A Southerner to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, June 14, 1852

(Private.)

RICHMOND, [Va.], June 14th [1852].

DEAR SIR: I beg to call your attention, to that portion of Judge Conrad's speech in the Anti-Fillmore Convention of New York, which is enclosed. (You will find the whole speech in N. Y. Herald of 13th.)

I write to you as a true friend of the South, to know what is the South to do. Are her statesmen looking ahead and preparing for contingencies? As this letter is anonymous, you are not bound, I admit, to treat it with any consideration. I ask only to free my own mind of thoughts which press painfully upon it, and to leave them with those who can best judge whether they are of any value or practicable. The question is this—Cannot the South form an alliance, either with England, or some foreign country, which will protect her from the threatened aggression of the North? Look ahead, and do you not see a storm coming from the North which must dissolve the Union? Ought we not then to look ahead, ought not the Southern leaders to meet together and confer, and sound the governments of England, or other foreign powers, to see what can be done in such a contingency? You are one of the few men, I believe, not eaten up with selfish ambition. Strike a blow, then, I entreat you for the safety of the South. Would to Heaven that the South would stop talking and go to acting. Imitate the forecast, the practical character, and (as it has become necessary to fight the devil with fire) the subtlety of our sectional enemies. It strikes me, that it would be a good stroke of policy, and a most holy and righteous retribution, if we could form a treaty with England, giving her certain privileges in the cotton trade and vast navigation, in return for which, she could stand by the South, and crush the Free Soilers between Canada and the South States.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 145

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 29, 1864

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

Congressman Horace Mann, March 13, 1850

MARCH 13, 1850.

The hallucination that seizes the South on the subject of slavery, is, indeed, enough to excite our compassion; but an excuse of their conduct to themselves on this ground, would, perhaps, enrage them more than any thing else. I would be willing to offer them any pecuniary indemnity which they might desire. Indeed, I had thought of bringing forward some such idea in my speech; but I feared they would only scout it.

I do not think Mr. Webster can be honest in the views expressed in his speech. I would struggle against a belief in his treachery to the last minute; but this speech is in flagrant violation of all that he has ever said before.

You are in an error in supposing that the exclusion of slavery from the Territories will affect the growth of cotton or rice unfavorably. Slaves are in great demand now for the cotton and rice fields. No production of the Territories would come in competition with their great staples. It is a fear of losing the balance of power, as they call it; and no doubt, in some cases, a fear that this is only a beginning of a war upon slavery in the States themselves. On this latter point, they will not be pacified by any declarations made by the North. Then, again, on this subject they are not a reasoning people.

To recur to Mr. Webster again. He has said some things it was quite unnecessary to say, and some things not true. Look at his interpretation of the admission of Texas! The act was, as he has quoted in his speech, that four new States—no more might be formed from Texas: those south of 36° 30′ might be slave States, and those north must be free States. Now, he says we are bound to admit four slave States. But we are bound to admit only four in the whole. Why, then, admit all these four as slave States, and then others, that is, if we get the consent of Texas, as free States? No: we are to admit but four in the whole; and, as one or two of these are to be free, there must not be four slave. He therefore not only proposes to execute that ungodly bargain, but to give one or two slave States to the South as a gratuity.

So his offer to take the proceeds of the public lands to deport free blacks is of the greatest service to slavery. It is just what the South wants, to get rid of its free blacks. It would enhance the value and the security of the slave property so called. Had he proposed to give the proceeds of the lands to deport manumitted slaves, that would encourage manumission, and be of real service to humanity. Indeed, the more I think of the speech, the worse I think of it.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 295-6

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, January 2, 1866

Neither Seward nor Stanton was at Cabinet council. Seward is on his way to the West Indies, Gulf, etc. He wishes to be absent until the issues are fully made up and the way is clear for him what course to take. There may be other objects, but this is the chief. The talk about his health is ridiculous. He is as well as he has been at any time for five years. Stanton had no occasion to be present. Some discussion as to whether the State of Louisiana is entitled to cotton bought by the Rebel organization or government. Dennison and myself had a free talk with the President after the others left. Although usually reticent, he at times speaks out, and he expressed himself emphatically to-day. The manner in which things had been got up by the Radicals before the session he commented upon. "This little fellow [Colfax] shoved in here to make a speech in advance of the message, and to give out that the principle enunciated in his speech was the true policy of the country," were matters alluded to with sharpness, as were the whole preconcerted measures of the Radicals. "I do not hear that the colored people called or were invited to visit Sumner or Wilson," said the President, "but they came here and were civilly treated."

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 409-10

Jefferson Davis to William Allen, July 24, 1840

Warren County Mi., 24th July 1840. 

"I long hae thought my honored friend

A something to ha'e sent ye," and though I have nothing now more than my thanks for your kind recollection of me and these in my heart I have often returned to you. I take the occasion of your return from the sphere of your public duties to break perhaps you will say the only repose which those duties leave you to enjoy—well, I bring my offering of thanks, the sacrifice of a pure spirit would always burn. I am willing that mine should be adjudged by that test. I received your speech of Feby. eleventh on the assumption of State debts and could but illy express to you the gratification it gave me as your friend and as such I candidly tell you, I consider it the best English sample of the Demosthenean style. I recollect you saw in Mr. Calhoun's speech on the independent Treasy. an especial likeness to the Grecian orator. I thought he was too sententious, nor indeed could any one opening a question of expediency or dwelling on details of finances speak as Demosthenes did when he addressed men nearly as well informed as himself on the subject of which he spoke and addressed them not to argue but to lay bare before them the true issue and excite them to action—but perhaps, like the Vicar of Wakefield said to the lecturer on Cosmogony you may say to me—however with this difference that instead of once you may have heard all this a dozen times before and that instead of the second it is the first time you have heard it from me. Before I quit the subject of speeches I must tell you of an old democratic friend of mine who lives some distance back in the hills and who notwithstanding the great increase of post offices is quite out of striking distance of a mail line. He came to see me in the spring of '38. I handed him your speech on the independent Treasy. Bill after reading it. He asked me to let him take it home and show it to some of his neighbors. I have seen him frequently since but his "neighbors" have not yet gotten through with it. When Lord Byron saw an American edition of his works he said it seemed like to posthumous fame. Recurring to my old friend of the hills, he states it as a political maxim that "no honest sensible whig can read Allen's and Benton's speeches without turning their politics."

I am living as retired as a man on the great thoroughfare of the Mississippi can be, and just now the little society which exists hereabout has been driven away by the presence of the summer's heat and the fear of the summer's disease.

Our staple, cotton, is distressingly low and I fear likely to remain so until there is a diminished production of it, an event which the embarassed condition of cotton planters in this section will not allow them to consider. If our Yankee friends and their coadjutors should get up a scheme for bounties to particular branches of industry I think the cotton growers may come in with the old plea of the manufacturers "not able at present to progress without it."

With assurances of sincere regard and of the pleasure it will always give me to hear from you and to mark your success

I am yr. friend

JEFFN. DAVIS

To W. Allen
    At home

SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 4-5

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 26, 1864

Clear and frosty. Quiet below.

Gen. W. M. Gardner (in Gen. Winder's place here) has just got from Judge Campbell passports for his cousin, Mary E. Gardner, and for his brother-in-law, F. M. White, to go to Memphis, Tenn., where they mean to reside.

Mr. Benjamin publishes a copy of a dispatch to Mr. Mason, in London, for publication there, showing that if the United States continue the war, she will be unable to pay her debts abroad, and therefore foreigners ought not to lend her any more money, or they may be ruined. This from a Secretary of State! It may be an electioneering card in the United States, and it may reconcile some of our members of Congress to the incumbency of Mr. B. in a sinecure position.

A friend of Mr. Seddon, near Vicksburg, writes for permission to sell thirty bales of cotton—$20,000 worth—to the enemy. He says Mr. Seddon's estate, on the Sunflower, has not been destroyed by the enemy. That's fortunate, for other places have been utterly ruined.

Investigations going on in the courts show that during Gen. Winder's "Reign of Terror," passports sold for $2000. Some outside party negotiated the business and procured the passport.

Gen. Early has issued an address to his army, reproaching it for having victory wrested out of its hands by a criminal indulgence in the plunder found in the camps captured from the enemy. He hopes they will retrieve everything in the next battle.

Governor Smith's exemptions of magistrates, deputy sheriffs, clerks, and constables, to-day, 56.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 315-6

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 31, 1864

Bright. Tom's rations came in—worth $200— for a month.

Gen. Lee writes that it is necessary for the gun-boats to guard the river as far below Chaffin's Bluffs as possible, to prevent the enemy from throwing a force to the south bank in the rear of Gen. Pickett's lines; for then Gen. P. must withdraw his forces, and the abandonment of Petersburg will follow, “with its railroad connections, throwing the whole army back to the defense of Richmond. I should regard this as a great disaster, and as seriously endangering the safety of the city. We should not only lose a large section of country from which our position enables us to draw supplies, but the enemy would be brought nearer to the only remaining railway communication between Richmond and the South. It would make the tenure of the city depend upon our ability to hold this long line of communication against the largely superior force of the enemy, and I think would greatly diminish the prospects of successful defense.” He suggests that more men and small boats be put in the river to prevent the enemy from placing torpedoes in the rear of the iron-clads, when on duty down the river at night.

J. H. Reagan, Postmaster-General, has written a furious letter to the Secretary, complaining of incivility on the part of Mr. Wilson, Commissary Agent to issue beef in Richmond. Judge R. went there to draw the beef ration for Col. Lubbock, one of the President's aid-de-camps (late Governor of Texas). He says he is able-bodied and ought to be in the army. Mr. Wilson sends in certificates of two men who were present, contradicting the judge's statement of the language used by Mr. W. The Secretary has not yet acted in the case.

Beverly Tucker is in Canada, and has made a contract for the Confederate States Government with ——— & Co., of New York, to deliver bacon for cotton, pound for pound. It was made by authority of the Secretary of War, certified to by Hon. C. C. Clay and J. Thompson, both in Canada. The Secretary of the Treasury don't like it.

It is reported that after the success reported by Gen. Lee, Early was again defeated.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 319-20

Dr. Seth Rogers to his daughter Dolly, [March 15, 1863]—Evening

Evening.

About six, the Burnside came down the river with horses, hogs, chickens and prisoners. They took Col. Bryant, just as he returned to his plantation after running his negroes into the back country. They report great quantities of cotton and cattle up the river, so I hope we really are to have fresh beef again.

It is nothing like as damp and unwholesome here as in South Carolina. The same amount of exposure there that our men have had here, would have given the hospital twenty or thirty cases of pleurisy and pneumonia, while today, we have but a single case of acute inflammation. There is coughing enough to keep back several rebel regiments. I see no reason, however, why the officers should not get intermittent fever from this handsome river, by and by. It looks as if midsummer might load it with miasma and alligators. . . .

I am gradually confiscating furniture for my spacious chamber in the best house of a beautiful town, as if it were my final residence. I enjoy the long cedar closet that opens out of my room. The fragrance is so sweet I cannot understand why moths object to it. having a perfect bath room, without any water in it and costly gas fixtures without any gas! The war has greatly deranged the machinery of this town. Almost everywhere, except in this house, I have found the lead pipes cut by the rebels and used, I suppose, for bullets. When Colonel Sanderson left here he placed his house in charge of a Union man, saying that it would naturally be the headquarters of any Union commander. Hence the more perfect preservation of the property.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 375-6

Dr. Seth Rogers to his daughter Dolly, March 17, 1863

March 17.

We are fairly at work at our legitimate business. The John Adams brought down, last evening, thirty contrabands, ten horses, and quantities of corn, hogs, cotton etc. Today the Burnside is off on a similar errand. Meanwhile our boys have had a smart skirmish about a mile and a half out and burned several houses occupied by the rebel advance pickets. As we are not here to act aggressively against Camp Finnegan, but simply to hold this town for headquarters, while making such advances from other points on the river as may seem best, it seems as if the enemy must have reached the conclusion, ere this, that we have means of defence. It is a mystery that they do not contrive some way to burn us out. Women and children are permitted to go and come without hindrance and they could do us the greatest damage by going back to their friends by the light of the town. I trust they will not think of it.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 376

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, March 24, 1866

[St. Louis, March 24, 1866]

I am sorry to hear that the President is likely to break with the party. It should not be, but Congress should defer much to him, as an executive feels how much more difficult to execute plans than a Congress dealing with abstract ideas. I still hope that mutual concessions will result in a practical solution.

I have no doubt myself, and Howard, Logan, Woods, and all who were in Columbia that night concur with me. The fire which burned up the city, began about dawn, after I had been in six hours, and I know that great exertions were made to stop it, but there had been all day and continued till late at night, a perfect tempest of wind, and I saw hundreds of bales of cotton on fire flying hundreds of yards. It is barely possible some malicious soldier started the fire, but I rather think this devilish spirit grew as the fire progressed. I know that the general judgment of the country is that no matter how it began it was all right, still I know that the cotton was the cause of the rapid spread of the fire, and this resulted from the fact that the bales had been ripped open with knives, so that long before the fire began the houses and trees were white with it, and it was plain a spark would spread like gunpowder. It was not specially my business, for Howard was in actual command of the troops in Columbia, but being present in person the world holds me responsible. I should like you to introduce the petition, and to say that I have no doubt as to the parties responsible for all the consequences.

It was not until the day after the conflagration that I destroyed the Arsenal and other public factories which were in the suburbs and had escaped the fire that burned the town.

Affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 265-6

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, April 2, 1866

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION                

OF THE MISSISSIPPI,        

ST. Louis, Mo., April 2, 1866.

Dear Brother: I know the railroad depot and three large bridges were burned before a soldier of ours had entered Columbia, and I know that six hours before the real conflagration began I saw half-a-dozen piles of cotton on fire in the streets one large pile near the market house where the great conflagration began, which fire our soldiers were putting out as I rode by it. . . . Wade Hampton defended Columbia as long as he dared, and then ran away, leaving the city full of cotton blowing about like flakes of snow. So that trees and frame houses and garden fences were literally white. Of course a mayor could expect no terms. Being helpless, he took what he could get. I told him, of course, I had no intention to burn or destroy anything except what my previous orders defined. I saw Wade Hampton's cotton order printed in a Columbia paper, but kept no copy, as it was notorious; for he openly declared that Yankee footsteps should not pollute his threshold, and he commanded everything like corn fodder, etc., to be burnt, lest we should get it. . . .

They boasted that we would find a Moscow and its consequences.

The treatment of our officers, prisoners at Columbia, was enough to have warranted its utter annihilation, and after the fire began it required all our efforts to prevent its extending to the suburbs, including the Old Hampton house, now owned by Preston, brother-inlaw of Wade Hampton, which was saved by John Logan.

Affectionately yours,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 267

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 27, 1864

Bright and pleasant.

We have rumors of heavy fighting yesterday near Staunton, but no authentic accounts.

A dispatch from Gen. R. Taylor says Gen. Forrest had gained a victory at Athens, Ala., capturing some 1500 prisoners, 500 horses, etc. etc.

We still hear the thunder of artillery down the river-the two armies shelling each other, I suppose, as yet at a safe distance. A few more days and the curtain will rise again—Lee and Grant the principal actors in the tragedy!

The President is making patriotic speeches in Alabama and Georgia.

Mr. Hudson, of Alabama, proposes to deliver to the government 5,000,000 pounds of bacon for the same number of pounds cotton, delivered at the same place.

Our cotton agent in Mississippi is authorized by the government here to sell cotton in exposed situations to the enemy's agents for specie, and to buy for Confederate notes.

The funeral expenses of Gen. Morgan the other day amounted to $1500; the Quartermaster-General objects to paying it, and sends the bill to the Secretary for instructions.

The following is a copy of Gen. Lee's indorsement on Lieut.Col. Moseby's report of his operations from the 1st of March to the 11th of September, 1864:

HEADQUARTERS, ARMY NORTHERN VIRGINIA,               

September 19th, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded to the Adjutant and Inspector-General for the information of the department. Attention is invited to the activity and skill of Col. Moseby, and the intelligence and courage of the officers and men of his command, as displayed in this report.

 

With the loss of little more than 20 men, he has killed, wounded, and captured, during the period embraced in this report, about 1200 of the enemy, and taken more than 1600 horses and mules, 230 beef cattle, and 85 wagons and ambulances, without counting many smaller operations. The services rendered by Col. Moseby and his command in watching and reporting the enemy's movements have also been of great value. His operations have been highly creditable to himself and his command.

 

R. E. LEE, General.

Official: JOHN BLAIR HOGE,

Major and Assistant Adjutant-General.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 293-4

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 12, 1864

Clear, and quite cold.

Gen. Hood has agreed to a short armistice with Sherman, ten days, proposed by the latter. Our people don't know what to think of this, and the government is acquiescent.

But there is a mournful gloom upon the brows of many, since Gen. Grant holds the Weldon Road, and is daily receiving reinforcements, while we get but few under the Conscription system and the present organization of the bureau.

There is a rumor of an intention to abandon Petersburg, and that 20,000 old men and boys, etc. must be put in the trenches on our side immediately to save Richmond and the cause.

Over 100,000 landed proprietors, and most of the slave-owners, are now out of the ranks, and soon, I fear, we shall have an army that will not fight, having nothing to fight for. And this is the result of the pernicious policy of partiality and exclusiveness, disintegrating society in such a crisis, and recognizing distinction of ranks,—the higher class staying home and making money, the lower class thrust into the trenches. And then the infamous schedule, to make the fortunes of the farmers of certain counties.

I bought 30 yards of brown cotton to-day, at $2.50 per yard, from a man who had just returned from North Carolina. The price here is $5. I sold my dear old silver reel some time ago (angling) for $75, the sum paid for this cotton.

Already the Dispatch is publishing paragraphs in praise of the “Bureau of Conscription,” never dreaming that it strikes both Gen. Bragg and the President. These articles are written probably by Lieut.-Col. Lay or Col. August. And the Examiner is opening all its batteries again on the President and Gen. Bragg. The conscription men seem to have the odds; but the President, with a single eye, can discern his enemies, and when fully aroused is apt to pounce upon them like a relentless lion. The times are critical, however, and the Secretary of War is very reserved, even when under positive orders to act.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 280-1

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, June 13, 1865

At the Cabinet-meeting to-day Judge Sharkey and Mr. George were formally introduced to the Cabinet, remaining, however, but a moment. It is concluded to make Sharkey provisional Governor. He is a man of mind and culture, Whig in his antecedents, and I think with some offensive points on the subject of slavery and popular rights; but he was and is opposed to repudiation and bad faith by Mississippi. The subject of Treasury agents and tax of twenty-five per cent on cotton was discussed at great length in the Cabinet. All but the Secretary of the Treasury for abolishing agents and tax. McC. thinks the Executive has no authority.

Asked McCulloch if it was true that Clerk Henderson had been reappointed. He said yes, after Solicitor Jordan investigated and reported the charge against him groundless. Told him I was satisfied H. was not a proper man, etc.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 316-7

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, May 29, 1865

[W]e took a morning ride, Mrs. Welles being able to go with us, and drove about the place. Returning to the wharf, we took a tug, visited the Pawnee, and then went to Sumter, Moultrie, Fort Johnston, etc. The day was beautiful and all enjoyed it.

There was both sadness and gratification in witnessing the devastation of the city and the deplorable condition of this seat of the Rebellion. No place has suffered more or deserved to have suffered more. Here was the seat of Southern aristocracy. The better blood — the superior class, as they considered themselves — here held sway and dictated the policy, not only of Charleston but of South Carolina, and ultimately of the whole South. The power of association and of exclusiveness has here been exemplified and the consequences that follow from the beginning of evil. Not that the aristocracy had more vigorous intellects, greater ability, for they had not, yet their wealth, their ancestry, the usage of the community gave them control.

Mr. Calhoun, the leading genius and master mind of the State, was not one of the élite, the first families, but was used, nursed, and favored by them, and they by him. He acknowledged their supremacy and deferred to them; they recognized his talents and gave him position. He pandered to their pride; they fostered his ambition.

Rhett, one of the proudest of the nobility, had the ambition of Calhoun without his ability, yet he was not destitute of a certain degree of smartness, which stimulated his aspirations. More than any one else, perhaps, has he contributed to precipitating this Rebellion and brought these terrible calamities on his State and country. The gentlemanly, elegant, but brilliantly feeble intellects of his class had the vanity to believe they could rule, or establish a Southern empire. Their young men had read Scott's novels, and considered themselves to be knights and barons bold, sons of chivalry and romance, born to fight and to rule. Cotton they knew to be king, and slavery created cotton. They used these to combine other weak minds at the South, and had weak and willing tools to pander to them in certain partisans at the North.

The results of their theory and the fruits of their labors are to be seen in this ruined city and this distressed people. Luxury, refinement, happiness have fled from Charleston; poverty is enthroned there. Having sown error, she has reaped sorrow. She has been, and is, punished. I rejoice that it is so.

On Monday evening we left for Savannah, but, a storm coming on, the Santiago put into Port Royal, having lost sight of our consort. It had been our intention to stop at this place on our return, but, being here, we concluded to finish our work, and accordingly went up to Beaufort. Returning, we visited Hilton Head and Fort Welles on invitation from General Gillmore.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 312-3

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, July 10, 1860

ALEXANDRIA, July 10, 1860.

. . . I feel little interest in politics and certainly am glad to see it realized that politicians can't govern the country. They may agitate, but cannot control. Let who may be elected, the same old game will be played, and he will go out of office like Pierce and Buchanan with their former honors sunk and lost. I only wonder that honorable men should seek the office.

I do not concieve that any of the parties would materially interfere with the slavery in the states, and in the territories it is a mere abstraction. There is plenty of room in the present slave states for all the negroes, but the time has come when the free states may annoy the slave states by laws of a general declaration, but that they will change the relation of master and slave I don't believe.

All the congresses on earth can't make the negro anything else than what he is; he must be subject to the white man, or he must amalgamate or be destroyed. Two such races cannot live in harmony save as master and slave. Mexico shows the result of general equality and amalgamation, and the Indians give a fair illustration of the fate of negroes if they are released from the control of the whites. Of course no one can guess what the wild unbridled passions of men may do, but I don't believe that the present excitement in politics is anything more than the signs of the passage of power from the southern politicians to northern and western politicians.

The negro is made the hobby, but I know that northern men don't care any more about the rights and humanities of the negroes than the southerners. At present negroes work under control of white men and the consequence is the annual yield of $200,000,000 of cotton, sugar, and other produce that would not be without such labor; and so long as that is the case, I don't fear a change in this respect. . .

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 241-2

Major-General Ulysses S. Grant to Major-General Francis J. Herron, July 14, 1863

HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE TENN.,Vicksburg, Miss., July 14, 1863.

Major-General HERRON,  Comdg. Yazoo Expedition:

GENERAL: You may remain in Yazoo City as long as Admiral Porter thinks necessary to save all that can be saved from the gunboats, or leave such a force as may be necessary for the protection of those engaged in that work, and return with the balance of your command.

Bring with you such Government stores as you can, and destroy all others. You may bring along the cotton mentioned in your letter, and particularly bring all the negro men you can.

I do not want you to remain longer at Yazoo City than may be absolutely necessary, because it may become necessary for me to send all the forces that can possibly be spared to Jackson.

Very respectfully,

U.S. GRANT.

P. S.—Two regiments will be enough to leave at Yazoo City while the gunboats remain there. You will return here with the remainder of your command, as you may be needed below.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 3 (Serial No. 38), p. 509

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, April 15, 1860

LOUISIANA STATE SEMINARY, ALEXANDRIA, April 15, 1860.

This is Sunday. Some of the cadets have gone to church, some fishing and the balance are walking about. The Board of Supervisors are now sitting in a large room only two removed from me, and I hear them wrangling and quarreling over points of discipline and instruction which they have been now discussing for two days.

They have authorized me to make plans and estimates for the two houses. And I expect a builder to be out any moment to help me estimate. The Board approve my selection of the site for the two new houses, and I believe the one selected for ours the best, being on a fine high point, distant from the college building yet overlooking its grounds. There is a fine spring near by. The weather continues warm and excessively dry and all are praying for rain to bring up the corn and cotton which has been planted for a month.

I have your several letters asking the price of servants, etc., but I cannot answer as all servants here are scarce and most everybody owns their own. I suppose ten dollars a month will hire a black woman but it is impossible to hire a strong man fit for field work at less than $25 a month and board. If Emily and Gertrude come with you we will still need a man and maybe a black girl, as white girls won't work down here long. Still we can agree to pay them a bonus if they stay a year. But as I wrote you there is no chance of your coming down for a long time, may be November.

Dr. Smith one of the supervisors, a physician of long standing, says that October and November are the sickly months. July and August though hot are perfectly healthy. So that he favors those months as the vacation. So great is the variation of opinion that I let them fight it out as it is proper that they who have lived here all their lives should determine the question. I hope to get the builders to work in the course of a month but all such things proceed so slowly here that I doubt if we can finish this year. Nobody seems to pay any attention to time or appointments.

Red River too has already begun to fall and soon will be navigated only by the smallest kind of boats and it will be next to impossible to procure anything from New Orleans, the only point where furniture can be had. The stores in Alexandria contain nothing of the kind. Indeed California in its worst days had a better market than this country. There are no farmers here. The planters produce only cotton and sugar on a large scale and deem it beneath their dignity to raise anything for market. Some of the negroes raise a few sweet potatoes, corn, etc., which they sell about Christmas time, but all the year else everything must come from New Orleans. We are now paying for corn one dollar and ten cents a bushel and hay costs about forty-eight dollars a ton. Everything is proportional, so that I doubt if my four thousand dollars will more than barely maintain us.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 200-2

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: June 29, 1863

This morning the command proceeds on to Cotton Ridge, where it is joined by Captains Clark and Aldridge, who were sent out last night on the hunt of guerrillas. From this ridge we move in the direction of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. In the evening we strike the railroad at Henderson, but no guerrillas are found, all having fled to the woods. The command goes into camp on a plantation near Henderson. We fare sumptuously to-night; hen-roosts and potato patches at our disposal. We sleep in an old cotton gin; the cotton is strewn everywhere to make beds.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 176

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, April 11, 1865

The cotton question was the chief topic at the Cabinet. Secretary McCulloch is embarrassed how to dispose of the Savannah capture. I am afraid of replevin and other troubles. Told him I thought it an error that the Rebel cotton had not been brought forward and sold in parcels instead of accumulating public and private in such quantity as to attract the vultures.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 278