A Young Dutchman Views Post-Civil War America: Diary of Claude August Crommelin

209 Pages·2011·3.29 MB·English

by  Claude August Crommelin, H. Roger Grant, Augustus J. Veenendaal Jr.

A Young Dutchman
Views Post–Civil War America

A Young Dutchman
Views Post–Civil War America
Diary of Claude August Crommelin
Claude August Crommelin
Translated by Augustus J. Veenendaal, Jr.
Edited with an introduction by
Augustus J. Veenendaal, Jr., and H. Roger Grant
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
Publication of this book has been supported in part by a grant from the Department of
History, Clemson University.
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No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, elec-
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Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data
Crommelin, Claude August, 1840-1 874.
A young Dutchman views post-C ivil War America : diary of Claude August Crommelin /
Claude August Crommelin ; translated by Augustus J. Veenendaal, Jr. ; edited with an in-
troduction by Augustus J. Veenendaal, Jr., and H. Roger Grant.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 253- 35609- 3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Crommelin, Claude August,
1840–1874—Diaries. 2. Crommelin, Claude August, 1840–1 874—Travel—United States.
3. United States—Social conditions—1865–1918—Sources. 4. United States—Economic
conditions—1865– 1918—Sources. 5. Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865–1877)—Sources.
6. United States—Description and travel. I. Veenendaal, A. J. II. Grant, H. Roger,
[date]- III. Title.
E168.C93 2011
973.8—dc22
2010035372
1 2 3 4 5 16 15 14 13 12 11
For Jannie and Martha

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. From Amsterdam through Belgium and Great Britain
to New York: April–May 1866 18
2. In New York City and Westward to Chicago: May 1866 29
3. From Chicago through Illinois and Northward to Minnesota:
May–June 1866 37
4. In Chicago and by way of Cincinnati and Washington, D.C.,
to Philadelphia: June–July 1866 49
5. New York City, Albany, Niagara Falls, Pennsylvania Oil,
and Canada: July–August 1866 56
6. In Boston and New England: August–September 1866 61
7. In New York City, New Jersey, and Troy, New York:
September–October 1866 71
8. In Boston, Providence, Albany, and back to New York City:
October–December 1866 76
9. In the South: Charleston and Savannah: December 1866 88
10. In Georgia and Virginia: December 1866 103
11. To Baltimore and Washington, D.C.:
December 1866–January 1867 111
12. In New York City: January 1867 120
13. In New York City and Boston and Salem, Massachusetts:
January–F ebruary 1867 132
Notes 139
Index 175

Acknowledgments
This book is the result of a joint effort of two historians, one Dutch and
one Ameri can. The Dutchman stumbled upon the diary of Claude August Crom-
melin while conducting research for another book project in the vast holdings of
the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul. He grew enthusiastic about the text
of the diary and the way Crommelin described America and Ameri cans a cen-
tury and a half ago. He then translated the Dutch text into English and asked his
Ameri can friend if he shared his assessment of the diary for an Ameri can audience.
When the answer came in the affirmative, they set to work to make the document
understandable for an interested public.
During his travels to and in America Crommelin met many people. We have
tried to identify most of them by using the usual biographical dictionaries, Ameri-
can, English, and Dutch, and other research works. The titles of the more special-
ized literature are provided in the endnotes to each chapter. Some names, however,
proved to be elusive, but they are all listed in the general index.
We want to thank the staffs of the University Archives and the Cooper Library
at Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, for research and interlibrary
loan materials; the Royal Library of The Hague and the Institute of Netherlands
History also in The Hague; the Minnesota Historical Society and the Amsterdam
and Rotterdam City archives. We appreciate the generous financial support given
to this project by the Department of History at Clemson and its chair, Professor
Thomas Kuehn.
Of the many individuals who have assisted us in some ways, we first of all
wish to mention Liesbeth Crommelin and her husband, Henk Visser, of Amster-
dam. They were enthusiastic about the project from our first tentative requests