NEW YORK, April 27 [1862]

The Sunday Mercury states that on the authority of officers of the steamer Boston that Fort Jackson, six miles below Savannah, is in our possession, and our pickets within four miles of Savannah.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

From Yorktown

HEADQUATERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
NEAR YORKTOWN, April 26, 1862.

It is still raining, and the roads nearly impassable.

The rebels in Yorktown opened fire on three canal boats passing into Wormly’s Creek. No damage was done.


FORT MONROE., April 26.

About ten o’clock to-day the enemy opened a brisk fire on our men near Yorktown, without doing any damage. Our gunboats shelled the enemy’s works in the rear of Yorktown. The enemy responded without harm.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

From Fort Monroe

FORT MONROE, April 26.

Harper’s Weekly on arrival here to-day was seized on account of objectionable editorial and a map of the vicinity of Yorktown.

All the yards and lower works of the Galway have been removed. Nothing is seen above deck but a smoke stack.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

Wounded Soldiers

PITTSBURG, Pa., April 27.

The steamer Marengo and Hailman, sent to Pittsburg Landing, from this city, returned today with 70 wounded who were placed in the Miami hospital. Boats started with nearly 500, all of whom left at points on the river nearest their homes.

Among the wounded were two rebel prisoners.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

Iowa Items

The question of who shall go to Congress is already being agitated in some portions of the State. In the third district, (the northeastern part of the State,) Hon. Reuben Noble has been talked of. He, however, authorizes the McGregor News to say he will not be a candidate for any office the coming election.

The Keokuk Constitution the other day published an article taken from an Ohio paper, justifying the Southern traitors for rising in rebellion against the Government. The Gate City says that copies of the Constitution of that date were circulated among the secesh in the hospital at that place, with the assurance that the sentiments of the people of the North were truly represented in the article in question. An Andy Johnson in Keokuk would soon put a stop to such villainy.

An important act was approved by the Governor on the day of the adjournment of the legislature, relative to the right of widows in the property of their deceased husbands. The act revives the provisions of the code of 1851 on the subject, and gives the widow a title in fee simple to all the property of her husband at the time of his death. Husbands have the same rights in the estates of their deceased wives.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

Hiram Price

HIRAM PRICE was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, January 10, 1810. He worked on his father's farm in boyhood, attending school during the winter months. He was a great reader, borrowing books of neighbors and thus acquiring an education. In 1844 he removed to Iowa, locating in Davenport, where he opened a store. In 1847 he was chosen School Fund Commissioner and a year later was elected recorder and treasurer of Scott County, holding the position eight years. Mr. Price was a radical advocate of temperance and was one of the founders of the order of "The Sons of Temperance." He was one of the framers of the first bill for the prohibition of the liquor traffic in the State, which was enacted into law by the Fifth General Assembly in 1854. He was the editor of the Temperance Organ, a State paper devoted to prohibition. He had been a Democrat in politics up to the time of the attempt to force slavery into Kansas when he left that party and was one of the organizers and founders of the Republican party of Iowa. Upon the enactment of the State Bank Law, Mr. Price was one of the organizers of the Davenport branch and was the second president of the State Bank officers. When the War of the Rebellion began he assisted in raising the money to enable Governor Kirkwood to equip the first two Iowa regiments. He was the first paymaster of Iowa troops and was untiring in his support and assistance to the Governor in raising men and money to meet the calls of the President. In 1862 he was elected by the Republicans of the Second District to Congress and for six years was one of the ablest members of the House. He was an earnest advocate of the most energetic war measures and of legislation to strengthen the credit of the Government. Mr. Price was one of the founders of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home. In 1876 he was again elected to Congress and served until 1880. In 1881 Mr. Price was appointed by the President Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in which position he served with distinguished ability for four years. He made many reforms where abuses had grown up in dealing with the Indians. He was one of the pioneers in railroad building in Iowa. In 1853, when the first railroad was being built from Chicago toward Iowa, Mr. Price was chosen to traverse the counties on the projected line through the State to the Missouri River to create an interest among the people and towns. In 1869 when a railroad was projected from Davenport in a northwesterly direction Hiram Price was elected president of the company which constructed the road. One of his last public acts before removing to Washington was to endow a free reading room in the public library of Davenport, his old home. He was a life-long and prominent member of the Methodist Church. He died in Washington, D. C., May 30, 1901.

SOURCE: Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa, Volume IV: Iowa Biography, p. 216-7

Reverdy Johnson . . .

. . . formerly Douglas Democrat, has published a letter in favor of gradual emancipation in Maryland! The day begins to dawn!

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

Rather Steep

The Davenport Democrat and News recently had the unblushing effrontery to assert coolly as a fact, in its editorial columns, that there are two Democrats in the Army to one Republican! We do not hesitate to denounce as disloyal, any journal that will assert such base falsehoods for such base purposes as were indicated by the connection in which it occurred in the Democrat and News. Such unscrupulous statements will only defeat their own design, for no newspaper reader is so ignorant as not to know that they are shamelessly false. – Marengo Review.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

General Sigel

This glorious hero recently received an intimation that some of his countrymen were desirous of contributing towards a testimonial for his benefit. His reply was one that only could have emanated from a man impelled by the noblest impulses that ever glowed in the human breast. He said that if his countrymen were desirous of doing something that would be appreciated by him, they could do nothing more fitting or appropriate than to raise some $20,000 or $30,000 for the benefit of the families of German volunteers. Noble Sigel! – Chicago Journal.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

William Vandever

WILLIAM VANDEVER was born in Baltimore, Maryland, March 31, 1817. He was educated in the schools of Philadelphia. In 1839 he went to Rock Island where he engaged in surveying public lands. For several years he was editor of the Northwestern Advertiser. In 1851 he removed to Dubuque and was employed in the office of the Surveyor-General. He afterwards became a partner of Ben M. Samuels in the practice of law. In 1856 he was a delegate to the convention which organized the Republican party of Iowa. In 1858 he was nominated for Representative in Congress in the Second District and elected over his former law partner, B. M. Samuels. He was reelected in 1860 but resigned his seat in 1861 to enter the military service and was appointed colonel of the Ninth Iowa Infantry. Mr. Vandever commanded a brigade at the Battle of Pea Ridge and won promotion to Brigadier-General. He served through the war with distinction in the armies of Grant and Sherman and was brevetted Major-General. Some years after the close of the war he removed to California where he was again elected to Congress. He died on the 23d of July, 1893.

SOURCE: Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa, Volume IV: Iowa Biography, p. 271-2

The Siege of Yorktown

It would not be strange if those who count on sudden and startling news from Yorktown should be disappointed. The strength of the rebel works and the array of men gathered behind them, are more formidable than have been concentrated at any other position. They evidently mean to contest the position with all their resources. Gen. McClellan, as it is stated and seems wise, proposes to subject them to a regular siege. This will occupy days, certainly, perhaps weeks. With such co-operation as will be accorded him, the result cannot be doubtful. Because Yorktown is not at once carried at the point of the bayonet, let no one believe that this is the scene of a Union defeat. – Wheeling, Va., Intelligencer.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

A Rebel Letter

A correspondent sent us from Fort Pillow the following copy of a letter picked up among the effects of the rebels at Island No. 10. We correct the authography somewhat, but the phraseology is the writer’s. We commend our neighbor of the Democrat the sentence in which the writer attributes this war to President Buchanan:

PUL. CO., Ark., Feb 17, 1862.

DEAREST SON:– It is with pleasure that I write a few lines to let you know how times are in this poor devoted place. This is certainly the most wretched of all the Southern States. My son, I don’t wish to discourage you while you are under the strong arm of military law, but we are lost. Your leaders have led you into an everlasting pit of dishonor and disgrace. The South is lost forever. Our own politicians are the parties to blame. It is not the people of the South, or at least a majority of the South, that is to blame, it was President Buchanan that brought the brilliant South into trouble. My son, if you can get outside of the guard lines, desert and come home to your father’s house, where you can have shelter form the dashing storms and be safe from the blood thirsty grey-hounds of the North. My son, the North will whip the South, though the South to be the strongest party by one-third, for when the Yankees take a notion to do anything, it will be done. I know some of the officers of the Northern army that will fight until the last man falls, or the foe is driven from the field or makes an unconditional surrender. One from Quincy, an old man with grey locks, who I learn is Colonel of the 16th Illinois regiment and Samuel Hayes is the major of the same regiment. I know them to be the true blue, and several more of the same king wasps. I am well acquainted with the 16th regiment. I found their names in the Quincy Herald. I paid $1.00 for the paper. It stated that Green had been driven out of Missouri by the bloody 16th Illinois volunteer regiment. My son, I hope you will not fall into the hands of the 16th, but if you do, go to Col. Smith and tell him your name, and beg him for your father’s sake to use you well. So this is all at present.

I still remain your father,

R. D. M. Penilton

To Francis R. Penilton, 12th Ark. Regiment, Co. G.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

New Orleans Taken!

The news flashed along the electric wire yesterday morning and communicated to our citizens the gratifying intelligence, that the Crescent City, the emporium of the South, had struck the villainous rag it has so long flaunted in the face of God and the Government, and succumbed to its inevitable destiny. The blood of the patriot courses quicker through his veins when he reads of such victories, and he feels that peace will soon return again to his country – a peace so dearly purchased as to be highly prized and not be sacrificed again to ambition of designing demagogues.

If it be true that New Orleans is in the hands of the Union forces, then Beauregard is in close quarters and must either surrender or fight desperately before he can escape. Gradually the anaconda is contracting his coils and crushing the traitors. A few more weeks and the rebels will not be able to concentrate sufficient force at any one point to stand against the Federal troops. Scattered throughout the country in little guerilla bands, the more desperate ones will annoy the Unionists until the strong arm of the Government suppresses them. This with the aid of the Provisional Governors, will soon be accomplished.

New Orleans taken, and the doom of Memphis is sealed. Beauregard’s army will be scattered, and that arch traitor be either a prisoner or fled, before troops can reach Memphis from New Orleans. With every flash along the telegraphic wires we expect to read that the conflict has already commenced at Corinth. It will be one of the most desperate struggles ever fought on our continent, and decisive in the west, of the rebellion that for one year has arrayed one part of our inhabitants against the other in deadly strife. If Beauregard has retreated on Memphis, then that fated city will be the battle ground, and it be added as another to the once beautiful, but now desolate spots, that attest to the horrors of civil war.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2

James F. Wilson

JAMES F. WILSON was born at Newark, Ohio, October 19, 1828. His education was obtained in the common schools and he learned the trade of harness making in his youth. He soon decided to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1851. In 1853 he became a resident of Iowa, and locating at Fairfield opened a law office. In 1856 he was a delegate to the convention which organized the Republican party. In 1857 he was a member of the convention which framed the present Constitution of the State. Although one of the youngest members he took an active part in the work. In October of that year he was elected to the House of the Seventh General Assembly and was chairman of the committee on ways and means. In I860 he was a member of the State Senate and after serving through a regular and extra session was elected Representative in Congress to fill a vacancy in the First District. He was three times reflected, serving through the war and reconstruction periods until March, 1871. When Grant was inaugurated President in 1869 he tendered Mr. Wilson a place in his cabinet as Secretary of State which was declined. In the impeachment trial of President Johnson. Mr. Wilson was one of the managers on part of the House. He had originally opposed impeachment and as a member of the judiciary committee had made a minority report in which he gave an able review of the most important cases of impeachment in the British Parliament and Senate of the United States. His report forms a valuable treatise on the subject. He was the author of the joint resolution for amendment of the Constitution of the United States in 1864, abolishing slavery, and made one of the greatest speeches of his life on that subject. In January, 1882, Mr. Wilson was elected to the United States Senate for six years and was reelected, serving until March, 1895. Mr. Wilson died at his home in Fairfield in April, 1895.

SOURCE: Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa, Volume IV: Iowa Biography, p. 290

Later from Europe

ST. JOHNS, N. F., April 28.

The steamship North American, from Liverpool 17th, passed Cape Race Sunday. She was boarded by the news yacht, and a summary of her news obtained.

The Great Eastern had been got off the Gridiron at Milford in safety.

Consols closed at 93 7-8 a 94 for money.


GREAT BRITAIN. – A deputation from the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society waited on Mr. Adams, the American Minister, on the 16th, and presented an address in which the hope is expressed that the restoration of the Union would be founded upon the abolition of the true cause of the strife.

The reply of Mr. Adams is described as having been very satisfactory to the deputation. But the Times thinks it indicates the policy of Northern politicians, which is to have liberty to deal according to circumstances with the slavery question.


FRANCE. – The Prince De Joinville is about publishing a pamphlet on iron-plated [frigates]. This work, it is said, will present the subject under new aspects. He does not admit the invulnerability of the new vessels.

The Bourse was flat on the 14th and lower.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 1

DUBUQUE, April 28 [1862]

The river rose 24 inches in the last 48 hours, and still rising.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 1

KEWANEE, April 28 [1862]

A fire here yesterday morning at two o’clock burned six stores. Loss estimated at $12,000; insurance about 6,000.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 1

CLINTON, Iowa, April 28 [1862]

The water raised 14 inches since Saturday noon, and still rising rapidly.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 1

PHILADELPHIA, April 27 [1862]

Mr. Crump, for more than a quarter of a century connected with the press of this city, principally attached to the Enquirer, died this afternoon.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 1

Mississippi Railroad Bridge Report

FOR THE WEEK ENDING APRIL 19, 1862.

The number of footmen that crossed the bridge during the week was 1,609.

Number of boats up, 10; down, 10; rafts 4.

J. H. THORINGTON, Bridge Master.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 1