Corinth, Tuesday, Oct. 14. Having learned the locality of our Battery, it being encamped on the south side of the town, the wounded men were removed to the general hospital, and the sick were taken to the Battery, with the exception of N. B. Hood and Byron Babcock.
October 2012
OCTOBER 14TH.—Congress adjourned yesterday at five o’clock P.M. I have heard nothing of Mr. Brooks and the Passport Bill I drafted. The truth is that, with few exceptions, the members of this Congress are very weak, and very subservient to the heads of departments.
Congress has given him (the President) power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus anywhere, until thirty days after the reassembling of Congress—and they have failed to pass the joint resolution declaring no power exists under the Constitution to institute martial law. They voted it separately, but flinched when put to the test to act conjointly; and martial law still exists in this city.
We have Northern accounts of a dash into Pennsylvania by Gen. Stuart and 1500 of his cavalry. He went as far as Chambersburg, which surrendered, and he was gathering horses, etc., for the use of the army, paying for them in Confederate notes. They say he did not disturb any other description of private property without paying for it. I hope he is safely back again by this time. The Northern papers claim a victory in Kentucky—but I shall wait until we hear from Bragg.
Gen. Magruder has been assigned to duty in Texas. What Gen. Johnston is to do, does not yet appear. A great many new assistant adjutants and inspector-generals are to be appointed for the generals, lieutenant-generals, majors, and brigadier-generals, having rank and pay of colonels, majors, captains, and lieutenants of cavalry. Like the Russian, perhaps, we shall have a purely military government; and it may be as good as any other.
Gold, in the North, is selling at 28 per cent. premium; and Exchange on England at $1.40. This is an indication that the Abolitionists are bringing distress upon their own country.
The financial bill did not pass—so there is to be no forced loan. Neither did a bill, making Confederate notes a legal tender—so there will be a still greater depreciation.
Gen. Hardee is a lieutenant-general.
October 14. — The London propeller, Ouachita, was this day captured in the Gulf Stream, opposite Frying Pan Shoals, by the United States gunboat Memphis, Commander Watmaugh.
—A skirmish occurred at Stanford, Kentucky, between the advance forces of the Union army under General Buell, and the rear-guard of the rebel army under General Bragg, resulting in the retreat of the rebels, fourteen of whom were taken prisoners, a number of horses and guns captured, and a lieutenant-colonel killed.—Stanford was occupied by Union forces.
October 13, Monday. We have the mortifying intelligence that the Rebel cavalry rode entirely around our great and victorious Army of the Potomac, crossing the river above it, pushing on in the rear beyond the Pennsylvania line into the Cumberland Valley, then east and south, recrossing the Potomac below McClellan and our troops, near the mouth of the Monocacy. It is the second time this feat has been performed by J. E. B. Stuart around McClellan’s army. The first was on the York Peninsula. It is humiliating, disgraceful.
In this raid the Rebels have possessed themselves of a good deal of plunder, reclothed their men from our stores, run off a thousand horses, fat cattle, etc., etc. It is not a pleasant fact to know that we are clothing, mounting, and subsisting not only our troops but the Rebels also. McClellan had returned from Philadelphia with his wife, a most estimable and charming lady who cannot have been gratified with this exhibit of her husband’s public duties. He was at Harper’s Ferry when this raid of Stuart took place. His opponents will triumph in this additional evidence of alleged inertness and military imbecility. It is customary for some of our generals and other officers to have their wives with them in the camp and field. The arrangement does not make them better soldiers. I wish it were prohibited. Some naval officers cite army precedents when asking the company of their wives on shipboard.
Wrote Seward in reply to a novel and extraordinary assumption of Tassara, the Spanish Minister, who claims a maritime jurisdiction of six miles around the island of Cuba, instead of three, the recognized coast jurisdiction by international law. Seward is disposed to concede it to Spain, because she is better disposed than the other powers, and he flatters himself he can detach her from them, if we will be liberal, — that is, give up our rights. It is among the most singular things of these singular times, that our Secretary of State supposes that he and a foreign minister can set aside established usage, make and unmake international law, can enlarge or circumscribe at pleasure national jurisdiction and authority. I have remonstrated with him most emphatically against any such surrender of our national rights, warned him that the country never would assent, at all events during hostilities; but there is a difficulty and delicacy in so managing these questions, when the Secretary of State, with loose notions of law, usage, and his own legitimate duty, has undertaken to set aside law, that is embarrassing. He has a desire to make instead of to execute national law, paying little attention to the practice of nations; does not inquire into them until after he has been committed. The foreigners detect and profit by this weakness.
Monday, 13th—Quite a large mail awaited us here. We cleaned up our camp grounds and pitched our tents in order. All are glad to be in camp again, as sleeping on the damp ground in bivouac, without any protection whatever, as we did the last week, is hard on the health.
Monday, 13th. Made the detail to go for forage in charge of Sergt. Smith. Went along in wagon. Got some cabbage and talked with some women while the boys loaded oats. Oh what suffering and misery this war is making. But there is an end to be gained at all hazards. Were it otherwise it could hardly be endured. Went out in the afternoon and bought some apples and lard. Ball and Smith were the company. Pitied the poor woman and her children. Tuesday, 14th. Saw the Lieuts. play poker a while. Was surprised to see Will Bushnell come up to headquarters boldly with cigar in his mouth. Somewhat changed. In the P. M. wrote a short letter to Fannie A.
Item description: Drawing, dated 13 October 1862, of Steamer Allison, drawn by Herbert E. Valentine, a private in Company F of the 23rd Massachusetts Volunteers, who served in the United States Army between 1861 and 1864 in eastern Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Item citation: From the Herbert E. Valentine Papers #4397, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UNC image.
Corinth, Monday, Oct. 13. The troops on the outskirts of the town were all moved in, among which were the 6th Battery. They passed our encampment at about 8 A. M.; their designation was unknown but supposed not to be far. Quartermaster Sergeant Simpson brought new clothing to camp in the afternoon. I drew one jacket, pair of pants and a hat.
October 13.—A successful reconnoissance was this day made by a force of Union troops under the command of General Stabel, in the vicinity of Paris, Snicker’s Gap, and Leesburgh, Virginia. More than one hundred prisoners were taken and paroled; important information was obtained, and the command returned to its headquarters at Centreville, without losing a man.—New-York Times, October 16.
—The Sixth regiment Missouri State militia, under command of Colonel Catherwood, returned to camp at Sedalia, Missouri, after a successful scouting expedition, in which they broke up and dispersed several bands of rebel guerrillas, killing about fifty of their number. They took prisoner Colonel William H. McCoun, of the rebel army.
—The expedition to Jacksonville, Florida, this day returned to Hilton Head, South-Carolina, when General J. M. Brannan made a report to the Secretary of the Navy, announcing the complete success of the expedition—the capture of the rebel fortification at St. John’s Bluff, with guns and ammunition, and a rebel steamer.— (Doc. 6.)
—The rebel Congress in session at Richmond passed an act authorizing Jefferson Davis to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in certain cases. —The rebel House of Representatives passed a bill making it a death-penalty for Union soldiers to have in their possession, or for endeavoring to pass counterfeit rebel Treasury notes. — The rebel Congress adjourned sine die.
—The ship Tonawanda, from Philadelphia for Liverpool, captured by the rebel steamer Alabama on the ninth, was to-day released and again set sail on her voyage, there being no manner of providing for the considerable number of women and children captured on board of her.
OCTOBER 13TH.—Northern papers, received last night, speak of a battle at Perryville, Kentucky, on the 9th instant, in which the Abolitionists lost, by their own confession, 2000 killed and wounded, which means 10,000. They say Bragg’s forces held a portion of the field after the battle. If this prove not a glorious victory for our arms, I don’t know how to read Abolition journals.
I see that our Congress, late on Saturday night (they adjourn to-day), passed an act increasing the salaries of officers and employees in the departments residing at Richmond. This will make the joint compensation of my son and myself $3000; this is not equal to $2000 a year ago. But Congress failed to make the necessary appropriation. The Secretary might use the contingent fund.
Another act authorizes the President to appoint twenty additional brigadier-generals, and a number of lieutenant-generals.
The New York Herald, and even the Tribune, are tempting us to return to the Union, by promises of protecting slavery, and an offer of a convention to alter the Constitution, giving us such guarantees of safety as we may demand. This is significant. We understand the sign.
Letters from Gen. Lee do not indicate an immediate purpose to retire from the Potomac; on the contrary, he has ordered Gen. Loring, if practicable, to menace Wheeling and Pennsylvania, and form a junction with him via the Monongahela and Upper Potomac. But Loring does not deem it safe to move all his forces (not more than 6000) by that route; he will, however, probably send his cavalry into Pennsylvania.
And Gen. Lee does not want any more raw conscripts. They get sick immediately, and prove a burden instead of a benefit. He desires them to be kept in camps of instruction, until better seasoned (a term invented by Gen. Wise) for the field.
Senator Brown, of Mississippi, opposed the bill increasing our salaries, on the ground that letters from himself, indorsed by the President, applying for clerkships for his friends, remained unanswered. He did not seem to know that this was exclusively the fault of the head clerk, Mr. Randolph, who has the title of Secretary of War.
And the Examiner denounces the bill, because it seems to sanction a depreciation of our currency! What statesmanship! What logic!
