Washington Correspondence

WASHINGTON, May 23, 1862

The answer of the President to the proclamation of Gen. Hunter contained a solemn and emphatic reiteration of his warning to the Boarder States.  The country is doubtless awaiting with some interest the response that will be made. – It is, I presume, awaiting with much hope and expectation also.  But if so, I think it is wasting its confidence and indulging a hope substantially fallacious.  The Millerites are preaching the immediate personal coming of Christ.  They declare the world so dead to spiritual things that nothing but the trump of Gabriel himself and the appearance of the savior in the skies can awake it to a sense of its condition and the immense importance of impending changes.  I don’t know much about Millerism, and I believe less.  But I do know, from long study and observation something of the character of slavery and its influences over the judgment and conduct of men.  And I do not believe that this preliminary note of the last trump of Abe Lincoln will answer the purpose of arousing the slaveholders of the Border States to a sense of the condition and the tendency of things.  The President was mistaken when he told them they could not be ignorant of the signs of the times.  They are ignorant.  They have a faint and glimmering vision of them, but they have no clear and lively understanding of the matter.  They do not realize that their institution is in actual and immediate peril.  Nothing but the full blast of the Emancipation bugle, nothing but the flame in the heavens and the shout that shall be heard over sea and land will rouse them to a just comprehension of existing circumstances and the irresistible march of events.  Not until the heavens of slavery are visibly rolling up and passing away.  I apprehend, will any wide spread, practical response be made to the earnest appeal and solemn warning of the President.

I may be too fast.  I am speaking of the subject from a public point of view.  In that aspect of the case, I am correct.  But there is a private argument that is quietly producing an effect, and if it proves extensive enough it will open the eyes of the sleepers sufficiently wide for them to take in the real dimensions of the subject and rouse them to action.  It is the spontaneous dissolution of the institute of slavery on its own motion.  There is not much reason however, to believe that this will prove adequate to the emergency.  It is not probable that its influence can be more than local and partial.  But in some localities it is all sufficient.  If the experience of the counties of Maryland and Virginia that border upon the District were likely to extend into the interior of those States from every free border, and the experience of those states were the immediate experience of all the Border States no executive proclamation under startling auspices would be necessary to awaken sensibility or deal summarily and finally with the institution.  In the adjoining counties of Maryland and Virginia slavery is already almost extinguished.  There is no existing sign of what it was one year ago.  There will, in three months more be but a vestige of it remaining.  In Virginia it is not singular, for the country has been in possession of the military and the homesteads have been deserted.  But in Maryland all the households have remained together and the domestic authority has existed intact.  Yet where are the negroes.  They are not at home.  The hearths about which they were lately so “contented and happy” wear the aspect of desolation. – They are vanishing from sight like dew before the morning sun.  As they vanish, the institution vanishes with them, for no slaveholder is so dull and foolish as to supply their places with more of the same class and so assume a new assurance of loss.  The rapidity of this hegira within a limited scope is astonishing.  A gentleman, twenty five miles from here in Prince George’s county one morning last week waked up to find that all his slaves, thirty four in number, had left during the night without any previous suspicion on his part that they were likely to desert him.  Another, twelve miles distant last week, waked up to find all his two legged possessions, thirteen of them, had left his hospitable board without notice or suspicion.  These families were thus suddenly left without means of carrying on either household or field operations.  In one instance a little girl of twelve, unused to labor, prepared the breakfast, on the other, the men of the house prepared it in their clumsy way.  These instances are but illustrations of an extensive state of things in the district mentioned.  Mean time the season is getting on.  The crops must be attended to or the planters will have no income.  Consequently they are now busy [by] employing other labor.  Very many are telling their remaining negroes to leave, if they want to.  They cannot while the season is progressing afford to lean upon a species of labor that is periling their crop and, under the present depreciated value of negro property, is periling them more than the negroes themselves are worth.  It is the argument of dollars and cents, brought pressingly home to them.  It may not be effectual enough for general public purposes but within a limited scope it is complete, and to an observer now at Washington it is a very interesting one.  Let me wander away from the general point far enough to close my article by citing the case of a slaveholder and a personal friend who is known to some portion of the people of Iowa, Frank Wootton, some time a citizen of Keokuk, late Secretary and acting Governor of Utah, was yesterday in town.  He is at present living on his family homestead in Prince George’s.  A few days ago half the slaves of his family skedaddled and Frank was here yesterday trying to hire Irishmen to go and take their places and save his tobacco crop.

IOWA

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

Negroes in the Confederate Service --- Positive Proof of the Fact

For the benefit of those who have studiously denied that the confederates are training negroes as soldiers, we quote the following paragraph entire from the Bowling Green Currier:

NEW ORLEANS REVIEW. – There was a review of troops in New Orleans on the 8th Inst.  A correspondent of the Mobile Register makes mention of a noticeable feature of it as follows:

One of the most noticeable features in the review of the eighth, was the appearance of a large regiment composed of free colored men, and partly officered by men of their own color.  They are well armed, clad in substantial uniforms, seemed to be admirably drilled, and altogether made a very creditable appearance.  Among them was the company of the old veteran Jordan, the drummer boy of the Chalmette, who stepped as proudly as if again marching to victory under the command of the lion-hearted Jackson.  This regiment had their place in the line of march of the Division, and I did not observe that any invidious distinction was made between them and others.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

The Rights of Colored Men

A citizen of Tipton accompanies a remittance in payment of his subscription to our Daily with the following reflections which we take the liberty of publishing:

I cannot refrain from expressing my satisfaction with the position of the GAZETTE, on the great questions now prominently before the public.  The vivacity and spirit with which it is conducted, seem to me uncommonly commendable, in this time of misrepresentation and unsoundness, among editors, correspondents, officers, and public men generally.

Your Des Moines correspondent and yourselves have the right of it, in relation to many of the Republicans even, now at Des Moines.  The idea of granting citizenship only to “free white” men, who have fought for our dearest rights, is a reproach to every man who voted for it.  I am glad to see that on the motion to strike out the word, “free white,” our own representatives, from Cedar, Rothrock and Loomis, voted in the affirmative.  With what strange pertinacity and vehemence men cling to the essential spirit of slavery, by enacting injustice to the poor and the oppressed, while professedly contending for the glorious principle of the inherent right of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!  I confess, this deplorable reluctance, on the part of so many at the North, to recognize any just claim of the colored race in the great controversy now pending, reconciles me more than anything else to delays, misfortunes, taxation, and whatever other judgments may be necessary to open our minds clearly to the real truth and equity of the case.

May God speed the right and maintain it against all our selfish clamor for a speedy settlement of our troubles.

Yours truly,

M. K. C.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

Frederick Douglass on the War

A large audience assembled at the Cooper Institute, New York, last Wednesday evening to hear Frederick Douglass lecture on the war.  He spoke in behalf of the colored race, and discussed the question of emancipation at length,

“My answer to the question, what shall be done with the four million slaves if emancipated? Shall be short and simple. – Do nothing with them, but leave them just as you leave other men, to do with and for themselves.  We could be entirely respectful to those who raise this inquiry, and yet it is hard not to say to them just what they would say to us, if we manifested a like concern for them, and that is: please to mind your business, and leave us to mind ours.  If we cannot stand up, then let us fall down.  We ask nothing at the hands of the American people but simple justice, and an equal chance to live; and if we cannot live and flourish on such terms, our case should be referred to the Author of our existence.  Injustice, oppression and slavery, with all their manifold concomitants, have been tried with us during a period of more than two hundred years.  Under the whole heavens you will find no parallel to the wrongs we have endured.  We have worked without wages; we have lived without hope, wept without sympathy, and bled without mercy.  Now, in the name of a common humanity, and according to the law of the Living god, we simply ask the right to bear the responsibility of our own existence.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

Rejoicing in the Legislature

A friend has handed us the following note received from a member of the Legislature, giving a graphic account of the reception there of the news of the taking of Fort Donelson.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

DES MOINES, Feb. 17, 1862.

FRIEND R.: – The news of our glorious victory at Fort Donelson was communicated to the Speaker at 12 o’clock, right in the middle of a call of the yeas and nays.  Such a yell as went up from the members of the House I never heard before.  It was with the greatest difficulty we went through the call.  The Senate adjourned immediately, and all came into the House.  If you ever saw 200 crazy men confined in one room, you may have some idea of the scene that has transpired during the past half hour.  Gov. Baker was called upon, and he put the Democrats through terribly – I mean those who are in favor of the war with an “if” and a “but.”  Gov. Kirkwood made a few remarks, which were received with the wildest enthusiasm.  After which the Star Spangled Banner was sung, but every person was so hoarse it was not very well executed.

The big gun will be brought out this afternoon, and every one is expected to make all the noise he can.  Gov. Baker moved that the liquor law be suspended, which was adopted by a decided vote in the affirmative.  The scene I have witnessed and participated in to-day will never be forgotten.  Isn’t it glorious?  Baker asked the question what they should do with Floyd.  One universal shout went up, “hang him.”  But I cannot write more now, the great excitement I am laboring under at present renders it impossible.  I just thought you would like to know how we received the news.  Your friend for the Union and the Constitution.

W.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

From The 11th Iowa Regiment

FULTON, MO., Feb. 15.

EDITOR OF THE GAZETTE. – Dear Sir:  A sad shooting affair occurred at the Post office in this place last evening – the parties, a Mr. Overton and a Mr. Williams – two prominent citizens, and both good Union men.  They were in the inner room of the Post office, when an altercation took place concerning the position of the Postmaster, and some other local matters.  Revolvers were drawn by both at nearly the same instant, and both fired – one twice and the other once.  Mr. Overton was shot through the groin, and Mr. Williams through the breast.  Two men of our regiment were present – waiting for the mail – and assisted instantly in seizing the combatants, but too late.  Both men are alive today, but neither is expected to recover.  One of the balls passed through the glass of the boxes and seriously injured a colored man in the outer room.  No one else was hurt, though quite a number of persons were present. – This sad occurrence causes great rejoicing among the secessionists.  First intimation some of us had of the affair, was the shouting and cheering of the prisoners confined in the third story of our quarter[s], to whom the news was foolishly reported by one of our officers.  It was nearly 11 o’clock, and most of the prisoners were asleep, but all were aroused, and so great was their joy that they actually rolled on the floor and jumped over each other.  The killing of two such men – each by the hand of the other – is an event, in their estimation, of almost as great importance as a rebel victory.  To the Union people of this city and county, scarcely any event could have been more sad that the mutual destruction of two such men.

Speaking of our prisoners, we have now twenty-six among whom are one merchant, one minister, three doctors, and one major formerly of Price’s army and wounded at the battle Wilson’s Creek.  Some of them are desperate men, who would kill every one of us if they could.  Others are mild, and would shrink from shedding human blood, but all probably have aided rebellion in some way.  Arrests are made almost every day, but when there is no clear proof of complicity with rebels, the oath is administered, heavy bonds required in doubtful cases, and the prisoners are discharged.  A military commission has been appointed, whose duty it will be to examine and decide the fate of those held in confinement.  This board consists of five officers of the 11th Iowa and the 3d Iowa cavalry and will be in session next week.

This week two brigades from Sedalia and Otterville have passed through this place, on their way to St. Louis.  The traveling was terrible and the progress very slow – not more than ten or twelve miles per day, and men and animals giving out at that. – The first cavalcade was two hours passing a given point, and the last two and a half.  What could have been the motive for sending these troops on such a march, when a railroad and a river were both at hand, and when their destination would seem to demand dispatch, is a mystery.  Major Generals ought to know what they are about.  Perhaps they do.

This week two of our men died in one day with small pox – the first deaths by this disease in the regiment – and on the same day another man died very suddenly of laryngitis.  One of our number also died at St. Louis last week making thirty in all.  The names of the four above mentioned are Wm. Sheets and Marcelon Smith, of Co. G; Sylvester Britt, of Co. C; and Richard Garland, of Co. I.  We have three men very sick, two of whom have been in the hospital a long time, and are thought to be gaining slowly.  The other is in a critical condition, but may recover.

SABBATH EVENING, Feb. 15. – Overton and Williams are both dead – a sad, very sad result of passion, and of carrying deadly weapons.  A thick gloom has settled down on this community, as both these men were highly respected in this city and county. – Mr. Overton was a druggist, and Mr. Williams a hardware merchant.  The former was an elder in the Presbyterian church.

This afternoon, by invitation of several of the prisoners who are Methodists, the Chaplain of the cavalry – who is also a Methodist – preached in the prison room.  He gave them a very good discourse on the character of Daniel, and closed with some pretty strong Union sentiments.  A majority, perhaps, received the exhortation with apparent meekness, but some raved.  One of them – a doctor – remarked to me at the close, bitterly, that “if the Nebuchadnezzar of this country” – naming President Lincoln – “could be sent to eat grass like the ox for seven years, the trouble of the nation would be at an end.”  I might have replied that Jeff. Davis more nearly resembled the tyrant king than does our good President, but not choosing to hold any discussion with such men I did not.

We have heard the report of heavy guns this afternoon in the direction of Jefferson City, and the presumption is that Fort Donelson is captured.  But as we are 25 miles from telegraph we must wait for the news till to-morrow.  Our isolation is a serious drawback to the comfort of our otherwise comfortable position.  But if Uncle Sam needs us here, we must try and be contented.  Inactivity and want of excitement are in some respects harder to bear than fatigue and danger, but if the former are to be our allotment – as now appears probable – in sustaining our most excellent Government, we will endeavor to endure and bear patiently.  The glory of this endurance will be less than that of the battlefield, but the service may not be less important, while the agonizing suspense of friends at home will be far less.

Yours truly,

CHAPLAIN,

11th Iowa.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

From The 2d Iowa Cavalry

BENTON BARRACKS, MO., Feb. 17th, 1862.

FRIEND SANDERS – On Wednesday last the regiment received orders to be ready as soon as possible to go to Ironton.  The news was received with joy, as the boys are anxious to be off; but on Thursday the order was countermanded.  Yesterday the balance of the revolvers were distributed, and the first battalion tried their skill at target practice; the men behaved very well, and the horses admirable.  Last night about 11 o’clock an order came from headquarters to grind sabres, and giving instructions on how to pack up.  This began to look like business.

To-day about 2 p.m., orders came to be ready to march to the river at 7 1-2 tomorrow.  The first battalion, under command of Maj. Hepburn, are now packed up, four days rations in haversacks, wagons loaded, and at the appointed time they will be in line ready for duty.  They go on the steamer D. G. Taylor.  Three squadrons under command of Maj. Coon, leave on another boat at noon; three others, under command of Col. Hatch, at night, and the balance Tuesday morning.

The 2d cavalry will perhaps very soon get a chance to show their colors.  To-night we have the glorious news of Price’s defeat and capture of 6,000 prisoners by Gen. Curtis.  This is grand.

But to check our exultation, we hear our gunboats are repulsed with great damage and serious loss of life, at Fort Donelson.  We hope that part may prove false, though we fear it may be too true.  There, no doubt, will be the bloodiest fight yet, for nothing but the prestige of a victory there for the rebels could counteract the general gloom caused by the recent defeats, and which so threatens to overwhelm their waning cause.  We may be repulsed there, but soon the victory will be ours.  It is only a question of time there, as elsewhere.  With the fall of Donelson added to the list, they may well begin to despair.

I will mail this on my way to the river, so you may [be] sure we’re gone this time.  If it see any sights by the way to Tennessee, I’ll write ‘em.

DIFF.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

Southern Chivalry

Some months ago, how long we cannot exactly tell, but presume it was before the strongly contested battle of Bull Run was fought, at all events at a time when the Southern chivalry entertained the most absurd ideas of Northern bravery and classed its soldiers among the very mudsills of society; that the New Orleans Picayune boasted that one Southerner was equal to five Northern soldiers, and proposed in order to settle the contest, that one hundred thousand of the Southern chivalry be opposed to one hundred and fifty thousand northern soldiers and that the Governments accept the result as final!  It was a glorious idea and very befitting the brain that hatched it.  We think by this time that these Southern gentry have learned that if the people of the North have made less pretension to the use of firearms they know quite as well as their neighbors how to use them; and that if they have boasted little of their bravery, it is never wanting when called into requisition.  When peace is once more established in our country, for this generation at least, there will be less bullying of the South over the North; they will feel so cowed by the awful thrashing we have given them, that a prima facie Yankee will be enabled to pass from one end of Dixie to the other without fear of insult.

The idea of physical supremacy knocked out of a bully makes him one of the most obsequious of individuals, compliant as putty in the hands of his superior.  It may not have exactly this effect upon all the chivalry, but they will be very apt to speak a little more courteously when they allude to Yankees and give them a wider berth when they meet them.  Certainly it will raise Yankee prowess in the eyes of the Southern gentlemen, and that to them is the most god like virtue possessed by fallen humanity.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

Iowa Troops at Fort Donelson

The Chicago Tribune of Wednesday republishes a list of the regiments engaged at Fort Donelson, and includes the following from Iowa: 2d, 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 14th, making six in all.  It thus omits from its former list the 3d and 13th and includes the 10th regiment.  This is nearer the truth though not yet correct.  The 10th we think, was not in the engagement, although previous to the fight it was in camp at Cairo, under its able commander Col. Perczel, aching for an opportunity to show the world of what materials the Iowa boys are composed.  The 11th regiment was in Missouri at the time and could not possibly have been present.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

Our Brave Western Boys

Our Illinois regiments must be wary, or the Iowa regiments will bear off the honors of the campaign.  At Wilson’s creek, under the gallant Lyon, the Iowa First did prodigies of valor.  At Belmont, the Iowa Second did the main part of the work that redeemed the disasters of the day.  And at Fort Donelson, that same regiment coming to the aid of Illinois, was the first over the entrenchments, and bayonet in hand in the thickest of the fray!  And wherever else Iowa has fought, she has shown that her brave sons are doing all that gallant soldiers and fervid patriots can do.  Thus far she has a record that any State might envy. – Chicago Tribune.

Our contemporary labors under a few mistakes, though it is not one to ascribe bravery to the Iowa soldiers.  It was the Iowa Seventh that so signalized themselves at Belmont, and the Iowa Second that was the first, the very first, over the entrenchments at Fort Donelson, leading all other regiments.  Wherever in a battle the fight is the hottest, and the leaden hail thickest, there the brave Iowa boys may be found fighting for the country they love so well.  God bless them all; may that country richly reward the novel fellows for the services rendered in her hour of peril.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

The Eleventh Regiment

We learn  from the Bayonet, the paper published by the Eleventh at California, Mo., that Companies C, D, F, G and I, are at Fulton, Calloway county, under Col. Hare; Cos. A, B, H, and K are at California, Moniteau county; and Co. E is at lookout, Cole county.  There have been twenty-eight deaths in the regiment since its organization.  In the hospital at California there are about thirty patients, and nearly all of them are convalescent.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

An Iowa Traitor among the Fort Henry Prisoners

Among the rebel officers captured at Fort Henry is a young man named Geo. R. G. Jones, who commanded an artillery company.  He is a renegade Northerner, a resident of Dubuque, Iowa, and a son of Hon. George W. Jones, late Minister to Bogota, and now a prisoner at Fort Lafayette.  The Fort Henry correspondent of the New York Times says the son is a young man who never did anything in particular, except to use a subsistence from the fortunes which his father earned, or rather gained from the people of Iowa; yet the moment the war broke out, he, together with a half dozen other fellows from Dubuque, bolted South, and offered his service to the rebel Government.  He has always lived North, has been supported by the North, (through his father,) and turns against the country which has fed him at the very first opportunity to raise his hand against his patron and supporter.  A large number of his townsmen are among the soldiers who captured him, and they became so indignant at finding this young ingrate at this place,  ready to train his guns upon his former associates, that they discussed the propriety of shooting him.  Wiser counsels, however, prevailed, and he is left to enjoy his infamy undisturbed. – Chicago Journal.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

The coffins furnished for the dead on the gunboat Essex . . .

. . . were roughly made out of pine boards.  When it was proposed to place the bodies in them, a number of the sailors gathered around and most earnestly but respectfully protested:

“I say, Captain,” said one of them evidently speaking for the group “no shipmate of ours goes into such boxes.  They are not fit coffins for a sailor.  Shiver me if it wouldn’t take part of the pluck out of my heart, if I had to reflect that if I should be killed I should be boxed for the last anchorage in such timber as that.  No! no! furnish us the money, and at our own expense we will bury our shipmates decently – bury them not so, Captain, not so at all events.”

The dead were buried in other better coffins. – Cairo Gazette, 13th.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 2

The War News

1715 Killed and Wounded at Ft. Donelson.

Rebel Outlaws Murder Union citizens in Missouri.

Pacific News from Great Britain.

Our Government Protests Against a Monarchy in Mexico.

Gen. Fremont Completely Vindicated.

Rumored Resignation of Vice-President Stephens.

Porter’s Expedition arriving at Ship Island.

THE ROCK ISLAND ARMORY BILL BEFORE THE SENATE.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 1

Local Matters

NEW goods constantly arriving at Wadsworth’s.  he his selling more goods and at lower prices than any other house in town.  Call and examine his stock and prices before purchasing.

CONGRESSIONAL APPORTIONMENT. – The Des Moines correspondent of the Muscatine Journal says that the Congressional apportionment of our State published by the Democrat of this city is bogus.  We judged as much and did not copy it.

WASHINGTON’S BIRTH DAY. – Citizens are requested to meet at the office of D. H. Wheeler, Esq.., in LeClaire Block, at 10 o’clock a.m. (this morning,) to devise ways and means for a suitable celebration of Washington’s Birthday, Feb. 22.  All citizens are invited to attend.

WE LEARN from the Iowa City Press That Mr. C. F. Westphal, son of Mr. J. C. Westphal, the horticulturist of that place, has left for this city with the intention of taking charge of the Scott Nursery, which they have purchased.  We welcome Mr. W. to Davenport, and, judging from the parent stock, he will be a fine addition to the horticultural talent of our city.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 1

Consolidated

The German companies at Camp McClellan have been, according to expectation, consolidated with the 16th regiment.  This will bring the 16th up to within one hundred of the minimum standard, which it will soon reach.  It will not wait long thereafter for a movement.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 21, 1862, p. 1

William H. C. Whiting to Major Robert Anderson, April 15, 1861

HEADQUARTERS PROVISIONAL FORCES, C. S. A.,

Charleston, April 15, 1861.

The commanding general directs that the commanding officer of the garrison of Fort Sumter will bury the unfortunate soldier who has been accidentally killed by explosion of misplaced powder while saluting his flag. He will be buried with all the honors of war in the parade of the fort.

By order of Brigadier-General Beauregard:

W. H. C. WHITING,

Adjutant and Engineer General.

Copy furnished to--

Major ROBERT ANDERSON, U. S., First Regiment of Artillery.

P. S. – The wounded will receive the best attention, and will be placed in the State hospital.

By order of General Beauregard:

 W. H. C. WHITING,

Adjutant and Engineer General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume I, Serial 1, p. 15-6

Simon Cameron to Major Robert Anderson, April 20, 1861

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, April 20, 1861.

 Maj. ROBERT ANDERSON,

Late Commanding at Fort Sumter.

MY DEAR SIR: I am directed by the President of the United States to communicate to you, and through you to the officers and the men under your command, at Forts Moultrie and Sumter, the approbation of the Government of your and their judicious and gallant conduct there, and to tender to you and them the thanks of the Government for the same.

I am, sir, very respectfully,

SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume I, Serial 1, p. 16



Robert Quigley

Senator from the Thirty-sixth district, composed of Clayton county, was born at Millville, in Clayton county, Iowa, December 31, 1845, of American-born parents. Attended common school in Clayton county, and two years at the U. I. U. at Fayette, Iowa, from which place he enlisted In Company D, 46th Iowa Infantry, and at the expiration of service of said regiment he joined Company K, Fifteenth Iowa Infantry and served until the close of the civil war. Entered the office of Elijah Odell at McGregor, Iowa, as a law student November 1, 1866, and remained until April 4, 1867, when he went into the office of Murdock & Stoneman. Was admitted to practice law February 28, 1868, and was elected city attorney of McGregor at March election, 1868, and with the exception of only six years he held the office up to January 1, 1908. Was twice elected county attorney of Clayton county. Elected senator In 1908. Re-elected In 1912. Up to 1881 affiliated with the republican party; since then with the democratic party.

SOURCE: Roy M. Williams, Compiler, The Iowa Official Register, Volume 25, for the years 1913-1914, p. 678

Major Robert Anderson to P. G. T. Beauregard, April 13, 1861, 2:20 p.m.

FORT SUMTER, S.C., April 13, 1861 – 20 min. past 2 o'clock.

GENERAL: I thank you for your kindness in having sent your aide to me with an offer of assistance upon your having observed that our flag was down – it being down a few moments, and merely long enough to enable us to replace it on another staff. Your aides will inform you of the circumstance of the visit to my fort by General Wigfall, who said that he came with a message from yourself.

In the peculiar circumstances in which I am now placed in consequence of that message, and of my reply thereto, I will now state that I am willing to evacuate this fort upon the terms and conditions offered by yourself on the 11th instant, at any hour you may name to-morrow, or as soon as we can arrange means of transportation. I will not replace my flag until the return of your messenger.

I have the honor to remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ROBERT ANDERSON,

Major, First Artillery, Commanding.

Brig. Gen. G. T. BEAUREGARD,

Charleston, S.C.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume I, Serial 1, p. 14-5