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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 12/21/13 at 9:56 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 12/21/13 at 9:56 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Tuesday, 22 December 1863
The winter continued severely in most parts of the country, and those fortunate enough to have shelter did their best to remain in it as often and as long as possible. Some scouting activity took place in eastern Tennessee, one of the few parts of the state where Union forces were actually somewhat welcomed by a populace which had been largely opposed to secession from the beginning. Mountain people, it is said, seldom care to take part in the disputes of the flatlanders and wish only that the folk of the lowlands would do likewise.
Captain Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama noted the effect of Confederate commerce raiding on Northern shipping in the Far East: "The enemy's East India and China trade is nearly broken up. Their ships find it impossible to get freights, there being in this port [Singapore] some nineteen sail, almost all of which are laid up for want of employment...the more widely our blows are struck, provided they are struck rapidly, the greater will be the consternation and consequent damage of the enemy."
A fight occurred at Fayette, sixteen miles from Rodney, Mississippi, between a party of Federals, belonging to General Ellet's Marine Brigade, under the command of Colonel Curry, and a slightly smaller number of partisan Rebels, attached to the forces under General Wirt Adams. After a brief skirmish, the Confederates retreated, leaving ten of their number in the hands of the Yankees.
The bark Saxon arrived at New York last night, in charge of Acting Master E. S. Keyser. She was captured by the gunboat Vanderbilt, on the twenty-ninth of October, on the west coast of Africa, four hundred miles north of the Cape of Good Hope, and had on board part of the cargo of the bark Conrad which vessel was captured by the pirate Alabama, and afterward converted into the CSS Tuscaloosa.
Brigadier General Averill, arrived at Edray in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, having successfully accomplished his expedition to cut the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad.
A squad of about forty men, under Major White, of the First regiment of Confederate cavalry, made a daring dash into Cleveland, Tennessee, driving in the Federal pickets, killing one, wounding several, and capturing six, besides twelve horses, and some small arms.
John Kelly was killed by a party of partisan guerrillas, on the Arkansas shore of the Mississippi River, opposite Memphis, Tennessee.
Union General Michael Corcoran died at Fairfax Court House, Virginia, from injuries received from a fall from his mount; he was crushed to death under his horse.
General Joseph E. Johnston, in command of the Confederate Department of Mississippi, relinquished it, by order of President Jefferson Davis, to Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk, and issued farewell orders, as follows:
Having felt great pride in this army, the undersigned leaves it with much regret. He assures his brave comrades of his full appreciation of the high soldierly qualities they have exhibited. Harmony of opinion and purpose has existed in all ranks. Amid events tending to produce gloom and despondency, they have presented the rare spectacle of the constant improvement of all arms in efficiency and discipline. He offers them his best wishes for their future success.
In leaving this command, it is a source of great satisfaction to him that it devolves upon the distinguished General chosen for it by the President-one who, on each of so many bloody battle-fields, has proved himself worthy of such troops as constitute this command.
The winter continued severely in most parts of the country, and those fortunate enough to have shelter did their best to remain in it as often and as long as possible. Some scouting activity took place in eastern Tennessee, one of the few parts of the state where Union forces were actually somewhat welcomed by a populace which had been largely opposed to secession from the beginning. Mountain people, it is said, seldom care to take part in the disputes of the flatlanders and wish only that the folk of the lowlands would do likewise.
Captain Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama noted the effect of Confederate commerce raiding on Northern shipping in the Far East: "The enemy's East India and China trade is nearly broken up. Their ships find it impossible to get freights, there being in this port [Singapore] some nineteen sail, almost all of which are laid up for want of employment...the more widely our blows are struck, provided they are struck rapidly, the greater will be the consternation and consequent damage of the enemy."
A fight occurred at Fayette, sixteen miles from Rodney, Mississippi, between a party of Federals, belonging to General Ellet's Marine Brigade, under the command of Colonel Curry, and a slightly smaller number of partisan Rebels, attached to the forces under General Wirt Adams. After a brief skirmish, the Confederates retreated, leaving ten of their number in the hands of the Yankees.
The bark Saxon arrived at New York last night, in charge of Acting Master E. S. Keyser. She was captured by the gunboat Vanderbilt, on the twenty-ninth of October, on the west coast of Africa, four hundred miles north of the Cape of Good Hope, and had on board part of the cargo of the bark Conrad which vessel was captured by the pirate Alabama, and afterward converted into the CSS Tuscaloosa.
Brigadier General Averill, arrived at Edray in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, having successfully accomplished his expedition to cut the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad.
A squad of about forty men, under Major White, of the First regiment of Confederate cavalry, made a daring dash into Cleveland, Tennessee, driving in the Federal pickets, killing one, wounding several, and capturing six, besides twelve horses, and some small arms.
John Kelly was killed by a party of partisan guerrillas, on the Arkansas shore of the Mississippi River, opposite Memphis, Tennessee.
Union General Michael Corcoran died at Fairfax Court House, Virginia, from injuries received from a fall from his mount; he was crushed to death under his horse.
General Joseph E. Johnston, in command of the Confederate Department of Mississippi, relinquished it, by order of President Jefferson Davis, to Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk, and issued farewell orders, as follows:
Having felt great pride in this army, the undersigned leaves it with much regret. He assures his brave comrades of his full appreciation of the high soldierly qualities they have exhibited. Harmony of opinion and purpose has existed in all ranks. Amid events tending to produce gloom and despondency, they have presented the rare spectacle of the constant improvement of all arms in efficiency and discipline. He offers them his best wishes for their future success.
In leaving this command, it is a source of great satisfaction to him that it devolves upon the distinguished General chosen for it by the President-one who, on each of so many bloody battle-fields, has proved himself worthy of such troops as constitute this command.
1
Posted on 12/22/13 at 8:48 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Wednesday, 23 December 1863
Things were not nearly active enough in the Department of Tennessee to suit the Confederate needs. Union forces essentially controlled the entire state, peace and order was largely in place, and nobody except Nathan Bedford Forrest was doing much of anything to combat this. President Jefferson Davis took this day to write a letter to General Joseph E. Johnston urging more strenuous efforts. He hoped that Johnston would “...soon be able to commence active operations against the enemy.”
Rear Admiral David G. Farragut advised Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles from the New York Navy Yard that the USS Hartford, which had served so long and well as his flagship in the Gulf, was again ready for sea save for an unfilled complement. The Admiral, anxious to return to action, suggested that the sailors might be obtained in Boston and other ports.
Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren ordered retaliatory steps taken against the Confederates operating in the Murrell's Inlet area where two Union boat crews had recently been captured. "I desire...he wrote Captain Green of the USS Canandaigua, "...to administer some corrective to the small parties of rebels who infest that vicinity, and shall detail for that purpose the steamers Nipsic, Sanford, Geranium, and Daffodil, also the sailing bark Allen and the schooner Mangham, 100 marines for landing, and four howitzers, two for the boats, two on field carriages, with such boats as may be needed." The force left its anchorage at Morris Island on 29 December.
A bill, prohibiting dealing in the currency of the United States, was passed in the Confederate Congress: “Any person violating the provisions of the act was subject to indictment and prosecution in the Confederate court holden for the district within which the offence was committed, and should, upon conviction, forfeit the amount so bought, sold, circulated, or used, or a sum equal thereto, and be moreover subject to a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars, nor less than five hundred, and be imprisoned not less than three months, nor more than three years, at the discretion of the court; and it was declared the duty of the judges of the several Confederate courts to give the act specially in charge to the grand jury: Provided, that the purchase of postage stamps should not be considered a violation of the act.”
The Confederate forces, under General James Longstreet, still remained in the neighborhood of Rutledge and Morristown, Tennessee. “General Longstreet was unable to follow up his advantage in consequence of the large number of bare-footed men in his command. The weather was extremely cold, and the mountains covered with snow.”
A party belonging to the Confederate Colonel Harrison's partisan guerrilla band, headed by James Cavalier, reportedly entered Omega, Louisiana, and after capturing twelve or fourteen negroes, proceeded to murder them in cold blood, after which they hurried away upon mules captured in the town.
In discussing the conscription proposed by the Confederate Congress, the Raleigh Progress says:
There is not another man to spare from the farms or other industrial pursuits of the country, and a further draft on this class will be fraught with the most disastrous consequences. If more men are wanted in the line, let the thousands of able-bodied men already in the pay of the government be placed there, and the drones and non-producers who insult honest toil by their constant swagger, and who have been shielded by the corruptions of office-holders since the war commenced, be gathered up and compelled to fight for that liberty for which they ever profess to be so ready to pour out their precious blood.
Congress, we fear, is disposed to run into extremes, especially those members whose States are largely or entirely in the hands of the enemy. If this war is to be fought out to the last man and the last dollar, if we are really battling for independence, we must husband our resources. We must have men to fight, and we must have something to feed them on. Beware of destroying the seed-corn.
From an article in this morning's Richmond Dispatch. The Yankees made a raid on Luray, Virginia, and burned P. B. Borst's large tannery, the old Baptist Church, and Mr. Booton's workshop; broke open all the stores, and robbed them of all their goods, and what they could not take off, they distributed among the negroes. They also broke open the meat-houses, and stole, carried away, and destroyed nearly all the pork and bacon in the place, besides killing nearly all the chickens they could find. They also burnt the tannery of William R. Barbee, about six miles east of Luray.
Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk, assuming command of the Confederate army in Mississippi, issued an order at Meridian, in which he recognizes the defeats and discouragements the Confederate cause has sustained of late, but seeks to stimulate his troops to fresh efforts, by assuring them that there is still, in the South, ample material for a continued and successful prosecution of the war. “The vigorous employment of our own resources,” he closed by saying, “with unity, harmony, and an unflinching determination to be true cannot, under God, but crown our efforts with triumphant success.”
Things were not nearly active enough in the Department of Tennessee to suit the Confederate needs. Union forces essentially controlled the entire state, peace and order was largely in place, and nobody except Nathan Bedford Forrest was doing much of anything to combat this. President Jefferson Davis took this day to write a letter to General Joseph E. Johnston urging more strenuous efforts. He hoped that Johnston would “...soon be able to commence active operations against the enemy.”
Rear Admiral David G. Farragut advised Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles from the New York Navy Yard that the USS Hartford, which had served so long and well as his flagship in the Gulf, was again ready for sea save for an unfilled complement. The Admiral, anxious to return to action, suggested that the sailors might be obtained in Boston and other ports.
Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren ordered retaliatory steps taken against the Confederates operating in the Murrell's Inlet area where two Union boat crews had recently been captured. "I desire...he wrote Captain Green of the USS Canandaigua, "...to administer some corrective to the small parties of rebels who infest that vicinity, and shall detail for that purpose the steamers Nipsic, Sanford, Geranium, and Daffodil, also the sailing bark Allen and the schooner Mangham, 100 marines for landing, and four howitzers, two for the boats, two on field carriages, with such boats as may be needed." The force left its anchorage at Morris Island on 29 December.
A bill, prohibiting dealing in the currency of the United States, was passed in the Confederate Congress: “Any person violating the provisions of the act was subject to indictment and prosecution in the Confederate court holden for the district within which the offence was committed, and should, upon conviction, forfeit the amount so bought, sold, circulated, or used, or a sum equal thereto, and be moreover subject to a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars, nor less than five hundred, and be imprisoned not less than three months, nor more than three years, at the discretion of the court; and it was declared the duty of the judges of the several Confederate courts to give the act specially in charge to the grand jury: Provided, that the purchase of postage stamps should not be considered a violation of the act.”
The Confederate forces, under General James Longstreet, still remained in the neighborhood of Rutledge and Morristown, Tennessee. “General Longstreet was unable to follow up his advantage in consequence of the large number of bare-footed men in his command. The weather was extremely cold, and the mountains covered with snow.”
A party belonging to the Confederate Colonel Harrison's partisan guerrilla band, headed by James Cavalier, reportedly entered Omega, Louisiana, and after capturing twelve or fourteen negroes, proceeded to murder them in cold blood, after which they hurried away upon mules captured in the town.
In discussing the conscription proposed by the Confederate Congress, the Raleigh Progress says:
There is not another man to spare from the farms or other industrial pursuits of the country, and a further draft on this class will be fraught with the most disastrous consequences. If more men are wanted in the line, let the thousands of able-bodied men already in the pay of the government be placed there, and the drones and non-producers who insult honest toil by their constant swagger, and who have been shielded by the corruptions of office-holders since the war commenced, be gathered up and compelled to fight for that liberty for which they ever profess to be so ready to pour out their precious blood.
Congress, we fear, is disposed to run into extremes, especially those members whose States are largely or entirely in the hands of the enemy. If this war is to be fought out to the last man and the last dollar, if we are really battling for independence, we must husband our resources. We must have men to fight, and we must have something to feed them on. Beware of destroying the seed-corn.
From an article in this morning's Richmond Dispatch. The Yankees made a raid on Luray, Virginia, and burned P. B. Borst's large tannery, the old Baptist Church, and Mr. Booton's workshop; broke open all the stores, and robbed them of all their goods, and what they could not take off, they distributed among the negroes. They also broke open the meat-houses, and stole, carried away, and destroyed nearly all the pork and bacon in the place, besides killing nearly all the chickens they could find. They also burnt the tannery of William R. Barbee, about six miles east of Luray.
Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk, assuming command of the Confederate army in Mississippi, issued an order at Meridian, in which he recognizes the defeats and discouragements the Confederate cause has sustained of late, but seeks to stimulate his troops to fresh efforts, by assuring them that there is still, in the South, ample material for a continued and successful prosecution of the war. “The vigorous employment of our own resources,” he closed by saying, “with unity, harmony, and an unflinching determination to be true cannot, under God, but crown our efforts with triumphant success.”
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