Harper's Weekly, March 30, 1861
Twain's Last Months
on the
Mississippi
BY J. STANLEY MATTSON*
Few segments of Twain's life have been more shrouded in confusion and ambiguity than the period immediately preceding the
Civil War. Answers to the rather simple question concerning
Twain's whereabouts have proven particularly elusive.
In 1899, while writing an autobiographical sketch to assist his
nephew, Samuel Moffett, in the preparation of a biographical
essay,1 Mark Twain recalled,
*J. Stanley Mattson received his B.S. from the State University of New
York, Oswego, and his M.S. in History from the University of Wisconsin. He is
currently a University Teaching Fellow and doctoral candidate in history at the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
1 Mark Twain, The $30,000 Bequest (New York, 1906) , 330-349.
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