The Home Front: 1861 to 1865A British Traveler |
Did things on the home front change over time? |
Yes. In the autumn of 1864, a British travel writer arrived in Newfoundland, went to mainland Canada, then visited parts of the North and Midwest. His commentary, A Short American Tramp in the Fall of 1864, was published the following year. On first arriving in coastal Maine, he had this to say:
“The number of maimed men in the streets savored of war. Many strong young chaps, short of limbs, were walking or hopping about on crutches. With this exception there appeared to be no marked features in the Yankee population. All the names on the shops were familiar old-country names, the faces were familiar faces, the accent very like neighboring accents.” If these people of Maine could be moved to Scotland, Ireland, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick, they would fit in quite well, he declared.