Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, February 9, 1863

A special messenger from Admiral Du Pont with dispatches came to my house early this morning before I was awake, and would deliver them into no hand but my own. I received them at the door of my chamber. They relate to the late flurry at Charleston. The Mercedita was neither captured nor sunk, nor was any vessel of the Squadron. The Mercedita and Keystone State were injured in their steam-chests, and went to Port Royal for repairs. All the noise about raising the blockade was mere trash of the Rebels South and their sympathizers North. Dr. Bacon, the bearer of the dispatches, came to Philadelphia in the prize Princess Royal, captured running the blockade. Abuse will cease for a day, perhaps, under this intelligence. Am surprised at the ignorance which prevails in regard to the principles of blockade, which the late trouble has exposed.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 234

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, February 4, 1863

Governor E. D. Morgan was yesterday elected Senator in place of Preston King. If the latter was not to be returned, Morgan was probably the best of the competitors. He will make a useful Senator if he can persistently carry out his honest convictions, but I know of no one who can, just at this time, make good the place of King. He has been cheated and deceived. The country sustains a loss in his retirement. He is honest, faithful, unselfish, and earnestly patriotic.

We have the whole world agog with an account of an onset on our fleet before Charleston. The Mercedita is reported to have been surprised and sunk, and other vessels damaged. But the great hullabaloo is over a report that the whole blockading fleet ran away, — the foreign consuls at Charleston went out and could see none of the vessels,—and the blockade is by the Rebels declared raised. Seward called on me in great trepidation with these tidings. Told him most of the stuff was unworthy of a moment's consideration. Not unlikely the Mercedita may have been surprised and sunk, as she is of light draft and was probably close in. If there had been other vessels captured or sunk, we should have had their names. It looked to me as if the budget was made up for the European market by the foreign consuls, who are in fact Rebel agents, and I asked why their exequaturs were not annulled.

The New York papers have sensation headings over the Charleston news, and the Tribune has a ridiculous article about blockade, more wild, if possible, than Seward.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 232-3

Major General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, February 6, 1863

CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA., February 6, 1863.

To-day an order is issued abolishing grand divisions and returning to the system of corps. I am announced as in command of the Fifth Corps. This is what I expected and accords with my ideas of what is best for the efficiency of the army. Baldy Smith has been relieved of his command and Sedgwick takes his corps — cause unknown, but supposed to be his affiliation with Franklin, and the fear that he would not co-operate with Hooker. This, however, is mere surmise, I have not seen any one to know or hear what is going on.

Last evening I received orders to send out an expedition this morning, which I did; but it has been storming violently all day, and this afternoon I sent to recall it. The Ninth Corps, which came with Burnside from North Carolina, is not announced in the order published to-day, and I hear it is under orders to move — where it is going, not known, but the probability is that Burnside has asked to have it with him, in case he returns to North Carolina.

The news from Charleston¹ looks very badly, I hope our friend Frailey will come out all right. Stellwagon of the Mercedita, if you remember we met at Mrs. Frailey's last summer, the evening I went in there. Our navy has hitherto been so successful, that it seems hard to realize a reverse.

I do not know what to make of the political condition of the country. One thing I do know, I have been long enough in the war to want to give them one thorough good licking before any peace is made, and to accomplish this I will go through a good deal.

__________

¹ Confederate gun-boats under Com. Ingraham broke the Federal blockade at Charleston, S. C.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 353-4

Rebel steamer Bermuda Captured

WASHINGTON, May 4. – U S Steamer Mercedita on the 27th near Hole in the Wall captured the steamer Bermuda having 42,000 pounds of powder, seven field carriages, a number of cannon, swords, pistols, shells, fuses, cartridges &c. She was taken to Philadelphia for adjudication.

After the 1st of June all letters mailed in the United States for Nova Scotia will be required to be prepaid.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 10, 1862, p. 4

The City of Appalachicola Captured by Federal Gunboats

NEW YORK, April 21.

The city of Appalachicola has been successfully occupied by our troops, thus giving us another important point in Florida. The capture was effected by the gunboats Mecedida [sic] and Sagamore, with little opposition, on the 3d inst. A few shell dispersed the rebels, and the non-resident portion of the population were found in an almost staving condition. The blockade had effectually cut off the supplies on the seaboard, and their resources form the inland were not sufficient to maintain the ordinary comforts of life. Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that the people should proclaim loyalty to the Union.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, April 23, 1863, p. 1

Apalachicola Occupied - - Beauregard Calls loudly for Reinforcements.

A Yankee Trick.

NEW YORK, April 21. – The city of Apalachicola has been successfully occupied by our troops thus giving us another important point in Florida. The capture was effected by the gunboats Mercida [sic] and Sagamore, with little opposition, on the 3d inst. A few shells dispersed the rebels and the resident portion of the population were found in an almost starving condition. The blockade had effectually cut off supplies on the seaboard and their resources from inland were not sufficient to maintain the ordinary comforts of life. Under these circumstances it is not to be wondered at that the people should proclaim loyalty to the Union.

The Herald has the following letter. The latest information from the South is of the utmost importance. Beauregard’s army has been terribly diminished, and according to his own account he has now only 35,000 men. The following telegram has been intercepted by Gen. Mitchell and is a full confession of the hopelessness of the rebel cause in the west.


CORINTH, April 9.

To Gen. Sam’l Cooper, Richmond, Va.:

All present probabilities are that whenever the enemy attack this position he will do so with an overwhelming force of not less than 85,000 men. We can now muster only about 35,000 effective men. Van Dorn may possibly join us in a few days with about 15,000 more. Can we be reinforced from Pemberton’s army? If defeated here we loose the Mississippi Valley and probably our cause, whereas we could even afford to loose for a while Charleston and Savannah for the purpose of defeating Buell’s army, which would not only insure us the Valley of the Mississippi but our independence.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 26, 1862, p. 4