Sunday, 29th—We went up the road two or three miles and found all the troopers leaving Blunt. We turned and came back to Mr. Norwood’s and took dinner and came cross the River to Mr. Curtis and staid all night.
Friday, November 29, 2013
Colonel Lyons.
Nov. 29, 1863.—General Grant has cleaned out Bragg, which I think ensures our staying here this winter. We have a new band. They heard you were here last Wednesday night, and came over to serenade you. They play well.
Near Chattanooga, Sunday, Nov. 29. Slept very cold, or rather shivered through the night with little sleep. This morning it is still very cold. Froze quite hard last night. Harnessed the team and “snaked” some firewood, banked our tent, etc. Gathered leaves in them so we were a little better prepared for it. Tried to write home, but my fingers were so numb that I gave it up much to my dissatisfaction, as I know they are anxious for my having not written any since the battle.
Sunday, 29th—We learned that there had been several spies in the city getting plans of our fortifications; they also got medical supplies and other articles of value to the rebels, and smuggled them through our lines at night. Special precaution is taken and the guard is to be continued. We were relieved this morning by a detail from the Thirteenth Iowa.
29th. Started Theodore to find Leavitt and rations and to see Jackson. Also sent for salt. Read several chapters in Bible. Have neglected reading Bible too much since I have been in the army. Borrowed “English Orphans” and reviewed it. Good story. Mrs. Jones’ Hdqrs. Two sons in rebel army.
November 29 — We moved our guns about four hundred yards to-day, to a more commanding and better position. Our battery now commands all the immediate fields around us. Some firing of small arms in the direction of Raccoon Ford to-day; at all other parts of the line quiet reigned. A cold, chilly, north wind that pierced to the bone swept over the fields all day. Bivouacked right by our guns to-night.
Sunday, November 29.—A very cold day. Mr. Moore, who is now our chaplain, had service in the court-house.
The news to-day from the army is a little more cheering, but it is almost impossible to hear any thing definite. We had a few wounded brought in last night.
I see by the papers that the Georgia legislature has appropriated a large sum of money for the relief of the soldiers’ families in their state. I do hope that all the other states will imitate them. Men can not be expected to fight when their wives and children are starving.
I see by the same papers that Lincoln is out with another call for three hundred thousand more troops. Many are confident he will not get them, but that is one of the phantoms we have been chasing and placing our hopes upon ever since the war, and time after time it has vanished like the “baseless fabric of a dream,” which it is. When Lincoln has failed to get men from his own land, he has used every means at his command to recruit in foreign countries. And, notwithstanding Lord Lyons’s punctilio about international law, thousands of men have been recruited on British soil.
They are men deluded in every possible way.
Lincoln may get men to fill his last call, and yet, if the South is only true to herself, she can never be conquered. “The battle is not always to the strong.”
I look around me sometimes, and sec so many good, intelligent men, and think what a sad thing it would be were we subjugated. I believe such a thing is a moral impossibility, and can never happen.
I firmly believe there is not a state in the Confederacy that will not be scourged by the invader, for the sins we have committed in our prosperity, forgetting the Most High, who is the giver of all good. True, the enemy have sinned as well as we, which sins they will have to answer for, if not to-day, some other.
How often do we see, in reading the history of the Jews, that God used as instruments the most wicked nations on earth with which to scourge them, when they were guilty of the same sins we are.
The history of that nation was written mainly for an example for us to profit by. Individuals and nations will be judged according to the light given them.
Another of our phantoms—foreign intervention—I am in hopes has vanished forever from the minds of our people. I have often thought, if we could have it, the war would cease; for, boastful as the Federals are, I do not think they would go to war with foreign powers.
Many have praised France for her goodwill toward us, but to save my life I can not see what she has done.
I believe now, more than ever, we ought to judge people by their acts and not their words. The latter cost nothing. They will not put money in our coffers, nor aid us in any way; and, as Pope says,
“One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas.”
The consciousness of having done our duty will be better than all the flattery they could give us.
When the war commenced, my main hope for aid was from Great Britain, as I had always thought of her as the defender of the oppressed, but like many others of my hopes, this one has also fallen.
I have heard many say that she rejoices at this struggle, as she has always been jealous of the growing power of the United States, and she will wait until we wear each other out before giving us any aid. I have always rejected this cruel, heartless accusation with indignation, for I can not bring myself to think that the people whom I have loved to look up to for every thing that was magnanimous and great, could rejoice at the misery of any nation, much less that of its descendants. If such could be the case, I think, with nations as with individuals, that for every dishonest and unprincipled motive, no matter how seemingly clothed with justice? the act may be, an account must be given; and if Great Britain is base enough to keep back from giving us aid, from the motive imputed to her, her day of reckoning will surely come. I have thought that she did not give us aid because she could not consistently be an abettor of slavery. But I have given up that notion, for I know that the Britons are endowed with judgment enough to see through the mask worn by the abolitionists, and to know that we, not they, are the true friend of the negro.
Mr. Lindsay, M. P., made a speech lately in Middlesex, England, in which he says he has conversed with Dr. Livingston on the condition of the negro in Africa, and Dr. L. had told him it was not possible to conceive any thing like the degradation of the race in that country.
If people would only think, they would see, even taking Mrs. Stowe’s book for their standard, that there are no negroes on the face of the earth as happy as those who are slaves in this country. Mrs. S. drew a true picture when she drew Uncle Tom, for we have many such among us; and from all we can learn such characters are rare in the North and other countries where the negro race is. As for Mr. Legree, few southerners deny having such among us. I know of one, a Scotchman. Ho whipped a negro child to death; was tried and put in the penitentiary. Hanging would have been too good for such a man, so all said. The wife of this wretch died of a broken heart, from ill treatment. The latter crime, I believe, is not rare among the “unco guid” and their neighbors, if we are to believe their own papers. I never take up one but I read about some half dozen men being tried for wife-beating. Such a thing is rarely heard of here. I know of a few more Legrees. Two are New Englanders and one a Dutchman. They beat their negroes, but they are despised by all who know them. They are no worse than Squeers, who, we are told, is a true representative of many a man in England. If we are to judge of Britons from Squeers, and others I have spoken about, we may all pray to be delivered from coming in contact with such a race of wife-beaters and monsters as they must be. But we all know that atrocities committed by wicked men are no standard by which to judge the nation to whom they belong.
I have often alleged as a reason for foreigners and northerners ill-treating negroes so much more than the southerners, that the negro, like his master, is not over-fond of work. The foreigner is accustomed to have white servants work from daylight till dark, and many of them after dark; they expect the same work from the negro, but all in vain, for the darky has no such ideas of life—eat, sleep, and no work, is his motto. These people, not understanding the character of the negro, lose patience with him, and try by whipping to get the same amount of work from them as they have been in the habit of getting from white servants. Many a time, while we have listened to the tales about the work done by white servants in Scotland, we have said, who could live in a country where such things are done, and where there was such slavery. The southern people do not respect any one who overworks his servants. That they have not done their whole duty by the slaves they do not deny. They should have laws protecting them from these monsters; but, as I have said before, they are not to blame. And as soon as we have peace, I am told that the first thing our people will do is to improve their condition.
But I have wandered from the subject of recognition. I feel confident that it is not on account of slavery that Britain has kept aloof from us. The why and the wherefore is yet to be known. She has borne insult after insult from the Federals, till I have heard some of her people on “this side of the water” indignantly cry out:
“My country! colors not thy once proud brow
At this affront! Hast thou not fleets enow,
With Glory’s streamer, lofty as the lark,
Gay fluttering o’er each thundering bark,
To warm the insulter’s seas with barbarous blood.”
This M. P., Mr. Lindsay, makes an acknowledgment in his speech, which proves that that immaculate British government has not only permitted recruiting, but he says that the very guns and ammunition now used in bombarding Charleston came from England. What is Lord Lyons about? Perhaps that is not a breach of the law, only bending it. Well, we have certainly enough to contend with—foes within and the whole world without.
“If but a doubt hung o’er the fields of fray,
Or trivial rapine stopped the world’s highway,
Were this some common strife of states embroiled,
Britannia on the spoiler and the spoiled
Might calmly look, and, asking time to breathe,
Still honorably wear her olive wreath;
But this is darkness combating with light;
Earth’s adverse principles for empire fight.”
I hope that our people will not be deluded any longer, but look to themselves, having a full trust in God, and in the justice of our cause.
Sunday, 29th.—Federals have fallen back towards Chattanooga. Burned Ringgold.
November 29th. Marched early this morning via Robertson’s tavern to the plank road leading to Orange court house, across which the division formed in line of battle; a little skirmishing followed, but did not amount to anything.
Washington, D. C.
Paris, November 29, 1863.
My Dear Sir,—My departure for Europe was so sudden, and my contemplated stay here so short, that I hardly thought it worth while to apprise you of my voyage to London and Paris, and to offer you my services in both places.
During the four days that I remained in London I have, however, had opportunities to meet and converse with several members of the ministry and leading men in Parliament. The general tone of all these gentlemen was much more friendly to the cause and position of our government than I had anticipated. From all I could gather, there is certainly no danger that England will join France in any movement toward recognition of the South.
The ministers seem fully aware of the mistake they committed in allowing the Alabama to proceed to sea, and they are determined, at all hazards, to stop the sailing of the iron-clads. Laird has put in a plea, first, that they were destined for a French house, and then that they were for the Pasha of Egypt—the government has proofs in hand that both these statements are false.
Lord Russell will probably ask for more ample powers from Parliament immediately after its meeting, to enable him to stop these vessels and enforce a strict observance of neutrality by British subjects. Both he and Mr. Villiers, brother of Lord Clarendon, and one of Her Majesty’s Privy Council, have expressed themselves in very flattering terms with regard to Mr. Evarts, whose mission, they said, was very beneficial and useful, as he gave them very valuable information about many points bearing upon our neutrality laws. Your friend and agent has evidently left a very good impression in the government circles.
I am informed by people who are apt to know, that, with the exception of Gladstone and Palmerston, the members of the cabinet are all in favor of the North. Still, we must not shut our eyes to the fact that the taking of Vicksburg, and our successes last summer, have a good deal to do with this attitude of the British cabinet, and that any serious reverses of our armies in Virginia or Tennessee would be followed by a strong pressure on the ministry for recognition, not only by the opposition at home, but also by France.
There is one point in connection with this which I wish to recommend to your earnest consideration. The sensitiveness on the part of Englishmen of all ranks, with reference to every thing which is said, done, and written in America, is most extraordinary, and the attacks in our papers against the British government have not only the effect to estrange the good-will of our friends, but also to strengthen the hands of the opposition. Even the small matter of the discussion in regard to our inviting the French and English officers to the banquet lately given in New York to the Russians, had ruffled the temper of every Englishman I came in contact with.
To give you an instance of the interest with which every information from America is received, I will only mention to you that upon the arrival of Sir Henry Holland, about ten days ago, Lord Palmerston immediately sent him a telegraphic dispatch inviting him to Broadlands, and within an hour afterward he received a similar invitation to Pembroke Lodge, from Earl Russell. I am told that Sir Henry speaks in the kindest terms of the reception he received, and that he is very much pleased with his interview with you and the President. My object in mentioning to you these details is to suggest to you how far it might appear practicable and advisable to you to exert the influence of the government with our leading papers to adopt a more conciliatory tone toward England—this I should think you could easily accomplish with such papers as the New York Times and other organs of the Republican party.
The London Times continues its bitter vituperations against us, but it does not represent its government and its party, and the best way to neutralize its pernicious influence is not to notice its attacks.
I have not been in Paris long enough to form a correct opinion of what is going on here, still, thus far all confirms me in the impression which I had formed during my last residence here, viz., that the French Emperor is the principal person from whom danger to us is to be apprehended. Luckily, it seems as if he was to have his hands full in Europe. The Polish question has assumed a very threatening aspect, and I don’t see how it can be solved without a war. Thus far the British government seems determined not to join France in a war, but the English people are all very strongly in favor of Poland, and public opinion may force the Palmerston ministry as it did, seven years ago, that of Lord Aberdeen. Apart from the Polish cloud, the Emperor finds his policy in Mexico to become daily less popular with the French people, and I have no doubt but what he has already, ere this, very much modified his brilliant aspirations of French trans-atlantic power. Added to this is the deficit in the budget, which will make a resort to a new loan more than probable, a measure not at all desirable in the present state of the money market and the low prices of the “Rentes.” Nearly all the governments on the Continent are likely to want money very soon, and so a general uneasiness pervades financial circles. With such a state of things there is not much danger that Napoleon will think of interfering with us. The government has stopped the further construction of the four war vessels which were being built in French ports for the Confederates.
Notwithstanding all this the Secessionists here, and their number is legion, are very confident of an early recognition and assistance on the part of France. It is said that their Vice-President, Stephens, is expected here, when he will make the most liberal offers for recognition and alliance. He will even, it is expected, go so far as to agree to a gradual emancipation of slavery, on the part of the Richmond authorities. It is impossible to trace these rumors to any trustworthy source, but it is certain that the rebel agents here are as active as they are numerous and unscrupulous.
