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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 12/26/13 at 7:31 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 12/26/13 at 7:31 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 27 December 1863
President Abraham Lincoln, in company with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, went for a visit on this day to the prisoner of war camp at Point Lookout, Maryland. Elsewhere, skirmishes took place at Somerville, New Castle, and Mossy Creek, Tennessee, possibly in celebration of General Joseph E. Johnston assuming command of the Confederate Department of Tennessee.
General James B. McPherson, from his headquarters, Seventeenth Army Corps, at Vicksburg, Mississippi, issued the following circular:
The following named persons: Miss Kate Barnett, Miss Ella Barrett, Miss Laura Latham, Miss Ellen Martin, and Mrs. Moore, having acted disrespectfully towards the President and Government of the United States, and having insulted officers, soldiers, and loyal citizens of the United States who had assembled at the Episcopal church in Vicksburg, on Christmas Day, for divine service, by abruptly leaving said church at that point in the service where the President of the United States and all others in authority are prayed for, are hereby banished, and will leave the Federal lines within forty-eight hours, under penalty of imprisonment.
Hereafter all persons, male or female, who by word or deed or by implication, do insult or show disrespect to the President, the Government, or the flag of the United States, or to any officer or soldier of the United States upon matters of a national character, shall be fined, banished, or imprisoned, according to the grossness of the offense.
President Abraham Lincoln, in company with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, went for a visit on this day to the prisoner of war camp at Point Lookout, Maryland. Elsewhere, skirmishes took place at Somerville, New Castle, and Mossy Creek, Tennessee, possibly in celebration of General Joseph E. Johnston assuming command of the Confederate Department of Tennessee.
General James B. McPherson, from his headquarters, Seventeenth Army Corps, at Vicksburg, Mississippi, issued the following circular:
The following named persons: Miss Kate Barnett, Miss Ella Barrett, Miss Laura Latham, Miss Ellen Martin, and Mrs. Moore, having acted disrespectfully towards the President and Government of the United States, and having insulted officers, soldiers, and loyal citizens of the United States who had assembled at the Episcopal church in Vicksburg, on Christmas Day, for divine service, by abruptly leaving said church at that point in the service where the President of the United States and all others in authority are prayed for, are hereby banished, and will leave the Federal lines within forty-eight hours, under penalty of imprisonment.
Hereafter all persons, male or female, who by word or deed or by implication, do insult or show disrespect to the President, the Government, or the flag of the United States, or to any officer or soldier of the United States upon matters of a national character, shall be fined, banished, or imprisoned, according to the grossness of the offense.
1
Posted on 12/27/13 at 9:46 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Monday, 28 December 1863
On this morning the Congress of the Confederate States of America faced up to the fact that the struggling new nation was basically broke, and also increasingly short of manpower. To correct the former, there was passed what was called the “tax in kind”, taking from every state one-tenth of all agricultural produce. To correct the manpower shortage, the system whereby a man could purchase a substitute to take his place in the army was abolished. This accomplished little as virtually every white man who could serve was either already doing so, engaged in vital industry or agriculture, or exercising passive resistance to the draft by taking to the hills if a recruiter entered the area.
The Seventh Wisconsin regiment left the army of the Potomac for home to recruit, under the general orders lately issued.
The Legislature of Alabama has voted that the carpets that cover the floor of the Senate Chamber, Hall of Representatives, and all officers' and committee-rooms in the capitol at Montgomery, be cut up and given to the soldiers of the Confederate army for blankets.
An attempt at informal renewal of the cartel was made by the enemy, under the immediate agency of General Benjamin "Spoons" Butler, who initiated his effort by sending five hundred Confederate soldiers to City Point. Commissioner Ould returned five hundred Federal soldiers, but informed Commissioner Hitchcock that the Confederate authorities could hold no communication with General Butler, and that there must be no further effort at a partial exchange. If the enemy desires to renew the cartel, it must be done upon fair terms, and through an agent not outlawed and beyond the pale of military respectability.
A skirmish took place at Charlestown, Tennessee, between a small body of Confederates under General Joseph Wheeler and a larger force of Federal troops, under the command of Colonel Laibold, of the Second regiment of Missouri infantry, resulting in the ultimate retreat of the Rebels.
The following memorial, signed by Generals Hardee, Stevenson, Cheatham, Breckinridge, and nearly all the other officers in command of the Army of the Tennessee, was read in the Confederate House of Representatives:
In the existing condition of affairs it is hoped your honorable bodies will pardon the variance from custom of addressing you from the army. It is done in no spirit of dictation, but in the conscientious conviction that the necessities of the country demand the voice and labor of all, and that delay, even for thirty days, in enacting proper measures, may make present disorders incurable, and the dangers of the moment omnipotent for our destruction.
In our opinion, it is essential to retain, for the term of during the war, without reorganization, the troops now in service; to place in service immediately, for the same term, all other white males between eighteen and fifty years of age, able to perform any military duty; to provide for placing in service, at the discretion of the President, for the same term, all white males between fifteen and eighteen, and between fifty and sixty years of age; to prohibit substitutes; to prohibit exemption, except for the necessary civil offices and employments of the Confederate States and the several States; to prohibit details, except for limited times, and for carrying on works essential to the army; to prohibit discharges, except in cases of permanent disability, from all duty; to prohibit leaves and furloughs, except under uniform rules of universal application, based, as far as practicable, on length of service and meritorious conduct; to prohibit, to the greatest extent, the details of able-bodied officers and men to posts, hospitals, or other interior duty, and to place in service as cooks, laborers, teamsters, and hospital attendants, with the army and elsewhere, able-bodied negroes and mulattoes, bond and free.
These measures, we think, if promptly enacted as laws, so as to give time for organizing and disciplining the new material, would make our armies invincible at the opening of the campaign of next year, and enable us to win back our lost territory and conquer a peace before that campaign shall be ended.
We beg further to suggest that, in our opinion, the dissatisfaction, apprehended or existing, from short rations, depreciated currency, and the retention of old soldiers in service, might be obviated by allowing bounties, with discriminations in favor of retained troops; an increase of pay; the commutation to enlisted men of rations not issued; and rations, or the value thereof, to officers.
Eighty-two Southern prisoners from Camp Douglas, Chicago, went to Boston, Massachusetts, to enter the United States naval service. They were taken directly to the North Carolina, receiving ship.
On this morning the Congress of the Confederate States of America faced up to the fact that the struggling new nation was basically broke, and also increasingly short of manpower. To correct the former, there was passed what was called the “tax in kind”, taking from every state one-tenth of all agricultural produce. To correct the manpower shortage, the system whereby a man could purchase a substitute to take his place in the army was abolished. This accomplished little as virtually every white man who could serve was either already doing so, engaged in vital industry or agriculture, or exercising passive resistance to the draft by taking to the hills if a recruiter entered the area.
The Seventh Wisconsin regiment left the army of the Potomac for home to recruit, under the general orders lately issued.
The Legislature of Alabama has voted that the carpets that cover the floor of the Senate Chamber, Hall of Representatives, and all officers' and committee-rooms in the capitol at Montgomery, be cut up and given to the soldiers of the Confederate army for blankets.
An attempt at informal renewal of the cartel was made by the enemy, under the immediate agency of General Benjamin "Spoons" Butler, who initiated his effort by sending five hundred Confederate soldiers to City Point. Commissioner Ould returned five hundred Federal soldiers, but informed Commissioner Hitchcock that the Confederate authorities could hold no communication with General Butler, and that there must be no further effort at a partial exchange. If the enemy desires to renew the cartel, it must be done upon fair terms, and through an agent not outlawed and beyond the pale of military respectability.
A skirmish took place at Charlestown, Tennessee, between a small body of Confederates under General Joseph Wheeler and a larger force of Federal troops, under the command of Colonel Laibold, of the Second regiment of Missouri infantry, resulting in the ultimate retreat of the Rebels.
The following memorial, signed by Generals Hardee, Stevenson, Cheatham, Breckinridge, and nearly all the other officers in command of the Army of the Tennessee, was read in the Confederate House of Representatives:
In the existing condition of affairs it is hoped your honorable bodies will pardon the variance from custom of addressing you from the army. It is done in no spirit of dictation, but in the conscientious conviction that the necessities of the country demand the voice and labor of all, and that delay, even for thirty days, in enacting proper measures, may make present disorders incurable, and the dangers of the moment omnipotent for our destruction.
In our opinion, it is essential to retain, for the term of during the war, without reorganization, the troops now in service; to place in service immediately, for the same term, all other white males between eighteen and fifty years of age, able to perform any military duty; to provide for placing in service, at the discretion of the President, for the same term, all white males between fifteen and eighteen, and between fifty and sixty years of age; to prohibit substitutes; to prohibit exemption, except for the necessary civil offices and employments of the Confederate States and the several States; to prohibit details, except for limited times, and for carrying on works essential to the army; to prohibit discharges, except in cases of permanent disability, from all duty; to prohibit leaves and furloughs, except under uniform rules of universal application, based, as far as practicable, on length of service and meritorious conduct; to prohibit, to the greatest extent, the details of able-bodied officers and men to posts, hospitals, or other interior duty, and to place in service as cooks, laborers, teamsters, and hospital attendants, with the army and elsewhere, able-bodied negroes and mulattoes, bond and free.
These measures, we think, if promptly enacted as laws, so as to give time for organizing and disciplining the new material, would make our armies invincible at the opening of the campaign of next year, and enable us to win back our lost territory and conquer a peace before that campaign shall be ended.
We beg further to suggest that, in our opinion, the dissatisfaction, apprehended or existing, from short rations, depreciated currency, and the retention of old soldiers in service, might be obviated by allowing bounties, with discriminations in favor of retained troops; an increase of pay; the commutation to enlisted men of rations not issued; and rations, or the value thereof, to officers.
Eighty-two Southern prisoners from Camp Douglas, Chicago, went to Boston, Massachusetts, to enter the United States naval service. They were taken directly to the North Carolina, receiving ship.
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