Work Cut Out

Posted on March 8, 2013 by SUMPTER

Just like old times – white surgeons received their degrees at a black church led by a white, slave-owning minister. But I can understand how the writer would find this ceremony, with Richmond belles checking out the new doctors, comforting after two years of war. Of course, the war was always there – it meant a big demand for the surgeons’ skill.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 7 1863:

Medical College Commencement.

–The African Church was densely thronged last night by the “beauty and fashion” of the city, in consequence of the announcement, that the annual commencement exercises of the Medical College were to take place. It was a scene that forcibly reminded the spectator of “Richmond in by-gone days.” After an impressive prayer by Rev. Dr. Moore, the address to the graduating class was delivered by Professor Wellford, and listened to with deep attention. The ceremony of conferring degrees upon the band of young doctors was, as usual, the most interesting feature of the occasion to the ladies present. The band played lively airs at intervals, and everything went off to the satisfaction of all concerned.

Today’s VCU Medical Center traces its founding to 1838. It became a state institution in 1860.

Soon the Civil War erupted, and the College found itself playing an important role in the education of Confederate surgeons and in the hospital care of wounded and sick military personnel. During the Civil War, the school remained open and it graduated a class every year throughout the conflict. The MCV is the only Southern medical school still in existence to have done so. [1]

Richmond’s First African Baptist Church was founded in 1841 when white members of the original congregation established a separate church and sold the original building to the Africans.

As one of the largest meeting halls in Richmond, it was often rented for white events. Its large interior and prominent location in Richmond made it a sought after venue for events such as concerts and political rallies. The practice of renting the church was controversial among members due to the use of a church for secular events and due to the racial segregation often imposed at the events. The practice continued, however, due in part to the significant income that it provided.

John Hartwell Cocke lectured on temperance at at one of the earliest major events hosted at the church. While the government of the Confederate States of America was based in Richmond during the American Civil War, the church was often used for speeches by politicians including Governor William Smith and President Jefferson Davis. Judah Benjamin also spoke at the church to recruit blacks into the Confederate Army. …

Though it was always a Black church, it was initially led by a white minister and a board of thirty black deacons because it was illegal for blacks to preach. … The first senior minister, Robert Ryland, served from 1841 until 1865. Ryland owned slaves and believed that slavery was the best way to convert Africans to Christianity. … [2]

View of Richmond from the church hill (Published and sold by Casimir Bohn, c1851.; LOC: LC-DIG-pga-02597)

“Richmond in by-gone days.” c.1851

  1. [1] Wikipedia references to Hoke, Thelma (1963). The First 125 Years of the Medical College of Virginia.↩
  2. [2]Wikipedia references to Leveen, Lois (24 January 2011). “The North of the South” New York Times; Kimball, Gregg (2000), American City, Southern Place: A Cultural History of Antebellum Richmond, Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press; Furgurson, Ernest (1996), Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War (2 ed.), New York: Vintage Books↩
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“General of pluck”

Posted on March 7, 2013 by SUMPTER
Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker (between 1860 and 1870; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-06975)

looked every man in the face “as though he would look him through”

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 7, 1863:

The condition of the Army of the Potomac.

A letter in the New York Tribune dated from the Army of the Potomac, gives a description of the working of matters there at present. It says:

Gen. Hooker has a straightforward way of doing at things which takes with the soldier. There is no show about him. He means business in every word, look and act. An instance of this plain, business like way of his of doing things occurred a few days since under my immediate observation. He came riding along where a brigade was being reviewed by its division officer. It was a short time previous to the hour for review, and the men were standing waiting in line. He appeared attended by only a single orderly, whom he immediately dispatched on some message. –While the orderly was absent the General rode down the line, but a few feet in advance of it, looking every man in the face as though he would look him through. Nobody seemed to know him, and most supposed him to be some curiosity hunting civilian. Many wondered what that old follow wanted, and some hinted aloud that he must be rather green to be riding down a line of battle in that manner. But the attendant coming back and respectfully reporting to him, he dashed off at a full gallop, and in such a manner as to make it evident that he was not only a military man, but one of some importance withal.

It was not until some hours after, however, that it was generally known to the soldiers that their General-in-Chief had paid them a visit, and then it was interesting to listen to their comments. “Did you see old Hooker this afternoon?”? said one of them to one of his comrades. “Yes,” was the reply, “if that chap that looked at us so was him” “Well, it was, they say, and ain’t he — of a fellow to be poking his nose around in that style. Mac always used to have a string of dukes and aids and princes as long as a funeral procession when he came; but I guess old Joe travels on his own hook, and looks into things for himself.” The parties moving on, I lost the further continuance of the conversation; but it was a fair specimen of what I heard that afternoon and evening.

“Hooker gives us soft bread and potatoes, and lets us go home; he’ll do,” I heard another say in allusion to recent orders. By the by, I learn that some, more officers than men proportionately, have taken advantage of recent orders and stayed over their time, thus rendering it doubtful whether the order be continued in execution. I hope, however, that the order will not be repeated, but that the delinquents will be made to suffer. I have seen the good effects in military life of punishing the few for the benefit of the many and I have likewise seen the evil effects of punishing the many because of the sins of the few. It universally breeds dissatisfaction, for it is essentially unjust.

So far, then, as the popularity or unpopularity of the chief with the men is concerned — a point to which undue importance is attached everywhere — I for one am willing to leave the matter where it stands. Gen. Jos. Hooker will be popular with men and officers. He evinces for the men all that care for their comfort and their health which made them like McClellan, and then he is a better fighting man. The soldier likes the General of pluck. Fighting with him, like charity with the Christian, covers a multitude of sins.

I enjoyed the contrast between Hooker riding with a single orderly and McClellan with “a string of dukes and aids and princes as long as a funeral procession”; however, in the April 18, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the Southartist Alfred R. Waud described “the large train of officers that accompany the general [Hooker]”, at least in the sense of being part of the headquarters complex. The balloon party sounds like a lot of fun.

Falmouth, Va., vicinity. Balloon camp (by James F. Gibson, 1863 March; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-00310)

Balloon camp near Falmouth, March 1863

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War power to ya

Posted on March 6, 2013 by SUMPTER
Constitution of the United States, page 1.

shush

Inter arma leges silent. [1]

As the 37th Congress closed on March 4, 1863 Northerners were aware that Congress had recently granted the President greatly increased power in order to put down the rebellion and restore the Union. Both the New York Herald and Harper’s Weekly referred to the dictatorial powers of Abraham Lincoln, but both were supportive of the enacted laws because of the demands of the war. (the Herald editorial was reproduced through the filter of the Richmond Daily Dispatch)

Here are some excerpts from the March 14, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly (hosted at Son of the South:

THE WORK DONE BY CONGRESS.

THE Thirty-seventh Congress of the United States has expired, having, in the short session which ended on March 4, passed some of the most momentous measures ever placed upon the statute-book. Those measures, as a whole, are equivalent to the step which, in republican Rome, was taken whenever the state was deemed in imminent danger, and which history calls the appointment of a Dictator. The President of the United States has, in effect, been created Dictator, with almost supreme power over liberty, property, and life—a power nearly as extensive and as irresponsible as that which is wielded by the Emperors of Russia, France, or China. And this is well. To succeed in a struggle such as we are waging a strong central Government is indispensable. One great advantage which the rebels have had over us is the unity of their purposes, and the despotic power of their chief. We are now on a par with them in these respects, and we shall see which is the better cause.

The measures which collectively confer upon Mr. Lincoln dictatorial powers consist, 1st, of the Conscription Act; 2d, of the Finance measures; and, 3d, of the Indemnity Act.

After reviewing the Conscription and Banking acts the article discusses the Indemnity Act or Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1863

It is quite evident that in the face of such a state of things, and when the nation is engaged in a death-grapple of which the issue is very doubtful, the slow and cautious remedies which the law provides for the redress of wrongs in time of peace would be out of place. The country might be ruined while we were empanneling a jury to try a traitor. Inter arma leges silent.

When we undertook the war we tacitly agreed to accept it with all its evils. Prominent among these are a depreciated currency, a temporary deprivation of personal liberty, and a liability to be taken from one’s business to carry a musket in the army. These are grave inconveniences. But they are temporary and bearable; whereas the evils which would result from the disruption of the Union are lasting and intolerable. We may suffer, but our children will benefit by our suffering. Whereas if this country is severed in twain the future which lies before us is plainly depicted in the history of Mexico and Central America: incessant wars, constant subdivisions, a cessation of honest industry and agriculture, a decay of trade, a disappearance of wealth and civilization, and in their stead chronic strife, rapine, bloodshed, and anarchy. To avoid these things we can well afford for a few years to have a strong Government.

James Gordon Bennett, three-quarter length portrait, three-quarters to the left, seated, hands folded in lap, seated beside a small table with tablecloth on which rests a tall hat (between 1851 and 1852; LOC: LC-USZC4-4150)

kneeling before Czar Abraham

In supporting the temporary dictatorship the New York Herald seemed to rely on the character of Abraham Lincoln and the character of the Union troops in the field.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 4, 1863:

The Herald on Abraham Lincoln as a Dictator — Bennett on his Knees to the future [C]zar of the United States.

The New York Herald, of the 27th, has the following article on Abraham’s prospects for the Dictatorship of the United States:

The important measures which have lately passed, and others which are now under consideration in the two houses of Congress, will leave no excuse for a failure on the part of the present Administration to put an end to the rebellion. With the closing of the present session President Lincoln will be practically invested with the powers of a Dictator. …

This organic instrument and the laws passed in pursuance thereof constitute the supreme law of the land. Nor do we think it can be successfully denied or contested that in straining its warlike authority to the establishment at Washington of a temporary dictatorship, Congress has in the acts indicated passed the barriers of the Constitution. The legislative power of Congress in regard to the militia, in case of rebellion or invasion, and over the financial affairs of the country, and the habeas corpus, is broad and comprehensive. It is possible that with a Napoleon or a Cromwell, clothed with this provisional dictatorship, there would be an end of our Republican institutions and the beginning of an imperial establishment; but there is not the slightest danger of the abuse of his authority by President Lincoln for ambitious purposes. We all know that his ambition is limited to the suppression of the rebellion, but if he were not, we all know that he would be powerless to employ the intelligent, liberty loving soldiers of the Union in any movement involving the suppression of our regular Presidential election. …

It made me nervous when I read William Green’s letter home from the Virginia front talking about how powerful the Administration was. When he wrote, “individuals are nothing before a vital principle” I thought that was a pretty good motto for Adolf Hitler’s Nazi program. But Bennett from the Herald would rely on another one of Green’s statements – “… the Administration. I say support it to the letter so long as the present one exists, and at another election, if it doesn’t suit, change it.”

  1. [1]translated ” in the midst of arms (i.e., in time of war) the laws are silent”↩
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Flour Power

Posted on March 5, 2013 by SUMPTER

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 5, 1863:

Flour impressment.

Major Tannahill, the Commissary of Post at Petersburg, received on Tuesday last an order to impress all the extra superfine flour in the possession of millers and merchants in that city. The price specified is $19 50 per barrel, while the market price is from $28 to 29. Not long since all the superfine flour in that city was impressed.

According to Encyclopedia Virginia

Impressment was the informal and then, beginning in March 1863, the legislated policy of the Confederate government to seize food, fuel, slaves, and other commodities to support armies in the field during the American Civil War (1861–1865). The tax-in-kind law, passed a month later, allowed the government to impress crops from farmers at a negotiated price. Combined with inflationary prices and plummeting morale following military defeats, impressment sparked vocal protests across the South. Discontent was exacerbated by what was perceived as the government’s haphazard enforcement of the law, its setting of below-market prices, and its abuse of labor. As a result, citizens hoarded goods and in some cases even impersonated impressment agents in an effort to steal commodities.

Here’s another quick story from the same issue of the Dispatch:

Death of Mrs. Edwin Booth.

–The New York Herald announces the death of Mrs. Edwin Booth. She expired on the 21st ult., at her husband’s residence, at Dorchester, near Boston. The immediate cause of her death was inflammation, contracted from a cold. Mrs Booth will be remembered as Miss Mary Devilin, a young actress of brilliant promise a few years ago. She played in Richmond several seasons, and was very popular with our play-g[oe]rs.

Edwin Booth (no date recorded on caption card; LOC: LC-DIG-ggbain-33336)

Edwin Booth and daughter Edwina, probably 1864

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unoriginal devil

Posted on March 4, 2013 by SUMPTER

The following article finds that there was a British template for President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Twenty-five years earlier a writer in Fraser’s magazine suggested a crusade to free American slaves as the only way the United Kingdom had a chance of beating the United States in a prospective war. The British had no hope of invading America with a conventional force and winning, at least partly because it would give France an opening to hurt British interests. However, the British might be able to lead a force of Jamaicans to spur a slave insurrection. This would destroy the American Union and further British interests – all with the veneer of a humanitarian mission.

In early 1863 the Union was no where near crushing the Southern rebellion. The Proclamation might raise havoc in the Confederate society and add many potential soldiers to the Union army. From the abolitionist perspective it was also the morally right thing to do.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 4, 1863:

Servile war.

We have often referred to the fact that American abolitionism has always derived its most malignant inspirations from English abolitionism; but we were not aware until lately that even the infamous emancipation programme of Lincoln had been on one occasion recommended by high literary authority in Great Britain, as the most, and indeed the only, effectual way of carrying on war with America. A friend has put in our hands an article of Frazer’s Magazine, published at the time of the Canadian troubles in 1838, when a war between the United States and England seemed imminent, under the title of “War with America a Blessing to Mankind.”

The writer discusses, in the first place, the ordinary notion of levying war in the old fashioned style, by sending a military and naval expedition against the North. He contends that England cannot do this with any chance of success, and that she cannot afford a protracted contest with the United States, because France might embrace the opportunity of striking a blow at her ancient enemy. Ireland might attempt to secure her independence, and Russia make a demonstration upon Northern India, (considerations which have perhaps not lost their influence to this day upon the policy of England towards the United States) He then proceeds to point out “a short, sharp and decisive mode” of making war upon America as follows. After asserting that her bondmen are held in the most cruel thraldom known to mankind, and proving it by the confessions of the “Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, ” the writer proceeds:

“It may be a doubtful point, how far another nation would be justified, in a time of peace, in embarking in a crusade of philanthropy, and endeavoring to coerce an independent people into the relinquishment of a national sin. But what possible doubt can exist as to the propriety, the expediency — nay, the absolute duty, of making a way subservient to the great and pre eminent object of freeing these three millions of cruelly oppressed human beings?

“Policy, too, not less than philanthropy, prescribes such a course of warfare. By this mode, and this only, a war with American might be brought to a speedy and inevitably triumphant close. As we have already observed, a struggle between the people of England and their descendants in America must be a fearless, a protracted, and a lamentable one. But if assailed in this quarter, a vital part is instantly and surely reached — the Union dissolved, and the war is at an end.

“Among the three millions of slaves, we may fairly calculate the adult males at nearly one million. Every man of all this multitude would eagerly rush to embrace an emancipating invader, and within a few days’ sail of their coast repose the free and happy black of Jamaica. In one morning a force of ten thousand men might be raised in this quarter, for the enfranchisement of their brethren in America. Such a force, supported by two battalions of Englishmen and supplied with 20,000 muskets would establish themselves in Carolina, never to be removed. In three weeks from their appearance the entire South would be in one conflagration. The chains of a million of men would be broken, and by what power could they ever be again riveted?

“We say that this course is dictated alike by policy, by self-preservation, and by philanthropy. By policy, for nothing would render our possessions in America so secure as the dissolution of the Union.–an inevitable result of this line of action. By self- preservation for England must not venture amidst her other difficulties, to involve herself in a protracted contest a distant quarter of the globe. By philanthropy which tells us that if, contrary to our own inclinations, we are dragged into this unnatural war, it is our duty at least to endeavor to bring good out of evil. In whatever way, then, we contemplate the subject, we come to this conclusion. If we must have a war with America, let us make it a war for the emancipation of the slaves; so shall our success be certain, and our triumph the triumph of humanity.”

These extracts exhibit the true animus of Englishlitionism and the origin of the demonize [demonic?] policy which Lincoln has adopted for the conduct of the present war. We need not point out how preposterous were the calculations of the writer founded upon the supposed readiness of the slaves for revolt. We reproduce the article for the purpose simply of “giving the devil his due,” and letting it be seen that Lincoln is not original even in his diabolism.

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Still trusting the old ship

Posted on March 2, 2013 by SUMPTER
Army Mail leaving Hd.Qts. Post Office. Army Potomac (by Alfred R. Waud, 1863 ca. March, Harper's Weekly, April 18, 1863, p. 245; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-21422)

getting letters home: mail wagon leaving Falmouth

The New York 33rd Volunteer Infantry has less than three months remaining in its two year enlistment. Here’s a letter home from a member of the 33rd.

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1863:

Patriotic Letter from a Soldier.

The following is a copy of a letter from a soldier in the Thirty-third to his father, at Waterloo:

CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA.
March 2d, 1863.

Dear Father: – Your kind letter came to hand yesterday and was read with all pleasure. You asked me about my food and the quantities of rations; I will say that they are as good as one would ask for. “Old Joe” has ordered that we shall have four rations of fresh soft bread per week, two of fresh potatoes, and two of desicated vegetables, or potatoes instead; as good coffee as any one can wish for and enough of it; plenty of good fresh and salt beef, and as good pork as any farmer in old Seneca can produce. But I will leave that subject.

I still bunk with my old friends, Cook and Covert. We have the best house in the regiment.

You wish to know how I stand on the war, the Administration, &c. I am in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war. I am not in favor of peace, – that is, I am opposed to all ideas of peace, unless it is a restoration of the Union and a downfall of the so-called Confederacy. I am opposed to all manner of compromises, all foreign intervention, whether by mediation or otherwise. I believe that we are able to settle our own difficulties, and believe that we have some man who is able to command this army. I am no man-lover. I love McClellan as any soldier should his leader, but to go so far as to say that no other than him can command this army, I will not say; but at the same time I cannot see why he is not the man, because he schooled himself for the task, but it seems that he did not accomplish anything, after nine months hard drill and school, and five months trial. But I am told that he has been meddled with, that his plans have been frustrated by the War Department and the Administration. I say support it to the letter so long as the present one exists, and at another election, if it doesn’t suit, change it. I believe in supporting it, because I believe it to be all powerful. The Union must be preserved at all hazards. I cannot believe that this, the greatest and best Government that ever existed has gone or or is going to ruin, as some writers from home write to their friends in the army. Such things have a bad influence upon the army in the field, and no man breathing the spirit of a true lover of his country will do it. Now the idea seems very foolish indeed, to think the great America has lost all, everything, home and integrity, and only been to war two years. As for my part, I am not afraid. I will trust the old ship and stand by her a while yet. Considering the direct and bad discouragement of a considerable portion of them and the indirect influence of bad example to which all have been exposed, the real wonder is that the general morale has fallen no lower. The indications that the Government has at last determined to correct the evils, whatever personal or party sensibility it may wound, is the most encouraging of all signs. We trust the enforcement of discipline upon all grades will here after be carried out with the sternest impartiality. It matters not where it strikes; individuals are nothing before a vital principle. Absolute subordination is the one thing needful for our national army. With it that army will be surely irresistible; without it all is at the mercy of accident. Father, I am for the Government as it was handed down to us by our forefathers. I have enlisted for this Government, not for two years, but during my natural life. One thing must be done; treason must be punished. The work should be commenced in time. The Government must exert its power in sustaining and enforcing the Constitution. Some talk of compromise; that is equal to a surrender. Why, in the language of the noble Paul Jones, “no, not surrender, we are just getting ready to fight.” So let our motto be.

Father, if you remember, I wrote to you on first going into war, that if we had all such officers as Col. R.F. Taylor, the old 33d would make her mark. As for our field and line officers, clear down to 4th Corporal, the Army of the Potomac has no better or braver or loyal men than are in the old 33d. As for myself, I hold the office of high private, and I think my prophecy as respects the mark you will all see inscribed on our banner, on our return home, (if we should be so fortunate as to return,) in letters that will be long remembered, that the 33d belonged to the Army of the Potomac.

From your ever dutiful son,

WM. H. GREEN.
Co.C, 33d Reg, N.Y.S.V.

William H. Green

” individuals are nothing before a vital principle.”

Apparently the ample provisions provided to the Army of the Potomac were appreciated by some of the local inhabitants. According to The story of the Thirty-third N.Y.S. vols.; or, two years campaigning in Virginia and Maryland (by David W. Judd (page 275)):

Falmouth, Va. Group in front of post office tent at Army of the Potomac headquarters (by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, 1863 April; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-03803)

Falmouth, April 1863

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“a woman on each arm”

Posted on March 1, 2013 by SUMPTER

A couple days ago we read a report about a courageous and loyal Confederate soldier who deserted because he was concerned about his wife’s welfare. The deserter was executed. Here’s information from 150 years ago this week that indicates some soldiers deserted for more mercenary motives.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 28, 1863:

Military Notices. …

Three hundred Dollars reward.

I will pay $300 in cash to any one who will arrest Michael Rooney, who deserted from my company last night after having regularly entered as a substitute three days before. He is a short, thick-built Irishman and wore, when he left, a pair of blue Yankee pants, citizen’s coat, and a black wool hat, badly worn; he is 46 or 47 years old and has generally worked on railroads, he once lived in Alexandria; has recently lived in Richmond, where it is said he has a wife and two children. The above reward will be paid to any one who will lodge him in Castle Thunder or any other prison, and notify me of the same, or for his head, should he resist arrest.

Wm T Nicholson,

Capt comd’g Co. E, 37th N G Reg’t,

Lane’s Brigade, A P Hill’s Div.

February20th, 1863.

Five hundred Dollars reward.

–Deserted from comp’y E, 26th Virginia reg’t, on the 1st inst, Henry Scott, an Irishman about 47 years old, about 5 feet6½ inches high; dark-brown or black hair; bluish eyes; dark complexion; has a ship tattooed on his breast, a woman on each arm, the woman on the left arm has a child in her arms; has a star on the back of the left hand, and has lost a portion of the middle finger of the right hand.–Henry Scott was mustered as a substitute for Robt Edmundam of Halifax Co., Va. The above reward will be paid for his delivery to me at the camp of the 26th Virginia regiment, Wise’s brigade, near Chaffin’s Bluff.

John T Perrin, Capt Co B,

26th Virginia regiment.

Desert to substitute again some day? Henry Scott might have a tough time going incognito.

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The Union Ninth

Posted on February 28, 2013 by SUMPTER

The Union IX Corps left the Army of the Potomac in February, 1863. It would eventually make its way to Vicksburg in June to support the siege.

Here’s a couple photos of its departure at Aquia Creek:

Aquia Creek Landing, Va. Embarkation of 9th Army Corps for Fort Monroe (by Alexander gardner, February 1863; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-00311)

Aquia Creek Landing, Va. Embarkation of 9th Army Corps for Fort Monroe; another view (by Alexander gardner, February 1863; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-00315)

And what it left behind near Falmouth, Virginia:

Abandoned camp of 9th Army Corps near Falmouth, Va., February, 1863 (photographed 1863, [printed between 1880 and 1889]; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-33102)

Abandoned camp of 9th Army Corps near Falmouth, Va., February, 1863 (photographed 1863, [printed between 1880 and 1889]; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-33103)

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Tug of War

Posted on February 27, 2013 by SUMPTER
Chicora the original name of Carolina. Respectfully dedicated to the patriotic ladies of the Southern Confederated States of North American (1861; LOC: LC-USZ62-91834)

utopia on the (1861) homefront

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 27, 1863:

A solemn warning to wives.

–A correspondent of the Selma Reporter relates a story which should serve as a solemn warning to the wives of soldiers. He says a few weeks ago a soldier was tried and convicted of the crime of desertion, and sentenced to be shot. The day for the execution arrived, and at the appointed hour this brave man, who had fought many battles and endured every kind of hardship, fell a bloody corpse at the hands of his comrades. Upon inquiry it was ascertained he was as true as steel to our cause, and that it was on account of his wife that he deserted. He received a letter from her full of complaints. Looking alone upon the dark side of the picture, she had magnified her troubles and sufferings, and earnestly entreated her husband to return home. He became restless, discontented, unhappy. He ceased to make any interest in the discharge of his military duties, and thought only of how he could get home. His solemn oath never to desert troubled him much, and he well knew the crime of desertion had become so frequent in the army it would be punished with death. In this state of perplexity he drew his wife’s letter from his bosom and read it again, and, shutting his eyes to the consequences, in deserted? [he deserted,?] and for this crime he suffered a bloody and ignominious death. His wife, now a widow, know[s] no peace of mind, but is constantly haunted with the thought that her exaggerated representations of her trials and sufferings caused her husband’s death. Let this case be a lesson to all wives and mothers. When you write to the soldier speak words of encouragement; cheer their hearts; fire their souls, and arouse their patriotism. Say nothing that will embitter their thoughts, or swerve them from the path of patriotic duty.

You can read a good overview of Civil War desertion at etymonline.com:

“Perhaps the most important reasons for Confederate desertion was the tug of home,” [Reid] Mitchell writes [in The Vacant Chair]. There’s an important study by Drew Gilpin Faust about Confederate women, that concludes the war was lost when they finally decided the men were needed at home more than independence was needed. Sickness, malnutrition, and invading Yankee armies closed in on the South, and the women called the men home.

[Unidentified officer in Confederate uniform with wife and baby (between 1861 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-32142)

what am I fighting for?

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Non-exempt

Posted on February 26, 2013 by SUMPTER

Actions speak louder than “animus”

One of the weaknesses of the Confederate conscription acts is said to have been widely abused exemptions. Here a Confederate judge decided against two native Virginians who claimed exemption on the ground that they were domiciled in Washington, D.C. when the war began. It seems their case was greatly weakened by the fact that they volunteered for Confederate service just after Fort Sumter and served for over a year.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 25, 1863:

A Legal opinion of the Conscript act — highly important decision.

A habeas corpus case, involving more questions of general interest than any which has yet been brought before the country, was decided by Judge Meredith yesterday, after elaborate and protracted argument. It involves the right of the Government to the military services of a large number of able-bodied residents of the Confederacy, between the ages of eighteen and forty, who have heretofore been considered as exempt from military duty. The facts are briefly as follows:

William and Charles P. Harman at the commencement of the existing war were living in the District of Columbia with their father, who had in the year 1855 removed from Alexandria to Washington, in consequence of having received an appointment of clerk in one of the departments of Government. His sons were born in Virginia, and at the commencement of the war one was of age and the other a minor. In April or May, 1861, both of them enlisted in a volunteer company, and entered the military service of the Confederate States. They served for twelve months and ninety days, and then claimed their discharge upon the ground of [not?] being of the Confederate States. The validity of their claim was conceded by Col. Taliaferro, the enrolling officer for the Ch[a]rlottesville district, and they were furnished with exemption papers. They were, however, subsequently arrested by order of the Colonel of the regiment in which they had served, and held to military service under the conscript act of April 16, 1862.

The petitioners appealed for and obtained writs of habeas corpus for the purpose of ascertaining whether they were liable to military duty as “residents” of the Confederacy. In the hearing of the case, before Judge Meredith, Hon. Shelton F. Leake appeared for the petitioners, and made use of the various points bearing upon the case, to procure their discharge. P. H. Aylett, E[s]q., Confederate States District Attorney, appeared for the War Department, and resisted the application for the discharge of the petitioners. The argument on both sides was able and elaborate.

Judge M[e]redith delivered a long and able opinion, in which he sustained with much force and learning the points made by the counsel for the Government. He decided that the removal of the petitioners’ father to Washington to accept a clerkship in the Post-Office Department had not changed the domicil either of the father or of his family, as the office was one revocable at the will of the appointing power, and that the residence of the petitioners there was from “necessity,” arising from the authority of the father. He also decided that, admitting the father of the petitioners to have acquired a domicil in Washington, the petitioners, as native-born Virginians, had, at the commencement of the war, an undoubted right to resume their native citizenship, and that by returning to the domicil of their origin, and by taking up arms to fight our battles, they had furnished the highest and most conclusive evidence of their voluntary resumption of their rights as citizens of Virginia — Against such acts as these the Judge said that more declarations of the animus of the petitioners should not be permitted to weigh.

Judge Mer[e]dith commented on and sustained the point (made by Mr. Aylett) that the domicil of the soldier was that of the country in whose service he was enlisted. Nothing, he said, could be clearer than that by entering the military service you acquire a domicil. He cited and commented upon a large number of interesting decisions in England, France, Germany, and America, to show that no principle of law was more clearly established than the one contended for by the counsel for the Government, and expressed the opinion that every citizen of Maryland and every foreigner who had once enlisted in our armies, it mattered not for how brief a period, was a fit subject for conscription, if between the ages of eighteen and forty, and he expressed the hope that the War Department would at once all persons thus liable.

The language of this Conscript act, the learned Judge said, was exceedingly broad. It evidently contemplated the conscription of all “residents” in the Confederate States between the specified years. Whether they were residents in pursuit of pleasure, money, or what not, they were clearly liable, under the broad language of the act, and should be conscribed. The Judge also decided that the War Department could disregard all exemptions which had been given by enrolling officers where they had been improperly given. The petitioners, he decided, were not held at this time in custody of the proper official, and were therefore entitled to their discharge; but it was strictly legitimate and proper for the proper enrolling officer for the Albmarie district to enroll them as conscripts, and make the proper disposal of them under the provisions of the Conscript act of 16th April, 1862.

It is understood that no appeal will be taken from this important decision, and the action of the War Department and of the numerous enrolling officers will doubtless conform to it.

And appeal options were limited. Although the Confederate constitution allowed for a Supreme Court, it was never set up because of the “ongoing war and resistance from states-rights advocates, particularly on the question of whether it would have appellate jurisdiction over the state courts”.

Unidentified soldier in Confederate uniform and unidentified man, possibly the soldier's father (between 1861 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-31656)

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