Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, December 31, 1862

We left our bivouac at 6 a. m. and entered the town of Moscow at 7 and were then ordered to move to Lafayette, Tennessee, on the Memphis & Charleston Railroad thirty-five miles east of Memphis, where we are to guard the railroad. The town is located on the Wolf river and is surrounded by heavy timber.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 90

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, April 29, 1863

HEADQUARTERS 15 ARMY CORPS,

BEFORE VICKSBURG, April 29th, 1863.

. . . He [Grant] is down at Carthage, the fleet is below Vicksburg, and I was on the point of following when the order was countermanded; then I got an order that he would like to have a feint made on Haines' Bluff, provided I did not fear the people might style it a repulse. I wrote him to make his plans founded on as much good sense as possible and let the people mind their own business. He had ordered me to attack Vicksburg and I had done so. Now to divert attention from his movement against Grand Gulf he wants another demonstration up Yazoo. Of course I will make it and let the people find out when they can if it be a repulse or no. I suppose we must ask the people in the press, i. e. some half-dozen little whipsnappers who represent the press, but are in fact spies in our camp, too lazy, idle, and cowardly to be soldiers. These must be consulted before I can make a simulated attack on Haines' Bluff in aid to Grant and Porter that I know are in a tight place at Grand Gulf. Therefore prepare yourself for another blast against Sherman blundering and being repulsed at Haines' whilst McClernand charges gallantly ashore and carries Grand Gulf, etc. But when they take Grand Gulf they have the elephant by the tail. I say the whole plan is hazardous in the extreme, but I will do all I can to aid Grant. Should, as the papers now intimate, Grant be relieved and McClernand left in command you may expect to hear of me at St. Louis, for I will not serve under McClernand. . . . I start in an hour to make the demonstration up the Yazoo. I shall have ten regiments of infantry, two ironclads, the Mohawk and De Kalb, and a parcel of mosquitoes. I don't expect a fight, but a devil of noise to make believe and attract any troops in motion from Vicksburg towards Grand Gulf back. I think Grant will make a safe lodgment at Grand Gulf, but the real trouble is and will be the maintenance of the army there. If the capture of Holly Springs made him leave the Tallahatchie, how much more precarious is his position now below Vicksburg with every pound of provision, forage and ammunition to float past the seven miles of batteries at Vicksburg or be hauled thirty-seven miles along a narrow boggy road. I will be up Yazoo about three days. . . . I am not concerned about the Cincinnati Gazette. The correspondent's insinuations against Grant and myself about cotton are ridiculous. Grant is honest as old Jack Taylor, and I am a cotton-burner. I have even forbidden all dealing in cotton and not an officer of my command ever owned a bale. As to myself, I would burn every parcel of it as the bone of contention and apple of discord. Now that Mr. Chase has undertaken to manage cotton as well as finance I wish him a good time with it. . . .

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 256-8.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/03.

From Tennessee

CAIRO, May 14.

A deserter came on board the flag boat Benton, on the 12th and stated that the rebel rams and gunboats engaged in the encounter of Friday morning were not sunk, as represented in a previous dispatch. – They were terribly shattered, but our gunners undoubtedly fired the most of their shots above the water-line, and they struck where the rams were either heavily plated or protected with a layer of cotton bales.

Experienced naval men are of the opinion that the same number of shots, at the same distance, directed near or below the waterline, would have sent every one of the rebel crafts to the bottom.

The deserter reported that the rebel fleet lay off Ft. Pillow yesterday, busily engaged in repairing the damage received, faithfully promising to return in exactly 48 hours, and whip us most handsomely.  They may for once in their lives prove as good as their word, and come up to-day, and make a second desperate attempt, for no one supposes that anything but a most critical condition on their part could induce them to come out in this manner.  Farragut in the rear, Commander Davis in front, Curtis on the east, and the swamps of Arkansas on the west, are enough to make the most cowardly desperate.

An officer of the Union flotilla went out in a skiff on Friday afternoon, within sight of the rebels, and remained for more than an hour taking observations.  His report to the commander confirms the state of the activity in their fleet, and the fact that their rams were not sunk in the late engagement.

The rebels in the late fight were provided with an apparatus for throwing hot water, and actually tried it on the Cincinnati.  The bursting of their hose only prevented great havoc among the Union crew.  This bursting of the scalding concern probably gave rise to the idea that the rebels had collapsed a flue.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 2

General Robert E. Lee to Mary Custis Lee, January 18, 1862

COOSAWHATCHIE, South Carolina, January 18, 1862.

I am truly grateful for all the mercies we enjoy, notwithstanding the miseries of war, and join heartily in the wish that the next year may find us in peace with all the world. I am delighted to hear that our little grandson is improving so fast and is becoming such a perfect gentleman. May his path be strewn with flowers and his life with happiness. I am very glad to hear also that his dear papa is promoted. It will be gratifying to him, I hope, and increase his means of usefulness. While at Fernandina I went over to Cumberland Island and walked up to Dungeness, the former residence of General Greene. It was my first visit to the house, and I had the gratification at length of visiting my father's grave. He died there, you may recollect, on his way from the West Indies, and was interred in one corner of the family cemetery. The spot is marked by a plain marble slab, with his name, age, and date of his death. Mrs. Greene is also buried there, and her daughter, Mrs. Shaw, and her husband. The place is at present owned by Mr. Nightingale, nephew of Mrs. Shaw, who married a daughter of Mrs. James King. The family have moved into the interior of Georgia, leaving only a few servants and a white gardener on the place. The garden was beautifully enclosed by the finest hedge of wild olive I have ever seen.

SOURCES: John William Jones, Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 153-4; A more complete transcription of this letter can be found in Captain Robert Edward Lee’s Recollections and Letters of Robert E. Lee, p. 60-1 which I have used to date this letter fragment.

From Cairo

CAIRO, May 14.

We have received the following dispatches from our correspondent, written just as the mail tug was leaving the Mississippi flotilla, off Fort Pillow, May 13, 12 o’clock m.

A rebel tug has this moment been around the point on a reconnoissance.  Everything seems to indicate a renewed activity on both sides.  We are expecting an attack momentarily.

From Pittsburg we have a dispatch from our own reporter, who had been in front of the lines, and judged that our attack would not be made upon the enemy’s position for several days.  Our siege guns were not yet in position.  Capt. Madison’s battery reached Monterey only on the 9th inst.

The general impression in the army was that the enemy would make no stand at Corinth, but he believes this opinion wrong.

Gen. Halleck is advancing upon the place continuously, and carefully fortifying as he advances.  All his movements are predicated upon the supposition that the enemy is in large force at Corinth, and that he intends to make a stand there.  Grand Junction is being fortified by Beauregard with the evident intention of falling back there if beaten at Corinth.  The number of the enemy’s troops at Corinth is estimated at Gen. Halleck’s headquarters at from 120,000 to 170,000.

The gunboat Mound City was considerably damaged in her bows in the late naval engagement at Fort Pillow, and is now at Mound City awaiting an opportunity of going into dry dock for repairs.

Gen. Strong yesterday visited the hospital at Mound City.  There are only fifty patients in the hospital at present.  Additional apartments are being prepared and improvements effected to accommodate the wounded at the expected battle of Corinth.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 2

Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, December 8, 1861

CAMP PIERPONT, VA., Sunday, December 8, 1861.

My last letter was written on Thursday evening. The next day I went, in command of my brigade, on a foraging expedition. We proceeded some ten miles from here, and within two of Dranesville, to the farm of a man named Gunnell, who was reported not only as an active Secessionist, but one who was making arrangements to place his crops in the possession of the Confederate Army. We arrived on the ground about 12 M., and in two hours loaded some sixty wagons, stripping his place of everything we thought would be useful to the enemy or that we could use ourselves. I never had a more disagreeable duty in my life to perform. The man was absent, but his sister, with his farm and house servants, were at home. The great difficulty was to prevent the wanton and useless destruction of property which could not be made available for military purposes. The men and officers got into their heads that the object of the expedition was the punishment of a rebel, and hence the more injury they inflicted, the more successful was the expedition, and it was with considerable trouble they could be prevented from burning everything. It made me sad to do such injury, and I really was ashamed of our cause, which thus required war to be made on individuals. The enemy were within ten miles of us, but did not make their appearance, and we returned to camp with our booty by nightfall.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 234

From Washington

WASHINGTON, May 14.

The Senate to-day confirmed Erastus B. Taylor, of Ohio, as Brigadier General.

The President nominated Stephen G. Burbridge, of Ky. for a similar position.

Official advices of yesterday say the position of Gen. Halleck’s army is unchanged.

Information from McClellan’s army at Cumberland is to 9 o’clock yesterday. – There has been considerable skirmishing with rebels in front.  No other news.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 2

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

We struck our tents and started at 10 a. m. We reached Coldwater by noon and stopped for our mess. Our colonel must have been cold and in a hurry, for he gave the order, “Front right dress! Stack arms! Break ranks! Get rails and build fires! G— D—!” It amused the boys and they were not long in building fires and preparing hot coffee. At 1 o’clock we left for Moscow, Tennessee, along the railroad, and after a day’s march of twenty miles went into bivouac for the night within one mile of town.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 90

5th Minnesota Infantry

Organized at Fort Snelling, Minn., March 15 to April 30, 1862. Company "D" moved to Fort Abercrombie, D. T., March 15-29, and garrison duty there (with a detachment at Georgetown till August 20) till November, 1862. Action at Fort Abercrombie June 20. Defence of Fort Abercrombie September 3-26. Actions with Sioux Indians September 3-6. Company ordered to join Regiment and Joined at Germantown, Tenn., February 14, 1863. Company "C" moved to Fort Ripley March, 1862, and garrison duty there till November, 1862. Rejoined Regiment near Oxford, Miss., December 12, 1862. (Part of Company under Lieut. T. J. Shehah, marched to Fort Ridgly June 19-28, 1862.) Company "B" moved to Fort Ridgly March 22-25, 1862, and garrison duty there till November, 1862. Companies "B" and "C" march to Sioux Agency on Yellow Medicine River June 30-July 2, to preserve order during annuity payment to Indians. Sioux outbreak August, 1862. Battle of Redwood August 18 (Co. "B"). Defence of Fort Ridgly August 20-22 (Cos. "B" and "C"). (A detachment of Co. "C" moved to Fort Ripley September 18.) Company "B" marched for Fort Snelling November 9 as escort to captured Indians. Rejoined Regiment near Oxford, Miss., December 12, 1862. Regiment moved to Mississippi May 10-24, 1862. Attached to 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, Army of Mississippi, to November, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 8th Division, Left Wing 13th Army Corps (Old), Dept. of the Tennessee, to December, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 8th Division, 16th Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee, to April, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 15th Army Corps, to December, 1863, 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 16th Army Corps, to November, 1864. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division (Detachment), Army of the Tennessee, Dept. of the Cumberland, to February, 1865. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 16th Army Corps, Military Division West Mississippi, to September, 1865.

SERVICE.--Siege of Corinth, Miss., May 26-30, 1862. Action near Corinth May 28. Occupation of Corinth May 30 and pursuit to Booneville May 31-June 12. At Camp Clear Creek till July 3. Moved to Rienzi July 3, thence to Tuscumbia, Ala., August 18-22, and duty there till September 13. Moved to Clear Creek September 13-14, thence to Iuka, Miss., September 16. Skirmish at Iuka September 16. Battle of Iuka September 19. Battle of Corinth October 3-4. Pursuit to Ripley October 5-12. Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign November, 1862, to January, 1863. At Jackson, Tenn., till March 12, 1863. Moved to Memphis, Tenn., thence to Duckport, La., March 12-April 1. Demonstration on Haines and Drumgould's Bluffs April 29-May 2. Movement to Join army in rear of Vicksburg, Miss., via Richmond and Grand Gulf May 2-14. Mississippi Springs May 13. Jackson May 14. Siege of Vicksburg May 18-July 4. Expedition to Mechanicsburg and Satartia June 2-8. Satartia June 4. Expedition from Young's Point to Richmond, La., June 14-16. Richmond, La., June 15. Advance toward Jackson July 5. Guard duty at Black River Bridge till July 22. At Bear Creek till October. Expedition to Canton October 14-20. Bogue Chitto Creek October 17. Moved to Memphis, Tenn., November 14-20, thence to LaGrange, Tenn., and guard Memphis & Charleston Railroad and scouting after Forest till January 26, 1864. Moved to Vicksburg, Miss., January 26-February 3. Meridian Campaign February 3-March 2. At Black River Bridge till February 23. March to Canton and return to Vicksburg February 23-March 7. Regiment veteranize February 12, 1864. Red River Campaign March 10-May 22. Fort DeRussy March 14. Occupation of Alexandria March 16. Henderson's Hill March 21. Grand Ecore April 2. Campti April 3. Battle of Pleasant Hill April 9. About Cloutiersville, Cane River, April 22-24. At Alexandria April 26-May 13. Moore's Plantation May 3. Bayou LaMourie May 6-7. Bayou Roberts May 7. Retreat to Morganza May 13-20. Mansura May 16. Yellow Bayou May 18. Moved to Vicksburg, Miss., May 22-24, thence to Memphis, Tenn., June 4-10. Action at Lake Chicot June 6. Defeat of Marmaduke. Veterans on furlough June 17-August 17. Smith's Expedition to Tupelo July 5-21 (Non-Veterans). Camargo's Cross Roads July 13. Harrisburg, near Tupelo, July 14-15. Tishamingo or Old Town Creek July 15. Smith's Expedition to Oxford, Miss., August 1-30. Abbeville August 23. Mower's Expedition to Brownsville, Ark., September 2-10. March through Arkansas and Missouri in pursuit of Price September 17-November 15. Moved to Nashville, Tenn., November 24-30. Battle of Nashville December 15-16. Pursuit of Hood to the Tennessee River December 17-28. Moved to Eastport, Miss., and duty there till February, 1865. Moved to New Orleans, La., February 6-22. Campaign against Mobile, Ala., and its Defences March 7-April 12. Siege of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely March 26-April 8. Assault and capture of Fort Blakely April 9. Occupation of Mobile April 12. March to Montgomery April 13-25. Duty at Montgomery, Selma and Demopolis, Ala., till August. Mustered out September 6, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 4 Officers and 86 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 4 Officers and 175 Enlisted men by disease. Total 269.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendim of the War of the Rebellion, Vol. 3, p. 1298

Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, December 5, 1861

CAMP PIERPONT, VA., December 5, 1861.

Yesterday morning General McCall invited me to ride into town with him, he knowing I wished to go in to draw my pay and attend to other business. The day before we had gone towards Dranesville on a foraging expedition, Reynolds's brigade and mine, Reynolds in front. We collected some fifty wagons of forage, but saw and heard nothing of the enemy. On getting into town I paid the Turnbulls and Tom Lee a visit. I found at the former place Master Charley, who had just arrived with despatches for McClellan from General Butler. The expedition they are organizing is to rendezvous at Ship Island, near New Orleans, and I have no doubt looks to that important place.

This morning I attended to my business, and after dining, rode out to camp. Here I find orders from McCall for another expedition towards Dranesville to-morrow, I believe for foraging purposes, though he does not state. I am, however, to have the command and to be in front this time, and should not object to having a little brush with the enemy, if there are any about the neighborhood where we are going.  I am very much pleased with my new horse, all except the price, which is pretty digging.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 233-4

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, April 23, 1863

CAMP BEFORE VICKSBURG, April 23, 1863.

Last night another batch of transports were prepared to run Vicksburg batteries. In order to afford assistance to the unfortunate I crossed over through the submerged swamp with eight yawls, and was in the Mississippi about four miles below Vicksburg and three above Warrenton. The first boat to arrive was the Tigress, a fast side-wheel boat which was riddled with shot and repeatedly struck in the hull. She rounded to, tied to the bank and sunk a wreck; all hands saved. The next was the Empire City, also crippled but afloat, then the Cheeseman that was partially disabled, then the Anglo-Saxon and Moderator, both of which were so disabled that they drifted down stream catching the Warrenton batteries as they passed. The Horizon was the sixth and last, passed down about daylight. The Cheeseman took the Empire City in tow and went down just after day, catching thunder from the Warrenton batteries. Five of the six boats succeeded in getting by, all bound for Carthage, where they are designed to carry troops to Grand Gulf and some other point across the Mississippi. This is a desperate and terrible thing, floating by terrific batteries without the power of replying. Two men were mortally wounded and many lacerated and torn, but we could not ascertain the full extent of damage for we were trying to hurry them past the lower or Warrenton batteries before daylight. The only way to go to Carthage is by a bayou road from Milliken's Bend, and over that narrow road our army is to pass below Vicksburg, and by means of these boats pass on to the east side of the Mississippi. I look upon the whole thing as one of the most hazardous and desperate moves of this or any war. A narrow difficult road, liable by a shower to become a quagmire. A canal is being dug on whose success the coal for steamers, provisions for men and forage for animals must all be transported. McClernand's Corps has moved down. McPherson will follow, and mine comes last. I don't object to this, for I have no faith in the whole plan.

Politicians and all sorts of influences are brought to bear on Grant to do something. Hooker remains statu quo. Rosecrans is also at a deadlock, and we who are now six hundred miles [ahead] of any are being pushed to a most perilous and hazardous enterprise.

I did think our government would learn something by experience if not by reason. An order is received to-day from Washington to consolidate the old regiments. All regiments below 500, embracing all the old regiments which have been depleted by death and all sorts of causes, are to be reduced to battalions of five companies in each regiment; the colonel and major and one assistant-sergeant to be mustered out, and all the officers, sergeants and corporals of five companies to be discharged. This will soon take all my colonels, Kilby Smith, Giles Smith, and hundreds of our best captains, lieutenants and sergeants and corporals. Instead of drafting and filling up with privates, one half of the officers are to be discharged, and the privates squeezed into battalions. If the worst enemy of the United States were to devise a plan to break down our army, a better one could not be attempted. Two years have been spent in educating colonels, captains, sergeants and corporals, and now they are to be driven out of service at the very beginning of the campaign in order that governors may have a due proportion of officers for the drafted men. I do regard this as one of the fatal mistakes of this war. It is worse than a defeat. It is the absolute giving up of the chief advantage of two years' work. I don't know if you understand it, but believe you do. The order is positive and must be executed. It is now too late to help it, but I have postponed its execution for a few days to see if Grant won't suspend its operation till this move is made. All the old politician colonels have been weeded out by the progress of the war, and now that we begin to have some officers who do know something they must be discharged because the regiments have dwindled below one half the legal standard. We all know the President was empowered to do this, but took it for granted that he would fill up the ranks by a draft and leave us the services of the men who are now ready to drill and instruct them as soldiers. Last fall the same thing was done, that is new regiments were received instead of filling up the old ones, and the consequence was those new regiments have filled our hospitals and depots, and now again the same thing is to be repeated. It may be the whole war will be turned over to the negroes, and I begin to believe they will do as well as Lincoln and his advisers. I cannot imagine what Halleck is about. We have Thomas and Dana both here from Washington, no doubt impressing on Grant the necessity of achieving something brilliant. It is the same old Bull Run mania, but why should other armies be passive and ours pushed to destruction?

Prime is here and agrees with me; but we must drift on with events. We are excellent friends. Indeed, I am on the best of terms with everybody, but I avoid McClernand because I know he is envious and jealous of everybody who stands in his way. . . .  He now has the lead. Admiral Porter is there, and he is already calling “For God's sake, send down some one.” He calls for me — Grant has gone himself — went this morning. I know they have got this fleet in a tight place, Vicksburg above and Port Hudson below, and how are they to get out? One or other of the gates must be stormed and carried, or else none. I tremble for the result. Of course, it is possible to land at Grand Gulf and move inland, but I doubt the capacity of any channel at our command equal to the conveyance of the supplies for this army. This army should not all be here. The great part should be at or near Grenada moving south by land. . . .

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 253-6.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/03.

General Robert E. Lee to Mary Custis Lee, December 25, 1861

COOSAWHATCHIE, S. C, December 25, 1861.

I cannot let this day of grateful rejoicing pass without some communion with you. I am thankful for the many among the past that I have passed with you, and the remembrance of them fills me with pleasure. As to our old home, if not destroyed it will be difficult ever to be recognized. Even if the enemy had wished to preserve it, it would almost have been impossible. With the number of troops encamped around it, the change of officers, the want of fuel, shelter, etc., and all the dire necessities of war, it is vain to think of its being in a habitable condition. I fear, too, the books, furniture, and relics of Mount Vernon will be gone. It is better to make up our minds to a general loss. They cannot take away the remembrances of the spot, and the memories of those that to us rendered it sacred. That will remain to us as long as life will last and that we can preserve. In the absence of a home I wish I could purchase Stratford. It is the only other place I could go to now acceptable to us, that would inspire me with pleasure and local love. You and the girls could remain there in quiet. It is a poor place, but we could make enough corn-bread and bacon for our support, and the girls could weave us clothes. You must not build your hopes on peace on account of the United States going to war with England. The rulers are not entirely mad, and if they find England is in earnest, and that war or a restitution of the captives* must be the consequence, they will adopt the latter. We must make up our minds to fight our battles and win our independence alone. No one will help us.

__________

* Mason and Slidell.

SOURCES: John William Jones, Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 153; Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, p. 129

Major Coffey on Parole

LOUISVILLE, May 14.

Major, not Colonel, Coffey, who was released by Morgan on parole, arrived here en route for Washington, to endeavor to effect an exchange of himself for Lt. Co. Wood, of Morgan’s band.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 2

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

We had company drill this morning and received orders to be ready to march in the morning. We have been at Holly Springs nine days now, and the town is almost deserted.²

__________

² When we passed through Holly Springs going south, the town looked very pretty, and no property was destroyed. But when the place was surrendered to Van Dorn by our traitorous colonel in command of the small garrison, and that without the firing of a gun, then it was that destruction followed. When we had to come back to find our stores burned and live on half rations, our men were not in the best of humor; they did not care then if the whole town was destroyed. — A. G. D.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 90

Com. Foote

CLEVELAND, MAY 14.

Flag-Officer Foot arrived yesterday.  He is quite feeble from wounds and disease.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 2

Abraham Lincoln to Major General Joseph Hooker, January 26, 1863

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

Washington, D. C., January 26, 1863.

Major-General HOOKER:

GENERAL: I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appears to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, which, of course, I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable, quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm; but I think that during General Burnside's command of the army you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a dictator. Of course, it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The Government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticising their commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.

Yours, very truly,

A. LINCOLN.

SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 25, Part 1 (Serial No. 40), p. 4; Roy P. Basler, editor, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 6, p. 78-9; 

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, April 17, 1863

CAMP OPPOSITE VICKSBURG, April 17, 1863.

. . . I have never been considered the advocate of McClellan or anybody. I have often said that McClellan’s reputation as a scholar and soldier was second to none after Mexico. I heard Gen. Persifor F. Smith in 1849 pronounce him better qualified to command than any of our then generals.  I remember once when we were riding along and talking of certain events in Mexico he named some half dozen young officers who he thought should at once be pushed forward, and McClellan was the first in order after Lee. I admit the right and duty of Mr. Lincoln to select his own agents and when one displeases him there can be no accord, and he should set him aside. He is ex necessitate to that extent king and can do no wrong. At all events everybody must and should submit with good grace. But knowing the very common clay out of which many of our new generals are made I have trembled at any shifting of commanders until the army feel assured that a change is necessary. I know Hooker well and tremble to think of his handling 100,000 men in the presence of Lee. I don't think Lee will attack Hooker in position because he will doubt if it will pay, but let Hooker once advance or move laterally and I fear for the result. . . .

Here we have begun a move that is one of the most dangerous in war. Last night our gun-boats, seven of the largest, ran the blockade and are below Vicksburg. They suffered comparatively little. Three transports followed, one of which was fired and burned to the water's edge. The Silver Wave passed unhurt and my old boat the Forest Queen had one shot in her hull and one through a steam pipe, which disabled her. She is below Vicksburg and above Warrenton and is being repaired.

McClernand's Corps has marched along the margin of an intricate bayou forty-seven miles to New Carthage, and the plan is to take and hold Grand Gulf, and make it the base of a movement in rear of Vicksburg. I don't like the project for several reasons. The channel by which provisions, stores, ammunition, etc., are to be conveyed to Carthage is a narrow crooked bayou with plenty of water now, but in two months will dry up. No boat has yet entered it, and though four steam dredges are employed in cutting a canal into it I doubt if it can be available in ten days. The road used is pure alluvium and three hours' rain will make it a quagmire over which a wagon could no more pass than in the channel of the Mississippi.

Now the amount of provisions, forage and more especially coal used by an army and fleet such as we will have, will overtax the capacity of the canal.

Again we know the enemy has up the Yazoo some of the finest boats that ever navigated the Mississippi, with plenty of cotton to barricade them and convert them into formidable rams. Knowing now as they well do that our best ironclads are below Vicksburg, and that it is one thing to run down stream and very different up, they can simply swop. They can let us have the reach below Vicksburg and they take the one above, and in the exchange they get decidedly the best of the bargain. To accomplish such a move successfully we should have at least double their force, whereas we know that our effective force is but little if any superior to theirs. They can now use all the scattered bands in Louisiana to threaten this narrow long canal and force us to guard it, so that the main army beyond will be unequal to a march inland from Grand Gulf. We could undertake, and safely, to hold the river and allow the gun-boat fleet to go to Port Hudson and assist in the reduction of that place so that all could unite against Vicksburg. I have written and explained to Grant all these points, but the clamor is so great he fears to seem to give up the attack on Vicksburg. My opinion is we should now feint on the river and hasten to Grenada by any available road, and then move in great force south, parallel with the river, leaving the gun-boats and a comparatively small force here. Grant, however, trembles at the approaching thunders of popular criticism and must risk anything, and it is my duty to back him though the contemplated and partially executed move does not comport with my ideas. I know the pictorials will giving flaming pictures of the successful running the batteries of Vicksburg, but who thinks of their getting back? What will be thought if some ten large cotton freighted boats come out of Yazoo and put all our transports to the bottom and have us on the narrow margin of a great and turbid stream? The fear of public clamor is more degrading to the mind than a just measure of the dangers of battle with an open fair enemy in equal or even unequal fight. Hugh and Charley¹ were with me last night at the picket station below Vicksburg and saw the cannonading, and will describe its appearance better than I could. I can't help but overlook the present and look ahead. I wish the enemy would commit this mistake with us, but no, they are too cunning. General Thomas is here raising negro brigades. I would prefer to have this a white man's war and provide for the negroes after the time has passed, but we are in a revolution and I must not pretend to judge. With my opinions of negroes and my experience, yea prejudice, I cannot trust them yet. Time may change this but I cannot bring myself to trust negroes with arms in positions of danger and trust. . . .

__________

¹ Brothers of Mrs. Sherman.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 249-53.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/03.

State Items

A number of persons have recently been expelled from the M. E. Church at Montezuma, for disloyalty to the Government, the charge having been sustained against them.  That’s right: a persistently disloyal man is unfit for membership in a Christian church.

The Dubuque Times says that 500 recruits have been obtained at the station in that city for the regular army.  Of this number, about ninety percent came from other counties beside Dubuque.

The Marshall county Times and Iowa Valley News, published at Marshalltown have been consolidated under the name of the Marshall Times and News.  Mr. E. N. Chapin, of the News, being editor and proprietor of the new paper.

The Dubuque Times says it is reported that letters found on the battle-field at Shiloh, criminating certain well known citizens of Dubuque.  It is not at all improbable.  When the accounts of this war are finally balanced, a tremendous weight of responsibility will be found to rest on the heads of those men in Dubuque who have urged on the conspirators in their mad rebellion.

Mr. J. C. Holbrook, Jesse Guernsey, and J. H. Nutting, are about starting a new monthly paper at Dubuque, to be called the Religious News Letter.  It is to be conducted by several Congregational ministers.

Miss Emily Murdick, of Iowa county, was committed to jail, last week, for cutting the throat of her infant child, to which she gave birth on the 18th ult.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 2

General Robert E. Lee to His Family, December 22, 1861

COOSAWHATCHIE, S. C, December 22, 1861.

I shall think of you on that holy day more intensely than usual, and shall pray to the great God of Heaven to shower His blessings upon you in this world and to unite you all in His courts in the world to come. With a grateful heart I thank Him for his preservation of you thus far, and trust to His mercy and kindness for the future. O, that I were more worthy and more thankful for all that He has done and continues to do for me!

SOURCES: John William Jones, Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 152-3; Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, p. 128-9.

The Negro Question

The Chicago Times, Cincinnati Enquirer, and Missouri Republican are the three leading pro-slavery journals at the West, and it is from these sheets that all the little whipper-snapper papers of the Vallandigham school obtain their stable of their editorials.  Though intensely slavery, and broadly sympathizing with the rebels, yet the forbearance of the Government, which they constantly abuse, permits them to live, and, like the carrion crow, fatten upon the vile aliment they serve up to the rebellious spirit of the country.  Our space forbids, or we should like to publish entire, a recent letter of the Washington correspondence of the first named paper, just to show our readers the kind of matter that is rebel editors are sowing broadcast throughout the loyal north.  We give an extract:

NIGRITUDINOUS.

Such a charcoal Sanhedrim as the Republican side of the House of representatives cannot be found elsewhere, except in the legislative councils of Liberia and Hayti.  Negrophobia has seized the entire party of the administration; they have the nigger on the brain, nigger in the bowels, nigger in the eyes, nigger, nigger, everywhere.  Steam power is surpassed, the caloric engines obsolete; water power, law power, constitution power, and all the powers, physical, moral and political, have found their superior in the great nigger power that moves the huge unwieldy, reeking and stewing mass of rottenness which makes up this administration and its party.

White soldiers, sick and wounded, wives and children of these soldiers, white men any and everywhere, may suffer agony, despair, famine, everything, and on humanitarian doctrines are preached for them by these nigger charmed saints of republicanism – no governmental disbursements for their support.  But for twenty-five thousand fat, shiny, greasy fragrant niggers, the government is giving a perennial entertainment.  This number of sable aristocrats, without labor, without care, without the asking, even, are fed, clothed and housed, by the administration of Abraham Lincoln at Hilton Head alone.  There are at least thirty thousand more negroes supported by the government in the same way at Fortress Monroe, Washington, and throughout the army of the West.  The Constitutional government of the United States is keeping a grand national “dance house,” AT A COST OF $50,000 PER DAY.  And every grain of wheat, every kernel of corn, every potato raised in the great Northwest, must be taxed to help pay for this philo-niggerous experiment of the abolitionists of New England.

Any one at all posted in the matter knows that the above is a consummate falsehood; the no negroes are supported in idleness at the expense of the Government, but that they are made to work and earn their livelihood.  The cheapest way in which our Government can hold the South in subjection, after it shall have been conquered, is to employ the acclimated negroes of the South for the purpose.  If the troops from the North be stationed at the various forts in the South which it will be necessary to keep manned, more in proportion will die from the effects of the climate than have been killed in battle.  Our Generals are right in employing negroes, who are accustomed to work, instead of imposing burthens upon soldiers who are unused to hard labor, and would soon sink under the enervating influence of the climate.  The pittance paid the negroes, about which this wiseacre snarls, would speedily be swallowed up in doctors’ fees, and the lists of mortality would soon swell to enormous length.  Yet even such frothy talk as the gibberish uttered by this knave, has its effect upon some weak minds; upon men who are unaccustomed to think for themselves, and who absorb everything they need, without the sense to discriminate between the most ridiculous falsehoods, and the unvarnished truth.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 2