We continue to follow Oliver Osborne’s journal – picking up from January 1861.
Here are some comments on the remainder of 1861
-it was a momentous year for the world with the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, the succession of the Confederate states and the first battles of the Civil War. Oliver’s journal is silent on philosophy but he does mention drilling frequently – apparently the old New England militia tradition was still viable (the May 6, 1861 entry mentions a town meeting to organize the militia)
-It was still a close knit community and Oliver seems to have known of most if not all of the deaths that year and attended most of the funerals: