Saturday, 4th—The Grand race between Wharton and Harrison came off this morning. All the Regiment that wished to went out. I remained in Camp. I and Reuben S. went over and got dinner at Mrs. Blanton’s. Came back and the Regiment was getting ready to leave. I and Lonnie Logan came on to town and stopped at Dr. Moore’s. Miss Nannie made some music for us. We bade them goodbye and overtook the Regiment. After we got, to Camp, I took John Rector’s horse and went up to Mr. Stewart’s; found Dan at home. I took supper and staid all night; got some provisions fixed up and left before day. Came down to Camp and started soon after up country.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
April 4—Firing at intervals all day. The reserve was sent to the river to support our artillery. The colors went with them. It is raining hard. We laid in line two and a half hours in an old field. It is very cold. The Yankees are firing all the time. Then the 43d Regiment came and relieved us. Katz came in to-day and reported Henry Wortheim dead—he died Monday, March 30.
April 4th.—Spent to-day in Richmond, attending on the wounded. The mob of women came out yesterday, but in smaller numbers, and was easily put down by military authority. To-day a repetition was expected, and the cannon was in place to rake the streets, but they thought discretion the better part of valour, and staid at home. The riot, it is ascertained, was not caused by want; it was no doubt set on foot by Union influences. I saw the Rev. Mr. Peterkin, who is perhaps more thoroughly acquainted with the state of the poor than any man in the city. He says that they are admirably attended to. Large sums of money are put in the hands of the clergy for their benefit; this money is disbursed by ladies, whose duty and pleasure it is to relieve the suffering. One gentleman gave as much as $5,000 last winter. Besides this, the industrious poor are supplied with work by the Government, and regularly paid for it.
The Bishop set off this morning for his spring visitations, which are becoming, alas! very circumscribed—so much of the diocese is in the hands of the enemy.
Mr. C., of Georgetown, Captain Norton, of New Orleans, and Mr. A. S. are with us. The first of these gentlemen ran the blockade from his home some months ago, finding he was to be arrested for opinion’s sake, and now holds a Confederate office in Richmond. He very rarely hears from his wife and children. Flag-of-truce letters seldom reach their destination, and when they do, letters of one page, written to be inspected by strangers, are very unsatisfactory. An occasional “underground” communication comes to him, like water in a thirsty land. I often look at his calm countenance with sympathy, knowing that there must be deep sorrow and anxiety underneath.
Saturday, April 4th [1863]. Judge and Mrs. Montgomery were here this morning, bringing reports of a bloody engagement in Yazoo. The enemy have been cut off from return after passing up some of the small rivers of that region in their attempts to reach the rear of Vicksburg. Seventeen transports, with men and supplies, have been captured by our people. This news is certainly true, the Judge says, and he is not easily deceived by evidence, and never lets his hopes run away with his judgment.
by John Beauchamp Jones
APRIL 4TH.—It is the belief of some that the riot was a premeditated affair, stimulated from the North, and executed through the instrumentality of emissaries. Some of the women, and others, have been arrested.
We have news of the capture of another of the enemy’s gunboats, in Berwick Bay, Louisiana, with five guns. It is said to have been done by cavalry.
A dispatch just received from Charleston states that the enemy’s monitors were approaching the forts, seven in number, and that the attack was commencing. This is joyful news to our people, so confident are they that Gen. Beauregard will beat them.
April 4.—To-day an attempt was made by the National forces at Washington, N. C, to capture the rebel battery at Rodman’s Point, commanding the Pamlico River, opposite Washington. A force of two hundred infantry, under the command of General Potter, embarked on board the gunboat Ceres, Captain McDermot, but she got aground a short distance from the rebel battery, when the troops were unable to land. The rebels immediately opened fire upon her, killing and wounding five men, when the Union party were obliged to retire.
—In retaliation for firing into and disabling the gunboat St . Clair, the gunboat Lexington, under the command of Lieutenant Leroy Fitch, visited the town of Palmyra, Tenn., and after giving the inhabitants time to leave, burned it to the ground.—General George W. Williamson and a Mrs. Atwood were arrested at New-York.—The Supreme Court of New-York, at Rochester, decided that United States legal tender notes were constitutional as to debts contracted before the passage of the law making such notes a legal tender. All of the judges concurred in the decision.
—The National steamer Sylvan Shore, which left Beaufort for Washington, N. C, this morning, when the few miles below the latter place was fired on by a rebel battery, which compelled her to return to Beaufort, with several of her crew killed and wounded.
