Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 17, 1863

On Saturday, the enemy's lower Mississippi fleet attacked our batteries at Port Hudson. The result reported is that only one of their gun-boats got past, and that in a damaged condition. The frigate Mississippi, one of the best war steamers of the United States, was burned, and the rest retired down the river, badly repulsed. We sustained no loss.

To-day, the Secretary of War sent in a paper indorsing Judge Meredith's opinion in regard to foreigners who have accepted service in our country, viz., that they are liable to conscription. This is in the teeth of the decision of the Assistant Secretary, Judge Campbell, Col. Lay's father-in-law, and upon which the bureau has been acting, although Gen. Rains, the Superintendent, permitted it with reluctance, upon the assurance of Col. L. that such was the will of the department. This business may produce an explosion.

I walked with Gen. Rains this afternoon in Capitol Square. He is annoyed at the action of Col. Lay in following the instructions of the Assistant Secretary of War in regard to foreigners. The decision had not the sanction of the Secretary of War, Mr. Seddon. He thinks several thousand men may have been permitted to escape military service by it He intended to lay Judge Campbell's decision before the President, but it disappeared very mysteriously from his desk. And to-day it reappeard just as mysteriously. And, simultaneously, and quite as mysteriously, a paper appeared, signed by Mr. Seddon, Secretary of War, suggesting that the bureau act in conformity with Judge Meredith's opinion, directly in the teeth of Mr. Assistant Secretary Campbell's decision! And-it was dated March 13th, full four days before. What delayed it, and who brought it, no one seemed to know. Col. Lay suggested that it be sent back, with an indorsenent that the bureau had been already acting under the decision of Judge Campbell (just the reverse of the opinion), Assistant Secretary of War, “by order of the Secretary of War.” To this Gen. R. demurred, and said the bureau would conform its action to Mr. Seddon's suggestions; and he charged a clerk to preserve that paper. Col. L. grumbled awfully at Mr. Seddon's off-hand decision, without mature reflection.

Gen. Stewart (of Maryland) was at the office a short time before, and advocated Mr. Seddon's views; for he knew how many Marylanders would be embraced in the decision, as well as other foreigners.

Lieut.-Col. A. C. Jones, Assistant Adjutant-General, had, in the name of the bureau, notified Gen. Winder, this morning, that Marylanders, etc. were not liable to bear arms for the South after being in the service two years!

The general says he will have all the commandants of conscripts written to immediately; and that he will have an interview with the Secretary of War in relation to the matter.

Every man we can put in the field is demanded; and many fear we shall not have a sufficient number to oppose the overwhelming tide soon to be surging over the land. At such a crisis, and in consideration of all the circumstances attending this matter, involving the loss of so many men, one is naturally startled at Judge Campbell's conduct.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 275-6

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, April 14, 1863

Little of interest to-day at council.

The War Department, which early in the War claimed that the armed force on the Western rivers should be subject to military control, became involved in difficulty. Naval officers, naval guns, naval men, and naval discipline were wanted and so far as could be done were given, but Congress merely ordered that the armed vessels should be transferred to the Navy. This law had given offense to the War Department, and when the transfer was made, the “ram fleet,” as it was called, was withheld. This was, as I said to Stanton, in disregard of the law and would be likely to lead to difficulty, for, while there might be cooperation, there could not be separate commands without conflict.

The ram fleet was commanded by the family of Ellett, brave, venturous, intelligent engineers, not always discreet or wise, but with many daring and excellent qualities. They had under them a set of courageous and picked men, furnished by the military, styled the Marine Brigade, and did some dashing service, but refused to come under naval orders, or to recognize the Admiral in command of the Mississippi Squadron. The result was, as I anticipated might be the case, an arrest and suspension of Brigadier-General H. W. Ellett from the command of the ram fleet.

Stanton is very laudatory of the Elletts, and violent in his denunciations of Porter, whom he ridicules as a “gas bag and fussy fellow, blowing his own trumpet and stealing credit which belongs to others.” There is some truth in what he says of the Elletts and also of Porter, but the latter with all his verbosity has courage and energy as well as the Elletts.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 272-3

A Woman's Diary Of The Siege Of Vicksburg: February 25, 1863

A long gap in my journal, because H–– has been ill unto death with typhoid fever, and I nearly broke down from loss of sleep, there being no one to relieve me. I never understood before how terrible it was to be alone at night with a patient in delirium, and no one within call. To wake Martha was simply impossible. I got the best doctor here, but when convalescence began the question of food was a trial. I got with great difficulty two chickens. The doctor made the drug-store sell two of their six bottles of port; he said his patient's life depended on it. An egg is a rare and precious thing. Meanwhile the Federal fleet has been gathering, has anchored at the bend, and shells are thrown in at intervals.

SOURCE: George W. Cable, “A Woman's Diary Of The Siege Of Vicksburg”, The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 5, September 1885, p. 767

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, April 27, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Div.,

Fifteenth A. C,

Camp Before Vicksburg, April 27, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

“Man proposes and God disposes.” In my letter of Saturday, I advised you all that we should march to-day, and that night, the heavens opened and the rains descended and the floods came and we remain in statu quo. Last night certain boats ran the blockade of Vicksburg in the midst of a tremendous thunder storm and as the cannon from the enemy's batteries belched forth death and destruction, the elemental war began and heaven's artillery pealed. All night the earth was convulsed, the ear deafened with sound and fury, and to-day the clouds are weeping, the ground lies drenched, and the trees hang their branches as if in despair. The storm is the forerunner of certain lengthened rains which may be expected here at this season, and will retard, if not materially disarrange, the plans heretofore matured. In my former letters I have indicated my want of confidence in their results, and have not yet seen fit to change my opinion. The order of march is rescinded and we await here further orders. You note in the papers frequent mention of the blockade and the running of the same, and for your edification, I will essay some description of what it means, for on one or two nights I have been close within sight and range on shore, and four nights ago in company with General Blair and some naval officers went down with the gunboats on a small steamboat tug, as it is called (literally a “tug of war”), to the scene of the conflict. The ground we occupy, as I have before informed you, is in the shape of a long and narrow horseshoe, and the distance from Young's Point, a landing directly opposite the mouth of the Yazoo River, to the furtherest point of toe of the horseshoe is about six miles. Immediately in front of this latter point are the Court House and principal buildings of Vicksburg, which is situate upon one of a range of high bluffs, one hundred and fifty feet above our level; these bluffs extend around us in the shape of a vast amphitheatre, and at regular intervals their heights are crowned with batteries, while at their base are placed what are called water batteries. A battery, as it is termed, is usually applied to a collection of several guns. The term is also used in speaking of the arrangements made of a parapet to fire over it or through openings in it. I don't want to bore you with technicalities, but a knowledge of them is so often erroneously presupposed that many otherwise good descriptions lose their force. Upon and around this amphitheatre, then, you must imagine one hundred batteries, and as they change from point to point about one hundred and sixty guns. The calibre of these guns is from six pounds, that of the light field piece, to one hundred pound Parrots; of these latter there are but two or three. The major part of their metal, so far as we can ascertain, is from ten to thirty pounds. Now you must know that the pointblank range of six-pounder guns is about six hundred yards, and that of twelve-pounder guns about seven hundred yards; that the chances of hitting a mark are less with pieces of small than of large calibre, owing to windage, the effect of wind, etc. That the rate of firing is about forty seconds a shot for field pieces, and about one minute for twelve-pounders, but that when the enemy is close at hand and deliberate aim not necessary, two rounds may be fired per minute. With these explanations you may have some faint idea of what running the blockade means, when I further inform you that our fleet of transports has been lying from Young's Point along shore down stream to within a short distance of the mouth of the canal; that they have been guarded by gunboats lying at the mouth and a short distance up the Yazoo; that when it is proposed to go around, a dark night is selected or sometimes in a moonlight night after the moon has set. The boats having been protected all round the machinery, in front, and along the side presented to the enemy, with cotton bales, bales of hay, etc., are divested as far as possible of their crew, a full head of steam is had on, and paddling slowly and cautiously till they arrive at the bend, full power is put on, and they go by as best they can, one at a time. The enemy is always on the lookout, and the signal gun is followed by continuous roar from all till the boats pass below Warrenton, five miles from the bend and the terminus of their fortifications. The heavens are lighted up by the beacon fires of the enemy and what are called calcium lights, so constructed as to throw broad and bright reflections on the water, and so point out the passing boats. The flashes of their cannon make almost a continuous line of bright light, the booming reports shake the ground and water, and make boats and houses tremble as by an earthquake. If the transports are convoyed, as has twice been done, by gunboats, these reply, and if the boats are struck, as frequently happens, the cotton is fired by exploding shells, bundles of bales blazing with lurid light are cast into the water, floating for miles, and whirled by the eddies. The river now appears one broad stream of flame, a boat is sunk, one or two are burning, sailors are seen making their way to shore, on boards or boats. The riflemen of the enemy line the shore, and the sharp report of small pieces with the waspish sing of the balls, is occasionally distinguished above all the din. They shoot at those endeavoring to escape; they fire whole volleys at the broadside of the steamer in the hope of killing one man. The pickets on our own lines pace rapidly upon their beat, they are within range, the reserves are upon the shore to give succor to the drowning; outside of this hell all is blackness and the darkness of night. These boats, in fine, go round; the others are helpless, hopeless wrecks. Day dawns, and the river is banked with smoke of the conflict. A body floats by, the entrails are all torn out; it is the pilot, who was cut across the belly by a passing shell. Few lives are lost, for few of the living attempted the voyage; the bodies, if found, will be buried; if not, will become food for the alligator or the gar. A few jokes through the day, and all is forgotten in the next order of march or preparations for another run. The boats are manned by volunteers; there are always enough for the purpose, and yet they know there is no glory to be gained, that their names, even, will never be known beyond their company or regiment, that they must pass within from one hundred and fifty to three hundred yards of the cannon's mouth; batteries manned by men hellbent on their destruction. “Into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell,” with wild halloo and bacchanal song, a curse if they're hit, an oath if they escape, they go to destruction, mayhap, not to glory. So much for running the blockade. When I feel quite like it, I'll send you a map and explain the country about here, and tell you why we don't take Vicksburg. If anybody should ask you that question, just tell them it is because we have no ground to stand upon. It is all water and swamp for miles below us and every inch of the opposite side disputed. If we get a standpoint for operations, then we drive them, if needs be, at the point of the bayonet. We must wait the turn of events. I see the Admiral made a failure at Charleston. We have just got the news, and Congress with the President determines to cripple the army. Well, “those whom the gods destroy, they first make mad.”

I wish I had something else to write to you about — something that would be more interesting than the army. I am in a close circumscribed sphere, with limited knowledge of the outside world; the 27th of the month, and my latest dates the 15th — of course I am far behind the age. Wife's poetry is very pretty, and Colonel Fisher was pleased to get it. I have just managed to secure his promotion. It will do him but little good; like the others I have loved and lost, he is doomed. I give him about one month more and then I think he will go under. There was another very fine and gallant young man in the regiment, Captain Williams. I had him promoted to Major and the very day his commission arrived, he was seized with small-pox and is now in the pest hospital. He was struck in the breast by a Minie-ball in the charge at Chickasas; he has been very weak since, and I think this is the last of him. I think I shall counsel Colonel Fisher to resign; his is a valuable life.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 291-4

Diary of Edward Bates, January 10, 1862

Disappointed in the S.[upreme] C.[ourt] by the postponement of the School cases, I hastened to C.[abinet] C.[ouncil] where we had a free consultation, which disclosed great negligence, ignorance and lack of preparation and forethought. Nothing is ready. McClellan is still sick, and nobody knows his plans, if he have any (which with me is very doubtful). The expeditions for the South do not go¹⁹ — nobody knows why not — The boats and bomb-rafts at Cairo are not ready²⁰ — not manned — Indeed we do not know that the mortars have reached there — Strange enough, the boats are under the War Dept., and yet are commanded by naval officers. Of course, they are neglected — no one knows any thing about them.

I advised the Prest. to restore all the floating force to the command of the Navy Dept, with orders to cooperate with the army, just as the Navy on the sea coast does.

Again, I urged upon the Prest. to take and act out the powers of his place, to command the commanders — and especially to order regular, periodical reports, shewing the exact state of the army, every where. And to that end—

I renewed formally, and asked that it be made a question before the Cabinet, — my proposition, often made heretofore — that the President as “ Comm[an]der in Chief of the Army and Navy ” do organize a Staff of his own, and assume to be in fact, what he is in law, the Chief Commander. His aid[e]s could save him a world of trouble and anxiety — collect and report to him all needed information, and keep him constantly informed, at a moment’s warning — keep his military and naval books and papers — conduct his military correspondence, — and do his bidding generally “in all the works of war[.]”

It is objected (by both the Prest. and Sec of War) not that the thing is wrong or undesirable in itself but that the Generals wd. get angry — quarrel &c!!  I answer — Of course the Genls — especially the Chief²¹ —would object—.  they wish to give but not receive orders — If I were Prest, and I found them restive under the command of a superior, they should soon have no inferiors to command. All of them have been lately made of comparatively raw material, taken from the lower grates [sic] of the army officers or from civil life. The very best of them — McClellan, McDowell,²² Halleck²³ &c until very lately, never commanded more than a battallion [sic]. They have no experience in the handling of large bodies of men, and are no more to be trusted in that respect, than other men of good sense, lately their equals in rank and position. If therefore, they presume to quarrel with the orders of their superior — their constitutional commander — for that very reason, they ought to be dismissed, and I would do, it in full confidence that I could fill their places with quite as good men, chosen as they were chosen, from the lower grades of officers, from the ranks of the army, or from civil life.

There can be no lawful, just or honest cause of dissatisfaction because the President assumes, in practise, the legitimate duties of his place — His powers are all duties — He has no privileges, no powers granted to him for his own sake, and he has no more right to refuse to exercise his constitutional powers than he has to assume powers not granted. He (like us, his official inferiors) cannot evade his responsibilities. He must shew to the nation and to posterity, how he has discharged the duties of his Stewardship, in this great crisis. And if he will only trust his own good judgment more, and defer less, to the opinions of his subordinates, I have no doubt that the affairs of the war and the aspect of the whole country, will be quickly and greatly changed for the better.

I think it unjust to to [sic] those Genls. to impute to them such unsoldierly conduct. Very probably, they would object and grumble in advance, in the hope of deterring the President from that course, ²⁴ but the resolve, once taken, would work its own moral and peaceful triumph. For those generals are, undoubtedly, men of sense, prudence and patriotism, and, for their own, as well as their country’s good, would obey their official superior, as cheerfully and heartily as they expect their inferiors to obey them. If, however, contrary to professional duty, to the moral sense of right, and to sound logic, they should act otherwise, that fact would be proof positive of unfitness to command, and, for that cause, they ought to be instantly removed.

If a Major Genl. may be allowed to complain because the President has about him a staff — the means and m[a]chinery of knowledge and of action — why may not a Brigadier complain that his Major Genl. is so accom[m]odated? The idea seems to me absurd. The very thought is insubordinate, and smacks of mutiny.

My proposition assumes that the President is, in fact as well as theory, commander in chief (not in detail) of the army and navy; and that he is bound to exercise the powers of that high post, as legal duties. And that he cannot perform those duties intelligently and efficiently, by his own unassisted, personal powers — He must have aides, by whatever names you call them; for they are as necessary to the proper exercise of those official functions, as the bodily senses are to the proper perception and action of the individual man. If it be the duty of the President, as I do not doubt that it is, to command, it would seem to follow, of necessity, that he must have, constantly at hand and under his personal orders, the usual means and machinery for the performance of that duty, with knowledge and with effect.

In at least one important sense, I consider the Departments of War and Navy as constituting the Staff of the Commander in chief, and it does seem to me highly important that he should have, always near him, intelligent and confidential persons, to facilitate his intercourse with that multitudinous staff.

If it be not the President’s duty to command, then it is not his right, and prudence would seem to require him to renounce all control of the affairs of war, and cast all the responsibility upon those who are entrusted with the actual command — But this he cannot do, because the constitution forbids it, in declaring that he “shall be Commander in chief.”

I see not the slightest use for A General in chief of the army. When we had peace with all the world, and a little nucleous of an army, of about 15.000 men, and had the veteran Lieut. General Scott as our first officer, perhaps it was well enough to give him that honorary title. But now, that we have a war spreading over half a continent, and have many armies, reaching, in the aggregate to over 600.000 men, it is simply impossible for any one general, usefully and well, to command all those armies. The army of the Potomac alone is quite enough for any one man to command in detail, and more than almost any one can do, with assurance of good success.

The President being a Civil Magistrate and not a military chief, and being the lawful commander in chief of the army, needs, more than any well-trained general can need, in his intercourse with and his control of the army, the assistance of skillful and active aid[e]s, always near his person. And I indulge the hope that he will find it right to appoint and organize just such and so many as his exigencies may seem to require; and I say all this in the confident belief, that his own reputation, now and hereafter, and the present and permanent good of the Country, do require such an organization.²⁵

__________

¹⁹ “Butler’s and Burnside’s. See supra, Dec. 31, 1861.

²⁰ “They were being collected for the attack on Fort Henry which took place in early February.

²¹ George B. McClellan.

²² Supra, Nov. 16, 1861, note 53.

²³ Supra, Nov. 13, 1861, note 37.

²⁴ Inserted later in the margin.

²⁵ See supra, Dec. 31, 1861, note 64.

SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, The Diary of Edward Bates, published in The Annual Report Of The American Historical Association For The Year 1930 Volume 4, p. 243-6