A Philadelphia Perspective The Civil War Diary of Sidney George Fisher

The political history of the Civil War era has seen something of a renaissance in recent years. Scholarly debates that had once been thought old and stale have been reopened with renewed vigor. In monographs, articles, symposia, and book reviews, historians are now contesting the meaning of politics in the Civil War years, the utility of two-party competition to the northern war effort, and whether or not most nineteenth-century Americans actually cared much at all about politics. The diary of Sidney George Fisher offers many first-hand insights into some of the most important political events of the mid-nineteenth century, and is thus useful for addressing many current historiographical debates. At the same time, social, cultural, military, and intellectual historians will also find Fisher's diary beneficial. Fisher recounts, in wonderful detail, his daily life in Philadelphia and its suburbs, one of the most important regions of nineteenth-century America. His personal diary should find a wide readership among Civil War scholars, local historians, political historians, political scientists, Civil War buffs, and anyone interested in Philadelphia history or the Civil War.Sidney George Fisher's diary kept not only a record of his daily routine, but also an account and analysis of current events in the United States. Indeed, on November 9, 1861, he remarked, "My diary has become little else than a record of the events of the war, which occupies all thoughts and conversation." The "record of the events" contained in this volume is a truly significant wartime testimony, and scholars of nineteenth-century America are fortunate to have it reissued in the twenty-first century. It is the thoughts and conversations Fisher set down on paper that make this diary such a valuable resource. Fisher, a member of Philadelphia's high society, recorded detailed descriptions of countless conversations on street corners, arrests of civilians for treason (including some members of his family), critiques of partisan speeches and pamphlets, second-hand descriptions of battles and soldiers' exploits, accounts of runaway slaves, descriptions of urban mob violence, opinions on foreign policy, and sketches of U.S. Sanitary Commission events, to name a few. Also included in the diary are many reports of dinners, parties, weddings and funerals at famous Philadelphia homes and estates. As Fisher describes his daily life and his opinions on the war, his diary offers insights into the most important issues of Civil War America, including the secession crisis, slavery and emancipation, war and peace, personal financial hardships, restriction of civil liberties, black suffrage, partisan politics, landmark judicial decisions, and democratic society in America.

JONATHAN W. WHITE is a Ph.D. candidate in United States History at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has published articles on Civil War politics in Civil War History, American Nineteenth Century History, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, and Pennsylvania Heritage. In 2005 he was awarded the John T. Hubbell Prize for the best article in Civil War history for the previous year.