Showing posts with label Cotton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cotton. Show all posts

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, April 13, 1866

I do not get well. But little of interest. British fund agents and brokers show great impudence in regard to Rebel debts and cotton loans. McHenry, Richardson, and others present plans and schemes which are deserving such a rebuke as should be felt by them and their countrymen.

Stanton made some crude suggestions for national quarantine, not very explicit, and beset with difficulties. I asked if anything of the kind had ever been attempted, if it was not a matter for State or municipal, rather than federal, regulation. He admitted it was, but the other members had not given the subject a thought and did not like to come athwart Stanton.

Doolittle called on me last night full of exceeding great trouble. Insists the President has not as yet taken so firm and decided a stand as duty requires. Wishes me to counsel and urge upon him the necessity of doing something positive. Says the impression is getting pretty universal that the President can do nothing for himself, etc., etc. There is some truth in all this; not that the President lacks courage, but he dislikes to break with those who elected him.

Doolittle wishes Speed to leave, and Stanton also. Says the first has no stamina, nor power, nor character as a lawyer. That he is the laughing-stock of the court and of the first lawyers. Does not and cannot strengthen the President. Suggests that Stanton should be turned out and that Grant should be assigned, temporarily, to the Department. Doolittle earnestly desires me to counsel the President. I told him it would be delicate for me to do so, even if invited by the President, but I would not obtrude upon him in such a matter concerning my colleagues.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 480

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, Sunday, March 1, 1863

Went up to Atchafalaya last night where we threw off our cotton and took on wood. This is a bright, sunny morning, though rather cool. I have observed that nearly every Sunday since the first of the year has been beautiful and bright. No matter how gloomy the weather has been through the week, I have come to look for a pretty Sunday as regularly as the day comes.

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, p. 123

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Congressman Horace Mann, August 28, 1850

ΑUG. 28.

The moneyed interest of the South protects slavery; and the moneyed interest at the North, especially in Massachusetts, or wherever cotton is manufactured, sympathizes with that at the South. One wants slaves to produce the cotton: the other wants many slaves to make cotton cheap. Hence they go together as far as they dare; and our friend ——— said to somebody, he "didn't care a damn if there was another slave State,"—so much has the love of money gangrened his generous soul!

At last the cominus, or hand-to-hand fight, has come. The Texas Boundary Bill is before us. A very good spirit seems to exist this morning; that is, there is a great deal of joking and laughing going on all over the house. Perhaps, however, it is on the principle that persons are prolific of bon-mots when about to be hung.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 320

Saturday, February 3, 2024

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 11, 1865

Clear and pleasant. Cannon heard down the river.

Mr. E. A. Pollard, taken by the Federals in an attempt to run the blockade last spring, has returned, and reports that Gen. Butler has been relieved of his command—probably for his failure to capture Wilmington. Mr. Pollard says that during his captivity he was permitted, on parole, to visit the Northern cities, and he thinks the Northern conscription will ruin the war party.

But, alas! the lax policy inaugurated by Mr. Benjamin, and continued by every succeeding Secretary of War, enables the enemy to obtain information of all our troubles and all our vulnerable points. The United States can get recruits under the conviction that there will be little or no more fighting.

Some $40,000 worth of provisions, belonging to speculators, but marked for a naval bureau and the Mining and Niter Bureau, have been seized at Danville. This is well-if it be not too late.

A letter from Mr. Trenholm, Secretary of the Treasury, to Mr. Wagner, Charleston, S. C. (sent over for approval), appoints him agent to proceed to Augusta, etc., with authority to buy all the cotton for the government, at $1 to $1.25 per pound; and then sell it for sterling bills of exchange to certain parties, giving them permission to remove it within the enemy's lines; or "better still," to have it shipped abroad on government account by reliable parties. This indicates a purpose to die "full-handed," if the government must die, and to defeat the plans of the enemy to get the cotton. Is the Federal Government a party to this arrangement? Gold was $60 for one yesterday. I suppose there is no change to-day.

Judge Campbell, Assistant Secretary, returned to his room today, mine not suiting him.

Col. Sale, Gen. Bragg's military secretary, told me to-day that the general would probably return from Wilmington soon. His plan for filling the ranks by renovating the whole conscription system, will, he fears, slumber until it is too late, when ruin will overtake us! If the President would only put Bragg at the head of the conscription business—and in time—we might be saved.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 382-3

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 17, 1865

Cloudy, and spitting snow.

Mr. Foote's release from custody has been ordered by Congress. The news of the fall of Wilmington, and the cessation of importations at that port, falls upon the ears of the community with stunning effect.

Again we have a rumor of the retirement of Mr. Seddon.

There are more rumors of revolution, and even of displacement of the President by Congress, and investiture of Gen. Lee. It is said the President has done something, recently, which Congress will not tolerate. Idle talk!

Mr. Foote, when arrested, was accompanied by his wife, who had a passport to Tennessee. He said to the Provost Marshal, Doggett, Fredericksburg, that he intended to accompany his family, passing through Washington, and to endeavor to negotiate a peace. He deposited a resignation of his seat in Congress with a friend, which he withdrew upon being arrested. He was arrested and detained "until further orders," by command of the Secretary of War.

Lieut.-Gen. Hood has been relieved, and ordered to report here. The rumor gains belief that Gen. Breckinridge has been offered the portfolio of the War Department by the President. This may be the act alluded to which Congress will not agree to, perhaps, on the ground that Gen. B. remained in the United States Senate long after secession. The general is understood to be staying at G. A. Myers's house, which adds strength to the rumor, for Myers has a keen scent for the sources of power and patronage.

The Surgeon-General states that, during the years 1862 and 1863, there were 1,600,000 cases of disease in hospitals and in the field, with only 74,000 deaths. There have been 23,000 discharges from the armies since the war began.

The Provost Marshal at Fredericksburg telegraphs that his scouts report the enemy have arrested Mrs. Foote, and threaten to rescue Mr. Foote. The Secretary and the President concur in ordering his discharge. The President says that will not be permission for him to pass our lines. He will come here, I suppose.

Mentioning to R. Tyler the fact that many of the clerks, etc. of the War Department favored revolution and the overthrow of the President, he replied that it was a known fact, and that some of them would be hung soon. He feared Mr. Hunter was a submissionist.

The Northern papers say Mr. G. B. Lamar has applied to take the oath of allegiance, to save his and other property.

The Examiner to-day has another article calling for a convention to abolish the Constitution and remove President Davis.

Mr. Seward, United States Secretary of State, escorted Mrs. Foote to her hotel, upon her arrival in Washington.

The following official telegram was received at the War Department last night:

HEADQUARTERS, January 15th, 1865.

HON. J. A. SEDDON.


Gen. Early reports that Gen. Rosser, at the head of three hundred men, surprised and captured the garrison at Beverly, Randolph County, on the 11th instant, killing and wounding a considerable number and taking five hundred and eighty prisoners. His loss slight.

 

R. E. LEE.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 389-90

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, February 19, 1863

ON BOARD THE CONFEDERATE GUN BOAT DR. BEATTY,}
February 19, 1863.}

YESTERDAY the expedition for the "wiping out" of the Yankee Gun-Boat Indianola started, and I had the good fortune to ship as carpenter for the voyage. After many delays and false starts, we got under way and came up the river to the little town of Waterloo, where we tied up for the purpose of cooking and taking on more cotton; but as soon as the boat touched shore, the men started, at a double-quick, in search of a certain vile compound called Louisiana rum, and by night nearly every man and most of the officers were too drunk to stand on their pegs. About 11 o'clock the command "to arms" was given, as a boat was seen coming down on us. Then, ensued a scene which, for the honor of some of our officers, had better not be described; but, fortunately for us, it proved to be one of our own boats. I think that the effect of this lesson will be good, and may prove fortunate in the end.

I remained in the cabin and saw the "wounded" brought in. Our loss was one Irishman stabbed in three places, one (ditto) head broken in, and several with bruises. If the enemy had been aboard the Frolic, they could have taken us with ease. In the future, our officers will be in better condition, and, if they can keep the men under proper discipline, they will make a good fight when the hour of action arrives. The command is made up of one hundred men from Miles' Louisiana Legion, fifty from the Fourth Louisiana, fifty from the Fifty-fifth Tennessee, and Captain Bowen's Louisiana Artillery.

I have been kept too busy to-day to notice the officers in detail, but I am satisfied they are a merry set of fellows, and will fight well. The worst to fear is that they will not enforce a strict discipline. Colonel Brend has pleased every one, so far, by his quiet, pleasant manners and his agreeable firmness in commanding.

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, p. 65

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, February 25, 1863

We took one hundred and five prisoners on board the Indianola, and a few are said to have gone down the river on a coal barge. The Beatty was sent down to look after them, and, on her return, she was run into by the Queen of the West, who mistook us for a gun-boat from above, which was reported as having passed Vicksburg a short time before. On our return we had passed the fleet in the darkness unobserved, and when we turned again, the Queen ran at us with the full speed of her powerful engines [they were the most powerful on the river], and did not discover her mistake until too late, although we signalled with might and main. At the last moment she managed to sheer a little, and only took off our larboard quarter, carrying all of the cotton bales into the river on that side. The Beatty then careened to the heavy side, and we had to throw off the cotton in haste to keep her trim.

I have just been aboard the Indianola, and find her to be a splendid craft, mounting four guns: two 11-inch Columbiads forward, and two 9-inch Parrots aft. She is heavily ironed. We rammed her in the only vulnerable place, and if she could have worked her guns and her men had been more gallant she would have blown us into the middle of next week. However, she had little chance to work her guns, for the action was fought at close range, and our infantry poured a constant stream of bullets into her port-holes. Thousands of balls had flattened on her sides, particularly in the neighborhood of the port-holes. The prisoners themselves say that she was their best iron-clad.

The boys, following the example of the officers, have stripped her of every thing portable, from a fine sofa down to old newspapers. We didn't get much in the way of commissary stores, as the water was too deep in the hold this morning. A few barrels of flour and a box of soap were fished out. We will get a great many articles if we succeed in raising her, which is extremely doubtful unless we go about it with more energy than has yet been shown. We have two men at work making pumps, but every one is too intent on plunder to think of raising a gun-boat worth millions of dollars to our government at this particular time.

The affair is now being badly managed, and I fear that the Yankees will run another boat past Vicksburg and recapture our prize before we can get her up. We are only twenty-five miles below this place, and they could plainly hear the firing. In our present crippled condition we couldn’t make much of a fight, if we were to attempt it at all.

The Webb is in almost a sinking condition, from damage to her prow. The Queen of the West is the only one of the fleet uninjured. She is now up the river reconnoitering, and if danger approaches, will give us timely warning.

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, p. 68-9

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, February 25, 1863—7 p.m.

About 4 o'clock this afternoon we went up the river to bring down a company of artillery, and one of cavalry, to assist us in raising and repairing our prize. When we had taken the last man aboard, the Queen of the West was descried coming down stream under a full head of steam, and signalling violently that a gunboat was in close chase of her. Lest we might not understand the signal, some one aboard called out for us to follow at once.

We now had a panic. The officer in command of the Beatty, Captain McDonald, of the Fifty-fifth Tennessee, ordered the two companies just taken aboard to get off. The order was misunderstood, and every man of the expedition, even to the cabin boy, started ashore, but the mistake was rectified, except as to five of them, who failed to return. We are now in full retreat, the Queen of the West taking the lead, the Webb following in her wake as fast as her crippled condition will allow.

The Grand Era is some mile and a half behind the Webb, while the Beatty is bringing up the rear, and covering the retreat. She has thrown off some cotton to make her more trim and increase her speed. What is to become of our prize we haven’t the remotest idea, and the natural inference is that she will fall into the hands of the enemy again. We made no attempt to destroy her; and, in fact, the attempt would have been useless, unless we could have gotten to her magazine and blown her up; she would have only burnt to the water, which was deep in her. I am surprised at the precipitateness of our officers in abandoning the boat without an attempt to hold it. If they had placed some artillerymen on board, they could have made an impregnable battery of it. Such is not their judgment, however, and it becomes not a private soldier to set up his opinions in opposition to superiors.

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, p. 69-70

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Blockade Running, published January 3, 1865

Notwithstanding the alleged ceaseless vigilance of the Yankee navy in watching blockade-runners on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of the Confederate States, their close attention has amounted to comparatively little. Setting aside all that has been imported on State and individual account, the proceeds of the blockade have been very great. The restrictions imposed upon foreign commerce by the act of Congress of last session prohibiting, absolutely, during the pending war, the importation of any articles not necessary for the defense of the country— namely: wines, spirits, jewelry, cigars, and all the finer fabrics of cotton, flax, wool, or silk, as well as all other merchandise serving only for the indulgence of luxurious habits,—has not had the effect to reduce the number of vessels engaged in blockade-running; but, on the contrary, the number has steadily increased within the last year, and many are understood to be now on the way to engage in the business.

The President, in a communication to Congress on the subject, says that the number of vessels arriving at two ports only from the 1st of November to the 6th of December was forty-three, and but a very small proportion of those outward bound were captured. Out of 11,796 bales of cotton shipped since the 1st of July last, but 1272 were lost-not quite 11 per cent.

The special report of the Secretary of the Treasury in relation to the matter shows that there have been imported into the Confederacy at the ports of Wilmington and Charleston since October 26th, 1864, 8,632,000 pounds of meat, 1,507,000 pounds of lead, 1,933,000 pounds of saltpeter, 546,000 pairs of shoes, 316,000 pairs of blankets, 520,000 pounds of coffee, 69,000 rifles, 97 packages of revolvers, 2639 packages of medicine, 43 cannon, with a large quantity of other articles of which we need make no mention. Besides these, many valuable stores and supplies are brought, by way of the Northern lines, into Florida; by the port of Galveston and through Mexico, across the Rio Grande.

The shipments of cotton made on government account since March 1st, 1864, amount to $5,296,000 in specie. Of this, cotton, to the value of $1,500,000, has been shipped since the 1st of July and up to the 1st of December.

It is a matter of absolute impossibility for the Federals to stop our blockade-running at the port of Wilmington. If the wind blows off the coast, the blockading fleet is driven off. If the wind blows landward, they are compelled to haul off to a great distance to escape the terrible sea which dashes on a rocky coast without a harbor within three days' sail. The shoals on the North Carolina Coast are from five to twenty miles wide; and they are, moreover, composed of the most treacherous and bottomless quicksands. The whole coast is scarcely equaled in the world for danger and fearful appearance, particularly when a strong easterly wind meets the ebb tide.

It is an easy matter for a good pilot to run a vessel directly out to sea or into port; but in the stormy months, from October to April, no blockading vessel can lie at anchor in safety off the Carolina Coast. Therefore supplies will be brought in despite the keenest vigilance.

SOURCE: “Blockade Running,” Richmond Daily Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia, Tuesday Morning, January 3, 1865, p. 3

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 3, 1865

Calm and quiet; indications of snow.

By a communication sent to Congress, by the President, it is ascertained that 500,000 pairs shoes, 8,000,000 pounds bacon, 2,000,000 pounds saltpeter, 50 cannon, etc. etc., have been imported since October 1st, 1864.

When the enemy's fleet threatened Wilmington, the brokers here (who have bribed the conscript officers) bought up all the coffee and sugar in the city. They raised the price of the former from $15 to $45 per pound, and the latter to $15, from $10. An application has been made to Mr. Secretary Seddon to order the impressment of it all, at schedule prices, which he will be sure not to do.

Congress paid their respects to the President yesterday, by waiting upon him in a body.

There is a rumor of some fighting (12 M.) below, but I have not learned on which side of the river. It arises from brisk cannonading, heard in the city, I suppose.

I bought an ax (of Starke) for $15, mine having been stolen. I was asked from $25 to $35 for no better. Mr. Starke has no garden seeds yet.

The following article in the Dispatch to-day, seemingly well authenticated, would seem to indicate that our armies are in no danger of immediately becoming destitute of supplies; but, alas! the publication itself may cause the immediate fall of Wilmington.

BLOCKADE RUNNING.—Notwithstanding the alleged ceaseless vigilance of the Yankee navy in watching blockade-runners on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of the Confederate States, their close attention has amounted to comparatively little. Setting aside all that has been imported on State and individual account, the proceeds of the blockade have been very great. The restrictions imposed upon foreign commerce by the act of Congress of last session prohibiting, absolutely, during the pending war, the importation of any articles not necessary for the defense of the country— namely: wines, spirits, jewelry, cigars, and all the finer fabrics of cotton, flax, wool, or silk, as well as all other merchandise serving only for the indulgence of luxurious habits,—has not had the effect to reduce the number of vessels engaged in blockade-running; but, on the contrary, the number has steadily increased within the last year, and many are understood to be now on the way to engage in the business.

 

The President, in a communication to Congress on the subject, says that the number of vessels arriving at two ports only from the 1st of November to the 6th of December was forty-three, and but a very small proportion of those outward bound were captured. Out of 11,796 bales of cotton shipped since the 1st of July last, but 1272 were lost-not quite 11 per cent.

 

The special report of the Secretary of the Treasury in relation to the matter shows that there have been imported into the Confederacy at the ports of Wilmington and Charleston since October 26th, 1864, 8,632,000 pounds of meat, 1,507,000 pounds of lead, 1,933,000 pounds of saltpeter, 546,000 pairs of shoes, 316,000 pairs of blankets, 520,000 pounds of coffee, 69,000 rifles, 97 packages of revolvers, 2639 packages of medicine, 43 cannon, with a large quantity of other articles of which we need make no mention. Besides these, many valuable stores and supplies are brought, by way of the Northern lines, into Florida; by the port of Galveston and through Mexico, across the Rio Grande.

 

The shipments of cotton made on government account since March 1st, 1864, amount to $5,296,000 in specie. Of this, cotton, to the value of $1,500,000, has been shipped since the 1st of July and up to the 1st of December.

 

It is a matter of absolute impossibility for the Federals to stop our blockade-running at the port of Wilmington. If the wind blows off the coast, the blockading fleet is driven off. If the wind blows landward, they are compelled to haul off to a great distance to escape the terrible sea which dashes on a rocky coast without a harbor within three days' sail. The shoals on the North Carolina Coast are from five to twenty miles wide; and they are, moreover, composed of the most treacherous and bottomless quicksands. The whole coast is scarcely equaled in the world for danger and fearful appearance, particularly when a strong easterly wind meets the ebb tide.

 

It is an easy matter for a good pilot to run a vessel directly out to sea or into port; but in the stormy months, from October to April, no blockading vessel can lie at anchor in safety off the Carolina Coast. Therefore supplies will be brought in despite the keenest vigilance.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 373-5

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 10, 1865

Rained hard all night. House leaking badly! We have nothing new in the papers this morning. It is said with more confidence, however, that Butler's canal is not yet a success. Daily and nightly our cannon play upon the works, and the deep sounds in this moist weather are distinctly heard in the city.

The amount of requisition for the War Department for 1865 is $670,000,000, and a deficiency of $400,000,000!

Mr. Hunter had his accustomed interview with Judge Campbell this morning in quest of news, and relating to his horoscope. His face is not plump and round yet.

A Mr. Lehman, a burly Jew, about thirty-five years old, got a passport to-day on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury, to arrange (as agent, no doubt) for the shipment of several thousand bales of cotton, for which sterling funds are to be paid. No doubt it is important to keep the government cotton out of the hands of the enemy; and this operation seems to indicate that some fear of its loss exists.

Some 40,000 bushels of corn, etc. were consumed at Charlotte, N.C., the other day. A heavy loss! Both the army and the people will feel it.

There seems already to exist the preliminary symptoms of panic and anarchy in the government. All the dignitaries wear gloomy faces; and this is a gloomy day—raining incessantly. A blue day—a miserable day!

The city council put up the price of gas yesterday to $50 per 1000 feet.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 381-2

Monday, October 23, 2023

Congressman Horace Mann to Samuel Downer, June 13, 1850

WASHINGTON, June 13, 1850.
S. DOWNER, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR, You must excuse me for not answering all your kind letters. I should be glad to do so, if it were possible, especially if it would be the means of getting more; for they are most acceptable to me.

I learn that Mr. Webster has written home, that, if the North will give way on the subject of slavery, THEY CAN HAVE A TARIFF IN SIX WEEKS; and I suppose the address now to be circulated is for signatures, calling upon the Massachusetts delegation to make “concession;” that is, to surrender the Territories to slavery: then we may have "beneficent legislation," by which he means a tariff.

I am also told that the Hon. ———, a factory superintendent at Lowell, on a salary of four or five thousand dollars a year, was on here two or three weeks ago to see if some arrangement could not be made to barter human bodies and souls at the South for the sake of certain percentages on imported cottons at the North; and that Mr. Foote of Mississippi, and Mangum of North Carolina, offered to become sureties for the arrangement: how many others, I do not know. I have no doubt of all this, not a particle; though I communicate it to you to give you the means of further inquiry, and of action after inquiry is made. . . .

The Whigs, with very few exceptions, appear to stand well in the House; and I trust we shall be able to give a good account of ourselves. How I wish the Whigs now had all the Free-soilers in their ranks ! In great haste, yours ever and truly,

HORACE MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 304

Friday, October 13, 2023

A Southerner to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, June 14, 1852

(Private.)
RICHMOND, [Va.], June 14th [1852].

DEAR SIR: I beg to call your attention, to that portion of Judge Conrad's speech in the Anti-Fillmore Convention of New York, which is enclosed. (You will find the whole speech in N. Y. Herald of 13th.)

I write to you as a true friend of the South, to know what is the South to do. Are her statesmen looking ahead and preparing for contingencies? As this letter is anonymous, you are not bound, I admit, to treat it with any consideration. I ask only to free my own mind of thoughts which press painfully upon it, and to leave them with those who can best judge whether they are of any value or practicable. The question is this—Cannot the South form an alliance, either with England, or some foreign country, which will protect her from the threatened aggression of the North? Look ahead, and do you not see a storm coming from the North which must dissolve the Union? Ought we not then to look ahead, ought not the Southern leaders to meet together and confer, and sound the governments of England, or other foreign powers, to see what can be done in such a contingency? You are one of the few men, I believe, not eaten up with selfish ambition. Strike a blow, then, I entreat you for the safety of the South. Would to Heaven that the South would stop talking and go to acting. Imitate the forecast, the practical character, and (as it has become necessary to fight the devil with fire) the subtlety of our sectional enemies. It strikes me, that it would be a good stroke of policy, and a most holy and righteous retribution, if we could form a treaty with England, giving her certain privileges in the cotton trade and vast navigation, in return for which, she could stand by the South, and crush the Free Soilers between Canada and the South States.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 145

Sunday, October 1, 2023

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 29, 1864

Rained all night; spitting snow this morning. Although Gen. Bragg announces that the enemy's fleet has disappeared off Wilmington, still the despondency which has seized the croakers remains. It has probably sailed against Charleston, to co-operate with Sherman. Sherman says officially that he got, with Savannah, about 1000 prisoners, 150 heavy guns, nearly 200 cars and several locomotives, 35,000 bales of cotton, etc. etc. And Gen. Foster says the inhabitants (20,000) were "quiet, and well disposed." Most people believe Charleston will fall next, to be followed by a sweep of the entire sea-board; and grave men fear that the impetus thus given the invader cannot be checked or resisted.

The great want is fighting men, and they are mostly exempted or detailed under that portion of the "War Department" which is quietly worked by Judge Campbell, who is, of course, governed by his own great legal judgment. Well, the President has been informed of this, and yet waits for Mr. Secretary Seddon to suggest a remedy. I have often thought, and still think, that either the Bureau of Conscription must be abolished or the government must fail. The best generals will not avail without sufficient men to fight.

Gen. Beauregard telegraphs from Charleston, December 26th, that there is a conflict of authority at Mobile as to which branch of the service, navy or army, shall command the torpedo boat. The two Secretaries are referring it to commanders, and I fear that, by the time the question is settled, some calamity will befall the boat, and the city, and the country.

Grant is said to be moving troops to the north side of the river again, fearing an attack from us, or intending one himself.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 369

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Congressman Horace Mann, March 13, 1850

MARCH 13, 1850.

The hallucination that seizes the South on the subject of slavery, is, indeed, enough to excite our compassion; but an excuse of their conduct to themselves on this ground, would, perhaps, enrage them more than any thing else. I would be willing to offer them any pecuniary indemnity which they might desire. Indeed, I had thought of bringing forward some such idea in my speech; but I feared they would only scout it.

I do not think Mr. Webster can be honest in the views expressed in his speech. I would struggle against a belief in his treachery to the last minute; but this speech is in flagrant violation of all that he has ever said before.

You are in an error in supposing that the exclusion of slavery from the Territories will affect the growth of cotton or rice unfavorably. Slaves are in great demand now for the cotton and rice fields. No production of the Territories would come in competition with their great staples. It is a fear of losing the balance of power, as they call it; and no doubt, in some cases, a fear that this is only a beginning of a war upon slavery in the States themselves. On this latter point, they will not be pacified by any declarations made by the North. Then, again, on this subject they are not a reasoning people.

To recur to Mr. Webster again. He has said some things it was quite unnecessary to say, and some things not true. Look at his interpretation of the admission of Texas! The act was, as he has quoted in his speech, that four new States—no more might be formed from Texas: those south of 36° 30′ might be slave States, and those north must be free States. Now, he says we are bound to admit four slave States. But we are bound to admit only four in the whole. Why, then, admit all these four as slave States, and then others, that is, if we get the consent of Texas, as free States? No: we are to admit but four in the whole; and, as one or two of these are to be free, there must not be four slave. He therefore not only proposes to execute that ungodly bargain, but to give one or two slave States to the South as a gratuity.

So his offer to take the proceeds of the public lands to deport free blacks is of the greatest service to slavery. It is just what the South wants, to get rid of its free blacks. It would enhance the value and the security of the slave property so called. Had he proposed to give the proceeds of the lands to deport manumitted slaves, that would encourage manumission, and be of real service to humanity. Indeed, the more I think of the speech, the worse I think of it.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 295-6

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, January 2, 1866

Neither Seward nor Stanton was at Cabinet council. Seward is on his way to the West Indies, Gulf, etc. He wishes to be absent until the issues are fully made up and the way is clear for him what course to take. There may be other objects, but this is the chief. The talk about his health is ridiculous. He is as well as he has been at any time for five years. Stanton had no occasion to be present. Some discussion as to whether the State of Louisiana is entitled to cotton bought by the Rebel organization or government. Dennison and myself had a free talk with the President after the others left. Although usually reticent, he at times speaks out, and he expressed himself emphatically to-day. The manner in which things had been got up by the Radicals before the session he commented upon. "This little fellow [Colfax] shoved in here to make a speech in advance of the message, and to give out that the principle enunciated in his speech was the true policy of the country," were matters alluded to with sharpness, as were the whole preconcerted measures of the Radicals. "I do not hear that the colored people called or were invited to visit Sumner or Wilson," said the President, "but they came here and were civilly treated."

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 409-10

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Jefferson Davis to William Allen, July 24, 1840

Warren County Mi., 24th July 1840. 

"I long hae thought my honored friend
A something to ha'e sent ye," and though I have nothing now more than my thanks for your kind recollection of me and these in my heart I have often returned to you. I take the occasion of your return from the sphere of your public duties to break perhaps you will say the only repose which those duties leave you to enjoy—well, I bring my offering of thanks, the sacrifice of a pure spirit would always burn. I am willing that mine should be adjudged by that test. I received your speech of Feby. eleventh on the assumption of State debts and could but illy express to you the gratification it gave me as your friend and as such I candidly tell you, I consider it the best English sample of the Demosthenean style. I recollect you saw in Mr. Calhoun's speech on the independent Treasy. an especial likeness to the Grecian orator. I thought he was too sententious, nor indeed could any one opening a question of expediency or dwelling on details of finances speak as Demosthenes did when he addressed men nearly as well informed as himself on the subject of which he spoke and addressed them not to argue but to lay bare before them the true issue and excite them to action—but perhaps, like the Vicar of Wakefield said to the lecturer on Cosmogony you may say to me—however with this difference that instead of once you may have heard all this a dozen times before and that instead of the second it is the first time you have heard it from me. Before I quit the subject of speeches I must tell you of an old democratic friend of mine who lives some distance back in the hills and who notwithstanding the great increase of post offices is quite out of striking distance of a mail line. He came to see me in the spring of '38. I handed him your speech on the independent Treasy. Bill after reading it. He asked me to let him take it home and show it to some of his neighbors. I have seen him frequently since but his "neighbors" have not yet gotten through with it. When Lord Byron saw an American edition of his works he said it seemed like to posthumous fame. Recurring to my old friend of the hills, he states it as a political maxim that "no honest sensible whig can read Allen's and Benton's speeches without turning their politics."

I am living as retired as a man on the great thoroughfare of the Mississippi can be, and just now the little society which exists hereabout has been driven away by the presence of the summer's heat and the fear of the summer's disease.

Our staple, cotton, is distressingly low and I fear likely to remain so until there is a diminished production of it, an event which the embarassed condition of cotton planters in this section will not allow them to consider. If our Yankee friends and their coadjutors should get up a scheme for bounties to particular branches of industry I think the cotton growers may come in with the old plea of the manufacturers "not able at present to progress without it."

With assurances of sincere regard and of the pleasure it will always give me to hear from you and to mark your success

I am yr. friend
JEFFN. DAVIS
To W. Allen
    At home

SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 4-5

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 26, 1864

Clear and frosty. Quiet below.

Gen. W. M. Gardner (in Gen. Winder's place here) has just got from Judge Campbell passports for his cousin, Mary E. Gardner, and for his brother-in-law, F. M. White, to go to Memphis, Tenn., where they mean to reside.

Mr. Benjamin publishes a copy of a dispatch to Mr. Mason, in London, for publication there, showing that if the United States continue the war, she will be unable to pay her debts abroad, and therefore foreigners ought not to lend her any more money, or they may be ruined. This from a Secretary of State! It may be an electioneering card in the United States, and it may reconcile some of our members of Congress to the incumbency of Mr. B. in a sinecure position.

A friend of Mr. Seddon, near Vicksburg, writes for permission to sell thirty bales of cotton—$20,000 worth—to the enemy. He says Mr. Seddon's estate, on the Sunflower, has not been destroyed by the enemy. That's fortunate, for other places have been utterly ruined.

Investigations going on in the courts show that during Gen. Winder's "Reign of Terror," passports sold for $2000. Some outside party negotiated the business and procured the passport.

Gen. Early has issued an address to his army, reproaching it for having victory wrested out of its hands by a criminal indulgence in the plunder found in the camps captured from the enemy. He hopes they will retrieve everything in the next battle.

Governor Smith's exemptions of magistrates, deputy sheriffs, clerks, and constables, to-day, 56.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 315-6

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 31, 1864

Bright. Tom's rations came in—worth $200— for a month.

Gen. Lee writes that it is necessary for the gun-boats to guard the river as far below Chaffin's Bluffs as possible, to prevent the enemy from throwing a force to the south bank in the rear of Gen. Pickett's lines; for then Gen. P. must withdraw his forces, and the abandonment of Petersburg will follow, “with its railroad connections, throwing the whole army back to the defense of Richmond. I should regard this as a great disaster, and as seriously endangering the safety of the city. We should not only lose a large section of country from which our position enables us to draw supplies, but the enemy would be brought nearer to the only remaining railway communication between Richmond and the South. It would make the tenure of the city depend upon our ability to hold this long line of communication against the largely superior force of the enemy, and I think would greatly diminish the prospects of successful defense.” He suggests that more men and small boats be put in the river to prevent the enemy from placing torpedoes in the rear of the iron-clads, when on duty down the river at night.

J. H. Reagan, Postmaster-General, has written a furious letter to the Secretary, complaining of incivility on the part of Mr. Wilson, Commissary Agent to issue beef in Richmond. Judge R. went there to draw the beef ration for Col. Lubbock, one of the President's aid-de-camps (late Governor of Texas). He says he is able-bodied and ought to be in the army. Mr. Wilson sends in certificates of two men who were present, contradicting the judge's statement of the language used by Mr. W. The Secretary has not yet acted in the case.

Beverly Tucker is in Canada, and has made a contract for the Confederate States Government with ——— & Co., of New York, to deliver bacon for cotton, pound for pound. It was made by authority of the Secretary of War, certified to by Hon. C. C. Clay and J. Thompson, both in Canada. The Secretary of the Treasury don't like it.

It is reported that after the success reported by Gen. Lee, Early was again defeated.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 319-20

Monday, March 20, 2023

Dr. Seth Rogers to his daughter Dolly, [March 15, 1863]—Evening

Evening.

About six, the Burnside came down the river with horses, hogs, chickens and prisoners. They took Col. Bryant, just as he returned to his plantation after running his negroes into the back country. They report great quantities of cotton and cattle up the river, so I hope we really are to have fresh beef again.

It is nothing like as damp and unwholesome here as in South Carolina. The same amount of exposure there that our men have had here, would have given the hospital twenty or thirty cases of pleurisy and pneumonia, while today, we have but a single case of acute inflammation. There is coughing enough to keep back several rebel regiments. I see no reason, however, why the officers should not get intermittent fever from this handsome river, by and by. It looks as if midsummer might load it with miasma and alligators. . . .

I am gradually confiscating furniture for my spacious chamber in the best house of a beautiful town, as if it were my final residence. I enjoy the long cedar closet that opens out of my room. The fragrance is so sweet I cannot understand why moths object to it. having a perfect bath room, without any water in it and costly gas fixtures without any gas! The war has greatly deranged the machinery of this town. Almost everywhere, except in this house, I have found the lead pipes cut by the rebels and used, I suppose, for bullets. When Colonel Sanderson left here he placed his house in charge of a Union man, saying that it would naturally be the headquarters of any Union commander. Hence the more perfect preservation of the property.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 375-6