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

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Post image for Mary Chesnut: “…to-day I hear none of the Richmond news is encouraging.”

Mary Chesnut: “…to-day I hear none of the Richmond news is encouraging.”

February 21, 2012

A Diary From Dixie by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut.,The American Civil War

February 21st.—A crowd collected here last night and there was a serenade. I am like Mrs. Nickleby, who never saw a horse coming full speed but she thought the Cheerybles had sent post-haste to take Nicholas into co-partnership. So I got up and dressed, late as it was. I felt sure England had sought our alliance at last, and we would make a Yorktown of it before long. Who was it? Will you ever guess?—Artemus Goodwyn and General Owens, of Florida.

Just then, Mr. Chesnut rushed in, put out the light, locked the door and sat still as a mouse. Rap, rap, came at the door. “I say, Chesnut, they are calling for you.” At last we heard Janney (hotel-keeper) loudly proclaiming from the piazza that “Colonel Chesnut was not here at all, at all.” After a while, when they had all gone from the street, and the very house itself had subsided into perfect quiet, the door again was roughly shaken. “I say, Chesnut, old fellow, come out—I know you are there. Nobody here now wants to hear you make a speech. That crowd has all gone. We want a little quiet talk with you. I am just from Richmond.” That was the open sesame, and to-day I hear none of the Richmond news is encouraging. Colonel Shaw is blamed for the shameful Roanoke surrender.¹

Toombs is out on a rampage and swears he will not accept a seat in the Confederate Senate given in the insulting way his was by the Georgia Legislature: calls it shabby treatment, and adds that Georgia is not the only place where good men have been so ill used.

The Governor and Council have fluttered the dove-cotes, or, at least, the tea-tables. They talk of making a call for all silver, etc. I doubt if we have enough to make the sacrifice worth while, but we propose to set the example.

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¹ General Burnside captured the Confederate garrison at Roanoke Island on February 8, 1862.

Post image for A Diary of American Events.

A Diary of American Events.

February 21, 2012

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

February 21.—The Richmond Whig, of this date, has the following: “We had not supposed it was seriously contemplated in any quarter to call out into active service the whole male population of the State. The proposition of Governor Letcher, to have all over sixteen and under sixty five, in cities, drilled for the defence of their respective localities, is a different affair. That may be practicable, and, under circumstances, might be desirable. But we have very great doubts whether such a mass would effect more good than mischief. But in respect to the rural districts, to call out the whole male population over sixteen and under sixty-five, or even between eighteen and forty-five, would be a mischievous and inexcusable folly. In the first place, we have not arms to put in their hands. That objection alone is sufficient. In the second place, it would ruin the industrial pursuits of the State, and leave us without the means of prosecuting the war beyond the present session.

“We hear that the rage for volunteering is greater than it has been since the beginning of the war. There will be no want of men, without any extraordinary legislation, if they can only get arms and leaders to conduct them against the enemy. If there should be any deficiency, it could be easily supplied by a draft on the superabundance of ‘able-bodied’ young men in the Commissary and Quartermaster’s Department.

“Far better this expedient than to draw the boys from their books, and the old men from their useful labors.”

—Rumors of the partial evacuation of Manassas, Va., by the rebels, were prevalent in Washington to-day, but they were not generally credited.

—A Battle took place, to-day, about seven miles from Fort Craig, near Valverde,[1] on the Rio Grande, New-Mexico, between the rebel forces under Col. Steele, and the National forces commanded by Col. Canby. The battle lasted from nine o’clock in the morning till sundown, and resulted in the defeat of the National troops, who were obliged to retreat to the Fort. McRae’s battery of six pieces was captured by the rebels, after a gallant defence in which Capt. McRae was killed.— (Doc. 55.)

—Capt. Nathaniel P. Gordon, commander of the slave-ship Erie, was executed at New-York, according to sentence. About three o’clock in the morning he attempted to commit suicide by swallowing strychnine, which he had concealed in his cell, but the exertions of three physicians managed to prolong his life sufficiently to allow the execution, which took place at a quarter past twelve o’clock.

—The first battalion of Connecticut cavalry, three hundred and twenty-five men, under the command of Major Judson M. Lyon, passed through New-York City en route for Wheeling, Va., to join Gen. Rosecrans.

— The Massachusetts Thirty-first regiment, and five companies of the Thirteenth Maine regiment, sailed to-day from Boston, Mass., in the steamer Mississippi for Ship Island.

[1] Valverde is a small village, situated on the left bank of the Rio del Norte, or Rio Grande, near the border of New-Mexico and Arizona. Fort Craig is ten miles north of this point, on the same river. Col. Kit Carson, who is said to have done good service with his regiment, deployed as skirmishers, has had his headquarters at Albuquerque for some time, and appears to have arrived at the scene of conflict at a most opportune time.

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