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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 11/14/13 at 4:09 am to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 11/14/13 at 4:09 am to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 14 November 1863
Still on duty in the Charleston, South Carolina area, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard had a different assignment today than last year, but not a more pleasant one. His job was to inspect the gunboats protecting the harbor and river, and report on them His report was not happy. "Our gunboats are defective in six respects", he wrote. "First, they have no speed...second, they are of too great a draft to navigate our inland waters. Third, they are unseaworthy...even in the harbor they are at times...unsafe in a storm. Fourth, they are incapable of resisting the enemy's...shots. Fifth, they can not fight at long range. Sixth, they are very costly, warm, uncomfortable and badly ventilated; consequently sickly." Beauregard's bluntness gained him no friends. Everybody knew the ships were awful, but they also knew those vessels were the only ships the South had.
Timely intelligence reports played an important role in alerting the Union blockaders. This date, Rear Admiral Bailey advised Lieutenant Commander McCauley, of the USS Fort Henry: "I have information that the steamers Alabama and Nita sailed from Havana on the 12th, with a view of running the blockade, probably at Mobile, but possibly between Tampa Bay and St. Marks [Florida]; also that the steamers Montgomery (formerly Habanero), the Isabel, the Fannie, the War-rior, and the Little Lily were nearly ready for sail, with like intent. . . the Isabel, which sailed on the 7th, has undoubtedly gone either to Bayport, the Waccasassa, or the Suwanee River. You will therefore keep a sharp lookout for any of these vessels. . . ." Four of the seven ships were captured by the blockading forces within a month.
The USS Bermuda, Acting Master J. W. Smith, seized the British blockade runners Carmita, with a full cargo of cotton, and Artist, with a cargo including liquor and medicine, off the Texas coast.
The farmers of Warren, Franklin, and Johnson counties, North Carolina, having refused to pay the Confederate tax in kind by delivering the government's tenth to the quartermaster-general, James A. Seddon, the Confederate States Secretary of War, issued the following letter of instructions to that officer:
It is true the law requires farmers to deliver their tenth at depots not more than eight miles from the place of production; but your published order requesting them for the purpose of supplying the immediate wants of the army, to deliver at the depots named, although at a greater distance than eight miles, and offering to pay for the transportation in excess of that distance, is so reasonable that no good citizen would refuse to comply with it.
You will, therefore, promulgate an addition to your former order, requiring producers to deliver their quotas at the depots nearest to them by a specified day, and notifying them that in case of their refusal or neglect to comply therewith, the Government will provide the necessary transportation at the expense of the delinquents, and collect said expense by an immediate levy on their productions, calculating their value at the rates allowed in cases of impressment.
If it becomes necessary to furnish transportation, the necessary teams, teamsters, etc., must be impressed as in ordinary cases.
All persons detected in secreting articles subject to the tax, or in deceiving as to the quantity [8] produced by them, should be made to suffer the confiscation of all such property found belonging to them.
The people in the counties named, and in fact nearly all the western counties of that State, have ever evinced a disposition to cavil at, and even resist the measures of the Government, and it is quite time that they, and all others similarly disposed, should be dealt by with becoming rigor. Now that our energies are taxed to the utmost to subsist our armies, it will not do to be defrauded of this much-needed tax. If necessary, force must be employed for its collection. Let striking examples be made of a few of the rogues, and I think the rest will respond promptly.
Major General John M. Schofield, from the headquarters of the Department of the Missouri, at St. Louis, issued an important order regarding the enlisting of colored troops. Originally the slave owner's consent was required before a slave could enlist. Order No. 135 changed this, allowing enlistment without consent. If the owner did consent they were given some compensation. In addition, the order abolished the highly effective recruitment patrols. There was much dispute that these patrols were forcing some slaves against their will.
Still on duty in the Charleston, South Carolina area, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard had a different assignment today than last year, but not a more pleasant one. His job was to inspect the gunboats protecting the harbor and river, and report on them His report was not happy. "Our gunboats are defective in six respects", he wrote. "First, they have no speed...second, they are of too great a draft to navigate our inland waters. Third, they are unseaworthy...even in the harbor they are at times...unsafe in a storm. Fourth, they are incapable of resisting the enemy's...shots. Fifth, they can not fight at long range. Sixth, they are very costly, warm, uncomfortable and badly ventilated; consequently sickly." Beauregard's bluntness gained him no friends. Everybody knew the ships were awful, but they also knew those vessels were the only ships the South had.
Timely intelligence reports played an important role in alerting the Union blockaders. This date, Rear Admiral Bailey advised Lieutenant Commander McCauley, of the USS Fort Henry: "I have information that the steamers Alabama and Nita sailed from Havana on the 12th, with a view of running the blockade, probably at Mobile, but possibly between Tampa Bay and St. Marks [Florida]; also that the steamers Montgomery (formerly Habanero), the Isabel, the Fannie, the War-rior, and the Little Lily were nearly ready for sail, with like intent. . . the Isabel, which sailed on the 7th, has undoubtedly gone either to Bayport, the Waccasassa, or the Suwanee River. You will therefore keep a sharp lookout for any of these vessels. . . ." Four of the seven ships were captured by the blockading forces within a month.
The USS Bermuda, Acting Master J. W. Smith, seized the British blockade runners Carmita, with a full cargo of cotton, and Artist, with a cargo including liquor and medicine, off the Texas coast.
The farmers of Warren, Franklin, and Johnson counties, North Carolina, having refused to pay the Confederate tax in kind by delivering the government's tenth to the quartermaster-general, James A. Seddon, the Confederate States Secretary of War, issued the following letter of instructions to that officer:
It is true the law requires farmers to deliver their tenth at depots not more than eight miles from the place of production; but your published order requesting them for the purpose of supplying the immediate wants of the army, to deliver at the depots named, although at a greater distance than eight miles, and offering to pay for the transportation in excess of that distance, is so reasonable that no good citizen would refuse to comply with it.
You will, therefore, promulgate an addition to your former order, requiring producers to deliver their quotas at the depots nearest to them by a specified day, and notifying them that in case of their refusal or neglect to comply therewith, the Government will provide the necessary transportation at the expense of the delinquents, and collect said expense by an immediate levy on their productions, calculating their value at the rates allowed in cases of impressment.
If it becomes necessary to furnish transportation, the necessary teams, teamsters, etc., must be impressed as in ordinary cases.
All persons detected in secreting articles subject to the tax, or in deceiving as to the quantity [8] produced by them, should be made to suffer the confiscation of all such property found belonging to them.
The people in the counties named, and in fact nearly all the western counties of that State, have ever evinced a disposition to cavil at, and even resist the measures of the Government, and it is quite time that they, and all others similarly disposed, should be dealt by with becoming rigor. Now that our energies are taxed to the utmost to subsist our armies, it will not do to be defrauded of this much-needed tax. If necessary, force must be employed for its collection. Let striking examples be made of a few of the rogues, and I think the rest will respond promptly.
Major General John M. Schofield, from the headquarters of the Department of the Missouri, at St. Louis, issued an important order regarding the enlisting of colored troops. Originally the slave owner's consent was required before a slave could enlist. Order No. 135 changed this, allowing enlistment without consent. If the owner did consent they were given some compensation. In addition, the order abolished the highly effective recruitment patrols. There was much dispute that these patrols were forcing some slaves against their will.
1
Posted on 11/15/13 at 4:21 am to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 15 November 1863
The bombardment of Fort Sumter had been going on for a few days now, and 2328 shells had been thrown at the dilapidated pile of masonry since Thursday. This evening the defenders responded, and the guns at Confederate Fort Moultrie commenced their own bombardment of Cummings Point on Morris Island elsewhere in Charleston Harbor. Concerned that this might presage an amphibious attack, Union General Quincy Adams Gilmore asked his Navy counterpart, Admiral John A. Dahlgren, to send some ships to screen the point. Dahlgren promptly sent the requested vessels, some tugs and the USS Lehigh, but it was after dark before they reached station. The Lehigh promptly ran aground. It proved impossible to free her till the tide turned at dawn, and she attracted heavy fire before getting out of range.
Another report: Confederate-held Fort Moultrie opened a heavy, evening bombardment on the Union Army positions at Cummings Point, Morris Island, lasting well into the morning. Brigadier General Gillmore immediately turned to Rear Admiral Dahlgren for assistance. "Will you have some of your vessels move up, so as to prevent an attack by boats on the sea face of the point," he wired late at night. The Admiral answered "...at once" and ordered the tugs on patrol duty to keep "...a good lookout." The USS Lehigh, under Commander Andrew Bryson, grounded while covering Cummings Point and was taken under heavy fire the next morning before the USS Nahant, Lieutenant Commander John J. Cornwell in charge, got her off. Landsmen Frank S. Gile and William Williams, gunner's mate George W. Leland, coxswain Thomas Irving, and seaman Horatio N. Young from Lehigh were subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism while carrying a line from their ship to the Nahant, thus enabling the Lehigh to work free from her desperate position. “Thursday morning last until yesterday (Saturday) at sundown, one thousand five hundred and twenty-three mortar shells and rifled shots were fired at the fort. The Union fire has ceased to be of any injury to that defense.”
The USS Lodona, under Acting Lieutenant Brodhead, seized the blockade running British schooner Arctic southwest of Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina, with a cargo of salt.
Conrad Posey, a Brigadier General in the Confederate service, died at Charlottesville, Vitrginia, from a wound received in the fight at Bristoe Station, Virginia. General Posey was formerly colonel of the Forty-eighth Mississippi regiment, belonging to General Featherstone's brigade, and when the latter was transferred from the army of Virginia to the West, General Posey was commissioned to succeed him. The firing on Fort Sumter continued steadily. From
Major General Stephen Augustus Hurlbut, from his headquarters, Sixteenth Army Corps, at Memphis, Tennessee, issued the following general order:
I. The people in the District of West-Tennessee and the northern counties of Mississippi having shown no disposition, and made no attempt to protect themselves from marauders and guerrilla bands, but having submitted themselves, without organized resistance, to the domination of these petty tyrants, and combined, in many instances, with the known enemies of the United States to procure from corrupt traders in the city of Memphis and elsewhere, supplies for the use of the public enemy, have proved themselves unworthy of the indulgence shown them by the Government.
It is therefore ordered, that the lines of pickets around the several military posts of this command, in Tennessee and Mississippi be closed, and that no goods of any description be allowed to pass out, nor any thing be brought in, except fire-wood and provisions, by any citizen, without the written order of some general officer, each of which permits, and the reason for granting the same, will be reported to these headquarters, and for the necessity of which each officer granting will be held rigidly responsible.
II. All merchants, and others doing business, will be held responsible for knowledge of the residence of the parties to whom they sell, and the sale of merchandise to persons beyond the lines of pickets will be punished with the highest rigor known to the laws of war.
III. All persons residing under the protection of the United States, and physically capable of military duty, are liable to perform the same in a country under martial law. Especially in the city of Memphis, where it is known many have fled to escape liability to military service at home, this rule will be strictly applied. In pursuance, therefore, to orders to this effect from Major-General W. T. Sherman, commanding department and army of the Tennessee, all officers commanding districts, divisions, and detached brigades of this corps, will immediately proceed to impress into the service of the United States such able-bodied persons liable to military duty as may be required to fill up the existing regiments and batteries to their maximum. Those persons so levied upon, if they enlist for three years or the war, will be entitled to the full benefits provided by the acts of Congress. If not, they will receive clothing and rations, and be borne at the foot of each company roll with remarks stating their time of service and the advances made by the Government in clothing; a certificate of which will be given them when discharged from such forced service, the question of pay or other compensation to be settled by proper authorities hereafter. They will be discharged when no further military necessity appears for their enforced service.
IV. The senior surgeons and inspectors present will constitute a Board of Inspection on the physical capacity of recruits.
Early this morning, a party of Confederate cavalry crossed the Rapidan River in front of Kilpatrick's line, at Morton's Ford, Virginia, attacked the pickets, capturing some six or eight of them, and retreated across the river again. This morning the affair was reported to Brigadier General George Custer, who was temporarily in command of the division, when he immediately ordered a regiment of cavalry and Pennington's battery of three-inch rifled guns down to the rear, and drove them back from the ford, notwithstanding they had brass twelve-pounders. This was done in the midst of a heavy rain-storm. No serious casualties were reported to Major General Alfred Pleasanton.
The bombardment of Fort Sumter had been going on for a few days now, and 2328 shells had been thrown at the dilapidated pile of masonry since Thursday. This evening the defenders responded, and the guns at Confederate Fort Moultrie commenced their own bombardment of Cummings Point on Morris Island elsewhere in Charleston Harbor. Concerned that this might presage an amphibious attack, Union General Quincy Adams Gilmore asked his Navy counterpart, Admiral John A. Dahlgren, to send some ships to screen the point. Dahlgren promptly sent the requested vessels, some tugs and the USS Lehigh, but it was after dark before they reached station. The Lehigh promptly ran aground. It proved impossible to free her till the tide turned at dawn, and she attracted heavy fire before getting out of range.
Another report: Confederate-held Fort Moultrie opened a heavy, evening bombardment on the Union Army positions at Cummings Point, Morris Island, lasting well into the morning. Brigadier General Gillmore immediately turned to Rear Admiral Dahlgren for assistance. "Will you have some of your vessels move up, so as to prevent an attack by boats on the sea face of the point," he wired late at night. The Admiral answered "...at once" and ordered the tugs on patrol duty to keep "...a good lookout." The USS Lehigh, under Commander Andrew Bryson, grounded while covering Cummings Point and was taken under heavy fire the next morning before the USS Nahant, Lieutenant Commander John J. Cornwell in charge, got her off. Landsmen Frank S. Gile and William Williams, gunner's mate George W. Leland, coxswain Thomas Irving, and seaman Horatio N. Young from Lehigh were subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism while carrying a line from their ship to the Nahant, thus enabling the Lehigh to work free from her desperate position. “Thursday morning last until yesterday (Saturday) at sundown, one thousand five hundred and twenty-three mortar shells and rifled shots were fired at the fort. The Union fire has ceased to be of any injury to that defense.”
The USS Lodona, under Acting Lieutenant Brodhead, seized the blockade running British schooner Arctic southwest of Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina, with a cargo of salt.
Conrad Posey, a Brigadier General in the Confederate service, died at Charlottesville, Vitrginia, from a wound received in the fight at Bristoe Station, Virginia. General Posey was formerly colonel of the Forty-eighth Mississippi regiment, belonging to General Featherstone's brigade, and when the latter was transferred from the army of Virginia to the West, General Posey was commissioned to succeed him. The firing on Fort Sumter continued steadily. From
Major General Stephen Augustus Hurlbut, from his headquarters, Sixteenth Army Corps, at Memphis, Tennessee, issued the following general order:
I. The people in the District of West-Tennessee and the northern counties of Mississippi having shown no disposition, and made no attempt to protect themselves from marauders and guerrilla bands, but having submitted themselves, without organized resistance, to the domination of these petty tyrants, and combined, in many instances, with the known enemies of the United States to procure from corrupt traders in the city of Memphis and elsewhere, supplies for the use of the public enemy, have proved themselves unworthy of the indulgence shown them by the Government.
It is therefore ordered, that the lines of pickets around the several military posts of this command, in Tennessee and Mississippi be closed, and that no goods of any description be allowed to pass out, nor any thing be brought in, except fire-wood and provisions, by any citizen, without the written order of some general officer, each of which permits, and the reason for granting the same, will be reported to these headquarters, and for the necessity of which each officer granting will be held rigidly responsible.
II. All merchants, and others doing business, will be held responsible for knowledge of the residence of the parties to whom they sell, and the sale of merchandise to persons beyond the lines of pickets will be punished with the highest rigor known to the laws of war.
III. All persons residing under the protection of the United States, and physically capable of military duty, are liable to perform the same in a country under martial law. Especially in the city of Memphis, where it is known many have fled to escape liability to military service at home, this rule will be strictly applied. In pursuance, therefore, to orders to this effect from Major-General W. T. Sherman, commanding department and army of the Tennessee, all officers commanding districts, divisions, and detached brigades of this corps, will immediately proceed to impress into the service of the United States such able-bodied persons liable to military duty as may be required to fill up the existing regiments and batteries to their maximum. Those persons so levied upon, if they enlist for three years or the war, will be entitled to the full benefits provided by the acts of Congress. If not, they will receive clothing and rations, and be borne at the foot of each company roll with remarks stating their time of service and the advances made by the Government in clothing; a certificate of which will be given them when discharged from such forced service, the question of pay or other compensation to be settled by proper authorities hereafter. They will be discharged when no further military necessity appears for their enforced service.
IV. The senior surgeons and inspectors present will constitute a Board of Inspection on the physical capacity of recruits.
Early this morning, a party of Confederate cavalry crossed the Rapidan River in front of Kilpatrick's line, at Morton's Ford, Virginia, attacked the pickets, capturing some six or eight of them, and retreated across the river again. This morning the affair was reported to Brigadier General George Custer, who was temporarily in command of the division, when he immediately ordered a regiment of cavalry and Pennington's battery of three-inch rifled guns down to the rear, and drove them back from the ford, notwithstanding they had brass twelve-pounders. This was done in the midst of a heavy rain-storm. No serious casualties were reported to Major General Alfred Pleasanton.
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