Diary of Major Joseph Stockton, July 12, 1863

Received orders today to embark for Natchez. Ransom's brigade is ordered there. March to levee and embark on board steamer "Lancaster No. 4."

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 20

Diary of Major Joseph Stockton, July 13, 1863

Left for Natchez at 4 a. m. Quite a fleet of boats. I understand our object is to capture large droves of cattle that the Confederates have been moving across the country from Texas and crossing Natchez. Arrived about 4 o'clock p. m. Our trip down was a pleasant one, the plantations along the river not being destroyed like those above Vicksburg. We disembarked immediately upon our arrival and marched on to the bluff were we bivouacked for the night. The good people of this place were very much surprised and disgusted at the idea of their city being occupied by the Federals. It is a beautiful place and as yet there has been no distructions of property. I received orders to take four companies of the regiment and cross the river at midnight.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 20

Diary of Major Joseph Stockton, July 15, 1863

Returned to Natchez and reported to General Ransom, who was delighted with the result of our expedition.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 21

Diary of Major Joseph Stockton, July 17, 1863

Visited some relatives I knew were living here in Natchez. Some met me kindly and some coldly. We could not find a more delightful place to be encamped. All are delighted with our quarters; vegetables, fruits and such things as a soldier longs for can be found here and the people are ready to exchange for our army rations.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 21

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant John S. Morgan, Saturday, February 18, 1865

Had a good run during the night A. M. Passed Natchez but did not get to see any of the city except "Natchez under the hill." boat stopping but a few minutes. At 11.30 at the mouth of Red River where are stationed 8 gunboats & Monitors to guard the river. here had a sight of the formidable Rebel Ram Tenesee. She is a formidable looking vessel. at 1.45. landed at Murgauge. Saw Warren Alney, & took on board 1 battalion of 2 NY. Cav. Place defended by 7 negro Regts & battery. Rebs close. Start down at 6.30

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, Thirty-Third Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, Vol. XIII, No. 8, Third Series, Des Moines, April 1923, p. 574

Diary of Private John C. West, Monday, May 4, 1863

Traveled all night Saturday night, having left Minden at dark, and all day Sunday; reached Vianna about 10 o'clock Sunday morning; the road was pretty rough, lying mainly through a hilly country, covered with large pines and red and white oak; reached the dinner stand about 4 o'clock and found it a very neat and comfortable place; was waited upon at the table by two young ladies. Had a tedious and disagreeable ride from this place to Monroe, which place we reached at 12 o'clock last night; took possession of the flatboat and rowed ourselves across the river; found the hotel crowded and could not get a room; spread down my blanket and slept on the piazza; got up this morning and wrote a letter to my dear wife before breakfast; after breakfast walked down to see the Anna, the boat we expected to go down the river in; found her a dirty little craft; went to the quartermaster's office to find out when the boat would leave; he could not tell for two or three hours yet; returned to the hotel; met Ormsby; he is in the postoffice department; he has a thousand pounds of postage stamps and is on his way to Texas.

I saw a very interesting game of poker between Captain R——— and a professional gambler; it was twenty dollars ante, and the pile grew fast and soon reached twenty-five hundred dollars, and everybody went out of the game except Captain R——— and the professional, who was a very rough looking customer, reminding me of descriptions I have read of pirates in yellow covered novels; he was weather-beaten and fierce looking; Capt. R——— was only about twenty years of age, with a beardless face as smooth as a woman's. A dispute arose and each man seized the pile (paper money) with his left hand and drew his pistol with his right; they rose at arm's length and stood glaring at each other like tigers; one looked like a black wolf, the other like a spotted leopard; the crowd retired from the table; it was one of the most fearful and magnificent pictures I ever saw. They were finally persuaded to lay their pistols and the money on the table in charge of chosen friends; the door was locked and a messenger was dispatched five miles in the country to bring Colonel ———, a noted local celebrity—a planter who stood high in social as well as sporting circles. We waited three hours; he came, and after hearing the testimony gave the pile to "old rough and ready," and Captain Ryielded gracefully, a wiser but a poorer man.

After dinner a stranger named Peck gave me a letter to carry across the river and also enough tobacco to smoke me to Natchez. I loafed about until the steamboat started at 5 o'clock in the afternoon; took passage in her to Trinity, costing me $15 besides transportation furnished by the Confederate States. I am now on boat enjoying the beautiful scenery on the river; wish my dear wife was here to participate in my pleasure; such a sunset! it is a vision for a poet.

SOURCE: John Camden West, A Texan in Search of a Fight: Being the Diary and Letters of a Private Soldier in Hood’s Texas Brigade, p. 31-3

Diary of Private John C. West, Tuesday, May 5, 1863

Yesterday evening there were heavy clouds and a good deal of lightning in the North; after supper laid down on the deck and slept very comfortable until awakened by a heavy rain; gathered up my blanket and crowded into the state room, which proved to be almost suffocating. I was very sleepy, so went down in the engine room and slept until morning, crosswise on two barrels of rum; waked up quite refreshed to enjoy the beautiful scenery on the banks of the Ouachita, among the most picturesque of which was a high bluff on which was a single grave; a romantic lady, the wife of a pilot, was buried there by her request, where her gentle spirit might keep vigil over the destinies of her husband. We stopped during the morning to take an old rail fence for fuel; a soldier shot a hog, which gave us fresh pork for dinner; found some very nice mulberries on shore and wished my children, little Stark and Mary, had some of them. Had a very pleasant trip on to Hamburg; went ashore there and got transportation to Trinity; after supper proceeded down to the river and met the steamer, Tucker; stopped and had a talk and got the Natchez Courier.

Forgot to say above that I met Dr. Rock on this steamer; learned from him that Lieutenant Brandon was at Pine Bluff on the 8th of April, and was going to Virginia. Dr. Rock is on his way to Richmond. We reached Trinity about 12 o'clock at night, on Tuesday, the 5th, and have not stopped long enough during the day to write up this diary, and at night had no light; left the Trinity in a skiff with five others; proceeded up the Ouachita for about six miles; then into Brushy Bayou; after following this for about two miles the thorns and bushes were so troublesome that we had to get to land and walk about four miles, while the negroes worked the skiff through. In this walk I got far enough ahead of the skiff to take a nap; laid down on the ground and slept gloriously for an hour; would have enjoyed it more with a blanket to lie on. At the end of this walk we had a very good breakfast by paying five dollars a dozen for some eggs and furnishing our own coffee, and then paying two dollars a piece for breakfast. After breakfast pulled the skiff overland into Cane Bayou, and proceeded up this for six miles to Turtle Lake, a beautiful sheet of water three miles long; from this we entered Cocoda Bayou, which we followed for eight miles into Concordia Lake, up which we rowed for seven or eight miles, which landed us about three miles from Natchez. All this skiff trip is through just such a country as an alligator would thrive in; affording fine facilities for fishing and duck shooting; no one but a Newfoundland dog would enjoy it. We procured a cart to take our baggage to the Mississippi river; crossed in a skiff to Natchez; remained there all night and left Thursday morning for Brookhaven; stopped at Dr. Holden's and got the second good dinner I have had since I left home; reached McDaniel's at dark and found it quite a nice place, and met here that rare creature of the West an old maid; she seems to be quite a nice person and I think has been doomed to this state of single felicity by circumstances for which she is not responsible. We got a good breakfast at 4 o'clock in the morning, which enabled us to reach Brockhaven (where I am now writing) by 10 o'clock. On the road to this place I passed a bridge which Grierson's Cavalry had destroyed, and here I see the remains of the depot which they burned. These are the first practical examples of Yankee vandalism I have seen during the war. I expect to leave here to-day at 2 o'clock.

Reached Jackson at 6 o'clock and found the train for Meridian about to start and had no time to get transportation, and so have to remain here against my will until to-morrow evening. All these days which I have been delayed I had hoped to spend in Columbia, South Carolina.

SOURCE: John Camden West, A Texan in Search of a Fight: Being the Diary and Letters of a Private Soldier in Hood’s Texas Brigade, p. 33-6

Committee of Invitation to the 1st Mississippi Rifles, May 31, 1847

To the First Mississippi Regiment:

The undersigned, a committee, appointed at a meeting of the citizens of the city of Natchez and county of Adams, to tender to the First Mississippi Regiment an invitation to partake of the hospitalities of their city and county, have the honor to discharge that pleasing and grateful office.

In the name of the city and county, the committee present their most respectful and pressing invitation to their gallant fellow-citizens of the First Mississippi Regiment to visit them upon their return to their homes, and to allow them an opportunity to express in some degree the warm gratitude, admiration of pride, which fills all hearts for those brave men who have so nobly sustained and increased the glory of our beloved State by courage, constancy and gallantry, unsurpassed in the history of any country.

A. L. Bingaman,

J. S. B. Thacher,

J. T. McMurran,

C. L. Dubuisson,

Wm. P. Mellen.

Natchez, May 31st, 1847.

SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 84

Jefferson Davis to the Committee of Invitation, June 11, 1847

New Orleans, June 11th, 1847.

Gentlemen,—From the hands of R. M. Gaines, Esq., I had the honor to receive your invitation to the 1st Mississippi Rifles, to partake of the hospitalities of the City of Natchez and County of Adams.

On the part of the Regiment, allow me through you, gentlemen, to offer the sincerest thanks to our fellow citizens, whom you represent, for this manifestation of their regard and kind appreciation. In the resolutions passed at your public meeting, we found, not the measure of our merit, but the extent of Mississippians' fraternal affection and received most gratefully this over-approbation of those whose censure we could not have borne.

On Monday, the 14th inst., we hope to have the pleasure of meeting you at Natchez.

To you, gentlemen of the committee, for the very pleasing manner in which you have conveyed to us the flattering intentions of our fellow citizens, I offer our most thankful acknowledgments.

With the highest personal regard, please accept the best wishes of your friend and fellow citizen.

Jeff'n Davis,        

Colonel Miss. Rifles.

To Messrs. A. L. Bingaman, J. S. B. Thacher, J. T. McMurran, C. L. Dubuisson, Wm. P. Mellen, R. M. Gaines, and Wm. Stanton

SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 85

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, Monday, February 23, 1863

We are steaming up the river in search of the enemy, and have just passed the place where he lay-to last night; so that we are now in full chase, though not in sight. We are some distance below Natchez at this writing, and the probability is that we will overtake him there. Our decks were cleared for action this morning, but the alarm proved false, and was occasioned by the Grand Era mistaking the smoke of a sugar factory for the gun-boat. Yesterday evening the Queen of the West, in reconnoitering in Old river, ran aground, and had to signal the Era to come and tow her off; after which we entered the Mississippi again and ran all night without accident or incident. The weather has been quite cool since 12 o'clock yesterday.

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, p. 67

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, Monday, February 23, 1863—Evening

We have just had some sport. Five negroes hailed us, and on being asked if they wished to come aboard, answered "yes" with every demonstration of joy, as they supposed us to be Yankees. The shout that went up when they were safely aboard made the welkin ring. They never found out their mistake until Colonel Brend told the mate to take them below and pay them for their loyalty, which he knew how to do from long practice. They had been working on the fortifications at Vicksburg, and said they had "been trying to get with us for several months." One yellow rascal shouted for Lincoln as he stepped aboard. We are now in sight of Natchez, and have not found the Indianola yet.

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, p. 67

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, February 24, 1863

We stopped at Natchez for nearly an hour, and in that short space of time nearly every officer and man got decently drunk. Some of our crew went aboard other boats, not being sober enough to distinguish the difference. We got back the missing men at the wood-yard this morning. The ladies were out in full force on the bluffs, and during our stay presented us with a flag, in return for which we fired a salute of two guns. 12 o'clock. We have just come in sight of the Yankee boat, and the excitement of the chase or the terrible conflict will soon begin.

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, p. 67-8

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, January 6, 1863

Last night at ten o'clock we got under way for Port Hudson, La., and the motion of the boat lulled me to sleep in a few moments. I have no distinct recollection of what occurred during the night. I awoke this morning at a wood-yard above Natchez, and, as the day was breaking, I concluded to keep awake and enjoy the scenery and the spring-like morning. Mississippi scenery has been described as a "line and a pine," and I will not attempt a better description of the lowest, flattest, and most dreary landscape in my memory. The only thing to relieve the monotony of the scenery and dullness of the journey was the bluffs at Natchez and the landing of the boat at the wharf. It was refreshing to see the natives running from their 8x10 groceries, and bringing whisky to our boys. Being on the upper deck, and stopped by a guard at each hatchway, I failed to get a supply of the "cretur," for which I am most heartily thankful. The boys on the lower deck were more (un)fortunate, and procured a plentiful supply.

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, p. 18

Major-General Ulyssess S. Grant to Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks, July 11, 1863

VICKSBURG, MISS., July 11, 1863.

Maj. Gen. N. P. BANKS, Comdg. Department of the Gulf:

GENERAL: It is with pleasure I congratulate you upon your removal of the last obstacle to the free navigation of the Mississippi. This will prove a death to Copperheadism in the Northwest, besides serving to demoralize the enemy. Like arming the negroes, it will act as a two-edged sword, cutting both ways.

Immediately on receipt of your dispatches I forwarded them by Colonel Riggin, of my staff, who will take them as far as Cairo. I ordered the boats and other articles you required at once, and as many of the boats as can be got ready will go down at the same time with this. I also ordered, on the strength of Colonel Smith's report, about 1,000 men to Natchez, to hold that place for a few days, and to collect the cattle that have been crossing there for the rebel army. I am also sending a force to Yazoo City, to gather the heavy guns the rebels have there, and to capture, if possible, the steamers the enemy have in Yazoo River.

Sherman is still out with a very large force after Joe Johnston, and cannot well be back under six or seven days. It will be impossible, therefore, for me to send you the forces asked for in your letter until the expiration of that time. I telegraphed to Washington, however, the substance of your request and the reason for it. So far as anything I know of being expected from my force, I can spare you an army corps of as good troops as ever trod American soil. No better are found on any other. It will afford me pleasure to send them if I am not required to do some duty requiring them. When the news of success reached me, I had General Herron's division on board transports, ready to start for Port Hudson. That news induced me to change their direction to Yazoo City.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

U.S. GRANT.

SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 3 (Serial No. 38), p. 499-500; John Y. Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 9, p. 31-2

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Edwin M. Stanton, May 16, 1862

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,      

New Orleans, May 16, 1862.

Hon. E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: Since my dispatch of May 8* I received information that a large amount of specie was concealed in the liquor store of one Am Couturee, who claims to be consul for the Netherlands.†

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

The necessity having now passed which led me to allow the temporary use of Confederate notes, I have ordered them suppressed in ten days from to-day. Please see General Orders, No. 29, to that effect. I beg leave to call your attention to the subject of opening the port of New Orleans. No measure could tend more to change the entire feelings and relations of the people here than this. If not opened to foreign ships and ports, why not with the Northern ports? Have we not a right as against aliens to carry our own products from one part of our own country to the other?

Nothing has tended so much to the quiet acquiescence of the well-disposed people here to the rule of the United States as the opening, which I have done, of postal facilities North and with Europe, under proper restrictions. It was a measure which seemed to me so essential and so relieved the mercantile portion of the community that I have allowed it, and shall so do until further orders from the Department.

Upon the same ground I have the honor to urge the opening of the port of New Orleans at least to the limited extent above mentioned. As a question of the supply of food it is vital. A different state of things exists here from every other point taken before during the war, with the exception of Baltimore. Here is a community, large and wealthy, living and substantially quietly submitting to, if they all do not relish, our Government.

We need their products; they need ours. If we wish to bind them to us more strongly than can be done by the bayonet, let them again feel the beneficence of the United States Government as they have seen and are now feeling its power. Specially will this affect favorably the numerous and honestly conducting foreign residents residing here. How does this city now differ from Baltimore in June last, save that it is occupied by a smaller force and is more orderly? In the matter of trade, importation and exportation, I cannot distinguish the two.

It was found absolutely necessary to take some measures in addition to those taken by the city government to relieve the immediate sufferings of the poor people from hunger. I accordingly took the action set forth in General Orders, No. 25. Its effect has been to diminish much suffering and aid in bringing back the citizens to a sense of duty.

I forward also copies of General Orders, 27, 28, 29, which will explain themselves. No. 28 became an absolute necessity from the outrageous conduct of the secession women here, who took every means of insulting my soldiers and inflaming the mob.

Here I am happy to add that within the city of New Orleans the first instance of wrong or injury done by any soldier to any man or woman or any instance of plunder above a petty theft yet remains to be reported to me. There is an instance of gross outrage and plunder on the part of some of the Wisconsin regiment at Kenner, some 12 miles above here, while on the march to possess ourselves of the Jackson Railroad, who when they return will be most exemplarily punished. I must send home some of my transport ships in ballast by the terms of their charter. In accordance with the terms of my order No. 22 I have caused to be bought a very considerable quantity of sugar, but as yet very little cotton. This has gone very far to reassure the planters and factors. They are sending their agents everywhere into the interior to endeavor to stop the burning of the crops.

Nobody can be better aware than myself that I have no right to buy this property with the money of the United States, even if I had any of it, which I have not. But I have bought it with my own money and upon my individual credit. The articles are sugar, rosin, and turpentine. I have sent these as ballast in the several transport ships, which otherwise would have to be sent to Ship Island for sand. These articles will be worth more in New York and Boston than I paid for them here through my agents. If the Government choose to take them and reimburse me for them I am content. If not, I am quite content to keep them and pay the Government a reasonable freight. Whatever may be done the Government will save by the transaction. I only desire that neither motives nor action shall be misunderstood.

I have sent General Williams, with two regiments and a light battery, to accompany the flag-officer up the river to occupy or land and aid in taking any point where resistance may be offered. Baton Rouge has already surrendered and the flag is raised over it. The machines from the Arsenal for making arms are removed to a distance, but where they cannot be at present used. The naval forces with General Williams have gone above Natchez, and the gunboats are proceeding to Vicksburg, which the rebels are endeavoring to fortify, but I do not believe, from all I learn, with any success. The flag-officer is aground just below Natchez in the Hartford, and I have dispatched two boats to light him off.

I should have sent more troops with General Williams, but it was impossible to get transportation for them. The rebels had burned and disabled every boat that they did not hide, and then their machinists refused to work on their repair.

By dint of the most urgent measures I have compelled repairs, so that I am now getting some transportation, and have sent a boat to Fort Pickens for General Arnold, of which I understand him to be in the utmost need. I have sent into the various bayous and have succeeded in digging out of the bushes several steamers; one or two very good ones.

Colonel McMillan, of the Twenty-first Indiana Regiment, on Monday last, in a little creek leading out of Berwick Bay, some 80 miles from here, succeeded with an ox-cart in cutting out the rebel steamer Fox, loaded with 15 tons of powder and a large quantity of quicksilver, medicines, and stores. The steamer was formerly the G. W. Whitman, of New York, and has succeeded in running the blockade four times.

Colonel McMillan is now engaged in scouring the bayous and lagoons through which the rebels have been supplied with ammunition, causing large quantities to be destroyed and capturing some where the pursuit is quick enough. In no other way can the same amount of distress be brought upon the rebel army, as they are much in want of ammunition, and we are intercepting all supplies. A very large amount of ordnance and ordnance stores have been captured here and are now being cared for and inventoried.

Large numbers of Union men—Americans, Germans, and French—have desired to enlist in our service. I have directed the regiments to fill themselves up with these recruits. I can enlist a regiment or more here, if the Department think it desirable, of true and loyal men. I do not think, however, that Governor Moore would commission the officers. Such a corps being desirable, would it not be possible to have an independent organization, with commissions from the President. These troops would be very useful in manning the forts at Pontchartrain and down the river, which are fearfully unhealthy. They might have a company or two of Northern soldiers for instructors and for fear of possible accident.

I shall have the transportation ready for a movement on Mobile as soon as the flag-officer returns from up the river. I am engaged in arranging for it. I will get the transportation, so as to go across the lake by the inside route.

I have endeavored in several ways to get communication with General Buell, so as to co-operate with him, but as yet have failed. Although I am not by the terms of my instructions enjoined to penetrate the interior, yet I shall do so at once, if the public service can be aided.

General Lovell, when he retreated from this city, took with him to Camp Moore between 8,000 and 9,000 men. He is 80 miles away, and such is the height of the water that it is nearly impossible to march, he having gone on the railroad and taken all his rolling stock with him. More than one-half of that army has left him, and perhaps one-third has returned to this city, put on citizens' clothes, and are quiet. I think General Lovell is doing as well as he can for the present. A defeat could hardly disorganize his forces more rapidly.

I trust my requisitions will be promptly forwarded, especially for food and mosquito-nets, which are a prime necessity.

The city council have endeavored to excite the French population here and to act by resolution upon the arrival of the French war steamer Catina as to induce the belief that there was some understanding between themselves and the French Government.

I append copy of letter to the council upon that subject, marked L; also copy of letter to the French consul as to spoliations at Kenner, marked M.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. F. BUTLER,              

Major-General, Commanding.

_______________

* Series 1, Vol. VI, p. 506.

† For portion of the letter here omitted and which relates to seizures of the specie referred to and complications with other consuls, see inclosures to letter from the Secretary of state to Hon. Reverdy Johnson, June 10, 1862, Series III, Vol. 2.

_______________

[Inclosures.]

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler: General Orders, No. 25, May 9, 1862

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler: General Orders, No. 27, May 13, 1862

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler: General Orders, No. 28, May 15, 1862

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler: General Orders, No. 29, May 16, 1862

[Inclosure L.]

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to the Mayor and Gentlemen of the City Council of New Orleans, May 16, 1862

[Inclosure M.]

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Count Mejan, May 16, 1862

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 15 (Serial No. 21), p. 422-4. For inclosures see p. 425-7.

Public Meeting, published July 20, 1832

A meeting of a portion of the citizens of Adams County was held at the court-house in Natchez on the 19th hist., pursuant to public notice in a hand-bill signed "Many Citizens,” calling a meeting of citizens adverse to the election of judges by the people and opposed to nullification, for the purpose of bringing out, if reconciliation should be found impracticable, another candidate for the convention in the place of Chancellor Quitman.

Fountain Winston, Esq., was called to the chair, and R. M. Gaines appointed secretary.

Judge Quitman explained his reason for appearing at the meeting, after having declined to do so in his handbill of the 17th inst., by stating that he had been since requested to attend by many of his known friends. He then addressed the meeting at considerable length on the subject of the respective rights of the general and state governments, after which Dr. Duncan, in a spirit of conciliation, submitted a resolution which, being modified on the motion of John T. McMurran, Esq., was unanimously adopted by the meeting in the following form, to wit:

Resolved, As the sense of this meeting, that we are opposed to the doctrine of nullification, and believe that its propagation would endanger our dearest and best interests; that John A. Quitman having at this meeting made a distinct exposition of his views upon the subject of the relation which the state and federal governments bear to each other, said views do not amount to nullification, according to the usual acceptation of the term, and that said John A. Quitman ought to be supported for the convention on the ticket as originally selected at a general meeting of the citizens of this county, in this place, in May last.

Fountain Winston, Chairman.

R. M. Gaines, Secretary.

SOURCES: John F. H. Quitman, Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman, Volume 1, p. 114; “Public Meeting,” The Natchez Weekly Courier, Natchez Mississippi, Friday, July 20, 1832, p. 2

John A. Quitman to the Citizens of Adams County, Mississippi, July 17, 1832

To the Citizens of Adams County.

I have just learned that there has been industriously circulated a notice, anonymously signed “Many Citizens,” calling a public meeting of the citizens of Adams County adverse to the election of judges by the people, and opposed to nullification, for the purpose “of bringing out, if reconciliation should be found impracticable, another candidate in my place, and desiring me to attend.” Such a desire coming from friends I would cheerfully comply with, but I can not recognize the authors of such a course as “friends” nor can I permit myself to be made the football of political opponents. I have protested, and do again solemnly protest, against making my private political or religious opinions the test of my qualification for the convention. The former have been brought before the public without my consent or agency. They are now branded by terms odious and unmeaning to the public ear, and party excitement is brought to bear upon me. To the calm and deliberate expression of the public will I will most cheerfully submit. I can not, in justice to my friends, accept the invitation of those whom I must consider political opponents, and the time is too short to give this notice full circulation before the contemplated meeting. I therefore respectfully request that those of my fellow-citizens who feel interested in this matter will assemble at the court-house in Natchez on Friday next, at 11 o'clock, when I will candidly express my views of the relation which the states and general government bear to each other, and endeavor to show that the doctrines which I entertain were not “invented by Mr. Calhoun and first propagated by Mr. Hayne,” but were propagated by Mr. Jefferson in 1798, and have ever since been the true test of Republican and ultra Federal doctrines, and continue to be the grand landmarks of distinction between the advocates of a constitutional government and the arbitrary despotism of an oligarchy.

John A. Quitman.

Monmouth, July 17th, 1832.

SOURCE: John F. H. Quitman, Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman, Volume 1, p. 113-4

John A. Quitman to Colonel Platt Brush, August 23, 1823

Soldier's Retreat, near Natchez, Aug. 23d, 1823.

Since my last letter, my dear Col. Brush, I have been a refugee from Natchez, where the yellow fever is raging. Our bar is quartered at various country-seats — not boarding; a Mississippi planter would be insulted by such a proposal; but we are enjoying the hospitalities that are offered to us on all sides. The awful pestilence in the city brings out, in strong relief, the peculiar virtues of this people. The mansions of the planters are thrown open to all comers and goers free of charge. Whole families have free quarters during the epidemic, and country wagons are sent daily to the verge of the smitten city with fowls, vegetables, etc., for gratuitous distribution to the poor. I am now writing from one of those old mansions, and I can give you no better notion of life at the South than by describing the routine of a day. The owner is the widow of a Virginia gentleman of distinction, a brave officer, who died in the public service during the last war with Great Britain.¹ She herself is a native of this vicinity, of English parents settled here in Spanish times. She is an intimate friend of my first friend, Mrs. Griffith, and I have been in the habit of visiting her house ever since I came South. The whole aim of this excellent lady seems to be to make others happy. I do not believe she ever thinks of herself. She is growing old, but her parlor is constantly thronged with the young and gay, attracted by her cheerful and never-failing kindness. There are two large families from the city staying here, and every day some ten or a dozen transient guests. Mint-juleps in the morning are sent to our rooms, and then follows a delightful breakfast in the open veranda. We hunt, ride, fish, pay morning visits, play chess, read or lounge until dinner, which is served at two P.M. in great variety, and most delicately cooked in what is here called the Creole style — very rich, and many made or mixed dishes. In two hours afterward every body — white and black — has disappeared. The whole household is asleep—the siesta of the Italians. Tho ladies retire to their apartments, and the gentlemen on sofas, settees, benches, hammocks, and often, gipsy fashion, on the grass under the spreading oaks. Here, too, in fine weather, the tea-table is always set before sunset, and then, until bedtime, we stroll, sing, play whist, or coquet. It is an indolent, yet charming life, and one quits thinking and takes to dreaming.

This excellent lady is not rich, merely independent; but by thrifty housewifery, and a good dairy and garden, she contrives to dispense the most liberal hospitality. Her slaves appear to be, in a manner, free, yet are obedient and polite, and the farm is well worked. With all her gayety of disposition and fondness for the young, she is truly pious, and in her own apartment every night she has family prayer with her slaves, one or more of them being often called on to sing and pray. When a minister visits the house, which happens very frequently, prayers night and morning are always said, and on these occasions the whole household and the guests assemble in the parlor: chairs are provided for the servants. They are married by a clergyman of their own color, and a sumptuous supper is always prepared. On public holidays they have dinners equal to an Ohio barbecue, and Christmas, for a week or ten days, is a protracted festival for the blacks. They are a happy, careless, unreflecting, good-natured race, who, left to themselves, would degenerate into drones or brutes, but, subjected to wholesome restraint and stimulus, become the best and most contented of laborers. They are strongly attached to “old massa” and “old missus,” but their devotion to “young massa” and “young missus” amounts to enthusiasm. They have great family pride, and are the most arrant coxcombs and aristocrats in the world. At a wedding I witnessed here last Saturday evening, where some 150 negroes were assembled, many being invited guests, I heard a number of them addressed as governors, generals, judges, and doctors (the titles of their masters), and a spruce, tight-set darkey, who waits on me in town, was called “Major Quitman.” The “colored ladies” are invariably Miss Joneses, Miss Smiths, or some such title. They are exceedingly pompous and ceremonious, gloved and highly perfumed. The “gentlemen” sport canes, ruffles, and jewelry, wear boots and spurs, affect crape on their hats, and carry huge cigars. The belles wear gaudy colors, “tote” their fans with the air of Spanish senoritas, and never stir out, though black as the ace of spades, without their parasols. In short, these “niggers,” as you call them, are the happiest people I have ever seen, and some of them, in form, features, and movement, are real sultanas. So far from being fed on “salted cotton-seed,” as we used to believe in Ohio, they are oily, sleek, bountifully fed, well clothed, well taken care of, and one hears them at all times whistling and singing cheerily at their work.² They have an extraordinary facility for sleeping. A negro is a great night-walker. He will, after laboring all day in the burning sun, walk ten miles to a frolic, or to see his “Dinah,” and be at home and at his work by daylight next morning. This would knock up a white man or an Indian. But a negro will sleep during the day — sleep at his work, sleep on the carriage-box, sleep standing up; and I have often seen them sitting bareheaded in the sun on a high rail-fence, sleeping as securely as though lying in bed. They never lose their equipoise, and will carry their cotton-baskets or their water-vessels, filled to the brim, poised on their heads, walking carelessly and at a rapid rate, without spilling a drop. The very weight of such burdens would crush a white man's brains into apoplexy. Compared with the ague-smitten and suffering settlers that you and I have seen in Ohio, or the sickly and starved operators we read of in factories and in mines, these Southern slaves are indeed to be envied. They are treated with great humanity and kindness. I have only heard of one or two exceptions. And the only drawback to their happiness is that their owners, sometimes, from extravagance or other bad management, die insolvent, and then they must be sold to the highest bidder, must leave the old homestead and the old family, and pass into the hands of strangers. I have witnessed one of these scenes, and but one, though they occur often, and I never saw such profound grief as the poor creatures manifested. I am opposed, as you know, to all relief laws, but, I confess, I never hear of the sale of old family servants without wishing that there was some provision by which some of them, at least, might be retained as inalienable. It is a grave question for those interested in slavery to determine whether some protection of this nature is not a necessary adjunct of slavery itself.

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¹ The late Gen. F. L. Claiborne.

² Contrast this with life at the North, as recorded by his brother Henry in a letter dated Rhinebeck, Feb. 3d, 1823: “We have not had snow enough for sleighing, so every body has to stay at home. In the morning I feed the cows, take care of the horses, and cut wood until dinner-time. In the evening I take care of the cattle, and go to bed. I would willingly exchange my residence here for one where I might do for myself, were my earnings ever so small, and lay by a little for a rainy day. It is a hard place to get along in — cold winters and hot summers; snow, or slush, or dust, or drought. Work, work, work, and money always scarce. I wish I had been brought up a tailor, or shoemaker, as you say they have none at Natchez.”

SOURCE: John F. H. Quitman, Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman, Volume 1, p. 83-6

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: July 27, 1863

Nothing but disasters to chronicle now. Natchez and Yazoo City, all gone the way of Vicksburg, involving a heavy loss of boats, guns, and ordnance stores; besides, the enemy have got some twenty locomotives in Mississippi.

Lee has retreated as far as Culpepper Court House.

The President publishes another proclamation, fixing a day for the people to unite in prayer.

The weather is bad. With the exception of one or two bright days, it has been raining nearly a month. Superadded to the calamities crowding upon us, we have a rumor to-day that Gen. Lee has tendered his resignation. This is false. But it is said he is opposed to the retaliatory executions ordered by the President, which, if persisted in, must involve the life of his son, now in the hands of the enemy. Our officers executed by Burnside were certainly recruiting in Kentucky within the lines of the enemy, and Gen. Lee may differ with the President in the equity of executing officers taken by us in battle in retaliation.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 388-9

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Thursday, July 20, 1865

Land at Natchez at 8. a. m. boat boilers in dangerous condition. Enjineer & firemen run from their places last night for a while fearing an explosion, 3 of the Boilers blistered badly fix them up but slightly A. M. & P. M. in the city. suburbs fine, & shade, but the day awful warm, take a stroll in city while boat cools, get off at 6. P. M.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 608