COLUMBUS, December 27.—The vague dispatches received her in relation to the Charleston forts, have thrown the people into great excitement.—This will render secession of Georgia certain.
SOURCE: “The News at Columbus,” The Charleston Daily Courier, Charlston, South Carolina, Friday, December 28, 1860, p. 1
Maj. ROBERT ANDERSON, U. S. A., has achieved the unenviable distinction of opening civil war between American citizens by an act of gross breach of faith. He has, under counsels of a panic, deserted his post at Fort Moultrie, and under false pretexts, has transferred his garrison and military stores and supplies to Fort Sumter.
Throughout the day, on Wednesday, preparations of some unusual sort were going on about Fort Moultrie, and it was currently reported that the women and families of the garrison were to be removed to Fort Johnson on James’ Island.
The work of transportation began on Wednesday evening, and was carried on with such energy that, under the generous confidence reposed by the authorities of South Carolina, it was effected in the course of Wednesday night.
About 8 o’clock Wednesday evening guns were heard from Fort Moultrie, and this was the first intimation to the City that anything unusual was going on.
Instead of proceeding to Fort Johnson, as avowed, the transports, which compromised three schooners and some barges that had been previously engaged ostensibly for completing the defenses of Fort Moultrie, were ordered to Fort Sumter, under cover of darkness.
On Thursday morning it was found that Fort Moultrie was dismantled, its guns all spiked and several guns ranging towards Fort Sumter completely dismounted, and their carriages, &c. tarred and burned. Capt. FOSTER, U. S. Engineers who had been in charge of the works on Fort Sumter was left with a small detail in Fort Moultrie.
The excitement that which the promulgation of this news created in Charleston cannot be described, and we cannot compose ourselves to attempt the details. The bulletin boards and all places of public concourse were thronged with eager inquirers, and settled determination was marked on ever face.
As soon as the facts were reported, military orders were issued to many companies, who responded promptly.
By command of Gov. PICKENS a steamer was chartered to bear a dispatch to Maj. ANDERSON, at Fort Sumter. The orders of the Governor were committed to Col. PETTIGREW and Maj. CAPERS, of the Rifle Regiment, whose return from Fort Sumter was awaited by thousands.
The answer of Maj. ANDERSON has not transpired, buy we are informed on the best authority that he acknowledges the act of deserting Fort Moultrie and repairing to Fort Sumter as entirely his own, and as done without specific orders.
We have other information that Major ANDERSON for some time has indulged in constant apprehensions of an unauthorized and tumultuous attack on Fort Moultrie. If he has acted under such misapprehensions, he has committed the error which officers always commit when they take counsel under panic.
He has virtually and grossly violated a solemn pledge given by his Chief and accepted by South Carolina; and he had all possible assurance from South Carolina that his honor, and position, and duty would be respected until a proper and open declaration of war. While the enemies of South Carolina have been falsely accusing her of violence and precipitation, and have been endeavoring, by exciting rumors, to urge her or her sons to such premature demonstrations, South Carolina took her position honorably and fairly.
Major ANDERSON has clandestinely taken refuge in an unfinished fortress, and has thus violated the solemn pledges that assured us that Fort Sumter would not be garrisoned.
It is not our duty at present to estimate the reasons which have impelled this act which is without precedent in the records of the United States Army—an army whose honor has never suffered when in the keeping of South Carolina. Our feelings warn us, however, to defer comments and to await developments, for we could not willingly do injustice even to such a foe.
Soon after the steamer which bore the dispatch from Gov. PICKENS hand left Fort Sumter to return, The United States flag was displayed from that fortress, and thus became a stronghold of defiance and insult to the State for hose defence it was commenced and designed.
For other details and incidents connected with or resulting from this outrage, so far as policy has sanctioned publishing, we refer to other places in this issue.
SOURCE: “Major Anderson,” The Charleston Daily Courier, Charlston, South Carolina, Friday, December 28, 1860, p. 2
SHERWOOD FOREST, VA., April 18, 1861.
By my last letter
from the President the convention was sitting with closed doors. The vote was
probably taken yesterday, and it must have been for secession, as we have heard
a great cannonading all day in the direction of Richmond. Who can wish it
otherwise? I assure you, judging from the country, such is the exasperated
feeling of wrong that every able-bodied man from every family is ready to
shoulder his musket and will do so at the call. Mr. Douthat is the captain of
our volunteer troopers here. It numbers eighty well-horsed, well-armed, and
well-drilled and brave, true, high-toned gentlemen, who love the right and
scorn the wrong. Captain Douthat says he expects to be the first to fall, but
he is ready to die, if needs be, in the defense of his rights.
There is such a
determined spirit of resistance throughout the South that, with the secession
of the Border slave-States, I hope Lincoln will change his course and
acknowledge the Southern Confederacy. It rests with him to prevent or urge a
most unnatural and bloody war. The idea of any State meeting his demand! It is
disgraceful.
The sentiments you
express are so generous and becoming, and so like those of the boasted matrons
of the Revolution, that I take every occasion to repeat them, and you are
admired accordingly. I should think the citizens of New York who are opposed to
this onslaught on their Southern kinsmen would now make a demonstration and form
a party against coercion where States are concerned.
I enclose you Gov.
Pickens' despatch to the President. It will make you realize the occurrences at
Charleston. Return it at once, as I wish to preserve it. John Tyler, Jr., is a
clerk in the War Department at Montgomery. We knew nothing of it until the
President received through him those telegraphic despatches from the Secretary
of War (Mr. Walker), announcing the commencement of hostilities, which you may
have seen in some of the newspapers. Mr. Semple intends to resign the instant
the State secedes, or before if ordered upon any secret or avowedly hostile
expedition. Gen Scott was expected in Richmond yesterday, to offer, it is said,
his services to Virginia. But the papers tell you all this. I have no time for
more. The children are well. Julia is still in Richmond and quite well. My
cough, I am glad to say, has passed away. I hope Harry is well and very
studious.
Only to think who
became aids to Gen. Beauregard at Charleston,—the senators who retired from
their seats in Washington on the secession of South Carolina. Gov. Manning, and
even Senator Wigfall, of Texas, on his way home, stopped to assist. They all
exposed themselves to the fire, and Mr. Wigfall received the surrender. He is a
splendid fellow-all spirit and bravery and intellect. I met him at Washington;
and his wife is the kind of noble, high-spirited woman you would most admire.
Think of the enthusiasm of old Edmund Ruffin,1 our noted
agriculturist!
1 He fired the first gun at Charleston, and,
when the Confederacy went down, wrapped himself in the Confederate flag and
blew his brains out.
SOURCE: Lyon
Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p.
646-7
SHERWOOD FOREST, May 4, 1861.
If we find it best
not to stay here, for health or other reasons, we will all go into the
mountains. What will become of the Villa remains to be seen. It will have to
take its chances. Was there ever such a savage, wicked war? It must be that
Heaven's wrath will fall upon the offenders, and punish them before they can
ever attempt to accomplish their fiendish purpose. The South will stand on the
defensive, and are ready for a brave and determined fight, if their soil is
invaded by an armed foe. Which will be victors of course cannot be foreseen,
but they of the North wickedly invade for an unholy purpose to devastate and
destroy, while the South is merely defending itself against them in the just
maintenance of her rights. I think her course will be favored of Heaven. Those
reports of vessels being sunk, and an Eastern captain hanged, are all lies, and
you need believe nothing of the sort that you hear. The Southerners are
committing no excesses of any description, and will not. Whatever they may be
obliged to do will be only in self-defense. A great many newspaper stories will
be got up for effect, and they may even be circulated by individuals, this
bitter feeling runs so high; but you must believe nothing you would not wish to
hear. The South will commit no crime or unfeeling act of any sort. See how they
acted in Charleston, with what generosity, bravery and magnanimity! See how
little the recipients ever appreciated it! It is a pity they were so courteous
and polite to the vanquished, I thought so at the time. The Southerners need
trust none, and expect no quarter. It is not the flag and the Union, but it is
their dread of the North losing its supremacy! We are all well at present. . .
. .
I will write again
soon. In haste, with love to all the household. Tell D—— the gentlemen on the
river are all soldiers, and batteries with cannon line each side of the river.
All seem prepared to perish or conquer if they are invaded.
SOURCE: Lyon
Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p.
649
Another morning of blue skies and glorious sunshine. Sherman is reported to be marching northward, and to have progressed one-third of the way between Columbia and Charlotte, N. C.; where we had "millions of specie" a few days ago.
Some of the lady employees, sent by Mr. Memminger to Columbia last year, have returned to this city, having left and lost their beds, etc.
Grant's campaign seems developed at last. Sherman and Thomas will concentrate on his left, massing 200,000 men between Lee and his supplies, effectually cutting his communications by flanking with superior numbers. It is probable Charleston, Wilmington, and Richmond will fall without a battle; for how can they be held when the enemy stops supplies? and how could the garrisons escape when once cut off from the interior?
And yet Congress has done nothing, and does nothing, but waste the precious time. I fear it is too late now! It is certainly too late to raise recruits for service in the campaign now in active operation, a fact which our politician leaders seem to be unconscious of. Even our furloughed troops cannot now rejoin their regiments from their distant homes.
Then, if Lee must evacuate Richmond, where can he go? No one knows!
My belief is that the only chance for Lee—and a desperate one—is to beat Grant immediately, before the grand junction can be formed.
Letters are beginning to come in from the South, advocating the abandonment of Richmond, and the march of Lee's army into East Tennessee and Northern Georgia, and so on down to Montgomery, Ala., etc. etc.; concentrating in the Cotton States. What an ugly programme! How many would then follow the fortunes of this government? How many heads of bureaus, etc. would abandon it? How would it be possible for those with families on their hands to get transportation? A great many other questions might be asked, that few could answer at this time.
Charleston was evacuated on Tuesday last—nearly a week ago—so says the Examiner, and no one doubts it.
Mr. Hunter seems more depressed to-day than I have ever seen him. He walks with his head down, looking neither to the right nor the left.
I shall expect soon to hear of a battle. Beauregard must have nearly 50,000 men—such as they are, poor fellows! The rich have generally bribed themselves out of the service through the complicated machinery of the "Bureau of Conscription."
Senator Brown, of Mississippi, I am sorry to see, often retards legislation by motions to postpone; and the Senate listens to him, not knowing what to do. Hours now are worth weeks hereafter.
The President has made Wm. M. Browne—one of his aids, an Englishman and a Northern newspaper reporter—a brigadier-general. This does not help the cause. Mr. B. knows no more about war than a cat; while many a scarred colonel, native-born, and participants in a hundred fights, sue in vain for promotion.
Governor Clarke (Mississippi) telegraphs the President that nothing keeps the negroes from going to the enemy but the fear of being put in the Federal army; and that if it be attempted to put them in ours, all will run away, etc.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 426-8
Another bright and glorious morning.
Charleston fell on Thursday night last. A large number of heavy guns fell into the hands of the enemy. The confidential telegraph operators remained with the enemy. They were Northern men; but it is the policy of those in possession of this government to trust their enemies and neglect their friends.
Congress passed yesterday a bill abolishing the "Bureau of Conscription" in name-nothing more, if I understand it. The bill was manipulated by Judge Campbell, who has really directed the operations of the bureau from the beginning.
The negro bill also passed one House, and will pass the other to-day.
Also a bill (in one House) abolishing provost marshals, except in camps of the army.
These measures may come too late. The enemy is inclosing us on all sides with great vigor and rapidity. A victory by Beauregard would lift up the hearts of the people, now prone in the dust.
Mr. D. H. London (on the street) is smiling this morning. He says there is no doubt but that we shall be speedily recognized by France, and that Gen. Lee has gone South to checkmate Sherman. I fear some one has been deceiving Mr. London, knowing how eager he is for a few grains of comfort. He is a rich man.
A dispatch was sent from the department to Gen. Lee this morning, at his headquarters, supposed to be near Petersburg. Gold was selling at $60 for $1 yesterday. This may be a "dodge" of the brokers, who want to purchase; or it may be the government selling specie.
A gentleman from South Carolina reports that the Georgians (militia and reserves, I suppose) refused to enter South Carolina in obedience to Gen. Beauregard's orders, and that Gen. B. has not exceeding 10,000 reliable men. If this be so, Sherman may march whither he chooses! This is very bad, if it be true, and more and more endangers the capital.
Surgeon-General S. P. Moore's estimates for the year's expenses of his bureau are $46,000,000.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 428-9
Raining; the most inclement February for years.
It is stated that Gen. J. E. Johnston has been replaced in command of the army in front of Sherman; a blunder, for Beauregard's friends will raise a clamor.
Grant's men fired salutes yesterday in honor of the DAY—22d—and had the Richmond papers read to them by order of Gen. Grant—accounts of the fall of Charleston. Our government will continue this fatal policy of allowing easy communication between Richmond and the enemy, begun by Mr. Benjamin, and continued by his successors! It will ruin us, and would destroy any cause. Next, our papers will announce the fall of Wilmington.
Three preachers—Hoge, Burroughs, and Edwards have sent in a proposition to the President, to take the stump and obtain subscriptions of rations for the troops. The President marks it "special," and refers it to the Secretary "for attention and advice." Humbugged to the end! These men might fight, but they won't. They will speak two words for the soldiers, and one for themselves. I believe two of them are Northern men. What idiocy! If they meddle at all in the carnival of blood, I would put them in the ranks. Gen. Bragg says he is greatly outnumbered by the enemy's two corps near Wilmington. Of course he will evacuate.
There is no money (paper) in the Treasury. Mr. Trenholm, seeing Mr. Memminger abused for issuing too much paper money, seems likely to fall into the opposite error of printing too little,
leaving hundreds of millions of indebtedness unpaid. This will soon rouse a hornet's nest about his ears!
Gold is arriving from Charlotte, N. C., and I suppose from other places. Its accumulation here, when known to the enemy, as it certainly will be, only endangers the city more and more.
Mr. Harman, of Staunton, suggests that every house in Virginia be visited, and one third the subsistence for man and beast be bought at market price. He says that would subsist the army.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 430-1
Raining.
There are more rumors of the evacuation of Wilmington and even Petersburg. No doubt that stores, etc. are leaving Petersburg; but I doubt whether it will be evacuated, or Richmond, either. Grant may, and probably will, get the Danville Railroad, but I think Lee will disappoint him in the item of evacuation, nevertheless; for we have some millions in gold—equal to 300,000,000 paper—to purchase subsistence; and it is believed Virginia alone, for specie, can feed the army, Then another army may arise in Grant's rear.
From the published accounts in the enemy's journals, we learn that Charleston fell on the 18th inst. They say one-third of the city was burned by us. I presume they saw the ruins of the old fire; and that most of the citizens, except the destitute, had left the town. All the cotton was destroyed by the inhabitants. They say an explosion killed several hundred of our people. They boast of capturing 200 guns, and a fine lot of ammunition—the latter, it seems to me, might have been destroyed.
I hear the deep booming of guns occasionally—but still doubt the policy or purpose of evacuating Petersburg.
Mr. Hunter's eyes seem blood-shotten since he voted against Lee's plan of organizing negro troops. He also voted against displacing the brood of quartermasters and commissioners.
The papers are requested to say nothing relative to military operations in South and North Carolina, for they are read by Gen. Grant every morning of their publication. The garrisons of Charleston and Wilmington may add 20,000 men to our force opposing Sherman, and may beat him yet.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 433-4
We are under
marching orders again—ready to move at a minute's notice. The Ninth Army Corps
is detached from the Army of the Potomac and is ordered to report to General
Dix, at Fortress Monroe. The supposition is we go on an expedition somewhere—rumor
says Vicksburg. The first detachment has gone, and we are awaiting the return
of the transports. The men are well pleased with the idea of going farther
south. For myself, I say any place but this. When we came here the country was
a wilderness, covered with a heavy growth of scrub pine. Now it is a desert
with scarcely a tree, and not a fence rail for miles in any direction.
It seems that
Richmond has lost its strategic importance, and the "decisive blow"
which was to have fallen there has been transferred to five other points, viz:
Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Rosa's and Foster's expeditions, and Charleston.
"If these prove successful," say the Washington papers, "the
rebellion will end in thirty days." God grant them all success. When I
survey the past history of the war I can see but little in the immediate future
to encourage hope. The conviction is forced upon me that if the North subdue
the South, the war has but just begun. It can and will be done, but time and
persevering effort only will accomplish it. The people are too impatient. They
demand important victories now, while fortified some place—Vicksburg, for
instance—can only be taken by siege, and siege means weeks and months of
waiting.
Government, urged on
by the people, acts as if the salvation of the country depends on all this
being accomplished before the fourth of March. But I see nothing but failure in
haste.
SOURCE: David Lane,
A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 28-9
(Waiting at the
depot). Going as usual to the department this morning, I found orders had been
issued for our immediate removal to Richmond. Barely had I time to run home,
dash a few more articles into my trunk, say good-bye, and join the others here.
We girls are all together—Elise, Ernestine, Sadie, Bet, and myself. We have
been seated in the train for hours and hours. Oh! this long waiting; it is
weary work! A reign of terror prevails in the city, and the scene about me will
ever live in memory. Government employees are hastening to and fro, military
stores are being packed, troops in motion, aids-de-camp flying hither and
thither, and anxious fugitives crowding about the train, begging for
transportation. All kinds of rumors are afloat, every newcomer bringing a new
version. The latest is that Hardee has refused to evacuate Charleston, and will
not combine forces with Hampton in order to save the capital. I am strangely
laden; I feel weighted down. Six gold watches are secreted about my person, and
more miscellaneous articles of jewelry than would fill a small jewelry shop—pins,
rings, bracelets, etc. One of my trunks is packed with valuables and another
with provisions. Shelling has begun from the Lexington heights, and under such
conditions this waiting at the depot has a degree of nervousness mixed with
impatience. We catch, now and again, peculiar whizzing sounds—shells, they say.
Sherman has come; he is knocking at the gate. Oh, God! turn him back! Fight on
our side, and turn Sherman back!
Charlotte, N. C.—We
stopped in Winnsboro awhile, but at last came on here. That was a sad, sad
parting! Shall I ever look into their dear faces again—my father and mother,
and poor little Johnnie, wrested by the exigencies of war from his mother's
knee? People who have never been through a war don't know anything about war.
May I never pass through another. Why will men fight? Especially brothers? Why
cannot they adjust their differences and redress their wrongs without the
shedding of woman's tears and the spilling of each other's blood?
But I dare not
write, nor even think much on this strain. My old friend J. B. L. is along. He
is very kind. Think of his lifting our heavy trunks into the baggage car with
his own hands! Otherwise they would be sitting on the railroad platform in
Columbia yet. Say what you please, it is, after all, the men whom we women have
to depend on in this world. J. B. L's. friend, whom he asked permission to
present to us, is a graduate of the Medical College of New York, a young
Hippocrates of profoundly scientific attainments. Nor is that all—he is
possessed of all that ease of manner and well-bred poise for which the F. F.
V.'s are noted.
SOURCE: South
Carolina State Committee United Daughters of the Confederacy, South
Carolina Women in the Confederacy, Vol. 1, “A Confederate
Girl's Diary,” p. 275-6
Clear and cold. No
news—that is bad news. Nothing has transpired officially of the events and
details near Wilmington, but there is a rumor, exaggerated perhaps, of the fall
of Wilmington itself. No doubt Sherman is marching on Charleston, and if there
be no battle soon, it is feared he will take the city without one.
Mr. Foote made a
speech in Congress yesterday—a savage one, I am told. Going home yesterday at 3
o'clock, I met Mr. Foote, and told him what I had heard. He said he could have
wished me to hear every word of it. I asked if it would not be printed. He held
up a roll of manuscript, saying he had written it in full, and that it would
certainly be published. The papers say in their brief reports, that he
disavowed all ideas of reconstruction. After he left the House, one of the
Missouri members offered a resolution for his expulsion, on the ground that he
had, unlawfully, attempted to pass into the enemy's lines, for the purpose of
negotiating a peace, etc. It was referred to the Committee on Elections.
After this a
resolution was introduced, that a joint committee be appointed to prepare an
address, etc., solemnly declaring that the war shall be waged until
independence be achieved, etc. Such addresses have been repeatedly made, and at
last seem to have a demoralizing effect. People remember how many test votes
were taken in the Virginia Convention, showing that the State never would
secede—and at length the Convention passed an ordinance of secession! Nothing
can save this government long but military successes, and these depend upon
having the slave and other property owners in the field. This can never be done
without a renovation of the machinery used to fill up the ranks.
The President is
calm. Some think him subdued. A few days or weeks will determine.
Gen. Howell Cobb
writes his views, etc. Utterly opposed to arming the slaves—better emancipate
them at once, conceding to the "demands of England and France," and
then enlist them. But he thinks a return to the system of volunteering would
answer to fill the ranks with white men; also suggests that the President
concede something to popular sentiment—restore Gen. J. E. Johnston, etc. He
says gloom and despair are fast settling on the people.
J. P. McLean,
Greensborough, N. C., in response to the request of Mr. Secretary Seddon, gives
information of the existence of many Union men in that section, and suggests
sudden death to ——— etc. The Secretary is diligent in getting such information;
but lately it seems he never applies the remedy.
Mr. Secretary Seddon
thinks Mr. Peck's explanation of his purchasing satisfactory; the Assistant
Secretary, Chief of Bureau of War, and Mr. Seddon's private clerk got an
abundance of flour, etc.
Major Harman,
Staunton, says provisions cannot be had in that section to feed Early's army,
unless one-fourth of all produce be bought at market prices, and the people go
on half rations. The slaves everywhere are on full rations.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 392-3
Notwithstanding the
alleged ceaseless vigilance of the Yankee navy in watching blockade-runners on
the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of the Confederate States, their close attention
has amounted to comparatively little. Setting aside all that has been imported
on State and individual account, the proceeds of the blockade have been very
great. The restrictions imposed upon foreign commerce by the act of Congress of
last session prohibiting, absolutely, during the pending war, the importation
of any articles not necessary for the defense of the country— namely: wines, spirits,
jewelry, cigars, and all the finer fabrics of cotton, flax, wool, or silk, as
well as all other merchandise serving only for the indulgence of luxurious
habits,—has not had the effect to reduce the number of vessels engaged in
blockade-running; but, on the contrary, the number has steadily increased
within the last year, and many are understood to be now on the way to engage in
the business.
The President, in a
communication to Congress on the subject, says that the number of vessels
arriving at two ports only from the 1st of November to the 6th of December was
forty-three, and but a very small proportion of those outward bound were
captured. Out of 11,796 bales of cotton shipped since the 1st of July last, but
1272 were lost-not quite 11 per cent.
The special report
of the Secretary of the Treasury in relation to the matter shows that there
have been imported into the Confederacy at the ports of Wilmington and
Charleston since October 26th, 1864, 8,632,000 pounds of meat, 1,507,000 pounds
of lead, 1,933,000 pounds of saltpeter, 546,000 pairs of shoes, 316,000 pairs
of blankets, 520,000 pounds of coffee, 69,000 rifles, 97 packages of revolvers,
2639 packages of medicine, 43 cannon, with a large quantity of other articles
of which we need make no mention. Besides these, many valuable stores and
supplies are brought, by way of the Northern lines, into Florida; by the port
of Galveston and through Mexico, across the Rio Grande.
The shipments of
cotton made on government account since March 1st, 1864, amount to $5,296,000
in specie. Of this, cotton, to the value of $1,500,000, has been shipped since
the 1st of July and up to the 1st of December.
It is a matter of
absolute impossibility for the Federals to stop our blockade-running at the
port of Wilmington. If the wind blows off the coast, the blockading fleet is
driven off. If the wind blows landward, they are compelled to haul off to a
great distance to escape the terrible sea which dashes on a rocky coast without
a harbor within three days' sail. The shoals on the North Carolina Coast are
from five to twenty miles wide; and they are, moreover, composed of the most
treacherous and bottomless quicksands. The whole coast is scarcely equaled in
the world for danger and fearful appearance, particularly when a strong
easterly wind meets the ebb tide.
It is an easy matter
for a good pilot to run a vessel directly out to sea or into port; but in the
stormy months, from October to April, no blockading vessel can lie at anchor in
safety off the Carolina Coast. Therefore supplies will be brought in despite
the keenest vigilance.
SOURCE: “Blockade
Running,” Richmond Daily Dispatch,
Richmond, Virginia, Tuesday Morning, January 3, 1865, p. 3
BROWN'S HOTEL, WASHINGTON, February 13, 1861.
I have a moment to myself just before tea, and I may have time to write you in haste something of the doings here. Since I last wrote, I have not been allowed a moment's leisure. When within the hotel it has been an incessant stream of company, and then I have had visits to return, the Capitol to visit, etc., etc. Last night I attended, with the President, the party of Senator Douglas, and I met in the throng my old friend, Mrs. Dixon, who, by the way, looked so well that the President thought her the handsomest person in the room. She had early called, but I was out, as was the case with her when I called. She was, of course, charmed to meet me again. We are all the time surrounded, and had greetings from old, and introductions to new acquaintances without number. People turned up, and recalled themselves to me that I certainly never expected to have met again. I saw and shook hands with two Messrs. Griswold. Mr. Bancroft (the historian) claimed relationship with me through the Chandlers, who married a Miss Gardiner, of Gardiner's Island. I paraded the rooms with the handsomest man here, Governor Morehead, of Kentucky—one of the best likenesses of Papa you ever saw in appearance, voice, laugh, and manner. I suppose I may conclude that I looked quite well. No attempts at entertainments have succeeded before, I was told, this winter, and to the hopes that are placed upon the efforts of this Peace Convention is to be attributed the success of this.
People are catching at straws as a relief to their pressing anxieties, and look to the Peace Commissioners, as if they possessed some divine power to restore order and harmony. Here you can realize more than anywhere else the distracted state of the country. In the Peace Conference a committee are engaged (one from each State) in the preparation of a plan of adjustment, and when they report, which will be on Friday, the end I suppose can be foreseen. In the meantime all is suspense, from the President down. The New York and Massachusetts delegation will no doubt perform all the mischief they can; and it may be, will defeat this patriotic effort at pacification. But whether it succeeds or not, Virginia will have sustained her reputation, and in the latter event will retire with dignity from the field to join without loss of time her more Southern sisters; the rest of the slave Border States will follow her lead, and very likely she will be able to draw off, which would be glorious, a couple of Northern States. It is to be hoped that this state of suspense, which is bringing disaster to trade everywhere, will soon be removed in one way or another.
The President has hundreds of letters of the enclosed description, which I enclose you because it is from Mr. Beeckman's son-in-law.
Mr. Buchanan (the President) spent the evening in our parlor evening before last. I suppose it is the first visit he has paid since being the nation's chief. He first wrote the President a letter full of gratitude for the relief he had afforded him in probably preventing, through his influence at Charleston, the attack on Fort Sumter. Miss Lane and Miss Ellis called upon me yesterday. If the President is detained here indefinitely, I shall run home. I want to be with my children. Probably I shall go on Friday, unless I hear from home in the meantime to my satisfaction. Old Mrs. Hilliard, of Troy, called upon me this morning; she spoke of Miss Mary Gardiner, of Gardiner's Island, having been at her school. Mrs. Catron is quite sick; but I must conclude. I have so much to say of persons and events, and no time to say it in. . . . With love to all.
SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 612-3
TWO O'CLOCK P. M., February 20, 1861.
MY DEAR SIR: I have this moment received a telegram from Charleston. The Governor says: Received your message; know nothing about the report you spoke of; no one is authorized to speak for me; things must stand without any movement in force." I would send the dispatch, but the latter part of it relates to another matter.
SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 614
BROWN'S HOTEL, February 24, 1861.
MY DEAR SIR: I think you may rely upon tranquillity at the South. Since you left me I have made particular inquiries. General Davis has been written to. He is advised to send a commissioner, and to go to Charleston himself to represent and quiet all things. In fact, from information from one directly from Richmond, and who travelled with merchants from the South going North, the probability is that he is now in Charleston. The fact may probably be announced in the papers to-morrow. Every one that I have seen, secessionists and others, concur with myself in the improbability of any movement until a commissioner shall come on here, and a failure in the mission.
I go to Charleston
to-morrow to see General Beauregard, at his request. He has assigned me to
duty.
BRAXTON BRAGG.
SOURCE: The
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 44 (Serial No. 92), p. 954
My services not
being longer needed in this department I shall leave this evening for
Wilmington and resume my command. Sherman has opened communication with his new
base by the Ogeechee. The means to meet him do not exceed one-half the estimate
in yours of the 7th instant. Notify Mrs. B. of my return, and wish for her and
Major Cuthbert to join me in Wilmington, the latter temporarily.
BRAXTON BRAGG.
SOURCE: The
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 44 (Serial No. 92), p. 958
A brighter morning,
cool and clear. The President was at work yesterday. He and the Secretary and
Gen. Cooper put their heads together to make up a regiment for Col. Miller in
Mississippi, and designate the two field officers to be under him—from two
battalions and two unattached companies.
If the Northern
(purporting to be official) accounts be true, Gen. Hood has sustained an
irretrievable disaster, which may involve the loss of Tennessee, Georgia, etc.
Hon. Mr. Foote
declared last night his purpose to leave the city in a few days, never to
resume his seat in Congress, if martial law should be allowed. He said he had
information that when Charleston fell, South Carolina would conclude a treaty
of peace (submission?) with the United States; and that North Carolina was
prepared to follow the example! I have observed that these two States do not
often incline to go together.
The great disaster
would be the loss of Richmond and retreat of Lee's army southward. This would
probably be followed by the downfall of slavery in Virginia.
The Secretary of War
has sent an agent to the Governor of North Carolina, to ask for special aid in
supplying Lee's army with meat—which is deficient here or else it cannot be
maintained in the field in Virginia! Very bad, and perhaps worse coming. There
is a rumor that Gen. Breckinridge has beaten Gen. Burbridge in Tennessee or
Western Virginia.
Gen. R. E. Lee is in
town, looking robust, though weather worn. He complains that the department is
depleting his army by details, often for private and speculative purposes, to
the benefit of private individuals—speculators.
I drew my (State)
salt to-day, 70 pounds, for 7 in family-20 cents per pound. It retails at a $1
per pound!
Mr. Secretary has
sent (per Lieut.-Col. Bayne) some gold to Wilmington, to buy (in Nassau) loaf
sugar for his family, to be brought in government steamers.
My son Thomas could
get no beef ration to-day—too scarce.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 359-60
Rained all night;
spitting snow this morning. Although Gen. Bragg announces that the enemy's
fleet has disappeared off Wilmington, still the despondency which has seized
the croakers remains. It has probably sailed against Charleston, to co-operate
with Sherman. Sherman says officially that he got, with Savannah, about 1000
prisoners, 150 heavy guns, nearly 200 cars and several locomotives, 35,000
bales of cotton, etc. etc. And Gen. Foster says the inhabitants (20,000) were
"quiet, and well disposed." Most people believe Charleston will fall
next, to be followed by a sweep of the entire sea-board; and grave men fear
that the impetus thus given the invader cannot be checked or resisted.
The great want is
fighting men, and they are mostly exempted or detailed under that portion of
the "War Department" which is quietly worked by Judge Campbell, who
is, of course, governed by his own great legal judgment. Well, the President
has been informed of this, and yet waits for Mr. Secretary Seddon to suggest a
remedy. I have often thought, and still think, that either the Bureau of
Conscription must be abolished or the government must fail. The best generals
will not avail without sufficient men to fight.
Gen. Beauregard
telegraphs from Charleston, December 26th, that there is a conflict of
authority at Mobile as to which branch of the service, navy or army, shall
command the torpedo boat. The two Secretaries are referring it to commanders,
and I fear that, by the time the question is settled, some calamity will befall
the boat, and the city, and the country.
Grant is said to be
moving troops to the north side of the river again, fearing an attack from us,
or intending one himself.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 369
November 3.
The guns at Charleston have kept up a great booming all through the day; more constant and frequent than since those memorable days of July. General Gilmore could destroy the city any day, but I hope he will not do it.
SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 396
