmate, writes from Massachusetts "with a notice of the death of F.S. Davis":
"He died, poor fellow, in the hospital at Chattanooga about the middle of April. After leaving college he spent the first winter at home, + joined the 'Memphis Southrons' in March ('62) He was at many battles, and suffered untold hardships for one year when [he] died, the first martyr of our class." (August 17, 1863)
Another friend, Sheldon, had just completed his service:
"He had been in several severe battles, had been captured, and taken to Richmond[.] While in service he met Bob Stiles who wouldn't shake hands with him, but tried to prove that unionism was oppression".
Though the war would continue for several more years, the friend writes that zeal for it is already waning:
"The war goes on languidly. The enthusiasm has died out. Everyone expects the war to close, by the south yielding to reasonable conditions. There is no apprehension felt as to the final issue. It has about ceased to be talked of."
That same friend would later travel abroad as well, though his aspirations would be less intellectual than were Peck's. He writes from Egypt, where it is so hot that "Except for some luscious oranges which we got of a lightly-clad nymph we should have perished of thirst", about a comical scene:
"A tall muselman at one of the intermediate [train] stations had lain down his silk mantle and turning to the east gave through the prostrations + prayers of his religion with great fervor and to the intense satisfaction of the ladies. Suddenly he touched his forehead to the ground + leaped up. Their interest redoubled + their attention with it when to my great amusement he squatted down, unbuttoned his trousers + began to pump ship in full view. The abrupt descent from prayer to pissing was too much for the females while I stifled a laugh in a cough + my jacket handkerchief." (No Date)
A later comment in the same letter, where he describes being escorted up one of the pyramids and then "shout[ing] 'be quiet' to the clamoring Egyptians"-whom he also describes as a "rapacious brood"-is likewise revealing of his attitude towards the locals.
The latest letter in the group, from Richard Harck, is more high-minded. Harck inquires whether, as Peck's "foot [...] again walks on hallowed native soil", he has "acquired such a situation among the lumina of your country, as your knowledge and learning deserve" (July 30, 1869). Harck is in Germany, where there "is an utter stagnation in politics" as they approach the unification:
"The particularities and sectional ideas of the southern population and their sovereigns, the antagony of the there powerfull clergy and the partly illiberal constitution and laws of the North German Union. Bismarck may be a great statesman and minster for foreign affairs, but not a fit man to rule the interior of a constitutional state. [...] But he cannot stop the progress [of] the ever advancing ideas of liberalism and freedom; the powerful public opinion overwhelms him [...]".
Overall, a look at the effects on ordinary lives of several important political upheavals of the mid-19th century. (Inventory #: List2604)
Offered here is a group of letters from friends and family to Peck, mainly written during the American Civil War, when Peck was studying in Germany. The letters update Peck on the war, politics, and the activities and fortunes of various friends.
Many of Peck's friends were academics, and avoided involvement in the Civil War nearly as well as Peck himself did. Not all were so lucky, though. A friend, probably a Yale classmate, writes from Massachusetts "with a notice of the death of F.S. Davis":
"He died, poor fellow, in the hospital at Chattanooga about the middle of April. After leaving college he spent the first winter at home, + joined the 'Memphis Southrons' in March ('62) He was at many battles, and suffered untold hardships for one year when [he] died, the first martyr of our class." (August 17, 1863)
Another friend, Sheldon, had just completed his service:
"He had been in several severe battles, had been captured, and taken to Richmond[.] While in service he met Bob Stiles who wouldn't shake hands with him, but tried to prove that unionism was oppression".
Though the war would continue for several more years, the friend writes that zeal for it is already waning:
"The war goes on languidly. The enthusiasm has died out. Everyone expects the war to close, by the south yielding to reasonable conditions. There is no apprehension felt as to the final issue. It has about ceased to be talked of."
That same friend would later travel abroad as well, though his aspirations would be less intellectual than were Peck's. He writes from Egypt, where it is so hot that "Except for some luscious oranges which we got of a lightly-clad nymph we should have perished of thirst", about a comical scene:
"A tall muselman at one of the intermediate [train] stations had lain down his silk mantle and turning to the east gave through the prostrations + prayers of his religion with great fervor and to the intense satisfaction of the ladies. Suddenly he touched his forehead to the ground + leaped up. Their interest redoubled + their attention with it when to my great amusement he squatted down, unbuttoned his trousers + began to pump ship in full view. The abrupt descent from prayer to pissing was too much for the females while I stifled a laugh in a cough + my jacket handkerchief." (No Date)
A later comment in the same letter, where he describes being escorted up one of the pyramids and then "shout[ing] 'be quiet' to the clamoring Egyptians"-whom he also describes as a "rapacious brood"-is likewise revealing of his attitude towards the locals.
The latest letter in the group, from Richard Harck, is more high-minded. Harck inquires whether, as Peck's "foot [...] again walks on hallowed native soil", he has "acquired such a situation among the lumina of your country, as your knowledge and learning deserve" (July 30, 1869). Harck is in Germany, where there "is an utter stagnation in politics" as they approach the unification:
"The particularities and sectional ideas of the southern population and their sovereigns, the antagony of the there powerfull clergy and the partly illiberal constitution and laws of the North German Union. Bismarck may be a great statesman and minster for foreign affairs, but not a fit man to rule the interior of a constitutional state. [...] But he cannot stop the progress [of] the ever advancing ideas of liberalism and freedom; the powerful public opinion overwhelms him [...]".
Overall, a look at the effects on ordinary lives of several important political upheavals of the mid-19th century. (Inventory #: List2604)
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