“a dream of maniacs”

Posted on April 1, 2015 by SUMPTER
April 1, 1865

April 1, 1865

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 1, 1865:

Saturday Morning…april 1, 1865.

The occasional execution of a Confederate officer (alleged to be a spy) in the Northern cities affords the masses at home an opportunity of seeing the death-struggles of a rebel, which could in no other way be gratified. It is not enough to read in the newspapers of killing the scoundrels, “way down South,” but, by this new process, every man at home can have the banquet served up at his own table, and feast his own delicate senses upon the luxury. A nice young man, son of one of the “F. F. V.’s,” if possible, in the morning of his existence, with a calm, determined face and a refined intellectual cast of features (as some of the newspapers describe it), hung up like a dog upon some trumpery charge, is a tit-bit for the million which each man can roll, like a sweet morsel, under his tongue. General Dix, who is entitled to the chief credit of bringing home to all classes of Northern society this cheap and popular luxury, must be considered a public benefactor. He may have borrowed the idea from the Roman Emperors, who used to entertain the Roman populace with the spectacle of captive enemies brought from distant climes, and put to death before the eyes of the assembled multitudes. But the Romans were barbarous, and compelled the miserable prisoners to fight each other, or to fight wild beasts, and to perish sword in hand, whereas General Dix works them off in the scientific and humane method of Newgate, and gives the public a fine political and moral lesson, calculated to invigorate their patriotism and refine their hearts.

General Dix, who now occupies a position in the administration of Federal justice like that of Mr. Dennis, in Barnaby Rudge,–that is to say, chief hangman of that Government, –gave no promise in his former life of the peculiar eminence which he has now attained. …

In reading the record of such crimes against God and humanity as the enemy have perpetrated in this war, one is tempted to wonder that the thunders of Divine justice do not descend at once from the Heavens and crush the guilty perpetrators in the very commission of their wickedness. We do not complain of the “horrors of war,” as war is conducted by civilized nations, under the recognized principle that each belligerent is to fight in his country’s cause with all his strength, but that any annoyance, suffering and slaughter by which no ultimate advantage can be gained is a useless piece of barbarity.–But we appeal to the civilized world, we humbly appeal to that Great Tribunal at which all men must one day appear and render an account of the deeds done in the body, that the deliberate system of robbery, rapine, murder, starvation and burning, now carried on against this people, is not war, but a gigantic crime against humanity and against God.

Our readers will recollect the scene in Columbia, where four thousand people were turned out of doors amidst roaring flames, and the communion vessels of a church were plundered and used in their orgies by drunken soldiers, blaspheming, as they drank, the name of Jesus Christ; and the later scene, in Winnsboro’, where, as the church was burning, they sang blasphemous songs to the organ amid the sea of fire. Men wonder, when they read such accounts, that Heaven itself does not interpose, and, by some signal interposition of its vengeance, mark its sense of the crime. But that is not God’s ordinary mode of dealing with man. …

But as nations have no hereafter, and must hence be punished here for their wickedness; and as the North, in the re-election of Mr. Lincoln, has deliberately sanctioned his mode of conducting this war, those of its people who have any belief in a God cannot look to the future of their country without some dismal forebodings. …

We know how, in their impenetrable armor of self-complacency and atheism, they scoff at such a prediction. But what is now a prediction will as surely be come history as the sun rises to- morrow. There is, there must be, a just Governor of the Universe. Before Him we lay our cause. It may be His will that we perish by murderous hands, and if it be, we bow with reverence and adoration. But from our desolate homes, our churches defiled, and our bloody graves, there goes up which Heaven will hear and will not disregard.

Some of our contemporaries publish a statement that General Sherman, in conversation with a lady in Fayetteville, said that if the results of his late visitation of the South did not restore its people to loyalty, he should, on his next invasion, burn every house to the ground, and if that did not work a cure he would put all the inhabitants to death, without regard to age or sex.

If anything were necessary to render his next visitation a rather more difficult one than the last, this timely announcement has secured that result. He never could have advanced far into Georgia if the inhabitants had laid waste the country before him as he traveled. …

It really seems as if the mode of conducting this war had been shaped for no other purpose than to render a restoration of the old Union impossible. Suppose that a policy had been adopted of conducting the war according to the usages of civilized people; that the Federal armies had contented themselves with fighting Confederate armies, and taking every military advantage for putting down “the rebellion,” but at the same time had respected private property; had neither burned dwelling-houses nor mills; had interfered in no way with any peaceful non-combatant; had permitted no outrages to men nor insults to women, but had relied solely upon their superior military strength, and the skill of their generals, and the valor of their troops, to end the war! We do not say this would have satisfied the malignity of the people; but if the object of the war was the restoration of the Union, would not this have been the most efficient means? Is it not obvious either that the war was intended for no such purpose, or that whatever was intended, the mode of conducting it could have no other effect than to render such an event impossible? After what has occurred for four long years, the future unity of America is a dream of maniacs. Subjugated we may be, or even exterminated, but the worshippers of the Old Union have shivered into irreparable fragments the object of their idolatry. …

The executed Confederate officer was Robert Cobb Kennedy, “the only person captured and convicted in the 1864 Confederate plot to burn down New York City”. In a HistoryNet report General Dix said at the trial of Captain Kennedy:

The attempt to set fire to the city of New York is one of the great atrocities of the age. There is nothing in the annals of barbarism which evinces greater vindictiveness. It was not a mere attempt to destroy the city, but to set fire to crowded hotels and places of public resort, in order to secure the greatest possible destruction of human life.

I am beating a dead horse, but I do want to mention that one of the Dispatch constants over the past four years has been the Runaways section. 150 years ago today was no different:

Runaways.

Ran Away, on Thursday, March22, a negro boy, named Colin. He is about twelve or thirteen years of age; about four feetten inches high; dark brown color, and has a small scar under the left jaw, caused by scrofula. A reward will be paid to any one the may arrest and deliver him to me, or put him in jail, so that he can be recovered.

George W. Gary,

No. 21 Pearl (or Fourteenth) street.

Ran Away from the subscriber, on the 13th of February, a Negro man, named Robert. Said negro is about forty years of age, and a dark mulatto. Had on, when he left, a brown slouch hat and a brown army overcoat; and is believed to have gone to his home, in Goochland, at Mrs. John Allan’s. I will give one hundred dollars Reward if returned to me, beyond Battery No. 8, or put in jail so that I can get him.

Thomas Bruton.

Henrico county, March25, 1865.

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cold(-hearted) draft

Posted on March 31, 2015 by SUMPTER

Three clippings from Seneca County, New York newspapers in March 1865:

The Terrors of the Draft.

The hardships of the draft are being seriously felt in many parts of the State. – Families are broken up and in many cases left dependent upon the cold charities of the world, while the drafted man is hurried to the front, to engage in war which from his inmost souls he abhors. No drafted man, it is safe to say, will serve his year in the army, if he is able to procure a substitute or has friends enough to procure one for him. It is idle, therefore, to talk about the duty and the patriotism and glory of a conscript’s life. People don’t see it. The draft falls with crushing weight upon all. The most of those drawn are unable to buy out and unable to leave enough to support their families in their absence. Is it not right and proper that those on whom this lot does not fall should contribute to lighten the burden of those on whom it does fall? Do we live for ourselves alone, or do we owe something to our neighbors?

DRAFTED MEN. – It is now understood that drafted men cannot enlist as volunteers. Provost Marshal Fry says so.

MORE DESERTERS. – We learn that twenty-three more soldiers deserted from the barracks at Auburn on Tuesday night. – Only $23,000 is required to make up the deficiency!

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“There has been great privation here — we need not deny it”

Posted on March 31, 2015 by SUMPTER

A fellow Richmond editor has died. The Dispatch has evidence from occupied Charleston to contradict President Lincoln’s second inaugural address: victorious Yankees would really act with malice toward all white Southerners. The paper also found evidence from General Sheridan’s recent raid that Virginia farmers were lying when they said they had no victuals for the army or the poor city dwellers.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 31 1865:

Friday morning…March 31, 1865.
Death of John M. Daniel.

We regret to learn that John M. Daniel, Esq., the widely-renowned editor of the Richmond Examiner, expired at his residence, in this city, at ten o’clock yesterday morning. His illness has been long and tedious, the complaint being typhoid pneumonia. His loss, at this particular time especially, may be regarded as a public calamity.

Mr. Daniel was a man of uncommonly fine genius, which appeared in everything he ever wrote from the first day he appeared before the public in print. …

Mr. Daniel, we should have mentioned, served on the staff of Governor Floyd in his Western campaign, and afterwards as volunteer aid to General A. P. Hill at the battle of Gaines’s mill, on which last occasion he was wounded.

The object of the Yankees in waging the kind of war they are now engaged in carrying on against us, could not be mistaken … [complete subjugation because of hatred and with malice]

Such being the treatment our people receive while we have large armies still in the field, what are we to expect when resistance shall have ceased altogether? The Yankees themselves tell us a part of what we are to look for, but they do not tell us all. We must look for it in their acts. In Charleston, they have not only set the negroes free, but, as far as they have been able, have compelled the whites to associate with them. They do this because they know that the whites consider such association as degrading to them; and they are determined to make them drink the cup to the dregs. There are probably among us Southern people who are tired of the war, and who hope that, by submission, they may obtain a little mercy at the hands of their masters. Never were people more woefully deceived. The Yankee will have no mercy upon them. He is only for bearing when he finds his proposed victim in a condition and disposition to resist. Let him but once be at his mercy — completely in his power — incapable of farther resistance — and he might as well hope for mercy from a tiger, or compassion from a wolf, or forbearance from any other cruel and cowardly wild beast of the forest. The Yankee will not only strip his victim of everything he has in the world, down to the very clothes upon his back, but he will take every other means to make him feel his situation. Is it not better to continue to resist even unto death than to accept such a peace as this?

There is a material tendency in the human mind to superstition. …

We may as well premise a precise statement of the facts which have wrought this change of sentiment by reference to the impossibility which has, till lately, existed of providing an adequate supply of provisions for the army and the people. There has been great privation here — we need not deny it,–and even the noble army of General Lee–that army which has so long stood as a wall of fire between our homes and the enemy — was in danger of suffering. In these straits, earnest appeals were made, from time to time, for gifts of provisions to support the army and to keep the poor from starvation. A good many farmers in the interior responded nobly to these calls, and a good many more were equally ready to respond, but had barely sufficient to support their own families. No one could doubt the correctness of the assertion, for, in some cases, when they were asked to sell, they declared that they had nothing; and even Confederate money could not create provisions. The poor would have to starve and the soldiers to suffer.–Their hearts ached to think of it; but they had nothing, and must look in helpless anguish upon the dismal scene. Well, thus much premised, we come to the supernatural part of the subject.

A party of Yankee spiritualists, under the direction of that famous wizard, Sheridan, left the mountains of Virginia a few weeks ago, and, in the course of their travels, exhibited a series of wonders never surpassed in the days of witchcraft. They made a few raps with their electrical knuckles at the farm-houses they visited, where previously there was nothing that could, by possibility, be given away or sold, and potatoes, bags of meal, barrels of flour, and endless hams of bacon, came to the light of day. This was no mere illusion of the senses, but a solid and savory reality, which would have gladdened the souls of many a hungry citizen of Richmond and many a worn out soldier in the trenches. Sheridan boasts, in his account of these miraculous transactions, that he caused provisions enough to appear in this way to “feed Lee’s army for the three months.” It is ridiculous to suppose that these provisions existed before his arrival, and had been ingeniously concealed from public observation. There was no motive for any such deception, and it is repugnant to the patriotism of those who were subject to these manipulations; who were, no doubt, as much astonished as anybody at the apparition of objects whose existence they were in profound ignorance of till the tappings and rappings of Sheridan’s spiritualists compelled their manifestation.

We can only regret that our own commissaries and other agents for obtaining provisions do not possess this supernatural power. It is to be hoped that General Lee will establish a school of spiritualism in the army, and have its disciples thoroughly trained in the mysteries of that productive art. We feel perfectly satisfied that there are a good many districts yet in the country, where there is now, positively, nothing that could be made to yield abundance of food for man and beast, if we only knew how to do it.

…

Our “Northern brethren” of the Puritan persuasion are happily endowed with the felicitous quality of always looking at the bright side of their own character and actions. …

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“Happily, events are now approaching a crisis”

Posted on March 30, 2015 by SUMPTER

If the North wins the war, subjugates the South, and replaces the utopian slave labor system, the country will become “a howling wilderness.” Despite a reported prediction by General Grant, there is no evidence that Richmond is about to be evacuated.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 30, 1865:

Thursday morning…March 30, 1865.

It must be acknowledged that a territory like the South is worth fighting for. …

What country on the face of the earth, cultivated by free labor, can produce such a record? But the North was, after all, the chief gainer. The immense surplus of the South went into her hands, in exchange for Northern notions. The South paid the great bulk of the revenue, and, by her agricultural industry, built up the commerce and manufactures of the United States. It remains to be seen whether the cultivation of the Southern soil by the sword instead of the plough share will improve Northern prosperity. …

Several interesting points are suggested by the facts above. Such an extent of territory–eight hundred and fifty thousand square miles — a vast land of mountain and forest as well as fertile plain, and defended by a million of brave men, can never be subjugated except by the consent of its own people. Its huge dimensions may render it impossible to defend every point, but they render it equally impossible for an enemy to occupy every point with a force sufficient to keep the country in subjection. If we fall, it must be by our own mismanagement, discord and imbecility. Such a land is worth many battles and many sacrifices; not alone for its material wealth, not for the system of slave labor which has produced that wealth, but for the people — the generous, noble people — by whom it is inhabited. It is our land, the land where we were born, the land of our father’s graves. We do not believe, if it is determined to be free, that it can ever be enslaved. But if the will of God be otherwise, we shall have the grim consolation of seeing our oppressors overwhelmed in the common ruin. With the downfall of slave labor, comes the downfall of their own commerce and manufactures as surely as darkness follows the setting of the sun. If it be not our land, it will be a howling wilderness.

We cannot but admire the inextinguishable hopefulness and intrepidity of the Confederates abroad. …

One of the Senators of the United States informs his people that General Grant expects the evacuation of Richmond in ten days. It is almost that period since the announcement was made. But we see no sign at present of the fulfillment of the prediction. The evacuation of Richmond has been promised by the Federal doctors a good many times, but the patient seems incorrigible. It is the most obstinate case of costiveness recorded in the books, and might defy even Brandeth’s pills.

It is astonishing that a sagacious people can be so often and so long deceived; but “hope springs immortal in the human breast.” From Seward’s “ninety days” they have been led by the nose for four years, always believing that the end of the rebellion was close at hand.–Constantly deceived by the mirage, they as constantly believe that it is reality; and though the deception costs them rivers of blood and seas of treasure, they persevere with as invincible faith as if they had never been imposed upon. Happily, events are now approaching a crisis, when, if they are again disappointed, the most credulous and hopeful will lose faith and patience. They are so certain now of our destruction, that failure to take Richmond before the 4th of July next will demoralize the whole nation.

And shall they not be disappointed? One more mighty effort of self-defence, and, with the blessing of Heaven, our independence is secured. Let us feed the armies now in the field, let us gain time to make available that new military element so long called for by General Lee, and we shall stand prepared to defy any strength that the United States can hereafter put forth for our subjugation. …

To prevent the escape of Negroes.

The Georgia Legislature, at the late session, passed an act authorizing the Governor to establish a line of mounted pickets, of such number and at such points, as he may deem sufficient for the purpose of preventing the escape of slaves to the enemy at Savannah; and to organize the men into a battalion of cavalry, to be composed of such as will mount and arm themselves.

From the same issue:

Concert for the benefit of the orphans.

–A concert will be given at St. James’s Church to-night, at 8 o’clock, by a number of the most prominent of our musical amateurs, for the benefit of the orphans of the Female Humane Asylum.

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A Virginian, (un)naturally

Posted on March 28, 2015 by SUMPTER
Anaconda 1861 (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/99447020/; Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division)

squeeze play: Anaconda 1861 (Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division)

If the North wins the war, the credit/blame goes to General Winfield Scott, a native of Virginia and traitor to his state. The Union generals (and admirals) are tools carrying out General Scott’s war plans.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 25, 1865:

Saturday morning…March 25, 1865.

The plan upon which the war is now carried on by the Federal Government is, undoubtedly, that originally recommended by General Scott, which was the occupation of the Mississippi Valley and the bisection of the remaining portion of the Confederacy through Tennessee and Georgia. We have not before us the letter of General Scott to Lincoln, in which he laid down his plans in detail, but, as far as we can recollect, they correspond substantially with the recent movements of the Federal troops, especially those under General Sherman. The impatience and hot haste of the Federal Government rejected the counsels of General Scott at the beginning, but experience compelled them to adopt, in the end, the programme of Scott, who, they have discovered, is, after all, their greatest general. Vain as a peacock, and an incredible egotist, he has, nevertheless, the most military head in the United States on his tall shoulders.–But though his plan be ever so good, subjugation is by no means certain, for there must be a hand to execute as well as a head to design; and, even with both, the spirit of the country must be subdued before, in such a territory as ours, subjugation is possible.

Statue of Lieutenant General Winfield Scott at Scott Circle, Massachusetts Ave. at 16th Street NW, Washington DC. Statue by Henry Kirke Brown, 1874

Great Scott!

To General Scott, a son of Virginia, belongs the unenviable glory of every efficient movement which the Federal armies have made for the conquest of his native country. Grant, Sherman & Co., who are the prominent actors in the scene, are but the tools with which the designs of the old chieftain are carried out. They are getting great names, but are no more entitled to the honor, if they accomplish their work, than masons and carpenters to the credit of some grand architectural conception which their hands have simply embodied in stone and wood. We recognize in Wingfield Scott, of Virginia, the military master spirit of the Federal War, and are willing he shall enjoy all the satisfaction he can derive from that admission.

We wonder how the old man, now tottering on the confines of the grave, feels as he thinks of the part he has played in this terrible tragedy. We know that he advised Mr. Lincoln, before giving him his plan for the prosecution of the war, to say to the Seceding States, “Wayward sisters, depart in peace”; and, yet, knowing that this was the course which wisdom and humanity alike dictated, he lent his powerful aid to a course opposed to his own sense of policy and of the true interests of the country, and shaped out the way and manner of striking down to the dust the land that had given him birth, that had nourished and cherished him, and delighted to heap honors upon his head.–It must be a dismal sight, even to his eyes, to see the mother that bore him bleeding at every pore from wounds which his hand has inflicted — to behold such a people as he knows the people of the South to be, trampled into the earth by the hoofs of his hirelings. But she will survive him and his schemes for her destruction. She will come out of this contest with no stain upon her ancestral glories, and will try to forget that she ever bore such a son as Wingfield Scott.

civil war map 1917 (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/2009578549/)

off the chalkboard (Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division)

The photo of the Scott statue is licensed by Creative Commons
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“the whole country is ignorant of the impending calamity”

Posted on March 27, 2015 by SUMPTER

Another plucky Monday morning editorial from the Richmond Daily Dispatch on March 27, 1865:

Monday morning…March 27, 1865.

Portrait of Secretary of State William H. Seward, officer of the United States government (Between 1860 and 1865; LOC - LC-DIG-cwpb-04948)

his words are weapons

Our sincere condolences are respectfully proffered to Sir Frederick Bruce, the new British Minister to Washington. His predecessor, Lord Lyons, has been literally talked to death by W. H. Seward, in the interminable diplomatic correspondence of the last four years.– …

We are unable to see why the “moral effect” of the fall of Charleston should be greater now than in the first Revolution. …

As to the blockade, we shall, no doubt, suffer considerable inconvenience; but if the Circassian, numbering only three millions of people, could resist Russia, in spite of her blockading fleets, for seventy years, we can hardly be expected to succumb from such a cause during the lifetime of the present generation …

Mr. Lincoln professes, in a late speech, to hail with great delight the employment of negro troops by the Confederacy as the last card of desperation and exhausted resources. What does he think of the employment of them by himself years ago? What was that an indication of? What does the intense eagerness manifested at this moment to enlist negroes in the Federal service mean? –To our minds, it means that the white population of the North will not bear any farther draft for this war, and that the North is practically, for fighting purposes, as much exhausted as the South.

Joseph Eggleston Johnston, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left (by frederickDielman, c.1896; LOC: LC-USZ62-91813)

if only he hadn’t backed up to Atlanta last year

There is every inducement for the Confederate people to show a firm countenance, and a determination to hold out, at least during this campaign. In the first place, the Yankees are themselves as tired of the war as we are. But for the unfortunate withdrawal of Johnston last summer, and the consequent defeat of Hood, which led to the invasion of Tennessee and the dispersion of his army, and the invasion of Georgia by Sherman; but for that one error, the cry for peace at the North would have been stronger than it ever has been here. Indeed, it had already commenced, under the influence of Lee’s victories over Grant, and the unparalleled slaughter by which they were attended, when that unfortunate affair occurred, and changed at once the whole current of the Yankee mind.–Intent upon peace on any terms a moment ago, it changed with success, and now nothing less than subjugation would do. That was because subjugation was now believed to be easy. The war is thought there to be almost at an end. They are told so by their newspapers every day, who, at the same time, fail not to represent our affairs in a condition which it requires but little effort, on their part, to render desperate. Let them be convinced that it is not so, and we shall soon see the Yankee mind veer around to peace once more. Mr. Pollard says that the greatest apprehension expressed by them was that we would persevere. That was the fear of everybody, and expressed in all companies. It was so dreadful because it implied a continuance of war, and they are sick of it to death.

Another reason why we should continue the war is, that a year cannot pass without a collision between France and Yankeedom. …

But the most powerful motive of all is to be found in the terms which the enemy offer us. Nothing less than absolute submission will answer their terms. We must lay down our arms, disband our armies, and submit to such terms as they choose to prescribe.–What those terms will be, we are not left to conjecture. They have already passed a law abolishing slavery. They have already passed a law confiscating the entire territory covered by the Confederate States. They have already declared that the States shall, in future, be entitled to no rights greater than those possessed by the counties. They have, in a word, inaugurated for our benefit one of the most stupendous systems of centralized despotism the world ever beheld, and it is to be inaugurated with the proper accompaniments of a general confiscation and an universal spoliation. A Confederate is to own nothing that he can call his own. He is to be judged by Yankee judges and tried by Yankee juries. He is to be the slave of his own negroes and of their Yankee associates. Such a let is offered him as even Katherine or Nicholas never thought of entailing upon the Poles, and such as makes that of the Irish people blessed in the comparison. If these are not motives for fighting on, then there can be none.

Plucky, but an understanding of the dangers of the blockade and Sherman’s army. If they could just hold out for “this campaign” or for another year. Some people saw that it would be impossible for the Confederate capital to hold out at all. In a letter[1] to his girlfriend 150 years ago today Walter Taylor, Lee’s Adjutant, believed that the evacuation of Richmond was imminent and complained that the government was not preparing itself or its citizens for the “foregone conclusion.”

G.W.C. Lee, Robert E. Lee, Walter Taylor (between 1860 and 1870; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-06234)

Walter Taylor on the right with his General and George Washington Custis Lee

Edge Hill

27 March 1865

[Colonel Taylor is overjoyed that Bettie accepted his marriage proposal] I earnestly hope, my precious, that circumstances may be such as to obviate the necessity for our separation. Matters have not improved since my last letter and I can see no cause for hope now which did not exist then. I regard the contingency we have fearfully anticipated as a foregone conclusion. What annoys me is the apathy, the listlessness which appears to have possessed those who control our affairs. Instead of facing the misfortune bravely and preparing for it in anticipation, with folded hands they lament our difficulties and danger and indulge a maudlin, complaining strain, whining & losing temper and doing all manner of things, save the right ones, whilst the whole country is ignorant of the impending calamity & blindly imposes implicit confidence in the sagacity and determination or pluck of him I am here rasping in such an unbecoming manner in the plural number. [A footnote explains Colonel Taylor is complaining about President Jefferson Davis.] But truly it is enough to make a body mad to see such imbecility – there is no other word for it. Well, as I was saying, the emergency must come. I now see no steps towards moving the several departments of the gov’t; when the pressure is upon us it may become impracticable. In other words, the Sgn Genl’s office may not be removed and necessity may compel our temporary separation. Here, in my chair, I have for some time reflected upon this emergency. I have earnestly, prayerfully considered what course it is right to pursue. [Colonel Taylor wants to get married before the possible evacuation of Richmond and may any day show up and “relentlessly claiming that dearest little hand and all prepared (that means very dusty, with heavy top boots, spurs, armed to the teeth) to make you Mrs T, my own, own little w—.” Trust in God and some family matters.] I say nothing of our fight. “Twas gallantly done as far as it went. Between the battle field & the papers on my return, I was kept very busy. Heaven bless you prays yr devoted

W.

The editor explains that this was Walter Taylor’s last wartime letter.

  1. [1]Tower, R. Lockwood with John S. Belmont, eds.Lee’s Adjutant: The Wartime Letters of Colonel Walter Herron Taylor, 1862-1865. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. Print. page 237-239.↩
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wheels of fortune

Posted on March 26, 2015 by SUMPTER

150 years ago this month the Confederacy had enacted a law to enlist slaves in Southern armies and was beginning the law’s implementation. The draft in the North to implement President Lincoln’s call for 300,000 more troops was plodding along. The town of Seneca Falls was going as far as Tennessee to recruit bounty-taking volunteers so that Seneca Falls men would be left off the draft hook. At one time it was printed that the town of Waterloo had filled its quota under the December call, but it did have to “go into the wheel” – and 64 names were pulled out.

Down South white officers working with the slave soldiers were enjoined to treat them humanely and justly.

Resumption of the draft - inside the Provost Marshal's office, Sixth District - the wheel goes round (Illus. in: Harper's Weekly, 1863.; LOC: LC-USZ62-88856)

the draft wheel goes round – New York City, 1863


From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in March 1865:

The Draft.

By orders of the War Department the draft will commence in the several Congressional districts of the State, where it has not already taken place, on Wednesday next. This district is among the number in which the wheel will be set in motion. But little has been done in Cayuga and Wayne counties towards filling the quota, but our county has furnished nearly all the men required. Seneca Falls is about the only town that is at all backward in the matter. Had our Supervisor been promptly furnished with the money this would not have been the case. However, he has made arrangements to get the men in Tennessee, and there is no doubt but that he will be successful. Col. Johnson, who has just returned from Memphis, assures Mr. Burt that the men will be furnished.

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in March 1865:

The Draft Commenced.

The draft commenced in this district on Wednesday, with the towns of Sodus, Wayne county. and Owasco, Cayuga county. On Thursday Sennett and Waterloo were drawn, and to day (Friday) Varick and a Wayne county [town?] will go into the wheel. The draft for Seneca Falls will not place before next week. The following is r [sic] of the names of those drafted in Waterloo on Thursday in the order in which they were drawn:

[64 names altogether from Wm. Farnham to L.H. Ferguson]

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 25, 1865:

The recruiting of colored troops.

There has been issued from the Adjutant-General’s office an order relative to the mode in which colored troops are to be recruited in the Confederacy. We copy that portion of it showing the working of the system:

… [explaining the bureaucratic procedures to enlist the slaves and form them into companies] …

All officers who may be employed in the recruiting service, under the provisions of this act, or who may be appointed to the command of the troops raised under it, or who may hold any staff appointment in connection with them, are enjoined to a provident, considerate and humane attention to whatever concerns the health, comfort, instruction and discipline of these troops, and to the uniform observance of kindness, forbearance and indulgence in their treatment of them, and especially that they will protect them from injustice and oppression.

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puncture … patched

Posted on March 25, 2015 by SUMPTER
NY Times 3-26-1865

NY Times 3-26-1865

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in March 1865:

The Progress of the War.

On Saturday morning just before daybreak, three divisions of the enemy made a sudden and determined attack on Fort Steadman, in front of Petersburg, overpowering the garrison and capturing the fort, where they temporarily established themselves, and turned the guns upon our lines. Our troops on either flank maintained their ground. A determined attack on Fort Haskell was gallantly repulsed with considerable loss to the enemy. After several attempts to retake the hill, a charge was made by the Second Brigade, aided by the troops of the Third Division on either flank, and the rebels were driven out of the fort with a reported loss of about 2,700 prisoners, and the whole line was re-occupied, with the guns uninjured. The slaughter of the enemy at the point where they entered our lines, and in front of it, is estimated by Gen. Grant at not less than 3,000. Our own loss in killed, wounded and missing is put down at 2,080.

Gen. Lee in his report of the engagement, published elsewhere, says his loss is not heavy.

Lee's position during attack on Fort Steadman (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/99446547/)

“[Map of defenses of Petersburg, Virginia, showing the position of General Lee and his staff during the attack on Fort Stedman, March 25, 1865].” (Library of Congress)

Later dispatches from Washington say that the losses in the Ninth Corps are much larger than heretofore reported. The First Division have in hospital 160 wounded, and 30 are known to have been killed. In the Third Division Hospital there are 166 wounded, and about 32 killed. The Second Division was not engaged, but in their hospital they have 130 wounded.

We begin to see something like a connected narrative of Sherman’s march thro’ the Carolinas. That march, it would seem, was very far from being a pleasure trip, as many have supposed. Hard fighting has been the order of the day, and the enemy in many instances have achieved substantial successes over Sherman’s columns.

The enemy claim that he is entrenching, and arrested in his march with a loss of 10,000 men. But this we are inclined to think is an exaggeration, as Sherman reports his loss since leaving Savannah at less than half that number. His army is now at Goldsboro, having formed a junction with Schofield, and Gen. Sherman is at City Point in consultation with Gens. Grant, Sheridan and the President.

The National Park Service link has the City Point meeting of President Lincoln, General Grant and Sherman. and Admiral Porter on March 28, 1865. On the 25th President Lincoln’s joy in the Union victory was later tempered when he saw some of the dead and wounded.

And the top link is another interesting report by Civil War Daily Gazette that includes excellent maps that detail the back and fort of the battle.

Federal picket line in front of Fort Steadman (between 1861 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-32412)

“Federal picket line in front of Fort Steadman” (Library of Congress)

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information please

Posted on March 24, 2015 by SUMPTER

papers closed and mail disrupted

The success of the Union armies is putting a big crimp in the newspaper business. Even though everything was reported quiet at Petersburg (although “consolidation” was imminent), the Southern mail wasn’t able to leave Richmond because postal workers had to perform guard duty.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 23, 1865:

The Newspaper Press in the Confederacy.

–The Danville Register remarks that the recent movements of Sherman and Sheridan have greatly decreased the number of newspapers published in the country. In Virginia, we have daily papers issued from four points — Richmond, Lynchburg. Danville and Petersburg — and one weekly at Clarksville. The number has been largely curtailed in North Carolina. Wilmington, Fayetteville, Newbern, etc., are in the hands of the enemy. The Yankees now publish a paper at Wilmington. Some think that Raleigh, too, may go by, then Goldsboro’ and Charlotte, and some smaller places will be alone left. In South Carolina, it is even worse. The Mercury was removed from Charleston some time before the occupation of the city by the enemy; and the Courier, which remained, was taken in charge by the Yankees, notwithstanding it opposed nullification in and is now issued as a Yankee newspaper. All the papers in Columbia have been discontinued.

In Georgia, the number of public journals has proportionally diminished, and the same may be said of the remaining Southern States.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 24, 1865:

From the Petersburg lines.
[Correspondence of the Richmond Daily Dispatch.]

Petersburg, Va., March 22, 1865.

All is now quiet along the lines. Yesterday evening for a while there was quite an artillery duel, in which, however, but little damage was done. Only one or two shots were fired into the city, and they without effect.

Consolidation is about to prove a reality with us, and no longer a subject of doubtful discussion.

Great doubt is entertained as to the justness of the treatment of those efficient officers who have been so fortunate as to fall into the hands of the enemy, and who are not yet exchanged.

I see from the papers that recruiting offices are already open for the reception of “colored volunteers” in your city. Not to discuss the subject of placing in service the negro, I desire to state the fact that even now, after all the arrangements that have been “talked of,” but not “acted upon,” by Congress, there are connected with every division of this army numbers of stout, able bodied men, detailed as teamsters, blacksmiths, etc., etc., whose places might easily be supplied by negroes. This is a fact worthy the consideration of those who desire to place the negro where he can most successfully aid in prosecuting the war. I only advert the fact.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 24, 1865:

Pretty State of affairs.

–We were informed last evening that the mails for the South, which should have been forwarded this morning, were not prepared for transmission in consequence of the clerks being ordered out to perform guard duty. Will not the Secretary of War prevent such interruptions for the future?

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“pride & patriotism”

Posted on March 23, 2015 by SUMPTER

The South needed patriotic and heroic farmers to cultivate the land despite Yankee plunder and destruction. Refugees crowded into Richmond ought to move back to the country. Even as more and more cities were evacuated to the Union armies, the Confederacy would survive as long as the Army was not overthrown.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 23, 1865:

Thursday morning…March 23, 1865.

We need scarcely impress upon the farmers the importance of cultivating, with the most energetic industry, every inch of the soil. There is no questioning the food-producing capacity of such a territory as ours to supply our armies and our people, if those at home will devote their whole energies to the task. A vast portion of our land, once employed in the production of cotton, tobacco and other exports, is now devoted almost exclusively to the raising of breads. stuffs, and, notwithstanding the devastation of raids, there will be more than enough, if the cultivators of the soil are diligent and Heaven blesses their labors, to feed themselves and half a dozen such armies as that of General Lee. No man should be detained from cultivation by the possibility of raids any more than by the possibility of rust and chinch bugs. It is the duty of the farmer, in the one case as in the other, to sow his seed and trust to God to give the increase. Let those who are exempt from the peril and privation of battle struggle to support those who are exposed to both. Whilst the soldiers are fighting against the bayonets of the enemy, let the farmers fight against the starvation tactics, which are the main dependence of the Federal Government for our subjugation.

The practice of refugees abandoning the country and crowding into the large cities is one which would be more honored in the breach than in the observance. It would be wiser for many who are now in the city to look about for homes in the rural districts. Living is cheaper in the country, and not a few of them may become producers instead of consumers. If they can get even an humble cabin, and a small garden, and produce a little, if it is only for their own use, it is better than to remain here, where their presence can only add to their own sufferings and those of others. We warn refugees to keep away from Richmond, and advise those who are here, and can find homes in the country, to select some spot where they can avoid the enormous expense of the necessaries of life. Our charitable citizens and relief committees have their liberality exerted to the utmost to provide for many who, if in the rural districts, might not only be more comfortable themselves, but greatly aid the farmers in the cultivation of the soil.

The soldiers of the Confederacy have won the admiration of the world, not less by their splendid valor than their heroic endurance. The world has no such army as that of the Confederate States. It is not composed of mercenaries, who fight for their monthly pay, and have no interest in the cause which they support. It is made up of the valor, the pith, the intellect and the soul of the country. It is fighting for home, for wife and children, for freedom, for honor, for religion, for all that is dear in memory and precious in hope. The young men who compose that army need not be told that their mothers, their sisters, their aged fathers, are looking to them for deliverance from slavery; nor that there is no future for themselves but exile or bondage, if they fail. We are not surprised to hear that there is no such word as fail in their hearts or their thoughts. We wish that some of the croakers at home could have heard the cheers of a certain division, lately, as it confronted the enemy. It was heard for miles; and no band of music that ever played sent forth such blasts of defiance and inspiration.

Well may the enemy concede at last that it is not the capture of this or that city which will achieve the triumph of their cause, but the overthrow of the Army. It is the Army that is the sheet anchor of the great ship in this mighty tempest. And nobly is it performing its duty. It has learned how to suffer and endure as well as to do and dare. –It indulges no vain threats, but it has calmly and firmly resolved to choose death rather than degradation. There is not a high-souled patriot in its ranks who would not rather sleep in a hero’s grave than live to be a slave. All honor to these heroes — these hopeful, these glorious men! Who can doubt that, with the aid of God, they will yet achieve their country’s independence and walk the earth as freemen? And what a reward will be theirs! History and Poetry will embalm their names; their ransomed country will clasp them to her breast as her deliverers; mothers will point them out to their children; old men will rise up to do them honor; women will look at no one else; their example will blaze up like a beacon fire to encourage the oppressed and suffering of every clime. No patent of nobility will convey such a distinction as the record:–“This man was a soldier of the Confederacy.  …”

A letter written 150 years ago today echoed some of the themes in the Dispatch editorial. People might want to move back to the country because Richmond would probably soon be abandoned. Walter Taylor, Lee’s Adjutant, admitted in a letter [1] to his girlfriend that he believed General Lee’s army would soon have to retreat from the Richmond – Petersburg line and allow the Yankees to occupy those cities. Bettie and many of Colonel Taylor’s other loved ones would be under Union control. Yet he will still bravely fight the North and sees a happier time in the future.

Edge Hill

23 Mch ’65

[Bettie’s brother is going to get married soon, but Colonel Taylor will be unable to attend.] Let me whisper to you a little while. I think the dread contingency we have been recently been discussing is approaching. … I cannot say what the next week will bring forth though the calamity may be deferred for a month. … I shall make one great effort to get to Richmond again. Indeed, Bettie, these are trying times, and now is the hour when we must show of what we are made. [He has come to grips with leaving his family abandoned but hopes that he and Bettie can eventually be kept on the same side of the lines] … Nothing shall abate my determination to resist Yankee tyranny to the last extremity. Separation from you will be the most severe test to which I can be subjected, but with every principle of honor to support me, with pride & patriotism as my incentives I shall endeavor to live and if need be to die a good soldier and citizen. You shall never blush on my account. Even to one of my sanguine temperament, it is difficult to discern anything bright in our immediate future; but sooner or later the end with success must come. Then, my precious Bettie, we shall be repaid for all these trials. We shall have a home, Bettie, and be spared the pain of cruel separation. I desire to look beyond the clouds that now envelope us, to that bright haven. What happiness it will be to have you with me always. So with submissive hearts but ever hopeful, we will each pursue the path of duty, confident of God’s blessing in the end. It is my constant prayer to Him that He will guard and keep you. Your own

W.

  1. [1]Tower, R. Lockwood with John S. Belmont, eds.Lee’s Adjutant: The Wartime Letters of Colonel Walter Herron Taylor, 1862-1865. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. Print. page 236-237.↩
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