Thursday, 12th—Went over to Mr. Thomas’. I made a girth for him. From there to Miss Kate Carter’s. Mr. Shirry and two other gents came in, gentlemanly, merry.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
12th. Late in the morning sent June and squad out for more cattle. Killed three beeves for 2nd Ohio. Went to town and saw Div. coming. Lot of clothing came. Got some horse shoes. George very bad face. Powder exploded and burned his face badly. Letter from Fannie. How anxious I have been and still am. Oh the future—dark.
Thursday, 12th—The two brigades of General Crocker’s Division were at his request ordered back to Natchez today, because of a threatened attack of the rebels at that place.
November 12—Renewed our march this morning down the Culpeper plank road toward Fredericksburg some three or four miles, then turned off to the right and marched in a southerly course, crossed the Orange plank road and arrived at Spottsylvania Court House little before sunset; then moved down the Fredericksburg road and camped three miles below Spottsylvania Court House. The village of Spottsylvania Court House is composed of three dwelling houses, one church, the court house, and jail. The court house is brick, very small, and only one story high; a little portico at the side entrance and one at the front compose all the superfluous ornamentation on the exterior.
The country right around the village is nearly level, but the encroaching hills are not far away; from the general appearance of the land it is not very fertile. The principal part of our march to-day was through the Wilderness, a scope of country so called from its resemblance to a wild and barren waste. For miles and miles to-day we saw nothing but a vast plain nearly level, and covered with a thick growth of a kind of scrubby oak, averaging about fifteen feet in height and so thick and bushy that a man can hardly pass through the tangled mass. Here and there I saw a few cleared little patches, with a live hut in the center of each, that looked dismal, dilapidated, forlorn, and ought to be forsaken. The whole of the Wilderness is in Spottsylvania County.
Brothers Private Hiram J. and Private William H. Gripman of Company I, 3rd Minnesota Infantry Regiment, one with his arm around the other.
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Quarter-plate tintype ; 12.0 x 9.3 cm (case)
Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs; Ambrotype/Tintype photograph filing series; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Record page for image is here.
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Civil War Portrait 091
Winchester, Thursday, Nov. 12. Lay in camp all day. 3rd Brigade came up early. The weather very raw and blustering. Forage trains went out seven miles and returned loaded with good corn. Wrote two letters but no mail came in. To-morrow we are to start across the mountains. If half of what is said of it be true, we will have hard times to cross it with our teams. The cavalry say we will not be able to cross it in two days. 1st Brigade of Stanley’s Cavalry Division is here. Winchester is the county seat of Franklin County and a good business town as large as Fayetteville. Mr. Lester brought Nashville papers of to-day into camp, the first we have seen since the 22nd of last month.
November 12th. General Meade issued an order to-day congratulating the army on its successful crossing of the Rappahannock in the face of the enemy, and compelling them to withdraw behind the Rapidan, mentioning especially Sedgwick, who captured four guns, two thousand stand of arms, eight battle flags, and sixteen hundred prisoners.
by John Beauchamp Jones
NOVEMBER 12TH.—No accounts of any fighting, but plenty of battles looked for.
A. A. Little writes to the Secretary of War from Fredericksburg, that the attempt to remove the iron from the Aquia Railroad by the government having failed, now is the time for private enterprise to effect it. If the Secretary “will say the word,” it can be done. He says the iron is worth “millions, its weight in gold!” Will Mr. Seddon let it be saved? Yes, indeed.
Mr. Heyliger, agent at Nassau, writes on the 3d instant (just a week ago), that he is shipping bacon by every steamer (three or four per week), leather, percussion caps, and a large amount of quartermaster’s stores. But the supply of lead and saltpeter is exhausted, and he hopes the agents in Europe will soon send more. About one in every four steamers is captured by the enemy. We can afford that.
The President sent over to-day, for the perusal of the Secretary of War, a long letter from Gen. Howell Cobb, dated at Atlanta, on the 7th instant. He had just returned from a visit to Bragg’s army, and reports that there is a better feeling among the officers for Gen. Bragg, who is regaining their confidence. However, he says it is to be wished that more cordiality subsisted between Generals Bragg and ______, his _______ in command. He thinks Generals B_____ and C_____ might be relieved without detriment to the service, if they cannot be reconciled to Bragg. He hints at some important movement, and suggests co-operation from Virginia by a demonstration in East Tennessee.
It is generally believed that France has followed the example of England, by seizing our rams. Thus the whole world seems combined against us. And Mr. Seward has made a speech, breathing fire and destruction unless we submit to Lincoln as our President. He says he was fairly elected President for four years of the whole United States, and there can be no peace until he is President of all the States, to which he is justly entitled. A war for the President!
November 12.—A very spirited skirmish with the rebels occurred at a point about ten miles from the Cumberland Gap, in Virginia. A forage train of twenty-one wagons had been sent out with a guard of twenty-eight men. The wagons were loaded, and started for the Gap, with no appearance of danger, when suddenly a party of seventy guerrillas rushed from a convenient ambush, overpowering the guard, and compelling a surrender. The officers’ clothing was immediately transferred to rebel backs, and their wallets appropriated. Ten minutes after the capture, Colonel Lemert, commanding the forces at the Gap, appeared in a bend of the road. Whilst the rebels were approaching, Colonel Lemert immediately led the charge with ten men of the Fourth battalion Ohio volunteer cavalry. A fierce hand-to-hand sabre-fight occurred for a few minutes, when the rebels left the field. The train and prisoners were recaptured, eleven of the enemy captured, two killed and four wounded, and some small arms and horses taken. An exciting chase of ten miles failed to overtake the fleeing rebels.
—Major-General Dabney H. Maury, in command of the rebel forces at Mobile, Ala., sent the following to Adjutant-General Cooper, at the war department at Richmond, Va.:
“The following despatch from Tunica, Miss., was received yesterday, dated tenth instant, from Colonel Harry Maury, commanding Fifteenth cavalry regiment: ‘We dashed in yesterday above Bayou Sara on a plundering party of Yankees, three hundred strong, and drove them to their iron-clads with great slaughter. We brought off their wagon-trains and twenty-five prisoners from under the broadsides of their gunboats. Only three wounded of ours.'”—Two Bridges and trestlework on the Tennessee and Alabama Railroad at Caligula, near Lynnville, Tenn., were destroyed by a party of rebel cavalry under the command of the partisan Roddy.—A cannonading between the rebel batteries on Lookout Mountain and the Union forces at Moccasin Point, took place today.
—In the rebel Senate, in session at Richmond, Va., Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, offered the resolution:
“Resolved, That in the present condition of the country, Congress ought, with the least practicable delay, to enact the following:
“1. To declare every white male person residing in the confederate States, and capable of bearing arms, to be in the military service of the country.
“2. To repeal all laws authorizing substitutes or granting exemptions.
“3. To authorize the President to issue his proclamation requiring all male persons claiming and receiving foreign protection to make their election within sixty days, to take up arms or quit the country.
“4. To detail from those in the military service such only as are absolutely needed in civil pursuits, having reference in making such details to competency alone.
“5. To levy a direct tax of —— per cent on every kind of property, according to its value in confederate notes, including the notes themselves.
“6. To make confederate notes a legal tender in payment of debts, after the expiration of six months.
“7. To prohibit the buying and selling of gold and silver coin, or the notes on banks in the United States, or United States Treasury notes, during the war, under heavy penalties, or, in lieu thereof, to prohibit ‘running the blockade’ by individuals, under pain of forfeiture of the goods brought in, and imprisonment during the war.
“8. Declare these laws war measures, and make those who violate them amenable to the military courts.”
—The City Council of Richmond, Va., made an appropriation of sixty thousand dollars for the purchase of a family residence for General Robert E. Lee.
