Mississippi Railroad Bridge Report

FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 4, 1862.

DATE	Stage of Water. Above l. w. mark.	Mercury Above.
		6 A.M.	12 M.	6 P.M.
April 27	12 feet – inches	52	55	55
April 28	12 feet 8 inches	41	49	56
April 29	13 feet 8 inches	39	68	62
April 30	13 feet 9 inches	48	62	64
May 1	14 feet 3 inches	43	54	55
May 2	14 feet 9 inches	45	63	57
May 3	15 feet – inches	48	68	61

The number of footmen that crossed the bridge during the week was 1,278.

Number of boats up, 12; down, 10; rafts 3.

On the 16th day of June, A. D. 1859, the river rose to 15 feet 4 inches above low water mark, being two inches higher than at the present time. – Water at a stand.

J. H. THORINGTON, Bridge Master.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, October 4, 1862

During the night all was quiet and our brigade fell back to the last line of fortifications which, extending almost around the town, had been built in the last few days. Here we lay in line of battle all night. The rebels commenced to throw shells into town this morning at daylight. I was still on guard with the teams and we had to get out of that place in double quick. The rebels threw some ten or twelve shells before our battery in Fort Robinet could get the range of them, but when they did, they opened on them some sixty-four-pounders and soon put the rebel's battery out of commission. I was relieved and went to join the regiment, which had been advanced to support a battery. About 10 o'clock the rebels made a charge upon Fort Robinet, to our right, and tried to break our lines at that point but failed. This charge was made by a Texas cavalry, dismounted; they came clear over into the fort, driving some of our artillerymen from their guns, but they were soon overpowered, some being killed and some taken prisoner. The colonel of the regiment planted their flag on our fort, but he was almost immediately killed. The rebels' dead just outside of the fort lay three or four deep and the blood ran in streams down the trenches. The rebels finally withdrew about 4 p. m., leaving their dead and wounded. The Iowa Brigade was placed to the left of Fort Robinet, in support of a battery, but did not become engaged during the day. Some of our forces started after the fleeing rebels. We received orders to be ready to march in the morning, and have to lie in line of battle all night.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 73

Blue Grass Township

Samuel Benshoof has paid to Ernst Claussen, Recording Secretary of the Scott County Soldiers Relief association, the following contributions to the funds of said association, collected in the western part of Blue Grass township:

Jno. W. Moor	$1.00
T. W. Jeffery	1.00
D. S. Sutton	1.00
F. W. Keferatein	1.00
Fred Hofbauer	1.00
P. Hansen	.50
H. W. Dowell	.50
Jacob Wohlenberg	.50
Sam’l Benshoof	1.00
Wm. McGee	.50
John McCrea	.50
Henry Sutton	1.00
D. E. Russell	.50
L. Lavander	.50
J. T. Skiles	1.00
V. Wyman	.50
W. U. Voss	.25
J. J. Hoerach	1.00
Johnk	.50
Rev. Douglass	.50
Samuel Dallen	1.00
T. L. Lavender	.10
A. J. Benshoof	.10
J. H. Benshoof	.25
P. L. Benshoof	.25
Total	$15.95

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Friday, October 3, 1862

I was on camp guard all last night, on the second relief. Troops were coming in all night. This morning about daylight the Sixth Division was ordered out, and marching out about two miles to the northwest, we met the rebels in force and formed a line of battle. Our pickets having been attacked about sunrise, the battle now commenced in earnest and lasted all day. There was some hard fighting in the afternoon, particularly off on the right, and our men soon fell back to the first line of breastworks. About 3 p. m. the Iowa Brigade was flanked and had to fall back to the second line of breastworks, but the brigade, with the exception of the Fifteenth Regiment, did not get into the thick of the fight.¹ The fighting continued till dark, and after that there was some very heavy cannonading.

__________

¹ The record of the losses of our brigade is as follows: The Fifteenth, eleven killed, sixteen wounded; the Thirteenth, one killed, fourteen wounded; the Sixteenth, one killed, twenty-one wounded; the Eleventh, three killed, eight wounded. — A. G. D.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 72-3

The Evacuation of Yorktown

PHILADELPHIA, May 5.

The Inquirer has a special dispatch from Fort Monroe, giving the following particulars in regard to the evacuation of Yorktown:

ONE MILE BEYOND YORKTOWN,

Sunday, May 4 – 10 A. M.

All day yesterday the rebels kept up a hot fire on Gen. Porter’s division.  No one was hurt.  Our Parrott gun at Farnholt Court House occasionally answered them last evening, and up to midnight heavy firing was kept up.  About that time there fire slackened considerably, and at 2 o’clock stopped altogether.  We fired one or two more batteries at them, but got no answer.

About 3 o’clock this morning a building at Yorktown was fired, and Prof. Lowe and Gen. Heintzleman went up in a balloon and found it was the storehouse at Yorktown wharf.  At daylight they reported the forts empty.  At 7 o’clock we occupied Yorktown without a gun being fired.

Of the guns of the enemy, nearly all remaining were spiked and dismounted.  By the side of the river battery were large piles of ammunition, powder, balls, shells, &c.  Eighty guns were in Yorktown, which is surrounded by a semi-circle.  The earthworks were all constructed to cover one another in every position, but they must have eventually yielded could he have got around them.

The gun we dismounted the other day killed and wounded four rebels.

The fort had been occupied by the 1st battalion New Orleans artillery, the 8th and 30th Alabama regiments, the 10th and 18th Louisiana, and 13th and 15th Georgia regiments.  These troops were ordered to report at Howard’s Grove, and left the fort at midnight.  A rear guard was left who waited for the appearance of day, and then retired in greatest haste.

Two deserters who left their regiment in Williamsburg at Daylight, say the whole rebel army was in a panic.  Prof. Lowe’s balloon reconnoissance discovered their rear guard at 9 a. m., to be four miles out.  Gen. McClellan immediately ordered out the artillery and cavalry and is pushing after them at full speed.

All our gunboats came up at 9 o’clock and landed some marines at Gloucester, who raised the United States flag amid the cheering that could be heard across the river.  The boats all then left and are now running up York river, shelling the banks on both sides.

A number of mines had been prepared for our troops by placing Prussian shells under ground in the roadways and entrances to the fort.

No whites were to be found, and only a few negro women and babies.  The town was squalid and filthy.  A few days of warm weather would have brought on a pestilence.  An abundance of bread, flour and a large quantity of meat, salt and fish was left.  All the tents were left, but no horses or wagons.

Reports concur that the rebels consist of a mob of about 100,000 men, ill fed, dirty and disheartened.

The road from Yorktown to Hampton, on which we encamped, was guarded by Fort Magruder, mounting a large number of guns, part of which were taken away and part spiked.  Some of their works were well built and well laid out, while others were wretched contrivances.  The work upon them was finished on Friday night, and the slaves sent to the rear under guard.  The rebels have nothing behind in which they can make a stand.  Last night their camp fires all along were the same as usual.  The dense woods along the peninsula enable them to leave without being seen by the balloon.

The large guns of the rebels were mostly Columbiads, taken from the Norfolk navy yard.  Some of them have been recently mounted.

The fortifications, although of the roughest character, where very formidable, being surrounded by deep gorges almost impossible to pass.

Times’ Dispatch

The retreat of the rebels appears to have been precipitate.  The commenced dismounting and carrying their guns back to Williamsburg four days ago.  Wagons have been engaged in transporting their ammunition, provisions, and camp equipage for over a week.  Their sick and wounded, numbering over 2,500, were sent to Richmond ten days ago.

The rebel soldiers and negroes were at work on their entrenchments until 2 o’clk. this morning, when their rear guard ordered the work to cease and take up the march to Williamsburg.

Ten thousand of the rebels were sent from Winne’s Mill to reinforce an army sent from Richmond to oppose McDowell’s advance last Thursday week.

A great battle is expected at Williamsburg, as the rebel troops particularly those under Magruder, have mutinied on several occasions within two weeks.  6,000 of his men threatened to lay down their arms unless they received food and clothing.

Three rebel lieutenants, 2 sergeants, and 20 men were captured on the other side of Yorktown, and brought in.  Since the 3d, over 70 deserters have come in, who report their army as thoroughly disheartened and demoralized.

The honor of first entering the enemy’s works belongs to the 73d regiment, of N. Y.  The Texas Rangers left as our forces were advancing.  A large force of the enemy are reported captured four miles behind Yorktown.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

May 4 – 7 P. M.

Hon. E. M. STANTON:

Our cavalry and horse artillery came up with the enemy’s rear guard in their entrenchment about two miles this side of Williamsburg.  A brisk fight ensued, just as my aid left Smith’s division of infantry arrived on the ground, and it is presumed carried his works, though I have not yet heard.  The enemy’s rear is strong, but I have force enough up there to ensure all purposes.  All along the lines their works prove to have been most formidable, and I am now fully satisfied of the correctness of the course I have pursued.  The success is brilliant, and you may rest assured that its effects will be of the greatest importance.  There shall be no delay in following up the rebels.  The rebels have been guilty of the most murderous and barbarous conduct in placing torpedoes within the abandoned works near wells and springs, and near flog staffs, magazines, telegraph offices, in carpet bags, barrels of flour, &c.  Fortunately we have not lost many men in this manner – some four or five killed and perhaps a dozen wounded.  I shall make the prisoners remove them at their own peril.

(Signed,)

GEO. B. McCLELLAN, Maj. Gen.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Scott County Relief Association

At a regular meeting of the Scott County Solders’ Relief Association, at Le Claire Hall, May 5, 1862, H. Price, Esq., in the chair, the following letter to the committee on establishing a hospital was read:

HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES FORCES,

CAIRO, Ill., April 24th, 1862.

MESSRS. GIFFORD AND PUTNAM, Davenport Iowa –

GENTS:  I respectfully direct your attention to my letter of the 20th, in which I stated that I had referred the matter to Col. I. C. Kelton, Assistant Adjutant General Headquarters Department for the Mississippi, who has replied as follows:

“Such hospital arrangements have been made at St. Louis and on the Ohio, as to render it unnecessary to establish hospitals at Davenport, at least for the present,

Very respectfully,

(Signed,)

I. C. KELTON, A. A. G.

DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI, April 22, ’62.”

Thus you see I have no control of the matter, and should it be necessary to establish a hospital at Davenport, I will confer with you.

Very respectfully,

WM. K. STRONG, Brig. Gen. Com.,

Per. A. H. HOLT, Lt. and A. D. C.

The Treasure reported whole amount of contributions received $903.61; expended $325.65; money on hand $577.96.

On motion it was

            Resolved, That the committee appointed at a meeting of citizens to administer relief to our wounded, previous to the organization of this society, holding some fifty dollars in their hands, be requested to place the money at the disposal of the Treasure of this association.

ERNST CLAUSSEN, Secretary.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, October 2, 1862

We started this morning at 7 o'clock, and reaching Corinth at 10, we marched out two miles west of town where we pitched our tents in the timber for camp. Water is very scarce. I took six canteens and started to find water, but to get it I must have traveled in all four miles. The balance of the day I served on camp guard.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 72

George W. Jones . . .

. . . Ex-Minister, etc., it appears did not fail to call on the editor of the Democrat, while in this city, and receive a little of his sympathy.  The Democrat says, that “Jones spoke of his Ft. Lafayette experience freely, and places the proper estimates upon the unauthorized and tyrannical acts of the great Mogul of the Department of State.”  Secretary Seward arrested Jones for complicity with treason.  He wrote a letter to Hon. Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy, in which he expressed his sympathy with the rebellion, and promised to give the South all the aid in his power.  This letter fell into the possession of Secretary Seward, and as it was strong evidence of Jones’ traitorism, he had him arrested and sent to Fort Lafayette.  Had it not been for that arrest, we firmly believe Jones would have at this day held some position among the rebels, had he not sooner met his deserts.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Interesting News from Richmond

WASHINGTON, May 5.

The following statement, dated yesterday on the Rappahannock, has reached Washington:

A colored many came in to-day from the other side of the river, and represented himself as Jeff. Davis’ coachman.  From an examination of him this is probably true.  He reports scraps of conversation, overheard whilst driving Mr. and Mrs. Davis in the carriage, and between Mr. Davis and those who came to see him.  Mr. Davis and Gen. J. E. Johnson [sic] had a heated discussion about the latter’s retreat from Manassas:– Davis disapproved of it and ordered Johnson to make a stand at Gordonsville, Johnson declined to do this, and offered to resign, but he was indisposed to go to Yorktown.  Mrs. Davis said she thought it was very bad in Johnson to be unwilling to help General Magruder.

The coachman overheard a conversation between Johnson and Mrs. Davis, the former saying if he had not left Manassas McClellan would have come out against him, and cut him all to pieces.  Mrs. Davis read an article in the Examiner to her husband, stating that it was part of the Yankees’ plans that Gens. Banks and McDowell were to form a junction in Louisa or Caroline county, and move down on Richmond.  Davis remarked that he thought that was so, but his generals would take care of them.

The coachman represent that Mrs. Davis said that the Confederacy was about played out and that if N. O. was really taken, she had no longer any interest in the matter, as all she had was there; if that was a great pity that they had ever attempted to hold Virginia and other non-cotton growing States; and that she said to Mrs. Dr. Gwinn, daughter of Col. Jas. Taylor, U. S. commissary of subsistence, who was very anxious to get to Washington, where she has one of her children, not to give herself any trouble, but only to stay where she was and when the Yankees came to Richmond she should go.

The coachman says that Mr. and Mrs. Davis have all their books, clothing and pictures packed, ready to move off.  That there is much outspoken Union feeling in Richmond; That having been a waiter in a hotel there, he knows all the Union men of the place, and that the Yankees are looked at with more pleasure by the whites than even the colored people.

Confederate money is not taken when it can be avoided.  Mrs. Davis herself was refused when she offered a ten dollar Confederate note.

Many of the Richmond people which the Union troop[s to come as they are half starved.  The bank and government property is all packed up for removal to Danville, near the N. C. line.  Gen. Johnson did not think they would succeed at Yorktown.  The coachman overheard the rebel officers say if they fail at Yorktown and New Orleans they would leave Virginia.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, October 1, 1862

The Eleventh Iowa was ordered down into town last night, for it was expected that the rebels would make a charge into town to burn our rations. We think, however, that they want our rations for their own haversacks. We formed a line of battle and lay in the streets all night, but the rebels did not show themselves. We received orders to march at daylight this morning. The cars came in from Corinth at 4 o’clock this morning, and the sick men, our baggage, and the remainder of our stores were loaded up and sent to our headquarters at Corinth. By noon Iuka was expected to be entirely evacuated by our men. Our regiment marched twenty-three miles and bivouacked for the night within six miles of Corinth.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 72

From Gen. Mitchell’s Division

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., May 4th.

Hon. E. M. Stanton;– Your dispatch is received.  A soldier’s highest reward for service is to merit and received the approbation of his superior officers

An expedition from Bridgeport crossed the river, May 1st, advanced towards Chattanooga, 12 miles, and captured stores and a southern mail from some railroad hands.

A panic prevailed at Chattanooga.  The enemy is moving all his property in the direction of Atlanta.  Gen. Leadbeater had been chastised for cowardice at Bridgeport.  There were not more than 20,000 troops at Chattanooga.  They destroyed a slatpetre manufactory in a cave, and returned safely with the captured property.

Another expedition penetrated to Jasper and found a strong Union feeling.  On the same day they had a skirmish with the enemy’s cavalry at Athens.  Our outposts were driven back, but on being reinforced the enemy retreated in the direction of Florence.  There are straggling bands of mounted citizens along my entire line, threatening the bridges, one of which they succeeded in destroying.

Signed,

O. M. MITCHELL,

Maj. Gen.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

From Washington

Herald’s Dispatch

WASHINGTON, May 4.

It is the intention of the President to issue a proclamation in a few days opening the ports of Newbern, Beaufort, Savannah, Fernandina, and New Orleans to the trade of the world.  This important measure will release the Administration for any international embarrassments, and largely tend to restore the entente cordial between the sections of the country.

The Senate finance committee has determined to report the tax bill to-morrow, or Tuesday at the farthest.  They have been unable to make many important changes contemplated, and will probably leave whisky and tobacco untouched.  It is a singular fact, worthy of note in Congress, that no remonstrance from any quarter has been made against a high tariff upon these articles, but the dealers and manufacturers are all in favor of placing it at the highest figure.  This will probably be done either by the Senate or a committee of conference.

Special to Tribune.

We have news from Richmond via Fredericksburg, of importance.  The people of the rebel capital are panic stricken.  The wealthy citizens are packing up their furniture and sending in into the country.

An apparently intoxicated person the past week, passing by the tobacco works where our soldiers are confined, cried out to them, “Cheer up, boys, McClellan or McDowell will be here in a few days.”  Then a sentry shot him dead.

Our Commanding General galloping into Fredericksburg yesterday afternoon, with his staff, was received with closed doors.  Not a door open of house or store; not a face to be seen, except now and then that of a curious damsel peering through half closed blinds at the cavalcade of Yankees.

WASHINGTON, May 4.

The following important circulars have been addressed to the foreign ministers, announcing the reopening of communication with southern localities, reconquered from the insurgents.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON.

SIR – I have the honor to state, for  your information, that the mails are now allowed to pass to and from New Orleans and other places, which having been heretofore seized by insurgents, have since been recovered and are now reopened by the land and naval forces of the Unites States.  It is proper, however, to add that a military surveillance is maintained over such mails as far as the Government finds it necessary for the public safety.

I am sir, your ob’t serv’t,

(Signed,)

WM. H. SWEARD

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON,

May 5.

SIR – I have the honor to state, for the information of your Government, that a collector has been appointed by the President for New Orleans, and that the necessary preparations are being made to modify the blockade so far as to permit limited shipments to be made to and from that and one or more other ports, which are now closed, at times and upon considerations which will be made known by proclamation.

I am sir, your ob’t serv’t

(Signed,)

WM. H. SWEARD.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

The Merrimac makes her Appearance.

FORT MONORE, May 4.

The Merrimac made her appearance beyond Sewall’s Point at 1 o’clock to-day. – She stood off the Point, and up to 4 o’clock has not changed her location.  She is not attended by other gunboats.

BALTIMORE, May 5.

The regular news letter from Old Point is received.  The Merrimac remained out till 4 o’clock on the 4th inst. and then disappeared beyond Sewall’s Point.  Since her last appearance she has had a ram twenty feet in length added to her bow.

The French minister at Washington, Mr. Mercier, arrived at Yorktown on Sunday morning in a special boat form Washington.  The Gasendi was to go for him last night.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Skirmishing in Tennessee

PITTSBURG, May 3 – 9 P. M.

Hon. E. M. Stanton:– Gen. Paine’s division made a reconnoissance to Farmington to-day; found about 4,500 of the enemy and drove them off in handsome style.  An artillery reconnoissance went to Glendale this A. M. and destroyed tow trestle bridges and sand track on the Memphis and Charleston R. R.  It has been a splendid day’s work for the left wing.  The weather is clear and the roads are becoming good.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Buffalo, May 5 [1862].

The largest arrival of grain ever known here has come in since Friday night, and up to Sunday night amounted to over two million bushels.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

St. Louis, May 5 [1862].

A Refugee from the South, who was at New Orleans when our fleet arrived, says our forces captured a large quantity of cotton, sugar and other property.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Tuesday, September 30, 1862

Nothing of importance. We received orders to drill.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 72

Yorktown

The news of the capture of Yorktown, yesterday morning, spread a general feeling of satisfaction among our citizens, and even some who were never known to smile over a Union victory before, or who usually endeavor to belittle everything of the kind, were loud in their praises of McClellan and exultation over his victory.  That brave officer has achieved a comparatively bloodless victory, one which, if rightly followed up, will hasten the end of the rebellion.  So may it be.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Dr. Hughes

From a letter written by J. L. Hughes of Co. H., 81st reg. O. V. U. S. A., from the Pittsburg battle-field, to his brother Mr. Harvey J. Hughes, of this city, we learn that Dr. Charles Hughes, of this city, who in the early excitement of the rebellion was suspicioned of entertaining secession feelings, participated in that battle and escaped unscathed.  We are glad to hear this and to place him right on the record.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Rev. J. S. Whittlesey

It is with sorry we learn, from a member of Mr. Whittlesey’s family, that that gentleman, chaplain of the 11th Iowa regiment, is now lying sick at his home in Durant, Cedar county, of typhoid fever and pneumonia, worn out by the care of so many wounded men.  We hope his recovery may be speedy.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Monday, September 29, 1862

We were relieved from picket this morning, and for the first time in several days we rested in camp all day. The weather is hot and sultry, with quite cool nights. The rebel cavalry seem to be all around us, but for fear of getting hurt they keep their distance.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 72

Four Or Forty-One

The telegraph yesterday morning told us that our troops entered Yorktown ’41 hours’ after the rear of the enemy had left, and so we announced in our Extra.  Later dispatches put the time four hours, which is probably correct, and much more satisfactory.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

The Ladies’ Soldiers’ Aid Society will . . .

. . . meet this (Tuesday) afternoon at 2 o’clock, at Odd Fellows’ Hall.  Members who have not paid their monthly dues, are requested to do so this afternoon, as the Society is much in need of funds.

SEC. SOL. AID SOCIETY.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Keokuk Hospital

W. Patton, Co. C, 11th Iowa, and B. Bense, Co. K, 7th Iowa, died at the Keokuk Hospital on the 1st inst.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Sunday, September 28, 1862

It rained all day. I went out on picket. David Huff, Leroy Douglas, Wm. Esher and I were together at one post. We had strict orders to keep a sharp lookout for the rebel cavalry. We are expecting to be attacked.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 72

The War News

A Sensation Canard from Washington.

Tatnall Resigns in Disgust.

Baton Rouge, La., Captured.

CORINTH EVACUATED.

SAVANNAH TO BE SURRENDERED.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 5, 1862, p. 1

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, September 27, 1862

Company E went out today with the teams to forage for corn and fodder. We were out northeast about seven miles and found plenty of corn, but not much fodder. The boys also took some chickens and two fine hogs. The farmers in this section are not rich, their farms being on the bluffs of the Tennessee river, but they seem to have plenty and some to spare. When the quartermaster sends teams out to forage, he calls for a company or perhaps a whole regiment, and they go and take what they want without asking for it, but the officer in charge always gives the owner of the property the quartermaster's receipt.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 71-2

The Government of God

Society is of God, as well as nature and religion.  Man has received his life from the Creator, and no one has the right to take it from him, unless he is a violator of the most precious rights and privileges he has conferred upon him. – Even the Guilty and the wicked should not suffer the extremity of the law, but for crimes involving the life and peace of society.  No one has the right to shed the blood of his fellow, unless for reasons the highest and most sacred, derived from the word of God and the original constitution of our nature.  Government holds a sword, and that sword is the gift of God.  Without it, society would be exposed to the lawlessness of the unprincipled and base, and would be like a human body without arms.  God has the power to take away human life, as he does by sickness, famine, and death; and he has put the sword into the hands of human governments, to be used when the necessity of the case demands it.

He is called the Lord of hosts, or armies, and the reason is, that among the heathen the nation most successful in arms was supposed to have the most powerful God!  Jehovah entered the lists against the Lords many and Gods many of the idolatrous nations, and was always successful, when his chosen people, the Jews, cast themselves upon his arm, and thereby proved the eternal sovereignty.

The history of the struggles of the Revolution shows the special care of Providence over our great leader, Washington.  He rode in the thickest of the fight, and was never injured.  Four bullets made as many holes in his coat, and two horses fell dead under him in a single battle, yet he escaped without a wound.  He, himself, regarded it as a special interposition of the hand of God.

The following incident is reported of him:  In the battle of Monongahela – the defeat of Braddock – a distinguished warrior swore it was impossible to bring Washington down by a bullet.  His reason was, that he had taken steady aim at Washington seventeen times, but could not once hit him, and he gave up believing he was invulnerable.  Washington’s work was not then completed.  An unseen hand defended him; and every soldier is under the special care of Him, who recognizes His authority.  Let every one who goes out to defend the sacred rights of his country, look to God for aid and counsel.  He is a present help – a refuge in distress.  If he fall in battle, he falls in a good cause; and even the more wicked and desperate are cut off from the evil to come, and are saved from additional years of crime and guilt.  God does not permit war to be an undeserved and lasting injury to any one.

War should lead us to look to god as the Supreme Arbiter and Judge of nations, and make us feel our dependence upon Him, at home and in the field of battle.  Each father and mother, who has sent a son into battle, should pray as Moses did for Judah:  “Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people.  Let his hand be sufficient for him; and be thou an help to him from his enemies.”  Let every warrior, like Judah, call upon the Lord; and let every parent and friend remember Judah on the field of battle.

God uses war as a purifier of the world.  It is often the scourge of a nation’s wickedness and impiety.  It makes the proudest heart to quail, and humble itself under his mighty hand.  It shows how vain is the help of man.  The neglect of a single officer may turn the tide of war against us, and after a successful campaign, bring us into unexpected disasters.  God is now reminding us of His authority, and teaching the nation that not in statesmen, nor in captains or great generals, but in Him alone there is ever-lasting strength.

The following incident is recorded in a private letter from Ft. Donelson by a soldier in the fifteenth Illinois regiment:

I visited the battle-field on the day of the surrender; here indeed can one truly see the “horrors of war.”  I would not sicken you by detailing the horrible sights I witnessed, but I cannot refrain from mentioning one incident.  In passing among the wounded and dead of the enemy, I came to the body of a young man, lying partly on his side; he belonged to the Second Kentucky Regiment, and was an exceedingly handsome man.  It was the expression of his face, so different from the rest, which first attracted my attention.  One of his hands rested upon his breast just beneath his coat; slightly removing this, I discovered the cause of that expression: tightly grasped in his hand was a Bible.  My curiosity was so great that I could not resist the temptation of learning his name, but it was with no little difficulty that I succeeded in obtaining it, so tightly had his fingers stiffened in their grasp.  I opened the book, and on the fly leaf was written: “Presented to Robert Reeves by his affectionate mother,” and then immediately beneath these words were “My dear son, when troubles and temptations assail you, here alone can you find comfort and consolation.”  What a consolation would it be to her poor heart if, when she hears of the death of her dear son, could she but know that ’midst the din and roar of battle, and with death slowly but surely creeping over him, he had sought and found that comfort and consolation in the teachings of a redeeming Savior.  * *

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 5, 1862, p. 2

The Governor’s Veto

The Iowa City Republican takes us to task because we chose to allude to a measure wherein we thought Gov. Kirkwood had erred.  It takes the ground that the bill passed at the late session of the Legislature reducing the salaries of some of the State officers is unconstitutional, and that had Gov. Kirkwood signed the bill in the face of his oath to support the Constitution he would have been “a perjured villain.”  The Republican, in its sophistry, makes a majority of our State Legislature “perjured villains,” for they as well as the Governor are bound by an oath to support the Constitution, and in voting for the bill, according to this logic, have clearly violated their oaths.

The scarcity of money, the general depression of business and the enormous taxes to which we are to be subjected, we should think would be an incentive enough to any officer, who has the good of his constituents at heart, to aid any, and all measures looking towards economy.

The Republican classes us with the Dubuque Herald and other secession sheets.  Be this as it may, we are proud to say that we are no man’s tool, but shall ever speak out our honest sentiments when we think the good of the people is at stake.

The above article we clip from the Muscatine Journal of Thursday.  The Journal evades an answer to the position of the Republican, by suggesting that the members of the Legislature who voted for the bill had violated their oaths.  We desire to remind the Journal that it censured the Governor for vetoing the act in question, and the simple question at issue is, whether the Governor was right or wrong in vetoing the bill.

That the bill was manifestly unconstitutional, seems to us too clear to admit of a doubt.  Section 9 of the Constitution provides, that the salary of each Judge of the Supreme Court shall be $2,000 per annum until 1860, after which time they shall severally receive such compensation as the General Assembly may, by law prescribe; which compensation shall not be increased or diminished during the term for which they shall have been elected.

On the 22d of January, 1857, the Legislature passed an act fixing the annual salaries of the Supreme Judges at $2,000.  No act has ever been passed repealing that act.  The Constitution went into effect, we believe, on the 1st of Sept., 1857, and did not repeal this act, for it exactly accords with its provisions.  In March, 1858, the Legislature passed an act providing “that all acts which were in force at the time of the taking effect of the New Constitution, and which have not been repealed thereby, or by the acts of the General Assembly now (then 1858) in session, be and they are hereby re-enacted and revised.”  There was no act passed at that session repealing the act fixing the salaries at $2,000, and none has ever been passed since.  On the contrary, at every subsequent session of the Legislature, acts have been passed to appropriate money to pay the salaries of the Supreme Judges at $2,000 per annum.

Thus it will be seen that the act of 1857 has never been repealed, but on the contrary, was re-enacted in March, ’58, and is now the law.  That the Legislature had no power to reduce the salaries of the Supreme Judges during their present term of office, as was attempted by the bill vetoed by the Governor, is so clear “that a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein.”  The simple question, with these facts before him, which the Governor had to decide was shall I obey the mandatory and solemn duty imposed on me by the Constitution, and veto this bill, or shall I sign it and willfully violate the Constitution and my own oath in a case so clear and unequivocal?  It is a shabby morality which would advocate the violation of the Constitution in so plan a case, for the paltry sum which would have been saved to the State if the bill had become law.

The House income tax bill, which would have taxed the State officers on their salaries about $150 each, and which would have brought into the State treasury a revenue of forty or fifty thousand dollars, was defeated in the Senate.  This was a just measure, and would have materially aided the finances of the Sate in this emergency, by compelling not only the State officers but also United States officers within this State, members of Congress and all others having incomes over $500, to contribute to the support of our financial burdens – a class, too, who now do not pay a single dollar on their incomes, and who can best afford to pay taxes.  No, friend Mahin, the responsibility, if any, for not aiding our tax payers, devolves upon those members of the Legislature who voted against the income tax bill of the House, and substituted for it this unconstitutional law.  We believe the Governor was right in vetoing the bill reducing the salaries of the Judges and that every right thinking man will approve the veto message.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 5, 1862, p. 2

Local Matters

FOR cheap straw hats go to R. Krause’s, No. 36 West Second street.  *

IF YOU want wall papers of the newest patterns, go to Plummer’s, No. 50 Brady st.  *tf

GRENADINE VEILS, black, brown, blue and green with plain and colored borders, just received at Wadsworth’s. *

RE-OPENING OF THE POST OFFICE EXCHANGE. – Haskins will open his Room, Monday morning, at 10 o’clock, with his usual nice lunch.  *

LANDLORDS, paper your houses with some of the beautiful paper hangings which can be found only at Plummer’s.  Then on rent day, instead of being met at the door with a broomstick, you will be greeted with pleasant smiles.  *tf

ERSKINE has a fine stock of Melton’s French Coatings, and English, French and American Cassimeres, which he will make to order in the best style.  He is selling very low for cash.  *

DANGEROUS. – As a lady of this city, the other day, was opening a box of the preparation known as concentrated lye, a lump of it dropped on the floor, where it was found by her infant child, who at once at it, and soon became alarmingly sick.  Proper medicines were promptly resorted to, which succeeded in neutralizing the effects of the poison.  There cannot be too much care experienced in handling such articles, especially when there are children around.

THE WASPIE. – This romantic stream has been, as usual every spring, on a roaring rampage, and no team has crossed it on the Dubuque road since the beginning of March.  The state on this side stops at the Fifteen Mile House, and the passengers partially cross the stream, which is two miles wide, in a skiff, for which the moderate sum of half a dollar is asked, while the bassenger foots it or wades nearly half the way.  The ferry boat will probably be in place to-day, so that teams can cross again, as the water has fallen considerably.

FROTHY, OF A TRUTH. – We believe, that it was Sir Wm. Drummond who said, that “he who will not reason is a bigot, he who cannot reason is a fool, and he who dares not reason is a slave.”  The following is the editor of the Democrat’s reply to our article of Friday, and it is a parity of reason with all he writes:

            FROTHY. – Brother Sanders feels stirred up.  He is evidently afraid that he will yet be called upon to furnish room in his family for a few samples of the “institution.”  Don’t the idea make him mad though!  Don’t he doubt the integrity of any man who will thus open up to his affrighted gaze the naked results of his pet hobby!  What a wail of agony, because we are allowed by a forbearing public thus to torment him.  Can’t somebody take his part?  O, Sanders! You are a persecuted individual.

THE Democrat, with its accustomed perspicacity, pitches into Marshal Hoxie for arresting Hill and taking him to Fort Lafayette. – Hoxie but obeyed the orders of his superior, as every good officer should.  We know our neighbor feels aggrieved that his friend Hill should have been  imprisoned for writing treason.  He thinks that is coming rather too close home to be agreeable.

CHILD LOST. – A boy about five years old, son of Mr. Henry Hansen, of Princeton, wandered away from home last Tuesday, and had not been heard from at last accounts.  Any one knowing anything of the whereabouts of the little fellow, will do an act of kindness by letting his father know where he may be found.

DECORATE your dwellings with some of those recherché patterns of wall paper, which can be seen only at Plummer’s, No. 50 Brady street.  *tf

RELIGIOUS NOTICES.

The Rev. Mr. Brooks of Rock Island, will preach this (Sabbath) morning, at 10½ o’clock, in the M. E. Church, in this city.

Rev. G. W. Barnes, of Omaha, Nebraska, will preach in the Main street Baptist Church to-day (Sunday) at 10½ o’clock a. m.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 5, 1862, p. 1

The Cincinnati Commercial deigns to give the Dubuque Herald a notice, and this it does it:

The Dubuque Herald, complains of a want of conservative papers in the West.  If by conservatism it means such papers as the Dubuque Herald, Indianapolis Sentinel, Dayton Empire, and Cincinnati Enquirer, it is mistaken.  They are sufficient to satisfy the demands of the small squads of politicians, with traitorous instincts, to be found scattered about the country, and who are looking to what they call a reorganization of the Democratic party, with the special purpose of adapting it to the purposes of their old masters down South, when the rebellion shall be crushed and the States restored to their allegiance.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 5, 1862, p. 2

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Friday, September 26, 1862

I was on fatigue duty down in town today, helping to dismount the guns and load them with the ammunition upon the cars to be shipped to Corinth. We are preparing to leave Iuka as soon as possible, but it is slow work, as the railroad is in bad shape, and there is only one train a day.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 71

Senator John H. Gear to the Commissioner of Pensions, October 19, 1896

United States Senate

Burlington, Ia, Wasington D. C., Oct. 19, 1896

Hon. Commissioner, of Pensions,

            Washington, D. C.

Sir;

James Bankhead of Lockridge, Iowa, wishes to obtain P. O. address of four of his comrades.  Cannot the Department furnish these, as he is unable to find out where they live.

Yours truly,

Jn H. Gear

James Bankhead }	Fathers. - #599,946. – G – 30 – Ia.
G. A. Bankhead }

SOURCE:  Item offered for auction on Ebay, July 18, 2013

EDITOR’S NOTE:  George A. Bankhead enlisted August 9, 1862 as a Private in Company G, 30th Iowa Infantry and died of disease at Black River Bridge, Mississippi on September 14, 1863. - Roster And Record Of Iowa Soldiers In The War Of The Rebellion, Volume 3, p. 1497

George A. Bankhead, Private, Co. G, 30th Iowa Infantry: Pension Indes Card

SOURCE: Civil War and Later Veterans Pension Index at Fold3.com

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, September 25, 1862

Our knapsacks and tents arrived today by train from Corinth, and it will be more like living now. We have excellent water here, and there are large hotels for invalids, this having been a health resort for Southern people. There are quite a number of mineral springs here, some of sulphur and others of iron.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 71

Edward Francis Winslow

BRAVE SOLDIER AND SUCCESSFUL RAILROAD PRESIDENT

Almost alone among the Iowa soldiers who bore distinguished honors and responsibilities during the War for the Union, General Winslow lived on until the 22d of October, 1914, when his death occurred, at Canandaigua, N. Y., aged seventy-seven years.

Edward Francis Winslow was born in Augusta, Me., September 28, 1837. In 1856, at the age of nineteen, he entered upon a business career in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. When the war called the young men of Iowa, he gave quick response, recruiting a company for the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. In January, 1863, he was made major, and, ten months later, was commissioned colonel of his regiment. He commanded a brigade under Sherman, Grant, Sturgis and Wilson respectively, and wherever he was ordered, whether to victory or, as under Sturgis, to inevitable defeat, he served with equal fidelity and courage. In December 1864, after having earned his star over and over again, he was brevetted a brigadier-general. He was mustered out at Atlanta, August 10, 1865.

Reference has been made to Sturgis’s ill-starred campaign against Forrest. It is a matter of history that but for the defense put up by Winslow’s brigade, without orders other than those originating with himself, the retreating army of Sturgis would never have reached Memphis. Other witnesses of the retreat corrected certain misrepresentations of Sturgis, and Winslow received the high praise he had so bravely won but which his chief had withheld. The chagrin of this retreat was in part obliterated by the after-victory at Tupelo in which Winslow was led by A. J. Smith.

To tell with any detail the story of General Winslow's activities during the war — from the winter of 1861-62, with Curtis in Missouri, until the victory at Columbus in 1865, to which he contributed both the plan and a brigade of splendid veterans — would be to write many chapters of war history. It must suffice here to quote the deliberate judgment of Iowa’s war-historian, Maj. S. H. M. Byers, who says: “He was loved by his soldiers, and shared with them the hard march, the fierce encounter, or the last cracker. His brigade, was a fighting brigade and was as well known among the cavalry of the West as was Crocker's Iowa Brigade among the infantry.” He “came out of the war a brevet brigadier-general, with the reputation of a good patriot, a brave soldier and a splendid cavalry commander.”

The veteran general was only twenty-eight when he was mustered out. Gen. James H Wilson, in his interesting work, “Under the Old Flag,” refers to General Winslow's achievement at Columbus as “one of the most remarkable not only of the war but of modern times.”

After the war, General Winslow was offered a captain’s, and later a major’s, and still later a colonel’s commission in the regular army, but he had seen enough of war.

In the siege of Vicksburg he received a wound which caused him no end of pain and inconvenience. Before setting out on his long marches, his wounded leg was wrapped in stiff bandages, and much of the time his suffering was acute. Again, one day, while leading his brigade in the fall of 1863, in the vicinity of Vicksburg, a shell burst near him as he sat on his horse, and the concussion ruptured an ear-drum, causing total deafness in one ear.

The purpose of the war attained, the general gladly turned his attention to business. His executive ability led him to engage in railroad building and managing. For years he resided in Cedar Rapids, serving as manager of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway, years afterward absorbed by the Rock Island system.

In 1879, as vice president and general manager of the Manhattan Elevated Railway, he unified the system of control and management of its lines. In 1880 he was elected president of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company, and vice president of the Atlantic & Pacific Railway Company. He was also for several years president of the New York, Ontario & Western Railway Company, and formed an association for the purpose of building the West Shore Railway, which he completed in about three years. His last active work was in the organization of the “Frisco” system.

For several years after his retirement, General and Mrs. Winslow resided in Paris and spent much time in travel. A few years ago the general visited his old comrade, General Bussey, in Des Moines, and a reception given the two worthies by ex-Mayor and Mrs. Isaac L. Hillis, was a notable assemblage of prominent Iowa soldiers and civilians. The general was in full possession of his faculties, including that most elusive of all the faculties, the memory.

During the last three years of his life, General Winslow had busied himself writing a book of reminiscences of his part in the Civil War. The book had been completed and waited only the final revision when, on the 22d of October, 1914, illness closed it forever to the author. The manuscript left in possession of his widow cannot fail to be a valuable addition to Iowa history, as it is a transcript from the memory of one of Iowa’s best-known and most highly esteemed soldiers.

SOURCE: Johnson Brigham, Iowa: Its History and Its Foremost Citizens, Volume 1, 397-9

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, September 24, 1862

The first train of cars came in today from Corinth and we expect now to receive a fresh supply of hardtack. We have been on one-third rations by foraging; now, however, it seems we have to do without, for we have cleaned up everything for a distance of ten miles in all directions.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 71

George W. Brindle to Mrs. L. Bolles, March 2, 1863

Dubuque Iowa

February Mch 2/63

Mrs. L. Bolles

Sand Springs [Iowa]

Dr. Madam & Sister,

Enclosed find five dollars sent me by your husband to pay expenses on securing accommodations for his chaplaincy and having it acknowledged &c. &c.

The expense was nothing to speak of and the trouble was freely taken – so I remit to you.

He spoke also of sending you groceries for the amt. In case there was no expense but in inquiring I learn that there is really no difference in the price of those articles worthy of [matter] between this place and the smaller towns around.

So here is it is.

My love to your little girl whom I met when her father was in camp here.

Faithfully yrs,

Geo. W. Brindle

SOURCE: This item was listed for sale on Ebay on July 15, 2013.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Lorenzo Bolles, Jr. was the Chaplain of the 21st Iowa Infantry.  He enlisted in Company K as a private on July 28, 1862, and was promoted Chaplain January 6, 1863.  He resigned July 16, 1863.