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

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Three Years in the Confederate Horse Artillery — George Michael Neese.

March 24, 2012

Three Years in the Confederate Horse Artillery — George Michael Neese.

March 24 — This morning at daylight we hear the deep boom of a cannon in the direction of Kernstown, which plainly indicated that the Yanks were out early Rebel hunting, shelling the road as they cautiously advanced, searching for ambuscades or masked batteries, of both of which they seem to be most awfully afraid, consequently their advance guard is never without a battery in close proximity to shell every suspicious thicket along the road that might hide a Rebel.

At about nine o’clock they came in sight. We moved about a mile south of Newtown, went in battery and fired on their vanguard. As usual, they had the indispensable battery in front and returned our fire forthwith. At this position we had a lively and stubborn artillery duel. We held our own until we saw that the Yankee army as a whole was advancing. Then we withdrew to the next hill and opened on them again, and so we skirmished with their artillery and devilled their advance from every hilltop until we arrived on the Shenandoah side of Cedar Creek. There we found Jackson’s infantry and wagon train in camp, but were preparing to move up the Valley. The Yanks charged one of our guns to-day, but found that the fire was a little too warmish and dangerous to accomplish the capture of a live Rebel gun. The Yanks have no relish for canister.

We took the same position at Cedar Creek that we had on the 18th, and the Yanks put their battery in the very same place that they had it in then, and judging from the accuracy of their fire and the precision with which their shell exploded just at the intended point and time, I am almost certain that it was the same battery that fought us before from that position. It was a very short time after we went in battery until the Yanks were ready to open fire on us. However, the opening fire of both batteries was simultaneous. The fire was severe. Their shell exploded all around us, and some of them too near to feel good or to be agreeable and consistent with a healthy body, sound limbs, and whole bones.

While we were firing, Jackson’s wagons and infantry, which were just in rear of our position, however not in sight of the enemy’s battery, moved out on the pike and started up the Valley. Then the Twenty-Seventh Virginia Infantry moved out and halted a few moments on the pike in our rear, and right in range of the Yankee battery that was firing on us. A shell that was directed at our guns oversped its intended mark and exploded in the regiment. It killed and wounded some five or six men. One man, a member of the Rockbridge Rifles, still lay in the road when we retired from our position. He had his leg cut nearly off above the knee, and his trousers, which had been ignited by the explosion of the shell, were slowly burning. I suppose his comrades were a little excited, or else perhaps had no way to take him along, and had left him in the critical condition that I found him. I extinguished the fire and lifted him out of the road and put him in a seemingly easy position against the fence. When I was about leaving him he handed me his rifle, with the remark, “Here, take my gun and don’t let the Yankees have it.”

True and sincere patriotism of such quality as that, manifested under such trying and painful circumstances, ought to merit the lasting commendation of a grateful country. He thought then, and so did I, that he would fall into the hands of the enemy, as we were rear guard, and there was nothing between his fence corner and the Yanks to prevent his capture. But I learned this evening that after I left him some one went back with an ambulance and brought him away. After Jackson’s men had all moved away and were out of sight we retired and fell back to Woodstock. Quartered in the Court House.

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A Diary From Dixie

March 24, 2012

A Diary From Dixie by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut.

March 24th.—I was asked to the Tognos’ tea, so refused a drive with Mary Preston. As I sat at my solitary casemate, waiting for the time to come for the Tognos, saw Mrs. Preston’s landau pass, and Mr. Venable making Mary laugh at some of his army stories, as only Mr. Venable can. Already I felt that I had paid too much for my whistle— that is, the Togno tea. The Gibbeses, Trenholms, Edmund Rhett, there. Edmund Rhett has very fine eyes and makes fearful play with them. He sits silent and motionless, with his hands on his knees, his head bent forward, and his eyes fixed upon you. I could think of nothing like it but a setter and a covey of partridges.

As to President Davis, he sank to profounder deeps of abuse of him than even Gonzales. I quoted Yancey: “A crew may not like their captain, but if they are mad enough to mutiny while a storm is raging, all hands are bound to go to the bottom.” After that I contented myself with a mild shake of the head when I disagreed with him, and at last I began to shake so persistently it amounted to incipient palsy. “Jeff Davis,” he said, “is conceited, wrong-headed, wranglesome, obstinate—a traitor.” “Now I have borne much in silence,” said I at last, “but that is pernicious nonsense. Do not let us waste any more time listening to your quotations from the Mercury.”

He very good-naturedly changed the subject, which was easy just then, for a delicious supper was on the table ready for us. But Doctor Gibbes began anew the fighting. He helped me to some pate— “Not foie gras,” said Madame Togno, “pate perdreaux.” Doctor Gibbes, however, gave it a flavor of his own. “Eat it,” said he, “it is good for you; rich and wholesome; healthy as cod-liver oil.”

A queer thing happened. At the post-office a man saw a small boy open with a key the box of the Governor and the Council, take the contents of the box and run for his life. Of course, this man called to the urchin to stop. The urchin did not heed, but seeing himself pursued, began tearing up the letters and papers. He was caught and the fragments were picked up. Finding himself a prisoner, he pointed out the negro who gave him the key. The negro was arrested.

Governor Pickens called to see me to-day. We began with Fort Sumter. For an hour did we hammer at that fortress. We took it, gun by gun. He was very pleasant and friendly in his manner.

James Chesnut has been so nice this winter; so reasonable and considerate—that is, for a man. The night I came from Madame Togno’s, instead of making a row about the lateness of the hour, he said he was “so wide awake and so hungry.” I put on my dressing-gown and scrambled some eggs, etc., there on our own fire. And with our feet on the fender and the small supper-table between us, we enjoyed the supper and glorious gossip. Rather a pleasant state of things when one’s own husband is in good humor and cleverer than all the men outside.

This afternoon, the entente cordiale still subsisting, Maum Mary beckoned me out mysteriously, but Mr. Chesnut said: “Speak out, old woman; nobody here but myself.” “Mars Nathum Davis wants to speak to her,” said she. So I hurried off to the drawing-room, Maum Mary flapping her down-at-the-heels shoes in my wake. “He’s gwine bekase somebody done stole his boots. How could he stay bedout boots?” So Nathan said good-by. Then we met General Gist, Maum Mary still hovering near, and I congratulated him on being promoted. He is now a brigadier. This he received with modest complaisance. “I knowed he was a general,” said Maum Mary as he passed on, “he told me as soon as he got in his room befo’ his boy put down his trunks.”

As Nathan, the unlucky, said good-by, he informed me that a Mr. Reed from Montgomery was in the drawingroom and wanted to see me. Mr. Reed had traveled with our foreign envoy, Yancey. I was keen for news from abroad. Mr. Reed settled that summarily. “Mr. Yancey says we need not have one jot of hope. He could bowstring Mallory for not buying arms in time. The very best citizens wanted to depose the State government and take things into their own hands, the powers that be being inefficient. Western men are hurrying to the front, bestirring themselves. In two more months we shall be ready.” What could I do but laugh? I do hope the enemy will be considerate and charitable enough to wait for us.

Mr. Reed’s calm faith in the power of Mr. Yancey’s eloquence was beautiful to see. He asked for Mr. Chesnut. I went back to our rooms, swelling with news like a pouter pigeon. Mr. Chesnut said: “Well! four hours—a call from Nathan Davis of four hours!” Men are too absurd! So I bear the honors of my forty years gallantly. I can but laugh. “Mr. Nathan Davis went by the five-o’clock train,” I said; “it is now about six or seven, maybe eight. I have had so many visitors. Mr. Reed, of Alabama, is asking for you out there.” He went without a word, but I doubt if he went to see Mr. Reed, my laughing had made him so angry.

At last Lincoln threatens us with a proclamation abolishing slavery¹—here in the free Southern Confederacy; and they say McClellan is deposed. They want more fighting —I mean the government, whose skins are safe, they want more fighting, and trust to luck for the skill of the new generals.

______

¹ The Emancipation Proclamation was not actually issued until September 22, 1862, when it was a notice to the Confederates to return to the Union, emancipation being proclaimed as a result of their failure to do so. The real proclamation, freeing the slaves, was delayed until January 1,1863, when it was put forth as a war measure. Mrs. Chesnut’s reference is doubtless to President Lincoln’s Message to Congress, March 6, 1862, in which he made recommendations regarding the abolition of slavery.

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A Diary of American Events.

March 24, 2012

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

March 24.—At Jacksonville, Fla., a meeting of the citizens was held, at which resolutions were passed declaring their repugnance to secession, and inviting the citizens of the State to return to their allegiance to the United States.— (Doc. 106.)

—Postmaster-general Blair issued the following notice to the Postmasters of the United States: The Secretary of War now regulates the transmission of information by telegraph, affecting the conduct of the war, in order to prevent the communication of such information to the rebels. It is also thought necessary by the Secretary to put restrictions on the publication of facts of this character, however derived, and the aid of this department is requested for this purpose. You will, therefore, notify publishers not to publish any fact which has been excluded from the telegraph, and that a disregard of this order will subject the paper to be excluded from the mails.

— At Cincinnati, Ohio, to-night, Wendell Phillips attempted to lecture. He commenced avowing himself an abolitionist and disunionist. Persons in the galleries then hissed, yelled, and threw eggs and stones at him, some hitting him. The hissing was kept up some time. Finally he made himself heard, and proceeded until something again objectionable was said, and again eggs were thrown, hitting him. He persevered, and a third time was heard and a third time stoned and egged. The crowd now moved downstairs, crying “Put him out,” “Tar and feather him,” and giving groans for the “nigger, Wendell Phillips.” They proceeded down the middle aisle toward the stage, and were met by Phillips’s friends. Here a fight ensued amidst the greatest confusion, ladies screaming and crying, jumping on chairs, and falling in all directions. During the fight Phillips was taken off the stage by his friends.—Cincinnati Commercial.

—In the United States Senate the joint resolution in favor of affording pecuniary aid for the emancipation of slaves was taken up, and opposed by Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware. Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, offered a substitute, declaring slavery to be exclusively within the jurisdiction of the people of the several States, yet that when any State determines to emancipate its slaves the Federal Government should pay a reasonable price for the slaves and the cost of colonizing them. The subject was then laid aside, and the bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia was taken up. The question was taken on Mr. Davis’s amendment, to colonize the slaves, and resulted in a tie vote. The Vice-President voted in the negative, and the amendment was rejected. A debate on the merits of the bill then ensued, which was continued until the adjournment.

—An engagement occurred between the gunboats Tyler and Lexington and a masked battery in the vicinity of Eastport, Tenn. The gunboats fired fifty shots. The Tyler’s smoke-stack was struck once. The effect on the enemy’s works was not ascertained. —N. Y. Commercial, March 29.

—This morning two boats’ crews from the United States steamer Yankee landed at Shipping Point, Va., to remove the guns left by the rebels, but while so engaged a body of rebel cavalry, said to be the Dumfries cavalry, numbering one thousand five hundred men, made their appearance on the hill, and the men pulled off, after securing two guns, one a nine-inch Dahlgren and the other a long thirty-two-pounder, both smooth bore, which were found to be double-shotted. The Yankee fell out into the stream, on the appearance of the enemy, and turned her guns upon them, but they retired and kept out of range.— Washington Star, March 28.

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