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

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Post image for Army letters of Oliver Willcox Norton.

Army letters of Oliver Willcox Norton.

July 4, 2012

Army letters of Oliver Willcox Norton (Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers)

Camp near James River,
July 4, 1862.

Dear Friends at Home:—

I sent a few words to you yesterday just to relieve your suspense, and to-day I will write a little more, though, in the present condition of my mind and body, worn out by fatigue and exposure, you cannot expect much but a disconnected letter. The papers will have told you of the strategic movement of McClellan’s army, its causes and its complete success. All that remains for me to write, and all that I can be expected to know is where the Eighty-third went and what it did. The fight on the right began on Thursday, the 26th of June, and we took all on our backs and went out that afternoon but did no fighting. Friday morning at daylight we fell back to a position on a stream near Gaines’ Mill. The rebels soon followed, feeling their way along, and at about 2 o’clock the fighting became general along the whole line. Our brigade formed the left flank of the line and lay nearest the river. The Eighty-third was posted in a deep gully, wooded, and with the stream I mentioned running in front of us. We built a little breastwork of logs and had a good position. On the hill behind us the Forty-fourth and Twelfth New York and the Sixteenth Michigan were posted. When the rebels made the first attack, we could not fire a shot, the hill concealing them from us, and so we lay still while the bullets of two opposing lines whistled over our heads. They were repulsed, but only to pour in new troops with greater vigor than before. Suddenly I saw two men on the bank in front of us gesticulating violently and pointing to our rear, but the roar of battle drowned their voices. The order was given to face about. We did so and tried to form in line, but while the line was forming, a bullet laid low the head, the stay, the trust of our regiment—our brave colonel, and before we knew what had happened the major shared his fate. We were then without a field officer, but the boys bore up bravely. They rallied round the flag and we advanced up the hill to find ourselves alone. It appears that the enemy broke through our lines off on our right, and word was sent to us on the left to fall back. Those in the rear of us received the order but the aide sent to us was shot before he reached us and so we got no orders. Henry and Denison were shot about the same time as the colonel. I left them together under a tree. I returned to the fight, and our boys were dropping on all sides of me. I was blazing away at the rascals not ten rods off when a ball struck my gun just above the lower band as I was capping it, and cut it in two. The ball flew in pieces and part went by my head to the right and three pieces struck just below my left collar bone. The deepest one was not over half an inch, and stopping to open my coat I pulled them out and snatched a gun from Ames in Company H as he fell dead. Before I had fired this at all a ball clipped off a piece of the stock, and an instant after, another struck the seam of my canteen and entered my left groin. I pulled it out, and, more maddened than ever, I rushed in again. A few minutes after, another ball took six inches off the muzzle of this gun. I snatched another from a wounded man under a tree, and, as I was loading kneeling by the side of the road, a ball cut my rammer in two as I was turning it over my head. Another gun was easier got than a rammer so I threw that away and picked up a fourth one. Here in the road a buckshot struck me in the left eyebrow, making the third slight scratch I received in the action. It exceeded all I ever dreamed of, it was almost a miracle. Then came the retreat across the river; rebels on three sides of us left no choice but to run or be killed or be taken prisoners. We left our all in the hollow by the creek and crossed the river to Smith’s division. The bridge was torn up and when I came to the river I threw my cartridge box on my shoulder and waded through. It was a little more than waist deep. I stayed that night with some Sherman boys in Elder Drake’s company in the Forty-ninth New York.

Sunday night we lay in a cornfield in the rain, without tent or blanket. Monday we went down on the James river, lying behind batteries to support them. Tuesday the same—six days exposed to a constant fire of shot and shell, till almost night, when we went to the front and engaged in another fierce conflict with the enemy. Going on to the field, I picked up a tent and slung it across my shoulder. The folds of that stopped a ball that would have passed through me. I picked it out, put it in my pocket, and, after firing sixty rounds of my own and a number of a wounded comrade’s cartridges, I came off the field unhurt, and ready, but not anxious, for another fight.

Post image for The Cruel Side of War – Katherine Prescott Wormeley.

The Cruel Side of War – Katherine Prescott Wormeley.

July 4, 2012

The Cruel Side of War - Katherine Prescott Wormeley

Chesapeake Bay, Friday, July 4.

While I was writing the above letter Mr. Olmsted came out from a long interview with Dr. Letterman, the new Medical Director, in which the latter had urged him to go to Washington and see and advise the Surgeon-General about the state of things here. So Colonel and Mrs. M. were put on board the “Daniel Webster” (then loading to sail that night), we took Mrs. Trotter in exchange, Doctors Ware, Coolidge, and Jenkins were left on the “Elizabeth” to misery and business, and we came off at once. We passed the “Monitor,” roaring and whistling away, at one of the doubtful points of our position. I looked down upon her as we passed: she is literally nothing but a flat tray, a foot and a half out of water, with what looks like a small gasometer in the middle of her.

As we passed Fortress Monroe this morning we heard of the President’s call for three hundred thousand men. Very good; but we wish he would send fifty thousand here at once.

Post image for Journal of Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman.

Journal of Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman.

July 4, 2012

Journal of Surgeon Alfred L Castleman.

4th.—The fourth has come and gone, but brought no fight, and our great Republic has passed another anniversary, if not in safety, in integrity, for its flag yet floats over the loyal men of every State, and the sunset salute of thirty-four guns, proclaims that we are yet an integral. But for the bombast of General McClellan’s proclamation of to-day, we should feel sad. That makes us laugh. Shut up in a little bend of the James River, not daring to venture a single mile from his encampment, he commences digging and peeping from his ditch to see that Lee is not in sight, he cries thus: “On this, our Nation’s birthday, we declare to our foes, who are rebels against the best interests of Mankind, that this army shall enter the Capital of their so-called Confederacy.” Stuff! Has he forgotten that last winter he promised that under him we should have no more defeats?

Post image for Village Life in America.

Village Life in America.

July 4, 2012

Village Life in America, 1852 - 1872, by Caroline Cowles Richards

July, 1862.—The President has called for 300,000 more brave men to fill up the ranks of the fallen. We hear every day of more friends and acquaintances who have volunteered to go.

Deck of Confederate gunboat Teaser showing damage from shell fire.

July 4, 2012

Library of Congress

July 4, James River, Va. Deck of Confederate gunboat Teaser

From Wikipedia:

CSS Teaser had been the aging Georgetown, D.C. tugboat York River until the beginning of the American Civil War, when she was taken into the Confederate States Navy. Later, she was captured by the United States Navy and became the first USS Teaser.

Teaser was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Purchased at Richmond, Virginia by the State of Virginia in 1861, she was assigned to the naval forces in the James River with Lieutenant James Henry Rochelle, Virginia State Navy, in command. Upon the secession of Virginia, Teaser became a part of the Confederate States Navy and continued to operate in Virginia waters. With Lieutenant William A. Webb, CSN, in command, she took an active part in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 8–March 9, 1862, acting as tender to CSS Virginia. She received the thanks of the Congress of the Confederate States for this action.

Teaser was a pioneer “aircraft carrier”, serving as a base for an observation hot air balloon; she also became a pioneer minelayer when ordered on June 17, 1862, to assist General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Under Lieutenant Hunter Davidson, CSN, she was used by the Confederate Naval Submarine Battery Service to plant and service “torpedoes” (mines) in the James River. While engaging USS Maratanza at Haxall’s on the James on July 4, 1862, a Union shell blew up Teaser’s boiler and forced her crew to abandon ship. When seized by Maratanza, Teaser was carrying on board a balloon for aerial reconnaissance of Union positions at City Point and Harrison’s Landing.

From Library of Congress:

James River, Va. U.S.S. Maratanza, Commander Thomas H. Stevens, immediately after capture of the Teaser, July 4, 1862.

July 4, 2012

Library of Congress

James River, Va. U.S.S. Maratanza

From Wikipedia:

USS Maratanza (1862) was a steamer acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat to patrol navigable waterways of the Confederacy to prevent the South from trading with other countries.

Double-ender, wooden steamer Maratanza, built at Boston Navy Yard in 1861, was launched 26 November and commissioned at Boston, Massachusetts, 12 April 1862, Comdr. G. H. Scott in command.

From Library of Congress:

Photographed by James F. Gibson

Photographs of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Record page for this image: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/cwp2003000709/PP/

Post image for “The review took place during the afternoon, and was quite a success. The men looked well, their clothes a little shabby, but altogether soldierly, and business like.”–Diary of Josiah Marshall Favill.

“The review took place during the afternoon, and was quite a success. The men looked well, their clothes a little shabby, but altogether soldierly, and business like.”–Diary of Josiah Marshall Favill.

July 4, 2012

Diary of a Young Officer–Josiah Marshall Favill (57th New York Infantry)

July 3rd – 4th, 1862.

EARLY this morning a detachment of cavalry, artillery, and infantry was sent back to recover the guns abandoned yesterday. No signs of the enemy were found until near the woods on the further side of the battle ground, where there was a picket line, which withdrew at their approach. They reported the enemy’s dead as something astonishing, covering the fields, in many places piled up several deep. They did not press the enemy but returned to camp, bringing in the guns and everything else abandoned. In the afternoon, a section of rebel guns opened upon the camp directly in our front, sending their shells whistling over our heads, to explode amongst the teams in rear. The Fifth Maine regiment was ordered to make a detour through the woods and try to capture them, which they succeeded in doing without loss. The guns were part of a horse battery on a reconnoitering expedition; every man belonging to it was brought into camp with the guns, without loss on our side.

For the first time since the thirtieth of May, the bands were permitted to play and soon put the troops in good humor. The day was exceedingly pleasant, and at night we turned in and undressed, getting out of harness for the first time in thirty-five days.

I mounted guard this morning with all the formality prescribed by the regulations, in presence of a great crowd of visitors, besides our own men; drums and bugles beat off, making us all happy again. In the evening the regiment made a very gallant appearance at dress parade, and after the evolutions, listened to the following circular which I read in front of the regiment.

Circular

July 3, 1862. A national salute will be fired at noon to-morrow, at the headquarters of each army corps. Immediately thereafter, the bands will play appropriate national airs. The general commanding will visit all the troops during the afternoon, when the troops will be paraded, and a major general’s salute fired in each corps. The troops will be notified of the hour of the visit.

By command of

Major General McClellan,

S. Williams., A. G.

Also the following, dated July 3rd, from headquarters, Army of the Potomac:

Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac:—Your achievements of the last ten days have illustrated the valor and endurance of the American soldier; attacked by superior forces and without hope of reinforcement, you have succeeded in changing your base of operations by a flank movement, always regarded as the most hazardous of military expedients. You have saved all your material, all your trains, and all your guns, except a few lost in battle, taking in return, guns and colors from the enemy; upon your march you have been assailed day after day with desperate fury by men of the same race and nation, skilfully massed and led. Under every disadvantage of numbers and necessarily of position also, you have in every conflict, beaten back your foes with enormous slaughter. That your conduct ranks you among the celebrated armies of history, no one will ever question; then each of you may always say with pride, “I belonged to the Army of the Potomac.” You have reached the new base, complete in organization, and unimpaired in spirit. The enemy may at any time attack you; we are prepared to meet them; I have personally established your lines. Let them come and we will convert their repulse into a final retreat! Your Government is strengthening you with the resources of a great people. On this our Nation’s birthday, we declare to our foes, who are rebels against the best interests of mankind, that this army shall enter the capitol of the so-called Confederacy, that our National Constitution shall prevail, and that the Union, which can alone insure internal peace, and external security to each state, must, and shall be preserved, cost what it may, in time, treasure, and blood.

General G. B. Mcclellan.

We were a good deal amused at this Napoleonic and spread eagle address, but the men cheered it on parade, and seemed to think it very fine.

Directly after guard mount, Broom and I rode over to the landing to get a view of the river; we were surprised at its width. It makes a big bulge here and must be nearly a mile across. We looked up McKim and the brigade hospital fellows, whom we found busily engaged shipping the sick and wounded men away on transports. The river is crowded with all sorts of vessels, and the landing reminds one of a busy seaport city. Several gunboats lay at anchor in the stream, part of a regular James river flotilla which patrols the river from Turkey Bend to Fortress Monroe. We were delighted to get amongst the busy throng of workers, and see the water, boats, and ships; after so much experience, in which one’s range of vision is so limited, it gives one a zest for the water almost indescribable.

The doctor gave us a piece of ice, and from other sources we got several bottles of wine, which we sent to our quarters by Kelly, Broom’s man. On our return, Seth dug a hole which he called a wine cellar, at the foot of Broom’s bed, in which he placed the ice and wine wrapt in a blanket. It kept pretty well, considering the heat.

The review took place during the afternoon, and was quite a success. The men looked well, their clothes a little shabby, but altogether soldierly, and business like. We performed no duty during the day, other than the guard mounting and review; celebrating the Nation’s birthday by taking a good long rest, and generally cleaning up. In the evening, Seth proved himself a connoisseur in the matter of mixed drinks, a luxury to which we had long been strangers.

Post image for Kate Cumming: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

Kate Cumming: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

July 4, 2012

Kate Cumming: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

July 4.—The day that a few years ago by us was commemorated with so much pride as a nation’s anniversary for liberty won, now how changed! Part of that nation seeking to enslave the other! A gloomy, rainy day, such as last year. Nature’s horizon, as the nation’s, “in woe, like Rachel, weeps.”

At the present moment our cause looks bright. In Virginia a star has arisen: his name (“Stonewall”) the haughty foe has found, to his cost, has been given prophetically, as he has proved a wall of granite to them. For four weeks he has kept at bay more than one of their boasted armies.

News has just been received that our brave Virginia army under General Lee has been fighting for days, and has driven the enemy back step by step, placing thousands of them hors du combat, taking many prisoners, and spoils of all kinds. These battles have raged with an intensity and ferocity on both sides that have never been equaled. They commenced on the 26th of June, and the battle of Malvern Hill, which was fought on the 1st instant, as far as we can learn, has closed the slaughter. The enemy were under their young Napoleon, General McClellan, and had it not been for blundering again on the part of one of our generals, there would not have been one man left of the foe to tell the tale.

It would be invidious to say who on our side won the most laurels, as the valor shown by men from every state has proved that the same spirit lives in every one. All have been conspicuous for bravery in this eventful struggle. Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, Hill, and a host of others of our leading men, have won fresh laurels. The brave dead and wounded—alas! how the thought of them comes up, like a specter, to mar our triumphs.

August Belmont – Speech at Tammany Hall, New York

July 4, 2012

A Few Letters and Speeches of the Late Civil War by August Belmont (DNC Chairman)

JULY 4, 1862.

Mr. Grand Sachem And Gentlemen,—I am extremely obliged to you for the high honor you bestow upon me, and the cordiality with which you welcome me home. I am deeply impressed and entirely taken by surprise; however, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I have been absent from my country for the last ten months, compelled to a temporary residence abroad by illness in my family. It was a source of heartfelt regret for me to be away from home, and from my friends in their dark hour of trial. I cannot describe to you the anxiety and sorrow with which I watched the progress of our gallant army and navy, but when I saw from month to month the energy and patriotism of our people rise stronger and higher under every adversity, anxieties were relieved, and my fervent hopes and conviction in the ultimate reconstruction of the Union confirmed.

I come home at a dark and gloomy moment of the struggle in which we are engaged. It seems as if Providence had decreed this momentary reverse of our heroic army in order to admonish us, on this anniversary of our National Independence, that it will require the whole energy of our people if we mean to leave to our children the blessed inheritance bestowed by the fathers of our Republic. We have to deal with an enemy arrayed in relentless strife against our institutions, and the best interests of humanity, and it will require the undivided and gigantic efforts of an united people to save our country and our Union.

There is no sacrifice too great, none which we should not most cheerfully make in order to help the government at this moment. We want more troops, more money, and every thing good and loyal citizens can give to their country in this hour of danger.

Allow me, Mr. Chairman, to conclude by giving the following sentiment:— “Our country, the object of our dearest affections; may she ever find her sons worthy of her, and ready to sacrifice their lives and their treasure in her defence, against domestic traitors or foreign foes.”

Post image for A Diary of American Events.

A Diary of American Events.

July 4, 2012

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

July 4.—The American flag waved in every State of the Union. Since she rebelled, Texas had not been visited by the emblem of freedom, but to-day a party of men from the steamer Rhode Island landed at Galveston and raised the old flag. They were subsequently driven off, but they had accomplished their purpose.

—The anniversary of American independence was celebrated with great enthusiasm in the Northern States. It was not celebrated as usual in Paris, France. There was a meeting of loyal Americans in London, England, but the proceedings were not reported. The London Times, in an editorial, satirized the anniversary, and published a mock “oration” for Americans. At Frankfort-on-the-Main, the day was celebrated in a very appropriate manner at the Forst Haus, aoout two miles from Frankfort, in a beautiful forest.

Consul General Murphy, the President of the day, opened the proceedings with some remarks, after which the Declaration of Independence was read in English by Dr. S. Townsend Brown, of Philadelphia, and afterwards in German by Aug. Glaser. Gen. B. A. Hill, of St. Louis, made some very striking remarks on the causes of the civil war in America, which he said could all be charged to slavery, which was the real cause. He said a great fight was going on to maintain the Union and constitutional liberty, and the God of battles would give the victory to the army of freedom, right, and justice. Being an intimate friend of Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War of the United States, he gave some interesting facts about the army.

After the oration the party, at half-past two o’clock, sat down to a dinner, prepared by the host of the Forst Haus, in the large hall in the grove. The room was elegantly decorated with evergreens and flowers, and a large portrait of Gen. Washington, painted expressly for the occasion. The flags of England, America, and the city of Frankfort waved side by side.

To the toast of “The Union, one and inseparable,” Gen. Hill responded in good style; and to the toast of “The Queen of England,” one of the thirteen regular toasts, Sir Alexander Malet, the representative of her Britannic Majesty, responded. He said there was no cause for ill-feeling between England and America. There was no reason for jealousy. England was proud of her children in America—a people with whom they were associated largely in business, and connected in language and consanguinity. Mother England was as proud of an Irving and a Cooper as were the people of the United States; and he knew America must reverence a country from whom they derived their notions of civil and religious liberty. The good feeling and the attention shown the Prince of Wales on his journey through America would long be remembered and appreciated by the English. His speech elicited much applause.

The English Consul was also at the dinner, as well as Consul Stote, of Manheim, and Mr. Strauss, Consul for the Argentine Republic. The Rev. Dr. McClintock, of Paris, spoke to the toast of “The Clergy.” About one hundred persons sat down to dinner, and there was generally a very pleasant time. To the toast of “The President,” the band, by mistake, played “God Save the Queen,” which made considerable fun at the table. Not understanding English very well was probably the cause of this little mistake. Unfortunately for the London Times and its celebrated prophecy of what would be the manner of the celebration, it happened to be in a very different style. No abuse of England took place in the replies to the toasts. The day was very pleasant, and was the first for the past four weeks that had been fine. The party broke up about six P.M.—London News, July 12.

—General McClellan issued an address to the “Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac,” recapitulating the events through which they had passed during the preceding ten days, and declaring that they should yet enter “the capital of the so-called Confederacy.”—(Doc. 79.)

—A small body of Union troops under command of Lieut.-Col. “Wood, while reconnoitring in the vicinity of the Little Red River, Ark., shelled a rebel camp, putting the rebels to flight, and captured a large quantity of provisions and stores.

—General McClellan, commanding the army of the Potomac, issued an order directing that the day should be celebrated in the army by firing a National salute at noon at the headquarters of each army corps; and that immediately thereafter the bands were to play appropriate National airs.—In the afternoon Gen. McClellan paraded the troops, and made them a few hopeful and encouraging remarks, thanking the men in feeling terms for their uniform bravery, fortitude, and good conduct.

—A large and enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of Springfield, Mass., was held for the purpose of devising means to meet President Lincoln’s call for more troops. Patriotic resolutions were unanimously passed, and speeches were made by Mayor Bemis, George Ashmun, Gen. Devens, M. K. Kum of Missouri, George Walker, Judge Chapman, and others.

—The bombardment of the rebel fortifications at Vicksburgh, by the Union mortar-fleet, was continued during the whole of this day, ceasing at ten o’clock at night.—At Port Royal Ferry, S. C, a skirmish took place between a party of National pickets and a body of rebels, resulting in the defeat of the latter.

—Governors Bradford, of Maryland, and Curtin, of Pennsylvania, issued proclamations calling upon the citizens of their States for their quota of troops, under the call of the President for three hundred thousand men.

—The British schooner Richard O’Brien, laden with medicines and a general cargo, from Jamaica, and bound for Matamoras, Texas, was this day run ashore near San Luis Pass, and captured by the United States steamer Rhode Island, under the command of Captain S. D. Trenchard.

—A skirmish took place near Grand Haze, on the White River, Ark., between a body of rebel guerrillas and the Thirteenth Illinois regiment of Gen. Curtis’s army.—The rebel gunboat Teazer was this day captured in a bend of the James River, Va., by the United States steamer Maratanza.—(Doc. 146.)

Next Entries →