ways out

Posted on January 5, 2015 by SUMPTER

01/06/2015: I made a big mistake. The articles from the Dispatch I reprinted below were actually from the January 5, 1864 issue. I’m a year late with this news. I’m sorry.

“It will be difficult to get the world to understand
the odds against which we fought.”

—General Robert E. Lee[1]

150 years ago in the South: it was decided that a soldier elected as a Justice of the Peace was exempt and could be discharged from the service; relatively well off men were offering Government contractors lots of slave laborers if the contractors would also hire the slave owners and get them an exemption from military service; speculators were trying to flee the country to avoid the army. Apparently shoes were in short supply for those men actually serving in the Confederate military – some soldiers should be detailed as shoemakers

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch January 5, 1865 [really 1864]:

Local Matters.

Important Decision.

–We alluded some weeks since to the application of William T. Brooking for a discharge from the service on a writ of habeas corpus.

The petitioner volunteered in 1861, and served regularly in the army, was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, in July, 1863.–While in the service he was elected as a Justice of the Peace in the county of Orange, and regularly qualified as such. On this qualification he applied for a discharge from the service. This was refused him. He then applied for a writ of habeas corpusbefore Judge Meredith, of this city. It was agreed by the counsel of Brooking, (John H. Gilmer, Esq.,) and the counsel for the Confederate States Government,(Messrs. T. Neeson and T. P. August,) that the merits of the case should be considered and decided on an argument for the application. The argument on the application was then heard fully on all the legal points, and the learned Judge awarded the writ, and yesterday, in Court, discharged Brooking from the service.

We understand the argument on the application was very full and earnest on both sides. The case turned on the judicial construction of the conscript act of 1862, March 16,as to exemptions, and the act of the Virginia Legislature passed in October, 1862,which expressly exempted Justices of the Peace from military service. …

A New dodge.

–The passage of the law against substitutes has created an excitement in the country that no one expected. Not only are able-bodied young men making herculean efforts to get into governmental departments to escape the army, but scores and hundreds of them are writing to Government contractors in Richmond, offering to furnish them with negro labor in abundance if the contractors will only accept the services of the young masters and get them exempted as essential to their business operations. As the contractors have to make oath to the essentiality of their exempts, these nice young patriots will not be able to slip the military cable by that dodge; but it is not improbable that other and more successful means will be resorted to, to escape contact with Yankee balls.

Clear the Track.

–Scores of speculators, who have substitute papers, are preparing to run the blockade rather than shoulder their muskets to aid in defending the wealth they have already accumulated out of the misfortunes of their country. Let them go if they will, but let Congress and the State Legislatures pass stringent laws to take possession of such of their effects as may be left behind and confiscate it to the good of the cause.–That they have left their families here should be no pleas against the law, for they are mere consumers, and should be sent off to join their patriotic protectors. …

Shoes for the army.

–The great difficulty in procuring shoes for the army may be partially obviated by detailing shoemakers in service, and establishing manufactories in each brigade. One or two wagons, arranged for the purpose, would furnish comfortable shop room for the workmen, and at the same time have them convenient for making, patching and repairing the shoes of the soldiers as they are needed. …

  1. [1]quoted at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34334/34334-h/34334-h.htm↩
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namesakes

Posted on January 3, 2015 by SUMPTER
Abraham and Lot separating, by Wenceslaus Hollar

go ahead, take whatever land you want

A Richmond newspaper can’t believe that free blacks would name their sons after Abraham Lincoln. It would make a lot more sense to name the children after the biblical Abraham. Unlike the “Washington Abraham” the biblical patriarch was a gentleman, a slaveholder, who fought his own battles; when he and his relative had to separate, Abraham told Lot to go ahead and take whatever land he wanted.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch January 3 1865:

The two Abrahams.

It appears, from Yankee correspondents, that “Abraham” is the popular name for the picaninnies in the contraband camps. The negro mothers delight in bestowing that name upon their “fine little boys,” and Yankee scribes delight in recording such a compliment.

It is unfortunate enough to be a free negro, but to be christened Abraham Lincoln is adding insult to injury. There have been two Abrahams, however, in the history of the world, and though it was not intended to honor the first by the application of the name to the little darkies aforesaid, we must be permitted to believe that he was a good deal more worthy the compliment than his name-sake at Washington. No two men ever lived as little like each other in character and conduct as these two Abrahams.–Let us see.

The Abraham at Washington is confessed by his own countrymen to be a vulgar buffoon and joker, destitute of the dignity, the courtesy, and every other quality of a gentleman. The patriarch Abraham was a model of all these qualities. His reception of the strangers who visited his tent has been justly characterized as a “specimen of a genuine gentleman; courtesy of external deportment; courtesy of polite language; courtesy of substantial hospitality; and all this the offspring of a truly benevolent heart.”

The Abraham at Washington is as careful of his own life as he is extravagant with the lives of other men. He has caused a loss of half a million of lives to his own countrymen, but has never smelt gunpowder himself. He stole into Washington on a freight car; and whilst the land has been reeling ever since beneath the shock of war, he has remained snugly ensconced in the capital. The patriarch Abraham did not get other men to do his fighting for him. When he heard that war was made upon his brother, and that he was taken prisoner and his goods captured, the patriarch armed his own servants, and himself went after the enemy, fought them gallantly like the fine old hero that he was, routed them completely, and rescued his brother and his goods. When did Abraham at Washington ever imitate his namesake in that?

The Union is my home ... By C. H. Readel. Philad'a, January 1, 1865 (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/amss002595/)

his excellency Abraham Lincoln???

The Washington Abraham is an Abolitionist. He considers slavery a great sin, and slaveholders children of the devil. The patriarch Abraham, on the contrary, was himself a slaveholder. The Scriptures inform us that he had slaves, bought with his own money and born in his own house. Others he received as presents from the King of Egypt. His whole encampment was made up of slaves. We may judge of the number when he could arm “three hundred and eighteen trained servants, born in his house,” for the purposes of war. We doubt whether there is now a slaveholder in the South whose slave possessions are large enough to furnish him with three hundred and eighteen servants, born in his own house, for military purposes. –Abolitionists regard house-born slaves as “the most revolting particular in the whole system.” Such is the language of an English writer in commenting on this very passage. He adds: “We can understand that a man might perfect his personal liberty by crime or misfortune — but that his children and his children’s children,–etc., etc. Yet Abraham owned this as well as every other kind of slave property; and in the very next chapter of the Bible that records the fact, God prescribes regulations, in what He himself describes as an “everlasting covenant,” for their religions training; blesses the patriarch and bestows upon him the name of Abraham, “for a father of many nations have I made thee” blesses Sarah, his wife, and says she shall be the mother of kings and, upon Abraham’s intercession, blesses even Ishmael !

Such was the favor with which the Almighty regarded this great slaveholder, the only man in the whole Scripture who is honored with this sublime title: “The Friend of God.”

Thomas Lincoln, born 1779, died 1851 (Published in: Lincoln, his life in photographs / Stefan Lorant. New York : Duell, Sloan and Pearce, [1941], p. 15.; c1934 Sept. 19; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-19418)

Thomas Lincoln – got his boy’s name wrong

We have only room to point to one more, and that a very striking point of difference between the two Abrahams.–When the Southern Lot proposed to separate peacefully from the Northern Abraham, the answer was fire and sword; enormous armies let loose upon our territory; our soil deluged with the blood of our people, and the midnight sky reddened with the flame of our burning dwellings. What was the conduct of the patriarch Abraham in a like case? “And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear the that they might live together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together, And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled there in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

It is clear that the two Abrahams are very different men. The father of the Washington Abraham should have named him — Pharaoh.

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nutshell happiness

Posted on January 2, 2015 by SUMPTER

The Richmond Dispatch still observed the Christian Sabbath back in 1864, so its January 2nd issue looked back on 1864 and ahead to 1865. The defiance seems muted in this Monday morning editorial as the writer could not even wish a Happy New Year and seemed to imply that the South might have to sacrifice slavery in order to maintain its independence.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch January 2, 1865:

Monday morning…January 2, 1865.


The past year.

The year 1864 has gone with the last year’s snow. It has passed away, and is lost in the ocean of eternity. It was a memorable year in the history of this continent — the most memorable, from the gigantic character of the incidents to which it gave rise, that has passed over it since Columbus first “gave a new world to the Kingdoms of Castile and Leon. ” It may not be uninteresting to our readers to go rapidly over the principal incidents which it witnessed, and which have rendered it forever memorable in the history of mankind.

We begin with the famous raid of Kilpatrick, … [about 2000 words on 1864’s campaigns]

The march of Price and defeat of the great Yankee armada at Wilmington were the last exploits of the year which we shall notice. This summary is, no doubt, very inaccurate; but the events are of such a late date that every man’s memory will enable him to correct errors.

A New year.

Rich-Pete 1865 (Region embraced in the operations of the armies against Richmond and Petersburg 1865; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/99448332/)

it’s worse out in the country

We are not inclined to be ironical at this moment, and therefore refrain from the customary salutation of the season–“A Happy New Year.” Such happiness as the season affords can be easily carried in a nutshell, and there are not wanting hammers to crack even the nutshell, and expel therefrom such withered kernels of consolation as it may still contain. It has pleased the excellent and exemplary people who are making war upon us to carry on that war in a way unrecognized by any other people called civilized; not simply fight us, of which we make no complaint, but to fight us in a way which renders ordinary warfare a pastime and recreation. To burn houses and to drive forth their helpless and homeless occupants, the mother and the babe, into the freezing cold; to take their very food away from them, and, by burning mills, prevent them from getting more; to subject women to a [f]ate more horrible than death,–these have become common occurrences and the most reliable instrumentalities of Yankee warfare. Looking abroad upon the multitudes of our unprotected country population, the most virtuous, and once the most happy portion of our community, who are constantly exposed to such visitations, we have no disposition to mock their miscries by empty compliments, nor to feig[n] a hope, which we do not entertain, that the fiends who are let loose upon us will return to the bottomless pit and permit this year to be happier than the one whose dismal accounts have just been rendered up at the bar of Eternal Justice.

And yet these unparalleled trials and sufferings may prove the most effectual means by which the gulf between the two combatants will be rendered forever impassable, and the heart of the country roused to that degree of energy and self-sacrifice which is necessary to its deliverance. If wrongs like these do not thrill every soul and nerve every arm, human nature in this Confederacy must be different from human nature in any other land or age. The mode in which the war is carried on has thrown the original cause of controversy completely out of sight. If the United States had possessed, under the Constitution, an explicit assertion of the supremacy of the General Government over the States and the undoubted right of coercion, the manner and means by which it has maintained its claims would have deprived it of all advantage ground of law and awakened a universal demand from every breast for eternal separation from a people capable of such atrocities against civilization and humanity. They may thank themselves that the issue they have presented is one which the plainest understanding can comprehend and the coldest heart can feel. If we are act [?] able to with [wish?] a “Happy New Year” to the people whom they have afflicted, it required no prophet to predict a year of vengeance upon these tormentors such as only crimes like these demand and deserve. All other questions, slavery included, will soon be lost in the one question of independence of such a people.

A slave father sold away from his family (Illus. in: The Child's Anti-Slavery Book..., New York, [1860], frontispiece.; LOC: LC-USZ62-76081)

cherished institution (“A slave father sold away from his family” 1860 Library of Congress)

Darkly as the last year has closed upon our fortunes in some portions of the widely-extended field of combat, it leaves us with a larger extent of territory delivered from the enemy than the last, and with an army as numerous and formidable as a year ago took the field.–We have, besides, a powerful element of strength in reserve, which can neutralise any additional accessions to the strength of the enemy. The disasters we have suffered have been the result of errors which we have reason to believe will never occur again. With the continued aid or that marvellous Providence which has hitherto interposed in our behalf almost as manifestly as for the people of Israel, and with a provident, sagacious and energetic employment of the resources at our command, the new year, which has begun in clouds, will [e]nd in sunshine, and the bow of approaching peace span the dark cloud of war. But, under Heaven, our whole future depends upon ourselves. The people and their representatives must be alike ready to make any and all sacrifices; not only of life, but of prejudices of every kind; of pride, property, and, if need be, of institutions, however cherished, if their surrender will secure the end of their own deliverance. As the mariner, threatened with shipwreck, commits joyfully to the waves the precious cargo for which he has crossed wide oceans that he may save his vessel and his life, so must we be prepared to throw overboard everything which can deprive us of the supreme and incomparable been [boon?] of liberty and independence.

The cotton in Savannah.

–The Petersburg Express of Saturday, speaking of the cotton captured in Savannah, says:

“A gentleman now in Petersburg, who left Savannah but a short time before the evacuation, informs us that a large quantity of the cotton found in Savannah by Sherman is owned in Great Britain–some by private individuals and some by the Government. Our informant saw the cotton properly marked and lying under the British flag. Whether the Yankee Government will regard this claim of Great Britain and her subjects, we think a matter of much question.”

[Family of slaves at the Gaines' house (by G.H. Houghton, Hanover County, Virginia], [1862]; LOC: LC-DIG-ds-05506)

history? (slaves, Hanover County, Virginia. 1862 (Library of Congress))

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beauty pageant

Posted on January 1, 2015 by SUMPTER

The Battle of Franklin was already over a month old when a local newspaper reprinted the following editorial 150 years ago this month. As the war entered its fifth calendar year were the people becoming brutalized, insensate; numb to the horrors of war? From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in January 1865:

Battle of Franklin. November 30, 1864-Union (Gen. Schofield) ... Conf. (Gen. Hood (Chicago : Kurz & Allison, Art Publishers, 1891; LOC: LC-DIG-pga-01852)

“the prettiest fight of the war.”

THE AESTHETICS OF WAR. – The New York Tribune, yesterday, printed a glowing account of the battle at Franklin, Tennessee, and pronounced that bloody struggle “the prettiest fight of the war.” – We are certainly improving. A “pretty[“] battle is a novelty unheard of until our present civil war. Heretofore, the carnage and slaughter that attended a conflict filled the popular breast with sadness and mourning. Heaps of slain and piles of wounded and dying were always regarded as fearful and deplorable spectacles, no matter what triumphs might have crowned the banners of victor. But, now, we have changed all that. A battle which caused the destruction of thousands of lives, is called the prettiest fight of the war. After a while, if we continue progressing in this development of the esthetics of war, we shall see recorded in most jovial style, “a beautiful slaughter,” and “a love of carnage,” which will no doubt, soothe the pangs of those whose bleeding hearts are dending in sorrow and affliction over a son or brother slain. – Phil. Age.

Early yesterday evening I happened to open a book[1] to the page that contained the following paragraph. It seemed an appropriate coincidence for today’s post, given that it mentions the pageantry and grand style of war and given that it’s customary to look ahead but also to look back on the old year as a new one begins. Here’s part of Bruce Catton’s description of the Battle of the Wilderness, the first battle in the Overland Campaign in the merry month of May 1864:

In other battles these soldiers had known the fearful pageantry of war. There was none of that here, for this was the battle no man saw. There was only the clanging twilight and the heavy second growth and the enemies who could rarely be seen but who were always firing. There was no more war in the grand style, with things in it to hearten a man even as they killed him. This was all cramped and close and ugly, like a duel fought with knives in a cellar far underground.

The 6th Corps--Battle of the Wilderness--fighting in the woods (by Edwin Forbes, 1864 May 07; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-20683)

“”Battle of the Wilderness Fighting in the woods The 6th Corps To the right of the Wilderness Tavern” (Library of Congress)

_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________

100 years ago New York City celebrated a New Year’s that would have dumbfounded Peter Stuyvesant.

NY Times 1-1-1915

NY Times 1-1-1915

Father Time and Baby New Year from Frolic & Fun, 1897

Happy New Year!

_________________________________________________________________

  1. [1]Catton, Bruce A Stillness at Appomattox. New York: Pocket Books, Inc., 1958. Print. page 93. original Doubleday edition, 1953.↩
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the Butler did it

Posted on December 31, 2014 by SUMPTER

Apparently, even Union Secretary of War Stanton had to rely on Confederate newspapers for his first report to General Dix regarding the failed attack on Fort Fisher. From The New-York Times December 29, 1864:

WILMINGTON.; THE ATTACK ON FORT FISHER. Rebel Accounts up to Tuesday Evening. OUR LAND FORCES RE-EMBARK. The Powder Ship Exploded within Three Hundred Yards of the Fort. BOMBARDMENT ON CHRISTMAS DAY. SILENCE OF THE REBEL FIRE. The Flag of the Fort Captured. …

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 — 10:30 P.M.

Major-Gen. Dix, New-York:

The following extracts from Richmond papers of to-day have been received by the Department:

FROM WILMINGTON.

The following official dispatches were received last night:

WILMINGTON, Dec. 27 — 6 P.M.

To His Excellency, the President of the Confederate States:

The enemy has reembarked under the cover of his fleet. His movement is not developed. I have visited Fort Fisher, and find the damage slight, excepting the buildings not necessary for defence. Only two guns were disabled. The marks remaining indicate that the bombardment was very heavy. Maj. Gen. WRITING, commanding the defenses at the mouth of the river; Col. LAMB, commanding the fart, and the officers and men comprising the garrison, deserve especial commendation for the gallantry, efficiency and fortitude displayed under very trying circumstances.

(Signed,) BRAXTON BRAGG.” …

The news eventually made its way to upstate New York. Democrat-leaning publications didn’t mind letting their readers know the political General Butler led the unsuccessful ground assault. The Lincoln administration seemed to retain “bombastic blunderers” while expelling more talented military leaders (presumably like the ex-general-in-chief and past Democratic presidential candidate George B. McClellan).

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper:

Failure of the Wilmington Expedition.

Major General Benj. F. Butler (photographed between 1861 and 1865, printed between 1880 and 1889; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-35233 )

“that bird of ill-omen”

The failure of the immense and costly expedition against Wilmington, N.C., created a profound sensation in the public mind. For many months past this great expedition has been in the course of preparation at Hampton Roads, and when, some three weeks since, it set sail Southward the people were led to believe from the representations of the “loyal” press of the country, that it would certainly administer the finishing blow to the weak and tottering fabric of rebeldom. No navl [sic] expedition of modern times equaled this, and from the preparations made, the country was led to believe that it could not but be successful. Admiral Porter commanded the naval, and Butler, that bird of ill-omen, the land forces. The total number of vessels engaged in the attack was 57, mounting, all told, 591 guns. The land forces numbered some ten thousand troops, selected by Butler expressly for the work in hand. A torpedo containing some 300 tons of of powder was arranged upon a vessel and hauled up within a few hundred feet of Fort Fisher, which commands the entrance to the harbor at Wilmington. The explosion of this infernal machine was to shatter the Fort to atoms, while the incessant rain of shot and shell from the fleet was to keep the enemy at bay, until Butler landed with his forces and made the victory both sure and certain. But the gunpowder explosion did not disturb the rebel garrison, neither did the terrible bombardment produce any visible affect upon the impregnable works of the enemy, and Butler, failing, it is said to co-operate in time, was repulsed and driven.

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

The failure of the great Wilmington expedition is attributed to Gen. Butler, who commanded the land forces. The “loyal press” very generally hold him responsible for the disaster, and Admiral Porter of the naval forces is unequivocal in his censure of Butler. Isn’t it passing strange that owing to political partisanship such bombastic, blunderers as Butler are retained in important positions, while far abler men are kept out, or summarily dismissed the service?

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break before more war

Posted on December 30, 2014 by SUMPTER

An officer who completed his three year gig with the Infantry and then signed back up – with the Engineers. He was able to take a break sometime 150 years ago this month. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in December 1864:

IN TOWN. – Lieut. Arthur S. Baker, formerly of the 86th N.Y.V. is in town. He has served out his time in the 86th, and recently has been commissioned First Lieutenant in the 50th N.Y. Vol. Engineers.

Arthur S. Baker - 86th NY Infantry

Arthur S. Baker – 86th NY Infantry

Arthur S. Baker - 50th NY Engineers

Arthur S. Baker – 50th NY Engineers

The 50th NY Engineers seem to have been one of the most photographed regiments. These pictures relating to the 50th New York Engineers from November 1864 indicate a little of what headquarters might have been like when Lieutenant got down ’round Petersburg.

Surgeon's Quarters, camp of 50th New York Engineers in front of Petersburg, Va., November, 1864 (photographed 1864, [printed between 1880 and 1889]; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-33117)

“Surgeon’s Quarters, camp of 50th New York Engineers in front of Petersburg, Va., November, 1864” (Library of Congress)

[Petersburg, Va. General view of the commissary department, 50th New York Engineers] (1864 November; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-03676)

“Petersburg, Va. General view of the commissary department, 50th New York Engineers” (Library of Congress)

And this is said to be Colonel Ira Spaulding of the 50th NY Engineers in front of his winter quarters 150 years ago this winter (I think he was Lieutenant Colonel):

Winter quarters of the Engineer Corps. ( Hartford, Conn. : The War Photograph & Exhibition Co., No. 21 Linden Place, [between 1864 and 1865]; LOC: LC-DIG-stereo-1s02721)

Lieutenant Colonel Ira Spaulding and his winter digs

(LOC: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011649997/)

“hansomest, most attractive camp in the Army of the Potomac” winter 1864-65

IRA Spaulding 50th NY Engineers

IRA Spaulding 50th NY Engineers

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right to privacy?

Posted on December 29, 2014 by SUMPTER

The Civil War was hugely expensive for the federal government, and various tax schemes were imposed to generate the necessary revenue, including an income tax. Here Gotham’s Times was concerned that tax assessors did not keep citizens’ incomes secret: “We live too much in public already.” Moreover, the paper believed that income publicity would have the unintended consequence of making those who owed taxes falsify their income so that their neighbors would not know how much they made.

From The New-York Times December 29, 1864:

The Internal Revenue Law-Telling Other People’s Secrets.

Amongst the many imperfections of the Internal Revenue Law, the failure to impose secrecy on the assessors of the income tax is certainly not one of the least important. The Evening Post commented a few days ago in severe terms on the smallness of the amount returned as their yearly income by great numbers of persons whose style of living unquestionably proves the receipt of five or six times as much, and it recommends sarcastically that Mr. PUTNAM should use the records in his possession to make up a book exposing the fraudulent concealments and evasions of some of our wealthy citizens in their dealings with the Government. It says:

“One man, who was supposed to have an income of over $100,000 from unencumbered real estate, lives like an English nobleman on about $2,800 per year, and another supports a luxurious town house and country place on the prodigious income of $98 02, from which is to be deducted the sum of $2 94 for his bleeding country. Such thrift and executive capacity are unsurpassed in ancient or modern times, and they place many of our fellow citizens high above that celebrated individual of antiquity who was detected flaying a parasite for his oleaginous deposit and cuticle.”

This is doubtless all true, and if true, very disgraceful; but we think that it is also disgraceful that either the Evening Post or any-body out of the Assessor’s office should know anything about it. In England, the Income Tax Commissioners and their employes are sworn to secrecy, and any revelation of the facts intrusted to them by the taxpayers respecting their private affairs, would certainly insure their dismissal as well as their disgrace.

There ought to be a similar rule here, and that there is not is another illustration of the hasty and slipshod way in which our system of taxation has been formed. Instead of perfecting the details of the tax law, Congress was last session a great part of its time occupied in discussing the origin of the war, and devising means to punish gold speculators. Forcing men to state under oath how much money they have, how much their wives have, and where they got it, is a sufficiently inquisitorial measure in itself, and its execution ought to be surrounded by every precaution that can tend to render it less odious. Nobody likes to reveal the exact amount of his income to the public, or to anybody from whom it can be concealed. The general feeling of the civilized world on this subject is evidenced by the social usage which makes it a gross impertinence to ask for information on this subject, even from one’s intimate friends, and a piece of folly to give it unasked. And this feeling of delicacy, so far from being assailed by legislation, ought, we think, to be encouraged and fostered. We live too much in public already. The public morals and manners would both be better than they are if people’s private affairs were held in greater respect, and if what passed in people’s houses was less frequently looked on as fair matter for street and newspaper gossip.

There are a thousand reasons, which we need not enumerate, why both persons with small and large incomes should, in the great majority of cases, desire to keep all information both as to their amount and their source confined to the family circle. And although the necessities of the Government call for its communication to certain Government officers; we maintain that both policy and morality require that these officers should keep it to themselves, that they should not impart it to anybody except those who are connected with the work of assessing or collecting the taxes, and that they should not make it the subject of gossip, or even of comment to anybody but their own superiors.

Now this rule has not been adhered to here, in New-York. Returns of income are communications as strictly confidential as any communications can be; but they are not treated as such; and are, though not actually on public file, we believe, for all practical purposes open to public inspection. If A wants to know how much B has a year, or how much he made last year, he has little difficulty in finding out, and the whole ward very soon knows it, and is very soon divided into two parties of tattlers about it, one maintaining that he has made false returns, the other that he is an extravagant dog who lives beyond his income; the fact being that it is nobody’s business, except his creditors, how he lives.

It is no wonder that there are plenty of false returns, when everybody feels that everything he puts down will be known to the whole city; that his affairs, if he is a man of mark, may be the talk of all his neighbors the day after he swears to his statement, and — what is, perhaps, fully as important, no wonder there are such a large number of persons who make no return whatever, when those whose income is small, feel that in stating the amount they expose themselves to sneers or depreciation in a place in which wealth is every day becoming more and more the measure of position and respect.

Strict secrecy ought, in short, to be imposed on the assessors by law; their records ought to be made confidential communications, and all revelation of their contents punishable; and until this is done, the assessors themselves ought to act like gentlemen, and keep what they know to themselves.

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it’s the rebel armies, stupid

Posted on December 27, 2014 by SUMPTER
Graves for the invaders. A fragment. Savannah, Ga., 1863 (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/amss002770/)

the invaders just kept coming

A Democrat publication looked at the undoubted brilliance of General Sherman’s campaign through Georgia – and found the Lincoln administration wanting. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in December 1864:

The Capture of Savannah.

The War Department received dispatches from Gen. Sherman on the 25th inst., announcing the occupation of Savannah and the capture of 150 guns, 25,000 bales of cotton and plenty of ammunition. The city was occupied by our army on the 21st., the rebel Gen. Hardee with his infantry and artillery making their escape the night before, after blowing up the iron-clads and burning the Navy Yard.

The enemy, it seems, have made a very poor campaign against Sherman, and if Hardee had a force of 12,000 behind the works at Savannah, as it is estimated, it was a singular proceeding on his part to evacuate the city, without an effort to defend it. That he left 25,000 bales of cotton to fall into our hands is a very improbable story.

Savannah siege 12-1864 (LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/gvhs01.vhs00180/)

new base on the Atlantic

Gen. Sherman’s campaign has been a very brilliant one, and the occupation of Savannah furnishes him a new base upon the Atlantic coast, from which he can draw supplies, in his future movements against the enemy. The mere taking of Savannah is of no particular consequence, except in its prestige or moral effect. The success of the rebel cause by no means depends on the possession of cities, nor are they its principal strength. Until the rebel armies are wholly destroyed we will look in vain for peace under the policy of the present administration. Until our rulers are imbued with a wise statesmanship in the conduct of the war, all our victories will be in vain.

Actually, after he received news of the Union success at Antietam, President Lincoln did urge the Democrats’ beloved General McClellan to “Destroy the rebel army if possible.”

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boxing day thanks

Posted on December 26, 2014 by SUMPTER

In didn’t take President Lincoln long to get to his Christmas thank you notes in 1864. Of course, when someone gives you an entire city, it’s probably not a bad idea to make sure you show your gratitude. From The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Seven:

SHERMAN’S MARCH TO THE SEA
TO GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, December 26, 1864

MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN:—Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, the capture of Savannah.

Abraham Lincoln, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right ( engraving after painting by Marshall. Date Created/Published: c1898; LOC: LC-USZ62-94587)

“But what next?”

When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, and remembering that “nothing risked, nothing gained,” I did not interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all yours; for I believe none of us went further than to acquiesce.

And taking the work of General Thomas into the count, as it should be taken, it is indeed a great success. Not only does it afford the obvious and immediate military advantages; but in showing to the world that your army could be divided, putting the stronger part to an important new service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing force of the whole,—Hood’s army,—it brings those who sat in darkness to see a great light. But what next?

I suppose it will be safe if I leave General Grant and yourself to decide.

Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole army of officers and men.

Yours very truly,

A. LINCOLN.

Thanks to the Library of Congress we can view the original analog version of the letter (apparently a copy in John Hay’s handwriting).

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dinner plans changed

Posted on December 25, 2014 by SUMPTER
General Braxton Bragg (photographed between 1861 and 1865, printed late; LOC: LC-USZC4-7984)

Good News Bragg

Two big war events 150 years ago this week were the capture of Savannah and the attempt to capture Fort Fisher. It took a while for the news to make its way up to upstate New York. Here’s an article about Fort Fisher from a Seneca County, New York newspaper in January 1865:

Congratulatory Order of General Bragg.

The Richmond Sentinel of the 31st ult., has the following dispatch from Wilmington, N.C., from which it will be seen that that the rebel Gen. Bragg claims a great victory over our land and naval forces under Butler and Porter:

Gen. Ben. Butler (between 1855 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpbh-00894)

hungry?

General Bragg has issued a congratulatory order on the defeat of the enemy’s grand armada before Wilmington, paying a merited compliment to Generals Whiting and Kirkland, Colonel Lamb, and the officers and men engaged. the enemy’s attack on the first day lasted five hours; on the second day, seven hours – firing, altogether, over twenty thousand shots from fifty kinds of vessels. The confederates responded with six hundred and sixty-two shots on the first day, and six hundred on the second. Our loss is three killed and fifty-five wounded. The ground in the front and rear of the fort is covered with shells, and is torn in deep pits. Two guns in the fort burst, two were dismounted by ourselves, and two by the enemy’s fire, yet the fort is unhurt. Scouts report that Butler made a speech at Newbern saying he would eat his Christmas dinner at Wilmington. It is reported that a part of a negro regiment and the fifth regiment of regulars were lost in the gale. The expedition up the Roanoke has returned.

I don’t know if General Butler really boasted that he would enjoy his Christmas repast in Wilmington, but Civil War Daily Gazette reports that the general spent December 25th aboard the Chamberlain managing the rather half-hearted and failed Union ground assault.

Cartoonist Thomas Nast used Christmas 1864 to portray a victorious and yet conciliatory Union in the December 31, 1864 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the South):

christmas-dinner (Harper's Weekly, 12-31-1864 by Thomas Nast)

Good Will

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Spontaneous peace broke out along parts of the Western front around Christmas 1914. The Christmas Truce was far from universal. The December 26, 1914 issue of The New York Times reported that French guns were shelling Metz and a sea battle was raging off the Chilean coast. And a Christmas Day air battle over England:

ny times 12-26-1914

New York Times 12-26-1914

The Fortresses on the German-French Frontier. (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28257/28257-h/28257-h.htm)

no peace at Metz ( The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) at Project Gutenberg)

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Merry Christmas (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17382/17382-h/17382-h.htm)

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