General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, December 4, 1884

ST. LOUIS, Mo., Dec. 4, 1884.

Dear Brother: . . . We have several posts of the Grand Army here, one of which, Frank Blair Post No 1, invited me to assist in the dedication of their new hall. I could not well decline, and attended. The hall was well filled, but it is against the customs and rules for reporters to be present. I saw none, but there must have been two at least who reported what little I had to say differently. Still my speech was most imperfect and condensed, emphasizing what I said of Jeff Davis, and induced somewhat by the regular speaker of the evening, who preceded me.

I congratulated them upon having secured so good a hall in so good a neighborhood; said that I was glad to see the interest manifested; that it was well for old soldiers thus to meet to interchange the memories of the war, and to impress its lessons on the rising generation; that I noticed a tendency to gloss over the old names and facts; that it was not a war among the States," a war of "secession," but a "conspiracy" up to the firing on Sumter, and a "Rebellion" afterwards; that, whilst in Louisiana long before Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated, I saw evidences of the "conspiracy," among them the letter written in January by Slidell and Benjamin, then United States Senators under the oath, written on paper dated "United States Senate," etc., addressed to T. O. Moore, Governor of Louisiana, to seize the United States Arsenal at Baton Rouge; that afterwards, during the progress of the war, I had seen letters of Mr. Davis—a chest full at Jackson, Miss., sent to Washington—proving such "conspiracy," and subsequently I had seen a letter of Mr. Davis showing that he was not sincere in his doctrine of secession, for when some of the States of the Confederacy, in 1865, talked of "separate State action," another name for "secession," he, as President of the Confederacy, would resist it, even if he had to turn Lee's army against it. I did see such a letter, or its copy, in a captured letter-book at Raleigh, just about as the war was closing.

Mr. Davis, in a card addressed to the "Republican¹" of this city, published by it and generally copied, pronounced this false, calls on me to produce the identical letter, or to stand convicted of being a slanderer. Of course I cannot for an instant allow Mr. Davis to call on me for any specific document, or to enter up judgment on the statement of a newspaper. Still, I believe the truth of my statement can be established. I will not answer Mr. Davis direct, nor will I publish anything over my signature, but I will collect evidence to make good my statement. The particular letter shown me at Raleigh may be in the public archives at Washington, as I am sure that the box or chest was sent from Jackson, Miss.; but I apprehend that the papers gathered at Fayetteville, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill University were of those taken in hand by my two adjutants, Generals Sawyer and Rochester, brought to St. Louis, assorted and arranged as part of the records of the "Division of the Missouri," and sent to Chicago at the time General Sheridan relieved me. These records were consumed in the great fire of Chicago, 1871, but of the existence of such a letter I have not a particle of doubt. Of course I cannot recall the words, but the general purport was such as to recall to my mind the old fable of the Farmer and the Ox: "It makes all the difference in the world whether your bull gores my ox or mine yours."

I have made some inquiries of Col. R. N. Scott, in charge of the Rebellion Records, Union and Confederate, and if the correspondence between Mr. Davis and the State Governors is among these records, Mr. Davis will have his letter. I am not the custodian of the records of the war, which fill many buildings in Washington. As to Davis' opinions at that date, January and February, 1865, I can, I think, obtain secondary proof, being promised an original letter from Thad. Stevens² to Herschel V. Johnson, captured and still retained by a sergeant in the Union Army.

As to the "conspiracy," the proof is overwhelming. As to Davis' opinions in the winter of 1864-65, I am equally satisfied, but may not be able to prove by his own handwriting. . . .

Affectionately yours,

W. T. SHERMAN.

_______________

¹ Newspaper.

² See following letter.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 362-5

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, May 5, 1866

Senator Morgan says that in the debate on Lewis Campbell's appointment as Minister to Mexico, Wade declared in executive session he intended to vote in favor of no man for any appointment who favored the Johnson policy and opposed the policy of Congress. Campbell, he said, was in favor of the Johnson policy. He then launched off into a tirade against Maximilian, in which he got terribly excited, but finally closed by voting for Campbell, who is an Ohio man.

The Senate rejected the nomination of Frank Blair for Collector at St. Louis. No man in the country, perhaps, did so much and so efficiently and timely against the Rebellion as General Blair in Missouri at the beginning of the Rebellion. But he is not of the Radical faction.

A. E. Burr, who is a member of the Connecticut Legislature from Hartford, writes me that there is a good deal of feeling on the subject of Senator; thinks that a majority might be concentrated on me if I am so disposed. One of the newspaper correspondents, Ripley, has called on me on the same subject. R. has seen Dixon, who says he should like to have me elected and will do anything to bring it about, provided it is my wish, but he adds the difficulty is I will do nothing for myself. D. says there is not a doubt of my election if I will earnestly enter the canvass. He may be correct, probably is, but I cannot approve, or do, what others do in these matters. While I should feel gratified with the unsolicited compliment of such a testimonial, I do not so crave it as to employ or enter into such means as are too freely used to obtain it. If a good and true man can be secured I will aid him.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 501-2

Governor Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, July 14, 1868

COLUMBUS, July 14, 1868.

DEAR UNCLE:

Joel Bryan's wife, son, and daughter were here this morning. Had a pleasant time with them. The son, Guy, is a fine, excellent young man of twenty-six years sensible, intelligent, etc. The old friends are all prosperous. Negro business in that county works well—no fuss or trouble. The young man is a Democrat and was at New York [National Democratic Convention], but is free from bigotry and nonsense; takes cheerful and sensible views of things.

I go to Cincinnati tomorrow to stay a few days. Yes, hurrah for Seymour and Blair! The thing is a wet blanket here to our Democrats. The prospect has certainly improved for us.

Sincerely,

R. B. HAYES.

S. BIRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 54

Major-General William T. Sherman: General Orders, No. 44, June 9, 1863

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 44.}

HDQRS. FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS,        

Walnut Hills, Miss., June 9, 1863.

To prevent communication between the enemy, now closely invested in Vicksburg, and their friends and adherents without, the following rules must be observed on the north front:

A continuous chain of sentinels must extend from the Mississippi River to the main Jackson road, along our front trenches. These sentinels will act as sharpshooters or pickets, and must be posted daily, and be instructed that no human being must pass into or out of Vicksburg, unless on strictly military duty, or as prisoners.

These sentinels must connect, one with another, the whole line; but division commanders may prescribe the posts, so that the length of line for each sentinel will depend on its nature.

All the ground, no matter how seemingly impracticable, must be watched.

The reserves and reliefs will be by brigades or divisions, according to the nature of the ground; but the post of his reserve must be known to each sentinel, and be within call.

I. General Steele will be held responsible for the front, from the Mississippi to the valley now occupied by General Thayer, to be known as "Abbott's Valley."

II. General Tuttle, from Abbott's Valley to the Graveyard road, at the point near the head of our "sap," to be known as "Washington Knoll?

III. General Blair, from Washington Knoll to where he connects with General McPherson's troops, at or near the point now occupied by General Ransom's advanced rifle-pits, to be known as "Ransom's Hill."

IV. The battalion of regulars, commanded by Captain Smith, will keep guards along all the roads leading to the front, and will arrest all soldiers absent from their regiments without proper authority, and turn back all officers not provided with written orders or passes from the commanders of their brigades or divisions.

Soldiers or citizens (not regular sutlers within the proper limits of their regiments) found peddling will be put under guard, and set to work on roads or trenches, and their wares turned into the hospital or distributed among the soldiers on duty.

Horses, mules, or any species of property found in possession of stragglers or absentees from duty, will be turned in to the corps quartermaster, a memorandum receipt taken, and sent to the corps inspector-general.

V. Colonel Eldridge, One hundred and twenty-seventh Illinois, will guard the Yazoo City road, at Chickasaw Creek, and also the bridges across the bayou, and will enforce at those points the same general orders as above prescribed.

VI. Colonel Judy, of the One hundred and fourteenth Illinois, will guard the road at the picket station near Templeton's, with vedettes on the by-roads leading therefrom north and east, and enforce similar general orders.

VII. In every regiment, troop, or company there must be at least three roll-calls daily—at reveille, retreat, and tattoo, and any commander who cannot account for every man in his command, at all times, will be liable for neglect of duty. He cannot shift his responsibility to an orderly sergeant.

The inspector-general of the corps may, and will, frequently visit camps, call for the rolls, and see that captains and colonels can account for every man.

VIII. Surgeons in charge of corps and division hospitals will notify regimental commanders of the admission and discharge of men at their hospitals, and furnish lists of men so admitted or discharged to the proper military commander.

Corps and division inspector-generals may, and will, frequently visit such hospitals, and satisfy themselves that no officers or soldiers are in hospital, except such as are admitted for treatment or regularly detailed as nurses.

IX. All commanders of divisions, brigades, regiments, and detached companies will be held responsible that their camps are not encumbered with surplus wagons, tents, horses, mules, tools, sutlers' trash, or anything that will prevent their raising camp at a moment's notice and taking up the march against an enemy to our front, flank, or rear.

X. The magnificent task assigned to this army should inspire every officer and soldier to sacrifice everything of comfort, ease, or pleasure to the one sole object, "success," now apparently within our grasp. A little more hard work, great vigilance, and a short struggle, and Vicksburg is ours.

By order of Maj. Gen. W. T. Sherman:

R. M. SAWYER,        

Assistant Adjutant-General.

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. 394-5

Major-General William T. Sherman to Lieutenant Colonel John A. Rawlins, June 17, 1863

HEADQUARTERS FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS,        

Camp on Walnut Hills, June, 17, 1863.

Lieut. Col. JOHN A. RAWLINS,
        Assistant Adjutant-General, Department of the Tennessee:

SIR: On my return last evening from an inspection of the new works at Snyder's Bluff, General Blair, who commands the Second Division of my corps, called my attention to the inclosed publication in the Memphis Evening Bulletin of June 13, instant, entitled “Congratulatory Order of General McClernand,” with a request that I should notice it, lest the statements of fact and inference contained therein might receive credence from an excited public. It certainly gives me no pleasure or satisfaction to notice such a catalogue of nonsense—such an effusion of vain-glory and hypocrisy; nor can I believe General McClernand ever published such an order officially to his corps. I know too well that the brave and intelligent soldiers and officers who compose that corps will not be humbugged by such stuff.

If the order be a genuine production and not a forgery, it is manifestly addressed not to an army, but to a constituency in Illinois, far distant from the scene of the events attempted to be described, who might innocently be induced to think General McClernand the sagacious leader and bold hero he so complacently paints himself; but it is barely possible the order is a genuine one, and was actually read to the regiments of the Thirteenth Army Corps, in which case a copy must have been sent to your office for the information of the commanding general.

I beg to call his attention to the requirements of General Orders, No. 151, of 1862, which actually forbids the publication of all official letters and reports, and requires the name of the writer to be laid before the President of the United States for dismissal. The document under question is not technically a letter or report, and though styled an order, is not an order. It orders nothing, but is in the nature of an address to soldiers, manifestly designed for publication for ulterior political purposes. It perverts the truth to the ends of flattery and self-glorification, and contains many untruths, among which is one of monstrous falsehood. It substantially accuses General McPherson and myself with disobeying the orders of General Grant in not assaulting on May 19 and 22, and allowing on the latter day the enemy to mass his forces against the Thirteenth Army Corps alone. General McPherson is fully able to answer for himself, and for the Fifteenth Army Corps I answer that on May 19 and 22 it attacked furiously, at three distinct points, the enemy's works, at the very hour and minute fixed in General Grant's written orders; that on both days we planted our colors on the exterior slope and kept them there till nightfall; that from the first hour of investment of Vicksburg until now my corps has at all times been far in advance of General McClernand's; that the general-in-chief, by personal inspection, knows this truth; that tens of thousands of living witnesses beheld and participated in the attack; that General Grant visited me during both assaults and saw for himself, and is far better qualified to judge whether his orders were obeyed than General McClernand, who was nearly 3 miles off; that General McClernand never saw my lines; that he then knew, and still knows, nothing about them, and that from his position he had no means of knowing what occurred on this front. Not only were the assaults made at the time and place and in the manner prescribed in General Grant's written orders, but about 3 p.m., five hours after the assault on the 22d began, when my storming party lay against the exterior slope of the bastion on my front, and Blair's whole division was deployed close up to the parapet, ready to spring to the assault, and all my field artillery were in good position for the work, General Grant showed me a note from General McClernand, that moment handed him by an orderly, to the effect that had carried three of the enemy's forts, and that the flag of the Union waved over the stronghold of Vicksburg, asking that the enemy should be pressed at all points lest he should concentrate on him. Not dreaming that a major-general would at such a critical moment make a mere buncombe communication, I instantly ordered Giles A. Smith's and Mower's brigades to renew the assault under cover of Blair's division and the artillery, deployed as before described, and sent an aide to General Steele, about a mile to my right, to convey the same mischievous message, whereby we lost, needlessly, many of our best officers and men.

I would never have revealed so unwelcome a truth had General MCClernand, in his process of self-flattery, confined himself to facts in the reach of his own observation, and not gone out of the way to charge others for results which he seems not to comprehend. In cases of repulse and failure, congratulatory addresses by subordinate commanders are not common, and are only resorted to by weak and vain men to shift the burden of responsibility from their own to the shoulders of others. I never make a practice of speaking or writing of others, but during our assault of the 19th several of my brigade commanders were under the impression that McClernand's corps did not even attempt an assault.

In the congratulatory order I remark great silence on the subject. Merely to satisfy inquiring parties, I should like to know if McClernand's corps did or did not assault at 2 p.m. of May 19, as ordered. I do not believe it did, and I think General McClernand responsible.

With these remarks I leave the matter where it properly belongs, in the hands of the commanding general, who knows his plans and orders, sees with an eye single to success and his country's honor, and not from the narrow and contracted circle of a subordinate commander, who exaggerates the importance of the events that fall under his immediate notice, and is filled with an itching desire for "fame not earned."

With great respect, your obedient servant,

W. T. SHERMAN,        

Major-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 1 (Serial No. 36), p. 162-3

Major-General Ulysses S. Grant: Special Orders No. 141, May 26 1863

SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 141.}

HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE TENNESSEE,    

In Field, near Vicksburg, Miss., May 26, 1863.

I. Three brigades will be immediately detached from the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps, each, including the brigade at Haynes' Bluff. The whole will be under the temporary command of Maj. Gen. F. P. Blair.

The troops from the Fifteenth Army Corps will proceed immediately to Haynes' Bluff.† Those from the Seventeenth Army Corps will move by the Oak Ridge road to Sulphur Springs. At or near the latter place a junction will be formed between all the forces, when they will move upon and drive out the enemy now collecting between the Black and Yazoo Rivers.

The expedition will carry in haversacks and wagons seven days' rations of bread, salt and coffee, and 150 rounds of ammunition, including that in cartridge-boxes.

The commanding officer of the expedition will report at these headquarters for special instructions.

 

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

By order of Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant:

[JOHN A. RAWLINS,]    

Assistant Adjutant-General.

_______________

† The First Brigade, First Division, and Second Brigade, Second Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, and First Brigade, Third Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, designated for this service.

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. 352

Major Charles Wright Wills: March 10, 1865 - 12 p.m.

Randallsville, N. C., March 10, 1865, 12 p. m.

Ten miles to-day, most of which we had to corduroy. Our regiment in rear of the division and corps. Crossed the Lumber river about 4 p. m. Fine country. We had reveille at 3 this morning, and the rear of train with our 1st brigade did not get in until an hour later. They had a hard time. Hope we'll get the advance to-morrow. This Lumber river is a spoon river, with a third of a mile of swamp on each side thereof. Hear to-night that Grant has taken Petersburg, and believe it to be-bosh. Blair, with the 17th A. C., is close to Fayetteville, but it is said he has orders to be still and let the left wing enter the town.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 359

Abraham Lincoln’s Speech at Leavenworth, Kansas, December 3, 1859

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: You are, as yet, the people of a Territory; but you probably soon will be the people of a State of the Union. Then you will be in possession of new privileges, and new duties will be upon you. You will have to bear a part in all that pertains to the administration of the National Government. That government, from the beginning, has had, has now, and must continue to have a policy in relation to domestic slavery. It cannot, if it would, be without a policy upon that subject. And that policy must, of necessity, take one of two directions. It must deal with the institution as being wrong or as not being wrong.

Mr. Lincoln then stated, somewhat in detail, the early action of the General Government upon the question—in relation to the foreign slave trade, the basis of Federal representation, and the prohibition of slavery in the Federal territories; the Fugitive Slave clause in the Constitution, and insisted that, plainly that early policy, was based on the idea of slavery being wrong; and tolerating it so far, and only so far, as the necessity of its actual presence required.

He then took up the policy of the Kansas-Nebraska act, which he argued was based on opposite ideas—that is, the idea that slavery is not wrong. He said: “You, the people of Kansas, furnish the example of the first application of this new policy. At the end of about five years, after having almost continual struggles, fire and bloodshed, over this very question, and after having framed several State Constitutions, you have, at last, secured a Free State Constitution, under which you will probably be admitted into the Union. You have, at last, at the end of all this difficulty, attained what we, in the old North-western Territory, attained without any difficulty at all. Compare, or rather contrast, the actual working of this new policy with that of the old, and say whether, after all, the old way—the way adopted by Washington and his compeers—was not the better way.”

Mr. Lincoln argued that the new policy had proven false to all its promises—that its promise to the Nation was to speedily end the slavery agitation, which it had not done, but directly the contrary—that its promises to the people of the Territories was to give them greater control of their own affairs than the people of former Territories had had; while, by the actual experiment, they had had less control of their own affairs, and had been more bedeviled by outside interference than the people of any other Territory ever had.

He insisted that it was deceitful in its expressed wish to confer additional privileges upon the people; else it would have conferred upon them the privilege of choosing their own officers. That if there be any just reason why all the privileges of a State should not be conferred on the people of a Territory at once, it only could be the smallness of numbers; and that if while their number was small, they were fit to do some things, and unfit to do others, it could only be because those they were unfit to do, were the larger and more important things—that, in this case, the allowing the people of Kansas to plant their soil with slavery, and not allowing them to choose their own Governor, could only be justified on the idea that the planting a new State with slavery was a very small matter, and the election of Governor a very much greater matter. “Now,” said he, “compare these two matters and decide which is really the greater. You have already had, I think, five Governors, and yet, although their doings, in their respective days, were of some little interest to you, it is doubtful whether you now, even remember the names of half of them. They are gone (all but the last) without leaving a trace upon your soil, or having done a single act which can, in the least degree, help or hurt you, in all the indefinite future before you. This is the size of the Governor question. Now, how is it with the slavery question? If your first settlers had so far decided in favor of slavery, as to have got five thousand slaves planted on your soil, you could, by no moral possibility, have adopted a Free State Constitution. Their owners would be influential voters among you as good men as the rest of you, and, by their greater wealth, and consequent, greater capacity, to assist the more needy, perhaps the most influential among you. You could not wish to destroy, or injuriously interfere with their property. You would not know what to do with the slaves after you had made them free. You would not wish to keep them as underlings; nor yet to elevate them to social and political equality. You could not send them away. The slave States would not let you send them there; and the free States would not let you send them there. All the rest of your property would not pay for sending them to Liberia. In one word, you could not have made a free State, if the first half of your own numbers had got five thousand slaves fixed upon the soil. You could have disposed of, not merely five, but five hundred Governors easier. There they would have stuck, in spite of you, to plague you and your children, and your children's children, indefinitely. Which is the greater, this, or the Governor question? Which could the more safely be intrusted to the first few people who settle a Territory? Is it that which, at most, can be but temporary and brief in its effects? or that which being done by the first few, can scarcely ever be undone by the succeeding many?

He insisted that, little as was Popular Sovereignty at first, the Dred Scott decision, which is indorsed by the author of Popular Sovereignty, has reduced it to still smaller proportions, if it has not entirely crushed it out. That, in fact, all it lacks of being crushed out entirely by that decision, is the lawyer's technical distinction between decision and dictum. That the Court has already said a Territorial government cannot exclude slavery; but because they did not say it in a case where a Territorial government had tried to exclude slavery, the lawyers hold that saying of the Court to be dictum and not decision. “But,” said Mr. Lincoln, “is it not certain that the Court will make a decision of it, the first time a Territorial government tries to exclude slavery?”

Mr. Lincoln argued that the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, carried out, renews the African Slave Trade. Said he: “Who can show that one people have a better right to carry slaves to where they have never been, than another people have to buy slaves wherever they please, even in Africa?”

He also argued that the advocates of Popular Sovereignty, by their efforts to brutalize the negro in the public mind—denying him any share in the Declaration of Independence, and comparing him to the crocodile—were beyond what avowed pro-slavery men ever do, and really did as much, or more than they, toward making the institution national and perpetual.

He said many of the Popular Sovereignty advocates were “as much opposed to slavery as any one;” but that they could never find any proper time or place to oppose it. In their view, it must not be opposed in politics, because that is agitation; nor in the pulpit, because it is not religion; nor in the Free States, because it is not there; nor in the Slave States, because it is there. These gentlemen, however, are never offended by hearing Slavery supported in any of these places. Still, they are “as much opposed to Slavery as anybody.” One would suppose that it would exactly suit them if the people of the Slave States would themselves adopt emancipation; but when Frank Blair tried this last year, in Missouri, and was beaten, every one of them threw up his hat and shouted “Hurrah for the Democracy!”

Mr. Lincoln argued that those who thought Slavery right ought to unite on a policy which should deal with it as being right; that they should go for a revival of the Slave Trade; for carrying the institution everywhere, into Free States as well as Territories; and for a surrender of fugitive slaves in Canada, or war with Great Britain. Said he, “all shades of Democracy, popular sovereign as well as the rest, are fully agreed that slaves are property, and only property. If Canada now had as many horses as she has slaves belonging to Americans, I should think it just cause of war if she did not surrender them on demand.[”]

“On the other hand, all those who believe slavery is wrong should unite on a policy, dealing with it as a wrong. They should be deluded into no deceitful contrivances, pretending indifference, but really working for that to which they are opposed.” He urged this at considerable length.

He then took up some of the objections to Republicans. They were accused of being sectional. He denied it. What was the proof? “Why, that they have no existence, get no votes in the South. But that depends on the South, and not on us. It is their volition, not ours; and if there be fault in it, it is primarily theirs, and remains so, unless they show that we repeal them by some wrong principle. If they attempt this, they will find us holding no principle, other than those held and acted upon by the men who gave us the government under which we live. They will find that the charge of sectionalism will not stop at us, but will extend to the very men who gave us the liberty we enjoy. But if the mere fact that we get no votes in the slave states makes us sectional, whenever we shall get votes in those states, we shall cease to be sectional; and we are sure to get votes, and a good many of them too, in these states next year.

“You claim that you are conservative; and we are not. We deny it. What is conservatism? Preserving the old against the new. And yet you are conservative in struggling for the new, and we are destructive in trying to maintain the old. Possibly you mean you are conservative in trying to maintain the existing institution of slavery. Very well; we are not trying to destroy it. The peace of society, and the structure of our government both require that we should let it alone, and we insist on letting it alone. If I might advise my Republican friends here, I would say to them, leave your Missouri neighbors alone. Have nothing whatever to do with their slaves. Have nothing whatever to do with the white people, save in a friendly way. Drop past differences, and so conduct yourselves that if you cannot be at peace with them, the fault shall be wholly theirs.

“You say we have made the question more prominent than heretofore. We deny it. It is more prominent; but we did not make it so. Despite of us, you would have a change of policy; we resist the change, and in the struggle, the greater prominence is given to the question. Who is responsible for that, you or we? If you would have the question reduced to its old proportions go back to the old policy. That will effect it.

“But you are for the Union; and you greatly fear the success of the Republicans would destroy the Union. Why? Do the Republicans declare against the Union? Nothing like it. Your own statement of it is, that if the Black Republicans elect a President, you won't stand it. You will break up the Union. That will be your act, not ours. To justify it, you must show that our policy gives you just cause for such desperate action. Can you do that? When you attempt it, you will find that our policy is exactly the policy of the men who made the Union. Nothing more and nothing less. Do you really think you are justified to break up the government rather than have it administered by Washington, and other good and great men who made it, and first administered it? If you do you are very unreasonable; and more reasonable men cannot and will not submit to you. While you elect [the] President, we submit, neither breaking nor attempting to break up the Union. If we shall constitutionally elect a President, it will be our duty to see that you submit. Old John Brown has just been executed for treason against a state. We cannot object, even though he agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason. It could avail him nothing that he might think himself right. So, if constitutionally we elect a President, and therefore you undertake to destroy the Union, it will be our duty to deal with you as old John Brown has been dealt with. We shall try to do our duty. We hope and believe that in no section will a majority so act as to render such extreme measures necessary.”

Mr. Lincoln closed by an appeal to all—opponents as well as friends—to think soberly and maturely, and never fail to cast their vote, insisting that it was not a privilege only, but a duty to do so.

SOURCE: Roy P. Bassler, Editor, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 3, p. 497-502 which cites Illinois State Journal, December 12, 1859 as its source.

Diary of 5th Sergeant Osborn H. Oldroyd: May 30, 1863

Moved this morning at four o'clock back again towards Vicksburg—rather an early start, unless some special business awaits us. A few surmise that there is need for us at the front, but I think it is only a freak of General Frank Blair, who is in command of our excursion party. The day has been hot, and we have been rushed forward as though the salvation of the Union depended upon our forced march. I am not a constitutional grumbler, but I fail to understand why we have been trotted through this sultry Yazoo bottom where pure air seems to be a stranger. Probably our commander wants to get us out of it as soon as posible. A few of the men have been oppressed with the heat, and good water is very scarce. This seems to be a very rich soil, made up no doubt of river deposits. A ridge runs parallel with the river, and it is on that elevation all the plantation buildings are located, overlooking the rich country around. The Yazoo river is a very sluggish stream and said to be quite deep. The darkies claim it is “dun full of cat-fish.” I think we may probably have fresh, fish, but not till we catch Vicksburg, and then only in case we are allowed to take a rest, for I presume there will then turn up some other stronghold for Grant and his army to take, and for which we shall have to be off as soon as this job is ended. We camped at dark, after a severe and long march, and it is now raining very hard.

SOURCE: Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd, A Soldier's Story of the Siege of Vicksburg, p. 38-9

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, April 28, 1864

The opinion in regard to General Banks is very unanimous. None speak favorably of him as a military man, and his civil administration is much censured. Whether the President will continue to sustain him is to be seen.

General Frank Blair has resigned his seat in the House, and the President has revoked the acceptance of his military resignation. This is a stretch of power and construction that I do not like. Much censure will fall on the President for this act, and it will have additional edge from the violent and injudicious speech of General Blair denouncing in unmeasured terms Mr. Chase. He also assails the appointees of Chase, and his general policy touching agent's permits in the valley of the Mississippi as vicious and corrupt. I have an unfavorable opinion of the Treasury management there and on the coast, and there are some things in the conduct of Chase himself that I disapprove.

The Blairs are pugnacious, but their general views, especially those of Montgomery Blair, have seemed to me sound and judicious in the main. A forged requisition of General Blair has been much used against him. A committee of Congress has pronounced the document a forgery, having been altered so as to cover instead of $150 worth of stores some $8000 or $10,000. He charges the wrong on the Treasury agents, and Chase’s friends, who certainly have actively used it. Whether Chase has given encouragement to the scandal is much to be doubted. I do not believe he would be implicated in it, though he has probably not discouraged, or discountenanced it. Chase is deficient in magnanimity and generosity. The Blairs have both, but they have strong resentments. Warfare with them is open, bold, and unsparing. With Chase it is silent, persistent, but regulated with discretion. Blairs make no false professions. Chase avows no enmities.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 19-20

George L. Stearns to Mary Elizabeth Preston Stearns, May 16, 1861

[May 16, 1861.]

Yesterday afternoon, in furtherance of my plans, I went to Silver Spring to see old Mr. Blair. He received me very cordially, and, talking about the war, I asked him, “What news from Missouri?” He told me that he was afraid his son Frank had gone to Jefferson City with troops, and there was danger that the Missourians would rise and be too strong for them, but he hoped to hear that Jim Lane had gone to Arkansas with two regiments of Kansas troops to make a diversion. When I told him that no troops had been equipped in Kansas, and Jim Lane was sick at Altoona, Pennsylvania, on his way to Washington, he said something should be done immediately and we must go to the President. I then laid before him the requests of Collamore and also of Stewart, for regiments, and we agreed to meet at ten to-morrow and see what could be done.

SOURCE: Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 248-9

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, March 1, 1864

Very little of importance to-day at the Cabinet. Neither Chase nor Blair was present. Gen. F. Blair made, I am told, a severe speech against Chase, in the House on Saturday. It is unfortunate that these assaults should be made on political friends, or those who should be friends. I shall be sorry if, under the existing circumstances, Chase should be a candidate for President. If he asks my opinion I shall advise him not to enter the field; but I do not expect that he will ask my advice, he probably knows my opinions. Some of his training measures do not strike me favorably, but I am sorry General Blair should assail them with such acrimony. There is, however, a feeling of partisanship in St. Louis and Missouri that is unsparing. Chase has, I have thought unnecessarily and unwisely, identified himself with the radical element there, the enemies of Blair.

Old Mr. Blair called on me on Sunday evening to look to the interests of Acting Rear-Admiral Lee, his son-inlaw, who is uneasy lest he shall not obtain promotion. I told Mr. B. that L. could not have the vote of thanks with the President's recommendation without some marked event to justify it. That the higher appointments must be kept open to induce and stimulate our heroes. That Lee was doing his duty well, and, should there be no others to have earned the great distinction when the war is over, he would be among those who would compete for the prize.

Judge Edmunds and Senator Lane called on me on Monday morning for funds. Showed me two papers, one with Seward's name for $500. On another was Blair's (Postmaster-General) and Secretary Usher, each for $500, with some other names for like amount. Told them I disapproved of these levies on men in office, but would take the subject into consideration; I was not, however, prepared to act. Something should, perhaps, be contributed by men when great principles are involved, but these large individual subscriptions are not in all respects right or proper. Much of the money is wasted or absorbed by the electioneers. I shall soon be called upon by Connecticut men to contribute to their election, and I cannot afford to comply with all the demands that are made for party, nor do I like the hands in all cases which the money is to pass into.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 533-4

Diary of John Hay: December 9, 1863

. . . . In the evening Judd and Usher, and Nicolay and I were talking politics and blackguarding our friends in the Council Chamber. A great deal had been said about the folly of the Edward Bates letter — the Rockville Blair speech, etc. — when the President came in. They at once opened on him, and after some talk he settled down to give his ideas about the Blair business. He said:—

“The Blairs have, to an unusual degree, the spirit of clan. Their family is a close corporation. Frank is their hope and pride. They have a way of going with a rush for anything they undertake; — especially have Montgomery and the Old Gentleman. When this war first began, they could think of nothing but Frémont; they expected everything from him; and upon their earnest solicitation he was made a General, and sent to Missouri. I thought well of Frémont. Even now I think he is the prey of wicked and designing men, and I think he has absolutely no military capacity. He went to Missouri, the pet and protegé of the Blairs. At first they corresponded with him and with Frank, who was with him, fully and confidently thinking his plans and his efforts would accomplish great things for the country. At last the tone of Frank’s letters changed. It was a change from confidence to doubt and uncertainty. They were pervaded with a tone of sincere sorrow, and of fear that Frémont would fail. Montgomery showed them to me, and we were both grieved at the prospect. Soon came the news that Frémont had issued his Emancipation Order, and had set up a Bureau of Abolition, giving free papers, and occupying his time apparently with little else. At last, at my suggestion, Montgomery Blair went to Missouri to look at, and talk over matters. He went as the friend of Frémont. I sent him as Frémont ‘s friend. He passed on the way, Mrs. Frémont coming to see me. She sought an audience with me at midnight, and taxed me so violently with many things that I had to exercise all the awkward tact I have, to avoid quarreling with her. She surprised me by asking why their enemy, Montgomery Blair, had been sent to Missouri. She more than once intimated that if Gen'l Frémont should conclude to try conclusions with me, he could set up for himself.”

(Judd says: — “It is pretty clearly proven that Frémont had at that time concluded that the Union was definitely destroyed, and that he should set up an independent government as soon as he took Memphis and organized his army.")

“The next we heard was that Frémont had arrested Frank Blair, and the rupture has since never been healed.”

“During Frémont’s time, the Missouri Democrat, which had always been Blair’s organ, was bought up by Frémont, and turned against Frank Blair. This took away from Frank, after his final break with Frémont, the bulk of the strength which had always elected him. This left him ashore. To be elected in this state of things he must seek for votes outside of the Republican organization. He had pretty hard trimming and cutting to do this consistently. It is this necessity, as it appears to me, of finding some ground for Frank to stand on, that accounts for the present, somewhat anomalous, position of the Blairs in politics.”

Judd: — “The opinion of people who read your Message to-day is that, on that platform, two of your ministers must walk the plank — Blair and Bates.”

Lincoln: — “Both of these men acquiesced in it without objection. The only member of the Cabinet who objected to it was Mr. Chase.”

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 132-5; For the whole diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 130-4.

Diary of John Hay: November 1, 1863

This evening Gen'l Schenck ,accompanied by Gen'l Garfield and Judge Kelley , came in to insist upon some order which would prevent disloyal people from voting at the ensuing Maryland election. Before going into the President's room (Kelley and Garfield sitting with me in the ante-room) Kelley spoke very bitterly of Blair’s working against the Union party in Maryland.

After they were gone I handed the President Blair’s Rockville speech, telling him I had read it carefully, and saving a few intemperate and unwise expressions against leading Republicans which might better have been omitted, I saw nothing in the speech which would have given rise to such violent criticism.

“Really,” says the President, “the controversy between the two sets of men represented by him and by Mr. Sumner is one of mere form and little else. I do not think Mr. Blair would agree that the States in rebellion are to be permitted to come at once into the political family and renew the very performances which have already so bedeviled us. I do not think Mr. Sumner would insist that when the loyal people of a State obtain the supremacy in their councils and are ready to assume the direction of their own affairs, that they should be excluded. I do not understand Mr. Blair to admit that Jefferson Davis may take his seat in Congress again as a representative of his people; I do not understand Mr. Sumner to assert that John Minor Botts may not. So far as I understand Mr. Sumner he seems in favor of Congress taking from the Executive the power it at present exercises over insurrectionary districts, and assuming it to itself. But when the vital question arises as to the right and privilege of the people of these States to govern themselves, I apprehend there will be little difference among loyal men. The question at once is presented, in whom this power is vested; and the practical matter for decision is how to keep the rebellious populations from overwhelming and outvoting the loyal minority.”

I asked him if Blair was really opposed to our Union ticket in Maryland. He said he did not know anything about it — had never asked. . . .

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 115-7; For the whole diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 112-3.

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, August 13, 1860

New York, August 13, 1860.

Friend Pike: I very cheerfully contribute this $20 toward the Maine election fund, providing that you will see it honestly expended. I don't trust the average run of Maine politicians, who are thievish (even the priests) and beggarly (even the leading editors). They are a poor lot, and will swallow all the funds they can get hold of.

I did not know nor suspect what Dana's opinion was on the point in dispute, but I consider him a better judge than Old Buck or Cushing.

I shall be greatly disappointed as well as grieved if you lose your district. Think of Frank Blair, and be ashamed of your doubts and quickened in your works.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

James S. Pike, Esq., Calais, Maine.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 524

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

Headquarters Dept. Of The Tenn.,

Near Vicksburg, June 27, 1863.

I mentioned in a former letter having received General Sherman's to you. I cannot see how he could, in language that would not have been fulsome, have given more expression of feelings of friendship toward me; other than those feelings I have no right or reason to demand. He is perfectly sincere, and I believe would rejoice at my success. He cannot make it for me, I must do that for myself, through the aid of God by my own merit, if I possess. These things are all hard for you to understand. The science of the soldier and the art of war, obtaining in this fearful strife, differ from all that experience or reading have given you knowledge of. The ordinary springs to human action in a measure fail. We are brought to greater exactness of action. An army is a vast machine of which each individual is an integral part. Shiftings and change cannot easily be made without disarrangement of the whole, never after a certain point, save by direction of the chief of all. Thus I report to General Lightburn, he to General Blair, he to General Sherman, he to General Grant, he to General Halleck, he to the Secretary of War, who in his turn goes to the Commander-inChief, the President. But till you get to General Halleck, that I have given illustration of, is only one of a series of systems aggregating a vast whole. Now, General Sherman's power is really very limited; he has no appointing power; he can only recommend to his superior officers, and how often has he done this for me! He is no more responsible for my misfortune than he would have been for wounds and death in battle. Some favors may always be granted by superior off1cers; these favors have been lavishly extended to me by all of mine who are in the field, by none more liberally than by General Sherman. His bed, his table, his wines, cigars, everything has been placed at my disposal. He has shared my blanket and laid him down by my side in the bivouac before the dread day of battle. He did this on the night of the 18th, before the first bloody assault. We have been baptized in blood together. He is not an affectionate man, but on the contrary, austere and forbidding. He never meets me without a glad smile and a warm pressure of the hand. You must not doubt him. It was not by General Grant's order that I was assigned as president of the court that sat at Milliken's Bend; but because I had intimated to Colonel Rawlins, A. A. Gen., that I had not reported back to my regiment and wanted something to do. The service was temporary, and has long since been performed and reported upon. While presiding at the court, I became an actor to some extent in the affair at the Bend when the negro regiments were attacked, and officially made some report of the matter to General Grant. Out of that matter grew a necessity for other and important service which I was assigned to, and thus I have gone along from day to day, hardly anticipating a permanent charge till after the reduction of Vicksburg. I cannot tell what they are doing at Washington. Mr. Chase has small power in the War Department. I have reason to believe I was nominated before my papers arrived, and before active influence was made for me, and that I lapsed with several score of others, from excess of numbers and the insignificance of my name; so common a name is a greater barrier to success than can be imagined by those who are not fellow sufferers. If Grant is successful, I still hope there is something bright for me, if not, I must do my duty, unmurmuring, if hopeless. If I perish without the glittering surrounding of rank, I trust I shall be able to die like a soldier.

You speak of the little diary I sent you as if it was important. I thought it might be of some interest to the children as showing something of life on the march, and the effects of war, but considered it hardly worthy of second perusal. I am surprised you should have thought it worth while to send East what was only meant for the home circle. You need give yourself no uneasiness about my deprivation from exercise and my removal from the saddle. I was but a brief time on the steamboat, and my feet are oftener in the stirrup than on the ground.

You will still compliment my letters. You read them with a loving mother's eyes, too partial a judge. I see so much I cannot write. If I could seize opportunity, and describe what I should so much like to describe as it passes before me and when the fit is on, I might write something worthy. But as time passes, new events obliterate the recollection even of old excitement, and the excitement of yesterday is old with us to-day. I wrote you in my last letter that I had been detailed on delicate service, and prepared you for what I thought might be a prolonged absence. The occasion was my going with a small escort under a flag of truce which was a feint to meet or endeavor to meet General Taylor, one of the commanders of the rebel forces. With this object I took a steamboat at Milliken's Bend on the 22d. Debarking there at daybreak, rode to Richmond, or what was once Richmond, twelve miles distant, and there found the bridge burned. I ought to say that after the fight at Milliken's Bend, the enemy fell back to Richmond, and there entrenched themselves. That we sent out forces to dislodge them, that they were defeated, driven out, and the town, a very pretty place containing some two thousand inhabitants, court house, jail, large hotel, etc., was burned; nothing that was inflammable was left; everything but the bricks and mortar was consumed. The enemy before retreating had burned the bridge themselves, and so, from its charred remains, I was compelled to construct another, to cover the deep bayou. Some two hours' labor effected this object, and with a bit of cracker and coffee, made in a tin cup, for breakfast, forward we went, and oh! how desolate was the country we crossed, and how dreary the ride! The fleeing enemy had been panic-stricken, and all along the road for miles had thrown the loads from the wagons and sometimes abandoned the wagons themselves. Bedsteads and mirrors, glass, crockery, bags of meal, clothing, sewing machines, baskets, boxes, and trunks, with pots, pans, and camp equipage, lay promiscuously scattered. But the most noticeable objects were the corpses of the unburied dead, smoked and blackened in the sun, too carrion even for the vultures and buzzards. At every bayou crossing, bridges torn up and fresh delays. Finally I reached the Tensas, twenty miles. Here, too, the bridge was burned, but on the other side was a house giving promise of water. The bayou water is not drinkable, and we were parched with thirst. A woman appeared on the opposite bank to show us the ford, and this was strange, for we were far inside the enemy's lines. A struggle through the mud, a ford almost a swim, and we were over. The woman fairly cried with joy to see us — the first real, genuine Union woman I have met in the South. Her husband was under the ban and on our side; he was poor and had been hauling cotton for transportation North — an unpardonable sin, and she had been made to suffer. Along with four young children, she had been persecuted by the retreating army, and no wonder she over flowed with joy when her friends came in sight. She gave me some buttermilk and some eggs, and after resting an hour, on we went. Soon the enemy's pickets were in sight, but instead of approaching, seemed to be fleeing. In vain the sergeant waved his flag, conspicuous enough, for it was a sheet borrowed from the steamboat berth and tied to a pole. As we marched forward they marched back, until at last they fairly made a run for it; thereupon we halted and tried another coaxing process, and at last, after making various signs, they approached or rather waited our coming with the timidity of young fawns. We explained the nature of our flag ; they were very glad to know we were not going to fight them, and said they had watched us from Richmond and hovered in our front all the way those ten long miles and had sent back for reinforcements, and had come near shooting one of our men who had stopped to take the water out of his boot at the ford. We reassured them and rode forward for about the space of a mile, when we were encountered by the reinforcements, dismounted, drawn up in line of battle. Their captain was stupid, and after the pickets had informed him we were a flag of truce, he insisted upon mistaking us for rebels, and boring us with the most absurd questions about the strength of Grant's army, the condition of affairs at Vicksburg, etc. At last we drove it through his head that we were Yankees, as they call us, and as soon as light broke through upon him, he became dumb with astonishment; nevertheless we marched forward well enough for four miles and then stopped to camp. We continued winding through the dense woods by the side of bayous or the shores of little lakes until at last, crossing another bridge, we encountered another picket. It was interesting to us to pass this picket, for it was near nightfall, the rain began to come down heavily; we had ridden some thirty-two or three miles and were near Delhi, where we expected to find General Taylor and a pretty large force of the enemy. But they halted us and I came to a parley. The officer was peremptory. I brought a stunning argument to bear — that I had been permitted by all the other picket guards to pass, why should he refuse, and by what authority — at last prevailed, and on to Delhi. Three or four miles brought us to the camp guard of the outside regiment. We had penetrated thirty-six miles inside of the enemy's lines since morning. They looked on us with wonder and astonishment, called no halt, and on we went right through their camps. The soldiers gathered in groups by the wayside to gape at us; the officers ran out of their tents; my escort was only ten men and a sergeant. We enquired the way to headquarters and reported to the commandant, and demanded to see General Taylor. General Taylor was not there. This was what I wanted and hoped for, for I knew if he was not at Delhi he must be at Monroe, sixty-five miles further up, and I wanted to penetrate the country as far as possible. Meanwhile it had rained very hard, and was still raining. We were wet through. The question of quarters was interesting, for it was almost dark. The commandant evidently did not know what to do. I suggested the hotel. He brightened, and we were permitted to go there and seek quarters. They did not know how to receive a flag. Their pickets ought not to have let us pass without first reporting and disarming us; but there we were and there was no help for it. Now imagine a small town with a railway passing through, scattered houses and a large square frame hotel, your son followed by his troops and a crowd of soldiers, officers, citizens, old and young, all agape with astonishment; evening, and muddy. Landlord comes out uncertain whether to receive us or not; anxious for his pocket, more anxious for his house. At last the pecuniary prevails, and he thinks he can make provision for us, but can't for the horses. Under shelter, and immediately afterwards under strict guard and surveillance: got some supper, corn bread, fresh pork, and something they call coffee, made of parched wheat. After supper the commandant called and demanded the despatches; refused to deliver them, on the ground that my orders were peremptory to deliver them to General Taylor in person. The commandant, a Major Beattie from Texas, was green and nonplussed; he didn't know what to do, finally concluded to put us under guard and himself in telegraphic communication with General Taylor. At last I got rid of him and went to bed, wet through to my buff, and got a sound sleep, to wake and find myself close prisoner in the camp of the enemy; breakfast, the duplicate of the supper, and after the breakfast the show began. I seated myself on the upper porch and the "butternuts" passed in review. Some citizens came to talk to me, some officers. The same old story of what you read in the newspapers — '”they are united, intend to fight till the last man is dead,” and all that sort of thing. Finally, Brigadier-General Legee, Aide-de-Camp of General Taylor, made his appearance, and now I found I had to deal with a soldier and a man of sense. Of course I was baffled, as I expected to be. He insisted upon my despatches and my return; no further penetration to their stronghold except at the head of an army. I was satisfied, however, for I had informed myself upon the principal point I was after. So I delivered my despatches with as good grace as possible, and received the necessary returns. I found General Legee, aside from his politics, to be a fine soldier and a most admirable gentleman. He had graduated at Cambridge, and afterwards read law there; had spent some time in Cincinnati, and knew a good many of my friends . . . and in short, we soon found we were old acquaintances almost, and sat down to have a good time; that is, as good a time as gentlemen can expect to have without wine or anything else but water to drink and no cigars to smoke; nevertheless, we had a comfortable chat. He made my imprisonment as light as possible; and next morning with an escort from the enemy we retraced our steps without adventure, stopped at Richmond, or the cisterns of Richmond rather, for water and a bite. While the men were resting, I wandered through the gardens; they could not burn them, but what a picture of desolation they presented. For the first time flowers seemed out of place, the fruit, apricots, peaches, and grapes, was just ripening. Some frightened, superannuated negroes came up to gape, and I hurried away from the smouldering ruins after extorting from them a promise to go out and bury the dead upon consideration that they should possess themselves of all the property abandoned on the road. Back to the Bend, and rapidly put the same in a state of defence, for unless I had checkmated them, they had calculated to come in. When I say they or them I always mean the enemy, the only terms almost by which we know them. On board a boat at 7 P.m.; found a sick lady who had taken refuge with her servants, reassured and encouraged her; down to General Dennis to report. Sat with him till two o'clock in the morning, then up the Yazoo; out at daybreak, and reported to General Grant at breakfast time. Yesterday I rested, for I was a little tired, and to-day am anticipating an order to go to Grand Gulf to report to General Banks with despatches, and while I rest I write you this tedious letter. You may see by it at least that the grass does not grow under my feet.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 307-14

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

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Div.,

Fifteenth A. C,

Camp Before Vicksburg, April 27, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

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

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

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

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, April 23, 1863

Headquarters Second Brig., Second Div.,

Fifteenth A. C,

Young's Point, La., April 23, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

By the enclosed order, you will see that I am virtually mustered out of the service. My regiment, by the accident and casuality of camp and bivouac, march and battle, having been reduced to less than one half of the maximum number prescribed by law. I only wait to be relieved from my command by order of the commanding general. The army is on the eve of what I consider a desperate enterprise. I believe the movement is forced by the folly and madness of politicians at home, (and by home I mean the pleasant places of safety far away from the bayou and the swamp, the slippery deck, the lonely picket,) to destroy the army or break down its leaders, which will be the same thing. I cannot fix the blame upon individuals, I do not speak from a sense of individual outrage. For a year past I have seen a splendid army crippled and its efforts rendered abortive by the insane policy of imbecile rulers. I foresee the loss of another year. The order alluded to will go farther to destroy the army than a campaign of five years with such soldiers as we have now trained.

What the course of the generals will be in my case, I do not know. I must go on, till an order comes relieving me from my command; of course in the field and anticipating an early engagement I cannot as a man of honor ask my discharge, which I have the right to claim forthwith. The order will be embarrassing. I do not propose to say what has passed between General Sherman, General Blair, and myself, regarding the matter. I had occasion the other day to test the temper of the soldiers. The whole division, three brigades and four batteries, were drawn up in hollow square to hear General Thomas announce the policy of the President. After he had concluded, General Sherman and General Blair, who were on the platform with him, followed with speeches, and as they had concluded, General Thomas invited the soldiers to call for whom they pleased. I think it would have done your heart good to hear some seven thousand voices ring out clear for Kilby Smith. There was no mistaking that sort of demonstration or the yell that greeted me as I mounted the platform. Still soldiers are fickle as the rest of mankind. To-morrow it may be somebody else, the pet of popular favor, to yield in his turn to his successor.

If I had the regiment alone, I would not hesitate a moment as to my course; with the brigade it is different and I must bide patiently. I had hoped to be brevetted, that chance is cut off. I have ceased to hope the appointment of brigadier-general. I have a '”heart for any fate.”

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 289-90

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, April 3, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Div.,

Fifteenth Army Corps,

Camp Before Vicksburg, April 3, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

We are fully aware of the feelings toward Sherman. We know the antagonism against the Army of the Southwest. We know the efforts of traitors at home, and those who are not called traitors but who nevertheless would rejoice at the failure of his army to open the Mississippi, jealousy is rampant; war, more terrible civil war than we have yet known, will desolate the North as well as the South. My friends at home will remember my prophecies two years and one year ago. The rebellion, revolution, call it what you will, is not understood.

David Stuart has been rejected by the Senate. He is now neither general nor colonel, and is only waiting from day to day an order to relieve him from his command. Of course it will affect me and at once. He was my immediate ranking commander, and his place will be filled, I suppose, by Frank Blair. I shall not be immediately affected in my command — that is, I shall retain my brigade — but aside from this I am seriously and personally grieved. General Stuart has been my near, dear, and most intimate friend; his place as such to me in the army can never be filled. Of splendid genius, most liberal education, wonderful accomplishments, as scholar, orator, lawyer, statesman, and now soldier. With the courage and chivalry of a knight of old, and the sweetness and fascination of a woman, he won me to his heart, and no outrage . . . has affected me more than his rejection. I have no patience to write about it or think about it. The blow was unexpected by all of us. Generals Grant and Sherman, Stuart and I never thought of such a thing — could not guard against it. When I first reported at Paducah with my regiment to General Sherman, at my own request, for I had known him in Washington, I was brigaded with him. We went directly into service and together. We fought side by side at the battle of Shiloh, till he was wounded, when I assumed his command. We made all the advances to Corinth together and rode side by side in the long marches through Tennessee. We fought at Chickasas Bayou and at Arkansas Post, and advanced together at “Young's Point.” Many and many a long night's watch I made with him, many a bivouac in the open air through night and storm and darkness, always sharing our canteens and haversacks. Had I been killed he would have perilled life to save my body. Was my honor assailed, he the first to defend it; little I could ask of him he would not grant, and when I say to you that he was really the only real, true, thoroughly appreciative friend I have in the army who I care much about, you may imagine how irreparable is my loss. His character is not well understood in the community, because an unfortunate notoriety attached to him in the . . . case.

His own sufferings therein turned him prematurely gray in a very few months. His father was a partner of John Jacob Astor in the celebrated American Fur Company, and made for Astor ten millions of dollars. He was educated at Andover and in Boston, and was the protégé of Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis. He was brought into life very early, and married into the Brevoort family in New York, but being a great favorite of General Cass, was brought into politics in Michigan. At a very early age he was Prosecuting Attorney of Detroit, and immediately afterwards represented the Detroit district in Congress; there I made his acquaintance. He abandoned political life to take the solicitorship of the great Illinois Central Railroad, which gave him the control of the railway influence of the entire State and Northwest; and he abandoned stipulated salaries of eighteen thousand dollars per annum to enter the service, having expended upwards of twenty thousand dollars to put two regiments into the field. He has travelled largely in Europe and in Canada; his family are in the army and navy, he is exceedingly familiar with military life and has a most decided taste for it. His record is clean and bright, one to be proud of; he exerts a wider and better influence than any other man in this army, and why he should have been thrown over is a mystery.

The roses are blooming here and the figs are as large as marbles, the foliage is coming out green and the mocking birds hold high carnival. This is a famous country for flowers and singing birds. My horses are all well. If there was any safe opportunity, and I thought you could manage them, I would send two or three home; they are very high-strung and want a master's hand. Bugles and bayonets don't tend to depress the spirits of a good horse, and mine are the best in the army.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 283-5

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, May 27, 1863

Our brigade, with four others, all under the command of General Blair, left this morning for Benton's Crossroads. The expedition is to keep General Johnston from coming in to reinforce the rebels at Vicksburg. Cannonading and picket firing opened up early this morning. Our army, by sapping and mining after night, is gradually working its way closer to the fortifications. Our men are well protected during the day by earthworks.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 118