re: 150 years ago this day...

Friday, 2 October 1863

It was bad enough for General William S. Rosecrans and his army penned up in Chattanooga. General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate forces controlled all the roads to the south, the road to Bridgeport to the north, and the Tennessee River besides. General Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry troops were rampaging in the rear, cutting off most of what few supplies were getting through over the rough trail through Walden’s Ridge and the Sequatchie Valley. Encounters with Wheeler’s men led to skirmishes in Anderson’s Cross Roads, Valley Road around Jasper, and over by Dunlap, Tennessee. What Bragg did not know, however, was that down the road from Bridgeport was about to come marching 20,000 men and 3,000 horses led by General Joseph Hooker. The 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac had made the almost 1200 mile journey in just over a week.

The USS Bermuda, under Acting Master J.W. Smith, seized the blockade running British schooner Florrie nearly six miles from Matagorda, Texas, with a large cargo including medicine, wine, and saddles and other stores.

The Natchez Courier of this morning contained the subjoined editorial: The following communication appears in the Columbia (S. C.) Guardian: to his Excellency Governor Bonham: The stream of negro emigration from Mississippi has commenced flowing into this State, having been prohibited in Georgia and Alabama. The heavy rains of the summer have so damaged the corn crops that the question of subsistence for another year may be of great importance, and it becomes doubly so from the influx of consumers. Would it not be well for this State also to adopt some precautionary measures before it is too late? This suggestion is only thrown out to catch the attention of the proper authorities, the writer having every confidence that if any thing ought to be done in the premises, it will not be overlooked. Very respectfully, citizen.

To this the Augusta Constitutionalist replies: It is untrue that either Georgia or Alabama have refused refuge and domicile to the unfortunate fugitives from Mississippi. Our people are incapable of so outrageous a breach of hospitality. We have before alluded to this matter of emigration, and we do so again more in sorrow than anger. Although the people of Alabama and Georgia perhaps have not formally protested against Mississippians flying to those States, several of the press have spoken out against it. At the time we alluded to this matter, it was done with the view of presenting to the Mississippi citizen his true position in the present crisis. If he emigrates with his family and Negroes, he is denounced by some of the journals as a coward, for surrendering his home. Where he stays at home, endeavoring to pursue the even tenor of his way in raising crops for the support of his family, he is by other prints stigmatized as a submissionist; and cavalry squads are sent out by the Confederates to subsist on his already diminished supplies, and with a view to make him miserable and poor indeed, his little crop of cotton is burnt to cap the climax of trouble. This is no fancy sketch — it is a reality, as almost any planter on the Mississippi River can testify. When the planter is thus made poor and even destitute, does the confederate government come to his relief? Never! Instead of this, the confederate force gradually falls back toward the Alabama River, leaving the property of Mississippians almost a total wreck. How shall the resident of Mississippi act under this state of things? If he takes refuge further East, he is censured for leaving home; and if he remains home to raise another crop in the confederate lines, as soon as the Union army again presses forward, his supplies will once more be taken by the confederate cavalry, and his cotton committed to the flames again! Mississippians! by staying on your places and cultivating the soil, in our humble opinion, you are doing much good for yourselves and those around you. Though given the “cold shoulder” occasionally of those who appear to think themselves entirely safe from the ravages of war in the mountains of Alabama and Georgia, by remaining at home you will have the consolation of knowing that you have been tried in the fire and have done the best for your country. Unto the new order of things instituted by the military authority of the United States, it be hooves as all to assimilate; and as its lines extend, if we have not realized all our hopeful visions, we can have the blessed consolation of knowing that we have been discreet, law-abiding citizens. For our part, we look forward with daily renewed hope to that time when our internal strife shall end, when brother shall cease to be arrayed against brother, and when the Constitution and Union of our fathers shall be reversed by every one on American soil.

General Rosecrans issued an order, thanking his soldiers for their patience, perseverance, and courage, displayed in the campaign against General Bragg.

Greek fire-shells were thrown into Charleston, South Carolina, from the batteries of General Gillmore, on Morris Island.

A cavalry skirmish occurred near Franklin, Louisiana, between a large force of Union troops with artillery under Colonel Davis, and a group of Confederates commanded by Captain Squires. The Rebels were repulsed at the first fire, Squires being mortally wounded.

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