June 12th. At one thirty A. M., steamer Laurel Hill came down from Natchez, with despatches. Occasional artillery firing, also navy and army mortars bombarding the batteries of Port Hudson—rebels reply with a large rifle; at eight A. M., heavy musketry and artillery firing in rear of Port Hudson. Steamer Bee, despatch boat, came down from Bayou Sara; at eleven twenty P. M., the mortar vessels of lower fleet engaged the rebel batteries, and making some good shots.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Friday, 12th—On picket duty; camped at our old stand.
June 12 — Cannonading continued all night. Sharp shooters commenced operations early again this morning and continued all day. W.R.C.
JUNE 12TH.—We expect to be paid off soon, as the pay-rolls are now being made out. Money cannot do us much good here among the hills, but we can send it home. Many a family is dependent upon the thirteen dollars a month drawn here by the head of it.
When the war is over, how many soldiers will be unable to earn, even their own living, to say nothing of that of their families, all on account of wounds or disability incurred in the service. I have heard many a one say he would rather be shot dead in a fight than lose a limb, and thus be compelled to totter through life disabled. But I know our country will be too magnanimous to neglect its brave defenders who have fought its battles till they have become incapacitated for further service. I know we are not fighting for a country that will let its soldiers beg for a living.
We have now but a year left of the term of our enlistment, and the boys are already talking about what they will do. Some say they will stay till peace comes, no matter how long may be the delay, and I think the majority are of this mind. A few, however, will seek their homes when their time runs out, should this war last so long, and the Lord and rebel bullets spare them. For myself, I shall stay, if I can, till the stars and stripes float in triumph once more over all the land.
Here are a few lines :
TO COMPANY E.
You started at your country’s call
To tread the fields of blood and strife,
Consenting to give up your all
All, even to your very life.
And many storms of leaden rain
And iron hail have been your lot;
While yet among the number slain
The dear ones North have read you not.
Oh, may you safely yet return
To those who wait your coming, too;
May their fond hearts not vainly yearn
To greet you when the war is through.
But, though I wish you back in peace,
‘Tis not a peace that quite disarms
‘Tis not a full and sure release,
You simply take up other arms.
by John Beauchamp Jones
JUNE 12TH.—A beautiful, bright warm summer day—and yet a little somber.
The surprise of Stuart, on the Rappahannock, has chilled every heart, notwithstanding it does not appear that we lost more than the enemy in the encounter. The question is on every tongue—have our generals relaxed in vigilance? If so, sad is the prospect!
But Vicksburg is the point of intensest interest and anxieties. Gen. Johnston writes from Canton, Mississippi, on the 5th inst., in reply to the Secretary, that he regrets such confidence is reposed in his ability to save Vicksburg, and fears that such expectations
will be disappointed. Grant is receiving reinforcements daily—while he (Johnston) is not to have more troops. He does not state the number he has, but he says it seems to him that the relief of Vicksburg is impossible. Pemberton will hold out as long as he can; but if Grant’s line be not broken, the fall of Vicksburg is only a question of time. Grant’s force (he continues) is more than treble his; and Grant has constructed lines of circumvallation, and blocked up all the roads leading to his position. To force his lines would be difficult with an army twice as numerous as the one he (Johnston) commands. He will try to do something in aid of the besieged—but it seems a desperate case. He has not wagons and provisions enough to leave the railroads more than four days. The track to Vicksburg is destroyed. It was his intention at first to unite all the troops in his command—but it was impracticable. So much for these lugubrious tidings. Nothing but a miracle can save Vicksburg!
The Governors of Alabama and Mississippi unite in urging the government to suppress both the foreign and border traffic. I fear it is too late!
There is a street rumor that the enemy have appeared on the Chickahominy, and on the James River. If this be so, it may be to embarrass Lee; or it may be a determined and desperate assault on this city. We shall know very soon. But never before were we in such doubt as to the designs of the enemy; and never before have they evinced such apparent vigor and intrepidity. Yet, they know not what Lee is doing to call them home.
June 12th, 1863.—Our patient, the newest one, likes his quarters very much. Father and Mother wait on him themselves, they are so afraid something may go wrong. The piano is kept closed and Mattie’s poodle has been banished pro tern.
June 12.—The bark Tacony, in latitude 37° 18′, longitude 75° 4′, was captured by the Clarence, tender to the privateer Florida. Captain Murday gave the following account of the capture:
“On the twelfth of June, at six o’clock A.M., when about forty miles off Cape Virginia, I was spoken by the brig Clarence, of Baltimore, who said she was short of water, and wished for a day’s allowance. Of course I hauled to on this appeal to humanity, and their boat, with an officer and six men, immediately came aboard. They told me they were fifty-five days from Rio Janeiro, were bound to Baltimore, and were entirely out of water, and would assist me in passing it to the boat. While taking the after-hatch off, I was confronted by the officer of the boat, who presented a pistol at my head, and stated that my vessel was his prize — a prize to the confederate States, and ordered me to leave for New-York. Immediately after, or while transferring my crew, the schooner M. A. Shindler came up, and was hauled to and captured. While transferring the crew of the latter, the schooner Kate Stewart came along, but she having several lady passengers on board, and being an old vessel, was ransomed on giving bonds in the sum of seven thousand dollars. We were then all transferred on board the Kate Stewart. The pirates then transferred their guns, ammunition, supplies, etc., from the brig Clarence to the bark Tacony, and set fire to the former vessel, as well as to the schooner M. A. Shindler. We were then released, the pirate standing off to the south-east.—Major-general Darius N. Couch assumed command of the Department of the Susquehanna, and established his headquarters at Chambersburgh, Pa.—Governor Andrew G. Curtin issued a proclamation calling upon the people of Pennsylvania to rally for their defence against the rebels who were approaching under General Lee.—General Michael Corcoran, with twelve thousand men, left Suffolk, Va., on a reconnoissance to the Blackwatcr.—The reply of President Lincoln to the resolutions adopted by the Democrats at Albany, N. Y., on the sixteenth of May, relative to the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham, and the vindication of free speech, was made public.—(Doc. 67.)
—Major-general David Hunter was relieved of the command of the Department of the South, and Brigadier-General Quincy A. Gillmore assigned to the same. —Governor Oliver P. Morton issued a proclamation to the people of Indiana, warning all persons against resistance to the Government in any form, or hindering the Federal officers in the enforcement of the enrolment laws of the United States.—A skirmish occurred near Middletown, Va., between the Thirteenth Pennsylvania cavalry and Eighty-seventh infantry, with one section of artillery, and a body of about four hundred rebel cavalry. Eight of the latter were killed, a number wounded, and thirty-seven, including a captain and two lieutenants, were taken prisoners.—(Doc. 11.)
June 11.—Peter Everitt, with a body of three hundred rebels, attacked a portion of the Fourteenth Kentucky cavalry at Slate Creek, near Mount Sterling, Ky. A severe engagement, lasting three hours, ensued, when the Nationals retreated, fighting as they withdrew. — Triune, Tenn., was again attacked by the rebel cavalry, under General Forrest, who was repulsed with a loss of twenty-one killed, sixty prisoners, and ten wounded. The Union loss was six killed, among them Lieutenant N. C. Blair, of the Fourth Indiana cavalry.—A debate occurred in the British House of Commons on the slave-trade, and the independence of the rebels.—The blockade-runner Havelock was sunk by the blockading fleet off Charleston, S. C., while attempting to enter the harbor.—Five companies of the Fourteenth New York cavalry, Colonel Thaddeus B. Mott, doing out post duty near Port Hudson, were captured by a cavalry raid of rebels, under the command of Colonel Logan, of Bragg’s command, while encamped within three miles of General Banks’s headquarters. The capture was owing to the negligence of the officer, who should have posted and attended to the picket-guard. It seems that the guard were either never posted, or were at the time fast asleep, for in the middle of the night the rebels rode into the Union camp, surrounded the Unionists, roughly awakened them, ordered them to saddle up, and run off five companies of the cavalry, with all their horses, arms, and equipments. The rebels made them ride at speed for eighty-three miles, making but one stop in that distance. When a horse gave out, they entered a farmer’s premises and impressed another. At the journey’s end, the soldiers were thrown into a black hole, where they were under close confinement.
The companies were: company G, under command of Captain Porter; company A, under Lieutenant Nolan ; company C, under Lieutenant Leroy Smith; company F, under Captain Thayer, who himself alone escaped, and the greater part of company E, under Captain Ayers. Lieutenant Vigel was also captured with Lieutenant Smith’s men. These five companies were under command of Major Mulvey, who was taken with his little boy, twelve years old.—Chicago Tribune.
—The Sixth regiment N. Y. S. V., Wilson’s Zouaves, returned to New-York from the seat of war in Louisiana.—Port Hudson was thoroughly invested by the Union troops under General Banks.—Darien, Ga., was visited and burned by a body of National troops under the command of Colonel Montgomery, of the Second South-Carolina colored volunteers. At the same time the schooner Pet, loaded with a cargo of cotton, was captured.—(Doc. 66.)
—The steamer Calypso was captured off Frying-Pan Shoals, thirty miles south-east of Wilmington, N. C., by the Union gunboat Florida.— (Doc. 65.)
—A new army corps, denominated the reserve corps, was created in the Department of Cumberland, and placed under the command of Major General Gordon W. Granger, with its headquarters at Triune, to be composed of three divisions, commanded by Brigadier-Generals J. D. Morgan, R, S. Granger, and A. Baird.
—A Party of rebel cavalry, numbering about two hundred and fifty, crossed the Potomac River this morning, and attacked a company of the Sixth Michigan cavalry stationed at Seneca, Md. The Nationals being outnumbered, gradually fell back, fighting, to within three miles of Poolesville, when the enemy retired across the river, after burning the camp at Seneca. The Unionists lost four men killed and one wounded. The rebels left a lieutenant and one man dead on the field.
Friday, 12th.—Very heavy cannonading all round the line all day.
