We was out this
morning by request of our Col & had a tryal at target shooting with him the
commissioned officers of us, pistol shooting. Capt Hale made the best shooting.
forenoon we had company drill & at 4 Oc we ware on dress perade. night I
continued my letter to my children. I recd a verry interesting letter from
Ellis Burch of Ia.
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 103
Our Major was grand
officer of the day which makes him for this 24 hours next highest in Command to
Genl Gorman who is commander of the post TM Fee is officer of the day for the
Reg. I drilled the Company fore & afternoon & took them on Dress
perade. at 11 Oc last night the long roll beat & some 2 Reg of Inft & 2
or 3 parts of Regments, Cavelry went out in anticipation of an attack on the
pickets, but there was no attack.
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 103
Morning clear &
cold with heavy frost & ice on the little ponds thick as heavy window glass
Capt drilled the Co & I attended to getting things for our mess the 1st Mo
Battery 6 guns came down on the Black Hawk & are camped here. afternoon the
28th Wisconsin Inft came down on ——— & the company grounds being all taken
up they passed down
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 103
We drilled a short
time after our scirmish drill & was on dress perade I received a letter
from Emma with the good noose that Amandus is better
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 103
Forenoon we drilled
some in skirmish. 4 Oc we ware on dress perade I was in town a short time
afternoon & priced some things Flour is $4.00 per hundred lbs corn meal
2.50 per hundred Dried peaches 50 cents per lb Dried Apples 40 ct per lb cheese
30 to 40c per lb Butter 30 to 35c per lb Honey 40c per lb Chickens 50 cts each
potatoes $2.00 per bu Onions 2.00 per bu Green apples 5.00 per barrel or 2
apples for 5 cts
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 103
Forenoon I rambled
down the bottom & through a cotton plantation & to a burning cotton gin
& back to camp afternoon MH Hare our Chaplain & I rode out some 2½ or 3
miles was to see the Kansas 5th Cavelry we viewed some fine plantations went to
a cotton gin & I got a sack of seed to send to Iowa, we returned & I
was on Dress perade. the afternoon & night is echoing with the clatter of
buisey men preparing & moving by Companies & Regiments, Cavalry &
Infantry & Artillery & going on board of the fleet of steamers here,
the tramp of man & beasts the ratling of wagons the hollowing of teamsters
men & officers, the musick of the buglers, the fifes & drums, & the
hoarse cough of the steamers with their keen shrill whistle makes
the atmosphere in this valley tremble with the mingled sounds &
reverberate along the hills
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, pp. 103-4
10 Oc I took part of
the Company & went out on Picket 1½ miles from Camp posted my Pickets &
plased my videtts, we occupied a picturesque place the ground was verry broken
deep gulshes & high knobbs, heavily timbered with Beach Oak & Poplar
tall trees in the gulches, the tops but little above the points & the
length of the tree would almost or quite reach across from point to point.
there was a perfect chattering with squerrels the videtts saw in the afternoon
1 koon several foxes & a great number of squerrels, we passed the Sabbath
watchfull & pleasantly, the pickets to our right was of the 3rd Iowa
Cavelry & the Lieut & several of the men ware from Davis Co Iowa.
Afternoon our Reg had orders & moved to the fort for its defence the Reg that
was there having gone with the fleet that leaves this day & night.
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 104
After A night of
watchfulness in which I did not alow myself to steep the morning dawn is
welcomed with glad harts by us all & the merry chatter of the squerrel
& the multitude of the various kinds of the fethered songsters mingling in
sweet strains of musick & verberating on hiltop & in the valleys so
delight the ears that with the pleasing sight of their buisey wings in flight
from limb to limb & their frolicksome persuit of each other on swift wings
almost removes from us the thought of our wearied night of watchfulness. At 11
Oc our relief came & we return to town & find the Reg moved & more
pleasantly situated than we have been since we left Benton Barracks. Capt &
I have a cabbin about 12 by 16 feet floored & a good brick fireplace &
we feel at home & know that for soldiers we are well fixed
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 104
Rained moderately
untill 12 Oc night, when it commenced to pour it down in torrants &
continued incessantly all the night long At 9½ Oc morning I was required to
report with 10 men & a Corporal at head quarters for Picket duty & at
the hour we started out I stationed my pickets & placed my videtts I then
took a little exploring ramble beyont to see if I could make any discovery but discovered
no enemy & returned by the way of my post on Sunday night & found my
watch kee that I then had lost the last time I was on picket At 10 Ос night
Lieut Stanton & one of his men of the 3rd Iowa Cavelry came to apprize me
that there was a squad of rebble cavelry had aproched his videtts but their
horses had neighed & the rebbles put back my man & I was in anxious
expectation from that till day but they came not at 3 Oc afternoon I was at the
burrying of Thos W Coddington private from near Hillsborough Iowa Chaplain
Ingalls informed me that he died verry happy
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 104
At 11 Oc forenoon we
ware relieved from our post & started in rejoicing in hopes of getting to
the fire & dry ourselves for we had no shelter from the pelting rain of the
past night & this day, & we know how to simpathize with the poor
fellows that have to stand the ballance of the day & night At about 3 Oc
this morning one of the videtts of the 3rd Iowa Cavelry fired 3 shots at
something he supposed to be an enemy but done no execution & he posibly
might have been mistaken the night was verry dark but from the time of the
firing we ware in expectation all the time untill day light, & even then
many expected there would be a dash upon us by Cavelry, we ware the advance
pickets through the night & after daylight the pickets of the 3rd Iowa
Cavelry again posted themselves beyond us
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, pp. 104-5
At midnight last
night it commenced to sleet & continued for about 12 hours then commenced
snowing in earnest & continued to snow hard untill near the middle of the
afternoon it abated with snow from 6 to 8 inches deep & the ground in a
perfect slush of mud & watter under the snow, & it continued snowing
moderately the ballance of the afternoon & night untill now 8½ Oc & yet
snowing with a fair prospect of continuing through the night I am suffering
with a severe pane in the small of my back but not to prevent me from duty
SOURCE: Edgar R.
Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2,
October 1925, p. 105
ASHLAND, May 23, 1848.
MY DEAR SIR, — I
received your kind letter of the 19th instant, and I feel greatly obliged by
the confidence in me which it evinces. You desire, in the event of there not
being a majority of the Whig Convention disposed to nominate me, to know who
among the distinguished names before the Convention would be my first, second
and third choice. I have hitherto maintained a position of entire impartiality
between my competitors for the nomination. It was dictated by considerations of
delicacy toward them. I do not think that I ought to deviate from it. To you,
as soon as to any friend I have, I would make the desired communication, if I
were not restrained by the motives suggested.
I hope that your
apprehensions of a stormy Convention will not be realized; but that it will be
found animated by a spirit of concord and patriotism, and seeking to do the
best it can for our common country.
SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 561
QUINCY, May 24, 1848.
MY DEAR SIR, — On
behalf of my mother and the few surviving relatives of my late father, as well
as for myself, permit me to express the sense which I entertain of the kindness
expressed in your letter of the 15th instant. Much as the sympathy has been
which the painful event to which you are pleased to allude has called out from
almost all quarters, from none could it have come more gratefully than from
yourself. A kind providence had by a preceding warning in a measure prepared me
to expect the blow, but I confess I was wholly unprepared for so deep and
general a manifestation of the public regard. Besides the soothing influence of
this result to the feelings of those immediately connected with him, I trust,
it may have a wider bearing to prove to all that class of statesmen of which
you as well as he are a prominent example, that the most vehement opposition of
rivals and cotemporaries, though attended with temporary success, avails little
to cloud the deliberate judgment of a later time.
Suffer me, sir, most
respectfully to reciprocate the good will which you are pleased to express
toward myself. I have always looked back with pleasure to the days in which as
a very young man I had some extraordinary opportunities of acquaintance with
the most distinguished men of the country. I have never been anxious to alloy
the impressions obtained in Washington at that period with new ones to be found
in the later society of that capital. Had the statesmen of that day continued
to guide the destinies of the country, its prospects at this time would have
been somewhat different from what they are. But the die is cast.
SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 561-2
NEW YORK, June 9, 1848.
MY DEAR SIR, — The
mis-representatives of the Whig party have at length consummated the greatest
act of national injustice it was in their power to perform, in the nomination
of a man as their candidate for the Presidency who has rejected the principles
and spurned the organization and discipline of the Whigs. The intelligence has
fallen upon the honest and true-hearted Whigs of this city, and I doubt not of
the country at large, like a clap of thunder; and the execrations of the mass
of the party here, at the treachery by which they have again been overtaken,
are both loud and deep. For yourself, my dear sir, it will be gratifying to
know that this last act of ingratitude has only served to bind you more closely
to the hearts of your friends; and I do but justice to their feelings and my
own when I say that a signal, and I trust, withering rebuke will be promptly
administered to the stock-jobbing politicians for whose selfish purposes this
outrage upon us has been perpetrated. To you no station can bring higher honor
than that which you now enjoy; and, so far as you are individually concerned,
it is not too much to say that an honorable retirement, accompanied with the
heartfelt affection of the whole nation, must be more grateful than the turmoil
and anxieties attendant upon office, however exalted. But it can not and will
not be forgotten, that in your person the integrity and the hopes of the Whig
party have been stricken down, and their existence as a party blasted and
destroyed. And I trust the day is far distant when a forgiveness will be
extended to the base combination between the heartless rivals whom you have
outstripped, both in unexampled devotion to your country and in the favor of
your countrymen, and the truckling harpies, who, like the followers of a camp,
are bent upon plunder alone.
I know, my dear sir,
that you will indulge in no personal regrets at the issue. But at the same
time, allow me, as one of your truest friends, as one who from the moment when
I was invested with the right to express an opinion upon public affairs, have
been a Whig, and a Clay Whig, to beg of you, as an act of justice to your
faithful friends, to withhold any expression of approval of the action of this
Convention. Your magnanimity will be appealed to by those who have stabbed you
and outraged us, as it was when we were betrayed in 1839; but I trust that the
appeal will meet with a different response.
In addressing you in
this earnest and emphatic manner, I feel that I am taking a great, perhaps an
unwarrantable liberty, with you. I plead, as my apology, my integrity as a Whig
and my unalterable veneration for yourself. I speak, moreover, the sentiments
of your hosts of friends in New York, who only find relief from the despondency
which weighs them down, in the proud reflection that they have battled to the
last under your glorious and honored name.
SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 562-3
NEW YORK, June, 1848.
MY DEAR MR. CLAY, — I
write to you in the fullness of my heart, not to condole with you, for though I
feel all the personal regard toward you which one man can feel for another,
personal considerations are absorbed in those of a public nature.
The Presidency could
have added nothing to your fame, and would have detracted much from your
comfort.
This Government has
had a national existence but little more than sixty years, during nearly forty
of which it has been guided by your counsels. Glorious period! You may justly
regard it with exultation! During this period you have demonstrated the great
problem of the feasibility and permanency of popular government, and almost
every nation in Europe, incited by the example, is now convulsed with the
effort to imitate it. During this period you have impressed upon the country
that high and honorable spirit in our intercourse with foreign nations,
that spirit of conciliation and union among the States which have
preserved us at home and made us respected abroad.
The uninterrupted
and unprecedented prosperity of our national career has not been the work of
accident. Three times, at least, the car of state would have taken the wrong
road, if not the road to destruction, but for your guiding hand: once in
1810–12, once in 1819-20, once in 1830–31. Will no emergency of the kind ever
occur again? When the next storm howls around us, this people, guilty and
appalled, will shrink back covered with fear and dismay at the mischief they
have done. You may say without arrogance, "Weep not for me, but rather
weep for yourselves!" As the scroll of our history unrolls itself, your
times will stand out in bold and bolder relief until it becomes the golden age
of some future people, perhaps as unlike the present as the miserable herd that
now defile the streets of Rome are unlike the associates of the elder Brutus.
Convulsions and sterility immediately and abruptly following a tract of rich
and elevated fertility, make the period of your counsels a stand mark to all
future time.
We are on the eve of
great events. Slavery will now become an immediate and bitter subject of
dispute, and will not be relinquished until it is extinguished or the Union
dissolved. I feel little disposition to commiserate the sufferings of the slave
region. They have brought it upon themselves; they have thrust slavery upon us
in the most offensive way; the policy of slavery governs all their actions;
their conduct in the Convention will not be forgotten; the means they have
taken to render themselves as they fancied more secure on this subject, has
precipitated the discussion accompanied with an acrimony which will not tend to
a friendly adjustment. The Whigs in this quarter every where are joining the
Barnburners, ready to make the slave question the great issue in future. The
next Presidential election (four years hence) will turn upon that point. A.
Barnburner will be elected.
The Whig party, as
such, is dead. The very name will be abandoned, should Taylor be elected, for
"the Taylor party." The last Whig Convention committed the double
crime of suicide and parricide. I loved that party, and whenever and wherever I
shall hereafter discover any portion of my fellow-citizens guided by its
principles, I shall attach myself to them; meantime I consider myself absolved
from all political connection.
It was resolved to
have a ratification meeting here as usual. The General Committee met on Monday
evening, they were surrounded by more than three thousand people spontaneously
collected, and the Committee was compelled to postpone the meeting
indefinitely, in hopes that General Taylor's letter of acceptance will place
himself more distinctly upon Whig ground. They will wait in vain. The
Taylorites begin to think Taylor's election is not quite as certain as they
supposed.
I hasten to the sole
object of this long letter, which is to assure you of my undiminished and
unalterable regard. Mrs. Hall begs me to join her in the expression of these
sentiments and the respectful assurances of our highest esteem.
SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 563-5
ASHLAND, June 22, 1848.
MY DEAR SIR, — I
wished much to see you, and hope soon to meet you. I got your letter from
Choles' on your way home, and I have received to-day your favor of the 20th
with the newspaper you sent me. Judge Robertson has returned, and has given me
much information; but there are some points which you can best elucidate.
I shall take no
active or partisan part in the canvass, but remain quiet, submitting to what
has been done so far as relates to myself. I think this is the course prompted
by self-respect and personal dignity. I shall attend no ratification meetings.
How can I sanction and approve what the seven delegates from Kentucky did in
the Convention, without virtually condemning what the five delegates did? How
can I publicly and warmly support a candidate who declared that, in a reversal
of conditions, he would not have supported, but opposed me? I am not misled by
the humbuggery of the Louisiana delegates. What credentials, what instructions
had they? They showed none, and had none.
In November, if I am
spared, I shall, with all the lights then before me, go to the polls and vote
for that candidate whose election I believe will be least prejudicial to the
country. Of course I can never vote for Cass.
It is too soon to
form any satisfactory opinion as to the issue of the contest. Neither candidate
seems to be entirely acceptable to the party which supports him. And I suppose
that party will probably succeed between whose members there will be ultimately
the least division and the greatest intermediate reconciliation.
P. S. The Governor
very handsomely tendered me the Executive appointment to the Senate, which I
this day declined accepting.
SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 565-6
ASHLAND, June 28, 1848.
GENTLEMEN, — I received your favor adverting to certain reports in circulation in respect to me, with regard to the approaching Presidential election, and requesting information in relation to them.
Recognizing you as among my staunchest, truest, and most faithful friends, I shall ever feel under the greatest obligations to you, and shall be always happy when I can command your approbation, or do any thing agreeable to you. But I should not be entitled to your esteem if I did not continue to act, as I have ever endeavored to be governed, according to my own conscientious convictions of duty.
As far as I was personally concerned, I submitted to the decision of the late National Convention at Philadelphia. It has relieved me from much painful suspense and anxiety, if I had been nominated; and from great vexation, care, and responsibility, if I had been subsequently elected. I shall do nothing in opposition to it. I shall give no countenance or encouragement to any third party movements, if any should be attempted against it. I desire to remain henceforward in undisturbed tranquillity and perfect repose. I have been much importuned from various quarters to endorse General Taylor as a good Whig, who will, if elected, act on Whig principles and carry out Whig measures. But how can I do that? Can I say that in his hands Whig measures will be safe and secure, when he refuses to pledge himself to their support? when some of his most active friends say they are obsolete? when he is presented as a no-party candidate? when the Whig Convention at Philadelphia refuse to recognize or proclaim its attachment to any principles or measures, and actually laid on the table resolutions having that object in view?
Ought I to come out as a warm and partisan supporter of a candidate who, in a reversal of our conditions, announced his purpose to remain as a candidate, and consequently to oppose me, so far as it depended upon himself? Tell me what reciprocity is in this? Magnanimity is a noble virtue, and I have always endeavored to practice it; but it has its limits, and the line of demarcation between it and meanness is not always clearly discernible. I have been reminded of the course I pursued in the case of the nomination of General Harrison in 1839. But General Harrison was not merely a Whig in name. He was committed and pledged to the support of the measures of the Whigs. He did not declare that he would stand as a candidate in opposition to the nomination of the Convention. He was, moreover, a civilian of varied and extensive experience.
I lost the nomination, as I firmly believe, by the conduct of the majorities in the delegations from Kentucky in Congress and in the Convention, and I am called upon to ratify what they did, in contravention, as I also believe, of the wishes of a large majority of the people of Kentucky! I am asked to sanction and approve the course of the seven delegates from Kentucky, who, in violation of the desire of their constituents, voted against me, and virtually to censure and condemn the five who voted for me!
It seems to me, gentlemen, that self-respect, the consistency of my character, and my true fame, require that I should take no action or partisan agency in the existing contest. If it was between Locofoco principles and Whig principles, I would engage in it with all the ardor of which I am capable; but alas! I fear that the Whig party is dissolved, and that no longer are there Whig principles to excite zeal and to stimulate exertion. I am compelled, most painfully, to believe that the Whig party has been overthrown by a mere personal party, just as much having that character as the Jackson party possessed it twenty years ago.
In such a contest I can feel no enthusiasm; and I am not hypocrite enough to affect what I do not feel. There is undoubtedly a choice, but I regard it as a choice of evils, which I will make for myself in due time, under the influence of the great principles for which I have so long contended. I think my friends ought to leave me quiet and undisturbed in my retirement. I have served the country faithfully and to the utmost of my poor ability. If I have not done more, it has not been for want of heart or inclination. My race is run. During the short time which remains to me in this world, I desire to preserve untarnished that character which so many have done me the honor to respect and esteem. They may rest assured that I will intentionally do nothing to forfeit or weaken their good opinion of me. Abstaining henceforward from all active part in public affairs, and occupying myself with my private and more solemn duties, I shall, if spared, go to the polls at the proper season, like any other private citizen, and cast my vote as I may deem best and safest for the principles I have sustained and for my country. Seeking to influence nobody, I hope to be permitted to pursue for myself the dictates of my own conscience.
Such is the view which I have of the present posture of the Presidential question, and my relations to it. More light may be hereafter thrown upon it, which I shall be most happy to receive, and if it should point to a different course of duty, I shall not hesitate to follow it.
I address this letter to you in consequence of yours, and from the friendly regard I entertain for you. I should have preferred that you had not thought it necessary to appeal to me. It is manifest from the tenor of my reply that it is not intended for publication. I am, etc.
SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 566-8
Fresh calls for
shoemakers. A few weak ones give their names but are not accepted. Negroes have
begun additional fortifications working all night and Sundays, falling trees
and making the night air ring. Last night my mind was filled with thoughts of
the misery of this place; I could not sleep. One poor boy near cried all night
and wished to die and suffer no longer; he is an awful object; his clothing is
gone but a rag of a shirt; his body is a mere frame, his hair has fallen from
his head; his scurvy ankles and feet are as large as his waist. I never saw a
sight more appalling. Then the awful thought that he is a man, somebody's
darling boy, dead and yet breathing. And he is but a sample of many. To think
of it blunts one's faith in men as brothers.
This forenoon a
priest came in saying he had great news; we are to be exchanged. He read his
news; it stated nothing definite, a mere if-so-to-be-perhaps, and yet he tried
to make us believe it did. Then he preached about the blessed apostles and
dealt out hell-fire in big rations unless we accepted certain theories. It was
not consoling. It is true Fremont and Lincoln are both nominated. I [visited]
an Ohio 100-day man taken in Maryland since the nomination. He thinks the Fremont
ticket will be withdrawn.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, pp. 94-5
The policy of
enlisting negroes renders it harder for prisoners. So does the emancipation
proclamation. The government having enlisted negroes, it is bound by laws of
war and all honorable considerations to protect them as soldiers. To do
otherwise would be dishonorable, cowardly, pernicious. Their enlistment more
excited the unreasonable hatred of Southerners toward the North. The only way
they can punish the North for what they deem insulting, is through their
military prisons and they open their vials of wrath on "Lincoln hirelings,"
as they call us, who are wholly in their power. But the ever present fear of
retaliation, man for man, men would be slain by hundreds, lined up and shot
after being brought beyond the seat of war. As it is they come as near as they
dare without displaying the black flag. Exchange was blocked last fall because
Rebel authority disregards the negro as a man. That has long been a civil code
of Slavedom. They adhere to it with a vengeance when he appears in arms against
slavery. He is saved from slaughter if captured, on the theory that he is
property, a theory in practice here for 100 years, or more. If any are escaped
slaves they are to be returned to masters or used for war purposes
indefinitely. If free they are appropriated as laborers, never exchanged, and
if their war succeeds he can be sold. Hence the case of a white man is worse
than that of a colored. He is deemed deserving of death because his government
puts whites and blacks on an equality. The slave codes of the South, written
and unwritten are in force, emphasized by the war power. This cruel and absurd
animus of "Southern civilization," this unrighteous despotism, is of
long standing. It is unquestioned by Southerners; woe be to him who disregarded
it during the long arbitrary reign of Slave Kings. The mass accept it as right
which is equivalent to thinking it right, and as men think so they are. Hence
the critical situation of the white war prisoners at this time. We are wholly
at the mercy of this cruel spirit which has transformed the South into a foe of
everybody antagonistic to their customs and laws
Shall Lincoln recall
his emancipation proclamation for the reason which as surely exists as we are
at war? It makes it the deadliest war of any century. Nor should the policy of
allowing negroes to fight for liberty be recalled. Shall free men cower and
longer concede the injustices of this hell-born slave power? Indeed not. That
is the issue-deadly issue to be fought to death. How well do I remember the
word passed along the lines at Mine Run and other places last fall and winter:
"No exchange of prisoners, men, remember." The same word sounded
along the lines in the fiery ordeals in the Wilderness. The die was cast. We
fought with it before our eyes. Who does not now realize its import? Davis
seeks to supercede the laws of war with his old slave code. Soon after
Lincoln's emancipation Davis notified his Congress that he proposed to turn
commissioned officer's thereafter over to State authorities in States where
captured to be punished under State laws providing for criminals engaged in
inciting civil insurrection. That is his disposition, overlooking the fact that
codes made to hang "abolition fanatics" can not be safely applied to
war prisons in a state of war, where the States he represents are belligerents
fighting for independence and asking for foreign recognition. Davis'
blood-thirsty fanaticism for slavery, supercedes the intelligence he has been
supposed to have and displays his savage inhumanity, thus seeking excuse to
hang all U. S. officers.
[Note.—January 12,
1863, Davis, in a message to the Confederate Congress, said: "I shall,
unless you, in your wisdom, deem some other course more expedient, deliver to
the several State authorities all commissioned officers of the United States
that may hereafter be captured by our forces in any of the States embraced in
the proclamation, that they may be dealt within accordance with the laws of
those States providing for the punishment of criminals engaged in inciting
servile insurrection." Confederate War Records now at Washington. The same
records show that in May, 1863, the Confederate Congress in its
"wisdom," passed a law embodying the above suggestion, but confining
its operation to commissioned officers of negro regiments. Negro soldiers, when
captured, by its provisions were to be delivered to authorities of States where
captured, to be disposed of according to the laws of those States. This law was
never repealed, so that, as a legal proposition, any officer of a negro
regiment who became a prisoner was liable to be hanged, as John Brown was at
Harper's Ferry. The records also show that the prisoner problem was much
discussed early in the war. A Yankee caught in slave States to "free
niggers" prior to the war could be safely hanged under slave codes.
Shallow minds, like Davis, assumed that it could still be done, others saw that
having gone to war in the spirit that enacted the codes, they had barred
themselves from exercising that sacred function. Some said make Uncle Sam feed
them at his own expense though they be kept in the South. Others said starve
them; others give them poor bread and water; others, break their legs and turn
them loose. Some said make them build railroads or work in other ways to boost
the Slave Confederacy.]
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, pp. 95-7
Several men of our
regiment are failing fast. H. D. Merritt is an object of pity and getting
worse. We have cut his hair close to keep the myriads of lice out. He has lost
all disposition to try to save himself. About 400 of Gen. Stoneman's command
captured in the vicinity of Macon, were turned in here today. They report Maj.
Gen. Stoneman captured. His expedition to that point with the intention of
coming here has proved disastrous. Rations suspended. Sick ordered to the gate
at night; and ordered to be brought again in the morning. None to go who can
walk.
SOURCE: John Worrell
Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville
and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 97
