July 9th. At one A. M., received despatches from General Banks, and half an hour afterwards ordered the transports to get under way and report at Mount Pleasant Landing. Colonel Smith came on board, a bearer of despatches form General Banks, with orders to report for passage to Vicksburg. At three thirty A. M. the transports went down the river; at four thirty our Paymaster went below, in steamer Bee, for stores; at eight thirty called all to up anchor, and never before, during the Hartford’s cruise, was the anchor hove up by the boys with such a will and light hearts, or in a shorter period. The reader may here ask what was the stimulant administered to produce all this? In a few words I will tell him. The lads had been made to believe that the ship had been ordered home, and would leave New Orleans for the North very soon after she should arrive at that point, and general liberty had been given them; also there was another thing which made them light at heart: it was, that Port Hudson and Vicksburg had fallen, leaving the Mississippi clear from the Gulf to Cincinnati and St. Louis, and they had been in part instrumental in bringing about this work and felt proud of it. At nine A. M., came to anchor above Port Hudson batteries on account of some part of our machinery getting heated; at ten o’clock got under way again and stood down past Port Hudson; at ten ten the army firing a salute when the American flag was raised over the place; at ten forty-five came to anchor below Port Hudson; the gunboat Albatross accompanied us down; made signal to Richmond and New London at anchor here; finished taking provisions from steamer Bee on board during the afternoon; at seven thirty P. M., the steamer Laurel Hill passed down loaded with troops; at ten o’clock the transports St. Maurice, Empire Parish, Union, St. Charles, General Banks, and Louisiana Bell passed down the river with troops.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Thursday, 9th.—Reported that Johnston and the Yanks have been doing some hard fighting. Drew five days’ rations. Think we will start pretty soon. Very unwell.
July 9.—Vicksburg has really gone. I suppose we were compelled to surrender it. I wish our people would not tell so many untruths as they have about this place. Only a few days ago we heard there were provisions enough in it to last six months, and now it is said our troops were dying of starvation. All looks gloomy; there is scarcely one bright spot to be seen.
General Lee went into Pennsylvania, and had a desperate battle at Gettysburg. After losing many of our best men, he was compelled to retreat. It is said he has brought out a vast amount of spoils. All these disasters only serve to prolong the war; for I am certain that, happen what will, we will never be slaves to the foe.
"A breath of submission we breathe not;
The sword that we’ve drawn we will sheath not!
Its scabbard is left where our martyrs are laid,
And the vengeance of ages has whetted its blade".
Earth may hide, waves engulf, fire consume us,
But they shall not to slavery doom us."
There is an old Scotch proverb which says "It is a lang road that has na a turnin." The Federals have been having every thing their own way lately. Our day will soon come.
"What though sunken be the sun,
There are stars when day is done."
July 9 — We have just returned from town with our paroles. WRC
by John Beauchamp Jones
JULY 9TH.—The sad tidings from Vicksburg have been confirmed by subsequent accounts. The number of men fit for duty on the day of capitulation was only a little upwards of 7000. Flour was selling at $400 per barrel! This betrays the extremity to which they had been reduced.
A dispatch to-day states that Grant, with 100,000 men (supposed), is marching on Jackson, to give Johnston battle. But Johnston will retire—he has not men enough to withstand him, until he leads him farther into the interior. If beaten, Mobile might fall.
We have no particulars yet—no comments of the Southern generals under Pemberton. But the fall of the place has cast a gloom over everything.
The fall of Vicksburg, alone, does not make this the darkest day of the war, as it is undoubtedly. The news from Lee’s army is appalling. After the battle of Friday, the accounts from Martinsburg now state, he fell back toward Hagerstown, followed by the enemy, fighting but little on the way. Instead of 40,000 we have only 4000 prisoners. How many we have lost, we know not. The Potomac is, perhaps, too high for him to pass it—and there are probably 15,000 of the enemy immediately in his rear! Such are the gloomy accounts from Martinsburg.
Our telegraph operators are great liars, or else they have been made the dupes of spies and traitors. That the cause has suffered much, and may be ruined by the toleration of disloyal persons within our lines, who have kept the enemy informed of all our movements, there can be no doubt.
The following is Gen. Johnston’s dispatch announcing the fall of Vicksburg:
“JACKSON, July 7th, 1863.
“HON. J. A. SEDDON, SECRETARY OF WAR.
“Vicksburg capitulated on the 4th inst. The garrison was paroled, and are to be returned to our lines, the officers retaining their side-arms and personal baggage.
“This intelligence was brought by an officer who left the place on Sunday, the 5th.
“J. E. JOHNSTON, General.”
We get nothing from Lee himself. Gen. Cooper, the Secretary of War, and Gen. Hill went to the President’s office about one o’clock. They seemed in haste, and excited. The President, too, is sick, and ought not to attend to business. It will kill him, perhaps.
There is serious anxiety now for the fate of Richmond. Will Meade be here in a few weeks? Perhaps so—but, then, Lee may not have quite completed his raid beyond the Potomac.
The Baltimore American, no doubt in some trepidation for the quiescence of that city, gets up a most glowing account of “Meade’s victory”—if it should, indeed, in the sequel, prove to have been one. That Lee fell back, is true; but how many men were lost on each side in killed, wounded, and prisoners—how many guns were taken, and what may be the result of the operations in Pennsylvania and Maryland—of which we have as yet such imperfect accounts—will soon be known.
