The Great Peshtigo Fire - Reporting the Unimaginable Part 3

Today I will be continuing with my posts on the Great Peshtigo Fire.  This is the last series of posts dealing with a rather long article that appeared in the New York Times on October 17, 1871 regarding the fires.  This last bit is the longest of the three sections I broke it into, but I've got to admit that I'm rather impressed with how much space the New York Times actually gave to the fire.

The New York Times, 17OCT1871, pg4

"Several Villages Utterly Destroyed - Appalling Loss of Life - Four Hundred Dead Bodies Already Recovered.

From the Green Bay (Wis.) State Gazette, Extra, Oct. 10

On Sunday night, about 9 o'clock, fire broke out in the southern part of the Belgian settlement at Brussels, in Door County, and rage with terrific violence, destroying about 180 houses, and leaving nothing of a large and flourishing settlement but five houses.  Nine persons are missing - supposed to have perished in the flames.  The names are as follow:  Mrs. JOHN B. WENDRICKS,  and three children; three children of JOS. DANDOY; one child of JOS. MONFILS, and a young man by the name of MAURICE DELVEAUX.  The remains of some of the clothing of the latter person were found, by which he was identified.

On Monday morning, 200 people breakfasted on four loaves of bread.  Houseless and homeless, the camp out on their land, and seem struck dumb with their great losses.  Their houses, barns, implements of farming, house furniture and cattle were burned and destroyed.  The roads are filled with carcasses of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, suffocated by the smoke and heat.  At Sturgeon Bay WILLIAMSON'S mill is reported burned, and fifty persons are said to have lost their lives.  our informant reports the most pitiable state of things all through the district devastated by the fire, and hunger and starvation staring the wretched inhabitants in the face.

The [sic] inhabitants during the conflagration only saved their lives by throwing [sic] themselves on the ground and covering their heads.  They had no warning of the approach of the fire, except the ringing of the church bell for a few minutes in advance.  Then suddenly a great fire came down on them from the woods, roaring like a cataract, and they had no time to save anything.  The heavens were all ablaze, and the earth also seemed on fire.

PESHTIGO, MENOMINEE, AND MENEKAUNEE.

The George L. Dunlap has just arrived from Escanaba, having been delayed thirty hours by heavy winds and dense smoke.  Her passengers bring terrible accounts of the devastation by fire.  At Menominee they received accounts of the burning, last night, of nearly the entire village of Menekaunee.  At the mouth of the Menominee river, on the Wisconsin side, 150 buildings were burned, including three extensive saw-mills, owned by McCartney & Hamilton, Spofford & Gilmore and Spaulding & Porter, the latter being the largest, with one exception, on the bay shore.

The villages of Menominee and Marinette were in great danger, and many of the people fled to the bay shore for safety, remaining in the water all night.  The steamer Union, lying in the river, took about 300 women and children to a place of safety in the harbor.  The women and children of Menominee went on board the steamers Favorite and Dunbar and vessels lying at anchor in the roadstead.  The male portion of the population of three villages lying within three miles of each other spent the whole night in fighting the fire.  No lives are known to be lost, with the exception of one man, who died from fright after he had been rescued from the water, and another, who was sick in a house, which was burned before he could be rescued.  At a small settlement of five or six houses, called Birch Creek, on the State-road, none miles west of Menominee, every house was burned, and ten or twelve lives lost, only three persons escaping.

At Peshtigo Harbor they were met by a number of people from the village of Peshtigo, seven miles west, who gave a heart-rending account of the total destruction of their town.  During Sunday evening a hurricane of wind from the west sprang up, which fanned the smouldering fires int he timber into a blaze and drove the flames into the village.  It came rushing into the village between 9 and 10 o'clock.  So great was the violence of the wind that in less than one minute after the first house took fire the whole village was in flames.  There was no prospect of checking the flames, for the smouldering forest presented one mass of fire.  The people could only flee to the river for safety.  Those living in close proximity to the water reached it and waded in to their necks.  Here they remained from two to four hours, and by constant wetting of their heads were enabled to escape with their lives, although many were terribly burned.  Those who lived only one or two streets from the river were struck down by the fiery fiend and burned to death.  Whole families were thus destroyed.  This morning the streets were strewn with burned bodies.  In one case eight or nine bodies were found together.  One family, consisting of father, mother and three children, were found dead together within twenty feet of the stream.  It is impossible as yet to form any correct estimate of the loss of life at Peshtigo.  Fully seventy-five are known to have perished by fire and water.  Reports are constantly coming in of new cases of destruction of property and life.  In Peshtigo not a single house remains standing.  The immense wooden-ware factory and the large saw-mill of the Peshtigo Company, at the village, are burned.  Stores, dwelling-houses, &c., are totally destroyed, not a vestige of property remaining.  The people who were saved escaped in a destitute condition, being without clothing or provision.  The names of but few of the lost could be learned.  Among those known to have perished are JOSEPH S. BEEBE, book-keeper to the Company, wife and two children, and Mr. THOMPSON, express agent.

It is supposed that the inmates of the Company's boarding-house, 100 in number, nearly all perished in the flames.  A special messenger was dispatched to this city last evening for supplies for the people of Peshtigo, and the steamer George L. Dunlap left this morning with everything necessary for their sustenance and comfort.

Aid for Wisconsin and Michigan

E. C. FISHER, President of the Anchor Life Insurance Company, No. 178 Broadway, states that being personally acquainted with the people of Maintee, Mich., whose homes have been destroyed, he will gladly take charge of and forward any donations, either in money, clothing, or other necessities, that the generous-hearted may contribute for their relief.  Acknowledgements will be made through the public press."

Amanuensis Monday - After Fort Sumter

I arrived in Charleston, South Carolina Sunday evening..safe, sound, and in my hotel room with two days to see Charleston before the NGS conference starts.  Undoubtedly, Fort Sumter will be one of the sights I see, so I decided to take a look back this Amanuensis Monday to an article in the April 15, 1861 issue of the New York Times to see how the attack on Fort Sumter was received 150 years ago.

"The People and the Issue

The reverberations from Charleston Harbor have brought about what months of logic would have been impotent to effect -- the rapid condensation of public sentiment in the Free States.  The North is now a unit.  Party lines have shriveled, as landmarks disappear before the outpouring of volcanic lava.  The crucial test of this is New York, City [sic] the spot most tainted by the Southern poison.  Not the thick insulation which the commercial spirit puts between the conscience and duty -- not the obliquity engendered by long years of the most perverse political education -- have been able to withstand the electric fire of loyal indignation evoked by the assassin-stroke aimed at the heart of the Republic.  There are now no such ardent supporters of the Government as those who have been life-long Democrats.  It is a fact full of omen, and one which persons imperfectly acquainted with the impulses that lie at the bottom of the popular heart could never have anticipated, that the very roughs of the City are aroused, and bring their passionate devotion to the cause of their country.  One intense, inspiring sentiment of patriotism has fused all other passions in its fiery heat.  Let the Administration now know that twenty millions of loyal freemen approve its act, and imperiously demand the vindication of the integrity and majesty of the Republic.

Viewed in the light of these events, the lull that for so many weeks reigned in the public spirit becomes very intelligible.  A suspense -- a long, dumb, unconscious waiting, very pathetic in its character -- held the people's mind.  Treason so vile paralyzed thought and will.  The way was not clear what to do.  It could not at first be believed that the country really held men so insane, so suicidal, as to attempt to transform such threats as theirs into deeds.  The sheer demonism which marked the programme of social construction put forth by the Slave Power, caused it rather to assume the aspect of a terrific species of irony.  And then, when the designs of the rebels became only too apparent, and it was evident that naught but the exercise of soveign [sic] Might could avail to check those frenzied men, there was honest hesitancy in resorting to the force of arms.  Civil war runs counter to the theory of the Republic.  The framers of our Government made such provisions as would forever render rebellion unnecessary.  All experience has shown how easily this Government can be induced to change its rulers, if any good reason for doing so was presented, and earnestly and persistently forced upon public opinion.  Besides this, there was a doubt in many minds as to the degree to which the theory of Democracy allowed of opposition to the avowed and deliberate will of sovereign States.  On the whole, it presented itself as a painful, perplexing problem.  That problem has at length been solved by the public conscience, and the solution sweeps away forever the sophistries as to State Rights and coercion which entangled the subject.  The lull is over -- and an equinoctial storm of popular indignation has ensued.

In entering upon this struggle, the great community of Free States does so, prepared to bring to bear on the vindication of its national honor inexhaustible material resources.  Her census shows returns which, under other circumstances, would have been the wonder of the world.  It has, indeed, been industriously declared by timid croakers that "war is national ruin."  There is no more absurd chimera.  The Free States are richer and more populous than England was under PITT, when she fought the long fight with NAPLEON, and vastly stronger than France when she battled triumphantly against all the Continental powers.

As to moral force, it panoplies the Republic as with a wall of fire.  She enters, the contest with that triple arming which justice gives to a cause.  The moral conscience of the world is on her side.  It is true that the rebels, lured by the support of that European element whose sympathies are contingent with the rate of duties levied on imported goods by the United States, have hoped for the recognition of the European Powers.  That delusion is doomed to be rudely dispelled.  The rulers of England and France do not dare to recognize that League.  The unmaking of Ministries would hang on the decision, and they know it.

The Administration is not brought face to face with a Revolution.  This is not the attitude.  It has to deal with a plot, a conspiracy.  There will be no "fraternal blood" shed, unless it be the blood of men who are willfully and persistently in the position of traitors.  The right of revolution is not denied; -- changes, prompted by causes material or moral, and effected through legal and constitutional means, are contemplated with calmness.  But that Treason should be claimed as a right -- that anarchy should rule -- it is this which thrills with indignant amazement.  How profound has been the humiliation, how hot the indignation, are shown in the tumultuous surgings of passion that are now baptising with one common sentiment of constitutional unity and patriotic devotion every loyal American heart."

Certainly the author of this article was dramatic with his choice of words, but not more so than others of the time.  You can see the passion he felt about the events at Fort Sumter, although he gave no description or very direct reference to these events as I would have expected and hoped for.  The Northern states that were so divided as to what to do with the South were outraged and united by the attack.  There was no loss of life apart from 2 Union Soldiers that were accidental casualties, but it was clear to the North that the "Rebels" were aggressive and the Union was now divided by more than words.  By more than a declaration of secession.  The South awakened a giant.  One filled with as much passion to restore the Union as the South had to seceed.  Our country and it's people would be changed forever.

It is important to keep in mind that while many Northerners would have fought a war to free the slaves, there were many that were not in favor of that, and perhaps more hypocritically many that wished to free the slaves because they felt it was wrong, but did not want those freed to move North as it would endanger their jobs by providing a large unskilled and lower-paid work force.  Sound familiar?  Sadly, the fears of people change little as time goes by.  Perhaps we don't learn from history so easily.
Regardless of the fact that the North entered the war mainly to keep the Union united, the outcome of the war was that the slaves were freed to begin the uphill battle for equality.  A battle that still has not completely been won.

Some things never seem to change.  It takes a violent action to unite a bunch of bickering people.  Maybe some day we'll get past that as well.