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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 12/6/13 at 8:59 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 12/6/13 at 8:59 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 7 December 1863
As the Constitution of the Confederate States of America was essentially the same document as the one used by the United States (with three significant and important modifications-like term limits, line item veto and banning the international slave trade) it was not surprising that many events, such as the opening of sessions of Congress, occurred at the same time. Such was the case today as legislative bodies were convened in both Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. In Richmond, the report from the President was grim. Foreign relations had not improved, Jefferson Davis reported, which meant they basically did not exist. Finances were in dire straits, the prisoner-of-war exchange system remained in limbo, and the army had suffered “grave reverses”, but the level of patriotism remained high. In Washington, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles reported that the blockade was solid “...commencing at Alexandria, Virginia, and terminating at the Rio Grande.”
In his third annual report to the President, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles wrote: "A blockade commencing at Alexandria, in Virginia, and terminating at the Rio Grande, has been effectively maintained. The extent of this blockade . . . . covers a distance of three thousand five hundred and forty-nine statute miles, with one hundred and eighty-nine harbor or pier openings or indentations, and much of the coast presents a double shore to be guarded . . . a naval force of more than one hundred vessels has been employed in patrolling the rivers, cutting off rebel supplies, and co-operating with the armies. . . . The distance thus traversed and patrolled by the gunboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries is 3,615 miles, and the sounds, bayous, rivers and inlets of the States upon the Atlantic and the Gulf, covering an extent of about 2,000 miles, have also been . . . watched with unceasing vigilance." Welles reported a naval strength of 34,000 sea-men and 588 ships displacing 467,967 tons, mounting 4,443 guns. More than 1,000 ships had been captured by alert blockaders, as the results of weakness at sea were driven home to the beleaguered South. The North's mighty force afloat had severed the Confederacy along the Mississippi and pierced ever deeper into her interior; amphibious assaults from the sea had driven her still further from her coasts; and the vise of the blockade clamped down more tightly on an already withering economy and military capability.
Steamer Chesapeake (formerly the Totten, a 460-ton wooden steamship built in 1853 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; rebuilt and renamed Chesapeake in 1857) of the New York and Portland Line, en route to Portland, Maine, was seized off Cape Cod by a group of 17 Confederate sympathizers led by John C. Braine. The bizarre undertaking had been planned at St. John, New Brunswick, by Captain John Parker (whose real name seems to have been Vernon G. Locke), former commander of the Confederate privateer Retribution. Parker ordered Braine and his men to New York where they purchased side arms and boarded Chesapeake as passengers. At the appropriate moment they threw aside their disguises. and after a brief exchange of gunfire in which the second engineer was killed, took possession of the steamer. They intended to make for Wilmington after coaling in Nova Scotia. Captain Parker came on board in the Bay of Fundy and took charge. News of the capture elicited a quick response in the Navy Department. Ships from Philadelphia northward were ordered out in pursuit. On 17 December USS Ella and Annie, Acting Lieutenant J. Frederick Nickels, recaptured Chesapeake in Sambro Harbor, Nova Scotia. She was taken to Halifax where the Vice Admiralty Court ultimately restored the steamer to her original American owners. Most of the Confederates escaped and John Braine would again cause the Union much concern before the war ended.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox transmitted a list of ships reported to be running the blockade and urged Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee to prosecute the blockade even more vigorously. "While the captures are numerous, it is not the less evident that there are many that escape capture." Some ships would successfully run the blockade until the end of the war.
Major General John Gray Foster, from his headquarters at Tazewell, Tennessee, sent the following to the Federal War Department: “Longstreet is on a full retreat up the valley. Your orders about following with cavalry, shall be carried out. My division of cavalry attacked the enemy's cavalry in one of the passes of Clinch Mountains, yesterday P. M., and are pushing them vigorously. Couriers from Knoxville arrived last night. The road is clear. Sherman arrived here yesterday.”
President Abraham Lincoln issued the following recommendation for prayer and thanksgiving, for the defeat of the Rebels under General James Longstreet: “Reliable information having been received that the insurgent force is retreating from East-Tennessee, under circumstances rendering it probable that the Union forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from that important position, and esteeming this to be of high national consequence, I recommend that all loyal people do, on receipt of this information, assemble at their places of worship, and render special homage and gratitude to Almighty God for this great advancement of the national cause.”
A debate on the question of the employment of substitutes in the Southern army was held in the Confederate Congress.
The steamer Von Phul, on a trip from New Orleans to St. Louis, was fired into at a point about eight miles above Bayou Sara, and seriously damaged.
Major General John A. Logan assumed command of the Fifteenth army corps, at Bridgeport, Alabama.
Full and enthusiastic meetings were held in various portions of Indiana. At the capital of the State, General Henry B. Carrington made a strategical speech, illustrated by maps and diagrams, showing how the Rebels could eventually be circumvented.
As the Constitution of the Confederate States of America was essentially the same document as the one used by the United States (with three significant and important modifications-like term limits, line item veto and banning the international slave trade) it was not surprising that many events, such as the opening of sessions of Congress, occurred at the same time. Such was the case today as legislative bodies were convened in both Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. In Richmond, the report from the President was grim. Foreign relations had not improved, Jefferson Davis reported, which meant they basically did not exist. Finances were in dire straits, the prisoner-of-war exchange system remained in limbo, and the army had suffered “grave reverses”, but the level of patriotism remained high. In Washington, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles reported that the blockade was solid “...commencing at Alexandria, Virginia, and terminating at the Rio Grande.”
In his third annual report to the President, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles wrote: "A blockade commencing at Alexandria, in Virginia, and terminating at the Rio Grande, has been effectively maintained. The extent of this blockade . . . . covers a distance of three thousand five hundred and forty-nine statute miles, with one hundred and eighty-nine harbor or pier openings or indentations, and much of the coast presents a double shore to be guarded . . . a naval force of more than one hundred vessels has been employed in patrolling the rivers, cutting off rebel supplies, and co-operating with the armies. . . . The distance thus traversed and patrolled by the gunboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries is 3,615 miles, and the sounds, bayous, rivers and inlets of the States upon the Atlantic and the Gulf, covering an extent of about 2,000 miles, have also been . . . watched with unceasing vigilance." Welles reported a naval strength of 34,000 sea-men and 588 ships displacing 467,967 tons, mounting 4,443 guns. More than 1,000 ships had been captured by alert blockaders, as the results of weakness at sea were driven home to the beleaguered South. The North's mighty force afloat had severed the Confederacy along the Mississippi and pierced ever deeper into her interior; amphibious assaults from the sea had driven her still further from her coasts; and the vise of the blockade clamped down more tightly on an already withering economy and military capability.
Steamer Chesapeake (formerly the Totten, a 460-ton wooden steamship built in 1853 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; rebuilt and renamed Chesapeake in 1857) of the New York and Portland Line, en route to Portland, Maine, was seized off Cape Cod by a group of 17 Confederate sympathizers led by John C. Braine. The bizarre undertaking had been planned at St. John, New Brunswick, by Captain John Parker (whose real name seems to have been Vernon G. Locke), former commander of the Confederate privateer Retribution. Parker ordered Braine and his men to New York where they purchased side arms and boarded Chesapeake as passengers. At the appropriate moment they threw aside their disguises. and after a brief exchange of gunfire in which the second engineer was killed, took possession of the steamer. They intended to make for Wilmington after coaling in Nova Scotia. Captain Parker came on board in the Bay of Fundy and took charge. News of the capture elicited a quick response in the Navy Department. Ships from Philadelphia northward were ordered out in pursuit. On 17 December USS Ella and Annie, Acting Lieutenant J. Frederick Nickels, recaptured Chesapeake in Sambro Harbor, Nova Scotia. She was taken to Halifax where the Vice Admiralty Court ultimately restored the steamer to her original American owners. Most of the Confederates escaped and John Braine would again cause the Union much concern before the war ended.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox transmitted a list of ships reported to be running the blockade and urged Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee to prosecute the blockade even more vigorously. "While the captures are numerous, it is not the less evident that there are many that escape capture." Some ships would successfully run the blockade until the end of the war.
Major General John Gray Foster, from his headquarters at Tazewell, Tennessee, sent the following to the Federal War Department: “Longstreet is on a full retreat up the valley. Your orders about following with cavalry, shall be carried out. My division of cavalry attacked the enemy's cavalry in one of the passes of Clinch Mountains, yesterday P. M., and are pushing them vigorously. Couriers from Knoxville arrived last night. The road is clear. Sherman arrived here yesterday.”
President Abraham Lincoln issued the following recommendation for prayer and thanksgiving, for the defeat of the Rebels under General James Longstreet: “Reliable information having been received that the insurgent force is retreating from East-Tennessee, under circumstances rendering it probable that the Union forces cannot hereafter be dislodged from that important position, and esteeming this to be of high national consequence, I recommend that all loyal people do, on receipt of this information, assemble at their places of worship, and render special homage and gratitude to Almighty God for this great advancement of the national cause.”
A debate on the question of the employment of substitutes in the Southern army was held in the Confederate Congress.
The steamer Von Phul, on a trip from New Orleans to St. Louis, was fired into at a point about eight miles above Bayou Sara, and seriously damaged.
Major General John A. Logan assumed command of the Fifteenth army corps, at Bridgeport, Alabama.
Full and enthusiastic meetings were held in various portions of Indiana. At the capital of the State, General Henry B. Carrington made a strategical speech, illustrated by maps and diagrams, showing how the Rebels could eventually be circumvented.
This post was edited on 12/7/13 at 6:23 am
1
Posted on 12/7/13 at 9:35 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 8 Dec. 1863
It was Abraham Lincoln’s turn to offer a State of the Union address to his Congress today, as it had been Jefferson Davis’ duty to his yesterday. Lincoln’s message, needless to say, was considerably more upbeat than his Confederate counterpart’s had been. After the usual reports on foreign relations (good) and military matters besides the War (good, aside from some difficulties with Indians), he got to the heart of his message: a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconciliation. The key provisions of this were that anyone who had participated “...directly or by implication...” in the Rebellion against the Union could return to lawful citizenship simply by taking an oath of allegiance. Exceptions were military officers who had renounced their oaths to serve the Confederacy, high-ranking members of the CSA government, and anyone who had treated Union prisoners of war, black or white, in an “...other than lawful...” manner. President Lincoln, in his Message to Congress, also appended his Proclamation of Amnesty.
The disabled merchant steamer Henry Von Phul was shelled by a Confederate shore battery near Morganza, Louisiana. The USS Neosho, under Acting Ensign Edwin P. Brooks, and the USS Signal, Acting Ensign William P. Lee in charge, steamed up to defend the ship and silenced the battery. Union merchantmen were largely free from such attacks when convoyed by a warship.
A brisk cannonade between Fort Moultrie and Battery Gregg, in Charleston Harbor, was carried on this day. The firing on Fort Sumter was moderated.
In a speech before the Confederate Congress, this day, Mr. Henry Stuart Foote expressed great indignation at the course pursued by President Jefferson Davis. “When Pemberton dishonorably surrendered Vicksburg to the enemy, the President made him his companion, and carried him to General Bragg's army, when, as he rode along, soldiers were heard to say: ‘There goes the traitor who delivered us over at Vicksburg.’ The President never visited the army without doing it injury; never yet that it was not followed by disaster. He was instrumental in the Gettysburg affair. He instructed Bragg at Murfreesboro. He has opened Georgia to one hundred thousand of the enemy's troops, and laid South Carolina liable to destruction. I charge him with having almost ruined the country, and will meet his champion anywhere to discuss it. Would to God he would never visit the army again!”
Mr. Foote also referred to abuses in the commissary department. "A certain commissary-general, who was a curse to our country, is invested with authority to control the matter of subsistence. This monster, Northrop, has stealthily placed our government in the attitude charged by the enemy, and has attempted to starve the prisoners in our hands!"
"Meats were furnished the prisoners very irregularly, and in a meager manner. For twelve days the supply was inadequate, and for eight days they had none at all!"
“The commissary-general,” says Mr. Foote, “was a pepper-doctor down in Charleston, and looked like a vegetarian, and actually made an elaborate report to the Secretary of War, showing that for the subsistence of a human Yankee carcass vegetable diet was the most proper! For the honor of the country, this Northrop should be ejected at once.”
The following is an account of an affair that took place today, near Great Western Furnace, Stuart County, Tennessee, about twelve miles from Canton, Ky.: “The guerrilla, Colonel Martin, who lately robbed the citizens in that section of nearly all they possessed, passed through Golden Pond, Tenn., with his gang, taking horses, and plundering indiscriminately. The citizens of the neighborhood organized a squad of fifteen men, composed principally of the late Eighth Kentucky cavalry, headed by John Martin and F. M. Oakley, and started in pursuit of the guerrillas. They came upon them about midnight, in camp, eating a supper furnished them by one Dawsy Griffin. The citizens demanded a surrender, which was refused by the rebel leader, and the order was given by Martin to charge upon them, which was done in a handsome manner, resulting in a complete rout, and the capture of all their arms, horses, clothing, camp equipage, and two contrabands. Three of the rebels were killed on the spot.”
The United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a vote of thanks to General Hiram U. Grant and his army, and ordered that a medal be struck in his honor, in the name of the people of the United States. President Lincoln sent the subjoined congratulatory dispatch to Major General Grant: “Understanding that your lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville is now secure, I wish to tender you, and all under your command, my more than thanks — my profoundest gratitude for the skill, courage, and perseverance with which you and they, over so great difficulties, have effected that important object. God bless you all!” This was immediately published to the armies under the command of General Grant.
It was Abraham Lincoln’s turn to offer a State of the Union address to his Congress today, as it had been Jefferson Davis’ duty to his yesterday. Lincoln’s message, needless to say, was considerably more upbeat than his Confederate counterpart’s had been. After the usual reports on foreign relations (good) and military matters besides the War (good, aside from some difficulties with Indians), he got to the heart of his message: a Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconciliation. The key provisions of this were that anyone who had participated “...directly or by implication...” in the Rebellion against the Union could return to lawful citizenship simply by taking an oath of allegiance. Exceptions were military officers who had renounced their oaths to serve the Confederacy, high-ranking members of the CSA government, and anyone who had treated Union prisoners of war, black or white, in an “...other than lawful...” manner. President Lincoln, in his Message to Congress, also appended his Proclamation of Amnesty.
The disabled merchant steamer Henry Von Phul was shelled by a Confederate shore battery near Morganza, Louisiana. The USS Neosho, under Acting Ensign Edwin P. Brooks, and the USS Signal, Acting Ensign William P. Lee in charge, steamed up to defend the ship and silenced the battery. Union merchantmen were largely free from such attacks when convoyed by a warship.
A brisk cannonade between Fort Moultrie and Battery Gregg, in Charleston Harbor, was carried on this day. The firing on Fort Sumter was moderated.
In a speech before the Confederate Congress, this day, Mr. Henry Stuart Foote expressed great indignation at the course pursued by President Jefferson Davis. “When Pemberton dishonorably surrendered Vicksburg to the enemy, the President made him his companion, and carried him to General Bragg's army, when, as he rode along, soldiers were heard to say: ‘There goes the traitor who delivered us over at Vicksburg.’ The President never visited the army without doing it injury; never yet that it was not followed by disaster. He was instrumental in the Gettysburg affair. He instructed Bragg at Murfreesboro. He has opened Georgia to one hundred thousand of the enemy's troops, and laid South Carolina liable to destruction. I charge him with having almost ruined the country, and will meet his champion anywhere to discuss it. Would to God he would never visit the army again!”
Mr. Foote also referred to abuses in the commissary department. "A certain commissary-general, who was a curse to our country, is invested with authority to control the matter of subsistence. This monster, Northrop, has stealthily placed our government in the attitude charged by the enemy, and has attempted to starve the prisoners in our hands!"
"Meats were furnished the prisoners very irregularly, and in a meager manner. For twelve days the supply was inadequate, and for eight days they had none at all!"
“The commissary-general,” says Mr. Foote, “was a pepper-doctor down in Charleston, and looked like a vegetarian, and actually made an elaborate report to the Secretary of War, showing that for the subsistence of a human Yankee carcass vegetable diet was the most proper! For the honor of the country, this Northrop should be ejected at once.”
The following is an account of an affair that took place today, near Great Western Furnace, Stuart County, Tennessee, about twelve miles from Canton, Ky.: “The guerrilla, Colonel Martin, who lately robbed the citizens in that section of nearly all they possessed, passed through Golden Pond, Tenn., with his gang, taking horses, and plundering indiscriminately. The citizens of the neighborhood organized a squad of fifteen men, composed principally of the late Eighth Kentucky cavalry, headed by John Martin and F. M. Oakley, and started in pursuit of the guerrillas. They came upon them about midnight, in camp, eating a supper furnished them by one Dawsy Griffin. The citizens demanded a surrender, which was refused by the rebel leader, and the order was given by Martin to charge upon them, which was done in a handsome manner, resulting in a complete rout, and the capture of all their arms, horses, clothing, camp equipage, and two contrabands. Three of the rebels were killed on the spot.”
The United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a vote of thanks to General Hiram U. Grant and his army, and ordered that a medal be struck in his honor, in the name of the people of the United States. President Lincoln sent the subjoined congratulatory dispatch to Major General Grant: “Understanding that your lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville is now secure, I wish to tender you, and all under your command, my more than thanks — my profoundest gratitude for the skill, courage, and perseverance with which you and they, over so great difficulties, have effected that important object. God bless you all!” This was immediately published to the armies under the command of General Grant.
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