Diary of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire: September 24, 1862

Still no official account of the Sharpsburg fight, and no list of casualties. The Yankee loss in generals very great — they must have fought desperately. Reno, Mansfield, and Miles were killed; others badly wounded. The Yankee papers say that their loss of “field officers is unaccountable;” and add, that but for the wounding of General Hooker, they would have driven us into the Potomac!

SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War, p. 157

Diary of Salmon P. Chase, Monday, September 8, 1862

Jay Cooke came to breakfast, after which we talked financial matters. He thought gold could be easily obtained on deposit at 4%; and that, by and by, on a more favorable turn of affairs, 5-20s could be negotiated. Clay came in and Cooke left. Clay and I rode towards Department in wagon. Clay said he had made up his mind to take Department and that the President and Stanton were willing he should take that beyond the Mississippi. “Would I go with him to see Halleck?” “Certainly.” Halleck received us kindly but was unwell. Showed no favor to the new Department project.

Returned to Department and attended to general business. Nothing of special financial moment. Barney came in, and said that Stanton and Wadsworth had advised him to leave for New York this evening, as communication with Baltimore might be cut off before to-morrow. He would be governed by my advice. Told him I did not think the event probable, but he had best govern himself by the advice received.

After he had gone, Genl. Mansfield came in, and talked very earnestly about the necessity of ordering up, from Suffolk, 1st. Delaware and 3 and 4 New York, trained and disciplined now 14 months, each 800 strong, say 2,400 men; and from Norfolk 19th Wisconsin and 48th. Pennsylvania, say 1,600 men; leaving at Suffolk, Forey's Brigade of four diminished Regiments, say 1,800 men in all, late of Shield's division, — 11th. Pennsylvania Cavalry (a full and good Regiment) say 900 men;—and Dodge's Regiment of mounted Rifles except one Company; and at Norfolk, 99th NewYork, and one Company of Dodge's, sufficient for military police. He favored leaving Keyes and Peck at Yorktown. — He said the defences of the city were weak on the Eastern side; and that there ought to be at least 65,000 good men to hold it if McClellan is defeated — to improve victory if he is successful — He referred to old times. Was in Texas the Winter before the Rebellion broke out. Saw Twiggs who hated him because he was on Court-Martial. Was then told by officer in Council of War of K. G. C.¹ that Floyd and Cobb in Cabinet and Jeff. Davis and Breckinridge, were members. In this Council of War, Orders were given to seize Navy Yards, Forts, etc. while its members were yet Cabinet officers and Senators. The Order of the K. G. C. ramified throughout the South. First offered services to Juarez, who refused them because too dangerous. They then plotted the invasion of Cuba, which failed. Then declared themselves Protectors of Southern Rights and levied a contribution upon all planters and slaveholders — some giving $5 and some $10, and some more or less. In this way they got large sums and commenced operations. They designed to seize Washington and inaugurate Breckinridge; and in reference to this Mason wrote Faulkner advising him not to resign — this letter being now in Seward's possession. This plot only failed through the bringing of troops to Washington, and the unwillingness of leaders to make a bloody issue so early. — He spoke of Genl. Scott. Said he had not treated him well — had placed McDowell in command over the river last year, superseding himself, and when he had asked for explanation he simply replied that his orders had been given. He felt himself wronged, but did his duty to the best of his ability. He was afterwards treated badly by Genl. Wool who did not like him, though he treated him civilly. Had lately been in command at Suffolk (an insignificant post) until summoned here to Court of Inquiry. Wanted active employment but was unable to get any. Had sent for his horses, and proposed to visit all the fortifications around the city on his own account. — I was a good deal affected by the manifest patriotism and desire to do something for his country manifested by the old General; and could not help wishing that he was younger and thinking that, perhaps, after all, it would have been better to trust him.

After the General left, went to War Department, where found the President, Stanton and Wadsworth. The President said he had felt badly all day. Wadsworth said there was no danger of an attack on Washington, and that the men ought to be severely punished who intimated the possibility of its surrender. The President spoke of the great number of stragglers he had seen coming into town this morning; and of the immense losses by desertion.

Returned home. Maj. Andrews and others called.

_______________

¹ Knights of the Golden Circle.

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 69-71

John Lothrop Motley to Mary Benjamin Motley, July 7, 1861

Boston, July 7, 1861.

My Dearest Mary: I can't tell you how much delight your letters give me. . . .

Seid umschlungen, Millionen! You must give my kindest regards to dear Mrs. Norton, to Lady Dufferin, — if you are so fortunate as to see her, which seems too great a privilege ever really to come within your reach, — to Lady Palmerston and Lord Palmerston, to the adorable Lady and Lord , to Milnes, Stirling, Forster, to dear Lady William, with my most sincere wishes for her restoration to health. Tell her I should give myself the pleasure of writing to her, but my whole mind is absorbed with American affairs, and I know that they bore her inexpressibly, and I could write of nothing else. Don't forget my kind regards to Arthur, and to Odo if he comes. If you see Lady John Russell and Lord John, I wish you would present my best compliments, and say that I have been and am doing everything within my humble means to suppress the noble rage of our countrymen in regard to the English indifference to our cause, and that I hope partially to have succeeded. At any rate, there is a better feeling and less bluster; but alas and alas! there will never in our generation be the cordial, warm-hearted, expansive sentiment toward England which existed a year ago. Yet no one is mad enough not to wish for peaceful relations between the countries, and few can doubt that a war at this moment would be for us a calamity too awful to contemplate. Pray give my kindest regards to Mrs. Stanley; it was so kind of her to ask you to so pleasant a party as you mention. I hope you took the responsibility of remembering me to Froude; and indeed I wish really that you would say to all our friends individually, when you see them, that I beg my remembrances in each letter. There is no need of my specifying their names, as you see now that I have got to my third page and have not mentioned one third. Vivent nos amis les ennemis, and so I give my kind regards to Delane. I wish he wasn't such a good fellow, and that I didn't like him so well, for the “Times” has played the very devil with our international relations, and if there is one thing I have ever set my heart upon it is the entente cordiale between America and England. Give my kind regards to Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan.

. . . It never occurs to me that any one can doubt the warmth of my feelings toward England, and so when I try to picture the condition here it is that my friends in England may see with my eyes, which must be of necessity quicker to understand our national humors than those of any Englishman can be. Give my regards to Parker, to whom I dare say you read portions of my letters. Pray don't forget to present my most particular regards to Lord Lansdowne, and I hope it may have occurred to you to send him some of my letters, as I can't help thinking that it would interest him to have private information about our affairs, which, so far as it goes, can at least be relied upon. Don't forget my kind regards to Layard and to the dear Dean of St. Paul's and Mrs. Milman, and to those kindest of friends, Lord and Lady Stanhope, and also to the Reeves. As for my true friend Murray, I am ashamed not to have written him a line; but tell him, with my best regards to him and Mrs. M., that I have scarcely written to any one but you. If you see him, tell him what I think of our politics. It will distress his bigoted Tory heart to think that the great Republic has not really gone to pieces; but he must make up his mind to it, and so must Sir John Ramsden. The only bubble that will surely burst is the secession bubble. A government that can put 250,000 men in the field within ten weeks, and well armed, officered, and uniformed, and for the time well drilled, may still be considered a nation. You see that Abraham asks Congress for 400,000 soldiers and 400,000,000 of dollars, and he will have every man and every dollar.

But before I plunge into politics, let me stick to private matters for a little. If I have omitted any names in my greetings, supply them and consider them as said. I write to scarcely any one but you, and then to such as I know are sincerely interested in American affairs. To-day I send a letter to Lord Lyndhurst, a long one, and I am awfully afraid that it will bore him, for unluckily I haven't the talent of Sam Weller to make my correspondent wish I had said more, which is the great secret of letter-writing.

McClellan and Lyon and Mansfield and McDowell and a host of others, all thoroughly educated soldiers with large experience, to say nothing of old Scott, whose very name is worth 50,000 men, are fully a match for Jeff and Beauregard, able men as they unquestionably are. Then as to troops, I wish those who talk about Northern mercenaries, all Irish and German, and so on, could take a look at the Rhode Islanders, at the Green Mountain boys from Vermont, at the gigantic fellows from Maine, whose magnificent volunteers excite universal applause, at the Massachusetts fellows, who can turn their hands to anything, at the 50,000 men from the “Empire State,” already marched forward and equipped like regulars, and so on to Ohio and Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, etc. I thought before I came home that there was some exaggeration in the accounts we received; but the state of things can't be exaggerated. I never felt so proud of my country as I do at this moment. It was thought a weak government because it was forbearing. I should like to know how many strong governments can stamp on the earth and produce 250,000 — the officially stated number of fighting men — almost at a breath; and there was never in history a nobler cause or a more heroic spectacle than this unanimous uprising of a great people to defend the benignant government of their choice against a wanton pro-slavery rebellion which had thought the country cowardly because she had been forbearing and gentle. A whole people, 22,000,000, laying aside all party feeling, stand shoulder to shoulder to protect this western continent, the home of freemen, from anarchy, perpetual warfare, and the universal spread of African slavery. But for this levy of bucklers the great Republic would have been Mexico and Alabama combined. Now slavery as a political power is dethroned, it can never spread an inch on this continent, and the Republic will come out of this conflict stronger and more respected than it ever was before.

Yesterday was a painfully interesting day. The Gordon regiment — the Massachusetts Second, of which I have spoken to you so often — took its departure for the seat of war. They have been in camp at Brook Farm for several weeks, and I have visited them often and have learned to have a high regard for Gordon. He was an excellent scholar at West Point, and served with distinction in the Mexican War. Afterward, becoming tired of quarters in Oregon and such wildernesses in the piping times of peace, he left the profession and studied and commenced the practice of law in Boston. But on the breaking out of the great mutiny he at once applied for leave to raise a regiment. His lieutenant-colonel, Andrews, is also a West Point man, having graduated first in his class. Wilder Dwight, whom you knew in Florence, is major, and a most efficient, energetic, intelligent fellow he is. . . .

Well, a telegram came on Saturday evening last, signed “Winfield Scott,” ordering the Second to move forward at once to help reinforce General Patterson in Martinsburg, Virginia. Patterson is expecting daily an engagement with Johnston, one of the best of the rebel generals, who commands some 20,000 men within a few miles of Martinsburg, so that the Second Regiment is going straight to glory or the grave. It was this that made the sight so interesting. It is no child's play, no holiday soldiering, which lies before them, but probably, unless all the rebel talk is mere fustian, as savage an encounter as men ever marched to meet. Within four days they will be on the sacred soil of Virginia, face to face with the enemy. The regiment came in by the Providence Railroad at eleven o'clock. It had been intended that they should march through many streets, as this was the first opportunity for the citizens of Boston to see the corps; but the day was intensely hot, a cloudless sky and 95° of Fahrenheit in the shade, so they only marched along Boylston, Tremont, up Beacon streets, to the Common, very wisely changing the program. They made a noble appearance: the uniform is blue, and they wore the army regulation hat, which I think — although Mr. Russell does not — very becoming with its black ostrich plumes, and I am assured that it is very convenient and comfortable in all weathers, being both light, supple, and shady. The streets were thronged to cheer them and give them God-speed. There was a light collation spread on tables in the Beacon Street Mall, and I walked about within the lines, with many other friends, to give the officers one more parting shake of the hand. There were many partings such as press the life from out the heart.

I was glad that M— and the girls were not there; but I saw Mr. and Mrs. D—, Mrs. Quincy, and many other wives and mothers. You may judge of the general depth of feeling when even Tom D— wouldn't come to see the regiment off for fear of making a fool of himself. People seemed generally to be troubled with Lear's hysterica passio, so that the cheers, although well intentioned, somehow stuck in their throats. The regiment got to the cars at three o'clock, and were to go via Stonington to New York, and soon via Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, to Williamsport, Maryland, and Martinsburg. We shall hear of them by telegram, and I hope occasionally to get a line from Gordon. Oh, how I wish that I had played at soldiers when I was young; wouldn't I have applied for and got a volunteer regiment now! But alas! at forty-seven it is too late to learn the first elements, and of course I could not be a subaltern among young men of twenty-two. William Greene — lucky fellow! — is raising a regiment; he was educated at West Point, you know, and served in the Florida war; and Raymond Lee, also a West Point man, is raising another of the additional ten regiments offered by Massachusetts. Young Wendell Holmes — who, by the way, is a poet and almost as much a man of genius as his father, besides being one of the best scholars of his time — has a lieutenant's commission in Lee's regiment, and so on. Are you answered as to the Irish and German nature of our mercenaries?

Nothing decisive has yet occurred. The skirmishes — outpost affairs, and which have furnished food for telegrams and pictures for the illustrated newspapers — are all of no consequence as to the general result. Don't be cast down, either, if you hear of a few reverses at first. I don't expect them; but, whether we experience them or not, nothing can prevent our ultimate triumph and a complete restoration of the Union. Of this I feel very confident. I don't like to prophesy, — a man always makes an ass of himself by affecting to read the future, — yet I will venture one prediction: that before eighteen months have passed away the uprising of a great Union party in the South will take the world so much by surprise as did so recently the unanimous rising of the North. For example, only a very few months ago, the Confederate flag was to wave over Washington before May 1, and over Faneuil Hall before the end of this year; there was to be a secession party in every Northern State, and blood was to flow from internecine combats in every Northern town. Now Washington is as safe as London; the North is a unit, every Northern town is as quiet and good-natured, although sending forth regiment after regiment to a contest far away from home, as it was five years ago; while Virginia is the scene of civil war — one Virginia sending senators and representatives to Washington, while another Virginia sends its deputies to Jeff Davis's wandering capital, and the great battle-field of North and South will be on the “sacred soil.” I feel truly sorry for such men as C—; there could not be a man more amiable or thorough gentleman than he seemed to be on our brief acquaintance. But rely upon it that Abraham is a straightforward, ingenuous, courageous backwoodsman, who will play his part manfully and wisely in this great drama.

The other day I dined with Mr. Palfrey. It was a very pleasant little dinner, and besides Frank and the daughters there were Holmes, Lowell, and John Adams. Frank Palfrey is lieutenant-colonel in William Greene's regiment; Mr. Palfrey's other son, John, is a lieutenant in the regular army, and I am truly sorry to hear today that he has just come home from Fortress Monroe with typhoid fever. I am just going down to inquire after him. Lowell and Holmes were as delightful as ever. I liked John Adams very much indeed; he seemed to me very manly, intelligent, and cultivated, and very good-looking. He was kind enough to ask me to come down to Quincy to dine and pass the night, and I certainly shall do so, for besides wishing to see the ancient abode of the Adamses, I must go and see the venerable Mr. Quincy, who has kindly sent for me once or twice. By the way, remember me kindly to Mr. and Mrs. Adams whenever you see them. I hear that they speak of you in all their letters in the most friendly and agreeable manner. . . .

Ever yours affectionately,

J. L. M.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume 2, p. 164-72

Diary of Gideon Welles: Sunday, August 17, 1862

Called this morning on General Halleck, who had forgotten or was not aware there was a naval force in the James River cooperating with the army. He said the army was withdrawn and there was no necessity for the naval vessels to remain. I remarked that I took a different view of the question, and, had I been consulted, I should have advised that the naval and some army forces should hold on and menace Richmond, in order to compel the Rebels to retain part of their army there while our forces in front of Washington were getting in position. He began to rub his elbows, and, without thanking me or acknowledgment of any kind, said he wished the vessels could remain. Telegraphed Wilkes to that effect. Strange that this change of military operations should have been made without Cabinet consultation, and especially without communicating the fact to the Secretary of the Navy, who had established a naval flotilla on the James River by special request to cooperate with and assist the army. But Stanton is so absorbed in his scheme to get rid of McClellan that other and more important matters are neglected.

A difficulty has existed from the beginning in the military, and I may say general, management of the War. At a very early day, before even the firing on Sumter and the abandonment of Norfolk, I made repeated applications to General Scott for one or two regiments to be stationed there. Anticipating the trouble that subsequently took place, and confident that, with one regiment well commanded and a good engineer to construct batteries, with the cooperation of the frigate Cumberland and such small additional naval force as we could collect, the place might be held at least until the public property and ships could be removed, I urged the importance of such aid. The reply on each occasion was that he not only had no troops to spare from Washington or Fortress Monroe, both of which places he considered in great danger, but that if he had, he would not send a detachment in what he considered enemy's country, especially as there were no intrenchments. I deferred to his military character and position, but remonstrated against this view of the case, for I was assured, and, I believe, truly, that a majority of the people in the navy yard and in the vicinity of Norfolk were loyal, friends of the Union and opposed to Secession. He said that might be the political, but was not the military, aspect, and he must be governed by military considerations in disposing of his troops.

There was but one way of overcoming these objections and that was by peremptory orders, which I could not, and the President would not, give, in opposition to the opinions of General Scott. The consequence was the loss of the navy yard and of Norfolk, and the almost total extinguishment of the Union sentiment in that quarter. Our friends there became cool and were soon alienated by our abandonment. While I received no assistance from the military in that emergency, I was thwarted and embarrassed by the secret interference of the Secretary of State in my operations. General Scott was for a defensive policy, and the same causes which influenced him in that matter, and the line of policy which he marked out, have governed the educated officers of the army and to a great extent shaped the war measures of the Government. “We must erect our batteries on the eminences in the vicinity of Washington,” said General Mansfield to me, “and establish our military lines; frontiers between the belligerents, as between the countries of Continental Europe, are requisite.” They were necessary in order to adapt and reconcile the theory and instruction of West Point to the war that was being prosecuted. We should, however, by this process become rapidly two hostile nations. All beyond the frontiers must be considered and treated as enemies, although large sections, and in some instances whole States, have a Union majority, occasionally in some sections approximating unanimity.

Instead of halting on the borders, building intrenchments, and repelling indiscriminately and treating as Rebels — enemies — all, Union as well as disunion, men in the insurrectionary region, we should, I thought, penetrate their territory, nourish and protect the Union sentiment, and create and strengthen a national feeling counter to Secession. This we might have done in North Carolina, western Virginia, northern Alabama and Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, and in fact in large sections of nearly every seceding State. Instead of holding back, we should be aggressive and enter their territory. Our generals act on the defensive. It is not and has not been the policy of the country to be aggressive towards others, therefore defensive tactics, rather than offensive have been taught, and the effect upon our educated commanders in this civil war is perceptible. The best material for commanders in this civil strife may have never seen West Point. There is something in the remark that a good general is “born to command.” We have experienced that some of our best-educated officers have no faculty to govern, control, and direct an army in offensive warfare. We have many talented and capable engineers, good officers in some respects, but without audacity, desire for fierce encounter, and in that respect almost utterly deficient as commanders. Courage and learning are essential, but something more is wanted for a good general, — talent, intuition, magnetic power, which West Point cannot give. Men who would have made the best generals and who possess innately the best and highest qualities to command may not have been so fortunate as to be selected by a Member of Congress to be a cadet. Jackson and Taylor were excellent generals, but they were not educated engineers, nor were they what would be considered in these days accomplished and educated military men. They detailed and availed themselves of engineers, and searched out and found the needed qualities in others.

We were unused to war when these present difficulties commenced, and have often permitted men of the army to decide questions that were more political than military. There is still the same misfortune, — for I deem it such.

From the beginning there was a persistent determination to treat the Rebels as alien belligerents, — as a hostile and distinct people, — to blockade, instead of closing, their ports. The men “duly accredited by the Confederate States of America” held back-door intercourse with the Secretary of State, and lived and moved in ostentatious style in Washington for some weeks. Thus commencing, other governments had reason to claim that we had initiated them into the belief that the Federal Government and its opponents were two nations; and the Union people of the South were, by this policy of our Government and that of the army, driven, compelled against their wishes, to be our antagonists.

No man in the South could avow himself a friend of the Union without forfeiting his estate, his liberty, and perhaps his life under State laws of the Confederates. The Federal Government not only afforded him no protection, but under the military system of frontiers he was treated as a public enemy because he resided in his own home at the South.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 83-6

John Lothrop Motley to Mary Benjamin Motley, June 23, 1861

Woodland Hill,

June 23rd, 1861.

I continue my letter interrupted at Washington. Thursday evening I passed with Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, the hardest worked man, except Mr. Cameron, just now in Washington. He is a tall, well-made, robust man, with handsome features, fine blue eye, and a ready and agreeable smile —altogether "simpatico." The conversation, of course, turned very much upon our English relations, and I told him I would stake my reputation on the assertion that the English Government would never ally itself with the Southern Confederacy, or go any further in the course already taken towards its recognition. I said that I had been over and over again assured, by those in whom I had entire confidence, that the sympathy of the English nation was with the American cause, but that it was exceedingly difficult to make the English understand that which to us was so self-evident a proposition, that we meant two things — first, to put an end for ever to slavery extension and the nationalisation of slavery; secondly, to maintain the constitution and laws of the Great Republic one and indivisible; that war was not contemplated as possible between the two countries, except by a small and mischievous faction in England.

Mr. Chase is a frank, sincere, warm-hearted man, who has always cordially detested slavery and loved the American constitution as the great charter of American liberty and nationality. Like every man, public or private, throughout the Free States, he is convinced of the simple truth that the constitutional union of the whole people is all which guarantees to each individual the possession of his life and property, because it is the basis of all our laws. Destroy this, and anarchy and civil war are the inevitable results. He expressed a most undoubting conviction that the rebellion would be put down and the Union restored. It was not of much consequence who was in power—who occupied this or that office. The people was resolved that it would not be disinherited of its constitution and its national life, nor of the right possessed by every individual in the country to set his foot at will on any part of the whole broad country of the United States. It was as idle to attempt resistance to the great elemental forces of nature as to oppose this movement. The people would put down the rebellion without a government, were it necessary. In six weeks an army of 250,000 men had been put into the field, armed and equipped for service. In six months there would be half a million, and as many more as might be necessary. There is nothing of the braggart about Mr. Chase, nor about the President, nor about Cameron, and, after all, the Minister of Finance and the Secretary of War are the men who are of necessity most alive to the stern realities of the crisis. They know that money, men, beef, bread and gunpowder in enormous amounts are necessary for suppressing this insurrection, but they have not the slightest doubt as to the issue.

“Already a great result is secured,” said Chase. The idea even of extending slavery has for ever vanished from men's minds. It can never go an inch further on this continent, and, in addition, slavery as a governing power (as it has been for forty years) is for ever dethroned. It can never be nationalised, but must, so long as it remains, be local, exceptional, municipal and subordinate, restricted to the States where it at present exists, while the policy of the Government will be the policy of freedom. The South will be forced to come back into the Union, such as it has ever existed under the Constitution. This, he thinks, will be brought about by the pressure caused by the blockade, by the sufferings of the people thus imprisoned, as it were, and thrown out of employment, by the steady pressing down upon them of immense disciplined armies, backed by the boundless resources of a fertile country and a well-organised commissariat and vast wealth; while, on the other hand, the South cannot be inspired by the enthusiasm which has often enabled a feebler nation to resist triumphantly & foreign invasion. The United States Government is no foreigner. It is at home everywhere upon its own soil, from the Canada line to the Gulf of Mexico, but conspirators have excluded it for a time from its own rights, its own property, and the exercise of its benignant functions over the whole people of which it is the minister and guardian, appointed by the people itself. The inhabitants of the Slave States must ere long awake from the madman's dream which has deprived them of their reason. For the leaders, of course, there is no returning.

There is already a beginning, and a good beginning, on the border. Maryland, which seemed but a few weeks ago so rabid in the Secession cause, has just voted largely for the Union. The progress of the counter revolution in Virginia is steady. The inhabitants of Western Virginia have repudiated the action of the State Convention, and are about establishing a government of their own — not as a separate state, but as claiming to be Virginia, with the intention of sending members and senators to Congress, and electing governor and legislature. This course is supported by United States troops, and will be recognised by Congress, which has had to deal with similar cases before, and is the sole judge according to the Constitution as to the claims of its members to their seats. According to Chase and other Cabinet Ministers with whom I have conversed, this movement will be triumphant. Thus in the rebel States, fire is fighting fire, as in a prairie conflagration. The same phenomenon will be manifested in Eastern Tennessee, where there are 30,000 or 40,000 fighting men, who will fiercely dispute the power of a Convention to deprive them of their rights as citizens of the United States, and who will maintain the Union with arms in their hands to the death. The same will be sooner or later the case in North Carolina, in North Alabama, in Louisiana.

In short, the whole white population of the Seceding States is five and a half millions, against twenty-two or twenty-three millions. Not another State can secede by any possibility, and within the five and a half million seceders there are large numbers who are fierce against the rebels, and still larger numbers among the ignorant masses, who will be soon inquiring, What is all this about? Why is all this bloodshed and misery? And they will be made to understand, despite the lies of the ringleaders of the rebellion, that the United States Government is their best friend; that not one of their rights has been menaced—that it wishes only to maintain the constitution and laws under which we have all prospered for three-quarters of a century, and which have now been assaulted, because the people at the ballot-box, last November, chose to elect Mr. Lincoln president, instead of Mr. Breckenridge. This plunging into “pronunciamiento” and civil war, by a party defeated at the polls, may be very good Mexican practice, but it will not go down in the United States; and ere long the people, even at the South, will make this discovery. So thinks Mr. Chase, and I think he is right. I am much pleased with the directness and frankness of his language. “And if all these calculations fail,” said he, “if the insurrection is unreasonably protracted, and we find it much more difficult and expensive in blood and treasure to put it down than we anticipated, we shall then draw that sword which we prefer at present to leave in the sheath, and we shall proclaim the total abolition of slavery on the American continent. We do not wish this, we deplore it, because of the vast confiscation of property, and of the servile insurrections, too horrible to contemplate, which would follow. We wish the Constitution and Union as it is, with slavery, as a municipal institution, existing till such time as each State in its wisdom thinks fit to mitigate or abolish it, but with freedom the law of the territories and of the land; but if the issue be distinctly presented — death to the American Republic or death to slavery, slavery must die. Therefore,” said he, “the great Republic cannot be destroyed. The people will destroy slavery, if by no other means they can maintain their national existence.” In this connection we came to talk again of England and its policy. But it is hardly worth while to repeat anything more to you on this subject. Every man with whom I have conversed holds the same language.

I battle stoutly for England and the English, for no man knows better than I all the noble qualities of that great nation; and how necessary it is to our moral greatness and true prosperity to cultivate the closest and warmest relations with our ancient mother. I maintain, and I think have partly convinced many minds, that England has only acted under a great delusion as to the permanence of our institutions, for which error we are ourselves somewhat to blame; that the great heart of the nation is in sympathy with us; that the idea of going to war with us, has never entered the minds of any but a few mischief-makers; that the Times is no representative of English opinion, nor of the English Government. I would pledge myself for a marked difference before long in the whole attitude of England, and that the last thing she contemplated was allying herself with the South in a war against the United States Government. Already my words have been partly justified. Recent news from England to the 8th of June has produced a good effect. Notwithstanding the violence of language which I have described to you (in order that you and such of our dear English friends who care to read my first impressions may hear and see exactly as I have seen and heard), I believe that the hearts of this, the most excitable and the most warmhearted people on the earth, will soon turn to England, if they catch any warm manifestations of sympathy with our cause.

While I was at Mr. Chase's, General McDowell, with one of his aides, came in. He is a firm, square, browned, powerful-looking soldier, some forty years of age, educated at West Point, and thoroughly experienced in all the active warfare which we have had in his time. He commands, as I mentioned, all the forces on the Virginia side of the Potomac, for the defence of Washington. He told us of an alarm the night before; that the rebels were about attacking his lines, and that they were in force to the number of 3000 in the immediate vicinity of Alexandria. He went there, but the 3000 melted to three, who were taken prisoners. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that there are ready 100,000 rebels under arms in Virginia, and that they are bound by every rule of war to carry out their boasts and make the attack.

On the other hand it is the object of the Government daily to strengthen itself. This, as I told you, was the language of General Scott to me the evening before. By the way, I did not tell you that on that occasion we rather took the General by surprise (as I think Jefferson Davis will never do). The servant ushered us at once into his little drawing-room. He inhabits a small, modest house in — I forget what street — and we found him, the evening being very sultry, taking a nap in his shirt sleeves, with an aide-de-camp at each knee, and a servant brushing flies, at his, back. He started up, somewhat confused, and beat a hasty retreat to an adjoining room, whence he emerged, a quarter of an hour later, arrayed in all the splendour of an old black bombazine frock coat. But he is a magnificent old fellow. He told us, with a smile, that a price had been set upon his head by his native State of Virginia, but he doubted whether it would ever be earned. Nevertheless his house was only guarded by a sergeant and ten men. The rest of his conversation I have already reported to you.

As I told you before, there is no lack of good officers. The great cause of future trouble may be in neglecting to make proper use of them, through this detestable system of appointing politicians and militia men to be brigadiers and major-generals. General Mansfield, who commands in Washington, seems to me a first-class man in every respect, and so do McDowell and Colonel Heinzelmann. McClellan, who commands in the West, is said to be equal to Scott in talent, and thirty years his junior; while General Lyon, a Connecticut man and a West Pointer, seems to be carrying all before him in Missouri, and is rather the favourite of the hour. I do not go quite into military details, because you get them, true or false, in the papers. I have already ordered you the Daily Advertiser, and to-morrow I shall see that you get the New York Times regularly. Up to this time nothing of importance has happened, and I think that you will derive from my letters as much information to be relied upon as you could get anywhere. With regard to Missouri, there is not the slightest possibility of her getting out of the Union. The Governor is a Secessionist and a fugitive, and his following is comparatively small. I had a long conversation last evening with the Attorney-General of the United States, Mr. Bates, who is himself of Missouri, and he tells me that secession there is simply an impossibility. General Lyon with his United States forces has already nearly put down secession there; but should the insurrection be protracted much longer, the State would be entered on three sides at once (for it is surrounded by Free States) and 150,000 slaves liberated. There is no child's play intended any longer, and the word compromise, which has been the country's curse for so long, has been expunged from the dictionary. Bates has been the champion of freedom for many years, and he has lived to sit in a cabinet with men of his own faith. He is a plain man, shrewd, intelligent.

Sumner, who arrived Wednesday night, told me that Montgomery Blair, the Postmaster-General, was desirous of making my acquaintance. Friday morning I was engaged to breakfast with Mr. Chase. The conversation was very pleasant and instructive to me, turning on the topics already mentioned, and as I walked down with him to the Treasury Department, he insisted on my going with him into his office to finish the subject, the purport of which, he said, I have already given you. Afterwards I went with Sumner to Mr. Blair's. He is a Virginian by birth and education, and it is therefore the more to his credit that, like General Scott, he is of the warmest among Unionists, and perhaps the most go-ahead, uncompromising enemy to the rebels in the cabinet, not even excepting Mr. Chase. While we were talking, he asked me what I thought of the President's views. I told him that I had only passed half-an-hour with him a few evenings before, when I had been introduced to him by Mr. Seward, and that since then it had been advertised conspicuously in all the papers that the President would receive no visitors, being engaged in preparing his message to Congress. “But you must see him; it is indispensable that you should see him, and tell him about English affairs,” said Blair. I told him that I was leaving Washington that afternoon. He asked if I could not defer my departure. I said no, for my arrangements were already made.

The truth is, I had resolved not to force myself upon the President. If he did not care to converse with me, it was indifferent to me whether I saw him or not. But Mr. Blair begged me to stop a moment in his library, and incontinently rushed forth into the street to the White House, which was near, and presently came back, saying that the President would be much obliged if I would pay him a visit.

I went and had an hour's talk with Mr. Lincoln. I am very glad of it, for had I not done so, I should have left Washington with a very inaccurate impression of the President. I am now satisfied that he is a man of very considerable native sagacity; and that he has an ingenuous, unsophisticated, frank, and noble character. I believe him to be as true as steel, and as courageous as true. At the same time there is doubtless an ignorance about State matters, and particularly about foreign affairs, which he does not affect to conceal, but which we must of necessity regret in a man placed in such a position at such a crisis. Nevertheless his very modesty in this respect disarms criticism.

Our conversation was, of course, on English matters, and I poured into his not unwilling ear everything which my experience, my knowledge, and my heart, could suggest to me, in order to produce a favourable impression in his mind as to England, the English Government, and the English people. There is no need of my repeating what I said, for it is sufficiently manifest throughout this letter. And I believe that I was not entirely unsuccessful, for he told me that he thought that I was right, that he was much inclined to agree with me, but, he added, it does not so much signify what I think, you must persuade Seward to think as you do. I told him that I found the secretary much mitigated in his feelings compared with what I had expected. He expressed his satisfaction. I do not quote any of his conversation because he was entirely a listener in this part of the interview. Afterwards he took up his message, which was lying in loose sheets upon the writing table, and read me nearly the whole of it, so far as it was written. On the whole, the document impressed me very favourably. With the exception of a few expressions, it was not only highly commendable in spirit, but written with considerable untaught grace and power. These were my first impressions, which I hope will not be changed when the document comes before the world. It consists mainly of a narrative of events from the 4th of March up to the present hour. Nothing had yet been written as to foreign relations, but I understand from Seward that they are all to be dismissed in a brief paragraph, such as will create neither criticism nor attention anywhere.

We parted very affectionately, and perhaps I shall never set eyes on him again, but I feel that so far as perfect integrity and directness of purpose go, the country will be safe in his hands. With regard to the great issue, we have good generals, good soldiers, good financiers, twenty-three millions of good people “whose bosoms are one,” a good cause, and endless tin.

The weather has been beautiful ever since I landed, magnificent sunshine and delicious heat. Just now there is a heavy shower. When it is over I am going to drive over to Camp Andrew, to see the Massachusetts 2nd.

Ten more regiments have been ordered from Massachusetts, and seven, including Gordon's, will soon be ready to take the field at once. This will make 15,000 men from Massachusetts alone. New York has already sent 20,000, and has a reserve of 20,000 ready. Pennsylvania about the same, and so on. The only struggle is who shall get the greatest number accepted.

Give my love to all my English friends. Kiss my three darlings 3000 times, and believe me,

Most lovingly,

J. L. M.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Volume 1, p. 387-95

Robert Gould Shaw to Francis G. Shaw, September 21, 1862

maryland Heights, September 21, 1862.

Dear Father, — . . . We left Frederick on the 14th instant, marched that day and the next to Boonsborough, passing through a gap in the mountain where Burnside had had a fight the day before. On the 16th our corps, then commanded by General Mansfield, took up a position in rear of Sumner's, and lay there all day. The Massachusetts cavalry was very near us. I went over and spent the evening with them, and had a long talk with Forbes about home and friends there We lay on his blanket before the fire until nearly ten o'clock, and then I left him, little realizing what a day the next was to be, though a battle was expected; and I thought, as I rode off, that perhaps we shouldn't see each other again. Fortunately, we have both got through safely so far. At about eleven, P. M., Mansfield's corps was moved two or three miles to the right. At one in the morning of the 17th we rested in a wheat-field. Our pickets were firing all night, and at daylight we were waked up by the artillery; we were moved forward immediately, and went into action in about fifteen minutes. The Second Massachusetts was on the right of Gordon's brigade, and the Third Wisconsin next; the latter was in a very exposed position, and lost as many as two hundred killed and wounded in a short time. We were posted in a little orchard, and Colonel Andrews got a cross-fire on that part of the enemy's line, which, as we soon discovered, did a great deal of execution, and saved the Third Wisconsin from being completely used up. It was the prettiest thing we have ever done, and our loss was small at that time; in half an hour the brigade advanced through a corn-field in front, which until then had been occupied by the enemy; it was full of their dead and wounded, and one of our sergeants took a regimental color there, belonging to the Eleventh Mississippi. Beyond the corn-field was a large open field, and such a mass of dead and wounded men, mostly Rebels, as were lying there, I never saw before; it was a terrible sight, and our men had to be very careful to avoid treading on them; many were mangled and torn to pieces by artillery, but most of them had been wounded by musketry fire. We halted right among them, and the men did everything they could for their comfort, giving them water from their canteens, and trying to place them in easy positions. There are so many young boys and old men among the Rebels, that it seems hardly possible that they can have come of their own accord to fight us; and it makes you pity them all the more, as they lie moaning on the field.

The Second Massachusetts came to close quarters, i. e. within musket range, twice during the day; but we had several men wounded by shell, which were flying about loosely all day. It was the greatest fight of the war, and I wish I could give you a satisfactory account of everything I saw. . . .

At last, night came on, and, with the exception of an occasional shot from the outposts, all was quiet. The crickets chirped, and the frogs croaked, just as if nothing unusual had happened all day long; and presently the stars came out bright, and we lay down among the dead, and slept soundly until daylight. There were twenty dead bodies within a rod of me. The next day, much to our surprise, all was quiet, and the burying and hospital parties worked hard, caring for the dead and wounded

I never felt before the excitement which makes a man want to rush into the fight, but I did that day. Every battle makes me wish more and more that the war was over. It seems almost as if nothing could justify a battle like that of the 17th, and the horrors inseparable from it.

SOURCE: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Editor, Harvard Memorial Biographies, Volume 2, p. 199-200

Salmon P. Chase to Janette Ralston Chase, May 11, 1862

STEAMER BALTIMORE, May 11, 1862.

MY DARLING NETTIE: I believe I closed my letter to you with an account of the bombardment. That was thought to have shown the inability of an attempt to land at Sewell's Point while the Merrimac lay watching it; it at once became a question, what should now be done? Three plans only seemed feasible: to send all the troops that could be spared around to Burnside, and let him come on Norfolk from behind — that is, from the south; to send them up James River to aid McClellan; or to seek another landing place out of reach of the Merrimac. I offered to take the Miami, if a tug of less draught, and capable, therefore, of getting nearer shore, could accompany me, and make an examination, in company with an officer, of the coast east of the Point. Colonel Cram offered to go, and General Wool said he would accompany us. We started accordingly, and being arrived opposite a point which I mark 'A' on the poor draft I send you, sent a boat's crew on shore to find the depths of water. We had already approached within some five hundred yards in the Miami, and the tug had approached within perhaps one hundred, of the shore. The boats went very near the shore, and then pulled off, somewhat to my surprise. But when they returned to the boat, the mystery was explained. They had seen an enemy's picket, and a soldier standing up and beckoning to his companions to lie close, and they had inferred the existence of an ambush, and had pulled off to avoid being fired upon. When the officer of the boat and Colonel Cram came on board, they could still see the picket on horseback, and pointed his position out to me; but I, being near-sighted, could not see. It was plain enough that there was no use in landing men to be fired upon and overcome by a superior force, and so the order was given to get under way to return to Fortress Monroe. We had, indeed, accomplished our main purpose, having found the water sufficiently deep to admit of landing without any serious difficulty. But just as we were going away, a white flag was seen waving over the sand-bank on shore, and the General ordered it to be answered at once, which was done by fastening a bed-sheet to the flag-line, and running it up. When this was done several colored people appeared on shore — all women and children. Fearing the flag and the appearance of the colored people might be a cover, intended to get our people within rifle-shot, I directed two boats to go ashore, with full crews well armed. They went, and pretty soon I saw Colonel Cram talking with the people on shore, while some of the men were walking about on the beach. Presently one boat pulled off toward the ship, and when she had come quite near I observed the colored people going up the sand-bank, and Colonel Cram preparing to return with the other boat. It occurred to me that the poor people must have desired to go to Fortress Monroe, and might have been refused. So I determined to go ashore myself, and jumping into the returned boat was quickly on the beach. The Colonel reported his examination entirely satisfactory, and I found from the colored people (one of whom, however, turned out to be a white woman, living near by) that none of them wanted to leave, and we all returned to the ship. These women were the soldiers who had alarmed our folks.

We had made an important discovery — a good and convenient landing place, some five or six miles from Fortress Monroe, capable of receiving any number of troops, and communicating with Norfolk by quite passable roads, with a distance by one route of eight or nine, and by another of twelve or thirteen, miles.

When I got back to Fortress Monroe I found the President had been listening to a pilot and studying a chart, and had become impressed with a conviction that there was a nearer landing, and wished to go and see about it on the spot. So we started again and soon reached the shore, taking with us a large boat and some twenty armed soldiers from the Rip Raps. The President and Mr. Stanton were on the tug and I on the Miami. The tug was, of course, nearest shore, and as soon as she found the water too shoal for her to go farther safely, the Rip Raps boat was manned and sent in. Meantime, I had the Miami got ready for action, and directed the captain to go ashore with two boats and all the men they could take, fully armed. Before this could be done, however, the other boat had pulled off shore, and several horsemen, who appeared to be soldiers of the enemy, were seen on the beach. I sent to the President to ask if we should fire on them, and he replied negatively. We had again found a good landing, which at the time I supposed to be between two and three miles nearer Fortress Monroe, but which proved to be only one-half or three-quarters of a mile nearer.

Returning to Fortress Monroe, it was agreed that an advance should at once be made on Norfolk from one of these landings. General Wool preferred the one he had visited, and it was selected. It was now night, but the preparations proceeded with great activity. Four regiments were sent off and orders given for others to follow. Colonel Cram went down to make a bridge of boats to the landing, and General Wool asked me to accompany him the next morning.

Next morning (yesterday) I was up early, and we got off as soon as possible. As soon as we reached the place, I took the tug which brought us down, and went up the shore to where the President's boat had attempted to land the evening before. I found the distance to be only three-quarters of a mile, and returned to the Miami, where I had left the General. He had gone ashore, and I at once followed. On shore I found General Viele, with an orderly behind. He asked if I would like a horse, and I said yes. He thereupon directed his orderly to dismount, and I mounted. I then proposed to ride up to where the pickets had been seen the night before. He complied. We found a shed where the pickets had staid, and fresh horse tracks in many places, showing that the enemy had only withdrawn a few hours. Meantime, Mr. Stanton had come down, and on my return to General Wool, asked me to go with the expedition, and I finally determined to do so.

Accordingly, I asked General W. for a squad of dragoons and for permission to ride on with General Viele ahead of him. He granted both requests. After going about five miles, General V. and myself came up with the rear of the advance (which had preceded us three or four hours), and soon heard firing of artillery in front. We soon heard that the bridge which we expected to cross was burnt, that the enemy's artillery was posted on the other side, and that Generals Mansfield and Weber were returning.

About one-half or three-quarters of a mile from the burning bridge, we met them, and of course turned back. Returning, we met General Wool, who determined to leave a guard on that route and take another to Norfolk.

There was now a good deal of confusion, to remedy which and provide for contingencies General Wool sent General M. to Newport News to bring forward his brigade, and brigaded the troops with him, assigning General Viele to the command of one and General Weber to the command of the other. The cavalry and Major Dodge were in advance, General Wool and staff next, then a body of sharpshooting skirmishers, then the main body of Viele's brigade, and then Weber's. We stopped everybody from whom we could obtain information, and it was not long before we were informed that the intrenched camp, where we expected the rebels would fight, if anywhere, had just been evacuated, and that the barracks were fired. This pleasant intelligence was soon confirmed by the arrival of one of Dodge's dragoons, who told us that the cavalry were already within it.

We kept on, and were soon within the work — a very strong one, defended by many heavy guns, of which twenty-one still remained in position. The troops, as they entered, gave cheer after cheer, and were immediately formed into line for the farther march, now only two miles to Norfolk. General Wool now invited General Viele, General Weber, and Major Dodge to ride with us in front, and so we proceeded until we met a deputation of the city authorities, who surrendered the city in form. General Wool and myself entered one carriage with two of the deputation, and General Viele another, with others, and so we drove into town and to the City Hall, where the General completed his arrangements for taking possession of the city. These completed, and General Viele being left in charge as military governor, General Wool and myself set out on our return to Ocean View, our landing-place, in the carriage which had brought us to the City Hall; which carriage, by the way, was that used by the rebel General Huger, and he had, perhaps, been riding in it that very morning.

It was sundown when we left Norfolk — about ten when we reached Ocean View — and near twelve when we reached Fortress Monroe. The President had been greatly alarmed for our safety by the report of General M., as he went by to Newport News; and you can imagine his delight when we told him Norfolk was ours. He fairly hugged General Wool.

For my part, I was very tired, and glad to get to bed.

This morning, as the President had determined to leave for Washington at seven, I rose at six, and just before seven came into the parlor, where Commodore Goldsborough astonished and gratified us that the rebels had set fire to the Merrimac, and had blown her up.1 It was determined that, before leaving, we would go up in the Baltimore, which was to convey us to Washington, to the point where the suicide had been performed, and above the obstructions in the channel, if possible, so as to be sure of the access to Norfolk by water, which had been defended by the exploded ship. This was done; but the voyage was longer than we anticipated, taking us up the wharves of Norfolk, where, in the Elizabeth River, were already lying the Monitor, the Stevens, the Susquehanna, and one or two other vessels. General Wool and Commodore Goldsborough had come up with us on the Baltimore; and, as soon as they were transferred to the Susquehanna, our prow was turned down stream, and touching for a moment at the Fortress, we kept on our way toward Washington, where we hope to be at breakfast to-morrow.

So has ended a brilliant week's campaign of the President; for I think it quite certain that if he had not come down, Norfolk would still have been in possession of the enemy, and the Merrimac as grim and defiant, and as much a terror as ever. The whole coast is now virtually ours. There is no port which the Monitor and Stevens can not enter and take.

It was sad and pleasant to see the Union flag once more waving over Norfolk, and the shipping in the harbor, and to think of the destruction accomplished there a little more than a year ago.

I went to Norfolk last night by land with the army; this morning, by water, with the navy. My campaign, too, is over.

SORUCE: Robert B. Warden, An Account of the Private Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase, p. 428-32

Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, September 27, 1862

CAMP NEAR SHARPSBURG, September 27,1862.

I have received your letters of the 20th and 23d. In the latter you had received my pencil note of the 18th, and were aware of my success and promotion, which I must say you take in the most humble manner and pretty much as if it were no more than you expected. In regard to my newspaper fame, I agree with you, that when wounded I was over-advertised; but this time not a single paper yet has announced that on the battle-field I was selected to command a corps d'armee, in place of Hooker, which fact, after all, is the greatest feather in my cap. Hooker has received his reward, having been appointed a brigadier general in the regular army, in place of Mansfield, killed in battle.

I don't think I ever told you about Master John¹ at Bull Run, on the first day's fighting. He came on a part of the field, with my spare horse and some cigars for me. On arriving where the balls were flying, John's courage oozed out, and he declined proceeding any farther, but gave the cigars to an orderly to bring to me in the advance. On his return, the orderly could not find him, and I never saw anything of John or the horse till we got to Arlington Heights, when he presented himself and said that he heard I was cut off and a prisoner, and he had gone to Alexandria to save the horse for the family. I charged him with, and he frankly acknowledged his cowardice. I sent for a file of men, intending to have him drummed out of camp as a coward; but he begged so piteously I let him off, and since then he has behaved pretty well. Still, no reliance is to be placed on him at the very moment when his services are most needed, and I intend to let him go as soon as I can get some one to take his place.

__________

¹ General Meade's body-servant.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 314

From Fort Monroe

FORT MONROE, May 8, A. M.

The iron-clad ship-of-war Galena, and gunboats Arostook and Port Royal started up the James River this morning.  They have passed Dog’s Point battery, and heavy firing has been heard up the river since their departure.  They will cut off the river communication with the rebels south of the Chickamacomico.  Instantly after the gunboats started the rebel tug J. B. White came out in front of Newport News, having left Norfolk this morning with a crew and two citizens on board, on a mission to Tannery Point.  By previous consent, they ran over to Newport News and surrendered to Gen. Mansfield.

Sewall’s Point is being evacuated.  The Monitor, Naugatuck and several gunboats have just left for Sewall’s Point.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 10, 1862, p. 1

First Session -- 37th Congress

WASHINGTON, March 28. – HOUSE. – The House in Committee of the Whole, resumed the consideration of the Tax Bill.  Coal oil resulting from the manufacture of illuminating gas or its re-distillation to be exempt from duty.  The tax of 5 cents per gallon on crude coal oil and other bituminous substances, used in like purposes, and on crude petroleum and rock oil was stricken out.  Oil refined and produced by the distillation of coal exclusively is to be subject to a duty of 8 cents per gallon.

The next clause was modified so that spirits rectified and mixed with other materials or prepared in any way to be sold as whiskey, should pay a tax of 15 cents per gallon.  When sold as brandy, gin, wine, or any other name, it shall pay 20 cents per gallon, on the basis of first proof, and so on in proportion for greater strength.  The tax of 4 cents on vinegar from materials other than cider or wine were stricken out.  The tax on ground coffee and all preparations of which coffee forms a part, or which is prepared for sale as a substitute for coffee, is reduced from 1 cent to 3 mills per pound.  Ground mustard and sugar are exempt.  Sugar tax 1 cent per pound.  The Committee struck the tax of 3 cents per lb. on tobacco leaf or stem, manufactured, and increased the tax from 5 to 10 cents per pound of Cavendish tobacco, plug, twist and manufactured of all descriptions, not including snuff, cigars or prepared smoking tobacco.  The Committee increased the tax on prepared smoking tobacco to 5 cents and on snuff or tobacco ground, dry or damp, of all descriptions, except aromatic or medical snuff, to 8 cents per pound.  The tax on cigars remains as originally reported.  Gun powder and all explosive substances used for mining, blasting or shooting purposes, valued at exceeding 18 cents per pound, to pay a tax of 5 mills; not exceeding in value of 10 cents to pay a tax of 1 cent per pound, and when valued at over 30 cents to pay a tax of 6 cents per pound.  Oxide _____ and sulphate of basalt to pay a tax per pound, 25 cents on the former and 10 cents on the latter.

The clause in regard to printing ink and all other descriptions of ink, fixing the tax at 3 per cent ad valorem, was stricken out.  Corn brooms, wooden pails and buckets, straw and palm leaf, hats, caps and bonnets, hats and caps of fur, felt or wool, glossed Indian rubber, or silk, wholly or in part, steel hoops and skirts of metal or other material, all to pay a tax of 3 per cent ad valorem.

Amendments were made, fixing the tax on ready made clothing at 3 per cent. ad valorem and on umbrellas and parasols at 5 per cent.  The tax on iron was fixed at 50 cents to $1 per ton, excepting on condition of manufacture.

The Committee rose and the House adjourned.

WASHINGTON, March 31. – HOUSE. – The House passed the Senate bill removing the import duties on arms imported either by States or contractors.

Mr. BROWN, from the Committee on Elections, reported a resolution which was adopted declaring that S. F. Beach is not elected a member of the House from the Seventh Congressional District of Virginia.

The House then went into Committee of the Whole on the tax bill.

WASHINGTON, March 31. – HOUSE. – The leather clause of the bill was amended as follows: On patent or enameled leather 5 mills per lb.; on patent japanned strips for dash leather 4 mills per square foot; on patent or enameled skirting leather 1½ mills per square foot; on all rolled and rough or hammered leather, made from hides imported from east of Cape of Good Hope, and all damaged leather, 5 mills per lb.; on all other sole and rough leather, hemlock tanned, 8 mills per lb.,  on all sole or rough leather, tanned in whole or part, with oak, 1 cent per lb.; on all finished or cured upper leather, except calf skin, made from leather tanned in the interest of the parties finishing or cutting up leather not previously taxed in the rough, 1 cent per lb.; on band, bull and harness leather, 1½  cents per lb., on tanned calf skins 6 cents each; on morocco goat, kid or sheep skins, cured, manufactured or finished, 4 per cent. ad valorem, provided that the price at which such skins are usually sold shall determine the value; on buck skins, tanned or dressed, $2 per dozen; on doe skins, tanned or dressed, $1 per dozen; on deer skins, dressed and smoked, 6 cents a pound, on horse and hog skins, tanned and dressed, 4 per cent ad valorem; on American patent calf skins 5 per cent. ad valorem, on patent or enameled leather 3 per cent. ad valorem.

The following amendments were also agreed to:  On wine made of grapes 5 instead of 10 cents per gallon; on starch 5 per cent. ad valorem; on furs of all descriptions, not otherwise provided for, 5 per cent ad valorem.

Mr. SPAULDING offered the following:  Provided that no duty shall be contracted on furs until the expiration of the Reciprocity Treaty with Great Britain.  Mr. Spaulding took the occasion to say that we have lost thirteen millions of dollars by this treaty, owing to discriminating duties.

The Committee adopted Mr. Spaulding’s amendment.

The tax on diamonds, emeralds and other jewelry was put at 3 per cent ad valorem.

Mr. STEVENS opposed the tax on flour, which, after some debate relative to the bearing on the Tax bill that existed by the Reciprocity Treaty, was stricken out.

Mr. SPAULDING gave notice that he should introduce a resolution requesting the President to give the required notice for terminating the Reciprocity Treaty.  Cloth and all textile fabrics 3 per cent. ad valorem.

Mr. KELLOGG offered a new paragraph “on and after the 1st of May one cent per pound on all cotton held or owned by persons or corporations.”  Fourth clause relating to organs and melodeons altered, levying the tax from fifty cents to one dollar, according to value, and $6 to $70  for yachts.  Dogs taxed $1 each.

The section relating to slaughtered cattle was amended by adding, provided that commission of internal revenue may make other rules and regulations for ascertaining the accurate number of cattle held, shipped and slaughtered, and all cattle liable to taxation.  Committee rose and the House adjourned.

SENATE. – Vice President Hamlin absent. – Mr. Foster was chosen President pro tem.

Mr. WILLEY present a petition from the workmen in the late armory at Harper’s Ferry, asking for the re-establishment of the armory and for work.

Mr. KING presented several petitions for emancipating the slaves.

Mr. COLLAMER, from the Committee on Libraries, reported to the House a joint resolution to the House for the appointment of _____ Woolsey of Connecticut, Regent of the Smithsonian Institute, in place of Prof. Felton.  The resolution was passed.

Mr. NESMITH introduced a resolution asking for the Secretary of War to furnish the Senate a copy of the report of Brig. Gen. J. Mansfield in relation to the late engagement between the Monitor and the Merrimac.  The resolution was adopted.

Mr. LATHAM introduced a bill to create a bureau of transportation.  Referred.

On motion of Mr. CHANDLER, the bill for the appointment of Light House Inspectors was taken up.  The bill proposes to transfer the light house to the revenue service, putting them under the control of the Secretary of the Treasury.  After discussion the bill was postponed.

Mr. WADE introduced a bill to provide a territorial government for Arizona.

Mr. FESSENDEN presented a joint resolution from the Legislature of Main, in favor of extending pecuniary aid to the States for the emancipation of their slaves.  Also cordially approving the President’s message, declaring that Maine will cheerfully furnish her quota of the amount.  Also asking her Senators to vote for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.

The bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia was then taken up, and Mr. SUMNER, of Mass., proceeded to speak in favor, after which the bill was postponed until to-morrow.

The Senate went into executive session and adjourned.

WASHINGTON, April 1. – HOUSE. – Mr. WASHBURNE, of Illinois, presented a memorial from the Illinois Constitutional Convention in favor of the early enlargement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and gave notice that he should ask for an early consideration of the bill to that end, it being a matter of great national and military importance.  The memorial was referenced to the Committee on Military Affairs.

The consideration of the Pacific Railroad bill was further postponed till Tuesday.

The House then went into committee of the whole on the tax bill.

An amendment was adopted exempting from taxation under the Railroad routes and steamboats section all foreign emigrants travelling at a reduced fare into the interior of the country, a distance of over 100 miles from the sea coast.

Several amendments were made to the above section, including a tax of one and a half per cent on the gross receipts of bridge company repairers.

An amendment was adopted that trust companies be included with banks, saving institutions, &c., and that they pay three per cent. on their income.

A new section was added, providing that on and after May next, there shall be paid for every insurance policy which may be made, renewed, continued, or endorsed, a duty of 10 cents for every one hundred dollars insured for one year, &c.

Mr. COLFAX moved to strike out the section leaving a duty on advertisements.

Mr. WRIGHT thought that the press out to come up to the work.

Mr. COLFAX was of the same opinion but by this bill, without taxing Administration publications were taxed more than they ought to be. – The pay more than their proportion on the articles used, and for paper, telegraphic messages, gas light, &c.  They might as well impose a tax on all boarders at a hotel, on lawyers for every criminal or civil case.  He said those engaged in every branch of business, merchants, as we, as mechanics, were taxed less than newspapers!

Mr. STEVENS replied that in England a large income was received from the tax on advertisements, as well as the tax on stamps.  The Committee, he thought, had already made large concessions by reducing the tax on printing paper, and striking out that on ink.

Mr. COLFAX said that experience has shown that the English tax on newspapers and books was a tax on knowledge, and that the people demanded and secured a reform in this particular.

The committee disagreed to the motion of Mr. Colfax to strike out the above in the section.  The section was finally amended as follows, and then retained in the bill:

The tax on advertisements shall be assessed on the amounts received for them and not the amounts charged, and is reduced from five to three per cent.  Newspapers with less than 2,000 circulation or whose receipts are less than one thousand dollars per annum are exempted from any advertising tax.

The committee rose and the House adjourned.

SENATE. – Mr. DOOLITTLE presented a communication from the Secretary of the Interior relative to the Indians of Northern Mississippi.  Ordered to be printed.

Mr. SUMNER asked leave to introduce the following:

Whereas, Brig. Gen. Hooker, commanding the army of the United States, on the lower Potomac, Maryland, on the 26th day of March 1862 issued an order of which the following is a copy:

Headquarters of the Division,

Camp Baker, Lower Potomac

March 26th 1862.

To the Brigade and Regimental Commanders of this Division:

Messrs. Mally, Gray, Dunlington, Speak, Pierce, Posey and Cobey, citizens of Maryland, owning negroes supposed to be with some of the regimental camps, the Brigadier Genral Commanding, directs that they be permitted to visit all the camps of his command in search of their property, and if found that they be allowed to take possession of the same without any interference whatever; should any obstacle be thrown in the way by any officer or soldier in the division, they will be at once reported to these headquarters.

By order of Brigadier General Hooker.

(Signed.)

JOSEPH DICKENSON, A. A. G.

Therefore,

Resolved, That the Joint Select Committee on the conduct of the War be requested to inquire whether said order of Gen. Hooker is not a violation of the recent article of war passed by Congress, and approved by the President, concerning the action of the army in the return of fugitive slaves, and to report such a way as in the judgment of the committee will prevent the issue of similar orders, which, while they outrage the feelings of loyal men, necessarily tend to demoralized the army.

Mr. WICKLIFFE, before the reading was completed, objected to the introduction of the resolution.

Mr. SUMNER offered a resolution that the Committee on the Conduct of the War be instructed to collect evidence in regard to the barbarous treatment by the rebels at Manassas of the officers and soldiers of the United States killed in the battle there.  He said we have been disgusted and shocked by the reported treatment of the remains of soldiers by the rebels.  The skull of a brave Massachusetts officer has been made into a drinking cup for a Georgia rebel. – It is evident that we are in conflict with a people lower in the scale of civilization than ourselves, and he wanted record made for history.

Mr. HOWARD moved to enlarge the resolution so as to include an inquiry whether the rebels enticed the Indians who committed unheard of atrocious acts, and how this savage warfare was conducted.  If he was a commanding general he would make no prisoners serving  side by side with Indians.  The resolution thus amended was adopted.

Mr. HALE, offered a resolution that the Secretary of war be instructed to transmit to the Senate the correspondence of Gen. Wool with the War Department, relative to the movements on the part thereof since he has been in command of Fortress Monroe.

The Senate then took up the bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.

Mr. WRIGHT, said he had hoped when he came here he might have given his attention to putting down the rebe3llion, and that these embarrassing questions would be avoided.  He was not going to look into the past to see why certain things were done, there was evil enough in every section of the country to excite alarm but he thought it was the duty of the politician and statesman to look on the bright side.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 4

In the hurry and excitement of the war . . .

. . . but few of its heroic incidents find a chronicler.  In our interest in each new battle we forget the last; and, it is to be feared, too often seem to forget men who deserve the highest honors.  The name of Lieut. Morris, for example, the commander of the Cumberland, who, with a heroism, for a parallel of which we must search far, fought the Merrimac so long as a gun remained above water, and keeps is flag flying still, is not, as it should be, a household word wherever true courage is honored.  He has been thanked by the secretary of the Navy and by Congress, but that is all.  Another incident of that gallant fight has never so far as we have noticed, appeared in print.  When Gen. Mansfield saw the Cumberland sinking, he ordered the captain of a tug to put off from Newport News and go to the assistance of her crew.  The poor creature refused, pleading fear of losing his life.  Mansfield cocked his pistol and assured him that death was nearer him if he refused than if he went.  The captain was convinced by this reasoning.  No sooner had the noble tars, thus saved from a watery grave, touched land than, dripping and half-drowned as they were, they ran to the cannon which were lying upon the beach and not reflecting that six pounders are useless against an iron-mailed vessel of war, turned them upon the enemy.  Reading the future by the light of such noble spirits, can we doubt the issue of the war?  All our soldiers and sailors ask is an opportunity to show what manner of men they are. – N. Y. Tribune.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 2