March 17, 1881 Thursday

scott 5 February 2023

March 17 Thursday – Wm. Hudner, Hartford merchant billed Sam $22 for Mar. 17; May $27, June $29.70 for undecipherable purchases [MTP].

Thomas A. Davis pastor (& cousin of R.R. Morris above) wrote from Trenton to ask Clemens for a donation of $125 [MTP].

March 16, 1881 Wednesday

scott 5 February 2023

March 16 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his sister, Pamela Moffett.

To-day we bought Mr. Chamberlain’s [Franklin Chamberlin (1821-1896) Hartford attorney] greenhouse & 100 feet of land adjoining our east line (to stop Mr. C. from building a dwelling house there); we have also set architect & builder to work to tear down our kitchen & build a bigger one; & at the same time the decorators will decorate the walls & ceilings of our whole lower floor.

Heading North on the Mississippi

scott 4 February 2023

NORTHWARD:
6 May - departed New Orleans,LA aboard City of Baton Rouge

WE left for St. Louis in the 'City of Baton Rouge,' on a delightfully hot day, but with the main purpose of my visit but lamely accomplished. I had hoped to hunt up and talk with a hundred steamboatmen, but got so pleasantly involved in the social life of the town that I got nothing more than mere five-minute talks with a couple of dozen of the craft.

Baton Rouge - 1882

scott 4 February 2023

BATON ROUGE was clothed in flowers, like a bride—no, much more so; like a greenhouse. For we were in the absolute South now—no modifications, no compromises, no half-way measures. The magnolia-trees in the Capitol grounds were lovely and fragrant, with their dense rich foliage and huge snow-ball blossoms. The scent of the flower is very sweet, but you want distance on it, because it is so powerful. They are not good bedroom blossoms—they might suffocate one in his sleep.

Port Hudson - 1882

scott 4 February 2023

We passed Port Hudson, scene of two of the most terrific episodes of the war—the night-battle there between Farragut's fleet and the Confederate land batteries, April 14th, 1863; and the memorable land battle, two months later, which lasted eight hours—eight hours of exceptionally fierce and stubborn fighting—and ended, finally, in the repulse of the Union forces with great slaughter. [LOTM p414-5]

Subscribe to
© 2026 Twain's Geography, All rights reserved.