furlough

Posted on March 16, 2013 by SUMPTER

Apparently an officer in the New York 33d Volunteer Infantry took advantage of a winter break in the action to visit home.

33d New York Infantry (between 1861 and 1863; LOC: LC-USZ62-70353)

unnamed member of the New York 33d

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in March 1863:

Personal.

Capt. MCGRAW, of the 33d Regiment arrived home on Wednesday on a brief furlough of ten days. His numerous friends were glad to see him looking so well, after his long absence in the service of his country. He represents his command, and the regiment, in good spirits and condition.

We were also pleased to see Capt. J.C. PETERSON, of the 15th U.S. Infantry, who made his appearance in town during the past week. Capt. PETERSON is now attached Gen. ROSENCRAN’s staff as Assistant Inspector General, and has borne a prominent part in the campaigns in Kentucky and Tennessee. He is home for the purpose of recruiting his health.

The battle of Stone River or Murfreesboro' (Cincinnati, Ohio : Middleton, Strobridge & Co., between 1863 and 1870; LOC: LC-DIG-pga-02189)

Rosecrans was there – Battle of Stones River, December 31, 1862

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Smoke-free Confederacy

Posted on March 15, 2013 by SUMPTER

After claiming that the Press only has the public good in mind (as opposed to power hungry politicians), this Richmond paper urges southern farmers to give up tobacco and cotton cultivation so that the land can be used exclusively to grow the food necessary to feed a hungry nation and its army in the field. Like England the South must not waste an atom of soil.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 14, 1863:

The duty of the hour.

To put every grain of corn in the field, everything that can supply food for man and beast, is the grand duty of the time. We are pained to hear the elaborate preparations making in some portions of the country for the cultivation of tobacco. If this prevails to any considerable extent it is idle to shut our eyes to the consequences. A people without bread, an army without bread, and what is our fate! What the dismal and inevitable result? Can any one contemplate it without horror?

We do not need more men in the army. Our great aim should be to feed those who are there. –By improvidence, waste, and mismanagement, we have diminished resources which at one period appeared to be inexhaustible. Now we can only supply our wants by strict economy, and provide for the future by producing as much food as possible. In the benignant Heaven above and the productive earth beneath are our hope and confidence. No other friends have we, none other, if we are true to them and to ourselves, do we need in the wide universe.

Mendelejevs_periodiska_system_1871

The Atoms family (1871 Periodic Table)

But we must save, and economize, and labor.–We must make every foot of ground available. –We must cultivate the earth as closely as in England, where not an atom of the soil is wasted.–Every grain of the soil is a grain of gold. It is gold dust, or may be made such on which we tread. The idea, at such an hour, of cultivating cotton and tobacco! The man is a public enemy who does it. Who is to buy his cotton and tobacco? He is starving his neighbors without feeding himself. He is starving the defenders of his country, and giving to Lincoln the most substantial aid and comfort, he can ever expect to command in the Southern States.

Lincoln’s recent usurpation of the purse and sword threatens the South with no such peril as the insatiate greed of gain within her own borders. If we are true to ourselves we can set the usurper at defiance. But let us sacrifice selfishness and avarice in all its phases upon the altar of the public good. Let us consecrate the soil to the support of the army and people. Let every man who does not fight work to feed those who do.

According to Civil War Home at least some politicians and some newspapers were on the same page regarding substituting food for tobacco cultivation:

Confederate policy and military campaigns in the heartland of the South’s tobacco regions devastated Southern tobacco planting and manufacturing. In an attempt to encourage the planting of foodstuffs, the Confederate Congress in March 1862 passed a joint resolution recommending that Confederate states refrain from planting tobacco. Planters often ignored Congress’s suggestions, however. The Virginia Assembly also attempted to limit tobacco growing with a law passed in March 1863, and renewed planting restrictions again in February 1864. Other tobacco-growing states passed similar legislation during the war. In addition, local newspapers such as the Edgefield Advertiser of South Carolina also exhorted their readers to switch from the planting of tobacco to desperately needed foodstuffs.

A Kentucky tobacco field (between ca. 1900 and ca. 1920; LOC: LC-USZ62-17484)

after the shooting (on American soil) – Kentucky tobacco in the 1910’s

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“Sedition made Easy”

Posted on March 14, 2013 by SUMPTER
George H. Pendleton, Representative from Ohio, Thirty-fifth Congress, half-length portrait (by Julian Vannerson, 1859; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-26732)

‘Gentleman George’ Pendleton harangues against despotic Government

This attack on traitorous Copperheads has a good summary of the Constitutional justification for the three laws passed by the 37th Congress that gave a great deal of power to the Executive branch.

From The New-York Times March 11, 1863:

The Copperheaded Complaint of “Tyranny.”

VALLANDIGHAM told the New-York Copperheads, in his recent speech, that “nothing was wanting to make this Government a complete and absolute despotism, as iron and inexorable in its character as the worst despotisms of the Old World, or the worst of modern times, even to BOMBA of Naples.” His colleague, PENDLETON, in his harangue before the same set of rebel sympathizers, on Monday evening, substantially reiterated the assertion.

Ferdinando_II_delle_Due_Sicilie

King Bomb – Vallandigham compared him to Lincoln administration

Of course — of course. This precious pair have got the cue precisely. They are well up to the true method of Sedition made Easy. The first business always is to affect a dreadful concern for the liberties of the country. CATALINE understood it; and so did his secret friends CLODIUS and CAESAR. It shocked them all beyond measure that the Senate should cloth CICERO with extraordinary powers; in the name of Freedom and the Constitution, they denounced it, even though at that very time the plot had been laid to kill the Senators and burn the city. The Tories of our Revolution understood it. They poured out their objurgations upon the Continental Congress for voting extraordinary powers to WASHINGTON in the crisis of the struggle, and did it in no other name than that of outraged and down-trodden Liberty. Our people, within their own memory, saw this same thing in the Jacobinical rebellion against the last French Republic. The club-leaders had covered half of Paris with their barricades; blood had already begun to flow; it was announced to the National Assembly that “in an hour, perhaps, the Hotel de Ville will be taken.” And yet even in that terrible juncture, when anarchy and ravage were at the very doors, the proposition to confer full powers upon Gen. CAVAIGNAC and to declare Paris in a state of siege, was inveighed against by the Reds as endangering the public liberty! It is so everywhere and always. Extraordinary powers, in terrible emergencies, have saved free States again and again; but never without an outcry from public enemies against the tyranny of it, and an effort to make it tell in their own favor. The very men, on such occasions, who are either actively engaged in or in secret sympathy with the attempts to destroy the public liberties, are invariably the very men who are the loudest in their maledictions upon extraordinary powers, and in their apostrophes to Constitutional Liberty.

Illustrated Civil War "Union Envelopes": portrait of John Cabell Breckinridge labelled "Traitor (between 1861 and 1865; LOC: LC-USZ62-53598)

“blackest treason was brooding on his heart”

What does this man VALLANDIGHAM care about constitutional liberty? He cares precisely the same as his friend JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE did, when, on the 16th day of July, 1861 — three months after the taking of Sumter by the rebels — he stood up in his seat in the Senate and declaimed by the hour against the resolutions approving of the acts of the President in calling out the troops and declaring the blockade. “We are rushing,” said BRECKINRIDGE, “and with rapid strides, from a constitutional Government into a military despotism. The civil authorities are paralyzed, and practical martial law is being established all over the land. The like never happened in this country before, and it would not be tolerated in any country in Europe which pretends to the elements of civilization and liberty.” This is VALLANDIGHAM’s sentiment exactly. The same BRECKINRIDGE, who was filled with such virtuous indignation over the outraged Constitution, was soon at the head of a rebel brigade, under the flag of JEFF. DAVIS, battling for the destruction of the Republic. At the very time he was ranting about the sacred guarantees of the Constitution, he was meditating how best to shipwreck that Constitution. The blackest treason was brooding on his heart. That, and that only, was his inspiration. VALLANDIGHAM’s prompting is identical with it. He mouthed indignation before the Club with just the same sincerity that BRECKINRIDGE did before the Senate. They are precisely the same champions of the Constitution as Judas, who bore the bag, was a champion of the poor — precisely the same disciples of the Constitution as Judas was a disciple of the Master, whom he betrayed with a kiss.

J.C. Breckinridge C.S.A. (between 1860 and 1870; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-04791)

General Breckinridge has gone to his own place

Judas, we are told, went to his own place. BRECKINRIDGE has gone to his. Let VALLANDIGHAM go to his, and his whole reprobate pack after him. They belong to the Confederacy. Their souls are there; so should be their bodies. Double-dyed traitors like them, they have no business on loyal ground. The Constitution wants none of their vindication. It gives the lie to the grievances trumped up in its behalf. The extraordinary powers conferred upon the Government, instead of being an encroachment upon it, were expressly authorized by it. It has invested Congress with an unrestricted power “to raise armies,” and “to provide for the calling forth of the militia to execute the laws of the Union, and suppress insurrections.” Congress has done this in the Conscription bill. It has authorized Congress “to coin money and regulate the value thereof.” Congress has done this in the Currency bill. It has authorized the suspension of habeas corpus, “when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.” Doubts have existed whether the President constitutionally has this power without the vote of the legislative branch; but this has ceased to be a practical question, since Congress, by formal regular vote, has sanctioned the President’s exercise of the power. No unconstitutional powers of any sort have been granted. Every means which have been ac[c]orded to the President, to enable him to fulfill his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” have been taken strictly from the domain of the Constitution. The Constitution has not been violated nor dishonored, except by rebels and their symphathizers. If its practical working has been in any respect changed, it has been for its own preservation, and in accordance with its own provisions for just such emergencies. No man has experienced oppression from this. Even in the cases of the so-called “arbitrary arrests,” about which there has been so much clamor, the way was always open, except where overt treason had been committed, to recover on the spot every civil privilege. It was simply necessary to take the oath of allegiance, which no really loyal man ever accounts a hardship. However bad their conduct, if it did not amount to absolute treason, this was sufficient. They who refused thus to purge and pledge themselves, though they aspired to be martyrs, had not the slightest reason for complaint. It is an insufferable outrage upon the intelligence and the loyalty of this community for a man to stand up here and pronounce the present Administration of our Government to be worse than the tyranny of BOMBA. The very fact that the Government can with impunity be so traduced stamps its author as a miscreant.

Like President Lincoln, Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies (lived 1810-1859) was apparently prepared to do whatever it took to keep his country united. However, from the perspective of 150 years, it seems the Times was justified in its condemnation of Vallandigham’s comparison. After the North beat the South, Lincoln wanted to hear the sweet strains of Dixie; when the island of Sicily declared its independence in 1848:

the King assembled an army of 20,000 under the command of General Carlo Filangieri and dispatched it to Sicily to subdue the Liberals and restore his authority. A naval flotilla sent to Sicilian waters shelled the city of Messina with “savage barbarity” for eight hours after its defenders had already surrendered, killing many civilians and earning the King the nickname “Re` Bomba” (“King Bomb”).

I don’t know if the king was actually with the flotilla when it bombed Messina.

An early Made Easy book was 1910’s Calculus Made Easy. It is still available.

Gustave_Doré_-_The_Holy_Bible_-_Plate_CXLI,_The_Judas_Kiss, by Gustave Doré

wrote the book for traitors

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Shrieks and Moans in Richmond

Posted on March 13, 2013 by SUMPTER

150 years ago today an explosion killed at least forty workers, mostly women, at the Confederate Ordnance Laboratory on Brown’s Island, Richmond. It is pointed out [1] that this event shows the wartime need for female industrial workers since so many men were serving in the military. The following article points out that most of the deceased were the primary breadwinners for their families.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 14, 1863:

Gunpowder explosion and loss of life.

–Between 11 and 12 o’clock yesterday, a dull and heavy explosion was heard in the direction of the Confederate Laboratory Works on 7th street. On proceeding to the as several thousand persons did from fear of some appalling accident, the disaster was found to have occurred on Brown’s Island, on which is located a large number of long and short low wooden houses used for the preparation and manufacture of ammunition for small arms.–The Island is occupied in the day time by between three and four hundred operatives, nearly all girl or women. The explosion was found to have occurred in the room used for breaking up condemned cartridges. About fifty feet of the building was destroyed. The exact manner in which the explosion occurred is not known. Owing to the small quantity of powder in the room the house, which was about twenty feet wide, was not blown to pieces, but, from the accumulation of gas from the exploding powder the walls were forced outward and the roof fell in, crushing under its weight the sixty or seventy tomatoes[?] who were at work therein. The door connecting the pistol cartridge room with the room destroyed was blown away. Directly the explosion was heard a scene of the direct confusion amend [?] on the Island. Some of the killed, is their fright, ran from the adjacent buildings and plunged into the river. The screams of those under the debts of the fallen house, summoned speedy assistance. To add to the horror of the some the wreck fire, but luckily the flames were soon subdued to twenty-eight girls were rescued but badly injured; while life was already extinct with six. Probably ten of the wounded may die. Among these hurt we regret to say, was Rev. John Woodcoot, who had change of a portion of the works on the Island. His life was despaired of, and it was answered last night that he had died. The following badly burned, were taken to General Hospital No. 2, on 7th street viz: George Chappell, Mills Burnett Mary Jenningham, Julia Brannor, Sara[h] Henry, Peter Perkins and Alonzo Owens, boys. The other wounded were conveyed away by their friends. Owing to the preparations made for such emergencies, the persons in charge of the work were enabled to supply the wounded speedily with oil, cotton, and flour, to assuage their misery. We purposely omit any description of the scene likely to add additional food for horrid imaginings. The reality in this case was bad enough. The shrieks of the wounded and plaintive moans of the dying, together with the agonized looks of those who had relatives on the island, rendered it a scene not likely to be forgotten.

Up to nine o’clock last night three of these-carried to General Hospital No. 2 had died.

Yesterday afternoon a benevolent gentleman started a subscription list for the relief of the sufferers by this dreadful accident. The list realized $126 in a few hours. It is to be hoped that to-day a handsome sum may be realized. The girls killed and wounded were in nearly every case the supporters of mothers, and sometimes of whole families, by their work, and great suffering will be caused by the cessation of this revenue to families who even with it could barely live. Any sum with which the charitable may wish to relieve some of the suffering caused by this calamity may be left with Mr. W. W. Snead, on 10th between Main and Cary streets, by whom it will be properly applied. Since writing the above a gentleman for his benevolence has left $50 at this office for the purpose mentioned. It will be handed to Mr. Snead. Let the example be followed.

It will be seen that the Mayor has called on the Young Men’s Christian Association to solicit contributions for the sufferers.

Another good account was published in the Richmond Examiner, which you can read at Civil War Richmond. The authorities quickly took control of the bridge going to the island to keep frantic family members and the press off and to let the rescuers do their work.

At 11 AM today a historic marker will be dedicated in Richmond. It will be near the bridge to the island.

  1. [1]Fredriksen, John C. Civil War Almanac. New York: Checkmark Books, 2008. Print. page 268.↩
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can’t carry a tune

Posted on March 12, 2013 by SUMPTER
Original published by Miller & Beacham in Baltimore in 1861

banned in Baltimore

Like a song I can’t get out of my head, I just can’t seem to let go this statement about March 7, 1863:

Federal troops in Baltimore, Maryland, confiscate all song sheets that are deemed “secession music.”[1]

I have not seen much amplification anywhere, although the fact is propagated throughout the Civil War internet. Here’s an example that gives the credit to Robert Cumming Schenck, who was in command of the Union army’s VIII Corps at the time:

Gen. Robert Schenk issues orders that prohibit the sale of secession-oriented sheet music in his department, headquartered in Baltimore.

Portrait of Maj. Gen. Robert C. Schenck, officer of the Federal Army (Between 1860 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-04879)

sang Lincoln’s praises; conducted operations in Baltimore for a time

According to the Wikipedia link the Ohioan political general was an early supporter of Abraham Lincoln for president:

… in September 1859, Schenck delivered a speech in Dayton regarding the growing animosity within the country. In this speech, Schenck recommended that the Republican Party nominate Abraham Lincoln for the presidency.

This was, perhaps, the first public endorsement of Lincoln for the presidency. He supported Lincoln with great ardor at the Chicago Convention in 1860 and in the campaign that followed.

After being permanently injured in the right arm at Second Bull Run:

He was unfit for field duty for six months, but was assigned to the command of VIII Corps, embracing the turbulent citizens of Maryland, repressing all turbulence and acts of disloyalty or any complicity with treason. General Schenck was not popular with the disloyal portion of the inhabitants of Maryland. In December 1863, he resigned his commission to take his seat in Congress.

I guess it is not surprising that General Schenck would find songs like Maryland, My Maryland offensive. The song is said to be referring to an unnamed Lincoln as a tyrant and despot.

  1. [1]Fredriksen, John C. Civil War Almanac. New York: Checkmark Books, 2008. Print. page 268.↩
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fishy

Posted on March 11, 2013 by admin

I guess this “spring ahead” stuff has the old man’s system all fouled up. Sumpter quiescent?

Tarpon caught by Sir Bache Cunard - St. James on Gulf, Florida (by Joseph John Kirkbride, 1889; LOC: tanding beside 7-foot tarpon. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-66562)

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Webster was wrong

Posted on March 9, 2013 by SUMPTER
Daniel Webster (c1831 July 28; LOC: LC-USZ62-8609)

wrong

Contrary to Daniel Webster’s assertion, Liberty does not require Union, according to this Southern editorial. Also, it’s too bad the Lincoln administration is pursuing this war because in time there could have been an alliance between two strong, liberty-loving nations. On the other hand, one positive of the war is that it has increased the military might and reputation of the two sections.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 9, 1863:

The European Republicans.

The almost universal sympathy of European Republicans with the United States is because they confound Liberty with Union, and consider them “one and inseparable.” The European despots revel in the scenes now occurring in America, because they labor under the same delusion. Liberty existed on this continent long before Union, and in England — from which we derived all our principles of free government — it had been the steady growth of centuries. Liberty survived the separation of England and America, and waxed stronger in both countries from that hour. Why should its influence be impaired because of the dissolution of a mere co-partnership between independent States in this hemisphere? If the Republicans of Europe took a more intelligent view of American affairs they would perceive that every principle of free Government is involved in the success of the Southern cause and the final over throw of that Union which has destroyed every vestige of liberty in its own section, and which, in the event of its triumph over the Southern Confederacy, would itself discard the very name of Union, and, transformed into a confessed military despotism, rule the South as Russia rules Poland, and AustriaHungary.

Abraham Lincoln, three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing right; hair parted on Lincoln's right side (by Anthony Berger; 1864 Feb. 9, printed later; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-19190)

wrong (but really building up American military power and prestige)

Even the moral and physical weight which the Union exerted on behalf of Republicanism abroad would not have been permanently impaired if the besotted Government of Lincoln had consented to a peaceful dissolution. The two sections would then have parted friends, and perhaps formed an offensive and defensive alliance, both advancing with unchecked progress in trade and power. In progress of time there would have been two mighty Republics, whose influence and arms would have been as united and efficacious on the side of constitutional liberty as if they had remained under one Union. It is not the dissolution of Union, but the war waged by Lincoln, which has almost irreparably damaged the prestige of free institutions abroad, and seriously impaired the resources of both countries. But even the war, if the despotism at Washington would now terminate it, would increase respect at least for the military power of America abroad; and in view of the prodigious martial resources it has developed, would make the two separate Confederacies more feared in the Old World than they were under a united Government. The world did not know, we did not ourselves know, nor would we have discovered for a long time, the military capacity of the American States but for this war. Every one remembers how, as late as the Administration of Lincoln’s predecessor, British gunboats chased, stopped, and boarded American merchantmen off our own coast, with perfect impunity. It was in vain that the public press invoked Buchanan to send out a few vessels and inflict summary punishment upon the offenders. He could not be kicked or pummeled into anything more than a gentle remonstrance. Would England, with the knowledge disclosed by the present war, have ever ventured upon such indignities, or an American President, who had formed the fainest conception of the strength of his country, have failed to obtain reparation? The profound anxiety of England to avoid a collision even with the mere ramp of the United States is a suggestive contrast to the gunboat bullying of four years ago.

But of what avail to Republican ideas in Europe will be the military greatness of the United States if the South is subjugated and enslaved? A great military despotism, sympathizing with military despotisms everywhere, and having no affinities or interests in common with human freedom in any clime, will be the inevitable result of the triumph of the North. There would then be left upon the earth but one powerful free Government, that of Great Britain, for ages the ark of liberty; but how long that would last, standing alone amid a world of despotisms, no one can predict. On the contrary, let the Confederacy triumph, and even the North may be saved from itself, and the cause of constitutional liberty throughout the world receive new strength and vigor.

Daniel Webster’s January 1830 Second Reply to Hayne on the floor of the United states senate was an attack on Southern nullification, which could eventually lead to bloody civil feuds:

… When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on states dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as “What is all this worth?” nor those other words of delusion and folly, “Liberty first and Union afterwards”; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart-Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!

Civil War envelope showing 34-star American flag (between 1861 and 1863; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-31962)

wrong (by about 13 stars)

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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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