it’s a sham

Posted on February 14, 2015 by SUMPTER

it’s a shame Southern people aren’t doing anything about it

From The New-York Times February 14, 1865:

The Present Fatuity of the South.

Was there ever such infatuation as that which now possesses the South? Did any people, on the face of the earth, ever show such an utter lack of reason and of self-respect? In the other years of the war, they could be admired for much; and with all their errors, we were not ashamed to claim them as our fellow-countrymen. It was a crime in them to lend themselves to the treason of their leaders; but nobody can deny that once having committed themselves to this bad cause, they have fought for it with a gallantry seldom exceeded in human history. Nor have we, heretofore, been able to charge them with the folly of struggling for the impossible. There were, at the commencement of the war, large chances that it would end in Southern triumph and independence. Even the most sagacious men could reckon with much confidence on foreign intervention in favor of the South; or on a North so divided that President LINCOLN’s administration would be paralyzed, and be succeeded by another which would take peace from the South at any price. There was during the first three years of the war no time in which the patriot had not reason to tremble for the final result; and no time in which the rebels could not reasonably look forward with at least some degree of hope. But the period in which it was possible for the higher qualities of manhood to serve the rebellion has passed. It now lives only through the absurd and contemptible.

The whole Confederate Government, as it now stands, is but an enormous sham, with the single exception of the power wielded by JEFF. DAVIS. A majority of its Congress is made up of men either never regularly elected at all, or representing territory which is no longer under Confederate dominion. Its Vice-President seldom or never appears in the body over which it, is his official duty to preside. Its Secretary of the Treasury has treasure neither in hand nor in expectancy; he is hopelessly bankrupt, and his only business is to print and scatter rags, which he owns to be worthless. Its Secretary of State has no foreign relations to look after; in his speech just made at Richmond he confesses openly that there is no longer any hope that any foreign Power will recognize the Confederacy. Its Secretary of the Navy has no navy to regulate; his last available vessel of any account has been sent to the bottom, and there is none building. Its Postmaster-General has hardly a single unbroken route left to superintend; the greater part of his nominal jurisdiction is as much beyond his reach as if it lay beyond the ocean. Its Supreme Court has never been even nominally organized; it is a pure myth.

The rebel Government is a mockery throughout. We have just seen it, in the persons of DAVIS and BENJAMIN, mouthing great words about independence with the very same breath that it acknowledges that all is lost unless slaves are brought to its rescue. Every proposition to return to the old Government it styles an insult; and yet deliberately courts that insult by sending agents to confer with President LINCOLN, who had just averred that he had nothing else to offer. It croaks by the hour concerning its desperate straits, and winds up with the cool assurance that “croakers should be hanged.”

But the infatuation of the South does not lie so much in the conduct of its rebel rulers as in the behavior of its people. The rulers have staked their every earthly interest and hope upon the success of the rebellion which they planned and started. It is not strange that in their present extremity they should act without regard to reason or consistency. Men who are at their wits’ end naturally act wildly. But why do the Southern people continue to submit to such guidance? It is daily sinking them deeper in ruin, and they cannot help knowing it. There is not a sane Southern man who is not by this time convinced that the “Confederacy” has no chance under heaven. Nobody, not even the warmest partisan of JEFF. DAVIS, now claims the possibility of again getting possession of the Mississippi, of again opening any Confederate port to foreign commerce, or of driving the national armies from Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, and the other portions of the “Confederacy” now held by them. Nobody claims that there is any possibility of a foreign intervention, or of a Northern division, which can save the Confederacy. Meantime SHERMAN is daily making his way upon Charleston and Columbia without experiencing any serious resistance. The fall of these places, which will sever all connection of the Confederate capital with the Gulf States, is already accepted as a foregone conclusion. GRANT is pressing upon Richmond itself with a grasp that compells even the Richmond press to acknowledge that LEE’s army may, any month, be obliged to leave it. To what more tenable position this army is to go, nobody declares; and for the very good reason that there is none. LEE’s retreat from Richmond would leave him a foothold nowhere. It would only force him to go into an irregular piece-meal warfare, which would have no other effect than to make the South more a prey than ever to license, anarchy and ruin.

It is amazing that the Southern people do not reassert their manhood and shake off the leaders who, because they see no safety for themselves, are bent upon dragging the whole South with them to destruction. Had the Southern people the spirit of true freemen they would resist this miserable fate. By separate State action, or by a general uprising, they would for themselves clear the way for their honorable return to the Union of their fathers.

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Harper’s Weekly didn’t forget Valentine’s Day as you can see in its February 18, 1865 issue at Son of the South

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Prang's Valentine cards (Boston : L. Prang & Co., c1883; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-09465)

c1883

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, Confederate States of America, Northern Society, Southern Society | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

cornerstones as stumbling blocks

Posted on February 13, 2015 by SUMPTER

Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.
– Benjamin Franklin

150 years ago this week news of President Lincoln’s report to Congress about the peace negotiations at Hampton Roads would have made its way to upstate New York. A local publication criticized the president and his administration for wasting an excellent opportunity for peace, but it ended its editorial strangely optimistic that one day the Republic would be re-united. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in February 1865:

The Terms of Peace.

The President has transmitted to Congress the correspondence and official documents which preceded the Peace Conference at Hampton Roads, accompanied with a copy of a letter from Secretary Seward to Minister Adams, detailing somewhat minutely, though rather ambiguously, the result of the interview with the Southern Commissioners. From the few remarks which the President makes in transmitting to Congress the correspondence in question, it does not appear that that the Confederate Envoys demanded Independence, neither does it appear that they refused to to consider the subject of Reconstruction. Mr. Seward in his letter to Minister Adams says, in speaking of the interview, that what “the insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor was a postponement of the question of separation upon which the war is waged, and a mutual direction of the efforts of the Government as well as those of the insurgents to some extrinsic policy or scheme for a season; during which passions might be expected to subdue and the armies be reduced, and trade and intercourse between the people of both sections be resumed. It was suggested by them that through such postponement we might now have immediate peace, with some not very certain prospect of an ultimate satisfactory adjustment of political relations between the Government and the States, section or people now engaged in conflict with it.”

The President regarded this as a truce or armistice to which he would not consent, except upon the basis of the disbandonment of the insurgent forces and the restoration of the national authority throughout all the States of the Union. The President also announced, according to Mr. Seward’s letter, that “he must not be expected to depart from the positions he had heretofore assumed in his proclamations of emancipation and other documents, as these positions were laid down in his annual message.” In other words, all the extreme measures advocated and adopted by the radicals, must be carried out at all hazards. Of course the Confederate Commissioners would not accede to any such demands, and it was not expected they would. They accordingly returned and reported the result of their mission, and their report may be found elsewhere in our columns. In no one particular does the message of President Lincoln. or the letter of Mr. Seward contradict the statements of Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell.

The refusal of the President to entertain the candid and reasonable propositions of the Confederate Commissioners, places upon his shoulders the awful responsibility of the continuance of this most cruel and devastating civil war. Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, speaking for the Southern people, did neither demand nor insist upon independence as a basis to negotiations. They desired Peace and Reunion, and they have placed the administration in the attitude of refusing their just demands. An honorable termination of the war was in the power of our government, but in language that cannot be misunderstood, it says the war must go on. Before high Heaven let it take the responsibility!

The result is greatly to be deplored and sad to contemplate. Instead of the blessings of Peace, the people are to have more war, – more drains upon their resources, their numbers – desolation, greater desolation to the country. Under wiser, more just and humane rulers, Peace would have been accomplished. But the die is cast, and the North and South will be braced anew for iron blows – blows which will sink deeper and deeper in the hearts of this people. But let us not yet despair of the Republic. Under more national auspices, under a truer, higher, nobler humanity; that founded on justice and honor, we may eventually witness the dawning of Peace – its attendant blessings falling upon a restored Union and a re-united People.

On February 6, 1865 Walter Taylor, Lee’s Adjutant expressed his opinion about the peace negotiations in a letter to his girlfriend:

I presume all Richmond is in a state of excitement about the return of the Peace Commissioners. I hope all the croakers are satisfied and will hereafter keep silence. It will do us much good and I am really glad they went. Our people now know what they have to expect & unless we are a craven hearted spiritless people, the result will surely prove beneficial & cause every man & woman to be doubly determined to fight to the last. The impudence of those people! Oh, if I only an army big enough to whip them all! The idea of submitting to them. I wouldn’t be one of a people who would do such a thing. I wonder if you’ll read this tiny scrawl. Good bye. Your own

W.[1]

1653

  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 221.↩
Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, Confederate States of America, Lincoln Administration, Northern Politics During War, Northern Society | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

more rebel defiance

Posted on February 12, 2015 by SUMPTER

Another home remedy? – for the uncommon cold?

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 11, 1865:

A medical opinion.

–Hall’s Journal of Health, which claims to be high authority in medical science, has taken a stand against married people sleeping together, but thinks they had better sleep in adjoining rooms. It says that Kings and Queens do not sleep together, and why should other people? Think of the idea of separating a married couple on a cold winter’s night because Hall’s Journal of Health says so! You go to grass, Mr. Hall.

I’ve heard that medical authorities nowadays think going to the grass could be a good thing.

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150 years ago today Abraham turned 56 years old.

house_Abraham_Lincoln_was_born

Bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln at Lincoln's Summer Home, Washington, D.C. (Carol Highsmith 2009)

The image of baby Lincoln’s home is from wpclipart. Carol M. Highsmith’s January 27, 2009 photo of Lincoln’s summer home is from the Library of Congress.

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, Southern Society | Tagged | Leave a comment

freedom on offer?

Posted on February 11, 2015 by SUMPTER
Judah_Benjamin

‘hope beams on every countenance’

On February 9, 1865 Richmond held a meeting to take stock of the unsuccessful peace negotiations held earlier in the month and to discuss what to do next. Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin was one of the speakers. He brought up the idea of freeing slaves who agreed to fight for the Confederacy. The alternative would be a Southern society run by Yankees and ex-slaves. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 10, 1865:

The mass meetings yesterday.
great enthusiasm of the people.
addresses by the Hons. R. M. T. Hunter, Secretary Benjamin, and others.

The largest and most enthusiastic meeting ever held in this city was convened at the African Church on yesterday. Two hours before the time of meeting, the whole body of the church, aisles and windows, were crowded, and quite as large a concourse was obliged to stand in the streets, being unable to obtain access to the building. The objects of the meeting were to adopt resolutions expressive of the feelings of the people of Virginia, excited by the gross insult put upon us by Lincoln in his late meeting with our. commissioners at Fortress Monroe, and to take counsel as to our future. …

Speech of Hon. J. P. Benjamin.

Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State of the Confederate States, was announced as the next speaker. He was greeted with rousing cheers, and spoke, in substance, as follows:

The number of persons composing this meeting, the cheers with which I hear you greet every expression of patriotic sentiment, shows the defiance with which your breasts are swelling, and the hot flush which all feel, at the bare thought of the ignominy which an arrogant Government has proposed to you, that you should bend the knee, bow the neck, and meekly submit to the conqueror’s yoke; and all give assurance that the fire of freedom burns unquenchably in your souls. How different from one short week ago! It seem an age, so magic has been the change. Then, despondency and hope deterred oppressed and weighed upon us, men were and asking if it were true that no honorable peace were attainable except by continued warfare. Then, it was said it was our parvise indisposition to negotiate that led to the arrogance of the invader. This delusion went so far that it penetrated the legislative halls, and threatened a disruption of the harmony of our councils. Now, cheerful voices are heard all around, and hope beams on every countenance. Now, the resolute and war-worn soldier is nerved anew. Now, the Cheering and purifying influence of our glorious women sheds its light over our cause, and still leads us on in the path of duty and honor. What is the cause of this striking change in the aspect of our affairs? Have we found fillies [allies?] in foreign lands, such as came to our fathers in the hour of their sorest need, to stretch their arm to our assistance. Has any European State come to our aid in the time of our extremity? Not so; but just the reverse. Our gallant Beauregard is still contending against Sherman, and I heard men this morning speculating on the chances of his drawing in his lines an abandoning the defence of Charleston. Glorious Charleston, which, for over twenty months, has withstood a fire such as has never been rained on a devoted city. Our enemies are still arrayed against us. There is no voice from across the Atlantic of any aid to be extended. What then is the cause of this change? It is the knowledge which has come home to the understanding and the hearts of the people. We now know, in the core of our hearts, that [t]his people must conquer its freedom or die. [Cheers.] No Southern man ever dreamed of such arrogation propositions as were brought from Fortress Monroe. Thank God, we know it now. The people know, as one man the path which they must tread or perish.

Our commissioners, sent to confer with the enemy, went with a piece of blank paper, filled with one word written by our President–“Independence.” What were they told? Independence? You are our subjects. Independence? Strip the gaudy epaulette from the shoulders of your officers; strip the uniforms from those who man the trenches; bring your leaders here, and you know me; I am the merciful Lincoln. The issue is thus before us; it is to live free or perish.

It is due to you to know how this peace commission came to be sent, and the facts which proceeded their going. The Emperor Lincoln sent us this message at the close of last year, two months before the commissioners were sent. … [the peace process]

What is our present duty? We want means.–Are they in the country? If so, they belong to the country, and not to the man who chances to hold them now. … [give the Confederacy your cotton, tobacco, and bacon]

Jeff Davis on arming the nigger. By M. B. Ladd. Air--Happy land of Canaan. Johnson, printer, No. 7 North 10th Street. February, 1865 (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/amss002260/)

a Northern view

I want another thing. War is a game that cannot be played without men. [Cheers.] Where are the men? I am to open my whole heart to you, Look to the trenches below Richmond. Is it not a shame that men who have sacrificed all in our defence should not be reinforced by all the means in our power? Is it any time now for antiquated patriotism to argue a refusal to send them aid, be it white or black? [A voice–” Put in the niggers”– and cheers.] …

I feel that the time is rapidly coming on when the people will wonder that they ever doubted. Let us say to every negro who wishes to go into the ranks on condition of being made free–“Go and fight; you are free.” If we press them, they will go against us. We know that every one who could fight for his freedom has had no chance. The only side that has had the advantage of this element is the Yankee–a people that can beat us to the end of the year in making bargains. Let us imitate them in this — I would imitate them in nothing else. My own negroes have been to me and said: “Master, set us free, and we will fight for you we had rather fight for you than for the Yankees.” But suppose it should not be so — there is no harm in trying. With all my early attachments and prejudices, I would give up all. It can only be done by the States separately. What State will lead off in this thing ! [A voice–“Virginia.”] …

Mr. Benjamin asked, what do our enemies propose to do? and read from the New York Tribune of the 6th instant a review of Butler’s speech, which argued that it was the duty of the Government to render justice to the negro — to educate him — to give him a fair share of the lands his fathers wrought upon — to leave him in the State where he was reared, and to furnish him with the means to begin life. After that, he was to be let severely alone; that is to take his place with other citizens.

Now, said Mr. Benjamin, if there be a bell [hell] upon earth, it would be an universal emancipation of the negroes and the Yankees to rule over us. Can you imagine yourselves in a city where the municipal officers were your former slaves, in a military organization of which the officers were negroes? with the malice of the Yankees firing their hearts to wreak vengeance on us? That is to be our fate if we fail in this contest. And yet men object to making use of the means within our reach, because, forsooth, it might fail. It looks to me very much like a man rushing forth from his burning house, and begging his neighbors, for Heaven’s sake, not to throw water on his blazing roof, because it might spoil his furniture. [Applause.] …

Mr. Benjamin said he saw no prospect of a cessation of this struggle during the present year. Let every man stand up and nerve his heart to the contest. The enemy was utterly unable to continue this war beyond the present campaign. Let us stand up firmly, and we shall be free.

In conclusion, Mr. Benjamin drew a beautiful picture of peace and its consequent blessings, and said all that and awaited us if we nerved ourselves as we ought to for this last struggle.

The February 25, 1865 issue of Harper’s Weekly at Son of the South found Mr. Benjamin’s speech hypocritical with no chance of success:

JUDAH P. BENJAMIN.

IN his speech at the Richmond meeting to fire the rebel heart Mr. JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, of Louisiana, the rebel Secretary of State, strongly urged the policy of arming the slaves. When our soldiers in the trenches, said he, are crying out for help, shall we care whether the aid we send is black or white ? …

Or is it the whites who are to believe that all your teaching which seduced them into rebellion was false ? If the negro is only fit for slavery, why promise him freedom ? If God meant him for it, if it is his own wish, if he be happy in it, why disturb him, why not promise him that God’s order and his own choice shall be respected? If, as STEPHENS said, you went out of the old Union to form a new one upon slavery, what do you mean by abolition ? These are questions that will be asked, that ask themselves, and which you can not answer.

JUDAH BENJAMIN knows that the slaves understand this contest as well as he. JUDAH BENJAMIN knows that two hundred thousand armed slaves would be presently masters of ” the Confederacy.” Every rebel thinks of it and shudders. It is the most terrible alternative he could present. His promise of freedom as a boon shows that he is conscious that slavery is a wrong. And it has always been so since he has defended it. And he knew it before, as he knows it now. But if a wrong, are the slaves alone unconscious of it ? And when they are summoned to arms upon BENJAMIN’S plain confession that he and his class without their aid are helpless to avert the fate which gives the negro freedom, is the negro likely to be ignorant of his power? …

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, Confederate States of America, Military Matters, Southern Society | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

bewildered

Posted on February 10, 2015 by SUMPTER
All hail to Ulysses! (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200001339/)

hold your horses

As a local paper in the Finger Lakes region began compiling information about the early February fight around Hatcher’s Run, it criticized someone’s praise of General Grant’s tactics in an action that cost 800 Union casualties.

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

Another Battle.

For several days past we have had indefinite rumors of another movement of the Army of the Potomac; and Thursday evening’s papers contain the particulars of the affair. It seems that the enemy attacked our extreme left, on Monday last. A desperate engagement took place, resulting in a reverse to our forces. The 3d. Div. of the 5th Corps were were driven back in disorder by an overwhelming assault of the enemy, back upon a line of breastworks, erected by the 2d. corps. A division of the 6th corps., which had crossed Hatcher’s Run and moved to the aid of the retreating column, also became demoralized and participated in the stampede, the whole finally rallying on supports and pushing the enemy back. the losses reported in the two days’ operations are put at 800, though the Herald’s correspondent says they are estimated much higher by many, [sic] Our forces are reported to be still in position across Hatcher’s Run and to have fortified for permanent occupation.

The telegraph censor at Washington, informs us that the enemy does not fight as well as formerly owing to “the bewildering tactics of General Grant.” Isn’t the country about sick of that kind of tactics on the part of the Lieutenant General? Eight hundred more men sacrificed by Grant’s “bewildering tactics!” Good Heavens!

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unerasable

Posted on February 9, 2015 by SUMPTER

a milky way

There were a lot of home remedies during the Civil War (for example, blackberry brandy). The South might have been getting shorter and shorter on supplies, but if someone could spare some milk a letter from a loved one at the front could apparently become more permanent. Some of the information gleaned from Northern publications and presented 150 years ago this week. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 4, 1865:

How to make pencil-writing indelible.

–A correspondent of an agricultural paper gives the following information, which may be of service to some of our readers:

“A great many valuable letters and other writings are written in pencil. This is particularly the case with the letters our brave soldiers send home from the army. The following simple process will make lead-pencil writing or drawing as indelible as if done with ink: Lay the writing in a shallow dish and pure skimmed milk upon it. Any spots not wet at first may have the milk placed upon them lightly with a feather. When the paper is wet all over with the milk, take it up and let the milk drain off, and whip off with a feather the drops which collect on the lower edge. Dry it carefully, and it will be found to be perfectly indelible. It cannot be removed even with India rubber. It is an old recipe, and a good one.”

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out of the scabbard

Posted on February 7, 2015 by SUMPTER
George Washinton From the portrait by John Trumbull (Project Gutenberg's The Life Of George Washington, by John Marshall (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28859/28859-h/28859-h.htm))

unsheathed

The South should be invincible because it is fighting to defend its own soil, not to mention that that the Army of Northern Virginia “was never stronger, physically and morally, than at this very hour.” The people just need to maintain their moral strength. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 7, 1865:

Washington’s Dying words.

When George Washington bequeathed to his heirs the sword he had worn in the War of Liberty, he charged them, “Never to take it from the scabbard but in self-defence, or in defence of their country and her freedom; but that when it should thus be drawn, they should never sheath it nor ever give it up, but prefer falling with it in their hands to the relinquishment thereof”–words, says an eminent Englishman, the majesty and simple eloquence of which are not surpassed in the oratory of Athens and Rome.

Let every soldier of the Confederacy engrave those last words of Washington upon his heart. Let them be inscribed in letters of gold upon the capitol of every Confederate State. Let the pulpit proclaim them; let the mother learn them to her children; let them be emblazoned on every banner; ring in every trumpet call, and flash from every sword.

The United States Army and Navy Gazette, in the article transferred to our issue of Saturday, admits that the anxiety for a speedy termination of the war is great in the North as well as in the South, and that it is upon the breaking down of “the will, the moral strength,” of the Confederacy, and not upon simple force of arms, that the United States hopes to conquer a peace.

Those concessions are made, be it remembered, in the face of those successes which have caused such croaking and despondency among the nervous and dyspeptic of our own people, after the defeat of Hood, the capture of Savannah, the triumph, by overwhelming odds, at Fort Fisher. These temporary advantages have not extinguished in Yankee minds memories of Bull Run, the two battles of Manassas, the defeat of McClellan, the defeat of Burnside, the defeat of Hooker, the defeat upon defeat of Grant, who started from the Rapid Ann for Richmond nearly a year ago with the largest army the United States ever has raised, or ever will raise, and has not got here yet. The conquest of such a nation by force of arms, even the United States military leaders see to be impossible, unless the great heart of the country gives way, and our own traitor doubts and fears deliver up the keys of the citadel.

Lieut. Genl. Ulysses S. Grant: General in Chief of the armies of the United States ( New York : Published by Currier & Ives, [between 1856 and 1907]; LOC: LC-USZC2-2755)

hasn’t got to Richmond yet

We have never been of those who denied the Yankees the qualities of courage and soldiership. We conceded them those common capacities of all male animals before the war, but we have seen nothing in the war which gives us any new light on the subject. They have everywhere fought us at odds of two or three to one, and often been defeated even with such odds in their favor. We need not even assume, what we believe, that the South are a more military people than the Yankees, or any other race of men.– We attribute our success, under the favor of Divine Providence, to the “moral strength” of a people fighting on their own soil, and for their own firesides, against that “moral weakness” of invaders and aggressors which no ordinary preponderance of numbers can make strong. With those conditions in our favor, the United States may wage this warfare till the crack of doom, and the Confederacy can never be conquered. Our enemies see this as plainly as we do ourselves, though we had scarcely imagined they would have the honesty to confess it.

We have one word to say to the croakers of the Confederacy: If you want to give up the contest, meet, like men, in public assemblies, and say so; but do not paralyze the army with your long faces and deep groans. Do not come from your comfortable dwellings well spread boards and luxurious beds, and chant lamentations to those hopeful heroes who stand in your front, and have endured in your defence such perils and privations as have rarely fallen to the lot of humanity since the beginning of the world. Do not compel them to stand a fire in the rear more pertinacious and harassing than the fire in the front. Do not forever damp with your dismal breath the silver shields of knighthood, flashing so gloriously in the sunlight and reflecting ever the bold lineaments of hope and honor. Go home and go to bed, and dream of subjugation, and die, if you will; but do not be the death of your country.

Equestrian statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, astride his horse, Traveller, in the park that surrounds the headquarters of the Dallas Park Board in Oak Lawn section of Dallas, Texas (Forms part of: Lyda Hill Texas Collection of Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive., 2014; LOC: LC-DIG-highsm-28900)

The South’s Washington

The Army of General Lee, we are told, was never stronger, physically and morally, than at this very hour. Its nerves are of iron; its spirit is lofty and resolved; it hails with raptures the elevation of its commander to the supreme control of military movements as the harbinger of a new and brilliant career of success and glory. The causes of dissatisfaction that have hitherto existed in the internal conduct of affairs are rapidly disappearing. The right man will be everywhere put in the right place.–Every element of strength in the country will be developed and judiciously handled. Other nations have seen darker days: Rome, Greece, the Netherlands, our own forefathers of ’76; France, when Carnot became War Minister; England, when Mr. Pitt took the helm, and caused a reeling vessel to feel at once the hand of a mighty master, and ride the opposing billows in security and triumph. It is the province of such spirits “from the nettle, Danger, to pluck the flower, Safety.” Providence raises up the man for the time, and a man for this occasion, we believe, has been raised up in Robert E. Lee, the Washington of the second American Revolution, upon whom, from the beginning, all thoughtful eyes have been fixed as the future Deliverer of his country.

Of one thing we are certain, the moral strength of Virginia is as steadfast and immovable as her own Blue Ridge. She did not seek this quarrel; she avoided it by every honorable means of conciliation, by counsels of moderation, by offers of peace. But having taken her ground, she is going to maintain it. She may be overwhelmed by brute force; she may be subjugated, confiscated, exterminated, but she will never be a traitor to herself. Her “moral strength” cannot be broken, and in that “moral strength” she will yet prevail. She has no dream of sheathing the sword of Washington whilst the foot of an invading soldier pollutes her soil. Believing, hoping, daring, she will fight on to the end; calmly, valiantly, confidingly, trusting in Providence to vindicate the Right, and true to herself, her country and her God.

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review board

Posted on February 6, 2015 by SUMPTER

Many states and localities were dissatisfied with the quotas assigned them under the December 19th call for 300,000 more soldiers. President Lincoln ordered a board to determine fair quotas so the draft could proceed speedily. I do not know if and how the second presidential announcement here affected the first. but nothing was going to impede filling up the armies.

From The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Seven:

ORDER TO MAKE CORRECTIONS IN THE DRAFT.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON CITY, February 6, 1865

Whereas complaints are made in some localities respecting the assignments of quotas and credits allowed for the pending call of troops to fill up the armies: Now, in order to determine all controversies in respect thereto, and to avoid any delay in filling up the armies, it is ordered,

1. That the Attorney-General, Brigadier-General Richard Delafield, and Colonel C. W. Foster, be, and they are hereby constituted, a board to examine into the proper quotas and credits of the respective States and districts under the call of December 19, 1864, with directions, if any errors be found therein, to make such corrections as the law and facts may require, and report their determination to the Provost-Marshal-General. The determination of said board to be final and conclusive, and the draft to be made in conformity therewith.

2. The Provost-Marshal-General is ordered to make the draft in the respective districts as speedily as the same can be done after the fifteenth of this month.

A. LINCOLN.

TO PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 6, 1865.

PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL:

These gentlemen distinctly say to me this morning that what they want is the means from your office of showing their people that the quota assigned to them is right. They think it will take but little time—two hours, they say. Please give there double the time and every facility you can.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

February 6, 1865.

The Provost-Marshal brings this letter back to me and says he cannot give the facility required without detriment to the service, and thereupon he is excused from doing it.

A. LINCOLN.

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“the Yankees were moving”

Posted on February 5, 2015 by SUMPTER

As “Lee’s Adjutant”, Walter Taylor, wrote to his girlfriend, 150 years ago today he had to leave church service early because he received word that, groundhog-like, the Union army had aroused itself from winter slumber and was on the move. Would the spring bloodletting come early that year? Colonel Taylor apologized to his beloved Bettie that he was left safe and sound at headquarters and then went on to express his concern that if General Sherman’s army proved uncontrollable, Richmond might eventually have to be abandoned.

[To Bettie]

Edge Hill

Sunday afternoon

5 Feby 65

Instead of a quiet comfortable Sunday, we have had one of considerable excitement, and even now the indications are that Grant is once more moving on us. I was late getting to Church, as we had Capt Semmes (Alabama) & Col Ives as morning visitors, and had scarcely become well engaged in the services when I received information that the Yankees were moving. I hurried home and was soon followed by the General who has now, with his two aides, gone toward the scene of action, whilst I have been left at Hd Qrs to attend to matters here. What will my little pet, who thinks so much of those always at the front, say of this? Should not I also go where there is danger? A soldier, dear Bettie, must obey orders – though mine keep me here now, they have often heretofore carried & will frequently hereafter carry me into positions most uncomfortably hot. From the reports that have reached me, it appears the enemy are moving to attack us in force – whether he has been reinforced by Genl Thomas I cannot say but all things considered I wd rather that he should fight now than later. We are in very good condition and by the help of God will render a good account of ourselves. …

These plagued Yankees give me much trouble. I have been compelled to divide my time and attention between you and them and fear they have rec’d the greatest portion. It seems now that they are on a raid towards our railroads – Southside & Danville. I have just recd orders from Genl Lee to direct certain movements. You see somebody has to be at Head Qrs. …

But to what I was about to say: we will have a trying spring campaign. You know I am very sanguine always. I don’t expect anything except success, but ’tis possible Sherman may trouble us here a great deal. I have often spoken to you in a semi-serious way about what should be done if Richmond should be lost. I am now altogether serious. Don’t you follow Ma’s example & conclude that because I propose certain steps in event such a disaster should occur, therefore I look for the fall of the City. I dare not say a word to Mother now about it, because of her way of arriving at conclusions so rapidly. Understand me then. I hope & expect that we shall hold our own, but they may not be able to control Sherman and possibly we may have to make very important changes in the campaign and shift our position. I don’t think this probable, only possible. …[1]

  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 218-220.↩
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pledging allegiance

Posted on February 4, 2015 by SUMPTER

States’ Rights was dying hard in the South, a couple Virginia regiments were still full of fight.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 4, 1865:

Saturday morning…February 4, 1865.

…

Rebellion.

Even Lord John Russell confesses his inability to see any cause for the excessive indignation manifested in the North at the crime of “rebellion.” England, he observes, rebelled against Charles I.; rebelled against James II.; and the people of New England, not content with these two rebellions, rebelled against George III. Without deciding whether those rebellions were justifiable, or whether they were wrong, or whether the Southern rebellion is justifiable or not, Earl Russell says: “The mere fact of rebellion is not, in my eyes, a crime of so deep a dye that we must renounce all fellowship and communion and relationship with those who have been guilty of it. I own I cannot but wonder to see the offspring of three rebellions really speaking like the Czar of Russia, the Sultan of Turkey, or Louis XIV. himself, of the dreadful crime and guilt of rebellion.”

What adds to the audacity of this outcry, is the simple fact that there has been no rebellion at all, unless it be that of the Black Republican party against the American Constitution. There must be allegiance to a government acknowledged before resistance of its authority becomes rebellion. The States never owed any such allegiance to their agency at Washington. They were the sovereigns, to whom, and to whom alone, the supreme allegiance of their respective inhabitants was due.

…

Meeting of the Thirty-first Virginia regiment, of Pegram’s Brigade.

Immediately after dress parade, on February 1st, 1865, a meeting was organized in the Thirty-first Virginia regiment by calling Captain N. Glærson to the chair, and appointing Dr. S. Buttermore secretary.

Major H. P. Cooper explained the object of the meeting, and offered the following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

“Whereas, it is the duty, as it is the privilege of freemen to express their sentiments upon all subjects affecting the public weal, we, the officers and men of the Thirty-first Virginia regiment, do therefore.

“Resolve, That we have entire confidence in the President, the members of his Cabinet, both Houses of Congress, and our commanding officers.

“Resolved, That we denounce all fault-finding croakers as enemies of their country — detest their pretended sympathy, and decline their friendship.

“Resolved, That we pity our weak-kneed, desponding brethren, both citizens and soldiers, (if there are any such soldiers,) and say unto them: ‘Be of good cheer’; do but half your duty to your God, your country and yourselves, and all will be well.

“Resolved, That we took up arms to achieve our independence, and that four years of hardships and privations, as well as the blood of our slaughtered comrades, demand that we shall lay them down only when that purpose is accomplished.

“Resolved, That the Richmond papers be requested to publish the proceedings of this meeting.”

After which the meeting adjourned.

N. Clawson, Chairman.

S. Butter more, Secretary.

Resolutions of the Fifty-Second Virginia regiment.

Camp Pegram’s Brigade, February2, 1865.

Preamble and resolutions adopted by the Fifty-second Virginia regiment:

“Whereas, the Southern States never bound themselves to make the union that they formed with those of the North a permanent one; and, whereas, the war waged against us to make it such against our will is unjust: be it, therefore,

1. “Resolved, That we have as good right to be free and to govern ourselves as our enemies have, and that we are unwilling to forfeit that right by accepting at their hands any terms short of independence.
2. “That we are firmly convinced that a valorous zeal and steady adherence to the determination to conquer by force of arms cannot fail to reward us with an honorable peace; that with our resources and an inflexible resolution to be free, subjugation is impossible, and that should we be conquered, it will not be by the stern valor of our foes, but by a want of firmness and determination in ourselves.
3. “That we ever acknowledge the hand of Providence in our past successes, and that we trust in the righteousness of our cause and in the justice of our God, and lean upon His strong arm for deliverance in time to come.
4. “That these are our sentiments, and that a copy of this preamble and resolutions be sent for publication to the Richmond Examiner and Dispatch, the Staunton Vindicator and Lexington Gazette.”

The above preamble and resolutions were enthusiastically adopted by this regiment without a dissenting vote.

C. B. Coiner, Captain commanding regiment.

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