Diary of Musician David Lane, June 11, 1863

We are fairly packed on board a small transport; so thickly are we crowded in, it is almost impossible to stir; yet all will stir. Every man seems to think his very existence depends on movement. As I sit here on my knapsack, my back against the railing, inkstand between my feet to prevent it being kicked over, a continuous stream of restless, uneasy men is pouring around, on and over me, which, added to the motion of the vessel, makes writing difficult. We left Cairo yesterday at five o'clock in the afternoon, and steamed down the river a few miles below Cumberland, Kentucky, and anchored for the night.

The captain dare not run his vessel in the night, it being dark and cloudy, and the Mississippi being the most dangerous river in the world to navigate. We expect to reach Memphis early in the morning, and will then learn our final destination.

Having crossed the Mississippi at Dubuque, some three hundred miles above Cairo, I was somewhat disappointed, as it did not appear to be any wider at Cairo than at Dubuque, but, by close observation, I discovered that what it lacked in width was made up in velocity and depth.

At Dubuque, too, the water is clear as crystal; from St. Louis down it is the color of chocolate. The banks of the river are uninhabited and uninhabitable most of the way. Every spring and fall they overflow from ten to thirty miles, and then this mighty mass of water will not be confined. The river channel is constantly changing. The light, loose soil of the valley cannot withstand the tremendous power of the resistless floods that are hurled from the north upon its yielding bosom. This is one cause of disaster. The sand bars change so often it is impossible to keep track of them.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 47-8

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, February 19, 1864

Am perplexed about charges and specifications against Wilkes. His conduct has been bad, — such as will perhaps break him. I think it might, if pressed to extremes, but I do not wish to be severe. Although insubordinate, disobedient, selfish, arrogant, and imperious towards inferiors, and somewhat insolent to all, I hoped to let him off without a trial. But he would not permit; the more forbearing I was, the more presumptuous and offensive he became, trampling on regulations and making public issue with the Department on false assumptions and misrepresentations. The Navy dislike him and would treat him harshly; I have no malevolence towards him and do not want him punished to the extent he deserves and is liable, but he cannot be permitted to go unrebuked.

As I went into the Cabinet-meeting a fair, plump lady pressed forward and insisted she must see the President, — only for a moment, — wanted nothing. I made her request known to the President, who directed that she should be admitted. She said her name was Holmes, that she belonged in Dubuque, Iowa, was passing East and came from Baltimore expressly to have a look at President Lincoln. “Well, in the matter of looking at one another,” said the President, laughing, “I have altogether the advantage.” She wished his autograph, and was a special admirer and enthusiastic.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 528

Senator George W. Jones to Senator Stephen A. Douglas, November 9, 1858

Dubuque, Iowa, Nov. 9, ’58.

Hon. S. A. Douglas,

Chicago, Ill,

Sir: — Herewith is enclosed your letter dated August 7th, 1858, to H. G. Crouch, editor of the Galena, Illinois, Courier, cut from that paper of the 2d instant, with the editorial accompanying the same, headed — “A Base Calumny.” I will not condescend to notice the scurrilous editorial, predicated upon the many wilful [mis]representations of your letter, preferring to deal with you, as more responsible than your instrument. I say “wilful misrepresentation,” because you say you "have a distinct recollection of the facts in the case,'' and because the journals of the Senate prove your statements to be wholly destitute of truth, so far as you refer to my colleague (Gen. A. C. Dodge,) myself and our friends as having ever expressed or entertained the idea, as you say, of “defeating the bill unless the road was extended to Dubuque,” though we surely had as much right so to amend it as our Southern friends of Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama had to suggest and require, as I think they did, that you should make the road extend to Mobile, through those three States.

You knew well that neither you nor your colleague, Gen. Shields, ever had such consultation, either between yourselves or your colleagues of the House, before I offered my amendment to make the road terminate at this place, instead of at Galena. You moreover knew equally well that when I approached you towards the close of the debate in the Senate on the bill with my amendment, and asked you whether you had any objections to my offering it, stating as I did that it was merely to extend your road to Dubuque, 12 or 15 miles further West, that you not only freely assented thereto, but thanked me for the suggestion, and that I immediately thereafter, in your presence and hearing, obtained the assent of your colleagues to the same effect;— that I then offered it and it was passed without a dissenting vote or objection from any quarter whatever, as the records show.

You must also recollect that within twenty-four hours after the passage of the bill through the Senate, I informed you that I had had a conversation with Col. Baker, the then Representative from Galena in Congress, and that he declared to me that he would not allow the bill to pass the House without having my amendment stricken from it, and that you then said that you cared not what Baker wished — that it was right that the road should terminate on the Mississippi, and so connect with our proposed railroad, and that you would so state to your colleagues, Col. Richardson, Major Harris, and others of the House, who would take charge of the bill, and would prevent Baker from making any such amendment in that body.

The assertion on your part that I or my colleague, or any one of our friends had determined to defeat your bill upon the ground stated by you, or for any other reason whatever is false, and its publication being deferred until the day of the Illinois election, too late to be contradicted by myself or others, shows that you and he (your Galena organ) who acted for you, designed to mislead the Galena people, and accomplish your selfish purpose. The journals and the debates of the Senate show that Gen. Dodge and I heartily cooperated with you and your colleague in every effort and every vote which was given on that question. For many considerations we could not but be deeply interested in the passage of that bill.

At the celebration of the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad to Dunleith, held at this place in July, 1855, you complimented me, in exalted terms, in your speech on that occasion as the person who procured the amendment, making Dubuque the terminus of the road, and although you knew that hundreds of your own constituents were there present, you did not intimate that the same had been done contrary to your wishes. You were then addressing an Iowa audience whom you wished to propitiate.

Again, sir, when you last visited Dubuque, (26th August, 1857,) you had an interview with J. B. Dorr, the editor of the Express and Herald of this city, who had, ever since you introduced the Kansas and Nebraska Bill in the Senate, been your bitter opponent, and the opponent of that measure. The next morning an editorial article appeared in that paper, of which the following is an extract:

"But Illinois is not the only State which has been benefited by the policy and by the labors of Stephen A. Douglas. All the Western States are indebted to him for the material improvement which is observable within her borders. We believe, however, that our own State, Iowa, stands next to Illinois in her obligations to Mr. Douglas. To him more than to any living man is owing the magnificent railroad system planned out for her — the system which is destined to make her one of the wealthiest and most important States in the West. Even our own good city of Dubuque owes, in a great measure, her present importance to the labors of Mr. Douglas. She knows that the extension of the north western branch of the Illinois Central to the opposite bank of the Mississippi has greatly added to her prosperity, and the land grant roads running from here to the interior will still add more towards making her the commercial metropolis of the region North and West of Chicago.''

Two numbers of the paper containing the above extract were sent to you the next day, one to Galena and the other to Chicago, with the expectation that you would have the honesty to spurn the offer thus made you by your newly acquired advocate here, to the detriment of myself, for whom you then professed friendship. Instead of doing so, however, the same article was republished in the Times, your organ at Chicago, and that, too, within a very few days after it came out here, and whilst you were still at Chicago, and necessarily within your knowledge, if not at your request. Thus, sir, at one time you extolled me in unmeasured terms for causing Dubuque to be made the terminus of the Illinois Central Railroad when addressing an Iowa audience; at another, you allow Dorr, your ally and my unscrupulous opponent here, to filch that which justly belongs to me and appropriate it to your temporary benefit. And now, when arraigned by your constituents for allowing me to make an amendment to your bill, to the disadvantage of Galena, (as the people there believe,) you resort to the dishonest and unworthy pretext of saying you were compelled either to allow the amendment to be made, or to lose the bill entirely, because “they (myself and colleague) were immovable and insisted on defeating the bill,” &c. Neither Gen'l Dodge, his father nor myself, ever voted against you or Gen'l Shields on any amendment or proposition offered to the bill. The vote was generally two to one in favor of the bill and it finally passed by yeas and nays 26 to 14, so we had not, as you allege, the power to defeat the bill, as still it would have passed.

My amendment was offered without consultation with any one, not excepting my own colleague, or any one of my constituents. I am proud of having procured such a benefit for the State which has trusted and honored me, but I would spurn it had it been obtained “by collusion” with yourself or any one else — a charge never within my knowledge made at Galena or elsewhere, until now meanly insinuated by yourself.

This, sir, is the third time that you have made “infamously false” accusations against me, and that I have been compelled to fasten the lie upon you. Though you may, at the sacrifice of Democratic organization, have effected a triumph in your own State, as you say “over Executive and Congressional dictation,” I can but look with contempt upon any fame or position you may have acquired by a union with “white spirits and black, blue spirits and grey,'” Black Republicans, South Americans, disappointed office-seekers, &c., as I do upon the miserable resort to opprob[r]ious epithets connected with my name, but covered with a contingency which gave you a sure escape.

George Wallace Jones.

P. S. This was prepared at the time and place that it bears date, and would have been sent to you had I known where it would reach you. As you are still canvassing the country, I address it to you at your own home, and publish a copy of the same in order to make sure of it being seen by you,

Geo. W. Jones.

SOURCE: John Carl Parish, George Wallace Jones, p. 197-202

The Jones Family

One would naturally suppose that Geo. W. Jones, after his arrest for treasonable correspondence with the arch traitor Jeff. Davis and incarceration at Fort Lafayette and release only on taking the oath of allegiance to support the Government and the capture of his son in arms against the Government at Fort Donelson, would not have the temerity to show his face to the people of Iowa, let alone traveling among them and trying to reorganize the Democratic Party.  But the brazen impudence of the man is only exceeded by the fact that loyal Iowa should contain enough disloyalists to give a show of success to his efforts.  Another item has leaked out to show the treason of the Jones family.  A Shiloh correspondent of the N. Y Times, who was in the battle at Wilson’s Creek, picked up a letter from another son of the notorious George W., introducing to a Captain in the rebel army a citizen of Dubuque, who wished to fight against his Government.  But the letter and extract will explain the matter, and show the traitor propensities of the family:

In roaming about the woods I found a well worn letter, whose contents may prove of interest.  It is dated:

DUBUQUE, Iowa, July 1, 1861.

DEAR HUNTER: By this I introduce to you my friend, Daniel O. C. Quigly, of this town, and bespeak your kindness and attention toward him.  I believe he will prove himself worthy of your friendship.  With every wish for your prosperity and happiness, your friend.

CHARLES D. JONES.

To Captain S. E. Hunter, Hunter’s Rifles,

Clinton, Louisiana.

The particularities of this document consist in the fact that the writer is a son of Gen. Geo. W. Jones, of Dubuque, (late Minister to Bogota, Fort Lafayette, &c.,) and a brother of the Lieut. Jones who was bagged at Fort Henry.  The Quigly spoken of, is a son of a prominent citizen of Dubuque, and one who, soon after the war commenced, bolted to the South and offered his services to the scoundrels who are trying to break up this government.  I offer the letter for publication from the fact that the writer now lives in Dubuque, and pretends, as he ever has pretended since the war began, to be loyal.  How far such loyalty will be tolerated by a Government whose burdens are already heavy enough, should be tested.  The letter was given, and for a treasonable purpose, at a time when the gallant Lyon was struggling against the traitorous uprisings in Missouri – at a time when hundreds of Jones’ townsmen in the First Iowa, were toiling and suffering beneath the burning sun of Missouri, inspired only by motives of patriotism, by a wish to preserve intact their beloved Constitution – it was at such a time that Jones chose to perpetrate his treason and assist in the work of breaking up the Government.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 21, 1862, p. 2

See Also:

• The Jones Family of Dubuque, Iowa

State Items

A number of persons have recently been expelled from the M. E. Church at Montezuma, for disloyalty to the Government, the charge having been sustained against them.  That’s right: a persistently disloyal man is unfit for membership in a Christian church.

The Dubuque Times says that 500 recruits have been obtained at the station in that city for the regular army.  Of this number, about ninety percent came from other counties beside Dubuque.

The Marshall county Times and Iowa Valley News, published at Marshalltown have been consolidated under the name of the Marshall Times and News.  Mr. E. N. Chapin, of the News, being editor and proprietor of the new paper.

The Dubuque Times says it is reported that letters found on the battle-field at Shiloh, criminating certain well known citizens of Dubuque.  It is not at all improbable.  When the accounts of this war are finally balanced, a tremendous weight of responsibility will be found to rest on the heads of those men in Dubuque who have urged on the conspirators in their mad rebellion.

Mr. J. C. Holbrook, Jesse Guernsey, and J. H. Nutting, are about starting a new monthly paper at Dubuque, to be called the Religious News Letter.  It is to be conducted by several Congregational ministers.

Miss Emily Murdick, of Iowa county, was committed to jail, last week, for cutting the throat of her infant child, to which she gave birth on the 18th ult.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 2

Traitors at Dubuque

Among our telegraph dispatches of Thursday morning occurred the following extract from the Washington correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune:

“It is known here, that a secret organization exists at Dubuque, Iowa, to resist the collection of federal taxes.  The ringleaders in this movement are known to the Government, and its eye is upon them.”

This is one of the direct consequences of the treasonable teachings of the Dubuque Herald.  If the names of these “ringleaders” ever are made public, we predict that Dennis A. Mahony and George W. Jones will be found to figure conspicuously among them.

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

[The War News]

Fredericksburg Permanently Occupied.

Treasonable Organization at Dubuque.

THE ENEMY DEFEATED AT WILLIAMSBURG.

PARTICULARS OF THE CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS.

REBELS LOST 11 GUNBOATS AND THE “MANASSAS.”

Our loss 150 Men and One gunboat.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 8, 1862, p. 1

From Yorktown

WASHINGTON, May 6.

Prisoners Captured at Yorktown converse freely respecting the war, except they refuse to give information of the strength of Johnston’s army.

Capt. Lee, one of their number, declares that the South will continue to fight to the last; that their reverse have not disheartened them; they expect to be driven out of Virginia and all the border States, and from their seaport towns; but that when we meet them in the interior, man for man, they will show us that they are unconquerable.

This morning, Maj. Davis, of the Harris Light Cavalry, established his headquarters in the Farmer’s Bank, in Fredericksburg, as Provost Marshal of the city.  Hoisting the stars and stripes permanently, for the first time in the town since the rebellion.

Our pickets are thrown out beyond this city, and we are in quiet possession of the entire place.  Yesterday a large among of flour, corn, rice, hospital and other stores, ammunition, &c., were discovered and seized, together with several stand of arms.

President Buchanan’s postmaster was yesterday arrested in the post-office, and will be held in custody until an equivalent for the money plundered from the post-office department is disgorged.

Times Dispatch.

You were informed last night that Napoleon Seerman, and Austrian lately on Gen. Fremont’s staff, had been confirmed by the Senate as a Brigadier General.  This fact has astounded the knowing ones of Washington, and especially the foreign diplomatic corps.  Count Mercier avers that when he was with the French embassy at Madrid, he knew Seerman as a detective adventurer and imposter at the Court.

Tribune’s Correspondence.

It is known here, that a secret organization exists ad Dubuque, Iowa, to resist the collection of federal taxes.  The ringleaders of this movement are known to the Government, and its eye is upon them.

Secessionists in Fredericksburg, says the Capital of the Southern Confederacy has been temporarily removed to Danville, N. C.

The Tribune learns that David Forbes, a prominent citizen of Falmouth, was yesterday arrested as a spy.  The evidence is said to be very strong against him.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 8, 1862, p. 1

It is said that . . .

. . . ing to the secesh reputation of Dubuque, it was thought impolitic and unsafe for the steamer bound up the river with a load of Confederate Prisoners, to make a landing at that place. – Gate City.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, May 7, 1862, p. 2

Incident in Mahony’s Life

During a portion of the last summer, Mahony, through his Herald, so exasperated the loyal sentiment of the patriotic portion of the people of Dubuque, that he began to fear for the consequences.  The employees of the Herald went armed to the teeth, and on the passage of squads of volunteers along the street, pistols and guns were sometimes displayed at the Herald office windows.  Mahony at length took it into his head that he was no longer safe at night in his own house, and like other consummate villains before him, he had recourse to the Sanctuary.  He besought the Bishop to allow him to sleep in his own house.  The man of peace of course would not turn out the trembling wretch, and so Mahony found what he believed to be a secure asylum at the Rev. Father’s house.  Thither he repaired every evening at dark and as his mind was full of fears he regaled the man of peace with tales of horror about the threats and intentions of the “cowardly and bloody Abolitionists,” until even the good man feared for Mahony’s life. – Every sound on the street was eagerly listened to and every dog barks was a source of alarm.

Thus things went on for several nights until, one among the rest, when the fears of the rebel editor became unusually excited.  He had met with several sharp reprovals during the day, and he retired to the Bishop’s in a very dubious state of mind at night.  He regaled the good many with his usual tales of horror and fear, and in this state of mind retired to bed.

Some time about midnight, or a little after, a knock was heard at the front door.  Mahony who had been half asleep heard it instantly and started up in bed.  His burly form shook in terror from head to foot, and the bed trembled as if its occupant had a fit of ague, while he peered into the darkness and his ears stuck out from his head like a wolf’s.  Another knock and the Bishop heard it, and starting up in bed, said “Mahony, do you here that?”

“Oh, Lord!” groaned Mahony, “I’m gone.  They’ve come! they’ve come!” and springing out of bed, fell down on his marrow bones by the bedside, and began a most agonizing pray to the Madonna and all the Saints to pray for him, and the Savior of the world to have mercy on him.  Another knock louder than before and Mahony fairly jumped from his knees and shrieked in terror.  The good Bishop pitied the wretch in his agony, and tried to console him, even if his end had come, but he would not be reconciled to his fate, and made a bound for one of the windows, to get out headlong, which if he had accomplished, he would have been killed by the fall.  The good man held him back, and partly by force and partly by persuasion, got him to go down stairs with him, and examine whence the knocking proceeded.  Upon going to the door it was found that a poor harmless crazy person was the cause of all the knocking, and consequent fright.

Could we relate the above “incident in the life of Mahony,” as it was related to us, it would excite the broadest merriment, as well as show most conclusively the groundless fears of Mahony’s “guilty conscience.” – {Dubuque Times.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, June 7, 1862, p. 1

Failures In Iowa

During the year 1861, we learn from the N. Y. Pathfinder there were ninety-three failures in Iowa, of which ten were in Dubuque.  The total amount of liabilities involved was $1,295,000, of which sum $37,000 was represented by Dubuque.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, March 27, 1862, p. 2

The Senior Editor of the Cedar Falls Gazette . . .

. . . happened to be in Dubuque on the day of the Charter election in that place. The Gazette gives some of his experiences in that Godless village:

“Our Senior was in Dubuque on Monday (Election Day.) He says that while walking up Main street he met a party of “Democrats,” crazy with liquor. The party were passing a saloon when one of the members suggested that they go in and take a drink. “No,” said one of the number, “not here this is a d----d abolition hole – let’s go down to ____.” They started on, when it was proposed that they return and give three cheers for Jeff. Davis. – The suggestion was promptly accepted and the party retraced their steps to the front of the saloon, and there, in the city of Dubuque, on Main Street, raised their hellish, treasonable shouts for Jeff. Davis and the Southern Confederacy! We could not believe the reports of the doings in that city as brought us by the Times, until they were corroborated by our partner, who saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears! Talk about regard for the Union and the Constitution! For such men as carried the municipal election of Dubuque on the 7th inst., it is simply blasphemous! We have lost all faith in those who lead the Democracy of Dubuque. The scenes enacted on Monday in that city are a burning disgrace not only to the city itself, but to the whole United States.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 3, 1862, p. 1

Secession in Dubuque

Some of the Mahony Democrats elected to office at the recent municipal election in Dubuque, were required to take the oath of allegiance before they were sworn in. A volume could not better express the character of the men elected by the Mahonyites of that city, than this single sentence. When at a time like this men vote for suspected traitors to fill offices, it is time the War Department were exercising more vigilance at the North.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, April 16, 1862, p. 2