Diary of Private Louis Leon: December 2, 1863

This morning at 3 we moved to the right until daylight, when our corps was again sent to the front. We advanced toward the enemy's works. We moved, of course, very carefully, as we saw their breastworks, and in front of us two cannon. When we got in shooting range, the order was given to "Charge!" We did so with a rebel yell, and as we got upon their breastworks, lo and behold, there were no Yankees, and the cannons we saw were nothing but logs. We followed them to the river, but their whole army had crossed. We, of course, captured a great many of their sick and stragglers.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 54

Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney: June 9, 1863

Awakened at three A. M. Got coffee for breakfast, baked potatoes, but didn't get done in time. Marched on at daylight. Met the 2nd Tenn. at Capt. West's,¹ they had crossed and captured 7 or 8 pickets on Mills Springs road. Co. H in advance. Soon came upon the pickets and kept skirmishing for two or three miles. Drake, Thede and I followed Co. H. Soon body of rebs was seen to the left. Fences thrown down and boys went into the field. Georgia Regt. gave L Co. a volley with no effect and soon fell back. As we were advancing, a regt. 10th Confederate from Georgia, Florida and Alabama came out into a field on the hill with flying colors and gave battle. D and I were near K Co. in a little valley, but bullets whistled lively — horse and man wounded near by. Soon howitzers came up and before long started these. Rebels made several stands before reaching Monticello. Fought well. Several killed and wounded, Corp. Laundon. Last stand near town behind a wall, determined. Aggravating to see their colors. Charged after them through town. Quaker gun in courthouse window. Went out without carbine. Got but one good shot with revolver. Picked up a musket and carried it. Advance ordered back. 45th and 7th with section of howitzers went on and drove the Rebs through the gorge. Went along. Soon drove them and turned back. Rested awhile in town. Destroyed arms and ammunition, then commenced the retreat — H, two companies of 45th, two of 7th rear guard. Went on and saw the wounded. Interesting conversation, intelligent prisoners from Georgia. One man killed whose father worth several millions of property. At Capt. West's, halted awhile, made tea, drank, when firing was heard. Col. Kautz heard enemy or force were following and overpowering the rear guard. All troops gone by but two companies of the 45th. Col. turned back with them. We went with him. Got to the woods and rear guard came up hurriedly, some boys running away. Dismounted the men and got into the woods in time to give the rebels a telling round as they charged up the road with a yell. Several of them killed and wounded. Rebs stood and gave fierce volleys. Very near a panic. Finally efforts succeeded. Kept up firing and drove Rebs a mile through the woods. Lt. Case severely wounded and other H Co. boys before. H boys did splendidly. Noble fellows. Few exceptions. Just at edge of woods rebs got behind stone wall and poured murderous volleys into the woods. All troops ordered up, and howitzers. Failed to come for half an hour. Boys had to stand and take it and be unable to do harm in return. Brush and woods too thick to see ahead far, and stone wall. Col. had good plans and had the Battery come up and everything gone off as he expected, we would have won a splendid victory. Our own boys fired some at one another — sad to see. Finally Howitzers came up and silenced the rebs and started them. Dark and too late to follow — also report that rebs were flanking us. Retreated to three miles up river. Command six miles. Brought off all wounded but Case and Chapman. Dr. Smith remained, John Devlin missing.

_______________

¹ In the official records this fight near Capt. West's is called Rocky Gap, Ky.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 72

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 2, 1862

Gen. Jos. E. Johnston has certainly made a skillful retrograde movement in the face of the enemy at Manassas. He has been keeping McClellan and his 210,000 men at bay for a long time with about 40,000. After the abandonment of his works it was a long time before the enemy knew he had retrograded. They approached very cautiously, and found that they had been awed by a few Quaker guns — logs of wood in position, and so painted as to resemble cannon. Lord, how the Yankee press will quiz McClellan!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 113

Spoils of Manassas -- A Thousand Fugitive Slaves a Week – The Sham Fortifications

(Correspondence Cincinnati Commercial, 19)

I presume a thousand slaves have escaped from bondage since Manassas was evacuated.  Most of them fled from the regions of Rappahannock and entered our lines by various routes, some by the highways, some from the jungle.  Of more than fifty whom I saw, not one was unconscious of the issue which sets so many bondmen free.  Some had deserted wives and children, trusting to future opportunities to liberate them. . .  Most of them were under forty years of age, stout, muscular, intelligent fellows, not field hands, but household servants – the class so boastfully assumed to be faithful to their masters..  “Ah, master,” quoth one, “dey tell you white folks we don’t want freedom.  We don’t want nuffin else.  We knows all about it.  Dere’s more coming’ all de time.  More would come if dey could get heart to leave dere wives and children.”  In one drove of twenty-two, I observed several in confederate uniforms.  They said they had been servants to officers in the rebel army.  They had escaped at the ferry on Rappahannock river, where they left the rear guard, terrified with apprehension that we were rapidly pursuing them.  An intelligent fellow said if we had followed on Monday, we could have cut off the rear guard entirely.  Their horses were worn out and the ferry was insufficient to carry them across the river.  They were so panic-stricken, indeed; that many deserted from the column and sought the refuge in the forests.

My first report of the appearance of Manassas after the evacuation, was derived from persons whose imaginations were excited. – The quantity of property deserted was exaggerated.  After deliberate examination I concluded that the whole value at an extravagate estimate, did not exceed $10,000.  To be sure there was a large mass for trophies, but a squalid exhibit for spoils.  Some eight wagons which were left on the premises were ruined by use and by cutting the wheel spokes; four or five worthless caisons were also deserted.  A dilapidated construction train locomotive was left standing on the railroad track; the debris of another, which had been blown to atoms, and fragments of three or four platform cars, were scattered about the ruined depots.  Besides these, a mass of flour reduce to paste – perhaps fifty barrels of it – a dozen boxes of good uniforms, some cotton mattresses for hospitals, and a promiscuous distribution of clothing, kitchen utensils, some useless medical stores, a considerable quantity of half destroyed tents, a miscellaneous collection of file bowie knives, and sundry forts full of Quaker guns, constituted the entire invoice of rebel stores which the army found.  The mass was considered so valueless that it was not guarded, and the soldiers, country people and negroes, have helped themselves freely until the site is pretty thoroughly cleaned up.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 29, 1862, p. 4

The Wooden Guns Of Centerville

The flooring behind the embrasure of the rebel fortifications at Centerville, upon which the wooden guns rested, was made of inch hemlock boards, and of course could never have sustained real guns.  This statement made by the correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer confirms the fact no real guns were ever mounted there.  It is said that some of the embrasures were so constructed that the light field pieces of which the rebels had some twenty or thirty at Centerville, could have been used through them.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 22, 1862, p. 2

The Gibraltar Of Virginia

Our readers will remember that a private letter from Richmond, printed in these columns February 28th, from a gentleman whose opportunities of observation were among the best, stated positively that the rebels had less than 200,000 men in the field, and that their force on the line of the Potomac did not exceed sixty thousand men.  The latter particular of his intelligence has received singular confirmation within the last two days.  It is acknowledged by those who have examined the works of Manassas that an army encamped there, and which is for so many months occupied our own army of 200,000 men, and with its “Quaker” guns and ingenious boldness of pickets so deceived our military authorities – that this great Manassas did not really number six thousand men; while the “Gibraltar of Virginia” is nothing but an immense humbug. – It is not very surprising that Englishmen, who like Sir James Ferguson and others, visited the Manassas lines, and afterwards saw, within our own, what a vast force of the rebels were holding in check with their small army, went home despising the “Federals,” and full of admiration of the rebels and their faith in the success. – N. Y. Eve. Post, 18th.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 22, 1862, p. 1

Special to New York Papers

WASHINGTON, March 11. – Six Southern members voted “aye,” and nine “nay,” in the House to-day on the Presidents emancipation resolution.  The others from the border States were not in their seats.

(Herald’s dispatch.)

WASHINGTON, March 12. -  Before dark last night Col. Averill with a large body of cavalry entered the far famed rebel forts at Manassas and bivouacked for the night amid the ruins of the rebel strongholds.

The intelligence gathered at Manassas and in the night tends to show that the whole rebel army has retired southward.  It is not credited that they will attempt to make a stand near, as the country is open, level, and unpromising for defensive warfare.

The Opinion is gaining ground that Gordonsville was simply the rendezvous for what was lately the rebel army of the Potomac.  It is the junction of the Orange and Alexandria with the Virginia Central Railroad.  The only point at which they can with any sort of confidence attempt to make a stand is near the junction of the Frederick and Potomac with the Central Virginia Railroad, in which neighborhood the North Anna and South Anna river unite and form the Pamunkey river, about 20 miles directly north of Richmond.  At this point the country is much broken and admirably fitted for defense.

It is reported that in their retreat the rebels have destroyed the Railroad bridge across the north fork of the Rappahannock.  In their haste they have left behind straggling parties of soldiers, who seem to be very glad to be made prisoners.

Wherever they have gone it is evident that their army is completely disordered and utterly unfit for service.  The moral effect of the retreat from Manassas to Richmond will be the same throughout the South, as it is in this part of Virginia, and the impression prevails that the Southern Confederacy has collapsed, and many of the people thank God for it.

The forts are all abandoned, but log huts, hundreds in number, and ample to accommodate fully thirty thousand troops still remain – also a great number of tents; heaps of dead horses cover the fields in the vicinity.  The log huts are strewn all along between Centerville and Manassas.  The Railroad track is undisturbed, excepting the stone bridge across Bull Run on the Warren turnpike, is blown up, as also the bridge across Cabin Run, between Centerville and Manassas.

Everything at Manassas indicated the precipitate flight of the rebels.  Some caissons were found, but no guns; piles of bullets were left and an immense quantity of quarter master’s stores.  In one place were discovered about 30,000 bushels of corn, which had been set on fire, and was still smouldering.  Among the trophies are pack saddles, army orders, muskets, revolvers, bowie knives, letters, &c.  Over one thousand back saddles were found, all new and marked C. S. A.

People in the vicinity state that prior to the evacuation there were one hundred thousand troops at Manassas and Centerville.  Mounted on the works there were what appeared to be cannon, but, on examination, they proved to be wooden affairs got up for effect.

Two Pennsylvania cavalry regiments were the first of our troops entering.

At Brentsville, four miles south of Manassas, guards have been organized to protect themselves from the secessionists.

Gen. McClellan has taken up his quarters at Fairfax C. G.

A dispatch has been received here contradicting the announcement that Winchester was occupied by our troops, and stating that it is held by a rebel force.

It is believed here by the best informed critics on military affairs, that the rebels there are simply a portion of the force left there to cover the retreat of the main body of the rebels.  It is not probable any considerable force would be maintained in that part of Virginia, after the evacuation of Manassas, which commands the only Railroad avenue thence to Richmond.

(Post’s Dispatch.)

The Naval Committee of the Senate this morning agreed to report a bill at once for the appropriation of $15,000,000 for iron clad vessels of war.

Senator Grimes had just received a dispatch from Assistant Secretary of War, Fox, at Fortress Monroe, declaring his confident belief that the Monitor in her recent engagement with the Merrimac was entirely uninjured in the fight.  He expresses the opinion that another combat between the two vessels is certain and that the conflict will be terrific.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 3

Specials to the New York Papers

(Special to Tribune.)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 – Several days have passed since a gun has been fired from the rebel batteries on the lower Potomac, although numerous vessels have sailed by them.  Although rebel cannon seem to be in their places, it is doubted whether they are not blacked logs and whether the gunners have not left the banks of the Potomac.  Two Whitworth guns reached Gen. [Hooker] yesterday and will be used to ascertain the true facts of the case.

(World’s Dispatch.)

The indications in the Senate to-day are clearly in favor of the immediate passage of Senator Trumbull’s confiscation bill with an amendment freeing all slaves of rebels.

Senator Powell will deliver a speech to-morrow against the bill and take occasion to explain his present position as a Senator, it being understood that his views are inconsistent with his holding his seat at the present time.

The House Judiciary Committee are nearly agreed on a confiscation bill, but may possibly await the action of the Senate.

The tremendous gale that commence so furiously on Monday night has dried up the mud and prepared solid ground for our soldiers to march over.  Already a wonderful change has taken place and the soldiers are becoming confident that they are to move at last.

(Times Dispatch.)

Gen. McClellan received a dispatch an hour since from the West confirming the report that Nashville, Tennessee is taken by Gen. Buell’s army and stating that the rebels have fallen back to Murfreysboro [sic], about 30 miles south of Nashville.

The judgment of the court martial in the case of Col. James Kerrigan has been approved by Major General McClellan and a general order issued carrying it into effect.  The court did not find Kerrigan guilty of treason, but inefficiency and of conduct unbecoming an officer, in the gross neglected of his military duty, as manifested in the disorganized and disgraceful condition of his regiment.  Kerrigan was adjudged to be dismissed from the service.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26. – New mail routes are to be speedily opened in Tennessee and Kentucky.

The Senate bill authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to issue certificates of indebtedness to Government creditors whose accounts have been audited, will probably pass the house.

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

Letter From Orpheus C. Kerr

The Border State Conservatives – Capt. Villiam Brown’s Administration in Paris – His Treatment of the Contraband Question.

Correspondence N. Y. Sunday Mercury

The conservatives from the border States, my boy, look upon the Southern States as a brother, whom it is our duty to protect against the accursed designs of the fiendish abolitionists, who would make this war one of bloodshed. – They ignore all party feeling, support the Constitution as it was, in contradistinction to what it is, and object to any confiscation measure calculated to irritate our misguided brothers and sisters in that beautiful land where

The Suitor he goes to the planter so grand,

And “Give me your daughter,” says he

“For each unto other we’ve plighted our loves,

I love her and so she loves me,”

Says he,

“And married we’re wishing to be.”

The planter was deeply affected indeed,

Such touching affection to see,

“The giving I couldn’t afford, but I’ll sell

Her for six hundred dollars to thee,”

Says he,

“Her mother was worth that to me.”

Which I quote from a sweet ballad I recently found among some Rebel leavings at Yorktown.

These conservative patriots, my boy, remind me of a chap I once knew in the Sixth Ward.  A high moral chap, my boy, and full of venerable dignity.  One night the virtuous cuss doing business the next door to him, having just got a big insurance on his stock, and thinking himself safe for a flaming speculation, set fire to his own premises and then called “Murder” on the next corner.  Out came the whole Fire Department, only stopping to have two fights and a scrimmage on the way, and pretty soon the water was pouring all over every house in the street except the one on fire.  The high moral chap stuck his head out of the window, and says he “This fire ain’t in my house, and I don’t want no noise around this here residence.”  Upon this, some of our gallant firemen, who had just been in a fashionable drinking shop, not more than two blocks off, to see if any of the sparks had got in there, called to the chap to let him into his house, so that they might get at the conflagration more easily. – “Never!” says the chap, shaking his nightcap convulsively, “I didn’t set fire to Joneses, and I can’t have no Fire Department running around my entries.”

“See here, old blue pills,” says one of the firemen, pleasantly, “if you don’t let us in, you own crib will go down to blazes in ten minutes.”

But the dignified chap only shut down the window, and went to bed again, saying his prayer backwards.  I would not accuse a noble Department of violence, my boy, but in about three minutes there was a double back action machine standing in that chap’s front entry, with three inch streams out of all the back windows.  The fire was put out with only half a hose company killed and wounded, and next day there was a meeting to see what should be done with the incendiary when he was caught.  The high moral chap was at the meeting very early, and says he

“Let me advise moderation in this here unhappy matter.  I feel deeply interested,” says the chap with tears “for I assisted to put out the conflagration by permitting the use of my house by the firemen.  I almost feel,” says the genial chap, “like a fellow fireman myself.”

At this crisis a chap who was assistant engineer and also Secretary to the Board of Education arose and says he

“What are yer coughin about, old peg top?  Didn’t me and the fellers have to cave in your door with a night key wrench – sa-a-ay?  What are yer gassin’ about, then?  You did a muchness – you did!  Yes – slightually – in  a horn. – Now,” says the gallant fireman, with an agreeable smile, “if you don’t jest coil in your hose, and take the sidewalk very sudden, it’ll be my duty as a member of the department, to bust yer eye.”

I commend this chaste and rhetorical remark, my boy, to the attention of Border State Conservatives.

Since the occupation of Paris by the Mackerel Brigade, affairs there have been administered with great intellectual ability by Captain Villiam Brown, who has been appointed Provisional Governor, to govern the sale of provisions.

The city of Paris, my boy, as I told you lately, is laid out in one house at present, and since the discovery, that what were at first supposed to be Dahlgren guns by our forces were really a number of old hats with their rims cut off, laid in a row, on top of the earthworks, the democracy have stopped talking about the general of the Mackerel Brigade for next president.

The one house, however, was a boarding house, and though all the boards left at the approach of our troops it was subsequently discovered that all of them, save one, were good Union men, and were brutally forced to fly by that one Confederate miscreant.

When Villiam heard of the fate of these noble and oppressed patriots, my boy, he suffered a tear to drop into the tumbler he had just poured, and says he

“Just Hevings! Can this be so?  Ah?”  Says Villiam, lifting a bottle near by, to see that no rebel was concealed under it, “I will issue a proclamation calculated to conciliate the noble Union men of the Sunny South, and bring them back to those protecting folds which our inedycated forefathers folded themselves.”

Nobody believed it could be done, my boy – nobody believed it could be done, but Villiam understood his species and issued to following

PROCLAMATION

The Union men of the South are hereby informed that the United States of America has reasserted hisself, and will shortly open a bar room in Paris.  Also, cigars and other necessaries of life.  By order of

CAPTAIN VILLIAM BROWN, Eskevire.

‘There!’ says Villiam, ‘the human intellect may do what violence may fail to accomplish.  Ah!’ says Villiam, “mortal suasion is more majestick than any army with banners.”

In just half an hour after the above proclamation was issued, my boy, the hum of countless approaching voices called us to the ramparts.  A vast multitude was approaching.  It was the Union men of the South, my boy, who had read the manifesto of a beneficent Government, and were coming back to take the oath – with a trifle of sugar in it.

How necessary it is my boy, that men intrusted with important commands – Generals and Governors responsible for the pacification and welfare of misguided provinces – should understand just how and when to touch that sensitive chord to our common nature which vibrates responsively when man is invited to take something by his fellow man.

Scarcely had Villiam assumed his office and suppressed two reporters, when there were bro’t before him a fugitive contraband of the color of old meerschaum, and a planter from the adjacent county who claimed the slave.

“It’s me – that’s Misther Murphy – would be after axing your reverence to return the black crayture at once,” says the planter, “for its meself that owns him, and he runn’d away right under me nose and eyes as soon as me back was turned.”

“Ah!” says Villiam, blanancing a tumbler in his right hand.  “Are you a Southerner, Mr. Murphy?”

“yay sir,” says Mr. Murphy, “it’s that I am intirely.  Be the same token, I was raised and been in the shwate South – the South of Ireland.”

“Are you Chivalry?” says Villiam, thoughtfully.

“Is it Chivalry! – ah, but it’s that I am, and me father befoor me, and me childers that’s afther me.  If Chivalry was praties I could furnish a dinner to all the wur ruld, and have enough left to fade the pips.”

“Murphy is a French name,” says Villiam, drawing a copy of Vattel on International Law from his pocket and glancing at it, “but I will not dispute what you say.  You must do without your contraband, however, for slavery and martial law don’t agree together in the United States of America.”

‘Mr. Black,’ says Villiam, gravely, turning to the emancipated African, “you have come to the right shop for freedom.  You are from hence forth a free man and a brother in law.  You are now your own master,” says Villiam encouragingly, “and no man has a right to order you about.  You are in the full enjoyment of Heving’s best gift – Freedom!  Go and black my boots.”

The moral grandeur of this speech, my boy, so affected the Southern planter that he at once became a Union man, took the oath with the least bit of water in it, and asked permission to have his own boots blackened.

“O Liberty! Thou sacred name,

The bondsman’s hope, the poet’s dream,

From Pole to Pole extend the sway,

And travel through by steam.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 31, 1862, p. 1

How McClellan Took Manassas

BY OLD NAPOLEON

[Francis Suydam Hoffman]

Heard ye how the bold McClellan,

He, the wether with the bell on;

He, the head of all the asses —

Heard ye how he took Manassas?

When the Anaconda plucky

Flopped its tail in old Kentucky;

When up stream the gunboats paddled.

And the thieving Floyd skedaddled,

Then the chief of all the asses

Heard the word: “Go, take Manassas!”

2

Forty brigades wait around him,

Forty blatant trumpets sound him.

As the pink of all the heroes

Since the time of fiddling Neros.

"Now's the time," cry out the masses,

"Show your pluck and take Manassas!"

Contrabands come flocking to him:

"ho! the enemy flies — pursue him!"

"No," says George, "don't start a trigger

On the word of any nigger;

Let no more of the rascals pass us,

I know all about Manassas."

When at last a prowling Yankee —

No doubt long, and lean, and lanky —

Looking out for new devices,

Took the wooden guns as prizes,

Says he: "I sweow, ere daylight passes,

I 'l1 take a peep at famed Manassas."

3

Then up to the trenches boldly

Marched he — they received him coldly;

Nary reb was there to stop him,

Nary Minie ball to drop him.

Gathering courage, in he passes:

"Jerusalem! I've took Manassas."

Bold McClellan heard the story:

"Onward, men, to fields of glory;

Let us show the rebel foemen.

When we're Ready we're not slow, men;

Wait no more for springing grasses —

Onward! Onward! to Manassas!"

Baggage trains were left behind him,

In his eagerness to find them;

Upward the balloons ascended,

To see which way the rebels trended;

Thirty miles away his glasses

Swept the horizon round Manassas.

4

Out of sight, the foe, retreating,

Answered back no hostile greeting;

None could tell, as off he paddled,

Whitherward he had skedaddled.

Then the chief of all the asses

Cried: "Hurrah! I've got Manassas."

Future days will tell the wonder,

How the mighty Anaconda

Lay supine along the border,

With the mighty Mac to lord her:

Tell on shaft and storied brasses

How he took the famed Manassas.

SOURCE: Francis Suydam Hoffman, “How McClellan took Manassas,” Privately Printed, New York, 1864

From Washington

Special to the Chicago Tribune.

WASHINGTON, March 13.

Leonard F. Ross, Col. of the 17^th Illinois, and Capt. Ricketts, of the 1^st U. S. artillery, (the latter of whom was imprisoned some time at Richmond,) have been nominated Brigadier Generals.

A sub-committee of the conduct of the war committee visit Manassas to-day, to investigate the actual condition of that place, with a view to discover the enemy’s strength and defenses at the time when our Generals were still hesitating.

It is ascertained that a citizen of Massachusetts made the first advance on the rebel strongholds on Sunday morning.  Roving beyond our lines, he gradually neared Centerville, and seeing no enemy, he boldly marched within the entrenchments and contemplated with surprise the wooden guns with black mouths mounted there.  He pushed on to Manassas, and “occupied” both places until Monday, when he turned them over to the four corps d’armee.  His testimony has been taken by the conduct of the war committee.

Garrett Davis made almost a disunion speech in the Senate yesterday, on the bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, saying that Kentucky should be a “La Vendee” before she would submit to see slavery touched even in the cotton States by unconstitutional legislation or any other.  Mr. Hale, of N. H., continued the debate.

Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, from the House judiciary committee, reported a bill reorganizing the Supreme Court, as an amendment to the Senate bill.  The eighth circuit consists of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin; the ninth of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas.

Negroes are flocking in from Virginia by the hundreds.  It is estimated that at least one-tenth of the servile population of this section are freed by the retreat of the rebels.  All entertain the notion that their freedom follows the advance of our armies.  One gang of twenty-five arrived this morning.

All who were at Centreville agree that there was only a shadow of an army there.  No heavy guns were ever mounted except wooden ones.  The entrenchments on their flank and rear were feeble.  The railroad to Manassas is of poor construction.  Trees are cut down so as to disclose the plains of Manassas.  Part of the huts were burned; part were standing.  Among the spoils remaining were thousands of hides.  A deserter says that a regular mail from Washington via Alexandria, came twice or thrice weekly.

The House to-day discussed the first and second sections of the tax bill, the question whether any mode of collection through State machinery was practicable.  No vote was taken, but the inclination of the House seemed to favor collection by the United States.

Senator Grimes, of Iowa, made a vigorous and eloquent speech on the resolution giving thanks to Flag Officer Foote.  He was listened to with marked attention, and enforced congratulations from Senators of all shades of opinion.  He gave the Western navy its due – showed by documentary evidence that the credit of the plan of attack on Forts Henry and Donelson belonged to Capt. Foote, and that he would have taken Nashville the week before Buell did; and thus saved valuable stores, if he had been permitted by Gen. Halleck.  Mr. Grimes, enlarged upon the value of a navy to a free people, and incidentally alluded to the Monitor and the Merrimac fight as showing the value of iron-clad vessels, whose construction he (Grimes) had urged since he took his seat in the Senate.  He had also paid a handsome tribute to Lieut. Worden and Capt. Ericson.

The bill organizing the Territory of Arizona attaches the Wilmot Proviso to that and to all other Territories hereafter organized.  Ashley’s Territorial bill was defeated yesterday by the absence of Republicans.  Wilkinson will introduce the same bill from the Senate Territorial Committee, and it will probably come down to the House.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 1

From Washington

CHICAGO, March 12.

A special Washington dispatch to the Tribune says, it is believed that rebels have been evacuating Manassas for months back.

McClellan will to-morrow cease to be General-in-Chief.  Stanton will issue a general order, announcing the change.

Flag officer Dupont writes in a private letter that the rifled 120 pounder, captured at Fernandina, was a finer cannon than any we have.

A special to the Times, dated Centreville, 11^th, says this stronghold presents scenes of gloom and desolation rarely witnessed.  The rebels commenced evacuating on Saturday last, and continued until Sunday night.  They then blew up all the bridges and tore up railroad tracks, but during the latter part of the evacuation a terrible panic seems to have seized the rebels, they leaving in greatest haste, burning the remaining tents, forage, transportation and provisions.  In fact they destroyed everything they could not remove.

Most of their cannon have been carried away.  Those remaining are of inferior quality, but all spiked.  The fortifications are most formidable, stretching over a chain of hills in the rear of Centreville for several miles, one behind the other, at proper distances; so if we took one we would be at the mercy of the next.  They are all constructed with great skill, and command the surrounding country.

The fortifications at Manassas are not so formidable, appearing to be the same that were there when the Bull Run battle was fought.  Bomb-proof casemates were in those at Centerville.  Our cavalry entered the latter place during the night, and soon after reached Manassas Junction, hoisting the stars and stripes on the flag-staff.  It is evident the greater part of the rebels retreated to Culpepper Court House.  During Sunday night, the rebels on the lower Potomac fled in a panic by the Fredericksburg railroad to Richmond.  The country back of here for thirty miles is almost a perfect picture of desolation and destruction.  It is the prevailing impression that the rebels will not stop this side of Richmond.

A special dispatch from Cairo, 11^th to the Tribune, says: A brigade of our troops went around new Madrid Saturday last and arrived on Sunday at a small settlement on the Mississippi, called Point Pleasant, about ten miles below the former place, and took possession of it.

The occupation of this place by our troops cuts off communication of the rebels at New Madrid.

The bridges upon the Cairo and Fulton Railroad are repaired, and trains run regularly from Bird’s Point to Sykeston.

Authentic news received at Headquarters say the rebels are strongly fortifying Island No. 10.  Gunboats are thoroughly prepared for the emergency.  Mortars are also in readiness.

The transport Hiawatha arrived this p.m. laden down with Iowa troops; destination up the Tennessee.

The Times’ Cairo special dispatch says an arrival from below says the rebels will make a desperate stand at Fort Pillow.  They have the river fortified for three quarters of a mile.

Large numbers of sick from the 51^st Ill. regiment arrived last night.  The regiment is now with Gen. Pope.  Waterhouse’s Chicago battery is now encamped just north of the city.  28 are on the sick list.

Brig. Gen. Cullum, Chief of Gen. Halleck’s staff and Chief Engineer of the department of Missouri, returns to St. Louis immediately, his heath rendering a change necessary.  Gen. Strong relieves him.

WASHINGTON, March 11.

Dispatches from Fort Monroe this evening state that all was quiet.  No information has been obtained about the Merrimac’s injuries.  She reached Norfolk Sunday evening.

There is evidence that the main body of the rebel army left Manassas nearly two weeks ago.

The roads in Virginia are improving.

It is believed that a portion of the rebels who evacuated Centreville were ordered to reinforce Winchester.

The forces under Gens. Hamilton and Williams, constituting a reconnoisance, arrived at Stephenson’s depot, five miles from Winchester, this evening, without serious opposition.

WASHINGTON, March 11.

Six Southern men voted aye, and nine nay, in the House to-day, on the President’s emancipation resolution.  The others from the border States were not in their seats.

Herald’s Dispatch

Before dark, last night, Col. Averill, with a large body of cavalry, entered the far-famed rebel works at Manassas, and bivouacked for the night under the ruins of the rebel stronghold.

The intelligence gathered at Manassas and in the neighborhood tends to show that the whole rebel army has retired southward. – It is not credited that they will attempt to make a stand near, as the country is open, level, and unpromising for defensive warfare.

The opinion is gaining ground that Gordonsville was simply the rendezvous for what was lately the rebel army of the Potomac, as it is the junction of the Orange and Alexandria with the Virginia Central R. R.  The only point at which they can, with any sort of confidence, attempt to make a stand is near the junction of the Frederick and Potomac with the Central Virginia railroad, in which neighborhood the North Anna and South Anna rivers united and form the Pamunkey river about twenty miles north of Richmond.  At this point the country is much broken and admirably adapted for defense.

It is reported that in their retreat the rebels have destroyed the railroad bridge across the north fork of the Rappahannock.  In their haste they have left behind straggling parties of soldiers, who seem to be very glad to be made prisoners.  Wherever they have gone, it is evident that their army is completely demoralized and totally unfit for service.  The moral effect of the retreat from Manassas to Richmond will be the same throughout the South as it is in this part of Virginia, and the impression prevails that the Southern Confederacy has collapsed, and many of the people thank God for it.

The forts are all abandoned, but log houses, hundreds in number and ample to accommodate fully 30,000 troops, still remain.  Also immense numbers of tents and heaps of dead horses cover the fields in the vicinity.  The log huts are strewn all along between Centreville and Manassas.  The railroad track is undisturbed, except the bridge across Bull Run, on the Warrenton turnpike, is blown up; as also the bridge across Cab river between Centreville and Manassas indicated to the precipitate fight of the rebels.  Some caissons were found, but no guns.  Piles of bullets and cartridges were left, and an immense quantity of Quartermaster’s stores.  In one place were discovered about 30,000 bushels of corn, which had been set fire and was still smouldering.  Among the trophies are pack saddles, army orders, muskets, revolvers, bowie knives, letters, &c.  Over 1,000 pack saddles were found, all new and marked C. S. A.

People in the vicinity state that prior to the evacuation there were 100,000 troops at Manassas and Centerville.  Covering the breastworks were what appeared to be cannon, but on examination they proved to be wooden affairs, got up for effect.

Two Pennsylvania cavalry regiments were the first Union troops entering Centerville at Brentsville, four miles from Manassas.

A home guard had been organized to protect themselves against the secessionists.

Gen. McClellan has taken up his quarters at Fairfax Court House.

A Dispatch has been received here contradicting the announcement that Winchester was occupied yesterday by our troops and stating that it is held by a rebel force.

It is believed here by the best informed critics on military affairs that the rebels there are simply a portion of the Virginia militia, left there to cover the retreat of the main body of the rebels.  It is not probably that nay considerable force would be maintained in that part of Virginia after the evacuation of Manassas, which commands the only railroad avenue thence to Richmond.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, March 13, 1862, p. 2

How the Three Iowa Regiments Happened to be Captured

A Correspondent of the Dubuque Times gives the following explanation of the manner of the capture of the 8th, 12th and 14th at the battle of Pittsburgh:

PITTSBURGH LANDING, April 10.

DEAR TIMES – Though the news of our fight at Pittsburg Landing will reach you long ere this does, I will venture a line. The whistling of bullets is not as unpleasant as I had anticipated. But for their effect, the [music] would be exhilarating. The Rebels attacked us on last Sunday morning, with Beauregard in command. The army on both sides was immense, and the carnage commensurate. The battle field was six miles long, and the range of the Minies [sic] and Dahlgreens [sic] will indicate the width.

On Sunday about 7 o’clock p.m. one portion of the line of our troops composed of several Iowa Regiments with Ohio troops on one flank, and Illinois troops on the other, seemed to be a point of special attack. The enemy charged with both infantry and cavalry. In this hour of peril, when every man ought to do or die, the Ohio and Illinois troops fell back, or rather took to their heels and fled, leaving the line something in the shape of a U, the middle of the letter being represented by the Eighth, Twelfth, and Fourteenth Iowa. This conduct on the part of the right and left flanks, while the Iowa boys stood their ground, gave the advancing enemy a chance to surround our boys which they were not slow to improve; and though they fought bravely, they could not escape. And they fought, till their officers saw that to continue the struggle was to sacrifice all the noble lives entrusted to their keeping, so what could they do but surrender?

Even then it was with difficulty that the boys could be induced to cease fighting, many of them preferring certain death to surrender.

But it was inevitable, and now those three noble Iowa regiments above named, are prisoners.

Where, in the meantime, were the troops who ought to have stood by the Iowa boys? Away down at the steamboat landing, huddled together like frightened sheep to the number of thousands!! And there they staid, and even refused to return at the command of distinguished officers, until the General in command ordered our own gun boats to commence shelling them if they remained disobedient!!!

Mr. Editor, these are rather stubborn facts more so because the organs of military renown, especially of Illinois, have sought of late to claim all the bravery for their own men.

On Sunday night, reinforcements under Gen. Buell began to arrive, and continued to pour in all day Monday. Beauregard found he had more than his match; and after a hard and very fruitless cope with the Western portion of the far famed “Anaconda,” he fled in ignominious disgrace on the evening of Monday. Our forces at once set out in hot pursuit – and further this deponent saith not.

We have had a hard battle, and the name of the dead and wounded, on both sides, is legion.

It is to be presumed that while we were engaged, “all was quiet on the Potomac,” but I assure you we had something to deal with besides wooden cannon.

Doubtless many will write, fully and truly, about the fight; but I took up my pen to tell you how it was that three Iowa regiments were successfully circumvented by armed rebellion in front, and cowardly perfidy in the rear; and having accomplished my truthful task, I add no more.

- Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 26, 1862, p. 2

Washington Correspondence

WASHINGTON, April 15, 1862.

Was the battle at Pittsburgh a victory, or was it not a victory? Did the secretary of War “put his foot in it,” in making it the subject of devout thanksgiving, or did he not? These are about the commonest questions agitated here just now. I think the general judgment is very clearly – certainly it is mine – that it was a victory, but not one to brag about, very much; and that Secretary Stanton was a little more hasty and inconsiderate than the occasion justified, in the extent and character of his thanks.

Mrs. Harlan and Mrs. Fales from Iowa, left here a few days ago for Pittsburg, to assist in the nursing of our wounded soldiers. Mrs. Harlan is the wife of our estimable Senator, and has all the season manifested a practical interest in the welfare of our soldiers. Of Mrs. Fales I desire to speak especially, for she is deserving of public notice. She is the wife of Mr. Joseph T. Fales, and was formerly a resident of Burlington. Her husband is an Assistant Examiner in the Patent Office. From the first arrival of troops here, she has devoted her attention exclusively to alleviating the sufferings of the sick and wounded. Day and night she has been wherever her services were most needed, and I have been greatly surprised that she or any other woman was physically able to endure such incessant and exhausting labor. Nevertheless she goes about her business with a daily renewed vigor, not with any desire for notoriety, but under a sense of plain Christian duty. And she brings to the discharge of her duties and unusual fund of practical good sense and efficiency.

Our friend Samuel F. Miller, of Iowa, has just left here. If a new circuit is created west of the Mississippi, he will be a candidate for nomination to the Supreme Bench of the United States. I think you will agree with me that there are few men who, in all respects, are better fitted for the position, and certainly to men of our ways of thinking few would be more satisfactory. I would be very glad to swap off for him any member now sitting on that Bench.

The speech of Senator Grimes on the connection of negroes with the army, yesterday, meets with much applause from all those who have a realizing sense of the condition and tendency of things. It goes to the root of the matter, and many of those to whom his ideas are distasteful think – “fear,” they say – that “to this complexion must we come at last.” The delay in traveling towards the goal to which we are traveling and must travel, is costing us an amount of debt and blood that, in the retrospect, will cause us to shudder, and to ask why we should have been so blind, so reluctant, and so cowardly.

The next encounter with the Merrimac is awaited with the liveliest interest here, and I am persuaded is also a matter of much fear at the Navy Department, notwithstanding the bold face that is assumed. Several new kinds of shot have been provided for the Monitor, among them shells with a liquid that takes fire on explosion, similar to, or the same as, those that have been experimentally exploded there during the winter. Of their frightful nature, I have been witness. Water has no effect in quenching their flames.

The Com. Levy, of the Navy, who was buried with such honors in New York, two or three weeks ago, was a Jew, and the possessor of the homestead of Thomas Jefferson, “Monticello.” He was very rich. He has not, however, been allowed to enjoy the estate of Mr. Jefferson, as having married his own niece, the gentlemen of the region notified him, on its purchase, that he could not be allowed to live among them, on account of this marital alliance, at which they expressed an exceeding disgust. They gave him the privilege of residing on it one month in the year, merely that he might be able to look after its condition. A short time since it was “confiscated” by Virginia, though the Union army are likely soon to bring it back for the benefit of his heirs.

It would seem strange, that people, and a daily paper, right here in this city, should, as they do, vehemently maintain, even yet, that there were no wooden guns at Centerville, and try to bring those into contempt and ridicule who maintain the fact. And strange, too, that such a journal as Harper’s Weekly, that must know the facts should persistently lampoon and caricature, in the must imprudent and malignant manner people of character for asserting and insisting on the veracity of the statement. There are hundreds here who saw those guns. Mr. Julian, of the War Committee, told me he saw them himself, and should have counted them if he ever supposed their existence would have been questioned. Mr. Elbert, from Iowa, just appointed Secretary of Colorado, was there early with his brother, who is an officer in the army, and tells me the same thing; and that it was apparent that they had long been there, - in fact no other guns could stand upon their foundations without breaking through. Surely the partisanship of McClellan must be very blind and bitter to need the denial of such indisputable facts. Still, perhaps I am myself quite as unreasonable in the other extreme, for it is my deliberate and unimpassioned opinion that the war has not disclosed and cannot disclose such another stupendous humbug as Gen. McClellan. I greatly fear an unfortunate result in the limited (though immensely important) field to which his department has finally been reduced, though the extent and character of his force together with the completeness of its equipment give me a moderate degree of assurance that the campaign cannot fail.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 26, 1862, p. 1

The Quaker gun question is settled.

Rev. H. Mattison of New York says he counted eleven of them in the Centerville fortifications, and has shipped one of them to New York.

– Published in the Burlington Daily Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, April 9, 1862