Edwin M. Stanton to Major-General Joseph Hooker, May 7, 1863 – 9:30 p.m.

WASHINGTON, D. C.,

May 7, 1863 — 9.30 p.m.

Major-General HOOKER:

Richmond papers of Tuesday received at this Department are full of accounts of the panic and destruction accomplished by Stoneman. From the several papers, and the statement of General Stoughton, just arrived, the following, among other facts, appear:

1. That a portion of Stoneman's force was within 2 miles of Richmond on Monday. This is stated by the Richmond papers. General Stoughton reports that there was not at that time a single soldier in Richmond.

2. The road was torn up at various points, and General Stoughton says the canal broken, but the papers assert it was not broken.

3. Stoneman's force is represented to be divided into detachments, operating in different directions, and producing great panic everywhere in that region.

Other details are given at great length, but the above are the principal points. The result at Chancellorsville does not seem to have produced any panic. Gold has only risen 6 per cent. in New York, and at the close to-day had gone down 4. The public confidence seems to remain unshaken in the belief of your ultimate success.

EDWIN M. STANTON,

[Secretary of War.]

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 25, Part 2 (Serial No. 40), p. 439

Captain Charles Wright Wills: May 13, 1863

Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Lagrange, Tenn.,

May 13, 1863.

I have been on a General Court Martial for the last ten days, and we will not, in all probability, adjourn for some weeks yet. We tried Governor Yates' brother. He is Adjutant of the 6th Illinois Cavalry. Another little reverse on the Rappahannock. All right! My faith is still large — in the army, but the commanders and citizens can be improved. We think that Grant is going to beat them all yet. But his army is more responsible for his good fortune than himself. Do you notice that one of our “raids” missed fire? Straight into Georgia, I mean. Grierson's and Stoneman's make up for all the rest though. We are constantly active here, in fact our troops move so much that I am unable to keep the run of even our brigade.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 175

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, May 8, 1863

A telegraph dispatch this morning from Admiral Porter states he has possession of Grand Gulf. The news was highly gratifying to the President, who had not heard of it until I met him at the Cabinet-meeting.

Several of our navy and army officers arrived this day from Richmond, having left that place on Tuesday to be exchanged. They all say that Richmond might have been captured by Stoneman's cavalry, or by a single regiment, the city had been so thoroughly drained of all its male population to reinforce Lee, and so wholly unprepared were they for a raid that but little resistance could have been made. Stoneman and his force have done gallant service, but we regret they did not dash into Richmond and capture Davis and the Rebel Administration.

Commander Drayton came to see me to-day. He is one of Du Pont's intimates, a man of excellent sense and heart, but is impressed with Du Pont's opinions and feelings. All of Du Pont's set — those whom he has called around him — are schooled and trained, and have become his partisans, defer to his views, and adopt his sentiments. It is his policy, and of course theirs, to decry the monitors as if that would justify or exonerate Du Pont from any remissness or error. I told Drayton it was not necessary to condemn the monitors for the failure to capture Charleston, nor did it appear to me wise to do so, or to make any deficiencies in those vessels prominent in the official reports which were to be published. It seems an effort to impute blame somewhere, or [as] if blame existed and an excuse or justification was necessary, of which the public and the whole world should be at once informed. If the monitors are weak in any part, there was no necessity for us to proclaim that weakness to our enemies; if they needed improvements, the Government could make them. Alluding to Du Pont's long dispatch refuting, explaining, and deprecating the criticism in a Baltimore paper, I told him I was sorry to see such an expenditure of time, talent, and paper by the commander of the Squadron and his subordinates. Drayton expressed his regret at the over-sensitiveness of Du Pont, but said it was his nature, and this morbid infirmity was aggravated by his long continuance on shipboard. It is the opinion of Drayton that Charleston cannot be taken by the Navy and that the Navy can do but little towards it. He says the monitors, though slow, would have passed the batteries and reached the wharves of Charleston but for submerged obstructions.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 295-6

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, May 6, 1863

We have news, via Richmond, that Stoneman has destroyed bridges and torn up rails on the Richmond road, thus cutting off communication between that city and the Rebel army. Simultaneously with this intelligence, there is a rumor that Hooker has recrossed the river and is at Falmouth. I went to the War Department about noon to ascertain the facts, but Stanton said he had no such intelligence nor did he believe it. I told him I had nothing definite or very authentic, — that he certainly ought to be better posted than I could be, — but I had seen a brief telegram from young Dahlgren, who is on Hooker's staff, dated this a.m., “Headquarters near Falmouth — All right.” This to me was pretty significant of the fact that Hooker and his army had recrossed. Stanton was a little disconcerted. He said Hooker had as yet no definite plan; his headquarters are not far from Falmouth. Of course nothing farther was to be said, yet I was by no means satisfied with his remarks or manner.

An hour later Sumner came into my room, and raising both hands exclaimed, “Lost, lost, all is lost!” I asked what he meant. He said Hooker and his army had been defeated and driven back to this side of the Rappahannock. Sumner came direct from the President, who, he said, was extremely dejected. I told him I had been apprehensive that disaster had occurred, but when I asked under what circumstances this reverse had taken place, he could give me no particulars.

I went soon after to the War Department. Seward was sitting with Stanton, as when I left him two or three hours before. I asked Stanton if he knew where Hooker was. He answered, curtly, “No.” I looked at him sharply, and I have no doubt with incredulity, for he, after a moment's pause, said, “He is on this side of the river, but I know not where.” “Well,” said I, “he is near his old quarters, and I wish to know if Stoneman is with him, or if he or you know anything of that force.” Stanton said he had no information in regard to that force, and it was one of the most unpleasant things of the whole affair that Hooker should have abandoned Stoneman.

Last night and to-day we have had a violent rainstorm from the northeast. Fox and Edgar, my son, left this A.M. for Falmouth. The President, uneasy, uncomfortable, and dissatisfied with the meagre information and its gloomy aspect, went himself this evening to the army with General Halleck.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 293-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, May 4, 1863

Great uneasiness and uncertainty prevail in regard to army movements. I think the War Department is really poorly advised of operations. I could learn nothing from them yesterday or to-day. Such information as I have is picked up from correspondents and news-gatherers, and from naval officers who arrive from below.

I this P.M. met the President at the War Department. He said he had a feverish anxiety to get facts; was constantly up and down, for nothing reliable came from the front. There is an impression, which is very general, that our army has been successful, but that there has been great slaughter and that still fiercer and more terrible fights are impending.

I am not satisfied. If we have success, the tidings would come to us in volumes. We may not be beaten. Stoneman¹ with 13,000 cavalry and six days' supply has cut his way into the enemy's country, but we know not his fate, farther than we hear nothing from him or of him. If overwhelmed, we should know it from the Rebels. There are rumors that the Rebels again reoccupy the intrenchments on the heights in the rear of Fredericksburg, but the rumor is traceable to no reliable source.

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¹ General George Stoneman was conducting an extensive cavalry operation intended to cut off Lee's army after its expected defeat. The unlooked-for discomfiture of the Federal forces placed Stoneman in considerable danger, but he succeeded in rejoining Hooker's main army on May 1st.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 291-2