April 3—Little Washington is on Tar River, and as one of the Yankee gunboats was trying to get in, one of our cannon gave them a ball, which caused heavy firing all day, and, in fact, the shells came very close to our flag, which made us dodge pretty smart. We have Washington besieged. At 8 o’clock to-night Colonel Owens called for volunteers to go as near the Yankees as they could, to see what they were doing. Tom Tiotter and myself went. We got to within two hundred yards of Washington, when we were compelled to halt, as we were near the bridge, where we could hear the Yankee sentinels walking their beats very plainly—so we returned to camp and reported.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Good-Friday.—The Bishop preached for us to-day most delightfully from the text: “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” In the afternoon Mrs. S. had the inexpressible pleasure of welcoming her son, Mr. A. S., from the Western Army. He thinks that Vicksburg and Port Hudson are both impregnable. God grant that it may be so!
Group in front of post office tent at Army of the Potomac headquarters, Falmouth, Virginia, April 1863; photographed by Timothy H. O’Sullivan.
Library of Congress image.
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Headquarters Post Office products from Exit78 at zazzle.com
London.
New York, April 3, 1863.
My Dear Baron,—During my visit to Cuba I was very sorry to see the open aid and sympathy shown by the British Vice-Consul and other officials of Her Majesty at Havana to the rebel cause.
Young Crawford, who acts as Vice-Consul during the absence of his father, the British Consul-General, expresses himself not only at all times openly in favor of the rebels, but he is known to be himself actively engaged in carrying on a contraband trade with the South, and is said to have made a good deal of money by running the blockade.
Nearly all the vessels which run between Havana and the blockaded ports, are flying the English colors when they enter port, though being mostly small fishing smacks and schooners, they are undoubtedly owned at the South.
It is known that Crawford uses his official position to place these vessels under the British flag.
While I was at Havana, Mr. Helm, the Southern agent and commissioner, though in no official manner recognized by the Spanish government, gave a ball, and the captain of the British war steamer Immortality, Mr. Hancock, did not only attend with his whole staff, but he also sent his military band, which played during the whole evening. The room was decorated with the Confederate flag, and the musical performances, by a band of a British man-of-war, wearing Her Majesty’s uniform, began by the rebel air of Dixie.
There was hardly anybody present except Southerners, the officers of the Immortality, and the British Vice-Consul, with some of his friends, the Cubans not dancing during Lent.
Apart from the questionable taste of such proceedings, there cannot be any doubt of their being in direct violation of the Queen’s proclamation of neutrality.
They are not at all in accordance with the position assumed during this struggle by Her Majesty’s government, and must meet with the disapproval of your ministry.
I hope you may have an opportunity to direct the attention of Lord Palmerston or Russell, to these facts, for the veracity of which I can vouch. They are calculated to produce a very bitter feeling among our people, while I am sure that the best interests of both governments call for a mutually kind and friendly policy, so ardently desired by all well-thinking men on both sides of the Atlantic.
We have nothing new in a military point of view, but it is generally believed that the attack on Charleston is near at hand, and it is hoped that it will be successful.
I find, on my return, a feeling for a vigorous prosecution of the war stronger than ever, and a complete unanimity of feeling against foreign intervention and any peace except upon the basis of a reconstruction of the Union.
The violent language of Jefferson Davis and his organs has produced quite a reaction at the North, and has silenced entirely the few peace-at-any-price men, who had sprung up after the elections of last November.
by John Beauchamp Jones
APRIL 3D.—Gen. D. H. Hill writes from North Carolina that the business of conscription is miserably mismanaged in that State. The whole business, it seems, has resolved itself into a machine for making money and putting pets in office.
No account of yesterday’s riot appeared in the papers to-day, for obvious reasons. The mob visited most of the shops, and the pillage was pretty extensive.
Crowds of women, Marylanders and foreigners, were standing at the street corners to-day, still demanding food; which, it is said, the government issued to them. About midday the City Battalion was marched down Main Street to disperse the crowd.
Congress has resolved to adjourn on the 20th April. The tax bill has not passed both Houses yet.
Gen. Blanchard has been relieved of his command in Louisiana. He was another general from Massachusetts.
April 3.—Secretary Welles issued an order, naming such of the petty officers, seamen, and marines of the United States Navy, as were entitled to receive the Medal of Honor authorized by Congress, to be given to such as should most distinguish themselves by gallantry in action, and other seamanlike qualities, during the present war.—(Doc. 156.)
—The British steamer Tampico was captured off Sabine Pass, Texas, by the United States gunboat New-London.—Phillip Huber and three others, having been arrested at Reading, Pa., on a charge of being connected with a treasonable organization known as “Knights of the Golden Circle,” were taken to Philadelphia and placed in prison. Considerable excitement existed at Reading in regard to the affair.—Philadelphia Press.
—Governor Bonham, of South-Carolina, sent a message to the Senate and House of Representatives of that State, informing them that the spirit of speculation had made such alarming strides in the State as to render their interposition necessary to arrest the evil. Large sums were invested in flour, corn, bacon, and other articles of prime necessity, to the monopoly almost of such articles in certain sections of the country; and that they were withheld from market, or were exported beyond the limits of the State, to the great enhancement of prices, and to the manifest injury of the consumer. He there fore recommended the passage of an act to arrest the purchase and monopoly of articles of prime necessity, even when it was not intended to export them beyond the limits of the State.— (Doc. 157.)
—Captain J. J. Worthington, with two companies of the First regiment of loyal Arkansas cavalry, returned to Fayetteville, Ark., from a scout in Carroll County, in that State. He had four skirmishes with the rebels, and succeeded in killing twenty-two and taking seven prisoners. Captains Smith and McFarland of the rebels were killed, and Captain Walker was taken prisoner. The National casualty was one man wounded.—General Curtis’s Despatch.
