Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Post image for A Diary of American Events – December 28, 1860

A Diary of American Events – December 28, 1860

December 28, 2010

The Rebellion Record—A Diary of American Events; by Frank Moore

—Early this afternoon the palmetto flag was raised over the Custom House and Post Office at Charleston; and to-night Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie have been taken possession of by the South Carolina military. These forts are held under instructions from Governor Pickens, who authorizes their peaceable possession, for the protection of the government property. Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie were held by a very small force, which surrendered without collision.—Times, Dec. 29.

—An enthusiastic Union meeting was held at Memphis, Tenn., to-day. It was addressed by Hon. Neil S. Brown and others. Resolutions were passed opposing separate State secession; against coercion; and favoring a Convention of the Southern States to demand their rights, and if refused to take immediate action. —Phila. Press, Dec. 29.

—The citizens of Wilmington, Del., fired a salute of twenty-one guns in honor of Major Anderson and his heroic band.

—Governor Hicks’ refusal to convene the Maryland Legislature for disunion purposes, is generally regarded at Washington with warm approbation, and creates great dismay among the disunionists who have urged it. The greater portion of the latter are said to be office-seekers, disappointed politicians, and rowdies, who seek plunder. A prominent gentleman, who has just seen Governor Hicks, says the rank and file of Maryland are true to him.—Tribune, Dec. 29.

Post image for Abby…unwilling to give him up, argued and entreated in vain.—Extracts from a letter to a Southern cousin.

Abby…unwilling to give him up, argued and entreated in vain.—Extracts from a letter to a Southern cousin.

December 28, 2010

The American Civil War,Woolsey family letters during the War for the Union

Abby Howland Woolsey to Benjamin Mintorn Woolsey
[When we were all children and spending, as usual, our summer with Grandfather Woolsey at Casina there arrived one day a new and charming cousin, Benjamin Minthorn Woolsey, from Alabama. He belonged to the Melancthan Taylor branch of the family, and none of us had ever seen him before. A warm friendship began and was continued until the mutterings of secession were heard. Abby, unwilling to give him up, argued and entreated in vain. The letter from which the following extracts are taken was probably her last to him and will give an idea of her clear and forcible thinking and writing. Many families decided at this point to meet again only as enemies.]

My dear Cousin: I hasten to answer your letter, for, as events march, mail facilities may soon be interrupted between North and South. When the great separation is a recognized fact postal treaties, along with others, may be arranged. Meantime, it is one of the curious features of your anomalous position that you are making use of a “foreign government” to carry your mails for you, on the score of economy. Congress may cut off the Southern service and occasion some inconvenience and delay, but I am told it will save the government about $26,000 weekly, that being the weekly excess of postal expenditure over revenue in the six seceding states.

I thank you very sincerely for your letter. It was very kind in you to write so promptly and fully and in so sedate a tone. But what a sober, disheartening letter it was! We have been slow to believe that the conservative men of the cotton states have been swept into this revolution. I could not believe it now but for your assurance as regards yourself and your state. “Not a hundred Union men” as we understand it, in Alabama! We had supposed there were many hundreds who would stand by the Union, unconditionally if need be, and uphold the Constitution, not according to any party construction, but as our fathers framed it, as the Supreme Court expounds it, and as it will be Mr. Lincoln’s wisest policy to administer it. Not a hundred Union men in your state! Truly not, if Mr. Yancey speaks for you and Alabama when he avows himself as “utterly, unalterably opposed to any and all plans of reconstructing a Union with the Black Republican states of the North. No new guarantees, no amendments of the Constitution, no repeal of obnoxious laws can offer any the least inducement to reconstruct our relations.” Then compromisers in Congress, in convention, everywhere, may as well cease their useless efforts. Not a hundred Union men in Alabama! Who then burned Mr. Yancey himself in effigy? Have those delegates who refused to sign the secession ordinance yet done so? and what constituencies do they represent? Why was it refused to refer the action of convention to the people?

Whatever the Border states may have suffered, and, as in the case of the John Brown raid, have swiftly and terribly avenged, you of the Gulf states can hardly think that your wrongs have been so intolerable as to make revolution necessary. True, you describe us as standing with a loaded pistol at your breast, but the heaviest charge we have ever put in is non-extension of slavery in the territories. If slavery cannot stand that; if, surrounded by a cordon of free states, like a girdled tree it dies, then it cannot have that inherent force of truth and justice—that divine vitality which has been claimed for it. This is as favorable a time as we could have to meet the issue and settle it peacefully, I trust, forever. And here comes up the subject of compromises, the Crittenden measures particularly. How does it happen that the Southern demands have increased so enormously since last year? Then the Senate declared by a vote of 43 to 5 that it was not necessary to pass a law to protect slavery in the territories. Now, you “secede” because you cannot get what Fitzpatrick, Clay, Benjamin, Iverson, and others declared you did not need. Then you asked the Democratic convention at Charleston to put a slavery code into the party platform, and you split your party about it. Now you come to the opponents who fairly outvoted you and your platform and ask them to put the same protective clause, —where? — into the Constitution! We can never eat our principles in that way, though all fifteen of the states secede. The right of eminent domain, by which South Carolina claims Fort Sumter, inapplicable as it is, is a respectable demand compared with what has been practiced further south — the right of seizure. If you attack Sumter you may precipitate a collision. Meantime, never was a people calmer than ours here, in the face of great events. We have scarcely lifted a finger, while the South has been arming in such hot haste and hurrying out of the Union, in the hope of accomplishing it all under Floyd’s guilty protectorate. We all hope much from the new administration. We think well of a man who for so long has managed to hold his tongue. We shall try to help him and hold up his hands, not as our partisan candidate but as the President of the Nation. If we become two confederacies we shall not shrink from this race with your Republic, which in the heart of christian America and in the middle of the Nineteenth Century lays down slavery as its corner stone, and finds its allies in Spain, Dahomey, and Mohammedan Turkey.

Post image for “Northern men all seem to be dumb and paralyzed!”—Horatio King (soon to be Buchanan administration’s last Postmaster General)

“Northern men all seem to be dumb and paralyzed!”—Horatio King (soon to be Buchanan administration’s last Postmaster General)

December 28, 2010

Turning on the Light: A Dispassionate Survey of President Buchanan's Administration, From 1860 to its Close, by Horatio King

(Confidential.)

P. O. Dept., Dec. 28, 1860.

My Dear Sir,—I feel as though we were on the verge of civil war, and I should not be surprised if this city is under the military control of the disunionists in less than one month! There can be no doubt that the Cabinet is divided, and rumor has it that the sympathies of the President, as well as of Mr. Toucey, are with the disunionists in reference to the question of sustaining Major Anderson!  Holt, Black, and Stanton are firm for the Union, there can be no doubt.

Is there no way to bring a healthful influence to bear on the President and Governor Toucey? Northern men all seem to be dumb and paralyzed!

In haste, yours truly,

Horatio King.

Nahum Capen, Esq.

Post image for A New England teacher expresses her views in the South—and reaps the consequences.—Through Some Eventful Years.

A New England teacher expresses her views in the South—and reaps the consequences.—Through Some Eventful Years.

December 28, 2010

The American Civil War,Through Some Eventful Years by Susan Bradford Eppes

December 28th, 1860.—We had a fine Christmas. I cannot see that our black folks ever think of John Brown’s raid and if they do it evidently does not interest them much. We are trying to forget it and perhaps the clouds may pass away.

There is trouble at Live Oak. Miss Lottie Church, from somewhere in New England, came in October to teach Lucy and Horton Branch and Uncle William and Aunt Mary liked her very much, the children did, too. She said it was the easiest work she ever had to do, for the children are small and must not be closely confined and Miss Church had a carriage and horses and a good driver to take them out riding every plesant day. She could take them riding in the country or she could go in town and she laughed and said it was the first time she had ever had a carriage at her commnd. She was pretty and vivacious and she was often asked out in the evenings and there was a way provided for her to go when she wished, for it is in the country and she must have an escort, though she thought that entirely superfluous. Yesterday Mr. R. Barnwell Rhett, the editor of the Charleston Mercury, and Mr. Colcock, both of them from South Carolina and both aunt Mary’s brothers-in-law came on a flying visit to Live Oak. At the dinner table politics naturally was the sole topic of conversation and these gentlemen expressed their views as plainly as the King’s English would allow. Miss Church was furious. She forgot that these gentlemen knew nothing of her political faith nor of the land of her nativity and she burst forth in such a wild tirade of invective and abuse that everybody was astonished—to say the least of it. The carriage in which she had taken so many pleasant rides was ordered to be at the door in time to catch the first train out of Tallahassee and that was the last we knew of Miss Lottie Church. I am so glad we have Southern teachers in this neighborhood. Hattie Lester came home on a visit for Christmas; I am going to miss her dreadfully when she goes.

Post image for Operations in Florida

Operations in Florida

December 28, 2010

War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington, December 28, 1860.

Hon. D. L. YULEE,  Senate:

SIR: In answer to your letter of the 21st instant I have the honor to inclose to you a statement showing the names, rank, and pay, and emoluments  of the officers of the United States Army appointed from Florida.* The contingent allowances for fuel and quarters and similar items are not included.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN B. FLOYD.

*List not deemed of sufficient importance for publication (in Official Records).

Post image for To President Buchanan:— “… a copy of the full powers from the Convention of the People of South Carolina…,”— Operations in Charleston Harbor

To President Buchanan:— “… a copy of the full powers from the Convention of the People of South Carolina…,”— Operations in Charleston Harbor

December 28, 2010

War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

WASHINGTON, December 28, 1860.

The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

SIR: We have the honor to transmit to you a copy of the full powers from the Convention of the People of South Carolina, under which we are “authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, light-houses, and other real estate, with their appurtenances, within the limits of South Carolina; and also for an apportionment of the public debt and a division of all other property held by the Government of the United States as agent of the confederated States, of which South Carolina was recently a member; and, generally, to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relations of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between this Commonwealth and the Government at Washington.”

In the execution of this trust it is our duty to furnish you; as we now do, with an official copy of the ordinance of secession, by which the State of South Carolina has resumed the powers she delegated to the Government of the United States, and has declared her perfect sovereignty and independence.

It would also have been our duty to have informed you that we were ready to negotiate with you upon all such questions as are necessarily raised by the adoption of this ordinance, and that we were prepared to enter upon this negotiation with the earnest desire to avoid all unnecessary and hostile collision, and so to inaugurate our new relations as to secure mutual respect, general advantage, and a future of good will and harmony, beneficial to all the parties concerned. But the events of the last twenty-four hours render such an assurance impossible. We came here, the representatives of an authority which could at any time within the past sixty days have taken possession of the forts in Charleston Harbor, but which, upon pledges given in a manner that we cannot doubt, determined to trust to your honor rather than to its own power. Since our arrival an officer of the United States acting, as we are assured, not only without but against your orders, has dismantled one fort and occupied another, thus altering to a most important extent the condition of affairs under which we came.

Until those circumstances are explained in a manner which relieves us of all doubt as to the spirit in which these negotiations shall be conducted, we are forced to suspend all discussion as to any arrangements by which our mutual interests might be amicably adjusted.

And, in conclusion, we would urge upon you the immediate withdrawal of the troops from the harbor of Charleston. Under present circumstances they are a standing menace which renders negotiation impossible, and, as our recent experience shows, threatens speedily to bring to a bloody issue questions which ought to be settled with temperance and judgment.

We have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servants,

R. W. BARNWELL,

J. H. ADAMS,

JAMES L. ORR,

Commissioners.

[Inclosures. ]

THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA:

At a Convention of the People of the State of South Carolina, begun and holden at Columbia on the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, and thence continued by adjournment to Charleston, and there, by divers adjournments, to the twentieth of December in the same year:

AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other State’s united with her under the compact entitled “The Constitution of the United States of America”:

We, the People of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the general assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the “United States of America,” is hereby dissolved.

Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.

D. F. JAMISON,

Delegate from Barnwell, and President of the Convention, and others.

Attest:

BENJAMIN F. ARTHUR,

Clerk of the Convention.

OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE,
Charleston, S.C., December 22, 1860,

I do hereby certify that the foregoing ordinance is a true and correct copy taken from the original on file in this office.

Witness my hand and the seal of the State.

[L. S.] ISAAC H. MEANS,

Secretary of State.

The State of South Carolina, by the Convention of the People of the said State, to Robert W. Barnwell, James H. Adams, and James L. Orr :

Whereas the Convention of the People of the State of South Carolina, begun and holden at Columbia on the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, and thence continued by adjournment to Charleston, did, by resolution, order “That three Commissioners, to be elected by ballot of the Convention, be directed forthwith to proceed to Washington, authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, light-houses, and other real estate, with their appurtenances, within the limits of South Carolina; and also for an apportionment of the public debt and for a division of all other property held by the Government of the United States as agent of the confederated States, of which South Carolina was recently a member; and, generally, to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relations of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between this Commonwealth and the Government at Washington”;

And whereas the said Convention did, by ballot, elect you to the said office of Commissioners to the Government at Washington:

Now, be it known that the said Convention, by these presents, doth commission you, Robert W. Barnwell, James H. Adams, and James L. Orr, as Commissioners to the Government at Washington, to have, to hold, and to exercise the said office, with all the powers, rights, and privileges conferred upon the same by the terms of the resolution herein cited.

Given under the seal of the State, at Charleston, the twenty-second day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.

[L. S.]

D. F. JAMISON,

President

ISAAC H. MEANS,

Secretary of State.

Attest:

B. F. ARTHUR,

Clerk of the Convention.

Post image for Governor Pickens:— Castle Pinkney and Fort Moultrie Taken

Governor Pickens:— Castle Pinkney and Fort Moultrie Taken

December 28, 2010

War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Charleston, December 28, 1860.

Hon. D. F. JAMISON, President of the Convention :

SIR: As the Convention sent for me yesterday, to be informed upon important business, I take the occasion to say that, under my order, Castle Pinckney was taken last evening, and the United States flag hauled down and the Palmetto banner run up in its place. And I also ordered a detachment from an artillery regiment to occupy Sullivan’s Island; and if it could be done without any immediate danger from mines, or too great loss of life, to take Fort Moultrie and to run up the Palmetto flag, and put the guns in immediate preparation for defense. I have now full possession of those two forts. I considered the evacuation of Fort Moultrie, under all the circumstances, a direct violation of the distinct understanding between the authorities of the Government at Washington and those who were authorized to act on the part of the State, and bringing on a state of war.

I therefore thought it due to the safety of the State that I should take the steps I have. I hope there is no immediate danger of further aggression for the present.

Respectfully,

F. W. PICKENS.

Post image for Charleston arsenal surrounded.—Operations in Charleston Harbor.

Charleston arsenal surrounded.—Operations in Charleston Harbor.

December 28, 2010

War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

CHARLESTON, December 28, 1860.

Capt. WM. MAYNADIER,
Ordnance Bureau:

A body of South Carolina military now surround the arsenal outside, however of the inclosure, but denying ingress or egress without  countersign. The officer in command disclaims any intention of occupancy, and the United States flag is undisturbed. I await instructions.

F. C. HUMPHREYS.

Post image for “… for the present we are treated as enemies.”—Operations in Charleston Harbor

“… for the present we are treated as enemies.”—Operations in Charleston Harbor

December 28, 2010

The American Civil War,War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

.

FORT SUMTER,
S.C., December 28, 1860.
(Received A. G. O., January 1, 1861.)

Col. S. COOPER, Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: I have the honor to send herewith a copy of a memorandum received to-day from the governor of South Carolina, in reply to a message from me, which shows that for the present we are treated as enemies. I sent my post-adjutant this morning with a message to the commanding officer of Fort Moultrie asking by what authority he held possession of that work, and desiring to know whether he would make any opposition to my sending for some property, public and private, left there. He replied to my first question that he held that post by authority of the sovereign State of South Carolina, and in obedience to the orders of the governor. To the second, that his orders were not to permit public property of any kind to be removed on any pretext whatever; that he was directed to take an inventory of the same, and to send it to the governor; that he would with pleasure assist in recovering and restoring all private property that was left. This decision about the public property shows that South Carolina is acting in this matter also toward us as if we were her enemy. The amount of public property thus left is not great, as I merely retained enough to prevent my movement from being suspected. He requested Lieutenant Hall to say that at a general meeting of the officers, the military move I made was unanimously pronounced to have been one of consummate wisdom; that it was the best one that could have been made, and that if I had not effected it things would have been very different. Speaking of his own position, he remarked that the guns of Fort Sumter looked into his guns, and said that he ought not to have been ordered to fire upon me, because if I returned his fire he would be compelled to retire to the sand hills. There were yesterday two regiments to guard the island. The remark about his orders looks like an intention to attack me here. I must confess that I feel highly complimented by the expression of such an opinion (from those most deeply affected by it) of the change of position I felt bound to take to save my command and to prevent the shedding of blood. In a few days I hope, God willing, that I shall be so strong here that they will hardly be foolish enough to attack me. I must confess that we have yet something to do before, with my small force, I shall feel quite independent, as this work is not impregnable, as I have heard it spoken of.

Trusting that something may occur which will lead to a peaceful solution of the questions between the General Government and South Carolina,

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ROBERT ANDERSON,

Major, First Artillery, Commanding.

P. S.–I do not feel authorized to reply to the memorandum of the governor, but shall regret very deeply his persistence in the course he has taken. He knows not how entirely the city of Charleston is in my power. I can cut his communication off from the sea, and thereby prevent the reception of supplies, and close the harbor, even at night, by destroying the light-houses. These things, of course, I would never do, unless compelled to do so in self-defense.

[Inclosure.–Copy of memorandum from Governor Pickens.]

HEADQUARTERS, December 28, 1860.

In reply to Major Anderson’s request, made this morning verbally through First Lieutenant Snyder, from Fort Sumter, I hereby order and direct that free permission shall be given to him to send the ladies and camp women from Fort Sumter, with their private effects, to any portion of Sullivan’s Island, and that entire protection shall be extended to them. It is also agreed that the mails may be sent over to the officers at Fort Sumter by their boats, and that all the ladies of Captain Foster’s finally shall be allowed to pass, with their effects and the effects of any kind belonging to Captain Foster, from the Mills House to Fort Sumter, and the kindest regard shall be paid to them. Of course, Lieutenant Meade’s private effects can be taken possession of; but for the present there shall be no communications of any other kind allowed from the city to the fort, or any transportation of arms or ammunition, or any supplies, to the fort; and this is done with a view to prevent irregular collisions, and to spare the unnecessary effusion of blood.

F. W. PICKENS.