John Rice

Private, Co. E, 11th Iowa Infantry

Section G
Shiloh National Cemetery

EDITOR’S NOTE:  According to the Shiloh Monument Location System, John P. Rice (middle initial also verified using the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System) is buried in Section G, grave # 2061, Shiloh National Cemetery.  Both his pension index card (located viaFold3.com) and the Roster and Record of Iowa soldiers in the War of the Rebellion, Vol. 2, p. 376 list his middle initial as “T.”

SEE ALSO:

• Diary of Alexander G. Downing, Sunday, April 6, 1862
• Diary of Alexander G. Downing, Sunday, April 20, 1862

The Port Royal correspondent of the . . .

. . . Tribune states that General Sherman has surrendered a slave to a South Carolinian named Tidings, professing to be loyal by order of Col. Scott, assistant secretary of war.  Gen. Sherman seems to have had no agency in the matter, and simply obeyed express instructions from the war department.  That such a thing should have occurred under Secretary Cameron’s administration is most extraordinary.  The war department has no more legal power to assume the functions of a U. S. commissioner in such a case than an army officer or any private citizen.  No proof beyond the claimant’s assertion seems to have been required to prove his ownership of the negro.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

The Confederates are reduced to laughable shifts for a circulating medium.

A Cairo letter says the stock of specie at Columbus is entirely exhausted, or to use the very significant expression of the informant, “there are not half dollars enough in Columbus to hold down the eyelids of those that die daily in the hospitals,” so that they have resorted to a very novel mode of making change.  A man goes to a shopkeeper, or sutler, and buys half a pound of coffee, for half a dollar, and tenders a one dollar bill of some of the Southern banks in payment, but as the seller has no “four bits” for change, he tears the bill in two parts, keeps one and returns the customer the other.  When the customer wants to spend the other half of his bill, he goes to the same merchant who takes it, pastes the two halves together, and sends it into the bank to be replaced by another.  The bills of the State Bank of South Carolina, the Tennessee banks, the confederate scrip, constitute all the “circulating medium” afloat, none of which can be sold for over fifty cents to the dollar for gold or silver.  The Tennessee banks have all gone to issuing shin plasters. – {Louisville Journal.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, June 28, 1862

It rained this morning and the air is nice and cool. We worked most of the day cleaning up for another inspection — polishing our shoes, belts, cartridge boxes and muskets. Besides sweeping the camp ground.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 55

Buckner's Division Position Marker, February 15, 1862: Fort Donelson National Battlefield

C. S. A.

BRIGADIER GENERAL SIMON B. BUCKNER’S DIVISION

On February 15, 1862, about 1 P. M., this division, in compliance with General Floyd’s orders, withdrew to its original position within the trenches covered by the 2d Kentucky and 41st Tennessee.  Only a Small Portion of the Division had reached its position when Smith’s Division attacked the right flank of the Confederate line fell upon Colonel Hanson’s regiment before it had reached the rifle pits and threw it back in confusion upon the 18th Tennessee.  Hastily forming a line behind the crest of this ridge, Colonel Hanson’s regiment repulsed the ensuing attack against this position.  Reinforced by the 14th Mississippi, the 3d and 18th Tennessee regiments as they arrived, and supported by Porter’s and a section of Grave’s artillery, the 2nd Kentucky was able to maintain its position against repeated assaults.  Towards the close of the action which lasted over two hours, General Buckner’s division was reinforced by the 42d Tennessee.  Colonel Quarles, the 50th Tennessee, Colonel Sugg, and the 49th Tennessee, Colonel Bailey.  Unsuccessful in an attempt to recover the lost trenches, General Buckner’s division had to be content to maintain its position along this ridge.

Signs of Despair among the Rebels

The tone of the Southern press grown more and more desponding.  We observe several recent articles from Southern newspapers which show that hope and confidence are wavering in view of the situation.  It is quite evident that there is a foreboding of the end now apparently near and inevitable.

The Richmond Examiner of the 16th of instance “sees but one chance of success from the net that has been coolly drawn around us, it is to concentrate our energy on one point and cut it through to convert our defensive into an offensive war and transfer the scenes of at least a part of these hostilities to the enemy’s own country.  Situated as we are, it is only possible at one point, and that is Kentucky.”

But since the time when the Examiner discovered one possible point in Kentucky the army of Zollicoffer, which held the key to Tennessee has been utterly routed and dispersed.  The examiner anticipated the movement and declared that if the plan of Buell – that is of flanking Bowling Green on either side – was successful, it must result in a great disaster.  “Its only hope then was in an offensive campaign across the Ohio from the point that Gen. Johnston now defends.”

But when the intelligence which had not then reached Richmond, of the utter rout of Humphrey Marshall’s forces at Prestonburg and of Zollicoffer’s defeat at Somerset, which took place three days afterwards, became fully know that “only hope” must have perished.

The Richmond Whig of the 17th apparently to counteract the discouraging effect of the Examiner of the day previous, said, “Let us turn for a moment to the West, Price, Polk, Marshall and Zollicoffer having whipped the cowardly mercenaries at every point.”  Of course this was intended to cheer up the despondent Southern ear, but how much more disheartening must be the reaction when the truth was known.

The Richmond Dispatch discovers that even in Richmond there are men who are loyal to the Union and the fervor of its denunciation of such indicate clearly the fear that Union sentiments may become contagious as the fortunes of the Confederacy from day to day become more gloomy.

The Trenton (Tennessee) Standard “regrets to say considerable evidence of disloyalty to the Confederate Government has been manifested in West Tennessee,” designating the counties of Carroll, Weakly and McNairy as the localities of formidable Unionism and resistance.  In that part of the State, too, where secession in the start, had unresisted and absolute sway.

The articles we recently published from the Memphis Argus, where filled with the most bitter hostility to Jeff. Davis and his conduct of the war.  There would be no utterances of that sort – no recrimination so intensely wrathful except in the abandonment of all hope of present success under his auspices.

All these things clearly denote the growing suspicion, at least in the minds of sharp intelligent observers of events, that the catastrophe is not very far off.  They perceive how completely they are beleaguered by hostile forces on every hand – that the Port Royal expedition is still in potential activity in the heart of South Carolina, that Burnside’s expedition, whatever the point to which it is directed, will meet no adequate opposing force; that Butler has a position on the Gulf coast where he can assail either Mobile or New Orleans at pleasure; that Lane’s expedition will soon move down through Arkansas and Louisiana irresistible.  In short, turn which way they will, now that the hope of our instant war with England, on which they counted, is dissipated, there is nothing but black, rayless despair. – {St. Louis Democrat.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Friday, June 27, 1862

We were relieved from picket this morning by the Thirteenth Iowa. Blackberries are beginning to ripen and seem to be plentiful. Fresh fruit with our rations will lighten our work.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 55

Jim Lane In Chicago

General Lane, of Kansas, was in Chicago on Wednesday last, and was called on at his hotel by an immense throng of citizens who clamored for a speech until he responded.

The uppermost fact in every loyal man’s mind was that this rebellion must be crushed in some way.  He knew there was not a loyal man present who was unwilling to lay down his own life and sacrifice even his own family to accomplish this result.  There was no resolution so strong among all true patriots as that demanding that the rebellion must be put down so as to stay down.  The curse of slavery has been agitated long enough and it must now be radically cured.  For eight long months the North has been contending against the rebels, and what have we got to show for it?  What results have been accomplished – what advantage obtained?  For eight long months the Government has been prosecuting this war so as to hurt nobody.  It is time some one was hurt.  We were willing enough to kill white men in the South and to allow them to be killed in the North but we were afraid of committing sacrilege if we touched the sacred negro.  [Cries of “that’s so”] – Yes, afraid to touch the sacred negro who has caused the whole of this trouble.  But let me tell you the government has got over it and I think I can certify that this crowd have got over it. – [Applause and cries of “yes we have”]  We have been permitted to discuss all questions human and divine, all questions of society of morals and religion to canvass the character of God and the nature of his laws, but have been forbidden to say a word about the viper which has stung us in our bosoms.

It is no time for talking now, but for action.  We have consumed eight months in inactivity, have wasted three hundred millions of dollars and sacrificed twenty five thousand lives, and turned this country upside down in our insane endeavors to put down this infernal rebellion and to save slavery.  I tell you it can’t be done and the Government has come to that conclusion.  Let me tell you confidentially that on Monday last, they opened a new set of books and came to the conclusion that if the Union can’t be saved and slavery saved then down goes slavery.  The rebels have either got to submit to die or to run away.  I tell you the time has come when play must stop.  The rebels must submit or be sent down forthwith to that hell already yawning to receive them.

The desirable consummation was effected by compromise.  The radical men agreed the conservative men should carry on the war according to their notions for eight months provided they were allowed the next eight.  The time is up for the conservatives and they now hand the war and its conduct over to the radicals and every conservative man should now extend the same encouragement and support which we gave to them in the prosecution of their method.

There are in the South 600,000 strong and loyal male slaves who have fed and clothed the rebel army and have as good as fought upon their side.  Government now proposes that these loyal slaves shall feed and clothe our army and fight upon our side.  The other day while I was talking with the President, Old Abe said to me, “Lane, how many black men do you want to have to take care of your army?”  I told him as my army would number 34,000, I proposed to have thirty four thousand contrabands in addition to my teamsters and wagon masters.  I consider every one of my soldiers engaged in this glorious Crusade of Freedom a night errant and entitled to his esquire to prepare his food, black his boots, load his gun and take of his drudgery.  Vanity and pride are necessary adjuncts of the soldier and I do not propose to lower him by menial offices nor compel him to perform the duties of the slave.  So while I shall elevate the slave by giving him his freedom and making a man of him I shall also elevate the soldier and leave him no work to do but fighting.  [A voice in the crowd – “What are you going to do with the niggers?]

The General, singing out to the owner of the voice and pointing his finger at him replied –

“Ah, my friend, you are just the man I have been looking for.  I will tell you what I am going to do with them.  I am going to plant them on the soil of the gulf coast, after we have got through this war, let them  stay there and cultivate the land, have Government extend a protection to them as it does to the Indians, and send superintendents and governors among them and pay them wages for their labor.  There could be no competition between black and white labor.”  He believed whether the rebels killed the idea or not that the blacks at no distant day would have possession of that Gulf country to which they were acclimated and physically conditioned.  He proposed to establish free State governments as he went along and he could promise his hearers that either he or the rebels would be cleaned out.

After urging the benefit of a vigorous prosecution of the war, the General closed by again thanking the crowd for the handsome reception and retired to the parlors amid almost enthusiastic applause.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

Fort Pickens

An officer on board of the United States steamer, Cuyler, off Fort Pickens writes that no one was killed in the Fort during the cannonading of the 1st instant.  Only one man was wounded, and no damage was done to the fort or surrounding batteries.  He adds:

“This heavy cannonading at the forts will never lead to a victory on either side, and the one who has the most powder and shot provided the other side exhausts its supply, can in this way alone get the advantage.  If the rebels’ forts are taken, it must either be accomplished by assault or starving out the garrison.  Do not believe what you see in the papers about McRae and Barrancas being disabled and at our mercy.  I am on the spot and speak with authority when I say it is not true.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

A Boy Outwits Secesh

The following sharp practice of a boy ten years old, son of Mrs. Horine occurred last week in Barre county, Mo.  The lad and his mother were riding a colt on the open prairie, when they were met by a squad of Secesh from Granby, who ordered them to dismount.  The leader placed his saddle on the colt, mounted the latter, and was thrown off quicker than thought.  Boy exclaimed “Good!” at which manifestation secesh swore roundly.  “Gentlemen there is a curl on that colt’s neck by which you can always know him.”  They desired the boy to point out the mark, when the little fellow stepping up to his favorite animal grasped the mane with one hand and with the other slipped off the bridle.  Colt, as if understanding the joke “skedaddled over the plain,” leaving the captors perfectly astounded at being thus so outwitted.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

William DeLong, Corporal, Co. D, 73rd Ohio Infantry: Pension Index Card

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

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, June 26, 1862

The Eleventh Iowa went out on picket. The Third Brigade of the Sixth Division was inspected by the general inspector of the army. Men and camp both passed inspection quite satisfactorily.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 55

Confederate Monument: Fort Donelson National Battlefield

Confederate soldiers were hastily buried on the battlefield after the surrender.  The exact location of their graves is unknown.  This monument commemorates the Southern soldiers who fought and died at Fort Donelson.  The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected the monument in 1933.

SOURCE: 2010 Fort Donelson National Battlefield park brochure: Tour Stop 1.

CONFEDERATE MONUMENT

Because they had fought against the United States, Confederate dead were not reburied in the National Cemetery.  This monument, erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy is a memorial for those men.  It was dedicated in 1933.

SOURCE: Interpretive marker near the monument (pictured at right).

[Inscribed on the front of the monument:]

THIS SHAFT IS DEDICATED

AS AN ALTAR OF REMEMBRANCE

TO THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS

WHO FOUGHT AT FORT DONELSON

FEBRUARY, 1862

BY THE

DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY

OF TENNESSEE

“THERE IS NO HOLIER SPOT OF GROUND,

THAN WHERE DEFEATED VALOR LIES.”

[Left Side:]

HONOR THEIR VALOR, EMULATE THE

DEVOTION WITH WHICH THEY GAVE

THEMSELVES TO THE SERVICE OF

THEIR COUNTRY, LET IT NEVER BE

SAID THAT THEIR SONS IN THESE

SOUTHERN STATES HAVE FORGOTTEN

THEIR NOBLE EXAMPLE

[Back:]

FEBRUARY 13TH, 1862

FEBRUARY 14TH, 1862

FEBRUARY 15TH, 1862

SOMEWHERE HERE OUR UNKNOWN

DEAD WILL LIE FOREVER, WITH

ARMS UNSTACKED FOREVER, WITH

COLORS THAT CANNOT BE FURLED.

[Right Side:]

“____________ HERE

WAS THE PLACE OF BATTLE.  YOU WHO

HAVE NEVER KNOWN THE SCOUR AND

PIERCE OF BATTLE MAY ONLY

REMEMBER MOMENTS BY NAMES,

PLACES BY MONUMENTS, BUT I WHO

WAS BORN BY THE BATTLE-FIELDS

CANNOT ESCAP A SORROW THAT

DWELLS, A VALOR THAT LINGERS,

A HOPE THAT SPOKE ON LIPS NOW STILL."

A correspondent of the New York Times . . .

. . . has been sent home from Port Royal for having insinuated in one of his letters that Gen. Sherman prefers inaction, by saying that in the matter of the late attack on the mainland, he was “induced to move.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

The New York papers publish statements . . .

. . . that a new channel entering the Savannah river has been discovered by which Fort Pulaski can be avoided and the city captured without much difficulty.  It would have been better to have taken the town than to have told us how it might have been done.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

We have received a neat little paper . . .

. . . printed at Boonville, called the “Fifth Iowa Register,” from which we have made several extracts.  We are happy to hear from the Regiment, and from our old friend Lieut. Colonel Matthies who is in good health and spirits.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, June 25, 1862

The weather is very hot today and our camp is becoming very dry and dusty. Twenty-seven men were detailed this morning to clean up our camp for general inspection.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 55

For The World's Fair

Messrs. Jarvis & Wentworth, of this city, sent one of their patent pumps, for elevating water by means of sails and a newly invented self closing gate to the world’s fair at London.  These articles were forwarded last week.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 3

The Rebel Emissaries At Bermuda

The British steamer Rinaldo, with Mason and Slidell on board, arrived at Bermuda on the 7th.  The Rinaldo was to have taken the Commissioners to Halifax to enable them to take passage in the Cunard steamer for England.  She however, having met with such exceedingly bitter weather, ice having formed in thick masses around her hull, on her deck and some distance up her rigging, and having had several of her crew frost bitten, the Captain, though at one time within fifty miles of Halifax, was reluctantly compelled to bear up for Bermuda.  On the day the Rinaldo arrived at Bermuda the Naval Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, entertained a party at dinner, and Commander Hewitt (of the Rinaldo), and four Southern gentlemen, his guests, were invited to Clarence Hill, where they spent the evening.

It appears that Mr. Slidell in Bermuda was a blatant blusterer, even at the British Admiral’s table, but Sir Alexander Milne, who is too old to be caught with bombast, determined to allow no latitude of this kind, and took care to stop it when it became obtrusive.  Mr. Mason is described as being a perfect gentleman, and appears to have satisfied The English Admiral in every way.  It is a general rule with Admiral Milne not to allow matters involving such heavy responsibilities to be talked over at the dinner table, more particularly as it was a spirit of generous hospitality alone which prompted him to invite the rebels.  On their arrival at Camber, and before leaving Bermuda, Mason is described as looking depressed, careworn and dejected – no doubt arising from the fact that he was now a world-wide wanderer, after proving a rebel to his country and a traitor to its Constitution.  Slidell wore the appearance of a man possessing a stern, forward and uncontrollable temper, which nothing can daunt or subdue. – On the 10th inst. the Rinaldo left with the Commissioners and their Secretaries for the Island of St. Thomas.  She endeavored to land at Halifax, but was prevented by the weather. – They left Bermuda as they came – without a solitary cheer from the crowd or the slightest mark of public enthusiasm being tendered them.

The rebel agents were evidently disappointed at the absence of éclat or fuss which attended the surrender.  They complain of the “crazy” tug boat in which they were forwarded to the Rinaldo, of the manner in which the master of the boat addressed Queen Victoria’s naval officers.  “I say, man, are you the skipper of this ere craft?” And of the danger of drowning to which they were exposed had the storm overtaken the tug.  The Bermuda papers seem to adopt this strain, and condemn the manner in which the restoration was conducted.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 2

Wreck Of A British Frigate – Her Britannic Majesty's War Steamship Conqueror, Of A Hundred Guns, Cast Away In The Bahamas

A correspondent of the Havana Diario de la Marina writes from Nassau, under date of Jan. 12th:

“You will have heard by the Reindeer, that her Britannic Majesty’s steamer Conqueror of 100 guns, has gone ashore at Rum Key.  The Bulldog went to her aid and brought away yesterday forty cannon and as many men of her crew as she could receive on board.  On the 10th the Steady also went to the relief of the Conqueror, and found her, we learn, in a hopeless condition, filled with water and badly logged. – The Nimble had left to carry the news of the disaster to Admiral Milne, who is at Bermuda

The Conqueror is one of the finest vessels of the British navy.  It has been built but seven years, and its engine is one of 800 horse power.  It had transported a battalion of marines to Jamaica, and was on its way back, under canvas alone, to Bermuda, by way of the Crooked Island Channel.  The undertaking was rash and unusual, and has resulted as I have told you.

Much indignation is felt here at the action of the United States Consul in selling to H. B. M.’s steamers Bulldog and Steady coal sent hither for the supply of American naval vessels.

Several vessels were with cargoes destined for ports of the Southern Confederacy, have recently sailed from Nassau.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 2