Farewell Address of Major-General John A. Dix to the Middle Department, June 1, 1862

Head quarters, Middle Department, Baltimore, Md., June 1,1862.

General Orders, No. 14:

The Major-general commanding, having received orders to repair to Fort Monroe and assume the command at that point, and having but two hours to prepare for his departure, takes leave of the troops under his command in the only mode left to him — through the medium of a General Order.

Of the corps composing his command when he first assumed it, more than ten months ago, two regiments — the Third New York Volunteers, under Colonel Alford; the Fourth New York Volunteers, under Colonel Taylor; and the regular garrison of Fort McHenry, under Colonel Morris — are all that remain. The admirable discipline of these deserves the highest commendation; and he returns to all his sincere thanks for their promptitude and fidelity in the performance of their duties.

It is a source of great regret to him that he is compelled to leave without being able to review the regiments of New York Militia — the Seventh, Eighth, Thirteenth, Twenty-second, Thirty-seventh, and Forty-seventh — which, under a second appeal from the Chief Magistrate of the Union, have laid aside their various occupations on the briefest notice, at great personal sacrifice, and, hurrying to the field, are now occupying positions in and around Baltimore. In their patriotism and their devotion to the Government of their country the Union feeling of the city will meet with a cordial sympathy. It is a great alleviation of the regret with which the Major-general commanding parts with them, that he is soon to be succeeded by a distinguished general officer of the regular army from their own State. In the interim the command of the Department devolves on Brigadier-general Montgomery, United States Volunteers.

The Major-general commanding cannot forbear, in taking leave of the citizens of Baltimore, among whom his duties have been discharged, to express the grateful sense he will ever retain of the aid and encouragement he has received from those of them who have been true, under all the vicissitudes of a wicked and unnatural contest, to the cause of the Union. The ladies of the Union Relief Association are entitled to a special acknowledgment of his obligations to them. It is believed that the records of philanthropic devotion do not contain a brighter example of self-sacrificing service than that which is to be found in their own quiet and unobtrusive labors. The military hospitals have, from the commencement of the war, borne unceasing testimony to their untiring zeal and sympathy. The wounded prisoners of the insurgent army have, like our own, been solaced in their dying hours by the ministrations of these devoted ladies: nobly suggesting to the misguided masses who are in arms against the Government that suffering humanity, under whatever circumstances it may present itself, has the same claim on our common nature for sympathy and ministering care. And it is to be hoped that this lesson of magnanimity may not be without its proper influence on those who, under the influence of bad passions, seem to have lost sight of their moral responsibility for indifference and cruelty.

It is a source of great gratification to the Major-general commanding that in the eight months during which the municipal police was under his control no act of disorder disturbed the tranquillity of the city, and that the police returns, compared with those of a corresponding period of the previous year, exhibit a very great reduction, in some months as high as fifty per cent., in the aggregate of misdemeanors and crimes. The police having on the 20th of March last been surrendered to the city authorities, they have since then been responsible for the preservation of the public order. The zeal and promptitude of the Police Commissioners and Marshal of Police on the occurrence of a recent disturbance, provoked by a brutal expression of disloyal feeling, gives earnest of their determination to arrest at the outset all breaches of the public peace, which, by whatever provocation they may seem to be palliated, are sure to degenerate, if unchecked, into discreditable and fatal excesses.

The Major-general commanding, with this imperfect acknowledgment of his obligations to the loyal citizens of Baltimore and their patriotic defenders, tenders to them all, with his best wishes, a friendly and cordial farewell.

By order of Major-general Dix.

Danl. T. Van Buren, Colonel and Aide-de-camp.

SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 47-8

Diary of Josephine Shaw Lowell: July 4, 1862

Our loss this morning is reported at 15,000 and that of the Rebels at 40,000. Jimmy Lowell was killed,¹ and his mother sees it for the first time this morning. I didn't know him before last winter, when he was introduced to me at the Agassiz's and much to my gratification asked me to dance. What rendered it pleasanter was that, being lame from his wound, he hadn't danced at all that evening. Poor Mother! I won't say poor Son, for he died for his country and such martyrs are not to be pitied.

11:30 P.M. Just come home from Col. Howe's (Agent of N. E. Regs.) where, in spite of troublous times, we went to see the fireworks. There was a soldier there spending the night who had been wounded and Col. Howe brought him down because he'd heard him say: “Oh! How I wish I could be in the country today.” I talked to him all the firework time and he told me about his wound, the battle, etc. He was only 17 years old when he enlisted last August in the Third New York Reg. and had been at Edisto Island all winter until the attack on James Island in which he was wounded in the jaw, or rather the front part of the lower jaw. Teeth and all were knocked right out by a bullet passing in behind under the tongue. All his upper front teeth were gone, too, and one would have supposed that he couldn't talk, but he managed very well with his face plastered up. After he was hit he walked by himself half way to the hospital and two drummer boys helped him the rest of the way. When he got there the pieces of bone hanging out were cut off. The fireworks and our brightness seemed so incongruous in his sight and in the thought of thousands suffering tonight.

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¹ At the battle of Glendale, Virginia, June 30, 1862.

SOURCE: William Rhinelander Stewart, The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell, p. 30-1

From New York

NEW YORK, May 9.

Gen. Marcy telegraphs the following:

WILLIAMSBURG, May 8.

Gen. McClellan, on the 6th inst., had a most decisive victory.  Only about 30,000 of our troops were engaged against 50,000 of the best rebel troops.  Our men fought most valiantly, and used  the bayonet freely which the rebels couldn’t stand.  They fought well until they felt the cold steel, when they took to their heels and ran like hounds, leaving their dead, wounded and sick upon our hands.  Joe Johnson [sic] lead them in person.  They have lost several of their best officers.

The Herald’s correspondence gives the following graphic account of the magnificent charge of Hancock’s brigade on the rebels:  “Scarcely a hundred yards were between the rebels and the guns, when our skirmish fire became silent.  The lines of the 5th Wisconsin and the 3d New York formed up in close order to the right of the battery; the long range of musket barrels came to one level, and one terrible volley tore through the rebel line; moment more, and the same long range of muskets came to another level, and the order to charge with the bayonet was given, and away went the two regiments with one glad cheer.  Gallant as our foes were, they could not meet that.  But few brigades mentioned in history would have done better than this did.  For a space which was generally estimated at three quarters of a mile they advanced under fire of a splendidly served battery, and with a cloud of skirmishers stretched across their front, whose fire was very destructive, and if after that the rebels had not the nerve to meet a line of bayonets that came towards them like the spirit of destruction, it need not be wondered at when they broke and fled in complete panic.  145 were taken prisoners, and nearly 500 were killed and wounded.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 10, 1862, p. 2

Letter From Baltimore

BALTIMORE, April 12th, 1862.

EDITOR MESSENGER – Sir: Without previous notice, I venture to write you a few lines for publication in your paper.

My recent trip to this city was very pleasant, with the exception of some inconveniences arising from being thrown “out of time” on the Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road. Recent heavy rains caused much injury to the road-bed on this line, and for some days trains made only irregular trips. All is now in order, and each train departs and arrives “on time.” Those who have not yet passed over the B. & O. Road, this side of Cumberland, since its partial destruction by the rebels will find, on making the trip, quite a different state of affairs existing along the line, so far as the road itself is concerned, compared with that of even one year ago.

At Martinsburg I counted twelve locomotives, still standing where left by their destroyers. Some of them, I presume are rendered entirely worthless, having been burned until the rods and other smaller parts are warped and twisted into almost every conceivable shape. How many more there may be thus left as the footprints of an inexcusable mob, I cannot say, as I only saw those standing upon the “side-track.” I learned from one acquainted with the place that there were many more.

At Harper’s Ferry the work of destruction seemed to have reached its highest point. In all the buildings still standing I could only see one which seemed to be occupied, save those used by our troops stationed at the place. The large brick hotel, where many a hungry traveler has refreshed the “inner man,” is gone – nothing left but a mass of rubbish. The Government buildings are all destroyed with one exception – that being probably the largest. The machinery was taken from this, but the walls and roof are uninjured. This building is now occupied as a government stable. The “Odd Fellow’s” Hall, which some may remember having seen standing back on the hill with the end towards the river with “I. O. O. F.” plainly in sight, is now used by the Quartermaster’s department. The “trestling” along the bank of the river here being of stone and iron was not much injured. Among the buildings escaping destruction is the “Engine House,” the “Headquarters” of John Brown. Strange to say, it still stands, and the traveler naturally says, as he looks upon it, “John Brown must have been crazy.” And so it does seem, for a man might as well try to fortify himself in the Athens market house as in this “Fort,” selected by John Brown. Almost every trestle from Cumberland to “Point of Rocks” was destroyed. The fine bridge at the Ferry has been replaced by temporary trestle work, which seems to answer every purpose. The "piers” of the bridge were not injured. Two other bridges crossing the Potomac – one at Berlin and the other at “Point of Rocks” – were also badly burned, nothing being left but the stone piers to mark the place where those noble structures once stood. The company is seemingly doing everything in its power to thoroughly repair the road. Vast numbers of men are engaged upon its re-construction. The Government seems determined not to allow this great thoroughfare to be again closed, as it has furnished men sufficient to guard it its entire length. Already vast amounts of freights are coming from the west, and from present appearances, the full capacity of the road will be required to do the business offered.

Business in this city is anything but brisk, save in those channels where the Government operates. All eyes are now trained toward Yorktown, and, as much depends upon the success of our army there, everything like business here, as elsewhere in the East, will stand still until the result of that battle is known. The Government is doing a large business here, by way of building gunboats, and fitting out other vessels of war. Two large “Iron-plated” boats are now under way in the “basin,” in sight from the place where I am now writing. “Federal Hill” presents quite a war-like appearance. A large Fort – earthwork – has been built here, mounting fifty-six guns, varying in size from a six to a sixty-four pounder. This Fort is near the center of the city and can, if necessary, be burned to the ground. The Fort is now occupied by six companies of the 3rd New York regiment, from Albany. They claim to be the oldest three years regiment in the service. They lost seventeen men in the battle at Great Bethel. Fort Marshall, in the lower part of the city, on the road toward Philadelphia, is occupied by the balance of this regiment. Several regiments are stationed in and around the city, and the streets glisten with brass buttons. How much “secesh” there may still be lurking around this city, waiting for a favorable opportunity to burst forth in its former strength, I cannot say; but in justice to the masses here, I must say that I believe the civil power now fully sufficient to maintain order. Many who, in the onset of our National difficulties, unhesitatingly spoke and acted for the rebels now measure their language, seemingly disposed to claim the friendship of “Union men,” as also to put themselves in good shape to rejoice at the triumph of the Government, whenever rejoicing shall become popular.

Every regiment passing through this city is fed by the citizens. A large dining hall, convenient to the R. R. station, has been fitted up, where those men who are fighting to maintain the rights of all the people, as they pass along, can eat and drink without money.

A large reading room, called the “Union Reading Room,” has been fitted up for the benefit of the soldiers stationed here. At this place they can peruse all the daily papers of the city, as well as nearly ten hundred others, from different parts of the country, all without cost to them. This room furnishes many a poor soldier with such news as he now most needs, without constantly calling on his pocket for a half-dime to buy a paper. Besides this, he can here often find a paper published at his own home – thus giving him, besides the news of the day, a history of events transpiring among those so near to him. The Messenger, with many other Ohio papers makes it regular appearance at the “reading room.”

A few more days will decide much either for or against our country. If favorable then our difficulties will soon end – if otherwise, renewed energy, on the part of our rulers, with the people, will be necessary. I have no fears for the result. For the benefit of those persons who may visit Baltimore this season, and who have formally stopped at the “Howard House,” I would inform them that the above named house is now closed. The “Maltby House” is now the resort of Western men.

Your Friend,
F. M. C.

– Published in The Athens Messenger, Athens Ohio, Thursday, April 24, 1862