Unidentified soldier in Confederate captain’s uniform with black cuffs to indicate that he is a surgeon.
Medium: 1 photograph : sixth-plate ambrotype, hand-colored ; 9.3 x 8.3 cm (case)
Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs; Ambrotype/Tintype photograph filing series; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Record page for image is here.
__________
Note: I digitally enhanced the image to try to bring out the original hand coloring.
JULY 19TH.—This morning early, while congratulating myself on the evidence of some firmness and independence in the new Secretary, I received the following note:
…
“RICHMOND, July 19th, 1862.
“Mr. J. B. JONES.
“SIR:—I have just been directed by the Secretary of War that he has turned over the whole business of passports to Gen. Winder, and that applications for passports will not be received at this office at all.
“Very respectfully,
“A. G. BLEDSOE,
“Asst. Sec. War.”
…
Of course I ceased operations immediately. So large a concourse of persons now accumulated in the hall, that it was soon necessary to put up a notice that Gen. Winder would grant them passports. But the current set back again. Gen. Winder refused to issue passports to the relatives of the sick and wounded in the camps, well knowing the generals, his superiors in rank, would not recognize his authority. He even came into the department, and tore down the notice with his own hands.
Saturday, 19th—Everything is very quiet. With the exception of a few cases, the health of the men in camp is generally good. But the men are becoming restless. All would rather be in active service, for this camp service will never bring the war to a close.
19th. Kept up after eleven and packed up. The circumstances of the trouble with Wier are these: On account of drunkenness and his seeming determination to starve us out, Col. S., all the officers in his brigade and most of the others approving, concluded to arrest him; sent the adjutant with a detail of 100 men who ordered him under arrest. He refused the order. The detail presented bayonets and took him prisoner. Took him to Col. S.’s tent, where were officers representing most of the regiments. When he saw Capt. Allen of the Battery, he said, “And are you here?” and burst into tears. I never saw so much excitement. All were glad. Before this Col. S. had determined if rations did not come by Monday to march his brigade north. Left the Indians there, marched 39 miles to our old second camp, slept on the prairie as usual. Nettleton came along slowly during the day. Officers began to be frightened after 4 or 5 hours, and ordered an ambulance to go back for him. Just then he came up.
July 19, 1862.
I don’t know whether I have any business sending such a document as I enclose, but guess its no difference. Two spies came in to-night and report that there are not more than 15,000 or 20,000 of the enemy left at Tupelo and Saltillo. Bragg took a large force with him and went over in the direction of Chattanooga a few days since. A fortnight, nearer a month, since we had quite a large force stationed at Boonville. One of the men started to go back to Rienzi on business, and had not been heard of since until day before yesterday, when his body was found midway between the two places with four bullet holes through it. It lay some distance from the road, and was discovered by a man of the 2d Brigade while looking for water. He was undoubtedly murdered by some citizen. Day before yesterday Mrs. Pierce, wife of a captain in the 36th Illinois, rode out in an ambulance, escorted by a corporal, to get some fruit in the country. A party of guerrillas gobbled the party up while they were inside of our pickets, and took them to Ripley. They sent Mrs. Pierce back yesterday. She was well treated. I guess there are no hopes of a fight there until autumn. I’m getting tired of doing nothing, although I certainly should be satisfied, having easier times than almost any one in the service.
Halleck left here yesterday for Washington. Trains are running down here from Corinth every day now, so we are only three days behind the dates of papers received, which is better than eight or ten, as heretofore. We have had the most splendid rains for a few days, and the weather is very seasonable in temperature. We are living almost wholly on fruit: apples, pears and blackberries, fresh, and peaches and strawberries canned. Don’t want for anything, but I still (so unreasonable is man) at times, think that I’m not enjoying myself as well as I used to in the 8th. I know I couldn’t stay out of the service while the war continues, but I would like so well to have peace once more, and be civilized awhile. There’s a good time coming. Don’t it come slowly? I write all the colonel’s letters now except those to his wife, and shouldn’t wonder if he’d have me do that next. At first he used to read them over very closely, but now he often signs without asking what they are about. To-night he told me was going to make me inspector general for brigade. Making two generals out of one lieutenant isn’t fair. I’m too lazy and modest for such a position and think I can coax him to appoint a chap I have my eye upon.
[London,] Saturday, July 19, 1862
Knowing that you would probably be anxious to hear from us what effect the bad news of June 26-30 might have on our position here, I take the last moment to write in order to tell you what I think we are to expect. Certainly it was a violent blow. We suffered several days of very great anxiety, knowing that the current here was rising every hour and running harder against us than at any time since the Trent affair. This reverse called out at once all the latent hostility here, and there was nothing to do but to give way. I shut myself up, went to no more parties and avoided contact with everyone except friends…. The only bright spot in the week was the reception of your letter. As we had all relied on your being safe in the hospital, or if not there, with your regiment which we knew was not engaged, your letter was quite welcome, as it told us first both of your going in and your coming out. I congratulate you, and apropos to that, I congratulate your General Hunter on his negro-army letter. We all here sustain him and I assure you that the strongest means of holding Europe back is the sight of an effective black army. Nevertheless our trouble here was extreme. As the week passed it was not diminished. Nor is it now, I fear, permanently so. It arrived however at its culminating point last night. It so happened that last night was the occasion of an expected debate in the Commons on a motion in favor of mediation. We had been busy in preparing for it and had assurances that all was right. But lo and behold, at two o’clock yesterday afternoon in rushes a member of the Commons, and half a dozen alarmists in his rear, with an evening paper whose telegraphic column was headed in big letters, “Capitulation of McClellan’s Army. Flight of McClellan on a steamer. Later from America.” This astounding news for a moment made me almost give way. But a single glance at dates showed us that it was an utter swindle, and that we had bulletins from McClellan of two days later than the day of the reported surrender. The next reflexion led us to see that it was intended for the debate of the same evening, and we, who know the seal, recognized the stamp of our old friends the Southern liars, who juggled Georgia out of the Union by telegraph. But the consternation among our friends was incredible and even when they knew it must be false, they still shook and shuddered with terror. Every Englishman believed it, or doubted in a tone that showed he wanted to believe it. As for me, I have come to consider it my whole duty here to keep up the spirits of the community and so did the best I could to laugh the lie off. Luckily its effect on the Commons was very good, for it disposed them to postpone action and tended to quiet them. Palmerston made a good speech, and the motion was not pressed to a division. This morning the Arabia’s news has arrived, three days later, which relieves us again for a time of our anxiety, and induces us to believe that the enemy were as much crippled by their victory as we by our defeat.
Thus the pinch has again passed by for the moment and we breathe more freely. But I think I wrote to you some time ago that if July found us still in Virginia, we could no longer escape interference. I think now that it is inevitable. The only delay thus far has been caused by the difficulty in inducing the five great powers to unite, and Russia and Austria to act with England in any sense favorable to the South. That unity cannot much longer fail to be obtainable. England alone or with France will not move, but their idea is that if all the great powers were to unite in offering mediation, they could by their moral influence alone force some result. If the North defied them, a simple recognition of the South by them would, they think, secure her independence. And this belief is probably correct.
It must now be the effort of the North to cast upon the South the responsibility of standing against a settlement. Here will be three means of hampering European attempts: the slavery question, the boundary question, and the Mississippi; and it is the slavery question from which we can derive the greatest strength in this running battle. You see we are stripping and squaring off, to say nothing of sponging, for the next round. If our armies sustain us, we shall win. If not, we shall soon see the limit of our hopes.
Joseph Howland kept up constant communication with the 16th and his commanding generals, always in the hope of going back, in spite of all discouragements.
Gen. Henry W. Slocum writes to him:
Harrison’s Landing, July 19, ’62.
My dear Colonel: Yours of the 16th has just come to hand. I am sincerely glad that you are doing so well and I shall be rejoiced to see you back. I think the major is doing well, but there is nothing like having the head present. Still I hope you will not think of returning till you are fully recovered. If you come back feeling weak, you will be obliged to leave again. This climate is very debilitating, and nearly all the officers, even the strongest, are affected by it. . . . My advice to you is to remain at home until some move is made here.
. . . As to your conduct and that of your regiment on the 27th, I hear but one opinion—all speak in terms of praise, the strongest terms.
. . . General Franklin told me to say to you that you must not come back till you are well. He (Franklin) is about half sick. I am in the same condition—too sick to be worth much and too well to go home. . . . Remember me to Mrs. Howland and tell Miss Georgy that her favor has been received and that I will “follow them with a sharp stick ” as requested.
Yours truly,
H. W. Slocum.
Recruits wanted 30 able bodied men wanted to fill up Company D, 12th Regiment of N.J. Volunteers, Col. Rob. C. Johnson
July 1862; Poster; 90 x 63 cm
New York Historical Society
Online reference image here.
July 19th. Since July 6th, nothing worthy of especial mention has occurred. The quiet of a garrison life has succeeded the stirring campaign days so suddenly that the former seem altogether uneventful and unworthy of notice, consequently I do not write anything, being busy all the time with routine duties, drills, parades, and reviews. I notice the men are improving physically since our arrival here, owing to better food. I was down to about one hundred and twenty pounds, but am pulling up again slowly. Heavy reinforcements are constantly joining us, so that our losses will soon be more than made up, and we may reasonably expect another advance before long. The heat has been, and still is, excessive; in the nineties every day, but cool and pleasant at night. The fly pest goes on increasing prodigiously; many of the specimens are perfect monsters in size and possess boundless activity and audacity. Just now they are our worst enemies.
This afternoon I got leave of absence for forty-two hours from General Sumner, and a pass to go to Fortress Monroe and return. I start to-morrow morning by one of the transports and expect a delightful trip. I take my diary, covering the events from the north side of the Chickahominy to Harrison’s Landing, July 6, 1862, and intend sending it home by express.
July 19.—An agreement was made this day between the Government of Denmark and the Government of the United States, wherein the former is to “receive all negroes delivered from on board vessels seized in the prosecution of the slave-trade, by commanders of United States vessels, and to provide them with suitable instruction, clothing, and shelter, and to employ them at wages, under such regulations as shall be agreed upon, for a period not exceeding five years from the date of their being landed at St Croix, West-Indies.”
—Many persons in the city of New-Orleans, La., and its vicinity, having ordered their slaves “to go to the Yankees,” thereby causing much annoyance to the National authorities, General Butler ordered that all such declarations would be taken and deemed acts of voluntary emancipation, and slaves sent away by their masters with such declarations, would be regarded and treated as manumitted and emancipated.—Fifty-three men of the Third Michigan cavalry were captured by the rebels near Booneville, Miss.
—Large and enthusiastic meetings were held in Chicago, Ill., Louisville, Ky., Fishkill, N. Y., and Towanda, Penn., for the purpose of promoting enlistments into the army, under the call of the President. At the Louisville meeting a resolution was adopted requesting the City Council to appropriate one hundred thousand dollars for the support of the families of volunteers.
Follow on facebook
RSS
email
