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

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Post image for “The war now swallows up the children and the elders.”–Adams Family Letters, Charles Francis Adams, U.S. Minister to the U.K., to his son, Charles.

“The war now swallows up the children and the elders.”–Adams Family Letters, Charles Francis Adams, U.S. Minister to the U.K., to his son, Charles.

September 26, 2012

Adams Family Civil War letters; US Minister to the UK and his sons.

London, September 26, 1862

Latterly indeed we have felt a painful anxiety for the safety of Washington itself. For it is very plain that the expedition of the rebels must have been long meditated, and that it embraced a plan of raising the standard of revolt in Maryland as well as Pennsylvania. It has been intimated to me that their emissaries here have given out significant hints of a design to bring in both those states to their combination, which was to be executed about the month of September. That such a scheme was imaginable I should have supposed, until the occurrence of General Pope’s campaign and the effects of it as described in your letter of the 29th ulto….

Thus far it has happened a little fortunately for our comfort here that most of our reverses have been reported during the most dead season of the year, when Parliament was not in session, the Queen and Court and ministry are all away indulging in their customary interval of vacation, and London is said to be wholly empty — the two millions and a half of souls who show themselves counting for nothing in comparison with the hundred thousand magnates that disappear. It is however a fact that the latter make opinion which emanates mainly from the clubhouses. Here the London Times is the great oracle, and through this channel its unworthy and degrading counsels towards America gain their general currency. I am sorry for the manliness of Great Britain when I observe the influence to which it has submitted itself. But there is no help for it now. The die is cast, and whether we gain or we lose our point, alienation for half a century is the inevitable effect between the two countries. The pressure of this conviction always becomes greatest in our moments of adversity. It is therefore lucky that it does not come when the force of the social combination is commonly the greatest also. We have thus been in a great degree free from the necessity of witnessing it in society in any perceptible form. Events are travelling at such a pace that it is scarcely conceivable to suppose some termination or other of this suspense is not approaching. The South cannot uphold its slave system much longer against the gradual and certain undermining of its slaveholding population. Its power of endurance thus far has been beyond all expectation, but there is a term for all things finite, and the evidences of suffering and of exhaustion thicken. The war now swallows up the children and the elders. And when they are drawn away, what becomes of the authority over the servants? It may last a little while from the force of habit, but in the end it cannot fail to be obliterated….

The town of Sharpsburg.

September 26, 2012

Library of Congress,Miscellaneous document sources

1862-09 Sharpsburg, Md. Principal street

Sharpsburg, Md. Principal street; photograph by Alexander Gardner.

Library of Congress image.

Post image for Rebel War Clerk

Rebel War Clerk

September 26, 2012

A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, By John Beauchamp Jones

SEPTEMBER 26TH.—The press here have no knowledge of the present locality of Gen. Lee and his army. But a letter was received from Gen. L. at the department yesterday, dated on this side of the Potomac, about eighteen miles above Harper’s Ferry.

It is stated that several hundred prisoners, taken at Sharpsburg, are paroled prisoners captured at Harper’s Ferry. If this be so (and it is said they will be here to-night), I think it probable an example will be made of them. This unpleasant duty may not be avoided by our government.

After losing in killed and wounded, in the battle of Sharpsburg, ten generals, and perhaps twenty thousand men, we hear no more of the advance of the enemy; and Lee seems to be lying perdue, giving them an opportunity to ruminate on the difficulties and dangers of “subjugation.”

I pray we may soon conquer a peace with the North; but then I fear we shall have trouble among ourselves. Certainly there is danger, after the war, that Virginia, and, perhaps, a sufficient number of the States to form a new constitution, will meet in convention and form a new government.

Gen. Stark, of Mississippi, who fell at Sharpsburg, was an acquaintance of mine. His daughters were educated with mine at St. Mary’s Hall, Burlington, N. J.—and were, indeed, under my care. Orphans now!

A Diary of American Events.

September 26, 2012

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

birney_david_b

September 26.—The Fifth and Sixth regulars, with Capt. Robertson’s battery of horse-artillery, went out from Bolivar Heights, Md., on a reconnoissance, under command of Major Whiting of the Second cavalry. At Halltown, five miles off, they encountered the rebel pickets, and drove them in. Approaching within a mile and a half of Charlestown, they met the rebels in force, with infantry, cavalry, and one battery. There was considerable picket-firing, but no casualties on the National side. The expedition, ascertaining that the enemy occupied Charlestown in force, returned, bringing five or six prisoners. Several of them rode horses branded “U. S.,” which they said were captured at the first Bull Run battle.

—The rebel General Bragg issued a proclamation from Bardstown, Ky., addressed to the people of the North-Western States, announcing the motives and purpose of his presence with an army among them. He informed them that the free navigation of the Mississippi River was theirs, and always had been, without striking a blow.

—A skirmish took place near Warrenton Junction, Va., between a reconnoitring force of Union troops, under the command of Col. McLean, and a body of rebel cavalry, resulting in a rout of the latter, leaving in the hands of the Nationals a large quantity of commissary and quartermaster’s stores.

—The Twenty-sixth New-Jersey regiment, one thousand strong, left Newark, N. J., to-day, en route for the seat of war.—The Twenty-third regiment New-Jersey volunteers, Col. Cox, one thousand strong, fully equipped, left Camp Cadwalader this morning, in steamers, for Washington.

—In the rebel House of Representatives majority and minority reports were submitted by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, to whom had been referred certain resolutions relating to the policy of the war, and which recommended to Jeff Davis the issuing of a proclamation offering the free navigation of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and the opening of the market of the South to the inhabitants of the North-Western States, upon certain terms and conditions.—An unsuccessful attempt to capture the steamer Forest Queen was made at Ashport, Tenn., by a band of rebel guerrillas under Capt Faulkner.— Louisville Journal, September 30.

David Bell Birney (May 29, 1825 – October 18, 1864) was a businessman, lawyer, and a Union General in the American Civil War. Birney entered the Union army just after Fort Sumter as lieutenant colonel of the 23rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a unit he raised largely at his own expense. Just prior to the war he had been studying military texts in preparation for such a role. (Wikipedia)

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