George Templeton Strong

George Templeton Strong (January 26, 1820 – July 21, 1875) was an American lawyer, musician and diarist. His 2,250-page diary, discovered in the 1930s, provides a striking personal account of life in the 19th century, especially during the events of the American Civil War. It covers 1835 to 1875. The historian Paula Baker described him as "perhaps the northern equivalent of South Carolina's Mary Chesnut: quotable, opinionated, and a careful follower of events." He was a well-placed civic leader who was very well known in New York City. He served with distinction on the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, but never occupied any significant civic positions and had no special influence. Life and career Strong was born at 50 Franklin Street, New York City, on January 26, 1820. He lived to write intimately of the turbulent years leading up to and through the American Civil War, as well as the corrupt and turbulent years in New York following the war. Strong received his early education from Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School (then known as simply as Columbia Grammar School). In 1838 he graduated from Columbia College with high honors and served as president of the Philolexian Society. That same year he joined the law practice of his father, a business that afterwards became Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Today it is the nation's oldest operating law firm. On May 15, 1848, Strong married Ellen Ruggles in Grace Church, New York. A gifted amateur singer, she was the daughter of Samuel B. Ruggles. They went on to have three children together. The family was musical, and both Strong and his wife performed as amateurs. He served as president of the New York Philharmonic Society for several years. Their son, also named George Templeton Strong (1856–1948), became a noted Romantic composer and painter. Estranged from his father at an early age, the younger Strong moved to Switzerland in the late nineteenth century and did most of his work while living in Europe, but he is nevertheless generally considered to be an American artist. In 1853, Strong was elected a trustee of Columbia College. He served for many years as a vestryman at the prominent Episcopal Trinity Church on Wall Street. He helped found the United States Sanitary Commission, which helped ameliorate the sufferings of wounded soldiers during the American Civil War. He was also treasurer and member of its executive committee throughout the war.