“dignified address”

Posted on November 20, 2013 by SUMPTER

This is the first review I saw of November 19th’s Gettysburg cemetery dedication in the Richmond Dispatch. It focused on Lincoln’s and Seward’s responses to serenaders the evening before and the main speech by Edward Everett on the 19th.

Gettysburg, Pa. (day of Lincoln's address) (photographed 1863 November 19, printed between 1880 and 1889; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-32849)

Yankees “on hand in large quantities”

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 25, 1863:

The Gettysburg cemetery Celebration — the speeches.

The Gettysburg cemetery dedication was entirely Yankeeish. The Star Spangled Banner was all over the ground, but was adorned with some strings of black in view of the occasion.–The soldiers, citizens, and music were on hand in large quantities. The cemetery contains one corner dedicated to Virginia, which contains two bodies which saw the light first, very likely, in Holland. The day before the dedication Lincoln arrived, and was called out for a speech, and gave forth the following dignified address:

abraham-lincoln-pictures-4

speechless

“I appear before you, fellow citizens, merely to thank you for this compliment. The inference is a very fair one that you would hear me for a little while, at least, were I to commence to make a speech. I do not appear before you for the purpose of doing so, and for several very substantial reasons. The most substantial of these is that I have no speech to make [laughter]. It is some what important in my position that one should not say any foolish things if he can help it, and it very often happens that the only way to help it is to say nothing at all. [Renewed laughter.]

“Believing that is my precise position this evening, I must beg of you to excuse me from saying ‘one word.'”

Seward was also serenaded, and made a speech, in which he announced that he was “sixty years old and upwards,” and that forty years ago he fore saw, “opening before this people, a graveyard that was to be filled with brothers failing in mutual political combat.” Attending to his hope that this would be the last “fraternal” war on this continent, old Peckeniff [Pecksniff] gave the following picture of the expected subjugation of the South:

Seth_Pecksniff_85 (A photograph of an engraving in The Writings of Charles Dickens by Halbot Knight Browne)

pity the “misguided brother”

“Then we shall know that we are not enemies but that we are friends and brothers. Then we shall know that this Union is a reality, and we shall mourn, I am sure, with sincerity, equally over the grave of the misguided, whom we have consigned to his last resting place, with pity for his error and with the same heartfelt grief with which we mourn over his brothers, by whose hand, raised in defence of his Government, that misguided brother perished.”

The big gun of the occasion, of course, was the Hon. Edward Everett, of “Boasting,” that secondary and most disgusting edition and representative of the Pilgrim Fathers. After giving three columns to the battle of Gettysburg, he mentioned the question of “State Rights,” which caused that battle, in very few words, and begged his hearers pardon for noticing “this wretched absurdity.” About the present feeling in the South this man said:

“I do not believe there has been a day since the election of President Lincoln when, if an ordinance of secession could have been fairly submitted to the mass of the people, in any single Southern State a majority of ballots would have been given in its favor. No, not in South Carolina. It is not possible that the majority of the people, even of that State, if permitted, without fear or favor, to give a ballot on the question, would have abandoned a leader like Pettigrew, and all the memories of the Gadsdens, the Rutledge, and the Colesworth Pinckneys of the revolutionary and constitutional age, to follow the agitators of the present day.”

388px-Edward_Everett (from Carl Schurz, Reminiscences, Volume Two, McClure Publishing Co., 1907, facing p. 136 (162 according to the table of contents); scanned by Bob Burkhardt)

the big gun from Boasting, Mass.

With the stiff corpses of one thousand two hundred and eight eighty men lying in a semi-circle around him, killed dead on the field for the express purpose of giving the lie to all such statements, this Massachusetts Yankee stood on the platform at Gettysburg and read aloud this printed folly. He follows it by a little truth, however which we credit to his account:

“In the next place, if there are any present who believe that, in addition to the effect of the military operations of the war, the confiscation acts and emancipation proclamations have embittered the rebels beyond the possibility of reconciliation, I would request them to reflect that the tone of the rebel leaders and rebel press was just as bitter in the first months of the war, nay before a gun was fired, as it is now. There were speeches made in Congress, in the very last session before the rebellion, so ferocious as to show that their authors were under the influence of a real frenzy. At the present day, if there is any discrimination made by the Confederate press in the affected scorn, hatred and contumely with which every shade of opinion and sentiment in the loyal States is treated, the bitterest contempt is bestowed upon those at the North who still speak the language of compromise, and who condemn those measures of the Administration which are alleged to have rendered the return of peace hopeless.”

Exactly. The hatred and contempt for the North has not in three years abated one jot or tittle, nor will it in three hundred. There are refugees and exiles from the frontier who have not had a home for three long years, and who have suffered untold privations, and who to-day couldn’t buy a good sized pocket-handkerchief with all the money they have in the world, and yet these men have not abated a shade in their hatred — that is the word — for the North. Everett thinks the old flag and Butler are very desirable to the South:

“The weary masses of the people are yearning to see the dear old flag floating again upon the Capitols, and they sigh for the return of the peace, prosperity, and happiness, which they enjoyed under a Government whose power was felt only in its blessings.”

He forgets the “weary masses” of the North who are having daily strikes for wages that they may get food, the soldiers’ wives and sewing girls in New York who, at a meeting there a few days since, said they were not getting enough to eat, and the political prisoners in the Yankee bastilles who are pining away under a Government whose power is “felt only in its blessings.”

Seth Pecksniff is a character in Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. Pecksniff “believes that he is a highly moral individual who loves his fellow man, but mistreats his students and passes off their designs as his own for profit.”

The Lincoln portrait is from U.S. History Images

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a word in edgewise

Posted on November 19, 2013 by SUMPTER
NYT11-20-1863

“President Lincoln’s Address” (NY Times November 20, 1863)

Edward Everett gave the longer speech at Gettysburg – by about two hours. President Lincoln’s remarks at the cemetery dedication made it on the front page of The New-York Times on November 20th next to three columns (and counting) of oratory by another great speech-giver, Reverend Henry Ward Beecher. The proceeds of Reverend Beecher’s Brooklyn speech on U.S.-British relations were donated to the Sanitary Commission. The Times found enough space for Edward Everett’s speech on page two.

From The New-York Times November 20, 1863:

THE HEROES OF JULY.; A Solemn and Imposing Event. Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburgh. IMMENSE NUMBERS OF VISITORS. Oration by Hon. Edward Everett–Speeches of President Lincoln, Mr. Seward and Governor Seymour. THE PROGRAMME SUCCESSFULLY CARRIED OUT.

The ceremonies attending the dedication of the National Cemetery commenced this morning by a grand military and civic display, under command of Maj.-Gen. COUCH. The line of march was taken up at 10 o’clock, and the procession marched through the principal streets to the Cemetery, where the military formed in line and saluted the President. At 11 the head of the procession arrived at the main stand. The President and members of the Cabinet, together with the chief military and civic dignitaries, took position on the stand. The President seated himself between Mr. SEWARD and Mr. EVERETT after a reception marked with the respect and perfect silence due to the solemnity of the occasion, every man in the immense gathering uncovering on his appearance.

The military were formed in line extending around the stand, the area between the stand and military being occupied by civilians, comprising about 15,000 people and including men, women and children. The attendance of ladies was quite large. The military escort comprised one squadron of cavalry, two batteries of artillery and a regiment of infantry, which constitutes the regular funeral escort of honor for the highest officer in the service.

After the performance of a funeral dirge, by BIRGFIELD, by the band, an eloquent prayer was delivered by Rev. Mr. STOCKTON, as follows:

Federal dead on the field of battle of first day (1863; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-31298)

“The Heroes of July”

O God, our Father, for the sake of the Son, our Saviour, inspire us with thy spirit, and sanctity us to the right fulfillment of the duties of this occasion. We come to dedicate this new historic centre as a National Cemetery. If all the Departments of the one Government thou hast ordained over our Union, and of the many Governments which Thou has subordinated to the Union be there represented; if all classes, relations and interests of our blended brotherhood of people stand severally and thoroughly apparent in Thy presence, we trust it is because Thou hast called us, that Thy blessing awaits us, and that Thy designs may be embodied in practical results of incalculable, imperishable good. And so with thy holy Apostle and with the Church in all lands and ages, we unite in the ascription: Blessed be God, even the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Moses, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. In emulation of all angels, in fellowship with all saints, and in sympathy with all sufferers, in a remembrance of Thy works, in reverence of Thy ways, and in accordance with Thy word, we love and magnify Thy infinite perfections, Thy creative glory. Thy redeeming grace, Thy providential goodness, and the progressive, richer and fairer development of thy supreme, universal and everlasting administration. In behalf of all humanity, whose ideal is divine, whose first memory is thy image lost, whose last hope is thy image restored; especially in behalf of our own nation, whose position is so peerless, whose mission is so sublime, and whose future is so attractive; we thank Thee for the unspeakable patience of thy compassion and for the exceeding greatness of thy loving kindness. In contemplation of Eden, Calvary and Heaven, of Christ in the God on the cross, and on the throne — nay, more — of Christ as coming again in all-subduing power and glory; we gratefully prolong our homage by this altar of sacrifice, on this field of deliverance, on this mount of salvation, within the fiery and bloody line of these mountains and rocks, looking back to the dark days of fear and of trembling, and the rapture of relief that came after, we multiply our thanksgivings and confess our obligations to renew and perfect our personal and social consecration to thy service and glory. O, had it not been for God! for our enemies, they came unresisted, multitudinous, mighty, flushed with victory and sure of success; they exalted on our mountains; they reveled in our valleys they feasted, they rested, they slept, they awakened, they grew stronger, prouder and bolder every day; they spread abroad, they concentrated here; they looked beyond this horizon to the stores of wealth, to the haunts of pleasure and the seats of power in our Capital and chief cities; they prepared to cast the chain of Slavery around the form of freedom, and to bind life and death together forever. Their premature triumph was the mockery of God and man. One more victory, and all was theirs. But behind these hills was heard the feebler march of a smaller but still a pursuing host; onward they hurried, day and night, for their country and their God; footsore, wayworn, hungry, thirsty, faint, but not in heart; they came to dare all, to bear all, and to do all that is possible to heroes. At first they met the blast on the plain, and bent bebefore it like trees; but then led by Thy hand to the hills, they took their stand on the these rocks, and remained as firm and immovable as they. In vain were they assaulted; all art, all violence, all desperation failed to dislodge them. Baffled, bruised, broken, their enemies retired and disappeared. Glory to God for this rescue! But, Oh! the slain, in the freshness and fullness of their young and manly life! with such sweet memories of father and mother, brother and sister, wife and children, maiden and friend. From the coasts beneath the Eastern star; from the shores of Northerm lakes and rivers; from the flowers of the Western prairies; from the homes of the midway and the border, they came here to die for us and for mankind! Alas How little we can do for them! We come with the humility of prayer, with the pathetic eloquence of venerable wisdom, with the tender beauty of poetry, with the plaintive harmony of music, with the honest tribute of our Chief Magistrate, and with all this honorable attendances; but our best hope is in Thy blessings. O Lord, Our God, bless us. O, Our Father, bless the bereaved, whether absent or present Bless our sick and wounded soldiers and sailors. Bless all our rulers and people. Bless our army and navy. Bless the efforts to suppress this rebellion, and bless all the associations of this day, and place, and scene, forever. As the trees are not dead, though their foliage is gone, so our heroes are not dead though their forms have fallen. In their proper personality they are all with thee, and the spirit of their example is here. It fills the air, it fills our hearts, and as long as time shall last it will hover in these skies and rest on these landscapes, and pilgrims of our own land, and of all lands, will thrill with its inspiration, and increase and confirm their devotion to liberty, religion and God.

Mr. EVERETT then commenced the delivery of his oration, which was listened to with marked attention throughout. [The oration of Mr. EVERETT will be found on our second page.]

Although a heavy fog clouded the heavens in the morning during the procession, the sun broke out in all its brilliancy during the Rev. Mr. STOCKTON’s prayer and shone upon the magnificent spectacle. The assemblage was of great magnitude, and was gathered within a circle of great extent around the stand, which was located on the highest point of ground on which the battle was fought. A long line of military surrounded the position taken by the immense multitude of people.

The Marshal took up a position on the left of the stand. Numerous flags and banners, suitably draped, were exhibited on the stand among the audience. The entire scene was one of grandeur due to the importance of the occasion. So quiet were the people that every word uttered by the orator of the day must have been heard by them all, notwithstanding the immensity of the concours.

Among the distinguished persons on the platform were the following: Governors Bradford, of Maryland; Curtin, of Pennsylvania; Morton, of Indiana; Seymour of New-York; Parker, of New-Jersey and Tod, of Ohio; Ex-Gov. Dennison, of Ohio: John Brough, Governor Elect, of Ohio; Charles Anderson, Lieutenant-Governor of Ohio; Major-Generals Schenck, Stahel, Doubleday, and Couch; Brigadier General Gibbon; and Provost-Marshal-General Fry.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN’s ADDRESS.

The President then delivered the following dedicatory speech:

abraham-lincoln-civil-war-6

Fourscore and seven years ago our Fathers brought forth upon this Continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. [Applause.] Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate. We cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. [Applause.] The world will little note nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. [Applause.] It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the refinished work that they have thus so far nobly carried on. [Applause.] It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain; [applause] that the Nation shall under God have a new birth of freedom, and that Governments of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth, [Long continued applause.]

Three cheers were then given for the President and the Governors of the States.

After the delivery of the addresses, the dirge and the benediction closed the exercises, and the immense assemblage separated at about 4 o’clock.

About 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the Fifth New York regiment of heavy artillery, Col. MURRAY, was marched to the temporary residence of Gov. SEYMOUR, where they passed in review before the Governor, presenting a handsome spectacle. Upon the conclusion of this ceremony, which attracted quite a crowd of sight-seers. Gov. SEYMOUR presented a handsome silk regimental standard to the regiment, accompanying the gift with the following speech: …

A subscription of $280 was made by the Marshals attending these ceremonies, to he devoted to the relief of the Richmond prisoners.

In the afternoon, the Lieutenant-Governor elect of Ohio, Col. ANDERSON, delivered an oration at the Presbyterian Church.

The President and party returned to Washington at 6 o’clock this evening, followed by the Governors’ trains. Thousands of persons were gathered at the depot, anxiously awaiting transportation to their homes; but they will probably be confined to the meagre accommodations of Gettysburgh till tomorrow.

So the opening prayer was even longer than the now famous address by Mr. Lincoln.

National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pa. (by Simon & Murnane c.1913; LOC: PAN US GEOG - Pennsylvania no. 87 (E size) [P&P])

at Gettysburg, c.1913

The Lincoln picture is from U.S. History Images

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(rail) road trip

Posted on November 18, 2013 by SUMPTER
NYT 11-19-1863

dignitaries departing from Harrisburg and Washington

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

TO SECRETARY CHASE
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, November 17, 1863.

HON. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

MY DEAR SIR:—I expected to see you here at Cabinet meeting, and to say something about going to Gettysburg. There will be a train to take and return us. The time for starting is not yet fixed, but when it shall be I will notify you.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

The only cabinet members who accompanied the president to Gettysburg were Secretaries Seward and Usher and Postmaster General Blair.

steamtrain

The train image is from wpclipart

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surgeon swap

Posted on November 18, 2013 by SUMPTER

The prisoner parole and exchange system had not totally broken down by 150 years ago this week.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 16, 1863:

Exchange of Surgeons.

The exchange of Surgeons, we learn, has been agreed upon by the C. S. and U. S. Governments. The next flag-of-truce boat will bring our Surgeons to Richmond. We have nearly one hundred of theirs to deliver.

An editorial in the same issue looked at the breakdown of the Dix–Hill Cartel from a Southern perspective: paroled Union prisoners at Gettysburg were immediately put back in the army.

The Abolition of the cartel.

No person can read the correspondence between Commissioners Ould and Meredith without becoming convinced, if he had any doubt before, that the Yankee Government acted in bad faith in the matter. Mr. Ould, in fact, does not hesitate to make the charge in direct terms, and he is borne out so fully by the facts of the case that even the New York World–a paper not very friendly, it is true, to Lincoln’s Administration, yet still as warmly in favor of reconstructing the Union by force as Seward himself — is obliged to admit it. The whole transaction is eminently characteristic of Seward, and not less so of the Yankee nation, whose peculiarities have become proverbial all over the world. It was, in a word, an elaborate attempt to take an advantage — a thorough Yankee trick — an exhibition of contempt for good faith when it stood in the way of a low scheme for getting the better in a trade — a substitution of low cunning for genuine ability — a mistake of policy common to knaves, who cannot be taught to look beyond their noses or to see that rascality, though successful for the moment, puts an extinguisher upon all future hope of advantage by the distrust which it engenders. A large number of prisoners was taken at Gettysburg and paroled by the officer to whom they surrendered, as had always been the practice under the cartel. They were passed through our lines and into those of the enemy. It struck Meade that they would be very useful in the battle then raging, and he made them fall into the ranks. An apology had already been provided for him. The Yankee Government, in view of this very thing, had decided that paroles to be binding must be signed by the Commander-in-Chief. An honorable man would have scorned to profit by such knavery. But Meade is not an honorable man. He is a Yankee. He took advantage of it, and put the men to work at once. It so happened that a very few days after Port Hudson surrendered to the Yankees. The officer commanding had heard nothing of the new interpretation put upon the cartel. He paroled the prisoners; he was not the Commander-in Chief; and so by the rascality of the Yankees themselves we recovered a brave army of seven thousand men. Knavery thus reacted upon itself, and recoiled upon the heads of those who first set it in motion. The cunning Yankees were too “smart” for themselves.

The reasons why the Yankee Government put an end to the cartel are obvious enough. They believe their own supply of men to be inexhaustible. The degeneration, therefore, of the prisoners they lose can easily be cured by fresh recruits. At the same time, they think our means of recruiting are exhausted. Every man they retain, therefore, they regard as a drain to that extent which cannot be made up. They think it is the same thing as killing the like number in the field of battle. At the same time they hope to gain another advantage by leaving their men with us. They think they will assist them in their favorite policy of starving us out. They are mistaken in this, but that is the true interpretation to be put upon their conduct. The whole transaction is genuine Yankee–utterly base, as everything originating with the Yankee is — wretchedly short sighted, as knavery always must be — miserably awkward and bungling, as all things originating in falsehood must be. Dean Swift says he never heard more than three well constructed lies in his life, and he was the most acute of observers.–Meredith’s defences of the rascally conduct of his Government are certainly not among the most ingenious of inventions.

There is no evil out of which good may not come. Our troops have been in the habit of surrendering too easily heretofore. The object, in too many instances, has been to get exchanged, and pay a visit to their homes. Under the present system they will have no chance to see home during the war if they are taken prisoners. Besides, the Yankees are preparing to make their prisoners more unendurable than they have ever been. Our men in future will not be taken so easily.

The parolees at Gettysburg are referenced at Civil War Chronologies for July 4, 1863: “At Gettysburg, Lee offers to exchange prisoners with Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, but Meade declines. Confederates parole their prisoners before retreating, but the paroles are declared invalid by Federal authorities and the men are returned to duty.”

More prisoners probably meant more escape attempts. The November 16th Dispatch detailed an escape from Richmond’s Castle Thunder.

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fulcrum point?

Posted on November 16, 2013 by SUMPTER
chattanooga-tennessee (Harper's Weekly, September 12, 1863)

“central point of the Confederacy” (VIEW OF THE CITY OF CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, FROM THE NORTH SIDE OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER.)

Ever more Yankees, including General Grant, were concentrating at Chattanooga. This Richmond editorial knew the North was going to attack and hoped that if the South won it would break “the backbone of the war.” Otherwise, “the South will be overrun.”

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 16, 1863:

Chattanooga.

All eyes are now turned upon this central point of the Confederacy and of the war. It is useless to deny that the enemy are about to make their supreme effort on that field. –They are consolidating there their greatest strength. The flower of their armies is collected there, with the best of their Generals at its head. In numbers, in equipments, in munitions of war, all their preparations are of the most colossal kind. The stake at issue warrants the magnitude of their efforts, for if they are defeated there the backbone of the war is broken, and all hope of the subjugation of the South banished forever even from their own mad counsels. If they are successful, the South will be overrun, and it may be many years before we can recover from the consequences.

The aspirations of every patriot and Christian must rise most earnestly to Heaven for success in the approaching battle. We believe that the Southern army near Chattanooga, though inferior in numbers, is fully equal to the emergency, and, if properly handled, with the blessing of Heaven, will again victoriously rout the Northern hordes. No better and braver soldiers walk the earth than those collected under the banner of Gen. Bragg. They have just broken the spell of Northwestern invincibility, and they must be inspired to visit upon the foe another and a severer lesson.–Let them remember how much depends upon this battle; that the eyes of their country and of the world are fixed upon them; that their peaceful homes are looking to them for salvation, and the freedom and independence of the South for deliverance.–Let them know no enemies but the enemies of their country; let them banish all feuds and dissensions, till the great, controlling feud between them and the invaders is decided. It is an hour of fearful moment.–The destinies of this generation and of generations yet to come may be involved in this battle. How can any one think at such a time as this of anything but his country?–All personal considerations ought to be as dust in the balance compared with that.–The enemy, great as his numbers are, has no power to defeat us if we are true to our selves and our cause. Rosecrans, their military idol, has been dashed to pieces, and Grant will encounter his fate, if the Army of the West, sustained by the majesty of their cause, and the benediction of Providence, puts forth one mighty and consolidated effort for the deliverance of the land.

The view of Chattanooga was published in the September 12, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the South)

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swarming with yankees

Posted on November 15, 2013 by SUMPTER
Richmond 1863 (by Robert Knox Sneden (LOC: gvhs01 vhs00051 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.ndlpcoop/gvhs01.vhs00051 )

prison city

Richmond was just about overflowing with Yankee prisoners. Some were being disposed to Danville and Lynchburg.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 14, 1863:

The prisoners of War in Richmond.

The morning report of the Libby prison yesterday shows the following number of Yankee prisoners now in the prisons in and around Richmond: Prisoners of war, 12, 747; citizen prisoners, 3; Yankee deserters, 3; negroes, 22; total, 12,775. Among these are 953 commissioned officers of different grades, from Brigadier-General down to Third Lieutenant. There are also 84 surgeons in the lot. Seven hundred of these prisoners were yesterday sent to Danville, and 700 will be sent daily to that point until 4,000 are thus disposed of. It is understood that several thousand will also be sent to Lynchburg.

The day before the Dispatch editorialized on the difficulties of having to take care of thousands of Yankee prisoners, especially given the worsening economic condition in Richmond. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 13, 1863:

The Yankee prisoners.

The persistent lies of the Yankee journals about the starvation and cruel treatment of their prisoners in Richmond are only intended to blow up the declining war spirit in the North, and to justify themselves upon the pretext of an abominable falsehood, in inflicting new cruelties upon our unhappy captives in their hands. We have made inquiries upon the subject which satisfy us that all is done for the support and comfort of the Yankee multitude which the Confederate Government is capable of doing. A fact came to our notice yesterday morning which will be a striking illustration of the true state of things to all fair minds. Several persons of respectable standing in this community were endeavoring to obtain a small quantity of some portions of the beef which have been permitted to be sold at the commissary shops to the general public, but were informed by the man in charge that they could not have it, as it was now required by the Yankee prisoners. Here are our people dented provisions for themselves and their children to feed these Yankees, who have come to destroy us! We do not mention this in the way of complaint; on the contrary we give the Government credit for its merciful disposition, but this single fact sufficiently disproves the base and malignant falsehood that we are seeking to starve the Yankees, when, in reality, it is our own people that are in danger of starving in order that these prisoners may be fed.

Libby interior (Harper's Weekly 10-17-1863)

INTERIOR VIEW OF LIBEY PRISON, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, SHOWING THE QUARTERS OF THE UNION OFFICERS CONFINED THERE.—SKETCHED BY CAPTAIN HARRY E. WRIGLEY, TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS.

To any one willing to listen to reason and truth, it must be apparent that thirteen thousand Yankee prisoners thrust upon a community already overcrowded, and having great difficulty to provide the plainest articles of food for its own tables, cannot expect, with the best dispositions on our part’ to fare sumptuously every day. We know people, once in affluence, who would be glad to be assured of as liberal a daily provision as these Yankee prisoners. It may be that their food is plain, and not abundant, but it is as good and as plentiful as, with our straightened means, we can supply. Liars ought to have good memories, and to keep up a show at least of consistency, and therefore we would suggest to the mendacious Yankee scribes who accuse us of deliberately starving our prisoners, whether, if it be true, as they daily assert, that the people of Richmond are threatened with the horrors of famine, it may not be that the alleged famine among their prisoners is involuntary? If we are starving ourselves, how can we keep them from starving? But the truth is, that, though straightened in our own means of life, we are doing as well for our prisoners as for ourselves. Seventy bullocks a day are sacrificed for their commissariat, and bread in proportion to their numbers. Our own people, as we know of our own personal knowledge, are in some cases denied meat for their own families, because it is necessary for the Yankees. Thus much we say, not because we consider any explanation due to our enemies, or likely to be satisfactory, but because the facts ought to be known, in vindication of our own character, and in justice to our own prisoners whom they wish to harass and torture upon a false and malignant pretext.

The Union prison camp at "Belle Isle," Richmond, Va. (between 1861 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-stereo-1s02817)

old factories full – send them to Belle Isle

In regard to accommodation it is undoubtedly true that we are deficient in the means of comfortably accommodating the multitude on our hands. We had no room in Richmond before the war for a large surplus population. Since the war our population has been doubled; people who once lived in large mansions are glad to get two rooms, the Confederate Government has been compelled to occupy for the uses of State many of our principal public edifices. Artisans and builders having been drawn upon largely for the army, very little building has been going on since the war commenced. The consequence is, that after packing all our spare factories with Yankee prisoners, we have been compelled to encamp the others on Belle Isle, which is the most agreeable of places in summer, but not better in winter than the usual winter quarters of soldiers.–What can we do? Arrangements have been made to send them away as fast as we can find places for them in the interior of the country, and in the meantime they must submit to a disagreeable position with the best philosophy they can, knowing that it is the result of necessity and not of wanton cruelty on our part.

We have abstained from referring to the unspeakable horrors which our prisoners have suffered in Fort Delaware and other Yankee prisons, because two wrongs do not make a right. But we may at least say to the Yankee prisoners that if they suffer here it is not our fault, who cannot help it; but the fault of their own Government, who will not exchange prisoners — who will only send us back our sick and wounded men, and when we return others in the same condition, basely and of wanton malice pretend that their sufferings are the result of starvation in Southern prisons.

The Dix–Hill Cartel that regulated prisoner parole and exchange started breaking down toward the end of 1862. By June 1863 exchanges had almost ceased. Two big issues were the Confederates government’s refusal to parole captured black Union soldiers and the return to service of some paroled but non-exchanged Confederates soldiers.[1]

The interior view of Libby was published in the October 17, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the South

The following image of Union prisoners on Belle Isle was published in the December 5, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly (at Son of the South). A report from the Union perspective (Confederates suffered in Union prisons, too.) accompanies the drawing.

belle-isle (Harper's Weekly 12-5-1863)

THE PRISONS AT RICHMOND—UNION TROOPS PRISONERS AT BELLE ISLE.

  1. [1]McPherson, James M. The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. Print. pages 792-793.↩
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brief

Posted on November 14, 2013 by SUMPTER
Joseph Eggleston Johnston, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing left (by frederickDielman, c.1896; LOC: LC-USZ62-91813)

laconic “no General” ?

150 years ago this month Joseph E. Johnston was in charge of the Confederate Departments of Alabama and Mississippi. Apparently he had enough time on his hands to make (tiny) speeches.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 14, 1863:

Gen. Johnston’s Speeches.

–Whether Gen. Joe Johnston is “no General” or not, it cannot be denied that he is a great speaker. When he makes a speech, he speaks directly to the point, and quits as soon as he gets through — a secret of his which many long-winded Congressmen would do well to catch. Recently the General made a telling speech at Enterprise. “Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for this expression of your kindness.” (What could be more appropos than that?) “Soldiers, I hope soon to see you with arms in your hands in front of the enemy!” There! the whole ground was covered. Everything necessary to be said was said; and although the eloquent orator may have been thoroughly overcome and exhausted by the effort, yet it is said that he did not weary his audience in the slightest degree–Mississippian, Extra.

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ladies’ night

Posted on November 13, 2013 by SUMPTER
Congo Square in New Orleans c.2006

Congo Square in New Orleans (c.2006)

I’m pretty sure the Dispatch editors found the following document historical for the racial component. My added take: it’d be a lot better party by making sure the women got there; therefore, the 50% price reduction?

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 13, 1863:


An Historical Document.

–The following is a copy of a ticket to a Yankee 4th of July fete in New Orleans:

Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!

Saturday, July4th, 1863.

Grand Union Pastoral Festival,
On Congo Square, Second District.

No Distinction of Race! No Distinction of Color!

Admittance. Ladies, 25 cents.

Admittance. Gentlemen, 50 cents.

Admit one gentleman.

During the 18th century slaves, who were given Saturdays off by their Spanish and French masters, began using Congo Square as a market and music and dance place. “As harsher United States practices of slavery replaced the more lenient French colonial style, the slave gatherings declined. Although no recorded date of the last slave dances in the square exists, the practice seems to have stopped more than a decade before the end of slavery with the American Civil War.”

Today Congo Square is part of Louis Armstrong Park.

Performing Arts mural by Randy Spicer featuring jazz immortal Louis Armstrong, Eureka, California (photo bt carolM. Highsmith, mural by Randy Spicer (2012; LOC: LC-DIG-highsm-21781)

playing in Eureka, California

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in pain

Posted on November 12, 2013 by SUMPTER

To paraphrase Shelby Foote: Before the Civil War many Americans said “The United States are …”; after the war they said “The United States is. It’s been well-documented how when the war started many Southerners had to choose between their state or the United States. It’s been almost three years since Winfield Scott chose his nation, but given the ever greater sufferings of Southerners, it probably seemed judicious for a Richmond newspaper to lambaste the old Virginian 150 years ago this week. The sense of betrayal to the state comes through as the newspaper fires up its readership.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 10, 1863:

Gen. Scott.

A “personal admirer” of Gen. Scott, connected with the New York Times gives the following in an account of a visit to that distinguished personage:

“On the subject of the war the General is reticent. It gives him pain. To a question in regard to it he shook his head, replying, ‘That is a matter I do not talk upon; it is a subject for others to discuss, and not for me to dwell upon in my old age. It is in other hands, and must now engage the attention of other heads.'”

(from General Scott, by General Marcus J. Wright at Project Gutenberg

“sold himself to the enemies of his State and people”


We can easily conceive that the subject “gives him pain.” We are willing to suppose that this pain arises in some degree from other feelings besides personal disappointment. Gen. Scott must still have about him some of the ordinary feelings of human nature, and, if he has, we can easily understand why he broods in sombre silence over the great national iniquity in which, reluctantly, we hope, he has played so conspicuous a part. This man is a Virginian, and, if he can look upon the land in which he first drew breath, and which once so delighted to honor him, subjected to such woes and sufferings as she has borne for nearly three years, he must be not a man, but a monster. He has passed a great part of his life in the North, and he cannot but know the difference between the two people. Whatever the ribald hirelings of the Northern press may say of Virginia, General Scott knows, of his own personal observation, the pure and generous character of the Virginia people; the simple virtues of their agricultural firesides; the high tone of morality and personal honor, and of humble and unaffected Christianity which distinguish the great mass of her community. He knows, too, just as well the selfish, corrupt, licentious, godless traits of the Northern populace, and when he sees this herd of brutish beasts let loose to ravage and destroy the once powerful and happy plains and hillsides where he roved in childhood, the war may well give him pain. He cannot but love Virginia, not only for her people, but her past history. As a Virginian, he must be proud of the land which produced a Washington, and Marshall and Madison, and a host of other illustrious names which he was taught from his childhood to love and revere. Well may it give him pain to think of such soil desecrated by the vandal feet of mercenaries from every clime; its modest churches defaced with licentious and sacrilegious inscriptions; its hospitable dwellings burned to the ground, and the families which once delighted to entertain the stranger and give refuge to the distressed driven from their own homesteads and made wanderers on the face of the earth; its best blood flowing like water on a hundred battle-fields, and its very graves polluted by the infernal orgies of the fiends who have been let loose to work their will of demoniac hatred upon the living and the dead. If he can look upon such a scene without pain, he does not deserve the name of man.

Other considerations of a more selfish nature add, no doubt, to the “pain” which the war gives General Scott. When the war commenced he was the military idol of the whole American people. No soldier of the old United States Army occupied as proud a position. The laurels of the war of 1812, and of the war with Mexico, rested gracefully upon his massive brow. Other figures of those wars, perhaps not less deserving than himself, had faded away, but he towered upwards, a grand, living monument of the nation’s military glory. Virginia, his mother, had delighted to cover him with marks of her honor and love. Such he was then. But now! Called up to choose between honor and interest, between gratitude and selfishness, between duty and p[s]elf, he sold himself to the enemies of his State and people, and has lost all — lost his own good name, and lost the base price for which he sold it. To become Commander-in-Chief of the grand Yankee army, he sacrificed love and loyalty and every generous feeling of his nature, and in three months after he had done it he was thrown aside by the Yankees themselves, laid away upon the shelf as an antediluvian curiosity, consigned to a mausoleum of dead celebrities, where he is little regarded by the pressing crowd as the crumbling monument of the unfortunate Lawrence in Trinity churchyard. Instead of going down to his grave admired and honored all over the continent, he is execrated by the South as a traitor, and treated by the North as a dotard. Well may the war give him “pain.”

There is another reason besides for his sufferings. As a military man, he doubtless perceives the utter impracticability of accomplishing the objects for which the Federal Union has expended so much blood and treasure. He is himself on record as expressing the opinion that the South cannot be readily subjugated. Three years have set the seal of experience to the correctness of that opinion. Army after army has vanished away in the attempts. General after General has shared his own ignoble fate. McDowell, McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, Rosecrans, Buell, and others, have followed him to a living grave. And still the military power of the South is not only unsubdued, but stronger and more defiant than ever.–Well may Gen. Scott be sorrowful and silent. Unhappy old man! He has outlived himself and his country, and is tottering onwards to a yawning tomb, where the most merciful epitaph that he can expect is–“Forgotten.”

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that European diet

Posted on November 11, 2013 by SUMPTER
[Gettysburg, Pa. Confederate dead gathered for burial at the edge of the Rose woods, July 5, 1863] (by Alexander gardner, 1863 July [5]; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpb-00882)

“till this horrid war is over” (slain Confederates at Gettysburg, 7-5-1863; Library of Congress)

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 10, 1863:

Eat Press [Less] meat.

–The great scarcity of meats of all kinds in this Confederacy renders it absolutely necessary that all classes should be exceedingly economical in its use, in order to furnish the Southern armies with proper rations. In the old countries, where the people possess iron constitutions and enjoy fine health, comparatively little meat is used. We must follow their example during this war. Every housekeeper should raise as many hogs and beeves as possible, and every farmer ought to devote a fair proportion of his best lands to the cultivation of the Chinese sugar cane, from which to make abundant supplies of molasses. By doing this, and by cultivating and drying fruits of all sorts, we shall have an abundance of good, nourishing food for private families and exempts and a fair promotion of meats for, the army. The South has its all in this war. It must conquer an honorable peace, or lose all that is worth living for. If it desires freedom its people must be willing to bear sacrifices, privations, and want. Without these we cannot succeed, and the sooner every man and woman in the land makes up their mind to bear all and suffer all, rather than become Northern slaves, the sooner we will attain to the great end for which we are aiming. Meat is scarce, very scarce, and we are compelled to do with very little of it, even now. The stock on hand can last but a short time, and our readers should make up their minds to do without it altogether till this horrid war is over.

A market report earlier in the week included a paragraph on meat prices, domesticated and wild. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 6, 1863:

… In the City Markets there has been a slight advance in nearly all the articles offered for sale. Fresh Meats are worth from $1.25 to $1.50 for beef and mutton, and $2 for pork; Chickens $6 to $8 per pair; Turkeys $12 to $15 a piece; Ducks $7 to $8 per pair; Raccoon $10 apiece; Opossum from $2.50 to $5, according to size; Rabbits $1.50 to $2; Squirrels $1; Fish — small Alewives $2 per bunch of four; Catfish $1.50 to $2 per bunch of four; Butter $5 per pound; Sweet Potatoes $2.50 per half peck; Irish Potatoes, $2 per half peck; Turnips $2 per peck; Cabbage 75 cents to $1.25 per head. …

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 11, 1863:

hog_butcher_diagram (http://www.wpclipart.com/food/meat/hog_butcher_diagram.png.html)

beware fake impressment officers

Local Matters. …

One thousand dollars reward

is offered by the Mayor, under an order of the City Council, for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons engaged in seizing hogs and other articles from citizens, under the pretext of being Confederate impressing officers. A similar reward would be very appropriate for the man that induced persons to sell their hogs to him, by representing that the Government intended to seize them. This species of swindle was practiced on white and black, and the author is liable to a term in the penitentiary, if convicted. …

Flour

continues scarce, and commands enormous prices. We have heard of some few lots selling as high as $110. A mercantile firm on 12th street received a lot on Monday last, and was offered $100 per barrel for it by a baker, but refused to sell to him at any price, preferring to sell it to families at $80 per barrel, which they did in a very short time. If farmers could be induced to thresh out their grain the supply would soon equal the demand, but they will not do so.

Salt Meats.

–The City Council have passed a resolution allowing the renters of stalls in the meat markets to sell bacon and lard. An effort was made to add butter to the list, but the Council refused to do so, one or more members alleging [ that that ] would open the door for huckstering, and that neither grocers nor families would ever be able to get a supply save from the swarm of cormorants who bought up all that came to the city and retailed it out at their own prices. …

Increase of salaries.

–The City Council have amended an ordinance increasing the salaries of the police twenty five per cent.–This increase will help the officers to buy bread, but is not enough to enable them to educate their children.

And it sure would be a good idea to keep the police force happy. From the same article:

Popular move.

–The amended ordinance reported to the Council by Mr. Hill, at its last meeting, by which negroes are prevented from riding in hacks about the streets, will be the most popular law that the Council have enacted for many years. Negroes should be treated humanely, but should be kept in their places. For months past they have monopolized the public hacks, by day and night, and many slaves have no doubt been enabled to escape from their masters by the use of such vehicles.

It seems that wages for Richmond police officers were similar to other wages in the South: “Wage increases lagged far behind price increases. In 1862 wages for skilled and unskilled workers increased about 55 percent while prices rose 300 percent.”[1]

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U.S. Marines in France Digging in. Training for modern warfare consists mostly in digging one trench after another, and our boys, realizing the importance of this training, go at it with a will. (between 1917 and 1919; LOC: LC-DIG-ds-04289)

doughboys digging in, in France (LOC)

[German military personnal in a trench] (between 1914 and 1918; LOC: LC-USZ62-136101)

Germans in a trench (LOC)

A French departure trench just before zero hour (photographed between 1914 and 1918; LOC: LC-USZ62-93510)

“A French departure trench just before zero hour” (LOC)


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The image of hog butcher diagram is from wpclipart

  1. [1]McPherson, James M. The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. Print. page 440.↩
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