Farewell Address of Major-General John A. Dix to the Middle Department, June 1, 1862

Head quarters, Middle Department, Baltimore, Md., June 1,1862.

General Orders, No. 14:

The Major-general commanding, having received orders to repair to Fort Monroe and assume the command at that point, and having but two hours to prepare for his departure, takes leave of the troops under his command in the only mode left to him — through the medium of a General Order.

Of the corps composing his command when he first assumed it, more than ten months ago, two regiments — the Third New York Volunteers, under Colonel Alford; the Fourth New York Volunteers, under Colonel Taylor; and the regular garrison of Fort McHenry, under Colonel Morris — are all that remain. The admirable discipline of these deserves the highest commendation; and he returns to all his sincere thanks for their promptitude and fidelity in the performance of their duties.

It is a source of great regret to him that he is compelled to leave without being able to review the regiments of New York Militia — the Seventh, Eighth, Thirteenth, Twenty-second, Thirty-seventh, and Forty-seventh — which, under a second appeal from the Chief Magistrate of the Union, have laid aside their various occupations on the briefest notice, at great personal sacrifice, and, hurrying to the field, are now occupying positions in and around Baltimore. In their patriotism and their devotion to the Government of their country the Union feeling of the city will meet with a cordial sympathy. It is a great alleviation of the regret with which the Major-general commanding parts with them, that he is soon to be succeeded by a distinguished general officer of the regular army from their own State. In the interim the command of the Department devolves on Brigadier-general Montgomery, United States Volunteers.

The Major-general commanding cannot forbear, in taking leave of the citizens of Baltimore, among whom his duties have been discharged, to express the grateful sense he will ever retain of the aid and encouragement he has received from those of them who have been true, under all the vicissitudes of a wicked and unnatural contest, to the cause of the Union. The ladies of the Union Relief Association are entitled to a special acknowledgment of his obligations to them. It is believed that the records of philanthropic devotion do not contain a brighter example of self-sacrificing service than that which is to be found in their own quiet and unobtrusive labors. The military hospitals have, from the commencement of the war, borne unceasing testimony to their untiring zeal and sympathy. The wounded prisoners of the insurgent army have, like our own, been solaced in their dying hours by the ministrations of these devoted ladies: nobly suggesting to the misguided masses who are in arms against the Government that suffering humanity, under whatever circumstances it may present itself, has the same claim on our common nature for sympathy and ministering care. And it is to be hoped that this lesson of magnanimity may not be without its proper influence on those who, under the influence of bad passions, seem to have lost sight of their moral responsibility for indifference and cruelty.

It is a source of great gratification to the Major-general commanding that in the eight months during which the municipal police was under his control no act of disorder disturbed the tranquillity of the city, and that the police returns, compared with those of a corresponding period of the previous year, exhibit a very great reduction, in some months as high as fifty per cent., in the aggregate of misdemeanors and crimes. The police having on the 20th of March last been surrendered to the city authorities, they have since then been responsible for the preservation of the public order. The zeal and promptitude of the Police Commissioners and Marshal of Police on the occurrence of a recent disturbance, provoked by a brutal expression of disloyal feeling, gives earnest of their determination to arrest at the outset all breaches of the public peace, which, by whatever provocation they may seem to be palliated, are sure to degenerate, if unchecked, into discreditable and fatal excesses.

The Major-general commanding, with this imperfect acknowledgment of his obligations to the loyal citizens of Baltimore and their patriotic defenders, tenders to them all, with his best wishes, a friendly and cordial farewell.

By order of Major-general Dix.

Danl. T. Van Buren, Colonel and Aide-de-camp.

SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 47-8

From Washington

WASHINGTON, March 24.

Col. Segur representative from the Accomac district, arrived here this evening, confirming the intelligence about the destruction of the Privateer Nashville, and Fort Macon, by the rebels.

Times’ Correspondence

The commission on State prisoners will to-morrow take up the case of the celebrated Mrs. Greenough [sic], who will probably be transferred from a State prison to a lunatic asylum.

Gen. Montgomery has been transferred from his post as military governor of Alexandria and placed in a like command at Annapolis.

Painful rumors have been afloat for two days affecting a prominent officer in the civil department of the government.  We are promised the denouncement this week.

It is not true that the steamer Vanderbilt has been purchased by the Government to be altered to an iron-clad vessel.  She is merely charted for a short time as transport.

The commanding officer at Fort Craig writes to the Government that he has not a doubt of being able to hold that post.

Tribune Correspondence.

It is rumored that Green Clay will be transferred from the Secretaryship of Legation at St. Petersburg to that at Turin, the present incumbent, Mr. Fry, having resigned on account of ill health.

Dr. John Evans, of Chicago, has been nominated and confirmed as Governor of Colorado Territory, vice Gov. Gilpin.

Stephen S. Harding, of Ind., was, on Friday, nominated Governor of Utah, vice Gov. Dawson, rejected.

Small squads of rebel horsemen are scouring the country within five miles of Manassas, impressing all the able bodied men left, robbing the former for the hundredth time, and destroying what they can’t carry away.

The Saturday’s work of the ways and means committee on demands of delegations for modifications of the tax bill, was to put a 3 per cent ad valorem charge upon paper of every description; to adopt the schedules on leather substantially as they were presented to the committee by Mr. Alley, a tanner and a member of the House; to fix the rate on hoop skirts, umbrellas, and parasols, at 5 per cent ad valorem; on ready made clothing, at 3 per cent ad valorem; to leave salt as is in the bill; and after long discussion, to let the tax as first reported on tobacco and all its manufacturers stand unaltered.  The tax on billiard tables was reduced half to ten dollars a year; on rock oil, petroleum and coal oils, the only change was of phraseology, so that gas, tar, and the products from redistillation shall not be changed; for brokers the committee took off the tenth of one per cent on their stock sales, thinking that through their use of powers of attorney, transferred stamps and other assessable incidents of the business, they would get taxed enough.  Flour was not disposed, the desire to tax it of course duly exists of; the only difficulty in fixing the rate has been presented by the Canadian reciprocity treaty.  The belief has at least obtained in committee that flour can be taxed by branding the barrels and taxing the sales without violating the stipulations of that treaty; the charge on the gross receipts of horse railroads was reduced one half; it was decided not to tax coal at all; because it enters into the business and domestic life of nearly the whole nation.

During the discussions on the bill the work on the tariff progresses.  Reference is continually had to it, when an article is tax for internal revenue; at the same time an equivalent customs entry is placed on the tax list.  This principle will be adhered to throughout.

Herald’s Dispatch.

The party which left here on Tuesday ot look for the remains. Of Col. Slocum, Major Ballou, and Capt. tower of the 2d Rhode Island regiment, killed at Bull Run, returned this morning bringing their remains.  The party was composed of Gov. Sprague, Col. Arnold, Mr. Walter Coleman, his secretary Tristram Burges, Lieut. Col. Sayles and Capt. Dennison and Surgeon Greely, of the R. I. Cavalry, accompanied by two of the R. I. volunteers, who had been twin prisoners at Bull Run, and had noted the place where the officers were buried.  The party arrived Friday at Sudley’s Church.

Col. Slocum and Maj. Ballou were buried in the yard of a building near by, which was used as a hospital on the day of the battle.  This building had been destroyed by the rebels, but the graves were found.  After they had commenced to dig a negro girl inquired if they were digging for the body of Col. Slocum, and stated that about six weeks after the battle some soldiers of a Georgia regiment had dug it up, cut off the head, and buried the body at the side of the run close by, and taken the coffin away to bury a dead negro.  Her story was corroborated by a white boy and a white man who lived in the same neighborhood.  On repairing to the spot indicated, there was found a pile of ashes and bones, which were pronounced by the surgeon to be human. – Col. Slocum had been buried in a box, and Maj. Ballou in a coffin.  Upon opening the graves the box was recognized by Mr. Richardson, who was present at the interment, and the remains in it were identified as Col. Slocum.  Upon opening the other grave it was found to be empty, showing that the body dug up and burned by the Georgia barbarians was that of Maj. Ballou, only those two having been buried in that yard.

Gen. Hitchcock is here, aiding the war department by his advice.

Senator Lane, of Ind., has received advices from Savannah, Tenn., of the formation of a Union regiment in Alabama.

The Republican asserts that the President has remove Gen. Denver from the command of the department of Kansas.

The entire national debt is now four hundred millions of dollars.

The Senate to-day confirmed about 400 army appointment, principally of minor ranks.  Among them in the Adjutant General’s office department is R. J. Wagoner, of Ky.; Assistant Ad.t. Gen., with rank of Captain.  The only two Brigadier Generals of volunteers confirmed are Wm. K. Strong and Col. Mahon M. Monson [sic], of Ind.

Postmaster General Blair to-day issued the following notice to the Postmasters of the U. S.:

“The Secretary of War now regulates the transmission of information by telegraph affecting the conduct of the war.  In order to prevent the communication of such information to the rebels, it is also thought necessary by the secretary to put restrictions on the publication of facts of this character, however derived, and the aid of this department is requested for this purpose.

“You will therefore notify publishers not to publish any fact which has been excluded from the telegraph and that a disregard of this order will subject the paper to be excluded from the mails.

Signed,

M. BLAIR, P. M. Gen.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 25, 1862, p. 1

From Washington

NEW YORK, Feb. 13.

The Tribune’s Washington Correspondent says of Gen. Stone that he used to have stolen interviews with the rebels, and that a package on at least one occasion, was seen to pass from him to them. He, with surly words, refused a pass to the widow of a volunteer, who wished to seek for the body of her husband within the enemy’s lines, but in the case of the rebel ladies, who on frivolous pretexts desired to go and come, he was all urbanity, and freely gave passes – passes, too, which covered trunks not to be examined.

The Senate military committee will report, at their next meeting, a reorganization of the medical department of the army, increasing the number of surgeons and other members of the service, and making it a separate department.

Gen. Montgomery, military governor of Alexandria, is abusing his office by releasing rebels arrested by his subordinates. Not content with allowing Rev. Mr. Stewart to omit the prayer for the President from the service, he set him at liberty after his arrest on account of the treasonable omission.

The Alexandria Chronicle says much excitement has been occasioned by the arrest of Rev. Mr. Stewart, who in spite of remonstrances and warning, persisted in parading his rebel proclivities in the pulpit.


(World’s Dispatch)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12.

A well known Citizen here, named Magruder, a shoe dealer, was arrested to-day on a charge of treason, he having been communicating with the enemy. The charges against him in this respect are alleged to be very serious.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13.

The sergeant at arms pursuant to an order by the house of Representatives, has placed Henry Wikoff in close confinement, selecting the guard house in the Capitol for that purpose. Mr. Wikoff said to-day that this was a kind of capital punishment that he had not anticipated.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 14, 1862, p. 1

From Washington

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10.

Ethan Allen Hitchcock was to-day appointed Major General. He is a grandson of Ethan Allen of ‘Reverend’ fame and one of the ‘Praise God Barebones’ kind, being equally effective in praying and fighting. He has the highest reputation for military capacity. Gen. H. is already a veteran in the service, having been Colonel of the 2d Infantry, and having ranked as brevet until within the past two or three years, since when he has been in private life. Gens. Abercrombie and Montgomery were his Lieutenant Colonel and Major, respectively, in old time. He has been urged for this appointment for months.

Efforts to discredit the well-authenticated fact that Gen. McClellan is to be reduced to the command of the army of the Potomac are futile. ‘Ion,’ of the Baltimore Sun, this morning, confirms my statement to that effect.

The nomination of Gen. Sigel as Major General will be sent to the Senate to-morrow.

Maj. Gen. Ethan Allen Hitchcock was confirmed to-day.

Dr. Ives one of the principal editorial writers of the N. Y. Herald, who has been here temporarily for the purpose of reorganizing its Washington Department and acting himself as its chief correspondent, was arrested to-day, by order of Secretary Stanton, and sent to Fort McHenry. He is suspected of being a rebel spy. He has a brother in the rebel army.

Maj. General Hitchcock is now living in retirement at St. Louis. He has been telegraphed to take immediate command at Cairo. He was Assistant Adjutant General to Gen. Scott, and Brigadier General Brevet in Mexico, but offending Jeff. Davis was forced to resign. He is not a slave catcher. His appointment was urgently advocated by Mr. Collamer. He is spoke of as one of the greatest military men in the country.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, February 12, 1862, p. 1