Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Diary of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle: Tuesday, May 5, 1863

We breakfasted at Huntsville at 5.30 A.M. The Federal officers captured in the Harriet Lane are confined in the penitentiary there, and are not treated as prisoners of war. This seems to be the system now with regard to officers since the enlistment of negroes by the Northerners.

My fellow-travellers were mostly elderly planters or legislators, and there was one judge from Louisiana. One of them produced a pair of boots which had cost him $100; another showed me a common wide-a-wake hat which had cost him $40. In Houston, I myself saw an English regulation infantry sword exposed for sale for $225 (£45).

As the military element did not predominate, my companions united in speaking with horror of the depredations committed in this part of the country by their own troops on a line of march.

We passed through a well-wooded country — pines and post oaks — the road bad: crossed the river Trinity at 12 noon, and dined at the house of a disreputable looking individual called a Campbellite minister, at 4.30 P.M. The food consisted almost invariably of bacon, corn bread, and buttermilk: a meal costing a dollar.

Arrived at Crockett at 9.30 P.M., where we halted for a few hours. A filthy bed was given to the Louisianian Judge and myself. The Judge, following my example, took to it boots and all, remarking, as he did so, to the attendant negro, that “they were a d----d sight cleaner than the bed.”

Before reaching Crockett, we passed through the encampment of Phillipps's regiment of Texas Rangers, and we underwent much chaff. They were en route to resist Banks.

SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three months in the southern states: April-June, 1863, p. 74-5

Diary of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle: Wednesday, May 6, 1863

We left all the passengers at Crockett except the Louisianian Judge, a Government agent, and the ex-boatswain of the Harriet Lane, which vessel had been manned by the Confederates after her capture; but she had since been dismantled, and her crew was being marched to Shrieveport to man the iron-clad Missouri, which was being built there.

The food we get on the road is sufficient, and good enough to support life; it consists of pork or bacon, bread made with Indian corn, and a peculiar mixture called Confederate coffee, made of rye, meal, Indian corn or sweet potatoes. The loss of coffee afflicts the Confederates even more than the loss of spirits; and they exercise their ingenuity in devising substitutes, which are not generally very successful.

The same sort of country as yesterday, viz. — large forests of pines and post-oaks, and occasional Indian corn-fields, the trees having been killed by cutting a circle near the roots.

At 3 P.M., we took in four more passengers. One of them was a Major ——, brother-in-law to ——, who hanged Mongomery at Brownsville. He spoke of the exploit of his relative with some pride. He told me that his three brothers had lost an arm apiece in the war.

We arrived at Eusk at 6.30 P.M., and spent a few hours there; but notwithstanding the boasted splendour of the beds at the Cherokee Hotel, and although by Major ——'s influence I got one to myself, yet I did not consider its aspect sufficiently inviting to induce me to remove my clothes.

SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three months in the southern states: April-June, 1863, p. 76-7

Monday, May 9, 2016

Diary of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle: Monday, May 4, 1863

General Scurry's servant “John” had been most attentive since he had been told off to me. I made him a present of my evening clothes, which gratified him immensely; and I shook hands with him at parting, which seems to be quite the custom. The Southern gentlemen are certainly able to treat their slaves with extraordinary familiarity and kindness. John told me that the General would let him buy his freedom whenever he chose. He is a barber by trade, and was earning much money when he insisted on rejoining his master and going to the wars.

I left Houston by train for Navasoto at 10 A.M. A Captain Andrews accompanied me thus far: he was going with a troop of cavalry to impress one-fourth of the negroes on the plantations for the Government works at Galveston, the planters having been backward in coming forward with their darkies.

Arrived at Navasoto (70 miles) at 4 P.M., where I took a stage for Shrieveport (250 miles). I started at 4.30 P.M., after having had a little dispute with a man for a corner seat, and beating him.

It was the same sort of vehicle as the San Antonio one — eight people inside. During the night there was a thunderstorm.

SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three months in the southern states: April-June, 1863, p. 73-4

Sunday, May 8, 2016

In The Review Queue: Extreme Civil War


By Matthew M. Stith

During the American Civil War the western Trans-Mississippi frontier was host to harsh environmental conditions, irregular warfare, and intense racial tensions that created extraordinarily difficult conditions for both combatants and civilians. Matthew M. Stith's Extreme Civil War focuses on Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory to examine the physical and cultural frontiers that challenged Confederate and Union forces alike. A disturbing narrative emerges where conflict indiscriminately beset troops and families in a region that continually verged on social and political anarchy. With hundreds of small fights disbursed over the expansive borderland, fought by civilians -- even some women and children -- as much as by soldiers and guerrillas, this theater of war was especially savage.

Despite connections to the political issues and military campaigns that drove the larger war, the irregular conflict in this border region represented a truly disparate war within a war. The blend of violence, racial unrest, and frontier culture presented distinct challenges to combatants, far from the aid of governmental services. Stith shows how white Confederate and Union civilians faced forces of warfare and the bleak environmental realities east of the Great Plains while barely coexisting with a number of other ethnicities and races, including Native Americans and African Americans. In addition to the brutal fighting and lack of basic infrastructure, the inherent mistrust among these communities intensified the suffering of all citizens on America's frontier.

Extreme Civil War reveals the complex racial, environmental, and military dimensions that fueled the brutal guerrilla warfare and made the Trans-Mississippi frontier one of the most difficult and diverse pockets of violence during the Civil War.

ISBN 978-0807163146, LSU Press, © 2016, Hardcover, 232 pages, Photographs, End Notes, Bibliography &Index. $42.50.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Diary of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle: Sunday, May 3, 1863

I paid a long visit this morning to Mr Lynn the British Consul, who told me that he had great difficulty in communicating with the outer world, and had seen no British man-of-war since the Immortalite.

At 1.30 I saw Pyron's regiment embark for Niblitt's Bluff to meet Banks. This corps is now dismounted cavalry, and the procession was a droll one. First came eight or ten instruments braying discordantly, then an enormous Confederate flag, followed by about four hundred men moving by fours — dressed in every variety of costume, and armed with every variety of weapon; about sixty had Enfield rifles; the remainder carried shot-guns (fowling-pieces), carbines, or long rifles of a peculiar and antiquated manufacture. None had swords or bayonets — all had six-shooters and bowie-knives. The men were a fine, determined-looking lot; and I saw amongst them a short stout boy of fourteen who had served through the Arizona campaign. I saw many of the soldiers take off their hats to the French priests, who seemed much respected in Galveston. This regiment is considered down here to be a very good one, and its colonel is spoken of as one of the bravest ofiicers in the army. The regiment was to be harangued by Old Houston before it embarked.*

In getting into the cars to return to Houston I was nearly forced to step over the dead body of the horse shot by the soldier yesterday, and which the authorities had not thought necessary to remove.

I got back to General Scurry's house at Houston at 4.30 P.M. The general took me out for a drive in his ambulance, and I saw innumerable negroes and negresses parading about the streets in the most outrageously grand costumes — silks, satins, crinolines, hats with feathers, lace mantles, &c, forming an absurd contrast to the simple dresses of their mistresses. Many were driving about in their masters' carriages, or riding on horses which are often lent to them on Sunday afternoons; all seemed intensely happy and satisfied with themselves.

—— told me that old Sam Houston lived for several years amongst the Cherokee Indians, who used to call him “the Raven” or the “Big Drunk.” He married an Indian squaw when he was with them.

Colonel Ives, aide-de-camp to the President, has just arrived from Richmond, and he seems a very well informed and agreeable man.

I have settled to take the route to Shrieveport tomorrow, as it seems doubtful whether Alexandria will or will not fall.
_______________

* At the outbreak of the war it was found very difficult to raise infantry in Texas, as no Texan walks a yard if he can help it. Many mounted regiments were therefore organised, and afterwards dismounted.

SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three months in the southern states: April-June, 1863, p. 71-3

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 11, 1862

And Cincinnati is trembling to its center. That abolition city, half foreign and half American, is listening for the thunder of our avenging guns.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 152

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 12, 1862

The ranks of the enemy are broken everywhere in the West. Buell is flying to Nashville as a city of refuge, but we have invincible columns interposed between him and his country.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 152-3

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 13, 1862

Buell has impressed 10,000 slaves, and is fortifying Nashville.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 153

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 14, 1862

Our army has entered the City of Lexington, and the population hail our brave soldiers as deliverers. Three regiments were organized there in twenty-four hours, and thirty thousand recruits, it is thought, will flock to our standard in Kentucky.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 153

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 15, 1862

Our flag floats over the Capitol at Frankfort! And Gen. Marshall, lately the exile and fugitive, is encamped with his men on his own farm, near Paris.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 153

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Diary of Colonel William F. Bartlett: Friday, March 20, 1863

Orders this morning to march to Baton Rouge. We got in about three P. M. We got our tents up and began to make ourselves at home again.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 80

Diary of Colonel William F. Bartlett: Saturday, March 21, 1863

Rode down town this morning to see Dr. Winsor, whom we left sick. He is much better; will be out in a few days.

I invited George Wheatland (of Salem), Major of the Forty-eighth, to dine with me this evening. We dine at six. I gave him a very good dinner. We used the new mess pail; just right for three. I had a pork steak off a young pig, French bread, which Jacques gets in Baton Rouge, and chocolate, which the latter makes very well, fried sweet potatoes, guava jelly, boiled rice, butter, and for dessert, figs, coffee, and cigars, and a thimbleful of whiskey. He said it was the first decent dinner he had had since he left Boston. The mail came this evening too, a letter from Mother and one from Anna and Nellie Putnam.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 80

Diary of Colonel William F. Bartlett: Sunday, March 22, 1863

A beautiful morning, quite cool. Banks went to New Orleans yesterday; his staff remains here still. A prisoner was brought in by my pickets this morning. He just came from Port Hudson. Says they have fifty thousand men there. They think we have about sixty thousand here. If they knew that we only had sixteen thousand fighting men here, perhaps they would drop in on us some morning.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 80-1

Diary of Colonel William F. Bartlett: Monday, March 23, 1863

Raining. My bed being pretty comfortable I concluded to lie still until Jacques summoned, “Déjeuner tout prêt, Monsieur le Colonel,” at eight A. M. A nice one it was too. Dip toast, our regular morning dish (we get a pint of milk now twice a day, ten cents per pint), and fried pudding. Fletcher Abbott and Charley Sargent called in the afternoon. A heavy shower coming up drove them off, and nearly spoiled our dinner, which you know is cooked out doors, on three or four bricks, just back of our tent.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 81

Diary of Colonel William F. Bartlett: Tuesday, March 24, 1863

Rode down to Baton Rouge, saw Dr. Winsor; he is much better, will be out soon. Banks' staff goes to New Orleans, to-day. A letter from Uncle Edwin last night. Lieutenant-colonel Rodman (New Bedford), Massachusetts Thirty-eighth, called this evening.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 81

Diary of Colonel William F. Bartlett: Wednesday, March 25, 1863

The prospect seems to be that we shall stay here quiet now for the present, unless attacked. It does not promise to be a very brilliant campaign.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 81

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Sunday, March 6, 1864

A beautiful day, no wind and quite warm. General W. H. Morris has had lady visitors form New York City. Our band has been playing for him. There were services to-day in the chapel; several ladies were present; good dress parade this evening; cheering news from Kilpatrick's cavalry.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 24

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Monday, March 7, 1864

Very pleasant but colder than yesterday; have been hard at work all day with some men decorating the chapel with evergreens, etc.; got some help from the ladies; reception and dancing this evening. General J. B. Carr and lady were present and other distinguished guests. Captain Samuel Darrah was floor manager. Captain E. B. Frost looked after the supper; brilliant party.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 24

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Tuesday, March 8, 1864

It has been raining quite hard all day. The entertainment did not close last night till 2 a. m. today; have been returning the things borrowed for the hall last night; am feeling dull; no drill to-day; expect to be reviewed by General French to-morrow.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 24

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Wednesday, March 9, 1864

The weather has been very pleasant, but it's been a long weary day; have been at work on Company B clothing rolls, etc.; no recitation to-day. The Second Brigade has been having a review and drill this afternoon. The Third Corps review has been postponed till to-morrow, but I expected to go on picket; got a speech from Congressman Woodbridge; wonder what's come over him to be so civil; he's Meader's (my student roommate) law partner, but he was barely civil to me when I saw him in Vermont.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 25