[Request for a Pass from the Secretary of War, Permitting Lt.-Col. Lusk to Return to the Scene of Conflict]
Office of the District Attorney of the United States, For the Southern District of New York.
New-York, May 4th, 1863.
Honorable Montgomery Blair,
My dear Sir: This will introduce to you Wm. T. Lusk, Lt.-Col. of the “Blair Light Infantry” now organizing in this city. Col. Lusk can’t rest easily here while the battle is raging around Fredericksburg. He therefore desires to reach the battlefield, that he may tender his services as Volunteer Aide, so long as active operations continue, and then return to his duties here. With this motive, he desires a pass from the Sec. of War, to the scene of conflict. Col. Lusk has been two years in service, was for a long time Aide to the late Gen. Stevens, has been in many battles, and I believe he loves to fight. He is a gentleman in character and culture, and a soldier by practice and experience. If you can aid him to obtain the pass he desires, I shall be very much obliged.
Respectfully,
Your Obedient Servant,
Ethan Allen.
Mr. Watson would oblige me by favoring the wishes of Col. Lusk.
Truly,
M. Blair.
P. H. Watson,
4th. Sky clear and sun roasting. Blankets steaming. All felt miserable, so wet and such a dreamy sleep. “Boots and saddles” before breakfast. Went to commissary for rations. Could get none. Whole cavalry force went out, some on each road. When at Otter creek learned that the rebels had left Traversville and gone to Jamestown, bound for Knoxville. Turned back, heavy thunder shower. Wet through in places. Got forage. Got supper and slept just inside of our lines. Slept on a porch.
Monday, 4th—Came on to Abel Smith’s and to Widow Ballou’s and took dinner. From there to Womac Parker’s on Dixon Creek, and staid all night.
MAY 4TH.—Early this morning the rebels planted a battery in the woods on the opposite side of the river, and sent shot and shell crashing into our camp. DeGolier’s battery was soon in position, and silenced them before any damage was done. I hope DeGolier and his battery will be with us through all our engagements, for a braver man never lived. Some of his artillerymen said, he would rise up in his sleep, last night, and say, “give them canister, boys!”
I was detailed with a squad to patrol the river bank, and, in doing so, came in collision with the enemy. Some of the boys could not resist the temptation to take a swim. They did not think of the danger, until they were fired upon. When they went in, they complained of the water being cold; but they were not in long before it became too hot for them. They got out of that stream remarkably quick, and some did not stop to get their clothing, but flew for camp as naked as they were born. They did not know but the woods were full of rebels. A soldier’s life has its share of fun as well as of the sad and marvelous.
I suppose this is considered an unsafe place to leave unguarded, so we remain another day.
Monday, May 4th. Traveled all night Saturday night, having left Minden at dark, and all day Sunday; reached Vianna about 10 o’clock Sunday morning; the road was pretty rough, lying mainly through a hilly country, covered with large pines and red and white oak; reached the dinner stand about 4 o’clock and found it a very neat and comfortable place; was waited upon at the table by two young ladies.
Had a tedious and disagreeable ride from this place to Monroe, which place we reached at 12 o’clock last night; took possession of the flatboat and rowed ourselves across the river; found the hotel crowded and could not get a room; spread down my blanket and slept on the piazza; got up this morning and wrote a letter to my dear wife before breakfast; after breakfast walked down to see the Anna, the boat we expected to go down the river in; found her a dirty little craft; went to the quartermaster’s office to find out when the boat would leave; he could not tell for two or three hours yet; returned to the hotel; met Ormsby; he is in the postoffice department; he has a thousand pounds of postage stamps and is on his way to Texas. I saw a very interesting game of poker between Captain R—— and a professional gambler; it was twenty dollars ante, and the pile grew fast and soon reached twenty-five hundred dollars, and everybody went out of the game except Captain R—— and the professional, who was a very rough looking customer, reminding me of descriptions I have read of pirates in yellow covered novels; he was weather-beaten and fierce looking; Capt. R—— was only about twenty years of age, with a beardless face as smooth as a woman’s. A dispute arose and each man seized the pile (paper money) with his left hand and drew his pistol with his right; they rose at arm’s length and stood glaring at each other like tigers; one looked like a black wolf, the other like a spotted leopard; the crowd retired from the table; it was one of the most fearful and magnificent pictures I ever saw. They were finally persuaded to lay their pistols and the money on the table in charge of chosen friends; the door was locked and a messenger was dispatched five miles in the country to bring Colonel ——, a noted local celebrity—a planter who stood high in social as well as sporting circles. We waited three hours; he came, and after hearing the testimony gave the pile to “old rough and ready,” and Captain R—— yielded gracefully, a wiser but a poorer man.
After dinner a stranger named Peck gave me a letter to carry across the river and also enough tobacco to smoke me to Natchez. I loafed about until the steamboat started at 5 o’clock in the afternoon; took passage in her to Trinity, costing me $15 besides transportation furnished by the Confederate States. I am now on boat enjoying the beautiful scenery on the river; wish my dear wife was here to participate in my pleasure; such a sunset! it is a vision for a poet.
We Return to Newbern.
May 3. Attended church this morning. Steamer Thomas Collver arrived this afternoon with orders for the regiment to report at Newbern. All was bustle and hurrah boys; down came the tents and a general packing up followed. At dark we were aboard the boat, and, giving three cheers to Capt. Flusser and his men, steamed down the river. We had a beautiful moonlight night and a splendid sail down the Albemarle; arriving at Newbern in the afternoon of the 4th, we went into the Foster barracks for the night.
May 4. — General Benham received orders to build another bridge, which he managed to do with the remnants of two trains. It took some six hours to finish the bridge, and before it was done the enemy began shelling it, sending their shot and shell disagreeably near the bridges, but luckily not hitting them. One sergeant of the 15th [New York Volunteer Engineers] was killed. The enemy got in Sedgwick’s rear, and retook Fredericksburg. Sedgwick was hard pressed on all sides, and during the night sent for General Benham, when it was decided that he should retreat.
May 4.—Captain Howard Dwight, of General Andrew’s staff, was killed near Washington, La, after having surrendered to a party of rebel scouts. General Banks at once ordered the arrest of one hundred white men nearest the place of assassination, to be held until further orders.—The sloop Empress, from Nassau, N. P., for Wilmington, N. C, was captured by the United States steamer Chocura.—The schooner Jupiter, bound to Mobile, Ala., was captured by the gunboat Colorado.—The Ninth regiment of New-York volunteers (Hawkins’s Zouaves) returned to New York from the seat of war in Eastern Virginia.— Captain Smith of the Second California volunteers, attacked a party of hostile Indians fifty miles south of Shell Creek, killing five of them and routing the rest.—The battle in the vicinity of Fredericksburgh, Va., was continued this day, the rebels succeeding in recovering nearly all the defences back of the town.—(Doc. 183.)
Battery D, Fifth U.S. artillery in action, Fredericksburg, VA.
Summary: Row of cannons with men positioned to load each cannon before the next round of bombardment.
Photographer: Timothy H. O’Sullivan
Library of Congress image.
by John Beauchamp Jones
MAY 4TH.—This morning early the tocsin sounded, and the din, kept up for several hours, intensified the alarm. The presence of the enemy would not have produced a greater effect. But, in truth, the enemy were almost in sight of the city. Hon. James Lyons told me they were within a mile and a half of his house, which is about that distance from the city. Thousands of men, mostly old men and employees of the government, were instantly organized and marched to the batteries.
But the alarm subsided about 10 A.M. upon information being received that the enemy were flying before Gen. Wise down the Peninsula.
After this the following dispatch was received from Gen. Lee:
“MILFORD, May 3d, 1863.”
PRESIDENT DAVIS.
“Yesterday Gen. Jackson, with three of his divisions, penetrated to the rear of the enemy, and drove him from all his positions, from the Wilderness to within one mile of Chancellorville. He was engaged at the same time, in front, by two of Longstreet’s divisions. This morning the battle was renewed. He was dislodged from all his positions around [click to continue…]
