1861: ‘A Sad, Fearful, Raging Year’

(NYTimes) ... The year 1861, which closes to-day, will loom up in immense proportions to the future student of our history – to the antiquarian who searches into the records of the past.
His attention will be attracted by it as the great landmark of our destiny – as the year which precipitated a glorious, and brilliant, and happy past into a turbulent, bloody and uncertain future!- The Cincinnati Daily Enquirer Continued