John H. Lumpkin to Howell Cobb, August 22, 1848

Athens, East Tennessee, 22 August, 1848.

Dear Cobb, I reached the Stone Mountain on the morning of the 16th inst., the day after the democratic mass meeting, and I found our friends firm, united, enthusiastic and confident of success. As the meeting was over, I passed on the line of the road,¹ and I saw democrats from all the counties in my district and they assured me that the democracy would do their whole duty for Hackett,² and for Cass and Butler. I did not see Hackett, nor did I go to Rome, but I came to this place to see my family as fast as the publick conveyances would take me. I found my wife and children in good health, and my blue eyed boy that I had never seen, the largest and finest child I have. I shall leave here tomorrow for Georgia, and will go by appointment to Cumming. During next week I shall go through Walker county and see Aycock and such as are disaffected there, and I will go from there to Summerville and from thence to Rome. Our democratic friends in this part of Tennessee are doing their duty, and the result of the late elections has given them confidence and hope, and discouraged our political opponents. A. V. Brown has passed on through this section of East Tennessee and he is now above here making speeches. Govr. Jones³ is in company with him. Gentry⁴ has a list of appointments on his return home from Congress. He will be accompanied wherever he goes. I have no fears for the result in this State. I have seen many Clay Whigs since I came here who do not think that any booby can make a President. I am satisfied that there are many here who feel and act just as John M. Botts did while we were at Washington. Colquitt and McAllister visited Marietta from the Stone Mountain, and from there this week they will be at Canton, and next week at Cumming. You must be sure and attend the district mass meeting to be held in Cass county. I am in good health.

_______________

¹ The Georgia and the Western & Atlantic Railroads.

² Thomas C. Hackett, of Marietta, Ga., Member of Congress, 1849-1851.

³ Aaron V. Brown and George W. Jones were leading Democrats in Tennessee.

⁴ Meredith P. Gentry, a Whig Congressman from Tennessee, 1839-1843 and 1845-1853.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 116-7

Robert Toombs to James Thomas, April 16, 1848

Washington, D. C. Apr. 16, 1848.

Dear Thomas, I received your letter of the 9th inst. today and I am very glad to hear you are improving. You did not state to what point in Kentucky you expected to direct your steps. I have an extensive acquaintance with the public men of Kentucky and could give or furnish you letters to almost any point, and if you know where you will probably remain longest and will write me I will procure such letters as would no doubt greatly increase the comfort and pleasure of your trip. I could send them to any point you might designate, if you are about leaving. Mr. Crittenden, my particular friend and messmate, will leave here for Kentucky about the first of June on a gubernatorial canvass in Kentucky. I will commend you to him especially, and I hope you may fall in with him somewhere in the state, if not at Frankfort, his residence. I will send by this mail or the next some letters for Louisville where I suppose you will most likely land in Kentucky. I hope you will find it convenient to call by Washington. There is much to see here to interest an intelligent stranger; men, if not things.

Clay has behaved very badly this winter. His ambition is as fierce as at any time of his life, and he is determined to rule or ruin the party. He has only power enough to ruin it. Rule it he never can again. In February while at Washington he ascertained that the Kentucky convention would nominate Taylor. He procured letters to [McMillen ?] that he would decline when he went home, and the Taylor men from Kentucky under this assurance wrote home to their friends not to push him off the track by nominating Taylor. Mr. Clay never intended to comply, but without now having the boldness to deny it he meanly hints at having changed his determination. Bah! He now can deceive nobody here. The truth is he has sold himself body and soul to the Northern Anti-slavery Whigs, and as little as they now think it, his friends in Georgia will find themselves embarrassed before the campaign is half over. I find myself a good deal denounced in my district for avowing my determination not to vote for him. It gives me not the least concern. I shall never be traitor enough to the true interests of my constituents to gratify them in this respect. I would rather offend than betray them. Mr. Botts of the House and Mr. Berrien of the Senate and Mr. Buckner of Kentucky are the only three men from the slave states who prefer Mr. Clay for our candidate, and there are not ten Southern representatives who would not support Genl. Taylor against him if he were nominated. The real truth is Clay was put up and pushed by Corwin and McLean, Greeley & Co. to break down Taylor in the South. Having made that use of him they will toss him overboard at the convention without decent burial. It is more than probable that a third candidate may be brought forward, and Scott stands a good chance to be the man. For my part I am a Taylor man without a second choice.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 103-4

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: July 23, 1863

We have the following dispatch from Gen. Beauregard, which is really refreshing in this season of disasters:

Charleston, July 22d, 1863.

The enemy recommenced shelling again yesterday, with but few casualties on our part. We had, in the battle of the 18th inst., about 150 killed and wounded. The enemy's loss, including prisoners, was about 2000. Nearly 800 were buried under a flag of truce.

Col. Putnam, acting brigadier-general, and Col. Shaw, commanding the negro regiment, were killed.

G. T. Beauregard, General.

It is said the raiders that dashed into Wytheville have been taken; but not so with the raiders that have been playing havoc with the railroad in North Carolina.

Another letter from J. M. Botts, Culpepper County, complains of the pasturing of army horses in his fields before the Gettysburg campaign, and asks if his fields are to be again subject to the use of the commander of the army, now returning to his vicinity. If he knows that Gen. Lee is fallen back thither, it is more than any one here seems to know. We shall see how accurate Mr. B. is in his conjecture.

A letter from Mr. Goodman, president of Mobile and Charleston Railroad, says military orders have been issued to destroy, by fire, railroad equipments to the value of $5,000,000; and one-third of this amount of destruction would defeat the purpose of the enemy for a long time. The President orders efforts to be made to bring away the equipments by sending them down the road.

Col. Preston, commandant of conscripts for South Carolina, has been appointed Chief of the Bureau of Conscription; he has accepted the appointment, and will be here August 1st. The law will now be honestly executed — if he be not too indolent, sick, etc.

Archbishop Hughes has made a speech in New York to keep down the Irish.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 385-6

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: June 29, 1863

There is no confirmation of the report of the fall of Vicksburg, but it may be so; nor is it certain that we have advanced to Harrisburg, but it is probable.

Gen. D. H. Hill writes (on Saturday) from Petersburg that 40,000 of the enemy could not take Richmond; but this may be fishing for the command. He says if Gen. Dix comes this way, he would make him a subject of the cartel of exchange which he (Dix) had a hand in negotiating.

J. M. Botts writes, from his farm in Culpepper, that our men are quartered on his premises, and do as much injury as a hostile army could. He is neutral. They pay him ten cents per day for the grazing of each horse.

The Commissary-General is again recommending the procuring of bacon from within the enemy's lines, in exchange for cotton. Why not get meat from the enemy's country for nothing?

Hon. R. M. T. Hunter writes to the Secretary of War to let the Quartermaster-General alone, that he is popular with Congress, and that his friends are active. It might be dangerous to remove him; the President had better commission him a brigadier-general. He says Judge Campbell wants the President to go to Mississippi; this, Mr. H. is opposed to. Mr. H. is willing to trust Johnston, has not lost confidence in him, etc. And he tells the Secretary to inform the President how much he (H.) esteems him (the President).

The New York Times publishes an account of one of their raids on the Peninsula, below this city, as follows:

“Within the past three days a most daring raid has been made into one of the richest portions of the enemy's country, and the success was equal to the boldness of the undertaking.

“The expedition, which was conducted by both land and water, was commanded by Col. Kilpatrick. It started from the headquarters of Gen. Keyes on Wendesday, and returned yesterday. In the interim the Counties of Matthews and Gloucester were scoured. All the warehouses containing grain were sacked, the mills burned, and everything that could in any way aid the rebels were destroyed or captured. Three hundred horses, two hundred and fifty head of cattle, two hundred sheep, and one hundred mules, together with a large number of contrabands, were brought back by the raiders.

“The rebel farmers were all taken by surprise. They had not expected a demonstration of the kind. Not only were they made to surrender everything that could be of the least use to us, but they were compelled to be silent spectators to the destruction of their agricultural implements.”

No doubt we shall soon have some account in the Northern papers of our operations in this line, in their country.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 364-5

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 30, 1863

The newspapers have a dispatch, to-day, from Jackson, Miss., which says the enemy have fallen back from the position lately occupied by them in front of Vicksburg. It adds, that they will be forced to retire to the Big Black River, for want of water. Gen. G. A. Smith, who is here, and who resigned because he was not made lieutenant-general instead of Pemberton, says he “don't know how to read this dispatch.” Nevertheless, it is generally believed, and affords much relief to those who appreciate the importance of Vicksburg.

Mr. Botts was offered $500 in Confederate States notes, the other day, for a horse. He said he would sell him for $250 in gold, but would not receive Confederate notes, as the South would certainly be conquered, and it was merely a question of time. This information was communicated to the Secretary of War to-day, but he will attach no importance to it.

Among the papers sent in by the President, to-day, was a communication from Gov. Vance, of North Carolina, inclosing a letter from Augustus S. Montgomery, of Washington City, to Major Gen. Foster, Newbern, N. C., found in a steamer, captured the other day by our forces, in Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, It informed Gen. F. that a plan of servile insurrection had been adopted, and urged his co-operation. All the Yankee generals in the South would co-operate: they were to send smart negroes from the camps among the slaves, with instructions to rise simultaneously at night of the 1st August. They were to seize and destroy all railroad bridges, cut the telegraph wires, etc., and then retire into the swamps, concealing themselves until relieved by Federal troops. It is said they were to be ordered to shed no blood, except in self-defense, and they were not to destroy more private g property than should be unavoidable. The writer said the corn would be in the roasting-ear, and the hogs would be running at large, so that the slaves could easily find subsistence.

The President thanked Gov. Vance for this information, and said our generals would be made acquainted with this scheme; and he commended the matter to the special attention of the Secretary of War, who sent it to Gen. Lee.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 336-7

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 27, 1863

Gen. Beauregard's statement of the number of his troops, after 10,000 had been ordered to Mississippi, with urgent appeals for the order to be countermanded, came back from the President to-day, to whom it had been referred by Mr. Secretary Seddon. The President indorsed, characteristically, that the statement did not agree in numbers with a previous one, and asked the Secretary to note the discrepancy! This was all.

The president of the Seaboard Railroad requests the Secretary to forbid the common use of the bridge over the Roanoke at Weldon, the tracks being planked, to be used in case of a hasty retreat; the loss might be great, if it were rendered useless. It is 1760 feet long, and 60 feet high.

Mr. John Minor Botts is here in difficulty, a negro being detected bearing a letter from him to the enemy's camp. The letter asked if no order had come from Washington, concerning the restoration of his slaves taken away (he lives on the Rappahannock) by Hooker's men; and stating that it was hard for him to be insulted and imprisoned by the Confederate States — and deprived of his property by the United States — he a neutral. Gen. R Lee thought he ought not to be permitted to remain in proximity to the enemy, and so sent him on to Richmond. He was to see the Secretary to-day.

Hon. D. M. Lewis, Sparta, Ga., writes that he will cut his wheat on the 28th (to-morrow), and both for quality and quantity he never saw it equaled. They have new flour in Alabama; and everywhere South the crops are unprecedented in amount.

To-morrow is election day. For Congress, Col. Wickham, who voted against secession, opposes Mr. Lyons. But he has fought since!

We have a letter from Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, dated at Calhoun, Miss., l6th inst. He says the enemy on the railroad at Clinton numbered 25,000. We got our baggage out of Jackson before it was abandoned. Pemberton marched to Edward's Station with 17,000 men. Gen. Johnston himself had 7500, and some 15,000 more were on the way to him. We had 3000 at Port Hudson — being over 40,000 which he meant to concentrate immediately. I think Vicksburg ought to be safe.

Our government has been notified that, if we execute the two officers (selected by lot) in retaliation for the execution of two of our officers in Kentucky, two men will be shot or hung by the enemy. Thus the war will be still more terrible!

Vallandigham has been sent to Shellbyville, within our lines. I think our people ought to give him a friendly greeting.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 333-4

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.

Major Wilder Dwight, May 6, 1862

in Bivouac Massanatan Pass, Opposite New Market,

May 6, 1862.

A word with you in the rough confusion of our mountain bivouac.

Sunday last I should have written, but being a little out of sorts, put it off. In the afternoon we had an alarm, the long roll beaten, and marched toward the front. The regiment spent the night by the roadside. At three, A. M., started for New Market, in retreat. Marched all day in oppressive heat and dust, delayed by baggage-trains and batteries. Got into camp at eight, P. M. 1 was busy posting grand guards and outposts till eleven. At twelve, another alarm, and we marched again, foot-sore, hungry, weary, in the dark, over the mountain pass. You should have seen the sunrise from the head of the pass. To-day we rest. We found the alarm a false one, owing to the stupidity of General of Shields's division. Our work has been awful and useless utterly. My soul is aweary — so, indeed, is my body.

I could prose you a long story of our experiences; but to what good?

I am well now. We bivouac again to-night. The scenery is glorious, the weather fine. I have two letters from you since I wrote.

As to ——'s secession friend, let him alone. Colonels Corcoran and Wilcox are still in captivity; so is Botts and the Governor of North Carolina. Smooth no pillows for traitors.

Love to all. I am glad to hear such good news of Charley. I hope William is now lucky. Memphis will fall before you get this. Hurrah!

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 243-4

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Wednesday, March 16, 1864

Very cloudy and a high gale all day; formed line for review at 9 a. m.; moved a half mile out of camp, stacked arms, remained two hours and then started for the parade ground about a half mile away on John Minor Bott's farm; review passed off pleasantly, but it was very cold. The Corps made a fine appearance; wonder what Vermont people would think to see such a review; guess their eyes would pop plum out of their head.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 27

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, April 28, 1864

Culpepper C. H., Va., April 28, 1864.

. . . The General and I dined to-day with the Honorable John Minor Botts, the man who presents the very remarkable phenomenon of belonging to no Government, although living in the State where he was born. He is one of the most interesting men in conversation I think I have ever met, and at heart I am sure is a truly loyal man, loyal to the Government of the United States, and desires our success above all things. Yet he has managed to remain neutral throughout this struggle. I speak of him thus, however, without approving his course. If a man is loyal to his government he should use whatever influence he possesses in aid of it. There is no excuse in my mind for his doing otherwise.

Everything here progresses as well as could be hoped for. No news of importance from the front. I forgot to mention in my letter of yesterday that it was General Grant's forty-second birthday. . . .

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 426

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, April 13, 1864

April 13, 1864.

We went to a review of Birney's Division near J. M. Bott's house. The two brigades are under H. Ward and Alex. Hays. About 5000 men were actually on the ground. Here saw General Hancock for the first time. He is a tall, soldierly man, with light-brown hair and a military heavy jaw; and has the massive features and the heavy folds round the eye that often mark a man of ability. Then the officers were asked to take a little whiskey chez Botts. Talked there with his niece, a dwarfish little woman of middle age, who seems a great invalid. She was all of a tremor, poor woman, by the mere display of troops, being but nervous and associating them with the fighting she had seen round the very house. Then there was a refreshment at Birney's Headquarters, where met Captain Briscoe (said to be the son of an Irish nobleman, etc., etc.); also Major Mitchell on General Hancock's Staff. The Russ was delighted with the politeness and pleased with the troops. Introduced to General Sheridan, the new Chief of Cavalry — a small, broad-shouldered, squat man, with black hair and a square head. He is of Irish parents, but looks very like a Piedmontese. General Wilson, who is probably to have a division, is a slight person of a light complexion and with rather a pinched face. Sheridan makes everywhere a favorable impression.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 82

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, November 13, 1863

Headquarters Army Of Potomac

November 13, 1863

Here we continue to dwell in our pine wood, in grave content, consuming herds of cattle and car-loads of bread with much regularity. Yesterday, who should turn up but John Minor Botts,¹ the tough and unterrified. The Rebs treated him pretty badly this time, because he invited General Meade to dine; burnt his fences, shot his cattle and took all his corn and provisions, and finally arrested him and took him as far as Culpeper, but there concluded he was a hot potato and set him free. He was inclined to pitch into us, for not following sharper after the Rebs on Sunday morning, that is, the day after we forced the river. He said the first of their waggons did not pass his house till two at night and the rear of the column not till ten next morning; that the roads were choked with footmen, guns, cavalry and ambulances, all hurrying for the Rapid Ann. In good sooth I suppose that a shade more mercury in the feet of some of our officers might do no harm; but, on the other hand, it is to be noticed that we had excellent reason to expect, and believe, that they would not run, but only retire to the ridges near Brandy Station and there offer battle. In this case, the premature hurrying forward of a portion of the troops might well have ruined the day. All of which reminds me of Colonel Locke's remark: “If we were omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, we might, with care, get a very pretty fight out of the Rebs!” As it was, what we did do was done as scientifically as any army in the world could have done it, and with a minimum loss of life. I do assure you that Rappahannock station was a position where thousands of men might have been destroyed, with no gain whatsoever, if managed by unskilful officers; and even Kelly's Ford was not without serious difficulties. I don't recollect whether I told you that the enemy had made preparations for nice winter quarters, and were hutting themselves and had made some capital corduroy roads against the mud season. In one hut was found a half-finished letter, from an officer to his wife, in which he said that the Yanks had gone into winter quarters, and that they were doing the same, so that he expected a nice quiet time for some months. Poor man! The Yanks made themselves very comfortable that same evening in his new cabin. Our future movements, or standing still, lie between the General and the weather. Meantime we have to pause a little, for there isn't a thing to eat in this broad land, and every pound of meat and quart of oats for tens of thousands of men and animals must come by a broken railroad from Alexandria.  . . . The Palatinate, during the wars of Louis XIV, could scarcely have looked so desolate as this country. The houses that have not been actually burnt usually look almost worse than those that have: so dreary are they with their windows without sashes, and their open doors, and their walls half stripped of boards. Hundreds of acres of stumps show where once good timber stood, and the arable fields are covered with weeds and blackberry vines, or with the desolate marks of old camps — the burnt spots, where the fires were, the trenches cut round the tents, and the poles, and old bones and tin pots that invariably lie about. . . .

As you walk about the country, you often see fragments of shell scattered around; for all this country has been fought over, back and forth, either in skirmishes or battles; and here and there, you come on a little ridge of earth, marked by a bit of board, on which is scrawled the name of the soldier, who lies where he fell, in this desert region. Our people are very different from the Europeans in their care for the dead, and mark each grave with its name; even in the heat of battle.

_______________

¹ A Northern sympathizer, who had a plantation in those parts.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 46-8

Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Mead, September 19, 1863

Headquarters Army Of The Potomac, September 19, 1863.

At present I am very busy. I made the advance I did under the belief that Lee had sent away a large portion of his army, and would perhaps, if threatened, retire to Richmond. I find, however, he evinces no disposition to do so, but is, on the contrary, posted in a very strong position behind the Rapidan, where he can hold me in check, and render it very difficult to pierce his line or turn his position. Under these circumstances I have referred the question to Washington.

To-day John Minor Botts, who lives in this vicinity, came to see me and told me Beckham had been at his house a few days ago (before we advanced), and spoke in the most enthusiastic terms of me; so that Beckham is not changed. A Mr. Pendleton also, who was in Congress and knew your father, called, and spoke of Mr. Joseph R. Ingersoll, who had been at his house. Both these gentlemen are Union men.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 150

Arrest of Union Men in Richmond

On Saturday night Capt. Goodwin, by order of the Government, proceeded, with a party of select-men to the farm of John Minor Botts, and took him and all of his papers and private correspondence in custody.  Leaving an officer in charge of the papers and house of Botts, Capt. Goodwin brought him prisoner to this city, and lodged him in McDaniel’s negro jail, situated in Blankinship’s alley, some fifty yards north of Franklin street.

Captain Goodwin then went to the farms of Valentine Heckler and Franklin Stearns, and took both these well-known Union men, and all of their papers and letters, and brought them to this city.

Botts’s and Heckler’s letters and papers have not yet been examined.  Stern’s letters have undergone only a cursory and partial examination, and, so far, nothing of interest has been found among them, except several letters from his friend Botts, begging for money.

We are under the impression that, as yet, the Government is in possession of no positive information that would convict Botts of treason.  But he is known to be the recognized leader of the disaffected, all the low Germans of the Red Republican, Carl Schurz school, and the vile remnant of the Union party.

Against Stearns’ and Heckler’s loyalty the Government has been for a month in the possession of the most conclusive evidence; and it feels confident of its ability to prove that both of these men have been loud in their denunciations of what they have been please to term the “Rebellion,” and have, over and over again, expressed their willingness to sacrifice their entire property to restore the dominion in the South of the United States Government.

The man Wardwell, another party arrested, has, since the beginning of the war, been known to every citizen as a blatant and defiant Union man.

Miller, who has also been lodged in jail, is the chief or high priest of the secret Black or Red German Republican societies of Richmond, some of whose members, it can be proved, have since the reverse of our army at Fort Donelson, boasted that they had thousands of arms and abundance of ammunition concealed in the city, and that the men were enrolled who would use them on the first approach of the Yankee army.

An Irishman, named John M. Higgins, has also been arrested and put in the same prison.  Higgins is a connection of Col. Corcoran of the Yankee army.  Two of Higgins’ aunts married two of Corcoran’s uncles.  A letter from Corcoran to Higgins, advising the latter to send his wife and family North, and containing assurance that he (Corcoran) would have them safely conveyed under flag of truce, has recently been intercepted by our Government.  Whether our Government has any evidence of Higgins’ intention to follow Corcoran’s counsel, has not transpired.

It is said that Stearns, the whisky man, on approaching the prison, surveyed it with a most contemptuous expression, and remarked, “If you are going to imprison all the Union men, you will have to provide a much larger jail than this.”  Mr. Stearns will, we think, be not a little mistaken in his calculations.

It will be recollected that, on Thursday last, John Gold and Elias Paulding were arraigned for having made use of treasonable language, and that it appeared on investigation, that Gold had proclaimed himself a Union man, and announced that the stars and stripes would soon wave from the top of our capitol, and that Elias Paulding amended Gold’s announcement with an emphatic “That’s so.”  We stated in our last paper that the Mayor had turned both parties over to the Confederate authorities.  In this we were mistaken.  The Mayor had merely committed them for further examination, and they were accordingly brought into court on Saturday, and again committed till this morning. – {Richmond Examiner, March 3.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 1

From the South

BALTIMORE, March 5.

A letter from Fort Monroe published in the American of this city, says that yesterday’s Richmond Dispatch announces that the steamer Nashville came direct from Southampton to the North Carolina coast, and approached the blockading vessel with the Union flag flying.  The Nashville went up directly under the guns of the blockading vessel, almost within hailing distance, and then passing her raised the rebel flag and moved directly towards Ft. Macon.  The blockading vessel immediately discovered the deception and started in pursuit of the Nashville, following her until within range of the guns of Ft. Macon.  Several shots were fired at the Nashville, but she reports that nobody was hurt. – She claims to have brought into Wilmington a valuable cargo of bank note and printing paper.

The Richmond Dispatch calls attention to mysterious writings on the wall, indicating that Union conspirators are at work. – Among these writings are the following: “Attention, Union Men!  Watch and Wait!  The Union forever!  The day is dawning the hour of deliverance approaches.”

It was those significant announcements that caused the arrest of John Minor Botts and twenty other suspected citizens of wealth, character and position, and the proclamation of martial law.

The Dispatch urges summary measures for checking the progress of treason, and advocates the arrest and execution of the conspirators.

It was thought that Cols. Corcoran and Wilcox will be now held as hostages for Gens. Buckner and Tilghman, but this was merely rumored.  Col. Corcoran, Col. Wilcox and other Federal prisoners have reached Richmond.

There was a great panic at Richmond caused by the recent defeats of the rebels.  The leading traitors exhibited the greatest trepidation.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, March 6, 1862, p. 1

Southern News

FORT MONROE, March 4.

A flag of truce was sent over to Craney Island to-day, but no passengers returned.

ATLANTA, Ga., Feb. 28.

The Confederacy this morning states that Gen. Bushrod Johnson escaped from Fort Donelson, and reached Murfreesboro last Sunday.  Heavy rains have recently fallen, and the roads from Nashville are greatly damaged.

The Richmond Dispatch says Cols. Corcoran and Wilcox, and other prisoners, to the number of 100, arrived here on Friday from Columbia, S. C., and are waiting transshipment to Newport News.  They however, may not start for several weeks, as the arrangements for sending them away have not been completed.  Col. Wilcox is the officer who acted as military governor of Alexandria when it was first occupied by the Federals.

It is reported from Richmond that John Minor Botts has been arrested and thrown into prison, for manifesting Union proclivities.

Richmond papers publish general order No. 9, dated Adjutant and inspector General’s office, Richmond, March 1, wherein Jeff. Davis proclaims martial law over Richmond and adjoining country for ten miles.

All distillation of spirituous liquors and their sail is forbidden, on account of the demoralization of the army and the prevalent disorder.

All persons having arms of any description are requested to deliver the same to the ordnance department on or before the 6^th of March, otherwise they will be seized.

The Richmond Dispatch says this measure will be hailed with satisfaction by all classes.

AUGUSTA, March 2.

A gentleman just reached here says on Saturday morning Com. Tatnall’s fleet engaged one of the Federal batteries near Savannah, and had one man killed.  The fleet then returned.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, March 6, 1862, p. 1

John M. Botts Heard From

A correspondent recently returned from Richmond, Va., thus alludes to the position Mr. Botts is now placed in: “When in Richmond I saw Mr. Botts.  Mr. Botts is virtually a prisoner in his own house.  When he gets a chance to speak, he denounces the secession of Virginia and says that it was a fatal act, and he hopes that a restoration of the Union may be affected.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, February 19, 1862, p. 2

Arrival of Federal Prisoners

Interesting Narrative – Meeting of the Citizens of Richmond – The City will be Surrendered – Rebel Deserters – Eighty-six Rebel Prisoners Refuse to Return – Jeff. Davis Gone to Alabama.

From the Washington Republican, May 15.

About dark last night our city was on the qui vue of interest at the arrival of the Federal prisoners, which left Richmond a few days since.

They were eight hundred strong, and as they passed from the river to the depot the people generally turned out to see them, and their hearty cheers at the sight of the stars and stripes along the route announced their joy at once more being free.

Their narrative of the incidents of their journey here is very interesting.  Last Sunday it was announced to them that they were to be released on parole.  At 10 o’clock at night they were taken out of their place of confinement, which was once the store and commission house of Luther Libby, on Cary street near Eighteenth, and marched down Carry and Main streets, to Rockett’s, where they embarked.  Many a handkerchief was quietly and stealthily waved at them by fair hands, which testified of Union hearts, as they passed along the streets to embark.  They were put on board of the two rebel steamers Curtis Peck and Northampton, and left the wharf at Rockett’s at about 12 o’clock, midnight, and proceeded down the river.

The next (Monday) morning, at about 10 o’clock, came in sight of the ancient town of Jamestown, and soon after their joyful eyes caught sight of the stars and stripes as they waved from the Union gunboats, the Galena and Arostook [sic].  How their hearts leaped with joy!  And over the waters of the James three times three cheers reverberated along the rebel shores, from nearly a thousand loyal hearts! – The rebel boats displayed the flag of truce.  They did not dare to have even a rebel flag on board.  Here they stopped for about one hour, and received directions from Captain Rodgers as to how the prisoners should be disposed of.  They then passed the three Union gunboats, and went down the river.  Met the Monitor at Harden’s Bluff, twenty or thirty miles from Newport News.  The Monitor was just passing the rebel batteries at Harden’s Bluff.  The rebels opened fire on the Monitor, pouring their shot right across the bows of the flag of truce vessels.

The Monitor passed on without noticing the batteries.  The Captain of the Monitor put his head up out of the turret or “cheese-box,” and shouted out to the Union prisoners, “Why don’t you give ‘em a pill over in those batteries?” shouted one of the prisoners.  “We don’t notice such small fry – got better fish up the river to take care of,” was the reply, and the “cheese box” steamed on up the river without noticing the batteries.  Arriving at Newport News, the prisoners were transferred to the Federal steamers Hero and Wm. Kent.  Here for the first time, they learned that Norfolk was taken, and heard the fate of the Merrimac.  And strange to say, the rebel guard which accompanied them down were equally ignorant of these facts.

This, or something else, had a strange effect on the 25 men, accompanying them, who were a portion of Jeff. Davis’ body guard, for only eight of the number returned in the rebel steamers.  The orderly sergeant set the example by throwing his gun overboard, and swearing he would fight no longer for the Confederacy.  A dozen more guns followed, and the men passed over into the Union boats, and promptly took the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government.

Eighty rebel prisoners, who were waiting to go on board the rebel steamers, refused to return to the service of the Confederacy, and asked to have the oath of allegiance administered to them also; and the proper officers from Newport News came on board and administered the oath, much to their satisfaction.

The Hero and William Kent brought the Richmond prisoners up to this city, and they arrived here last night, and are now quartered at the “Soldier’s Rest,” near the Baltimore depot.

Many interesting incidents are related by these prisoners.  We have time to relate only a few.

A meeting was held at Richmond, by the citizens, soon after the evacuation of Yorktown, which was a very exciting one, and prolonged for three days.  A tough fight was had over the question of “surrender or burn,” and it was at last decided in favor of surrendering the city, if they were forced to it, though the “roughs,” who own no property, tried hard to defeat the measure.

The rebels are to make a stand about a dozen miles out of the city, and say they will make a desperate fight before they will lose the city. – They say they have got McClellan in a trap, as they have erected their batteries in the face of a swamp, into which the Federal army will be entrapped.

Immediately after the evacuation of Yorktown the greatest panic prevailed in Richmond. – Wagons, ambulances, horses, wounded soldiers, stragglers, etc., were pouring into the city day and night for several days.  Large numbers of families began to back up and leave for the South.  It is said that Jeff. Davis has gone to Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Provisions, etc., are very scarce and high. – Their food was scanty and of the meanest kind and the prison discipline very rigid.

John Minor Botts is released on parole, although he is virtually a prisoner in his own house.  He is not allowed to leave his country seat, near Richmond.

The Union Sentiment is strong, and its development on the increase.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 24, 1862, p. 2

The Punishment of Traitors

EXTRACTS FROM THE SPEECH OF SCHUYLER COLFAX, OF INDIANA, ON THE CONFISCATION BILL.

The Catilines who sat here in the Council Chambers of the Republic, and who, with the oath on their lips and in their hearts to support the Constitution of the United States plotted treason at night – as has been shown by papers recovered at Florida, particularly the letter of Mr. Youlee, describing the proceedings of the midnight conclaves of these men to their confederates in the Southern States – should be punished by the severest penalties of the law, for they have added to their treason perjury, and are doubly condemned before God and man. Never, in any land, have there been more guilty and more deserving of the extremest errors of the law. The murderer takes but a single life, and we call him infamous. – But these men wickedly and willingly plunged a peaceful country into the horrors of a civil war, and inaugurated a regime of assassination and outrage against the Union men in their midst, hanging, plundering, and imprisoning in a manner that throws into the shade the atrocities of the French Revolution. Not content with this they aimed their blows at the life of the Republic itself; and on many a battle-field, in a carnival of blood, they sought not only to destroy the Union itself, but to murder its defenders. Plunging into still darker crimes they have bayoneted the wounded on the field of carnage, buried the dead that fell into their ands with every possible ignominy, and then to gloat their revenge, dug up their lifeless remains from the tomb, where even savages would have allowed them to rest, and converted their skulls into drinking cups – a barbarism that would have disgraced the Visigoths of Alaric, the barbarian, in the dark ages of the past. – The blood of our soldiers cries out against them. Has not forbearance ceased longer to be a virtue? We were told a year ago that lenicy [sic] would probably induce them to return to their allegiance, and to cease this unnatural war; and what has been the result? Let the bloody battle-fields of the conflict answer.

When I return home I shall miss many a familiar face that has looked in past years with the beaming eye of friendship upon me. I shall see those who have come home with constitutions broken down by exposure and wounds and disease, to linger and to die. I shall see women whom I have seen Sabbath after Sabbath leaning on a beloved husband’s arm as they went to the peaceful sanctuary, clothed now in widow’s weeds. I shall see orphans destitute, with no one to train them into paths of usefulness. I shall see the swelling hillock in the grave-yard – where, after life’s fitful fever, we shall be gathered, betokening that there, prematurely cut off by a rifle ball aimed at the life of the Republic, a patriot soldier sleeps. I shall see desolate and hearthstones and anguish and woe on every side. Those of us who come here from Indiana and Illinois know too painfully the sad scenes that will confront us amid the circles of our constituents.

Nor need we ask the cause of all this suffering, the necessity of all these sacrifices? They have been entailed on us as part of the fearful cost of saving our country from destruction. – But what a mountain of guilt must rest upon those who by their efforts to destroy the government and the Union, have rendered these terrible sacrifices necessary.

Why do we hesitate? These men have drawn the sword and thrown away the scabbard. – They did not hesitate in punishing the Union men within their power. They have confiscated their property, and have for a year past, without any of the compunctions that troubles us here. They imprisoned John M. Botts, for silently regaining a lingering love for the union in his desolate home. They hang Union men in East Tennessee for bridge burning, refusing them even the sympathy of a chaplain to console their dying hours. They persecute Brownlow because faithful among the faithless, he refused, almost alone, in his outspoken heroism, to bow the knee to the Baal of their worship. Let us follow his counsel by stripping the leaders of this conspiracy of their possessions, and outlawing them hereafter from the high places of honor and of trust they have heretofore enjoyed.

In no other way can we more effectually be felt throughout all the region where treason rears its blackened crest. The loyal Union men of all these regions will see in this legislation, and in the concurrent advance of our armies toward the Gulf, that we have put our hands to the plow, determined not to look back; that we have resolved that every man who raises his hand against the Union shall be punished; that those who remain loyal to the nation shall be protected; and that the retribution which shall follow the leaders of this rebellion for life, shall be so thorough and severe that no reptile flag of disunion will ever again be reared on the soil of this Republic. And they will at last all realize that the inducement to sympathize with secession (so as to save their property from rebel confiscation and to claim at the same time Union protection) no longer exists; that the time for this misplaced lenity has expired; that the property of the rebels is to be confiscated, and the armies of the republic sustained thereon in the regions which treason requires them to occupy.

Mercy to traitors, it has been well said, is cruelty to loyal men. I would not imitate their crimes or their barbarity, but I would imitate their resolution. The gentleman from Kentucky nearest me (Mr. Grider) told us, a month or two ago, that the rebel army had run off $300,000 worth of slaves of Union men from counties near his residence, and they have confiscated and taken slaves as sweepingly as anything else claimed or held by these men. Their own slaves work on their fortifications, from cannon, behind which our soldiers are mercilessly slain; they perform their camp drudgery, thus increasing the power of their army; they raise the produce that feeds their troops, and the crops on the faith of which their scrip is rendered current. If we wish to break the power of the rebellion let us strike it wherever we can weaken it, and strike it boldly and fearlessly as the justice of our cause fully warrants. And let us if there are but fifty or five hundred loyal men in a State, resolve that they shall be protected by the whole power of the Government, and clothed with all the advantages hereafter that their unfaltering allegiance during these dark hours so richly merits.

None of the confiscation bills before us are ex post facto in their operation. They operate only against those who, having been engaged in this rebellion continue in arms after this long legislative forbearance. I can vote for nearly every one of them, variant as their provisions are. Any of them is preferable to none. The clerk of this House, (Mr. Etheridge,) recently returned from Tennessee, tells us that in an extensive inquiry, he heard of but a single slaveholder of that State who was a private in the rebel army. This is a striking and significant fact. With that single exception, the slaveholders were either in office, civil or military, or at home. I have no doubt that four-fifths of all the slaves held by rebels belong to officers, civil or military under the rebel government. And we cannot longer doubt that there are thousands upon thousands of men who prefer the Union who have been absolutely forced by threats, by terror, by delusions, or by conscription, into the armies of the rebellion.

I am willing, therefore, to go for the bill known as Senator Sherman’s which confiscates the property and discharges the slaves of all the leaders of the rebel government; of all who had ever taken the oath to support the Constitution and had violated it, which would include all postmasters, mail contractors, Congressmen, Governors, members of the State Legislature, judges, &c.; all of who have taken an oath of any office of any kind under the rebel authority; and of all officers of the rebel army and navy. As to our manifest, palpable duty as to all these classes, it seems to me there can be no question. Another provision in his bill I favor strongly which declares that all persons, high and low, officers and privates, who continue in arms against the Union for sixty days after the passage of the act, shall be declared infamous, and shall never hold an office of trust, honor or profit within the United States. This bill cannot be considered extreme. It runs no hazard of injuring any one whose heart is not callous with treason. It gives the privates all the benefit of a doubt as to the willingness of their enlistment. It makes allegiance to the Union the test, not only of protection under the law, but of official advancement hereafter. It prevents the conspirators of this rebellion from returning to occupy seats here. And I cannot see why a majority cannot unite on this bill, if they cannot on any other more stringent and sweeping in its provisions.

But I am not wedded to the details of any bill. I will very cheerfully support Senator Trumbull’s bill, now pending in the Senate. – I plead only for action. Let our legislation respond to the appeal of Brownlow; and let us not by a conflict between bills looking to the same end fail to strike the blow that hundreds of thousands of patriot hearts demand at our hands.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 3, 1862, p. 2

Southern News

WILMINGTON, April 18.

Private letters, dated April 17th, say the enemy attacked Fort Macon last Saturday, and had been fighting two days. Col. White sent out part of his men on the beach and found 300 Yankees. They killed 15 of our men, and we then retreated to the Fort. Col. White fired canister at the enemy, killing great numbers.

The enemy have built a battery two miles from the Fort and planted mortars and large siege guns. Eleven large ships are outside. The enemy have sent to Newbern for gunboats to operate in the Sound. The enemy are committing every imaginable outrage in Catawexon and Slow counties. Fort Macon has not been taken.


AUGUSTA, April 18.

The Savannah Morning News, says that a skirmish took place at Whitmarsh Island, on Wednesday, between some companies of the 15th Georgia and a Michigan regiment in which the latter were repulsed.

An accident occurred on the Atlantic and West Point RR, at Greene, Tenn., by which about 200 confederate soldiers were killed and six slightly wounded.

The Richmond Enquirer, of Friday, says the rebel court of inquiry, which has been deliberating for some time past upon the advisability of releasing John M. Botts from imprisonment, adjourned Thursday. The result of their labors has not yet transpired.

A refugee from Richmond says there are batteries in four places on James river. None of which could withstand a heavy fire from [illegible] gunboats.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, April 23, 1862, p. 1