Sorghum

(For the Burlington Hawk-Eye.)

MR. EDITOR:– Please give this scrap a place in your paper.  It may be of advantage to somebody.

In regard to the Chinese Cane, the following points may be relied on as of essential importance.

In the first place, the Cane seed should be planted early in the season, the earlier the better, after the ground is sufficiently dry and warm to promote germination.  The late planted Cane is always inferior.  It produces less saccharine.  The quality is inferior, the syrup is more difficult to preserve free from undue acidity.

Much care should be taken as to the quality of soil selected for the Cane.

The rich prairie soil should by all means be eschewed, when say other can be had.  The best soil is the clayey soil of the timber land with a mixture of sand.  When that cannot be had, select the eldest and longest cultivated prairie soil.  No matter if it is too much worn to produce corn, it will be all the better for cane. – But in all cases the soil should be loose and well pulverized.

The greatest care should be taken to obtain pure seed.  A great portion of the cane seed used in the country is sadly mixed.  Out of more than thirty different lots of cane that we worked last fall, there were not more than four or five but what were more or less mixed with other plants.  The great pests of Sorghum are the broom-corn and the chocolate, or coffee-corn.  They will very soon utterly ruin it.  The cane will mix with these articles a mile off.  That is it will mix just as far as the light pollen of the blossom can be carried by the wind.  It will mix with common corn, provided its blossoms are out at the same time with those of the corn.  The quality of the cane is greatly impaired by being left to grow among the coarse, rank weeds of the field.  What is quite as inferior in quality and value as any of the other mixtures is that mongrel sort of article produced by the mixture of the Sorghum with the Imphia, or African Cane.

Treat the Sorghum properly, grow it on suitable soils, cultivate it well, and harvest it at the proper time, and it will yield sugar or molasses of as fine and excellent quality as any variety of cane that grows in any climate or country whatsoever.

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

We have two or three very disloyal Episcopal clergymen . . .

. . . in Washington and Georgetown.  They refuse to offer up the prayers which their bishop has prepared for them, thanking God for the late victories over the rebels!  Two clergymen in Washington refused last Sunday to read the prayer.  One in Georgetown read it with a protest, several women of the congregation bouncing out of the church in sublime anger!  It is very singular what a hold this rebellion has upon a class of women in this city. – They descend to the most abominable dirtiness of spirit in their conduct.  There is nothing noble, nothing heroic, in their conduct, and but one thing will cure them.  Let. Gov. Wadsworth order them to pack up their baggage and be off to Dixie, and if any real estate is left let the Government seize it – and this would make short work with fashionable treason here.  These petticoated fiends (for many of them are downright fiends) have had their own way long enough, and it is about time to compel them to go to the people they say they love so well.  On the street upon which I live there are at least twenty female secessionists, full blown, rabid, and some of them unquestionably engaged in the spy business.  Yet the government threatens the loyal newspapers, and is exceedingly tender of these female spies. – Wash. Letter.

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

A Prophet

Richard C. Mason, Sr., of Baltimore, a sound Union man, put the following prophecy on record on the 16th day of April, 1861.  He is a director of the Associated Fireman’s Insurance Company of Baltimore, the majority being [rank secessionists].  Being appealed to for his opinion of what would be the result or end of the rebellion made the following predication which was placed on record at the time by the President:

THE PREDICTION.

“I, Richard C. Mason, Sen., of Baltimore, on this 17th day of April, 1862, predict: That the Union of these States will be preserved; that the Constitution will be maintained inviolate; that the laws of the land will be enforced; that the secessionists will be awfully whipped; and that the Stars and Stripes, the sacred emblem of liberty, will again and forever wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

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

The citizens of Cincinnati cannot . . .

. . . brook the outrage perpetrated upon the good name of their city by the recent mob at the Opera House on the occasion of the appearance of Wendell Phillips, and so have sent him an invitation to repeat his lecture in that city on his return east, when they pledge themselves to “see him through.”  Mr. Phillips will probably accept the invitation.

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

Among the prisoners taken at Pea Ridge was . . .

. . . the Rev. Marcus Arrington, of the S. M. E. Church.  He had taken the oath of allegiance, but violated it without hesitation.  One can scarcely avoid the revelation that if ministers of the gospel, in the rebellion, so lightly regard the oath of allegiance and the promise not to take up arms against the government, it is of very little use to administer it to those who are supposed to have less regard for moral obligations and the sacredness of an oath in the sight of heaven.

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

The Secesh

The secesh in Kentucky are quite lively.  They are more demonstrative just now than they have been at any time since the extinction of Kentucky neutrality.  The reason is, the encouragement they received in the North.  They mark the increasing disloyalty of the considerable portion of the Northern press, and the growing partizanism, and are impressed that their day is coming.  They had better not lay that flattering unction to their souls.  The great mass of the people of the North are sincerely devoted and committed for life and death to the cause of the Union, which means the subjugation of the rebellion, and if every insurrectionary State has to suffer complete devastation in order to put down the insurgents, why it will be devastated.

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

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, February 19, 1862

News came that Roanoke Island has been taken by our men. It is reported that our company will leave for California, Missouri, in three or four days and all are rejoicing that our stay here is about over.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33

In The Review Queue: Standing Firmly by the Flag

Standing Firmly by the Flag:

Nebraska Territory and the Civil War, 1861-1867

By James E. Potter

From a pool of barely nine thousand men of military age, Nebraska—still a territory at the time—sent more than three thousand soldiers to the Civil War. They fought and died for the Union cause, were wounded, taken prisoner, and in some cases deserted. But Nebraska’s military contribution is only one part of the more complex and interesting story that James E. Potter tells in Standing Firmly by the Flag, the first book to fully explore Nebraska’s involvement in the Civil War and the war’s involvement in Nebraska’s evolution from territory to thirty-seventh state on March 1, 1867.

Although distant from the major battlefronts and seats of the warring governments, Nebraskans were aware of the war’s issues and subject to its consequences. National debates about the origins of the rebellion, the policies pursued to quell it, and what kind of nation should emerge once it was over echoed throughout Nebraska. Potter explores the war’s impact on Nebraskans and shows how, when Nebraska Territory sought admission to the Union at war’s end, it was caught up in political struggles over Reconstruction, the fate of the freed slaves, and the relationship between the states and the federal government.

ISBN 978-0803240902, Bison Books, © 2012, Paperback, 400 pages, Maps, Photographs, & Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $29.95Show More

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General Orders, No. 10

HEADQUARTERS DEP’T OF THE MISSISSIPPI,

ST. LOUIS, March 28 , 1862

I.  It having been reported that shippers and carriers of goods have recently violated the regulations for the transportation and trade of the Department of the Missouri, established in January last, claiming that said regulations had been revoked, notice is hereby given that General Order, No. 61 of the Department of the Missouri, current series, revoking General Orders of March 3d and 6th of same series, does not, in any manner, affect the regulations of January last, which regulations for the transportation and trade will be enforced in all parts of the present Department of the Mississippi, except reconquered territory, the trade of which is regulated by the license system promulgated by the Secretary of the Treasury in his circular of March 4th.

II.  The orders of officers in the Customs within this Department when in conformity with the regulations of January last, and the instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury, must be complied with by shippers and carries; and it is directed that all military officers assist in their enforcement.

III.  In view of the rapid extension of steamboat navigation into disloyal States, the importance of having the boats engaged in such navigation controlled by loyal citizens, it is ordered that all licenses to pilots and engineers, navigating the waters of this Military Department, be revoked, from and after the 15th proximo, and that said pilots and engineers take out new licenses from the “Supervising Inspector,” who will only grant license to persons of approved loyalty; or, in case of doubt, will require bond with security for the loyal conduct of such engineers and pilots.

By Command of Major General Halleck.

N. H. McLEAN,

Assistant Adjutant General.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Sigel At Pea Ridge

Columbus N. Udell, son of Dr. Udell of the Senate, is a member of Col. Bussey’s Cavalry Regiment, and was in the late battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas.  Writing to his mother he says that the Federal army was largely indebted to Franz Sigel for the victory which they won.  For nearly two days they had been surrounded by the superior numbers of the enemy, when Sigel planned and executed a ruse, the result of which really settled the fortunes of the battle.  He commanded his artillerymen to load their guns with blank cartridges.  As the enemy approached, the guns were fired, but not a single man was seen to fall.  A half a dozen times was this repeated, until the rebels concluded that the federals had exhausted their ammunition, and they therefore made an indiscriminate rush upon the federal battery.  Sigel withheld his fire until the enemy had got into the right position, and then hurled such a storm of grape and canister among them that mowed them down like grass.  No body of men could face such a murderous fire, and the rebels in that portion of the field were put to utter rout.

No wonder such a man has been made a Major General. – {Des Moines Register.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, February 18, 1863

CAMP BEFORE VICKSBURG, Feb. 18, 1863.

My Dear Brother:

. . . We have reproached the South for arbitrary conduct in coercing their people — at last we find we must imitate their example. We have denounced their tyranny in filling their armies with conscripts, and now we must follow her example. We have denounced their tyranny in suppressing freedom of speech and the press, and here too in time we must follow their example. The longer it is deferred the worse it becomes. Who gave notice of McDowell's movement on Manassas, and enabled Johnston so to reinforce Beauregard that our army was defeated? The press. Who gave notice of the movement on Vicksburg? The press. Who has prevented all secret combinations and movements against our enemy? The press. . . .

In the South this powerful machine was at once scotched and used by the rebel government, but at the North was allowed to go free. What are the results? After arousing the passions of the people till the two great sections hate each other with a hate hardly paralleled in history, it now begins to stir up sedition at home, and even to encourage mutiny in our armies. What has paralyzed the Army of the Potomac?  Mutual jealousies kept alive by the press. What has enabled the enemy to combine so as to hold Tennessee after we have twice crossed it with victorious armies? What defeats and will continue to defeat our best plans here and elsewhere? The press. I cannot pick up a paper but tells of our situation here, in the mud, sickness, and digging a canal in which we have little faith. But our officers attempt secretly to cut two other channels — one into Yazoo by an old pass and one through Lake Providence into Tensas, Black, Red, &c., whereby we could turn not only Vicksburg, Port Hudson, but also Grand (Gulf), Natchez, Ellis Cliff, Fort Adams and all the strategic points on the main river, and the busy agents of the press follow up and proclaim to the world the whole thing, and instead of surprising our enemy we find him felling trees and blocking passages that would without this have been in our possession, and all the real effects of surprise are lost. I say with the press unfettered as now we are defeated to the end of time. ‘Tis folly to say the people must have news. Every soldier can and does write to his family and friends, and all have ample opportunities for so doing, and this pretext forms no good reason why agents of the press should reveal prematurely all our plans and designs. We cannot prevent it. Clerks of steamboats, correspondents in disguise or openly attend each army and detachment, and presto! appear in Memphis and St. Louis minute accounts of our plans and designs. These reach Vicksburg by telegraph from Hernando and Holly Springs before we know of it. The only two really successful military strokes out here have succeeded because of the absence of newspapers, or by throwing them off the trail. Halleck had to make a simulated attack on Columbus to prevent the press giving notice of his intended move against Forts Henry and Donelson. We succeeded in reaching the Post of Arkansas before the correspondents could reach the papers.

Affectionately,

SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 191-3

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Tuesday, February 18, 1862

Some of the boys went out on a scouting expedition, but did not meet with any success.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33

Office Of The Sec’y Of Board Of Education

DES MOINES, IOWA, March 24, 1862

To County Superintendents and Boards of Directors:

Many inquiries have recently been addressed to this office, relative to the power of the Board of Directors to levy a tax for the support of schools under the fourteenth clause of section 16 of Part VIII, of the pamphlet edition of the School laws.  We answer that the provision referred to gives them full power to levy such tax, independent of any vote of the district meeting. – Not only so, but it is their imperative duty to levy such tax, when in their judgment it is necessary in order to keep the schools in progress for twenty-four weeks in each year.  The district meeting may even vote against a tax for any purpose whatever, and still it would not interfere with the authority vested in the Board of Directors by the clause in question.

The difference between the authority given the district meeting and that conferred upon the Board of Directors is this: The district meeting may vote a tax to keep up the schools for six, eight or twelve months, and in such case it would become the duty of the Secretary to certify the same to the Board of Supervisors, as provided in section 23, of Part VIII; but the Board of Directors must (“shall” is the language of the law) levy such tax as may be necessary, to keep up the schools for  twenty four weeks each year.  This power is essential – otherwise, they could not comply with the provisions of the law, which require them to have a school taught in each sub-district for the period above named.  If, the district meeting should vote the amount required, it would of course be unnecessary for the Board to levy a tax.

To set the matter finally at rest, I would add, that the construction here given was settled by the decision of the Supreme Court, at the December term for 1861, held in this city, in the case of Joseph K. Snyder vs. Samuel Wampler, et al.  County Superintendents will please communicate this intelligence with as little delay as possible to the respective boards of directors, in order that it may reach them in time for their regular meeting on the first Saturday after the first Monday in April.

THOMAS H. BENTON, Jr.,

Secretary of the Board

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Will the Yankees Fight

To the inquiry whether the Yankees will fight, the Rebels are in the way of getting, of late, very decisive if not very satisfactory answers.  If there ever had been any real ground to doubt the courage of our Northern and Eastern troops, their recent behavior in the two most difficult and disadvantageous conflicts of the war – those of Pea Ridge and New Bern – must set such doubts at rest forever.

In the former of those battles the most unfriendly criticism must admit that we fought under heavy embarrassment.  Our army was in the enemy’s country, and far from its base of operations.  It had, moreover, certainly not more than half the numbers of its opponents – probably less; and it was absolutely cut off  from its only line of retreat and hopeless of any re-enforcement.  It was not superior even in discipline to its opponents, since most of the earlier and better disciplined regiments of the West had been transferred to the army of the Potomac, or to that in Kentucky.  The only advantage which the Rebels attribute to the Union troops was their possession of later and more improved arms.  This may possibly have been to some extent a real one; though, when we consider that their opponents were to a great extent the wild hunters of Arkansas and Missouri, and were armed in a great part with their chosen and most effective weapon – that which did such wonders at New Orleans under Jackson, the Kentucky rifle – our superiority might be questioned, and could not have been great.

Under all these disadvantages, our soldiers fought upon ground which was familiar to their enemies and not so to themselves – sustained and repelled the continued and repeated assaults of greatly superior forces, and drove and exultant and confident army, which had actually got into their rear, with loss of stores, arms and munitions of war, in decisive and shameful retreat.  The troops which achieved the glorious result were chiefly from the West, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri are forever covered with the honor by the conduct of their heroes; and the brave Germans of St. Louis shared the proud glory of this signal victory.

“Very true,” it is said, “those western men fight well; their daring is unquestionable.”

See, then how it is with the men of the East.  At Newbern, Burnside was obliged to abandon the protection of his gunboats; and made his attack upon the batteries of the enemy not only without the aid of their heavy artillery, but almost without field guns.  Long lines of batteries had been thrown up, and weeks of anxious toil had prepared every means of defense. – The attack was made by men landed in boats.  On one side the river – on the other a swamp – in front a narrow ridge across which these frowning batteries extend.  For the capture of these, only brave men of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York, with arms in their hands, but without any advantage save such as their own resolute heroism might supply.  They advance – they engage – they fight till their ammunition is expended, and then – hurrah! they charge, like heroes as they are, upon two or three miles of batteries.  Many a brave man attests with his blood the courage that in every conflict on the Continent for two hundred years has made the name of New England honorable; but though many fall, they drive the Rebels from their intrenchments and win the day.  The descendants of the men who captured Louisburg, and stormed Quebec, who fought at Lexington, Bunker Hill, and bore the brunt of the Revolution in every infant State, are not degenerate.  The old fire still glows, the old heroism survives.  An age of industry and peace has passed over them, but they show that only give them something worth fighting for, and New England men are true to their stern and noble ancestry.  It will be long before the Rebels of Carolina question whether the Yankees will fight or not. –{Tribune.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: February 20, 1862

COLUMBIA, S. C. — Had an appetite for my dainty breakfast. Always breakfast in bed now. But then, my Mercury contained such bad news. That is an appetizing style of matutinal newspaper. Fort Donelson¹ has fallen, but no men fell with it. It is prisoners for them that we can not spare, or prisoners for us that we may not be able to feed: that is so much to be "forefended," as Keitt says. They lost six thousand, we two thousand; I grudge that proportion. In vain, alas! ye gallant few — few, but undismayed. Again, they make a stand. We have Buckner, Beauregard, and Albert Sidney Johnston. With such leaders and God’s help we may be saved from the hated Yankees; who knows?

__________

¹ Fort Donelson stood on the Cumberland River about 60 miles northwest of Nashville. The Confederate garrison numbered about 18,000 men. General Grant invested the Fort on February 13, 1862, and General Buckner, who commanded it, surrendered on February 16th. The Federal force at the time of the surrender numbered 27,000 men; their loss in killed and wounded being 2,660 men and the Confederate loss about 2,000.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 131

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Monday, February 17, 1862

This is a very beautiful morning. The good news came that Grant has really taken Fort Donelson. Lieutenant Compton called out the company with arms, and we fired a feu de joie to celebrate the victory.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33

From Port Royal

A letter to the Baltimore American, dated at Port Royal on the 15th instant, says:

“A large quantity of heavy siege guns and mortars and shells and ammunition have been shipped from Hilton Head to Tybee Island within the past few days.  We may expect warm work in a short time.  On Thursday, March 13th, Commodore Tatnall attempted to pass the batteries on Bird’s Island and Jones’ Island with a large fleet containing supplies of wood and water for Fort Pulaski, but he was driven back.  It is only a question of time as to the surrender of Fort Pulaski.  It cannot hold out much longer.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Florida Abandoned by the Confederate Government – Panic and Destruction among the Rebels

(From the Boston Journal.)

It is not often that a rebel Letter which falls into the possession of our advancing armies, contains more news or gives a more vivid description of the state of affairs in rebeldom that the following.  This letter obtained at Jacksonville, by an officer in Commodore Dupont’s squadron, who forwarded it to a friend in this city.  It will be seen that the writer, notwithstanding Florida has been entirely abandoned by the Confederate Government, according to his statement, still hugs the fond delusion that the rebel cause will succeed, and that Florida will again be linked to the Southern Confederacy by negotiation:

MULBERRY GROVE, March 7.

MY DEAR SISTER: I expect by this time you have the letter I wrote Buddie a few days ago.  Here I am, almost at a loss what to do next.  I came up from town last night with a boat load of our negroes.  Since the attack and capture of Fernandina, the Confederate Government has seen fit to abandon East Florida; and yesterday an order came from the Secretary of War for the Confederate troops to abandon the whole of Florida, and every troop in the State, together will all the cannon, arms, ammunition, stores, &c., are being removed, working day and night to do it before the Federals get entire possession of the State.  Our government has signified its inability to hold Florida, and therefore the troops here have gone to assist in breaking the cordon from the Cumberland river in Tennessee to the Chattahotie river, and there is still the additional number of 2,600 called for from the State by the Government; but the men will not enlist now, as the Government gives us no aid, and expects every man in this State to leave his home and interest, and go fight abroad.

It has been blowing a gale for the past three days from the West, which has blown all the water out of the river and prevented the enemy from coming over the bar; but we will see them here as soon as the wind changes.  The Town Council and the military heads of the militia (for we have no Confederate troops now) met yesterday and concluded to quietly submit to the yoke or destiny that may await us, as we have neither men, arms, nor ammunition.

The Federal congress has passed a bill commanding the heads of their military not to return or send to their former owners any slave who may come to them, unless such slave returns of his own free will.  If they continue to execute this law, as ‘tis said they have done it at Fernadina, our negroes may be lost; but I have most of them here, and will wait until I see what they do with those they get in Jacksonville.  If there be any danger, then I will start a wagon to carry the women and children that can’t walk, the men walking and go from here to Orange Springs, and stop there, if the enemy do not intend to go to the interior, but if they do, then I will go on South to the Everglades, where my cattle are, and I can get something to feed them with and keep them there until it be save to remove them.  I have but twenty-eight dollars in pocket, and I know I will have to beg provisions before I get there.  I am going with our negroes whence I take them, as they are mine and your and all of us only resource for living.

The postmaster is going to leave Jacksonville, and I presume the mails will soon be in the hands of the Federals, and no telling when you will hear from me again; but I will continue to write as long as I can.  The only money that I presume I can get is some uncle John owes me about $100, and this I will send you soon if he will pay me; but if I am not able to send it, show this letter to uncle, and tell him I beg him to provide all things for you there until I am free from this bondage.  Keep an account of expenditures, and I will pay him back every dollar with interest.

A scene of the wildest confusion exists here.  Masters are running and leaving their negroes with no one to look after them.  I have taken the wives of two or three of our men, to keep them contend and prevent their running back should I start.  All through the interior the lines of the railroads are thronged with the refugees and bread is sold to them at $1 per loaf.  Some of them have no place to go and are starving in the woods.  I have some corn here, and will make them catch fish for meat, as I have no money to buy with.  Some ten or twelve families are all that are left in Jacksonville.  If I was able or had the means to get out of this State, I should do it forthwith, but I have not.  I do not think we will be under the Confederate Government again until after peace is made, and then I hope the other Confederate States may get us back from the United States by treaty.

I have written in haste, but tried to state what I intend doing.  Much love to all the household.  God keep you all for his sake until I get you.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, February 16, 1862

The weather is warm and pleasant. It is reported that Fort Donelson with several thousand prisoners has been taken by General Grant.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33

The Potomac forces are advancing slowly . . .

. . . but they are leaving rebels in their rear, who are murdering out men, putting obstructions on the railroads, &c.  Fairfax appears to be the headquarters of these traitors.  The army should clear the country of such characters as it goes along.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

A Point Of Honor

Merideth P. Gentry was once an eloquent member of the United States Congress from Tennessee.  He flew off the handle, as a Whig, when Gen. Scott was nominated for the Presidency.  How much he contributed to Scott’s defeat, it is impossible to tell, as he was a much more respectable man than he is now; but it is certain, the rebound of his fire killed Gentry as a Whig.  As a Know-Nothing he ran afterward for Governor, Against Andrew Johnson, and was badly beaten.  Now he is a member of the so-called Southern Congress at Richmond.  On his way to the seat of piracy, from his resident in Bedford county Tennessee, he called on Dr. Brownlow.  Being well stiffened up with his usual stimulant, he was talkative.

“Well, Brownlow,” said he, “I am going to Richmond on a point of honor.  You know I had retired from politics, and had no desire to re-enter the arena.  But my old friends and neighbors insisted that I should run for the Confederate Congress, and I was elected.  Now I make it a point of honor to go, just because they say that McClellan will bag Richmond, and capture the entire Congress.  I wish them to see that I am not afraid.”

“Yes, Gentry,” replied Dr. Brownlow, “and there is another point of honor, which you have failed to mention.  Buell and his army are at Nashville, and are therefore nearer to Bedford county than McClellan is to Richmond. – You are like a pismire on a chunk fired at each end; you have a point of honor on either side of you.”

Gentry acknowledge the corn. – {Nashville Correspondence Cin. Gaz.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Brownlow makes Another Speech

At a meeting of the Pioneer Association of Cincinnati, held on Saturday last, Parson Brownlow made another characteristic speech.  We find it reported in the Gazette:

GENTLEMEN:  I feel called upon to respond to the document read by the honorable secretary, and also the address of the gentlemen from the General Assembly who has just taken his seat.  I authorize the gentleman and the honorable Secretary to say, that I shall be proud and happy to visit the capital as the guest of the General Assembly; but I cannot say when I shall be able to accept their kind invitation. – The truth is, I have completely taken in my friend, the host of the Gibson House, who on my arrival here in this city, came to meet me on the steamboat, and invited me to make his house my home during my stay here.  I fear he will get more than he bargained for.  I am very comfortable there, and shall certainly enjoy his hospitality some while longer yet.  But still, I want to visit the capital of your State, to undo the machinations and refute the sayings of a certain bogus nephew of mine, whom, if God does not know anything more about him than I do, will be inevitably and irretrievably lost in a coming day.

My mind has been variously exercised while I have been sitting here.  This is not a society of young men and boys, but a society of old men; men who are true to the backbone – loyal, faithful, patriotic men, who old as they are would lay down with eager joy a life almost worn out under the beneficent protection of the best Government ever established on God’s beautiful earth.  They are honest men – none of your mean, pitiful, swindling, God-forsaken, rascally demagogues, who have used the strength God endowed them with to endeavor to overturn his most sacred institution – our Government.  I am no candidate for popular favor – I want no office, although I did take a tilt against Isham Harris. [Laughter.]  I am not adapted for an office, and as I said before, I don’t want one; but I am a Federal, and I believe in a strong Government – one that has the power and the ability and the energy to put down treason – to crush out traitors; and in short, gentlemen, to take care of itself.  I think that your present Government is the right kind of Government, but still not entirely so, inasmuch as it is hardly in earnest enough in the stupendous work it is now occupied in; but I hope and believe that with God’s help and our backing, that this Government will soon put down the most diabolical treason that has ever been seen in any part of the world.

I have fought many battles; religious battles, political battles and every other kind of battles, and I have encountered the devil, Tom Walker and the Southern Confederacy, [Laughter and applause,] and it has gone hard with one to be called after, and pointed at so long, as a traitor, by all the miserable, sneaking, cowardly rascals who have torn and rent this glorious Union apart.  My father was a volunteer in my country’s army and my uncle lived and died in the service of his country, and thank God their graves are still in possession of the Federals.  My mother’s relatives also shed their blood at their country’s call at Norfolk, and yet I am called a traitor, and by such despicable men as compose the Southern Confederacy.

Mr. Eggelston alluded to the crushing out of my paper.  Yes, gentlemen, the office from which came the last sheets in defense of the Union, ever published in Knoxville, was cleaned out and converted into a workshop for repairing and altering all the arms stolen by that accomplished thief and runaway, Floyd.  All my ambition now, is to go back once more to Knoxville to establish another office.  Once more to spread abroad the glorious truths of the Union; and once more to take from a drawer in my own house, the flag which so long waved defiantly in the breeze, while these hellhounds were longing, and yet not daring to tear down and trample it in the dust.

I would never have taken down that flag but for the females in my own house, who besought and entreated me to do so, lest the house should be torn down about their ears.

One day a crowd surrounded my house and threatened to tear down my flag; but I warned them they would have to do it in the face of six loaded muskets, which would be used by men who would never flinch from their duty.  They took sober second thought, and marched away, but presently about fifteen came back again, drunker than ever, led by a young officer who was desired to tear the d----d thing of a flag down.  In the meanwhile, I had left my house and gone to the office, leaving my wife in charge.  She came forward and expressed her intention of shooting the first man who attempted to haul down the flag.  The officer was slightly scared, and said:

“Madam, you won’t shoot, will you?”

“You had better try the experiment,” said she.

“Go on, go on!” shouted the crowd, “She daren’t shoot!”

She instantly drew from her pocket one of the Colt’s revolvers and cocking leveled it at the officer’s head.  “Never mind her, she’s only a woman,” cried the mob.  “By God! look at her eye,” said the officer as, as he made a low bow, scraped the ground and toddled off, followed by the whole crowd.  The gentleman addressed me expressing his regret that my paper is stopped and my office is closed, and I reply to him that all my ambition is to go back to Knoxville and resurrect my old paper.  To go back with new presses and new type, and with a soul renewed and revived by a baptism in the glorious liberty of northern States.  And I also want to go back there, and repay a debt of gratitude I owe to about one hundred and fifty of the most unmitigated scoundrels that can be found on the face of the earth.  To liberate a people oppressed and defrauded by the most Satanic conspiracy ever consummated.  Defrauded and duped by Southern confederacy bonds.  Bonds having on one side a full length portrait of Jeff. Davis and a picture of a henroost on the other, bearing on them the words: “I promise to pay, six months after declaration of peace between the Southern Confederacy and the United States of North America, $50.”

They have fixed a time which never can and never will come.  The only treaty of peace which we can have will be accomplished with powder and ball and river gunboats.  There is nothing which fills a rebel with so much horror as gunboats.  They would rather meet Old Nick, horns and all, than to meet our gunboats.  But this is not strange, perhaps, when we recollect their near relationship to that sable individual.

Some time since, I stood alone amidst 2,000 rebel soldiers, and I said, in my address to them: “It is you of the South that are to blame.  The North have not precipitated this war on us; it is you who have done it.  You complained of an infringement of Southern rights when there was no infringement.  You complained of Northern encroachments when there were none, and you have rushed into a war of the most wicked kind, without the shadow of reason.”

But, gentlemen of Ohio, I do not and cannot exonerate the North, and I say in brief to you, that if, fifty years ago, we had taken 100 Southern Fire-eaters and 100 Northern Abolitionists and hanged them up and buried them in a common ditch and sent their souls to hell, we should have had none of this war. [Immense applause.]  I am speaking too long [Cries of “No! no!”  “Go on!”  “Don’t allow that talk.”]  But in looking around on this assembly I notice that Time has written his mark unmistakably on the countenances of a large proportion of this audience.  Many are growing gray; I am getting old myself, and I know not how soon the span of our existence may be shortened and the spirit take its flight to realms of eternal joy and happiness or everlasting misery.  It behooves us all then, to see to it that we are prepared for this change wherever and whenever it may come, and may God in his infinite mercy bless and keep us all.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, February 12, 1863

CAMP BEFORE VICKSBURG, Feb. 12, 1863.

Dear Brother:

I have hitherto sent you original papers or copies to satisfy any one of the falsehood of the attacks against me in the late Vicksburg matter. I had a newspaper reporter arrested and tried by a court-martial, but by the rulings of the court I infer they are of opinion that to make the accused come within the order of the War Department the fact should be proven that the very substance of the objectionable matter went to the enemy. I have been unable to find the identical matter, but in every Southern paper I get I find abundance of evidence to show that Northern papers furnish the Southern leaders abundant and timely notice of every movement. I send you two to show this fact. In the Vicksburg “Whig” (?), at the bottom of the last column of the first page you will see that it states positively that a correspondent of one of the Northern journals wrote in advance of the federal plans in the late move on Vicksburg. Had they received three days notice of our coming to the Post of Arkansas, they could have so reinforced that it would have cost us a siege. But then we were beyond the power of the press and succeeded. And so it must ever be. These newspaper correspondents hanging about the skirts of our army reveal all plans, and are worth a hundred thousand men to the enemy. . . .

I have no faith in the canal here, save we may enlarge it to pass supplies for gunboats below, which will enable the latter to keep supplies from Vicksburg, via the river, but we in no wise threatened Vicksburg, for the bluffs extended many miles below the outlet of the canal. The river is bank full and threatens to overflow our camps — but I have more faith in the efforts above at Yazoo Pass and Lake Providence. The former may admit us to the Yazoo from above and the latter may open a channel down the Tensas to Red, or by Atchafalaya below Port Hudson. If Banks had orders to meet me at Vicksburg on Christmas he has been slow of execution, for I cannot hear that he has even felt of Port Hudson. At all events we have not heard from him save via New York. Grant is now up at Lake Providence, McClernand and my corps are here in sight of Vicksburg, but the great Mississippi flows between us.

Affectionately your brother,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 190-1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, February 15, 1862

We received a very large mail from home today. The papers say that General Grant has taken Fort Henry, on the Tennessee river.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 33

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, February, 1863

HEADQUARTERS, I5TH ARMY CORPS,

CAMP BEFORE VICKSBURG, Feb. , 1863.²

Dear Brother:

I now know the secret of this last tirade against me personally.

Of course newspaper correspondents regard me as the enemy of their class. I announced that all such accompanying the expedition were and should be treated as spies. They are spies because their publications reach the enemy, give them direct and minute information of the composition of our forces, and while invariably they puff up their patrons, they pull down all others. Thus this man Knox, dating his paper upon the Steamer Continental, the headquarters of Generals Steele and Blair, gives to these general officers and their division undue praise, and libels and abuses all others. This not only plays into the hands of our enemies by sowing dissensions among us, but it encourages discontent among the officers who find themselves abused by men seemingly under the influence of officers high in command. I caused Knox’s communication to be read to him, paragraph by paragraph, and then showed him my instructions, by my orders made at the time, and the official reports of others, and how wide he was of the truth. And now I have asked his arrest and trial by General Grant, on charges as a spy and informer. The 57th Article of war, which is a Law of Congress, is as follows: “Who shall be convicted of holding correspondence with, or giving intelligence to the enemy, either directly or indirectly, shall suffer death, &c.”  I will endeavor to bring in all the facts, by means of the evidence of officers who took part in all these events. My purpose is not to bring Knox to death or other severe punishment, but I do want to establish the principle that citizens shall not, against the orders of the competent military superior, attend a military expedition, report its proceedings, and comment on its officers. . . .

Affectionately your Brother,

W. T. SHERMAN.

In the above letter to John Sherman, General Sherman enclosed the following copy of General Orders No. 67, in regard to the giving of intelligence to the enemy, together with his own comments upon them.

. . . Now, to every army and almost every general a newspaper reporter goes along, filling up our transports, swelling our trains, reporting our progress, guessing at places, picking up dropped expressions, inciting jealousy and discontent, and doing infinite mischief. We are commanded absolutely to proceed against them under the 57th article of war. Shall the laws of Congress be obeyed? Shall the orders of the War Department be respected? Or shall the press go on sweeping everything before it. ...

The press has now killed McClellan, Buell, Fitz-John Porter, Sumner, Franklin, and Burnside. Add my name and I am not ashamed of the association. If the press can govern the country, let them fight the battles.

__________

² Date uncertain.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 187-9

Shall the branches of the State Bank continue to . . .

. . . redeem their bills in gold and silver, as a literal construction of the Constitution seems to require?  In giving an answer to this question it is proper to say that the redemption of their notes in gold and silver will defeat the object of their creation which was to furnish a sound and convertible currency.  While the banks in the country are in a state of suspension, all of them refusing to redeem their notes in coin, Iowa banks cannot do it without at once withdrawing their paper from circulation.  This they are able, and so far as we know, willing to do.  But just as soon as brokers have gathered up all their bills and drawn the gold for them we shall have nothing in circulation in this State except foreign bank paper – bills of Eastern banks that we know nothing about.  It is fair to presume that with this foreign currency in the hands of our people we shall again pay roundly for the privilege of using it as in stump-tall times, exchange going up, &c., &c. – When there is a resumption of specie payments we shall find ourselves “stuck” with worthless and broken bank paper – for the more worthless it is the farther away from home it is sent, as a general rule.

How this matter may strike others we cannot say, but it seems to us that the spirit of its charter would require the State Bank to furnish a good, sound convertible home currency, which it only can do by redeeming its paper in Treasury notes, which Congress has made a legal tender.  Thus can the State Bank save the State from being plundered by the Eastern Banks.  Should this course be resolved on and properly carried out it must redound greatly to the benefit of the people of Iowa.  On the other hand a continuance to pay coin will wind up our banks, so far as circulation is concerned, in quick time, and long before July not a State Bank bill will be seen.  We think it is better that they redeem in Treasury notes and keep their bills afloat than that their con should all go into the hands of brokers.  And that it does into the hands of brokers we need only say that of $90,000 paid over its counter in redemption of its notes since the 1st of January by the Burlington Branch, over $85,000 was paid brokers, mostly from other States.  What the people want is a currency which is safe and sound, kept at par or convertible into par funds, with exchange at a fair rate.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

General Orders No. 67

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, August 26, 1861.

By the fifty-seventh article of the act of Congress, entitled "An act for establishing rules and articles for the government of the Armies of the United States, approved April 10, 1806," holding correspondence with or giving intelligence to the enemy, either directly or indirectly, is made punishable by death or such other punishment as shall be ordered by the sentence of a court-martial. Public safety requires strict enforcement of this article. It is therefore ordered that all correspondence and communication, verbally or by writing, printing, or telegraphing, respecting operations of the army or military movements on land or water, or respecting the troops, camps, arsenals, intrenchments, or military affairs within the several military districts, by which intelligence shall be, directly or indirectly, given to the enemy, without the authority and sanction of the general in command, be and the same are absolutely prohibited, and from and after the date of this order persons violating the same will be proceeded against under the fifty-seventh Article of War.

By order:

L. THOMAS.

Adjutant-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, vol. 41, p. 778

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Friday, February 14, 1862

This is Valentine's Day and some of the boys are having a great time sending out valentines to the girls in this locality; others are sending valentines to their old home sweethearts.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 32

A Washington dispatch says . . .

. . . it is worthy of note, in connection with the news from Florida, that the assistant Treasurer received yesterday morning his first remittance from any of the Gulf States since their secession.  Mr. George Phillips, the Postmaster at Fort Jefferson, Florida, has forwarded $77, this being due the Government from receipts in his department.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

A New Idea

The Boston Daily Advertiser prints the following suggestion, furnished by a gentleman abroad, respecting the disposition to be made of the Fort Donelson prisoners:

“I propose that they be exchanged for slaves, on the principle of southern representation, five secessionists for three slaves, reversing the order of values.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

The Louisville and Nashville Railroad . . .

. . . is so far repaired that the running time between the two cities is reduced to 12 hours.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Senator John Sherman to Major General William T. Sherman, January 27, 1863

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 27, 1863.

Dear Brother:

The pressure of official duties here prevented my writing sooner, but I have kept a watchful eye on all your movements recently.

I have not the slightest hesitation in justifying every movement you have made. The newspapers are generally down on you and will command the public attention to your prejudice, but intelligent persons do not fail to notice that not a specific allegation is made against you. The authorities sustain your actions throughout. This is especially so as to the Secretary of War. I read your official report, and was very anxious to have it published. It would correct many errors and would be a complete justification and explanation of many things not understood.

I asked Gen. Halleck to allow me to publish it. He declined, unless the Secretary of War consented, and said he would submit my application to the Secretary. Afterwards I saw the Secretary, and he told me he had directed a copy of the report to be furnished for publication. I again called at Halleck's, and saw Gen. Cullum, who objected to the publication of the report on various grounds.

After a full conversation with Cullum, I supposed I had satisfied him that it ought to be published, and he agreed to submit my reasons to Halleck and ask a reconsideration. This morning I received a note from Halleck stating that, as further operations would occur before Vicksburg, he did not deem it advisable to publish the report at present. Thus the matter ends. Cullum stated to me that there was no officer of the army who did not entirely justify your attack on Vicksburg under the circumstances as you supposed them to be. In the end you will be justified in public opinion.

Military affairs look dark here in the army of the Potomac. Burnside is relieved and Hooker is in command. The entire army seems demoralized. Perhaps when it is ready to move it may be all right. A certain amount of dissatisfaction always will exist in an army. I was very glad to notice that you were popular with and had the confidence of your men. This is the case with but few officers. I deeply pity Porter.¹ . . .

If we recover from the folly of legislators and the quarrels of our generals, it will be evidence of vitality, remarkable in the history of any nation. I believe we shall survive all these dangers, and I agree with you that no course is left for us but to fight it out. I cannot respect some of the constituted authorities, yet I will cordially support and aid them while they are authorized to administer the government. Pray write me as often as you can.

Affectionately yours,

JOHN SHERMAN.

__________

¹Fitz-John Porter

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 186-7

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, February 13, 1862

It snowed some today, and we all stayed close in our quarters, as the weather was so disagreeable. It is a very cold night.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 32

The London Times . . .

. . . in noticing the Parliamentary debate on the American blockade, is forced to admit that nobody can deny the colossal scale, the multifarious plans, and the exhaustive energy of the operations of the Federal Government.  The real grievance is that the blockade is done too thoroughly, and Mr. Gregory wishes England to abate the nuisance by declaring that it is not done at all.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

It is evident . . .

. . . from the tone of our latest advices that a great battle is soon to be fought at or near Corinth, Miss., which will decide the destiny of rebellion in the West.  Both sides are making tremendous preparations of this conflict, which is not far off.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

The Memphis Avalanche, of the 18th says . . .

. . . Gen. Lee has been appointed Commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army.  The report that the appointment had been conferred on Beauregard is untrue.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Very Likely

The view is generally taken at Washington that the westward movement of Jeff Davis is actually a fight to save his bacon.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, January 25, 1863

CAMP NEAR VICKSBURG, Jan. 25, 1863.

Dear Brother:

I received yours of Jan. 2, to-day, and being in camp with some leisure hasten to answer. I shall be glad to meet Gen. Banks on many accounts, because of his known intelligence and high character and because we have been long expecting him. I was hurried down the river with positive orders to get away from Memphis December 18, to co-operate with Grant to come down by land and Banks to ascend the river. I was on time and made every effort to carry Vicksburg, but unsuccessfully. Hearing nothing from Banks or Grant, and being superseded by McClernand, I proposed that we should go to the Arkansas and attack the Post from which the enemy threatened our rear and line of communications. We succeeded perfectly there, and General Grant came down and met us at Napoleon and hurried us back to Vicksburg, on the theory that Banks might be here, disappointed at our non-appearance.

So here we are again, but not a word of Banks. This time instead of landing up the Yazoo we have landed on the Louisiana side and I occupy a neck of low ground enclosed with a high levee directly in front of Vicksburg. Last summer when Vicksburg was invested by our troops from below a canal was dug across a narrow neck with the purpose of turning the river so as to leave Vicksburg out in the cold. The river is now rising rapidly and already fills the canal, which however is a narrow ditch — the water flows across it, but thus far it shows no symptoms of cutting a channel, but, on the contrary, threatens to overflow the low ground embraced in the levee. All my soldiers are busy day and night in throwing up a levee on the inside of this canal to prevent the water overflowing us. My right extends along the levee below Vicksburg, and I have some guns below, which will prevent the enemy's boats coming up to town. Since I broke the railroad leading west most of the necessary supplies to Vicksburg have come from Red River by water, and we now stop this; but as they hold Port Hudson, preventing Banks coming up, and Vicksburg prevents our boats going down, they hold substantially a long reach of the river embracing the mouth of Red River. Last night my extreme right brigade, Blair's, captured a ferry boat which came in for wood, not suspecting our presence. So we have also our boat below Vicksburg — I have not much faith in the canal. It starts after the current has been turned, and I doubt if the canal will draw in a volume and depth of water sufficient to cut a new channel, and if it do the enemy will simply shift his guns to Warrenton, a point on the same range of hills, below the mouth of our canal — at last we must attack the enemy in his strong position. Outnumbering us in every sense in men, in guns, and holding a position stronger than Gibraltar. . . .

We must get on land before we can fight. That was my attempt and the point I chose is the only one between Vicksburg and Haines Bluff— we may attempt the latter, and I think it is the safest place, but on this side of the river we do no good whatever, for the Mississippi is an ugly stream to ford at this season of the year.

Unless you enact a law denying to all citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 who do not enlist and serve 3 years faithfully, all right of suffrage, or to hold office after the war is over, you will have trouble. The Army growls a good deal at the apathy of the nation, at home quite comfortable and happy yet pushing them forward on all sorts of desperate expeditions. Newspapers can now turn armies against their leaders. Every officer and soldier knows I pushed the attack on Vicksburg as far as they wanted to venture, and if others think differently, they naturally say, Why not come down and try? . . .

Two years have passed and the rebel flag still haunts our nation's capital — our armies enter the best rebel territory and the wave closes in behind, scarcely leaving a furrow mark behind. The utmost we can claim is that our enemy respects our power to do them physical harm more than they did at first; but as to loving us any more, it were idle even to claim it. Our armies are devastating the land and it is sad to see the destruction that attends our progress — we cannot help it. Farms disappear, houses are burned and plundered, and every living animal killed and eaten. General officers make feeble efforts to stay the disorder, but it is idle. . . .

The South abounds in corn, cattle and provisions and the progress in manufacturing shoes and cloth for the soldiers is wonderful. They are as well supplied as we and they have an abundance of the best cannon, arms and ammunition. In long range cannon they rather excel us and their regiments are armed with the very best Enfield rifles and cartridges, put up at Glasgow, Liverpool and their new Southern armories, and I still say they have now as large armies in the field as we. They give up cheerfully all they have. I still see no end or even the beginning of the end. . . .

The early actors and heroes of the war will be swept away, and those who study its progress, its developments, and divine its course and destiny will be most appreciated. We are in for the war, and must fight it out, cost what it may. As to making popularity out of it, it is simply ridiculous and all who attempt it will be swept as chaff before the wind. . . .

Your affectionate brother,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 183-5

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, February 12, 1862

Our mail goes east every day at11 a. m. and comes in from the east at night. This is a cold night.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 32

In an able speech . . .

. . . made in the Senate of New York in the debate on the expulsion of Mr. Bright, by Judge Law of Sullivan County, we find the following striking passages:

“We fail to appreciate the era in which our lot is cast.  We fail to realize the rapidity of the march of events, moving swiftly and irresistibly forward, but never backward, and changing almost in a moment the whole aspect of the country and sweeping from our minds the tissues of forms, precedents, technicalities and learned absurdities as the swift wind drives away the mountain mists.  The truth is – and we might as well learn it at once – we are making history for the future; not reading that of the past.  We are stamping our own character and impress upon the people and nationalities yet unborn, and whose weal or woe will be determined by our conduct now.

“I have no fear of the guillotine in the intelligent, the free, the patriotic North.  But I will tell the learned Senator where, at no distant day, he may find the counterpart of the bloody horrors he has invoked.  Where wrong and crime and oppression have already worn deep the channels of human suffering; where the pent-up aspirations of enslaved and degraded men beat vainly against their prison bars; where the chains of human bondage clank harshly upon the unwilling ear, and the cowering victim that wears the image of his God is bought and sold and worked and whipped by his fellow man, where violence and treachery and terror stalk through the land; where loyal men are dragged to the scaffold for no crime but that of fealty to their Government, and weeping women and innocent children are fleeing to the rocks and mountains to hide themselves from the armed robbers that scourge the land.”

Judge Law has always been a thoroughgoing member of the Democratic party, and such words from him afford a clear indication of the revolution which this atrocious rebellion has produced and is still producing in the minds of a very influential class of Northern men.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

A Yankee Trick

A correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette narrates the following incident as having occurred recently down on the Tennessee river:–

A rebel Captain was taken by a Yankee ruse that must have struck him as exceedingly unchivalric.  He was out on picket duty. – One of our scouts came suddenly on him at a point where two of his pickets were posted. – Fortunately the scout was quick witted, or the capture might have been on the other side. – “Who are you?” he boldly inquired of the first rebel he reached.  “I’m a picket.”  “Well, so am I, but a little off my post, looking around for the Yankees.”  “Where is your post?” asked the Captain; “You have no business to be away from it.”  “Come this way and I’ll show you,” responded the scout.  The moment he got out of sight of the two privates, he quietly informed the officer that he was a picket on the other side, and would have to take him along!  And he actually marched the Captain in, sword, pistols, shoulder straps and all.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, January 17, 1863

NAPOLEON, ARK.,

STEAMER FOREST QUEEN,

Jan. 17, 1863.

Dear Brother:

. . . The gun boats were handled beautifully, and without them we should have had hard work, with them it was easy. Our entire loss will be less than 1000. We took 5000 prisoners, killed and wounded some 500, took 16 guns, ammunition, corn and wagons, mules and all sorts of traps of which you will hear enough. My official report is in, will go up to Grant at Memphis to-morrow and right on to Washington. Halleck will let you see it, and you can understand the whole thing by a glance at the maps I send along. But McClernand's reports will precede it and of course will be the accepted history. . . .

On the supposition that Banks will have taken Fort Hudson and reached Vicksburg, we start back for that place to-morrow. Of ourselves we cannot take Vicksburg. With Banks and a fleet below us and a fleet above, we may make a desperate attempt, but Vicksburg is as strong as Gibraltar, and is of vital importance to the cause of the South. Of course they will fight desperately for it. We must do the same, for all are conscious that the real danger of the war, anarchy among our people, begins to dawn. The people of the North mistake widely if they suppose they can have peace now by opposing this war. . . .

Mr. Lincoln intended to insult me and the military profession by putting McClernand over me, and I would have quietly folded up my things and gone to St. Louis, only I know in times like these all must submit to insult and infamy if necessary. The very moment I think some other is at hand to take my corps I’ll slide out. . . .

I hope the politicians will not interfere with Halleck. You have driven off McClellan, and is Burnside any better? Buell is displaced. Is Rosecrans any faster? His victory at Murfreesboro is dearly bought. Let Halleck alone, and if things don't go to your liking don’t charge it to men but to the condition of things. Human power is limited, and you cannot appreciate the difficulty of moulding into an homogeneous machine the discordant elements which go to make up our armies. A thousand dollars a day would not pay me for the trouble of managing a volunteer army. I never dreamed of so severe a test of my patriotism as being superseded by McClernand, and if I can keep down my tamed (?) spirit and live I will claim a virtue higher than Brutus. I rarely see a newspaper and am far behind the times, indeed, am not conscious that a Congress sits, though I know it must. Do think of the army and try and give us the means to maintain discipline, prevent desertion, pillage and absenteeism. Under the present system of mere threats and no punishment, our armies melt away like snow before the sun. I doubt if Burnside, Rosecrans, Grant and Curtis now have, all combined, 300,000 in their front ranks. This army, 30,000 a month ago, though reinforced by 2400 men, is now down to 24,000, though we have lost only 2500 in battle — sickness and detachments make a perfect stream to the rear. Blair has a brigade in my corps and sees now the practices of war as contrasted with its theory, and could give some useful hints on these points.

Affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 181-2

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Tuesday, February 11, 1862

It snowed today and turned quite cool. Some troops marched past here on their way to St. Louis.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 32

Tax On Slaves

The Philadelphia Ledger is out in favor of a tax on slaves.  It is curious, as the Ledger says, “that while northern capital, invested chiefly in manufactures and general business, was to be heavily taxed, that a large portion of the southern capital, which is invested in negroes, seems to be passed over.  Northern manufacturers will pay three per cent.; why should not an equal amount be levied on negro property?  Let the average value of a slave be fixed, and let him be taxed, as long as he is a chattel, like other chattels.  The determination of the South to hold on to slavery, the great change which has taken place of late years in this respect, is due to the increased value of slaves depending upon the value of the cotton crop.  Any measure which tends to lower the value of the salve property, facilitates the gradual extinction of slavery.  It is difficult to see what claims to exemption can be urged in favor of this species of property.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 5, 1862, p. 1