can’t go back

Posted on February 17, 2014 by SUMPTER
Wendell Phillips (between 1855 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpbh-01976)

“The old-fashioned calm, quiet, home-bred, school-house farming Republic is gone forever”

150 years ago yesterday abolitionist Wendell Phillips spoke in New York City about his views on the Union after the North presumably won the shooting war. He seemed to imply that reconstruction would be complete when the South was an “exact counterpart of New-England.” Mr. Phillips was concerned with hundreds of thousands returning home with nothing to do but politics and with the immense debt the nation was accumulating. His speech was reported in a very long paragraph. Here are some excerpts along with an order by John Adams Dix detailing what was to be done with Union army deserters caught in New York State.

From The New-York Times February 17, 1864:

WENDELL PHILLIPS ON RECONSTRUCTION.; Fifth Lecture in the Course of the Women’s Loyal League. Department of the East.

WENDELL PHILLIPS last evening gave, in a lecture delivered under the auspices of the Women’s Loyal National League, hi[s] views of the means by which reconstruction of the Union was to be effected. The announcement of the speaker and the subject attracted a large audience, who gave the speaker the closest attention. The speaker was introduced by OLIVER JOHNSON, Esq.

The honble. John Hancock of Boston in New-England, president of the American congress - done from an original picture painted by Littleford (London : Publish'd as the Act directs by C. Shepherd, 1775 October 25.; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-17519)

when’s Andy Johnson going to see John Hancock under a black skin?

Mr. PHILLIPS, in rising, was greeted with loud demonstrations of applause. The subject upon which he was to speak was reconstruction — the way out of the war. Any criticisms he might make were not from any desponding view on his part, of the present hour; the North would triumph, her civilization supersede that of the South. He did not believe that the purpose of heaven above, or the Copperhead of the earth beneath, or the Secessionist of Richmond under the earth, would prevent it. [Applause.] He believed that the nation would be a free one. The negro, like every other race under the Stars and Stripes, would have his manhood accorded him. The rebellion had killed Slavery, but killed it as a typhus fever kills a man who rises at length from his bed and drags a weary life of pair for a half dozen years and then dies. When it would die no one knew; that depended upon the statesmanship of the future upon the method of reconstruction. They might think he said too much of the negro, but that race and our treatment of it was the pivot upon which the white man’s interest, the national unity and the prosperity of the Union turned. … At present, in the South, labor was dishonorable. This state of affairs must be changed, and it would be a long and tedious process to change the sentiments of the Southern people on that point. He had known a Southern man to lose his passage on a railroad train, waiting for a negro to put his valise on the freight car. The ablest, man of the West, ANDY JOHNSON, [applause,] was willing the negroes should fight, but he was going to make this exclusively a white man’s Government. There would never be a set of men in Tennessee, fit to sit down and legislate on the interests of the Empire State, till ANDY JOHNSON could see JOHN HANCOCK under a black skin. [Applause.] By keeping the masses ignorant, the Southern leaders had carried their States out of the Union. By infusing knowledge into those men those States could be made to gravitate back to the Union, and they would inevitably do it. … His reconstruction is the plan that is to be typified by those two men side by side [SC Gov.Aiken and Robert Small], with the ability to produce a future that shall be the exact counterpart of New-England and when that is done, the epoch is ended. We, have difficulties enough ahead of us. We are not again to see the nation in which we were born. The old-fashioned calm, quiet, home-bred, school-house farming Republic is gone forever. A Connecticut full of BARNUMScannot find the Union as it was. When this epoch ends — no matter when — we are to find a nation developing constantly into a first-rate military power. A million of disbanded soldiers, half fit for war, half unfit for anything else, will be scattered among us. They are to bring back to civil life ten thousand officers, their idols. They will find business and the professions moderately crowded. They will find hardly a place except in politics. … That same military bias and spirit has been the grave of free government in all time. On the other side we are to have that other great danger to free government, an immense debt. We believed we shall pay our debt and the Southern debt besides. … He did not distrust the President. [Great applause.] He was all God made him. He had grown wonderfully in three years. At first he would not teach the negro. Finally he rose up and said, in the Summer of 1862, “the negro is either a man or money; if he is a man, I will enlist him; if he is money, I will spend him.” [Laughter.] … Mr. PHILLIPS closed as follows: What we want in the future is to know where we are going. We have a right to know it. We have made a red path of the dearest and best blood of the country from New-England to New-Orleans. We have given Virginia a better title than the Mother of Presidents — we have given her the name, the Grave of Martyrs. Such sacrifices are not to be compensated for by half results. By every mother that listens and never hears the voice she loved best, by every empty seat by the hearth-stone, by every danger in the future, I claim of you not only for the negroes’ sake, but for twenty millions of white men whose prosperity is in the balance, that you be not wanting in vigilance, sincerity, daring in this hour of the nation’s crisis; that you demand of every man to explain his record, and welcome criticism, if he asks to lead the country; that he show himself capable of doing it, and show us his plan.

Mr. PHILLIPS retired amid applause.

The following order was promulgated yesterday:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST, NEW-YORK CITY, Feb. 16, 1864.

SPECIAL ORDERS No. 38. — *** III, All deserters arrested by Provost-Marshals and their deputies in the State of New-York will be delivered to the Provost-Marshal of the Southern District, at the Barracks, corner of Broome and Elm streets, New-York City, except those belonging to posts in and, around New-York City and harbor, and those belonging to other commands now in this department, who will be forwarded as heretofore to, their respective posts without delay. Three copies of descriptive rolls will be sent in all cases. ***

By command of Maj. Gen. DIX,

D.T. VAN BURER, COL. and Assists Adjt.-Gen.

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no more prisoners?

Posted on February 15, 2014 by SUMPTER

1stCavVetStandard2001.0023

For over three months the New York First Veteran Cavalry had been stationed at the cavalry depot near Washington, D.C. In early February 1864 the regiment left the capital and headed to the Harper’s Ferry area. Our SENECA correspondent wrote a letter home 150 years ago today. He had already literally ripped of a souvenir from John Brown’s jail cell in Charlestown. Later the regiment participated on a ‘scouring’ expedition in the Shenandoah Valley as far south as Strasburg. Also, rebel bushwackers/guerrillas apparently viciously killed one of SENECA’s fellow cavalrymen.

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1864:

First Veteran Cavalry.

CAMP SULLIVAN, VA.,
(Near Harper’s Ferry,) Feb. 15, 1864.

FRIEND STOWELL: – The 1st. Veteran cavalry has “changed its base” but in rather a different direction from that anticipated, for instead of going to Texas, as we were led to believe we should, we were suddenly ordered to pack our saddles and march to Harper’s Ferry, and on Tuesday the 2d inst. the Regiment broke camp and left its pleasant location at Giesbow Point, for the celebrated Valley of the Shenandoah.

Hall Town - Harper's Ferry (1864; http://www.loc.gov/item/2005625099/)

Hall Town on a turnpike and railroad to the west of Harper’s Ferry

Passing through Rockville and Frederick City, places familiar to many of us, we arrived at Harper’s Ferry on the afternoon of the third day, and marching about four miles up the valley encamped once more upon the “sacred soil” near a place called Hall Town.

We soon found that we were indeed in the field again, for after a rest of only one day, we were in the saddle and off on a scout up the Shenandoah. Co. K, however, only went as far as the village of Charlestown, which it occupied, and with Co. C, held for three days; while the rest of the regiment scouted through the surrounding country and up the river twenty or thirty miles.

Charlestown is noted as being the place where “Old John Brown, who went to Harper’s Ferry,” was confined, tried, and executed. The Jail still stands, but having been occupied by our troops several times, presents rather a dilapidated appearance. – While we were here your correspondent succeeded after much exertion in wrenching from its iron fastenings the huge lock which fastened “Old John” in his cell, and sent it northward, a memorial of what here occurred. Just opposite the jail in the Court House, where John Brown was tried, and where at a later date the 1st Maryland Regiment were surrounded, and gallantly resisted an overwhelming force of the Rebels, the thick walls are every where perforated for loop holes from which the besieged fired their rifles until all their ammunition was exhausted, and the marks of shot and shell are visible in all directions. Our Regiment having accomplished the object for which it was sent out, returned to camp, and we evacuated Charlestown and fell back also.

The valley of the Shenandoah (New York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1864; LOC: LC-USZC2-3307)

and “smiling pastures” (Currier & Ives 1864)

But there is no rest for “Ye gallant Cavaliers,” for at three o’clock on Friday morning the bugles sounded, and long before daylight the whole Cavalry Brigade was off again, on another raid up the Shenandoah. We divided into parties of three or four hundred each, and proceeded by different routes up the valley in search of the bands of Guerrillas that infest this part of the country. Company K and three other companies, under command of major Sullivan, were ordered to scour the country as far as Strasburg, which place we reached on the evening on the same day, having made a march of about sixty miles, and dashed into the villages of Berryville, Milwood, White Post, Newton, and Middletown on the route. The roads were in a splendid condition and we enjoyed the ride vastly. The Turnpikes are all macadamized, perfectlt smooth and hard, and superior to any you can point out in the North. The roads run in all directions through Western Virginia and have been of great advantage to the Rebs, facilitating the rapid movement of their armies and the transportation of supplies. The Valley of the Shenandoah is called the Garden of Virginia, and well it may be. Well stocked farms and stately mansions, beautiful groves and smiling pastures meet the eye in all directions. The negroes were plowing as we passed, and many a field was already green with new wheat.

Shenandoah Valley (http://www.loc.gov/item/2005625054/)

Valley map

Arriving at Strasburg about six o’clock we dashed into the town in hopes of capturing some of Gillmore’s Band said to be there, but finding “nary Reb,” fell back, and bivouacked in the woods, and in the morning marched to Winchester having a little skirmish on the way, and a race of two hours through the woods after a squad of Guerrillas.

Winchester is quite an important town, the largest in the Valley and has been the scene of some hard fighting; but more of this at some other time, as my letter is getting rather long already. After a short rest we marched back to camp, which we reached late Saturday evening pretty well tired out, having marched about one hundred and twenty miles in two days. Since we have been here we have captured eleven Bushwackers, shot a few more and lost two men, one of whom, we found tied to a tree with his arm torn off, and a ball through his his heart. Our boys will not take many more prisoners if this is the kind of warfare that is carried on against us.

The different Cavalry Regiments here have been organized into a Brigade under the command of Col. Taylor, who is Chief of Cavalry in this Department.

All letters for our company should be directed as follows:

Co. K 1st Veteran Cavalry N.Y.S. Vols.
Near Harper’s Ferry, Va.

Our friends should be careful about this, as there is another regiment here called the 1st. New York Cavalry.

Please send us a few papers, and ask our friends to do the same as we are in “Dixie” now, and a Northern paper is worth having now.I captured a “Richmond Whig” at Strasburg, which I forward.

Yours ever, SENECA.

I got the image of the regiment’s battle flag at the New York State Military Museum.

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stung on the ‘underground railroad’

Posted on February 14, 2014 by SUMPTER

A Richmond embalmer was charged with helping to conduct Confederate deserters north with his coffin wagon. He was caught as part of a sting operation conducted by the police.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 13, 1864:

Local Matters.

Bribery and aiding Confederate deserters to escape.

–On Friday of last week Dr. William Maclure, the embalmer, and Robert Kirby, and M. Harris, were arrested a few miles from Richmond by Detectives John Rees and Robert Craddock, of Gen. Winder’s police, on the charge of aiding deserters from the Confederate service to escape to the North, and offering to bribe the guard who arrested them. Yesterday Maclure was brought to trial before C. S. Commissioner A. H. Sands, when the following testimony was given:

John Rees, C. S. Detective, sworn.–On Friday last myself and Robert Craddock, a Detective, were directed by Capt. McCubbin, Chief of Police, to proceed immediately out on the Mechaniesville turnpike and arrest all the parties who might be caught in a certain wagon on that road. Craddock went ahead, and I followed a short distance behind him — he in a buggy and I on horse back. On getting to Howard’s Grove I hid myself, and suffered the wagon in which Dr. Maclure, M. Harris, and John Weatherford were, to pass by me, thinking that we would stand a much better chance of capturing them, in case of flight, than we would it both were in front. After they passed on I followed behind, and in due time came up to a picket post where Craddock, the prisoners, and a Mr. Weatherford had come to a halt. There were also at this post three or four pickets. As I dismounted Craddock and Maclure came towards me, when Craddock remarked that the “thing had been gone through with.” I asked him if the passport was right, and his reply was that it was correct, at the same time remarking that Maclure had attempted to bribe him to let him off for $1,000. He had already paid over $450, and would give him $550 when he returned to Richmond. Soon after this Maclure approached and asked if he could speak to me. He then took me around a picket post and said he had agreed to give Craddock $1,000, and that if I would not implicate him in the scrape in which he was caught, he would also give me $1,000; he did not care what I did with the other fellows found in his company. This proposition I, with an oath, refused. Noticing a coffin in the wagon which he drove, I asked him whose it was. He replied that it was his; he was on his way to Essex county to take up a dead body. I abused Harris some for making all the money he could in the Confederacy, and then, when his services were needed in her defence, he was for running away. We then took the Doctor and his companion in custody and brought them to Richmond.

John L. Weatherlord. C. S. Detective, sworn.–I have recently been appointed a Government detective. A short time since I heard that Dr. Maclure’s office was the general depot of the underground railroad to the North, and reported the fact to headquarters. Was directed by Capt. McCubbin to ferret the matter out. Last Wednesday the 3d inst., I called on Dr. Maclure at his office and told him I wished to speak with him in private. He replied that he was then engaged, but would be at leisure at 9 o’clock that night. On informing him that I had a friend I wished to bring with me, the Doctor said “all right;” he thought he understood my business. I and my friend called according to promise, and stated that I had heard he could get us to the North. He told us he could do so; that his price was $3,000. My friend became frightened at the price and backed out. I told him, however, I would call again in the morning at eight o’clock. I did call. On this occasion I met with a man, who Maclure introduced as “Capt. Kirby, the man who passes us through the lines.” I was informed by the Doctor that he expected to make his next trip that (Thursday) evening, and that I must be on hand promptly. On re-appearing at the time appointed, Capt. K was again present. Maclure pointed to a chair on which were three passports, and remarked “there are the passports–one of them is yours, and you are to go by the name of Redford — the other two I have persons to assume them.” The names of the persons for whom these passports were made out were F. C. Redford, R. C. Huntly, and J. B. Phillips. The doctor then told me he could not go that evening, but that I must meet him at his office at 12 o’clock the next day. Before leaving he also told me that Captain Kirby required $1,000 for his share, which I paid down. Next day I called at the appointed time, and found Maclure’s wagon waiting in front of his office, with a coffin in it. Fearing that my appearance in this wagon on the public street would excite some suspicion, (so I told the doctor,) I declined getting in at that place, and remarked that I would get up somewhere else. He suggested on 17th street, near the Old Market. I went there, and soon after Maclure drove up. As I jumped up into the wagon, he got out and went a short distance up the street. Soon after, he came back and remarked that he had heard from Capt. Kirby I was a Government detective, and that “if you are you had better be saying your prayers; for I’ll bed — d if I don’t shoot you.”–He looked like he would do it, too. I told him I was sincere in my motives — not to mind what K. said; had nothing to do with him, anyhow. This seemed to satisfy him, and we drove off. As we approached Howard’s Grove Harris came up with a valise, and took a seat on the coffin by me. We soon got into conversation, when he remarked that perhaps we were going the same way. He said he was going North; hoped he would succeed in getting there, &c. Nothing further of interest occurred till we reached the picket post where Craddock and Rees were, and at which we halted.

By the defence:–I was to pay $3,000–$1,000 to Kirby, (which I paid,) $1,000 to Dr. Maclure while on the route, and $1,000 more to a ferryman between this city and Essex. Maclure never asked for the thousand which I was to pay him. The coffin was taken along for a blind. I do not know what was in the coffin; knocked on it, and it appeared to be empty.

Capts. Hudson and Irwing, of Gen. Elzey’s Staff, were then summoned, in order to prove the genuineness of the passports which Maclure used on his trip. They acknowledged having given him passports on two occasions for these men, (Huntley, Redford, and Phillips.) Maclure represented that they were to assist him in disinterring dead bodies. The passports were to go to Essex. No passes are granted from Gen. Elzey’s office, except those to cross the lines. It have been has only been a short time since passports have been issued from Gen. E’s office at all.

On account of the absence from the city of important witnesses, no further examination took place, and the Commissioner adjourned the case over till Monday. The parties were then recommitted to Castle Thunder for safekeeping.

According to Encyclopedia Virginia, due partly to a lack of reliable evidence,

Historians have argued over the proper way to interpret the act of desertion—whether it should be regarded as a protest against the state or a reaction to the specific and immediate problems that soldiers faced (such as inadequate rations, excessively strict officers, etc.).

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confusing government?

Posted on February 13, 2014 by SUMPTER

On February 1, 1864 President Lincoln ordered a draft of 500,000 men. Democrat papers in upstate New York examined the president’s words to try to figure out how many previous enrollees might be credited toward the new call. I’m about a week late on at least one of the following two articles.

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in February 1864:

The Call for 500,000 Men.

The call of the President for 500,000 more men has taken the country by surprise. It was generally believed that the country was furnishing the administration all the men it required under the call of October last. But it seems not; and the following order was issued on Monday last:

WASHINGTON, Feb 1. – Ordered, That a draft of five hundred thousand (500,000) men, to serve for three years or during the war, be made on the tenth (10th) day of March next, for the military service of the United States, crediting and deducting therefrom so many as may have been enlisted or drafted into the service prior to the first (1st) day of March, and not before credited.

(Signed) ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

The Administration journals construe the meaning of the above somewhat differently. Some assert that it includes the 300,000 called for in October last, while others insist that its language will not admit of such construction, and that is an order for 500,000 additional men. The Administration may possibly vouchsafe an explanation in due time, in order to quiet the agitated public mind. In the meantime it is expected that everybody will rush to arms to aid on the work of war, desolation and plunder, and if need be to lend a helping hand to perpetuate the reign of the present corrupt and profligate dynasty.

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in February 1864:

The War Calls.

There is some difference of opinion as to the aggregate of the calls for troops, but the fact of the calls is correctly set down as follows, year and date being given:

April 16, 1861 …………………………. 75,000
May 4, 1861 ……………………………. 64,748
From July to December, 1861 … 500,000
July 1, 1862 ………………………….. 300,000
Draft summer of 1863 ……………. 300,000
February 1, 1864 ………………….. 500,000

Total ………………………………….. 2,039,748

This is the aggregate of the calls for men in the army alone, while the naval service foots up as follows, as shown by the recent report of the Secretary of the Navy:

Vessels in service and building … 588
Total tonnage …………………. 498,000
No. of guns ………………………… 4,443
No. of seaman July 1st ……… 34,000

It seems almost incredulous that so many men have been called into the service since the outbreak of this most unnatural strife. The demands of the Administration so far have been promptly met, but the time is rapidly coming when the patience of the country will have become exhausted. It cannot be that this people will much longer quietly submit to the terrible sacrifices that the Administration continually demands. The end is surely coming!

I’d say The New-York Times, which actually published the president’s February 1st order on February 1st, was basically a pro-Administration journal. It construed the president’s words to mean an enlargement of the last draft. Later on it hinted at one of conscription’s main purposes – to encourage volunteers[1]. From The New-York Times February 2, 1864:

The New Draft a Wise Measure.

The public mind has been flattering itself that the fighting period was nearly over, and was little prepared for the President’s enlargement of the last draft from three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand. At first look the new burden is not an agreeable one; yet every man who desires a speedy termination of the war, ought to welcome it. It is the one great requisite for that end.

The great mistake from the beginning of this war has been the failure to put adequate forces into the field. There is no reason why three or even five such armies as the Army of the Potomac should not have been operating against the enemy at the close of the first year of the war. A million and a half of men could have been drawn from the country with less effort than has since been expended in keeping up the number of effective soldiers to a third of that figure. Properly equipped and disciplined, and simultaneously hurled, forward upon the “Confederacy” from different directions, they would have crushed it within six months, almost to a dead certainty. It would not have been within the power of the rebel leaders — whatever their civil energy or their military skill — to withstand such a combination of great movements. But this grand levy was not made. The consequence is that the minor levies have had to be and will have to be repeated to such an extent that the final aggregate will amount at least to the million and a half before the war closes, while the destruction of life and the accumulation of debt will be double what they otherwise would have been.

We don’t say this as complaining of the Government. To understand after experience is easy for all. To understand before experience is sometimes impossible even for the wisest. The mistake was universal — indulged not a whit less by the people than by the Government. It sprang from an inadequate comprehension of the spirit and resources of the rebellion. Nobody believed that the Southern people could be brought up to such desperate resistance, or that the rebel chiefs could find the means, even if they found the men, to maintain the war on so mighty a scale. …

But, even as it is, a great effort must be put forth to supply the Government with the number it demands. All loyal men must firmly nerve themselves to meet the call. They must make the best use of the present month to supply the quotas, as far as possible, by promoting volunteering; and, when the draft comes, they must sustain the Government in enforcing it with most thorough rigor. Faction will again do its utmost to make trouble. It must be kept under by public opinion in its sternest exercise. The Enrollment Law has been, or will be amended, so as as to remove all its old inequalities and defects, and in all essential respects will be as just and efficient as any human legislation on the subject can be. Congress is discharging its whole duty in perfecting it. The President is discharging his whole duty in applying it. It remains for the people to discharge their whole duty by sustaining it. Congress may devise ever so effective machinery; the Executive may put it on the track ever so promptly and squarely; and yet, without the motive power of the popular will, it can accomplish nothing.

  1. [1]McPherson, James M. The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. Print. page 605.↩
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rail-splitter’s new tools

Posted on February 12, 2014 by SUMPTER

Almost a year and a half ago Democrats in Seneca Falls, New York formed a McClellan Club. Here’s a report about an organization in New York City that supported President Lincoln and the Union. One of the speakers modified the image of Lincoln as rail-splitter. The president was using the Emancipation Proclamation and the North’s army to splinter those who initially splintered the Union.

From The New-York Times February 12, 1864:

Meeting of the Union Lincoln Association.

[Lincoln & Douglas in a presidential footrace]. No. 1, 1860 ( Buffalo, N.Y. : Published by J. Sage & Sons, 1860; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-15777)

rail-splitter with maul in 1860 race

There was a very large attendance at Hope Chapel last evening, on the occasion of the second regular meeting of the Union Lincoln Association. Communications were read from Hon. ISAAC ARNOLD, of Illinois, and Mr. D.S. GREGORY, both expressive of sympathy with the object of the association.

Mr. S.S. WYCKOFF was elected Treasurer of the association.

The President, Mr. SIMEON DRAPER, made a preliminary and laudatorys speech upon Mr. LINCOLN, and was followed Dy Mr. HENRY S. SMITH, who announced himself as having watched every movement of Mr. LINCOLN, and had come to the conclusion that the country could not afford to lose him as head of the Government.

Mr. SMITH was followed by Judge QUACKENBUSH, who said that in the last three years Mr. LINCOLN had lived thirty. Mr. QUACKENBUSH detailed the state of the country, and of the North, when Mr. LINCOLN came into office, stated a number of his successive acts, and closed by observing of the Emancipation proclamation, that it contained more meaning in fewer words, than any document, except the Lord’s Prayer and the Declaration of Independence. It made not only the negro free, but the white man, for he felt himself now able to speak his sentiments in every spot where waved the American flag. He could now assert the right everywhere of freedom to all. At one time, had he done so near the grave of his country’s founder, he would have received a cheap costume of tar and feathers.

President Lincoln, writing the Proclamation of Freedom. January 1st, 1863 (by David Gilmour Blythe, 1863; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-18444)

rail-splitter pens Emancipation with maul on floor

The speaker concluded by disclaiming any motlves of self-interest whatever in the founders of the assiociation.

Mr. JAMES D. MCCLELLAN was then introduced. In speaking of the Proclamation, he said that President LINCOLN hurled it against the rebellion, and shattered its gigantic form. He alluded to the sneers against Mr. LINCOLN in regard to his being a rail-splitter. He thanked God that he had been a rail-splitter. He had split the Southern Confederacy into so many rails that all the cabinetmakers in creation could not glue them together again. BUTLER, BANKS and GRANT were his hatchets and axes, and they split it up so well that abundant splinters in the shape of JEFF. DAVIS and coadjutors might soon be expected to fly to parts unknown.

The meeting then adjourned to Thursday next.

If it’s the same Hope Chapel, it is a place remembered for holding memorials for John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

You can read about the political cartoon and the painting at the Library of Congress.

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camouflaged explosive devices

Posted on February 11, 2014 by SUMPTER
Thomas Courtenay in the uniform of a Confederate Army Captain. Family photo, over 100 years old. Owner retains any applicable rights subject to the GFDL.

bomb designer

The Union was building a huge navy to support army operations and to blockade southern ports. The Confederacy was never going to build enough ships to compete straight up against the North. In the latter part of 1863 Thomas Edgeworth Courtenay submitted plans for a “coal torpedo” to the Confederate government. They bombs would be made to resemble coal and be thrown into a ship’s coal supply. When the bomb exploded in the firebox it was intended to, at the least, disable the engines.

The Official Records provide evidence that by 150 years ago this week the camouflaged bombs were becoming a reality:

U.S.S Jacob Bell,
Off Blakistone Island, February 9, 1864.

SIR: I have to report that I received six refugees on board this morning, coming direct from Richmond, Va. One of them, Joseph Leuty, made the following statement, which I thought important enough to bring to your notice. He says:

I am an Englishman by birth, a molder by trade; have lived in the South for the last four years; for the last eight months I have been working in the artillery shop on Seventh street in Richmond, where they are now making a shell which looks exactly like a piece of coal, pieces of which were taken from a coal pile as patterns to imitate. I have made these shells myself. I believe these shells have power enough to burst any boiler. After they were thrown in a coal pile I could not tell the difference between them and coal myself.

CoalTorpedo (First published in 1907, Edward Ripley, The capture and occupation of Richmond)

this masquerade

They are intended to be thrown among the coal in Northern depots by bogus refugees, spies, etc. Every blockade runner is to be provided with them, and in case of being captured are to be thrown among the coal. They commenced making these shells two weeks ago.

Hoping that this information may reach you in season to prevent any accident to our forces, I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

G.C. SCHULZE,
Acting Master, Commanding.

Commander FOXHALL A. PARKER, U.S. Navy
Commanding Potomac Flotilla.

The Coal torpedo was credited with a couple successes.

The photo of Thomas Edgeworth Courtenay is licensed by Creative Commons

USS Jacob Bell (1861-1865) Colored lithograph, published circa the 1860s. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

ship where refugee from Richmond confessed

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Streight away

Posted on February 10, 2014 by SUMPTER

150 years ago this morning jailers at Richmond’s Libby Prison found out they had lost something – 109 Union officer prisoners who escaped during the night through a tunnel they had dug. Although Colonel Thomas E. Rose was the leader of the escape (see Wikipedia link below), a newspaper up here in the North gave the lead billing to Colonel Abel Delos Streight, leader of a mostly unsuccessful raid in northern Alabama in the spring of 1863. His force was captured by General Forrest’s troops. Colonel Streight was sent to Libby. Apparently a Richmond paper also focused on Streight because he was “charged with having raised a negro regiment.”

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 11, 1864:

Important escape of Yankee prisoners

–Over Fifty Feet of Ground Tunnelled.–The most important escape of Federal prisoners which has occurred during the war took place at the Libby prison sometime during last Tuesday night. Of the eleven hundred Yankee officers confined therein, one hundred and nine [f]ailed to answer to their names at roll call yesterday morning. Embraced in this number were 11 Colonels, 7 Majors, 32 Captains, and 59 Lieutenants. The following is a list of the Colonels and Majors:

Col. Abel D. Streight, 51st Ind. Inf. USA (between 1860 and 1870; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-05652)

“a notorious character”

Col A D Streight, 51st Indiana regiment, a notorious character captured in Tennessee by Gen Forrest, and charged with having raised a negro regiment.
Col W. G Ely, 18th Connecticut.
Col J F Boyd, 20th army corps.
Col H C Hobart, 21st Wisconsin.
Col W P Kendrick, 3d West Tenn cav.
Col W B McCreary, 21st Michigan.
Col Thos E Rose, 77th Pa.
Col J P Spofford, 97th N Y.
Col C W Tilden, 16th Maine.
Col T S West, 24th Wisconsin.
Col D Miles, 19th Pa.
Major J P Collins, 29th Ind.
Major G W Fitzsimmons, 37th Ind.
Major J H Hooper, 15th Miss.
Major B B Macdonald, 100th Ohio.
Major A Von Mitzel, 74th Pa.
Major J N Walker, 73d Ind.
Major J A Henry, 5th Ohio.

Immediately on discovering the absence of these prisoners some excitement was created among the Confederate officers in charge of the prison, and in a short time every means was adopted to ascertain the manner of their escape. At first Major Turner was inclined to the opinion that the sentinels on duty had been bribed to pass them out, and this impression was strengthened by the assertion of the Yankees remaining behind that the work had been accomplished through means of heavy fees, which had been paid a Confederate officer in the building, and his influence over the guard in their behalf. On learning this the order was given to place the guard under arrest and commit them to Castle Thunder. Not feeling satisfied about the matter, the Major and Lt. Latouche determined to leave no stone unturned to ferret out the mystery, and thereupon proceeded to institute a search in every direction for further information. After a fruitless examination of every part of the building where it was thought possible for a man to escape, they were about abandoning further investigation, when the idea struck them that some clue might be obtained by going into the lot on the opposite side of the street, when a large hole was soon discovered in the corner of one of the stalls of a shed which had been used as a stable, and on a line with the street running between it and the Libby prison.–This discovery fully satisfied them that they had found out the means by which the escape had been made, and their next step was to trace out the spot where the tunnelling was commenced. Some few yards from the eastern end of the building, in the basement it was found that a large piece of granite, about three feet by two, had been removed from the foundation and a tunnel extending fifty-nine feet across the street, eastward, into a vacant lot formerly known as Carr’s warehouse, out through. This tunnel was about seven feet from the surface of the street, and from two and a half to three feet square. The lot in which the excavation emptied is several feet below the street, and the fleecing prisoners when they emerged from the tunnel found themselves on level ground. Running on Cary street is a brick building, through the centre of which is a large arch, with a wooden gate to permit egress and ingress to and from the lot. By this route they got into Canal street, and keeping close to the caves of the building they succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the sentinels on duty. The prisoners are confined in the second story of the Libby prison, and the first and basement stories had to be attained before the mouth of the tunnel could be reached. From the first floor leading to the basement there was formerly a stairway, but since the building has been in use as a prison the aperture at the head of the steps has been closed with very heavy planks.

Libby breakout (by Robert Knox Sneden; LOC: gvhs01 vhs00025 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.ndlpcoop/gvhs01.vhs00025 )

tunnel in orange

By some means the prisoners would cut through both these floors when they wished to gain the cellar, and after they had passed down would close up the holes with the planks which had been taken out so neatly that it could not be discovered. The cellar covers the whole area of the building and is only used as a place for storing away meal, &c., for the use of the prison. It being very large only the front part was required, and therefore the back part of it, which is considerably below Cary street, is scarcely ever visited. The dirt which accumulated as the work progressed was spread about this part of the basement and then covered over with a large quantity of straw which has been deposited therein. It is not known how long the operatives in this stupendous undertaking have been engaged; but, when the limited facilities which they possessed is taken into consideration, there can be no doubt that months have elapsed since the work was first begun. The whole thing was skillfully managed and bears the impress of master minds and indomitable perseverance.

Sometime since a Yankee Captain was found in the cellar, and on being taken before Major Turner, all smeared up with meal, he gave as his excuse for being there that he did not get enough to eat and was looking for something to make bread with. This was doubtless a falsehood, and his only business was to assist in the work which they had in hand.

There seems to be no doubt that further escape through this avenue was contemplated, and the earnestness with which the prisoners who remained behind tried to throw the blame upon the guard was only done to prevent further inquiry into the matter, and thereby leave the tunnel open for others to pass through. Probably one more night might have emptied the prison of the whole number confined therein.

Yesterday workmen were engaged in stopping up the passage which had been made from the prison, and it may now safely be relied on that no other prisoners will ever take their departure from the Libby against the knowledge and consent of the officers in charge.

As soon as the facts of the escape became fully known, orders were received by Col. Brown, commanding the cavalry battalion for local defence, that a detachment of his force should immediately scour the surrounding country in pursuit of them, and accordingly twenty-five men from each company soon started off for that purpose. Four of the prisoners who succeeded in getting out were, late in the afternoon, recaptured and brought back. They had gotten about 22 miles from the city before they were overtaken. It is hardly probable, from the steps which have been taken to prevent it, that many of them will succeed in reaching the Yankee lines.

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in February 1864:

Col. Streight and one hundred and nine Union officers recently escaped from Libby Prison, Richmond. The most of them have safely reached our lines.

Well, just barely. According to Wikipedia only fifty-nine escapees made it to Union lines., but

To judge the success of the Libby Prison escape solely by the number of men who crossed Federal lines would be a mistake. Richmond was deeply affected by the break, and Libby Prison itself was thrown into chaos, much to the satisfaction and raised morale of the remaining prisoners.

libey-prison-civil-war (Harper's Weekly, March 5, 1864)

THE ESCAPED REFUGEES FROM THE LIBEY PRISON.

The image of the “escaped refugees” was published in the March 5, 1864 issue of Harper’s Weekly at Son of the South.

You can view Colonel Streight’s grave at Civil War Album, which also points out a couple difficulties with the 1863 raid right from the outset: the raiders were mounted infantrymen with no cavalry training, and they were riding on those cantankerous mules.

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

little drummer boy …

Posted on February 8, 2014 by SUMPTER
Sgt. Johnny Clem ( Schwing & Rudd, photographers, Army of the Cumberland. 1863; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-34511)

“small even for his age”

… promoted to sergeant for shooting a rebel officer

150 years ago the Northern press celebrated a young hero. From the February 6, 1864 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the South):

SERGEANT JOHN CLEM.
OUR YOUNGEST SOLDIER.

SERGEANT JOHN CLEM, Twenty-second Michigan Volunteer Infantry, is the youngest soldier in our army. He is 12 years old, and small even for his age. His home is Newark, Ohio. He first attracted the notice of General Rosecrans at a review at Nashville, where he was acting as marker of his regiment. The General, attracted by his youth and intelligence, invited him to call upon him whenever they were in the same place. Rosecrans saw no more of Clem until his return to Cincinnati, when one day coming to his rooms at the Burnet House, he found the boy awaiting him. He had seen service in the mean while. He had gone through the battle of Chickamauga, where he had three bullets through his hat. Here he killed a rebel Colonel. The officer, mounted on horseback, encountered the young hero, and called out, “Stop, you little Yankee devil!” By way of answer the boy halted, brought his piece to “order,” thus throwing the Colonel off his guard. In another moment the piece was cocked, brought to aim, fired, and the officer fell dead from his horse. For this achievement Clem was promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and Rosecrans bestowed upon him the Roll of Honor. He is now on duty at the head-quarters of the Army of the Cumberland.

Maj. Genl. John Clem, 9/19/22 ([19]22 September 19; LOC: LC-DIG-npcc-07042)

the general 59 years after Chickamauga (9-19-1922)


Wikipedia points out that “Clem’s fame for the shooting is also open for debate as there are no records of a Confederate colonel being wounded during the battle despite press reports supporting the story into the early 20th century.” In October 1863 Clem was captured in Georgia but exchanged shortly afterwards. He served with the Army of the Cumberland as a mounted orderly for General George Thomas until his discharge in September 1864. Mr. Clem rejoined the army in 1871 and never left again until his mandatory retirement in 1915. He was the last Civil war veteran to serve in the U.S. army. General Clem is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

According to The Civil War in Georgia that “More than 10,000 soldiers under the age of 18 served in the Union Army during the Civil War.”

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“rotten eggs were in demand”

Posted on February 7, 2014 by SUMPTER

According to this account, Confederate patriots broke up a peace meeting 150 years ago this month in Greensboro, North Carolina. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 6, 1864:

A Peace meeting in North Carolina.

–The New York papers, which copy so much about the Union feeling in North Carolina, will doubtless be a little surprised at the following results of a “peace meeting” recently held in Greensboro’, N. C. The account is from a correspondent of the Raleigh (N. C.)Confederate, dating the 1st inst.

Private Reuben Goodson of Co. G, 52nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment in uniform (between 1862 and 1864; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-34376)

not a traitor (Private Reuben Goodson of Co. G, 52nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment)

The announcement of a “peace meeting” to be held in our town, filled our loyal people with the gloomiest forebodings; but now, as it is over, we breathe more freely. The meeting was a disgrace to our patriotic little town — but it broke up in a row, and a laughable affair it was. Crowds of people came from the country “to see what would be done,” as they said. The three leaders, R. P. D., D. F. C., and J. L., tried to get up a meeting. The Court house bell several times sent out its inviting peals, and finally, at 12 ½ o’clock, the meeting began by one of the leaders trying to speak.–But the crowd cheered, hissed, screamed, and applauded in such a manner that every effort to be heard or to organize was utterly in vain. The resolutions could not be read. The crowd used all kinds of abusive and ridiculous epithets, rendering the appearance of the speaker supremely ludicrous. Even rotten eggs were in demand, and the traitors gave up in despair, and sneaked out of the Court house at 1 o’clock, the meeting having lasted only half an hour.

Late in the day one of the leaders was accosted on the street by a soldier, who asked “if he were one of the Union men?” and upon his replying in the affirmative, gave him a good thrashing, and it left alone might have knocked all his treason out of him, but several persons interfered and he was carried off by a negro man covered with blood.

Regret is experienced by many that the others did not get a thrashing too, but they were smart enough to keep out of the way. The whole town seems to feel indignant at their course, and would like to see them suffer for their attempts to get up a “traitors meeting.” A fourth leader had the sagacity to leave town early on Saturday morning, no doubt having some important business elsewhere which demanded his attention; and his short experience in military matters during the first year of the war having taught him that “discretion is the better part of valor,” and that “he who runs away may live to fight another day.”

Although apparently not at the Greensboro meeting, William Woods Holden “a leader of the North Carolina peace movement. In 1864, he was the unsuccessful ‘peace candidate’ against incumbent Governor Zebulon B. Vance. Vance won overwhelmingly, and Holden carried only three counties: Johnston, Randolph, and Wilkes.”

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peace talk

Posted on February 6, 2014 by SUMPTER

The Richmond Dispatch might have (feared) and loathed Abraham Lincoln and his Black Republican party, but it didn’t like Northern Democrats much either. 150 years ago this week the newspaper reported on a speech in the U.S. Congress by New York Democrat Fernando Wood, who advocated an immediate peace: eventually peace had to come; why not now before both sections were entirely exhausted and impoverished.

Representative Wood apparently said the war was started without cause.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 5, 1864:

A Declaration for peace.

In the Yankee House of Representatives, on the 25th ult., Hon. Fernando Wood delivered a speech in opposition to a resolution explanatory of the confiscation act. His concluding remarks are reported as follows:

Hon. Fernando Wood of N.Y. (between 1855 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpbh-02776)

Napoleon-esque Copperhead

The Administration and the party in power were opposed to the restoration of the Union, and desired a continuance of the war by which to accomplish designs of partisan advantage. The ruling elements were fanaticism and corruption.–Thus the war is sustained. Under the plea of patriotism the most damnable deeds were being perpetrated. This war must cease. It was commenced without cause and has been prosecuted without glory, and will end in national impoverishment, disintegration, and ruin. Those who favored the war favored disunion. Peace is the only hope of restoration. It was idle to talk of the policies of the war. It made no difference what were the policies. The result would be the subversion of republican institutions and utter destruction. He was opposed to the conduct of the South, but was equality opposed to the conduct of the North, under the Republican policy. Both were for dissolution. Let us, therefore, attempt a peaceable solution of the difficulty. Peace must come sooner or later. Why not procure it before both sections were exhausted and all their material interests destroyed? Mr. Wood appealed earnestly to the boasted spirit of Christian civilization of progress and of common humanity to throw itself the arena and save the American people.

Peace! peace! God of our fathers, grant us peace!
Peace in our hearts — at thine altars, peace.
Peace in the red waters and their blighted shores;
Peace for the leaguered cities, and the hosts.
That watch and bleed around them and within;
Peace for the homeless and the fatherless;
Peace for the captive on his weary way.
And the rude crowd who jeer his helplessness;
For them that suffer, them that do thus wrong–
Sinning and sinned against — O. God, for all,
For a distracted, torn, and bleeding land,
Speed the glad tidings — give us, give us peace.

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