a little less fire

Posted on August 3, 2013 by SUMPTER
Hon. William L. Yancey (Illus. in: Harper's weekly, v. 4, no. 194 (1860 Sept. 15), p. 580; LOC: LC-USZ62-127613)

Mr. Yancey kept his glove off

The famous fire-eater, William L. Yancey, died of kidney disease at his home in Montgomery, Alabama on July 27, 1863.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch August 1, 1863:

The late William L Yancey.

The death of William L. Yancey, Confederate Senator from Alabama, is an event that occasions much public regret. He was among the most devoted of the sons of the South to the cause of the South, as he was one of its ablest defenders. He is conceded generally to have been the most brilliant man in the Confederate Senate, as he was the most chaste and eloquent orator in the South. Though we must all deplore the loss of leaders in our struggle, we may be assured that the cause itself will bring out more than enough to fill their places, for the times must be fruitful of great men.

From Harper’s Weekly August 22, 1863:

YANCEY.

WILLIAM L. YANCEY is a man who will be known in our history as one of the most virulent but not one of the most able of the traitors who have conspired for the ruin of their country. …

WilliamLowndesYancey

“he hated his country [USA], because his country loved liberty”

Mr. Yancey himself furnished an illustration of the absurdity of his own dogmas. Every society is truly prosperous because secure in the degree that it allows the most liberal discussion. In any truly free community whatever can not be debated ought not to be endured, because such a community is governed by public opinion, and without discussion public opinion is unenlightened. During the last Presidential canvass Mr. Yancey made a tour of the free States for the purpose of persuading the people that they had better not vote against the slaveholders upon pain of summary ruin. In States made prosperous and happy by a greater individual freedom than was ever known Mr. Yancey stood before the people to cajole and threaten them from the exercise of political rights. He was heard and endured, and sometimes applauded. But the fact that he was heard and was tolerated in free States while he advocated shivery, showed the infinitely higher political civilization of those States than that which Mr. Yancey advocated, and to which he was accustomed. To plead for liberty in those States would have cost the orator his life. …

But although the “revolution” is in its third year, Mr. Yancey had achieved no more renown in it than he did before it began. He went to Europe as an emissary to make the thing look respectable, but soon returned disheartened. Since then he has been ex officio, as a “Senator,” one of the ring-leaders of the rebellion. But his name was never heard. His influence has nowhere appeared. Like Toombs, Wigfall, Ellett, Spratt, Keitt, and Orr, his sole distinction is that he hated his country, because his country loved liberty.

As a “Senator”, Yancey still had some fire:

In Congress, Yancey and Benjamin Hill of Georgia, who had previously clashed in 1856, had their differences over a bill intended to create the Confederate Supreme Court erupt into physical violence. Hill hit Yancey in the head with a glass inkstand on the floor of the Senate, but in the ensuing investigation it was Yancey, not Hill, who was censured.

Second_national_flag_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America.svg

Requiescat in pace?

Yancey died under the Confederate national flag that was adopted May 1, 1863, which eventually “became criticized for being ‘too white’.” It could be mistaken as a flag of truce.

I reacted to the Harper’s story by thinking there sure was less liberty in the North after the rebellion started. Where does legitimate criticism of a regime end and treason begin?

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pardon for “numerical equality”

Posted on August 1, 2013 by SUMPTER

On June 28, 1863 the Confederacy’s president, Jefferson Davis, wrote, “If a victim would secure the success of our cause, I would freely offer myself.”[1] Since that was unlikely to work out, 150 years ago today President Davis proclaimed pardon and amnesty to deserters who would return to the army. The numbers were needed as the Yankees massed their hundreds of thousands to subjugate, plunder and incite servile insurrection.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch August 3, 1863:

To the soldiers of the Confederate States.

After more than two years of a warfare scarce by equalled in the number, magnitude, and fearful car[n]age of its battalion — a warfare in which your courage and fortitude have illustrated your country and attracted not only gratitude at home, but admiration abroad — your enemies continue a struggle in which our final triumph must be inevitable Unduly cleated [elated] with their recent successes they imagine that temporary reverses can quyout [quiet your?] spirit or shake your determination, and they are now gathering heavy masses for a general invasion in the vain hope that by a desperate effort success may at length be reached.

peace-cartoon (Harper's Weekly, July 25, 1863)

No peace because Washington rulers refuse to be “hurled from their seats of power”

You know too wall, my countrymen, what they mean by success. Their malignant rage aims at nothing less than the extermination of your selves, your wives, and children. They seek to destroy what they cannot plunder. They propose as the spoils of victory that your homes shall be partitioned among the wretches whose atrocious cruelties have stamped infamy on their Government. They design to in site servile insurrection and light the fires of incendiarism whenever they can reach your homes and they debauch the inferior race hitherto docile and contented, by promising indulgence of the vilest passions as the price of treachery. Conscious of their inability to prevail by legitimate warfare not ring [willing] to make peace lest they should be hurled from their seats of power, the men who now rule in Washington refuse even to confer on the subject of putting an and to outrages which disgrace our age, or to listen to suggestion for conducting the war according to the usages of civilization.

Fellow-citizens, no alternative is left you but victory, or subjugation, slavery, and the utter ruin of yourselves. your families, and your country. The victory is within your reach. You need but strai [stretch] forth you hands to grasp it. For this and all that is necessary is that these who are called to the field by every motive that can move the human heart, should promptly repair to the post of duty, should stand by their comrades now in front of the foe and thus so strengthen the armies of the Confederacy as to ensure success. The men now absent from their posts would, if present in the field, suffice to creat[e] numerical equality between our force and that of the invaders — and when with any approach to such equality have we failed to be victorious? I believe that but few of those absent are actuated by unwillingness to serve their country; but that many have found It difficult to resist the temptation of a visit to their homes and the loved ones from whom they have been so long separated; that others have left for temporary attention to their affairs with the intention of returning and then have shrunk from the consequences of their violation of duty; that others again have is it their posts from mere restlessness and desire of change, each qui[eti]ng the upbraiding of conscience by persuading himself that his individual services could have no influence on the general result. These and other s (although far [les]s disgraceful than the desire to avoid danger, or to escape from the sacri[fice] required by patriotism) are, nevertheless, vous [your] faults, and place the cause of our beloved country; and of everything we hold dea[r], in imminent] per[il]. I repeat, that the men who now owe duty to their county who have been called out and have not yet reported for duty, or who have absented themselves from their posts are sufficient in number to [assure] us victory in the struggle now impending.

I call on you, then, [m]y countrymen, to batten to your camps, in obedience to the dictates of honor and of duty, and summon those who have absented themselves without leave, or who have remained absent beyond the period allowed by their furloughs, to repair without delay to their respective commends; and I do hereby declare that I grant a general pardon and amnesty to all officers and men within the Confederacy, now absent without leave. who shall, with the least possible delay, return to their proper posts of duty; but no excuse will be received for any delay beyond twenty days after the first publication of this proclamation in the State in which the absents may be at the date of the publication. This amnesty and pardon shall extend to all who have been accused of, or who have been convicted and are undergoing sentence for, absence without leaves of desertion, excepting only those who have been twice convicted of desertion.

Sabria Clack with cased photograph of her husband, Private W.R. Clack, of Co. B, 43rd Tennessee Infantry Regiment ( LC-DIG-ppmsca-34983 )

“one crowning sacrifice”

Finally, I conjure my country women — the wives, mothers sisters, and daughters, of the Confederacy–to use their all powerful influences in all of this call to add one crowning sacrifice to those which their patriotism has so freely and constantly offed on their country’s alter, and to take care that no who owe service in the field shall be sheltered at home from the disgrace of having deserted their to their family to their country, and to their God.

Given under my hand, and the seal of the Confederate States, at Richmond, this 1st days of August,in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three.

Jefferson Davis.
By the President:

J. P. Benjamin, Sec’y of State
The papers throughout the Confederate States are earnestly requested to publish this proclamation at the earliest moment.

The political cartoon was published in the July 25, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly at Son of the South

  1. [1]Fredriksen, John C. Civil War Almanac. New York: Checkmark Books, 2008. Print. page 268.↩
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the town pump

Posted on August 1, 2013 by SUMPTER

I was a bit surprised that the Richmond paper could publish a letter the day after it was written. Apparently the Virginia Central Railroad was in fine feather 150 years ago this week. Massachuset describes the wounded thronging to the relative safety of Staunton.

Virginia_Central_Map_1852_cropped from http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/gmd:@field%28NUMBER+@band%28g3881p+rr006010%29%29

Virginia Central 1852

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch July 29, 1863:

Letter from Staunton.
[Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch.]

Staunton, July 28, 1863.

For some days this place has presented a scene of sad confusion which at once invites and defies description. Long ambulance trains have blocked the streets, and longer lines of sick and wounded men weary and footsore from their walk of over a hundred miles, have thronged the sidewalks, while meeting this incoming stream has printed forth a current of new life for the army in the shape of restored men and recruits going to join their respective commands. Added to this, there have been commissary trains, and trains, and ordnance trains, and ever and about worming its way through the confusion has the hearse ambulance, with chaplain and escort, beating [bearing?] sometimes as many as three soldiers to their last resting place.–The town pump, during these sad days — which have also been for this mountain town very hot days — has been constantly surrounded by the soldiers, and just I have seen them from morning till night, working its iron handle and bearing its iron ladle to their thirsty lips, or holding their wounded limbs under its never failing stream, I have felt I would rather be the author of that pump than of a good poem Doubtless its cool, clear water has not only refreshed many a weary body, but caused many a heart to feel tender as he thought of the spring or pump or well of his childhood — of “the old iron bucket that hung in the well.–Let us hope that not a few felt thankful to the Great Giver as they their thirst or bathed their wounds.

For a day or two, the excitement was enhanced by the crossing of the main body of our army over the Blue Ridge. Refugees have been arriving from the Lower Valley, and the hospitals at Mr. Jackson and Winchester have hurriedly implied themselves here. Only 106 men, too bad to move, have been left at the latter place. In consequence, the arrivals over flowed our hospitals, and far exceeded the means of transportation, and yesterday all the churches and halls of the town were thrown open to receive the sick and wounded, and every means was resorted to [ to ] give them food. In a few days, we may expect Staunton will be a more quiet place. But I am not so sure that the Lower Valley is to be so soon evacuated. I heard yesterday that a force of cavalry and artillery had gone to dispute its possession with the enemy.–I have been informed that two divisions of Ewell’s corps came up to New Market quite hurriedly. They were still below Winchester when it was ascertained that the enemy in force were at Front Royal, and therefore had the shorter route to Strasburg.

JohnBellHood ( File from The Photographic History of The Civil War in Ten Volumes: Volume Three, The Decisive Battles . The Review of Reviews Co., New York. 1911. p. 123.)

General Hood recuperating for the next fight

I learn that the committees from Richmond and other places have been very efficient in ministering to our suffering soldiers. They have just passed through here, returning to their homes. Drs. Broaddus, Burrows, Hoge, and Wilmer, have also just passed through, en route from Winchester.

Gen. Hood is pleasantly quartered about a mile from town, at Mr. Jeff Kenny’s. He is recovering rapidly, and is in fine spirits, and says he hopes to be in the next fight.

I rode with a friend, the other day, over the soldiers’ grave-yard, situated half a mile west of the town, on a commanding hill. The faithful old sexton, who keeps a careful register, which enables him to identify every grave, told me there had been over twelve hundred interment, and that nearly a hundred bodies had been disinterred. I could not help thinking how desirable, “after the war,” to rear a monument on this lofty hill, commanding a view both of the Blue Ridge and the Alleghany, in honor of the braves who here rest well. Glad was I to be informed that such a plan was already in the minds of the managers of the Thornrose cometary.

Massachuset.

John Bell Hood’s left arm was severely wounded on the second day at Gettysburg. Wikipedia has him recuperating in Richmond by sometime in August 1863. You can read more about Gettysburg and all of the general’s work with the Army of Northern Virginia at the John Bell Hood site

Staunton "before the war" (c. 1857)

Staunton “before the war” (c. 1857)

Massachuset is an interesting pen name. Massachusetts was one of the more vehement abolition states; on the other hand, the Massachuset people were severely weakened by European disease and rival tribes.

Envelope addressed to Mrs. Mary H. Tabb, care of Geo. E. Tabb Esq., Mathews Cthouse., Virginia; postmarked Staunton, Va. (between 1862 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-33544)

Jeffs standing on their heads – postmarked Staunton

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Just back from Gettysburg

Posted on July 30, 2013 by SUMPTER
Extra_Billy_Smith-Virginia

“a decided politician”

After a controversial performance at Gettysburg, General William “Extra Billy” Smith, Virginia’s governor-elect arrived in Richmond on July 23, 1863 for a five month interregnum.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch July 29, 1863:

The New State Administration.

General William Smith, the Governor elect of Virginia has arrived in the city. It is understood that he will now resign his office of Brigadier General in the Confederate army and proceed to prepare himself for the assumption of the very responsible duties of Chief Executive officer of the State whose position and magnitude places her most prominently in the struggle now pending between the North and the South. Gov. Smith has already filled the office of Governor of Virginia. He has had a long and very active career as a public man, and has always been a decided politician. He has been distinguished for energy and enterprise. A man of talents, he ought, with his large experience, to be a man of wisdom. He is most assuredly a brave man and a true patriot, as his course in the present struggle and his honorable service in the field incontestably establish. Governor Smith having been always a decided party man, and Democratic at that, and having been ultra in his views upon the issues of the high party times of the last thirty years–especially on the currency question — had bitter opponents, and was generally one of the best denounced of his political associate. But times have changed. The old issues no longer divide Southern statesmen. They forget all in the common devotion to their country and fight side by side in her defence. Governor Smith will take the chair of State in a period of trial that demands of every man the exertion of his best energies for the public good and the public safely. That he will be true, and that he has the courage and energy demanded by the times, none can doubt.

Price, Hon. Samuel of W.Va. (between 1865 and 1880; LOC: LC-DIG-cwpbh-05045)

Samuel Price

It has been officially announced that Samuel Price, of Greenbrier, has been elected Lieutenant Governor by a handsome majority. Mr. P., who is a plain, sincere gentleman, after the pattern of men of other days is a prominent member of the Western Virginia bar. He is moderate yet firm, and though cautious and prudent, decided in his views. He was a strong Union man until the State determined to secede, and then gave himself entirely to her cause. He represented a district in the Convention which was strongly opposed to secession, and had he followed the example of George W. Summers he might have carried a large number of his constituents away from their true allegiance. But he acted the part of a true patriot, and not only told his people what their duty was, but led the way by his own example, and has been active in the measures for military defence in his own part of the State. He was in Lewisburg when the first Yankee force entered the place. The Federal commander proclaimed to the people that they were citizens of the United States and owed allegiance to the Government at Washington, and that at Wheeling, which was lawfully organized. Mr. Price replied to him, and informed his neighbors, from the stand, that their allegiance was due to Virginia, whose Government was at Richmond, –that at Wheeling being established in defiance of law and the Constitution; and he implored them to make no concessions — commit no act incompatible with their obligations to Virginia and the South. He was arrested in the midst of his harangue by the Federal officer, and was sent to Charleston, Kanawha, where he was detained a prisoner until our own troops last year drove out the Yankees and set him at liberty. In his election, an office which, in an emergency may become the most important in the State, is conferred upon one who is every way trustworthy. Being a prominent Western man, too, his selection by Eastern votes is an expression of confidence and good feeling sectionally that should have a good effect.

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generally speaking

Posted on July 29, 2013 by SUMPTER

The Commander-in-Chief manages some of his generals.

[Major-General Joseph Hooker, full-length portrait, seated on horse, facing left, wearing military uniform, two tents and large building in the background (between 1861 and 1865; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-19394)

not in Abe’s trash bin

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

To GENERAL G. G. MEADE. (Private.)
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 27, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE:

I have not thrown General Hooker away; and therefore I would like to know whether it would be agreeable to you, all things considered, for him to take a corps under you, if he himself is willing to do so. Write me in perfect freedom, with the assurance that I will not subject you to any embarrassment by making your letter or its contents known to any one. I wish to know your wishes before I decide whether to break the subject to him. Do not lean a hair’s breadth against your own feelings, or your judgment of the public service, on the idea of gratifying me.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN

General Ulysses S. Grant, half-length portrait, standing, facing front, in uniform (printed between 1870 and 1890 from a photograph taken earlier; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-35555)

“copious worker and fighter, but a very meager writer or telegrapher”

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. B. BURNSIDE.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, July 27, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Cincinnati, O.:

Let me explain. In General Grant’s first despatch after the fall of Vicksburg, he said, among other things, he would send the Ninth Corps to you. Thinking it would be pleasant to you, I asked the Secretary of War to telegraph you the news. For some reasons never mentioned to us by General Grant, they have not been sent, though we have seen outside intimations that they took part in the expedition against Jackson. General Grant is a copious worker and fighter, but a very meager writer or telegrapher. No doubt he changed his purpose in regard to the Ninth Corps for some sufficient reason, but has forgotten to notify us of it.

A. LINCOLN.

Lincoln’s words about Grant might be a bit of an exaggeration – and he sure made up for lost time at the end of his life.

[Letter from Ulysses S. Grant to his father, from Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, April 21, 1863 (Harper's weekly, v. 12, no. 614 (1868 Oct. 3), p. 635; LOC: LC-USZ62-127514)

Ulysses to his father – April 21, 1863

spines (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4367/4367-h/4367-h.htm)

Lest I forget in 2035

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benign bureaucrats

Posted on July 27, 2013 by SUMPTER
Wanted a substitute (by Oliver Ditson & Co., 1863; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-35356)

or $300 to Collector of Internal Revenue

Apparently some shrewd lawyers and agents were trying to make a buck by representing newly drafted men for exemption claims. Auburn, New York’s Provost Marshal said that representation was unnecessary – the conscripts can completely trust the Board of Enrollment.

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1863:

To Drafted Men.

HEADQUARTERS PROVOST MARSHAL,
24th District, N.Y.,
AUBURN, July 28th, 1863.

In answer to many inquiries, notice [is] hereby given:

1. That those drafted on the 23rd, 24th, and 25th insts., will be required to report in person at these headquarters on the named in the notice that will be served upon them.

2. Persons drafted can furnish substitutes and can pay the $300 after as well as before examination, and a reasonable time – hereafter to be announced – will be given for this purpose. The Collector of Internal Revenue, W.A. Halsey, Esq., to whom the $300 is to be paid, is now engaged in perfecting arrangements to promote the convenience of parties who elect to pay the amount instead of procuring substitutes.

3. The employment of attorneys or agents to secure the rights of drafted men and argue their claims of exemption, is entirely unnecessary, and will be discountenanced by the board. Drafted men are cautioned against being imposed upon by parties who seek to obtain fees for pretended services in their behalf.

The Board of Enrollment regard it their duty to see that every person whom the law exempts shall be exempted, and they will be equally particular to conserve the rights of the individual and the claim of the Government.

4. Drafted men are in the service by fact of draft. They cannot afterward enlist; but may be assigned by the Government to particular regiments.

J.N. KNAPP, Provost Marshal,
and President of Board of Enrollment.

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Charlie Wheeler’s Funeral

Posted on July 26, 2013 by SUMPTER
CAROLINE COWLES RICHARDS

attended the ‘saddest funeral’

150 years ago today a young woman from Canandaigua, New York attended the funeral of a soldier killed at Gettysburg. Captain Wheeler of the 126th New York Infantry had been killed by a sharpshooter on the morning of July 3rd.

From Village Life in America 1852-1872 by Caroline Cowles Richards (152-155):

July 4.—The terrible battle of Gettysburg brings to Canandaigua sad news of our soldier boys of the 126th Regiment. Colonel Sherrill was instantly killed, also Captains Wheeler and Herendeen, Henry Willson and Henry P. Cook. Captain Richardson was wounded.

First Congregational Church, Canandaigua, NY

Sunday funeral with military honors

July 26.—Charlie Wheeler was buried with military honors from the Congregational church to-day. Two companies of the 54th New York State National Guard attended the funeral, and the church was packed, galleries and all. It was the saddest funeral and the only one of a soldier that I ever attended. I hope it will be the last. He was killed at Gettysburg, July 3, by a sharpshooter’s bullet. He was a very bright young man, graduate of Yale college and was practising law. He was captain of Company K, 126th N. Y. Volunteers. I have copied an extract from Mr. Morse’s lecture, “You and I”: “And who has forgotten that gifted youth, who fell on the memorable field of Gettysburg? To win a noble name, to save a beloved country, he took his place beneath the dear old flag, and while cannon thundered and sabers clashed and the stars of the old Union shone above his head he went down in the shock of battle and left us desolate, a name to love and a glory to endure. And as we solemnly know, as by the old charter of liberty we most sacredly swear, he was truly and faithfully and religiously

Of all our friends the noblest,
The choicest and the purest,
The nearest and the dearest,
In the field at Gettysburg.
Of all the heroes bravest,
Of soul the brightest, whitest,
Of all the warriors greatest,
Shot dead at Gettysburg.

And where the fight was thickest,
And where the smoke was blackest,
And where the fire was hottest,
On the fields of Gettysburg,
There flashed his steel the brightest,
There blazed his eyes the fiercest,
There flowed his blood the reddest
On the field of Gettysburg.

O wailing winds of heaven!
O weeping dew of evening!
O music of the waters
That flow at Gettysburg,
Mourn tenderly the hero,
The rare and glorious hero,
The loved and peerless hero,
Who died at Gettysburg.

His turf shall be the greenest,
His roses bloom the sweetest,
His willow droop the saddest
Of all at Gettysburg.
His memory live the freshest,
His fame be cherished longest,
Of all the holy warriors,
Who fell at Gettysburg.

These were patriots, these were our jewels. When shall we see their like again? And of every soldier who has fallen in this war his friends may write just as lovingly as you and I may do of those to whom I pay my feeble tribute.”

Charles M. Wheeler

‘a gifted youth’

From Disaster, struggle, triumph: the adventures of 1000 ‘boys in blue’, from 1862 to 1865
 by Arabella Mary Willson:

The Congregational Church in Canandaigua still stands

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If

Posted on July 25, 2013 by SUMPTER

Press scrutiny of the Conscription drawings

A Democrat paper went to Auburn 150 years ago today to make sure the draft was carried out fairly. It reported that everything seemed fair – as long as the names in the box were copied accurately from the enrollment lists.

Civil War induction officer with lottery box (ca. 1863; LOC: LC-DIG-ds-00292)

‘Civil War induction officer with lottery box’

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in August, 1863:

The Draft.

The Draft for our county was completed at Auburn on Saturday of last week [July 25th, I’m pretty sure] and the names drawn may be found in to-day’s paper. They are substantially correct, tho’ an occasional error may be detected in the spelling of names. Quite a number from the county were present during the drawing, and so far as we were able to judge, the proceedings were conducted with fairness. If the names were all copied from the enrollment on to the slips of paper placed in the box, there can be no doubt of the impartiality of the proceedings. It seems, however, a little strange that so many of the poorer class should have been conscripted. In our town [Seneca Falls] out of the 150 names drawn from the box, there are not five of the number who can pay, without great inconvenience, the commutation fee. The draft, therefore, falls with particular severity upon the laboring class. Then, again, full two-thirds of the conscripts in this county are Democrats, as singularly as it may seem.

Efforts are being made in the different towns to mitigate somewhat the evils of the draft. This can be done either by levying a tax for commutation fees, or by paying bounties to those who are compelled to go into the service. There are some towns in the county, according to the instructions of the Provost Marshal General, that are exempt by virtue of the excess of volunteers furnished over the several quotas called for. This is true of Seneca Falls and Waterloo, and we are glad to learn that there is an effort being made to convince the authorities of this fact. If it should prove unsuccessful, however, the tax payers will probably be called upon to share equally the burthens of the conscription.

I’m not as surprised that two-thirds of the draftees were Democrats. In the local elections of 1862 Democrats were elected to every single Town of Seneca Falls office, including all eight (I think) constables. I was a little more surprised that the newspaper knew the party affiliations of everyone in the county.

Here’s an image of the resumption of the draft in New York City during the latter part of August 1863 from the September 5, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly at Son of the South.

draft Harper's Weekly 9-5-1863

RESUMPTION OF THE DRAFT—INSIDE THE PROVOST MARSHAL’S OFFICE, SIXTH DISTRICT—THE WHEEL GOES ROUND.

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“tax ourselves”

Posted on July 24, 2013 by SUMPTER

In reviewing the Conscription Act of 1863, James M. McPherson [1] writes that “Substitution was hallowed by tradition … The Republican architects of the draft law inserted commutation as a means of putting a cap on the price of substitutes … The commutation alternative in the North would prevent the price of a substitute going much higher than $300. Republicans saw this as a way of bringing exemption within reach of the working class instead of discriminating against them.”

A Democrat paper editorial points out that the poor would still have to come up with the $300 (or “almost a year’s wages for an unskilled laborer.” [2]) and urges some local action to offset the effects of the federal law. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1863:

The Draft in Seneca County.

The draft in this Congressional District commenced at Auburn on Thursday. Our county will be reached by to-morrow (Saturday) noon and the number required probably drawn by Monday night. We give elsewhere the quota of our county, to which the attention of the reader is invited. In common with other localities we shall keenly feel the great sacrifice which the war demands. Few counties in the State have more cheerfully responded to the calls of government than ours, and, few, alas, have realized more fully the terrible effects of this bloody strife. What, then, is the duty of our people in the present emergency? The conscription falls with crushing effect upon the poor man – those who are unable to raise the $300 commutation fee. Shall we see them forced into the service, against every impulse of heart and mind, because of their poverty, or shall we not tax ourselves in each and every town in the county an amount sufficient to pay the commutation of each one drafted? There certainly can be no objection to this measure, and we do not hesitate to urge its adoption. Town meetings can be called in the several towns, the amount voted by the taxable inhabitants, and thus all will share equally the sacrifice which otherwise must fall upon the shoulders of the poor man.

The town of Seneca Falls ought not to hesitate a moment in a matter which so vitally affects its interest. Our neighbors at Waterloo, we understand, have agreed to raise by taxation the necessary fund. Other localities are doing the same. And now let our people calmly consider the matter, and act without any unnecessary delay. We implore them to hesitate before they consent to see one of our citizens forced into the service.

Greenback

times LX

  1. [1]McPherson, James M. The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. Print. page 603.↩
  2. [2]ibid., page 602.↩
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a little less “gigantic Power”

Posted on July 23, 2013 by SUMPTER
USS Baron DeKalb, an Eads class ironclad, ca. 1862

“sent to kingdom come”!

The Mississippi might be basically under Federal control now, but the Richmond press can still celebrate signs of rebel life out west.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch July 22, 1863:

Destruction of a Federal gunboat by a torpedo.

A dispatch was yesterday received at the Navy Department, in this city, from Commander Brown, dated Yazoo City, July 20th, stating that the Federal shipgunboat DeKalb, thirteen guns, had been totally destroyed, on the 18th, by the explosion of a torpedo which had been placed in the Yazoo river to prevent the Federal war vessels from ascending that stream.

Some editorializing on the  Dekalb’s destruction:

A Streak of Luck.

One Yankee gunboat, at any rate, has been sent to kingdom come on the Yazoo by a torpedo! We are rejoiced to hear of it, and are not very solicitous about the fate of those on board of her. On the contrary, we wish it had been the whole Yankee navy, instead of a single vessel. This is but a foretaste of what they are to expect in their attempts to navigate our waters without our permission.

And with all that happened in early July the editors promote some stoicism and equate the Southern sufferings with that of Americans in the Revolutionary War:

Reveries and Successes.

There is no surer test of a great character than adversity. It is the furnace which separates the valuable from the worthless, which makes manifest the dross, and refines and glorifies virtue. The world itself is but a disciplinary school for a future and more enduring state. The people of this country are passing through a period of unexampled trial, individually and nationally, but it may be necessary, both to the development of their national and individual character. It would be a bitter disappointment, on the eve apparently of deliverance from our protracted and cruel sufferings, to be thrown back once more upon a life and death struggle, but it is the dictate alike of religion and philosophy to bow with resignation and fortitude to the will of the Supreme Disposer of events, and to go on doing our duty with cheerful and determined hearts. The mariner, who, after a long and tempestuous voyage, is driven back by the tempest to the open sea, just as he is about entering his long desired haven, does not permit his energies to relax or his hopes to be extinguished, but prepares himself to battle afresh with the storm and sea, waiting in confidence and fortitude for the time when propitious winds and waves shall bear him to his destined port.

It is not for man, short sighted and fallible, to interpret the designs of Providence; but the great current of events, since the beginning of this war, has seemed to indicate the interposition of a higher than any human power in behalf of the cause of Southern independence. How else has a people one fourth the numbers of its adversaries, almost destitute of arms and appliances of war, with few mechanical resources, and shut out from other nations, been able to cope successfully for more than two years with a gigantic Power, which had at its unlimited command the men, the means, the manufactories, and the workshops of the world? Such astounding results can scarcely be attributed to human wisdom or human strength. Why, then, should the most desponding be cast down by occasional reverses, which may, after all, be needed to teach us a lesson of humility and to place our confidence in Him who “is alone the give of all victory?” If we cannot always achieve success, let us at least deserve it.–If our heroism cannot always triumph our fortitude can at least enable us to endure. If we are made of the true metal, we shall rise, like AutÅus, refreshed and reinvigorated from our contact with the earth. Our Revolutionary fathers toiled and bled through a war more than three times as long as this, and suffered greater and more protracted disasters than any we have experienced. If we are worthy to be their children, we shall imitate their example — we shall know how to endure adversity as well as to enjoy prosperity — we shall manifest patience, perseverance and faith, as well as courage, and in the end shall achieve, as in the war of ’81, the bright reward of National Independence.

Wikipedia says the ironclad USS Baron DeKalb was sunk on July 13, 1863.

Johann de Kalb ” was a German-born French officer who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.” He was mortally wounded at the 1780 Battle of Camden. As he was dying, DeKalb reportedly said “I thank you sir for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for: the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man.”

Battle of Camden; Death of de Kalb. Engraving from painting by Alonzo Chappel.

Johann de Kalb mortally wounded at Camden

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