January 14 Monday – The Alonzo Child left for New Orleans.
January 21 Monday to March 30, 1861 – Ten letters signed by Quintus Curtius Snodgrass were published on various dates in the New Orleans Daily Crescent. Until 1964, most scholars attributed these letters to Sam. Alan Bates then presented an article showing that the dates penned and published would have precluded them from being Sam’s [Bates 31-7]. Could Sam have assigned them dates different than the day of composition? Or, are they, as Bates claims, “the tedious productions of an obscure newspaper reporter”?
January 24 Thursday – The Alonzo Child arrived in New Orleans
January 29 Tuesday – The Alonzo Child left for St. Louis.
February 5 Tuesday – The Alonzo Child arrived in Cairo, and did not continue to St. Louis due to icy river conditions.
February 6 Wednesday – Sam was in Cairo, Illinois. He wrote his brother Orion and sister-in-law, Mary (Mollie) Clemens:
My Dear Brother:
February 8 Friday – The Alonzo Child left Cairo for New Orleans.
February 16 Saturday – The Alonzo Child arrived in New Orleans.
February 18 Monday – The Alonzo Child left for St. Louis. The committee on petitions for the Polar Star Lodge Number Seventy-nine of St. Louis reported favorably on Sam’s petition for membership. Sam was recommended by John M. Leavenworth (b.1835?) brother of Zeb, and John T. “Tom” Moore. Sam Clemens was duly elected to receive the Masonic first degree [Jones 364; Strong 88].
Note: Moore was a “mud clerk” on the Roe; see July 6, 1859 and Feb. 18, 1861; also letter from Karl Gerhardt of May 5, 1909 mentioning Moore.
February 25 Monday – The Alonzo Child arrived in St. Louis.
February 27 Wednesday – The Alonzo Child left for New Orleans. Sam took his mother, cousin Ella Creel (b. 1840), and Miss Castle of St. Louis on a pleasure trip from St. Louis with 20 or 30 other couples to New Orleans aboard the Alonzo Child [MTL 1: 118n4].
March 6 Wednesday – The Alonzo Child arrived in New Orleans with Sam’s pleasure cruise contingent [MTL 1: 118n4].
March 7 Thursday – The likely day that Sam took his mother and the girls around New Orleans in a carriage and rode out to Lake Pontchartrain “in the cars.” See Mar. 18 entry, letter to Orion.
March 8 Friday – The Alonzo Child left for St. Louis with Sam’s pleasure cruise contingent.
March 15 Friday – The Alonzo Child arrived in St. Louis. The pleasure cruise was completed.
March 18 Monday – Sam was in St. Louis with his mother, Jane Clemens, and sister, Pamela. He wrote Orion on this date about visiting a museum and seeing Frederic E. Church’s oil painting, Heart of the Andes. He also wrote of his mother’s disapproval of a dance, the Schottische (like the Polka) that he, his sister, and Miss Castle took part of [MTL 1: 116]. Note: The source for this letter in the printed volume was Paine’s text; Here are transcribed parts of the letter that have surfaced since, from MTP’s “drop-in” letter file, as follows:
March 20 Wednesday – The Alonzo Child left for New Orleans. According to records accessed at the Department of Commerce, Steamboat Inspection Service in St. Louis in 1925, Sam’s pilot license, initially issued Apr. 9, 1859 was renewed a second time on this day [The Twainian, January 1940].
March 26 Tuesday – The Alonzo Child arrived in New Orleans.
March 27 Wednesday – Orion received news of his commission as Secretary of Nevada Territory [ET&S 1: 12].
March 28 Thursday – The Alonzo Child left for St. Louis.
April 5 Friday – The Alonzo Child arrived in St. Louis.
April 9 Tuesday – The Alonzo Child left for New Orleans.
April 16 Tuesday – The Alonzo Child arrived in New Orleans.
April 18 Thursday – The Alonzo Child left for St. Louis. From Sam’s 1905 notebook entry: Alonzo Ch. heard of firing on Fort Sumter, April 18 at Vicksburg on way down (the day after it happened.) We hoisted stars & bars & played Dixie [Bates 36]. Note: Ft. Sumter was bombarded on Apr. 12, 1861.