F. G. (Felix Gregory) De Fontaine

author

F. G. (Felix Gregory) De Fontaine

1832–1896

Best known as a 19th-century journalist and prolific writer, he reported from major Civil War battlefields and is often noted for sending one of the first Northern reports of the attack on Fort Sumter. His work ranges from wartime sketches to political and historical writing, reflecting the sharp debates of his era.

1 Audiobook

History of American Abolitionism Its four great epochs, embracing narratives of the ordinance of 1787, compromise of 1820, annexation of Texas, Mexican war, Wilmot proviso, negro insurrections, abolition riots, slave rescues, compromise of 1850, Kansas bill of 1854, John Brown insurrection, 1859, valuable statistics, &c., &c., &c., together with a history of the Southern Confederacy.

History of American Abolitionism Its four great epochs, embracing narratives of the ordinance of 1787, compromise of 1820, annexation of Texas, Mexican war, Wilmot proviso, negro insurrections, abolition riots, slave rescues, compromise of 1850, Kansas bill of 1854, John Brown insurrection, 1859, valuable statistics, &c., &c., &c., together with a history of the Southern Confederacy.

by F. G. (Felix Gregory) De Fontaine

About the author

Born in Boston in 1832, Felix Gregory De Fontaine built a career in journalism and became closely identified with Southern newspapers and public life. Reference sources describe him as a correspondent for the Charleston Courier during the Civil War, and credit him with writing one of the first statements sent North about the attack on Fort Sumter.

De Fontaine was also a notably productive author. Catalog and archive records link him to works including Marginalia, or, Gleanings from an Army Note-Book, Army Letters of 1861–1865, and History of American Abolitionism. Those titles suggest the range of his interests: war reporting, political argument, and large-scale historical narrative.

Because much of his writing grew out of the sectional conflicts of the 19th century, modern readers may notice that his perspective is strongly shaped by the politics of his time. He died in 1896, leaving behind a body of work that serves both as literature and as a window into how Americans of his generation understood war, slavery, and national identity.