The Rebellion Record—A Diary of American Events; by Frank Moore

January 4.—General Gregg’s cavalry division, under the command of Colonel Taylor, of the First Pennsylvania regiment, left the headquarters of the army of the Potomac, on the first instant, for the purpose of making a reconnoissance to Front Royal, taking on their horses three days’ rations and forage. Owing to the condition of the roads the artillery attached to the division could proceed no farther than Warrenton. The command returned to-day, having travelled ninety miles during the three days’ absence, and encountered severe deprivations in consequence of the intensely cold weather; but no enemy was discovered. Owing to the depth of the Shenandoah River, no attempt was made to cross it.

—A fight occurred near Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in which the Union troops belonging to General Carlton’s command, routed the Navijo Indians, killing forty and wounding twenty-five.

—Forty Sioux Indians surrendered themselves to the Union forces, at Pembina, Dacotah Territory.—Rear-admiral Farragut sailed from the navy-yard at Brooklyn, New-York, in the flagship Hartford to assume command of the East Gulf squadron.—Joint resolutions of thanks to General Robert E. Lee and the officers and soldiers under his command, by the rebel Congress.

January 3.—A large force of rebels, under General Sam Jones, made a descent upon a small body of Union troops stationed near Jonesville, Virginia, belonging to an Illinois regiment, commanded by Major Beers, and eighteen men of Neill’s Ohio battery. A desperate resistance was made, continuing from seven A.M. to three P.M., when the Nationals surrendered. The rebels numbered four thousand men. They lost four killed and twelve wounded.—Admiral Lee, in the United States gunboat Fah Kee, entered Lockwood’s, Folly Inlet, about ten miles to the south of Wilmington, North-Carolina, hoisted out his boats, and examined the blockade-running steamer Bendigo, which was run ashore by the captain a week previous, to prevent her being captured by the blockaders. While making these examinations, the enemy’s sharpshooters appeared and opened fire upon the boats’ crews, which was returned by the Fah Kee’s guns, when a rebel battery opened fire and the boats returned to the ship.

The Fah Kee continued her fire until the Bendigo was well-riddled, but her battery was light, and in consequence of her draft of water and the shoals inside, had to be at long-range, and consequently not as destructive as was desired. Night coming on, the Admiral returned to the fleet.— Official Report.

—The British ship Silvanus, while attempting to run the blockade at Doboy Sound, Georgia, was chased ashore by the National gunboat Huron.—Twenty shells loaded with Greek fire, were thrown into the city of Charleston, South-Carolina, causing a considerable conflagration.

January l, 1864.

—A detachment of seventy-five men, composed of a proportionate number from each of four companies constituting Major Henry A. Cole’s Maryland cavalry battalion, on a scout in the vicinity of Harper’s Ferry, Maryland, were suddenly encountered, at a point near Rectortown, by a force of rebel cavalry, belonging to the brigade under the command of General Rosser. After fighting gallantly and until fifty-seven out of their number (seventy-five) were either killed or captured, the remaining eighteen made their way in safety to camp. Several of those who escaped found their feet frozen when they reached camp.

—Colonel William S. Hawkins, of the “Hawkins Scouts,” a leader in the scouting service of the rebel forces under General Bragg, was captured at the house of a Mr. Mayberry, on Lick Creek, Kentucky, by Sergeant Brewer, of Major Breathitt’s battalion of Kentucky cavalry.—At Memphis, Tennessee, the thermometer stood at ten degrees below zero, and at Cairo, Illinois, at sixteen degrees below. A number of soldiers were frozen to death at Island No. 10.—The Richmond Whig, in an article setting forth the condition of military and naval affairs at the South, concluded its remarks as follows: “Thus we find we have an army poorly clad, scantily fed, indifferently equipped, badly mounted, with insufficient trains, and with barely enough ammunition. To remedy the evil, we are going to double, and if possible, quadruple the number of men and horses, take away every efficient master from the agricultural districts, and leave the laborers, on whom both men and horses depend for existence, a prey to natural idleness, and with every inducement to revolt. If this be not judicial madness, the history of desperate measures adopted by feeble and affrighted councils does not present an example.”

—Andrew J. Hamilton, Military Governor of Texas, issued an able address to the citizens of that State, setting forth their duties to themselves and their government

December 31.—The following review of the year and situation, was published in the Richmond Examiner of this day:

“To-day closes the gloomiest year of our struggle. No sanguine hope of intervention buoys up the spirits of the confederate public as at the end of 1861. No brilliant victory like that of Fredericksburgh encourages us to look forward to a speedy and successful termination of the war, as in the last weeks of 1862. Meade has been foiled, and Longstreet has had a partial success in Tennessee; but Meade’s advance was hardly meant in earnest, and Bean’s Station is a poor set-off to the loss of the gallant men who fell in the murderous assault on Knoxville. Another daring Yankee raid has been carried out with comparative impunity to the invaders, and timorous capitalists may well pause before they nibble at eligible investments in real estate situated far in the interior. That interior has been fearfully narrowed by the Federal march through Tennessee, and owing to the deficiencies of our cavalry service, Lincoln’s squadrons of horse threaten to be as universal a terror, as pervasive a nuisance, as his squadrons of gun-boats were some months since. The advantages gained at Chancellorsville and Chickamauga have had heavy counterpoises. The one victory led to the fall of Jackson and the deposition of Hooker, the other led first to nothing and then to the indelible disgrace of Lookout Mountain. The Confederacy has been cut in twain along the line of the Mississippi, and our enemies are steadily pushing forward their plans for bisecting the eastern moiety. No wonder, then, that the annual advent of the reign of mud is hailed by all classes with a sense of relief —by those who think and feel aright, as a precious season to prepare for trying another fall with our potent adversary.

“Meanwhile the financial chaos is becoming wilder and wilder. Hoarders keep a more resolute grasp than ever on the necessaries of life. Non-producers, who are at the same time non-speculators, are suffering more and more. What was once competence has become poverty, poverty has become penury, penury is lapsing into pauperism. Any mechanical occupation is more profitable than the most intellectual profession; the most accomplished scholars in the Confederacy would be glad to barter their services for food and raiment; and in the complete upturning of our social relations, the only happy people are those who have black hearts or black skins. The cry of scarcity resounds through the land, raised by the producers in their greed for gain, reechoed by consumers in their premature dread of starvation and nakedness. We are all in the dark, and men are more or less cowards in the dark. We do not know what our resources are, and no one can tell us whether we shall have a pound of beef to eat at the end of 1864, or a square inch of leather to patch the last shoe in the Confederacy. Unreasoning confidence has been succeeded by depression as unreasoning, and the Yankees are congratulating themselves on the result, which they hawk about as the ‘beginning of the end.’

“Theologians will tell us that the disasters of the closing year are the punishment of our sins. This is true enough; but a cheap penitence will not save us from the evil consequences. There is no forgiveness for political sins, and the results will as certainly follow as if there had been no repentance. As all sins are, in a higher sense, intellectual blunders, we must strain every fibre of the brain and every sinew of the will if we wish to repair the mischief which our folly and our corruption have wrought. The universal recognition of this imperative duty is a more certain earnest of our success than the high spirits of our men in the field, or the indomitable patriotism of our women at home, from which newspaper correspondents derive so much comfort. The incompetence and unfaithfulness of government officials have had much to do with the present sad state of affairs, but the responsibility does not end there; the guilt does not rest there alone. Every man who has suffered himself to be tainted with the scab of speculation has done something to injure the credit of confederate securities; every man who has withheld any necessary of life has done his worst to ruin the country; every one, man or woman, who has yielded to the solicitations of vanity or appetite, and refused to submit to any privation, however slight, which an expenditure, however great, could prevent, has contributed to the general demoralization. It may be said that, with the present plethora of paper money, such virtue as we demand is not to be expected of any people made up of merely human beings. But some such virtue is necessary for any people whose duty it has become to wage such a contest as ours; and if the virtue is not spontaneous, it must be engrafted by the painful process through which we are now passing. We cannot go through this fiery furnace without the smell of fire on our garments. We can no more avoid the loss of property than we can the shedding of blood. There is no family in the Confederacy that has not to mourn the fall of some member or some connection, and there is no family in the Confederacy which ought to expect to escape scathless in estate. The attempt is as useless, in most cases, as it is ignoble in all. A few, and but few, in comparison with the whole number, may come out richer than when they went in; but even they must make up their minds to sacrifice a part, and a large part, in order to preserve the whole. The saying of the stoic philosopher, ‘You can’t have something for nothing,’ though it sounds like a truism, in fact, conveys a moral lesson of great significance. Men must pay for privileges. If they do not pay voluntarily, their neighbors will make them pay, and that heavily. Had those who employed substitutes to take their places in the army refrained as a class from speculation and extortion, they would not now be lamenting the prospect of a speedy furtherance to the camp of instruction. However just their cause, the manner in which too many of them abused the immunity acquired by money has deprived them of all active sympathy.

“We all have a heavy score to pay, and we know it. This may depress us, but our enemies need not be jubilant at our depression, for we are determined to meet our liabilities. Whatever number of men, or whatever amount of money shall be really wanting will be forthcoming. Whatever economy the straightening of our resources may require, we shall learn to exercise. We could only wish that Congress was not in such a feverish mood, and that the government would do something toward the establishment of a statistical bureau, or some other agency, by which we could approximately ascertain what we have to contribute, and to what extent we must husband our resources. Wise, cool, decided, prompt action would put us in good condition for the spring campaign of 1864, and the close of next year would furnish a more agreeable retrospect than the annus mirabilis of blunders which we now consign to the dead past.”—Major-General Butler, from his headquarters at Fortress Monroe, Va., issued a general order, dismissing several officers of his command for intoxication. —The rebel steamer Grey Jacket, while attempting to run out of Mobile Bay, was captured by the Union gunboat Kennebec. — President Lincoln approved the “additional instructions to the tax commissioners, for the district of South-Carolina, in relation to the disposition of lands.”

—Jefferson Davis having approved the following rule, by virtue of authority vested in him by the confederate Congress, the rebel Secretary of State gave notice thereof:

“No passport will be issued from the department of state, during the pending war, to any male citizen, unless the applicant produce, and file in the department, a certificate, from the proper military authorities, that he is not liable to duty in the army.”

December 30.—A skirmish took place in the outskirts of St. Augustine, Fla., between a detachment of the Tenth Connecticut regiment, detailed to guard a party of wood-choppers, and a squadron of rebel cavalry, who attempted to seize the teams. The rebels were unsuccessful, but in the fight three privates of the Tenth were killed, and Lieutenant Brown, the officer commanding the detachment, was so badly wounded, that he afterward died.

—Yesterday an affair occurred, at Matagorda Bay, Texas, between the Union gunboats, a company of the Thirteenth Maine regiment, and a large force of rebel cavalry and a rebel gunboat The small party of Union troops, under General Herron, had landed with the object of cutting off the rebel pickets, but were attacked by the cavalry, who were driven off by the gunboats. The cavalry, aided by the rebel gunboat, subsequently attacked the Nationals, and caused them to vacate their position; but, this morning, a strong gale of wind drove the steamer ashore, and she was destroyed by fire.

— Colonel McChesney, commanding Pamlico Sub-District, N. C, while reconnoitring within six miles of Greenville, with about one hundred and forty men of the Twelfth New-York cavalry, First North-Carolina volunteers, and Twenty-third New-York artillery, was attacked by a superior force under Major Moore, who attempted to cut off his return to Washington. After a hand-to-hand conflict the enemy retired, leaving one lieutenant and five men dead, with one piece of Starr’s fine battery, caisson, and horses. Darkness prevented further knowledge of the injury sustained by the rebels. The National loss was one killed, six slightly wounded, one missing, and three horses disabled. Lieut. William K. Adams, of company L, First North-Carolina volunteers, a gallant and dashing officer, was killed while making a charge at the head of his command.

The Commanding General, Peck, thanked in general orders, Colonel McChesney, the officers, men, and guides, for this bold and successful affair.

December 29.—The Ninety-third New-York, First Delaware, and Fifth Michigan regiments, left the army of the Potomac for home to recruit, under the general orders lately issued.—The gas company at Norfolk, Va., having sealed up their works and refused, for several months, to light the city, General Butler ordered the establishment to be seized and “carried on efficiently and economically, so that the city of Norfolk will be fully lighted, and its peace and quiet in the darkness of the night be assured, until it is made certain, that in case of an attack upon the city of Norfolk, the rebel proclivities of the owners will not leave the city in darkness, as a means of impairing the defence made by the United States forces, and when the owners have, by their works and not by their lips, convinced the military authorities that they can rely upon their loyalty for aiding in repelling an invasion of the rebels, and a keeping up of the works to aid us in that behalf; then, and not until then, will the works be returned to their custody.

“In the mean time, accurate accounts will be kept of the receipts and expenditures, and the excess of profits, which no doubt will be considerable, will be paid to those who are loyal in the sense of the word as understood by loyal men.”

— The battle of Mossy Creek, Tenn., was fought this day, and resulted in the defeat of the rebels, after a severe contest.—(Doc. 31.)

December 28.—The Seventh Wisconsin regiment left the army of the Potomac for home to recruit, under the general orders lately issued.— The Legislature of Alabama has voted that the carpets that cover the floor of the Senate Chamber, Hall of Representatives, and all officers’ and committee-rooms in the capitol at Montgomery, be cut up and given to the soldiers of the rebel army for blankets.—An attempt at informal renewal of the cartel was made by the enemy, under the immediate agency of General Butler, who initiated his effort by sending five hundred confederate soldiers to City Point. Commissioner Ould returned five hundred Federal soldiers, but informed Commissioner Hitchcock that the confederate authorities could hold no communication with General Butler, and that there must be no further effort at a partial exchange. If the enemy desire to renew the cartel, it must be done upon fair terms, and through an agent not outlawed and beyond the pale of military respectability.—Richmond Enquirer.

—A skirmish took place at Charlestown, Tenn., between the rebels under General Wheeler and a body of National troops, under the command of Colonel Laibold, of the Second regiment of Missouri infantry, resulting in the total rout and defeat of the rebels. — (Doc. 30.)

—The following memorial, signed by Generals Hardee, Stevenson, Cheatham, Breckinridge, and nearly all the other officers in command of the army of the Tennessee, was read in the confederate House of Representatives:

“In the existing condition of affairs it is hoped your honorable bodies will pardon the variance from custom of addressing you from the army. It is done in no spirit of dictation, but in the conscientious conviction that the necessities of the country demand the voice and labor of all, and that delay, even for thirty days, in enacting proper measures, may make present disorders incurable, and the dangers of the moment omnipotent for our destruction.

“In our opinion, it is essential to retain, for the term of during the war, without reorganization, the troops now in service; to place in service immediately, for the same term, all other white males between eighteen and fifty years of age, able to perform any military duty; to provide for placing in service, at the discretion of the President, for the same term, all white males between fifteen and eighteen, and between fifty and sixty years of age; to prohibit substitutes; to prohibit exemption, except for the necessary civil offices and employments of the confederate States and the several States; to prohibit details, except for limited times, and for carrying on works essential to the army; to prohibit discharges, except in cases of permanent disability, from all duty; to prohibit leaves and furloughs, except under uniform rules of universal application, based, as far as practicable, on length of service and meritorious conduct; to prohibit, to the greatest extent, the details of able-bodied officers and men to posts, hospitals, or other interior duty, and to place in service as cooks, laborers, teamsters, and hospital attendants, with the army and elsewhere, able-bodied negroes and mulattoes, bond and free.

“These measures, we think, if promptly enacted as laws, so as to give time for organizing and disciplining the new material, would make our armies invincible at the opening of the campaign of next year, and enable us to win back our lost territory and conquer a peace before that campaign shall be ended.

“We beg further to suggest that, in our opinion, the dissatisfaction, apprehended or existing, from short rations, depreciated currency, and the retention of old soldiers in service, might be obviated by allowing bounties, with discriminations in favor of retained troops; an increase of pay; the commutation to enlisted men of rations not issued; and rations, or the value thereof, to officers.”—Eighty-two rebel prisoners from Camp Douglas, Chicago, went to Boston, Mass., to enter the United States naval service. They were taken directly to the North-Carolina, receiving-ship.

December 27. — General McPherson, from his headquarters, Seventeenth army corps, at Vicksburgh, Miss., issued the following circular: “The following named persons: Miss Kate Barnett, Miss Ella Barrett, Miss Laura Latham, Miss Ellen Martin, and Mrs. Moore, having acted disrespectfully towards the President and Government of the United States, and having insulted officers, soldiers, and loyal citizens of the United States who had assembled at the Episcopal church in Vicksburgh, on Christmas-day, for divine service, by abruptly leaving said church at that point in the service where the President of the United States and all others in authority are prayed for, are hereby banished, and will leave the Federal lines within forty-eight hours, under penalty of imprisonment.

“Hereafter all persons, male or female, who by word or deed or by implication, do insult or show disrespect to the President, the Government, or the flag of the United States, or to any officer or soldier of the United States upon matters of a national character, shall be fined, banished, or imprisoned, according to the grossness of the offence.”

December 26.—General Rosser returned to Orange Court-House, Va., having completed an entire circuit of the Yankee army, starting from Fredericksburgh and entering the valley at Conrad’s Store. He burnt the bridge over Pope’s Head Run, near Sangster’s Station, just out from Alexandria, capturing and dispersing the troops left as a guard. Owing to the high water and bad weather, he was prevented from doing more damage. Gregg’s Yankee cavalry pursued, but did not overtake him. General Rosser was forced to swim Bull Run. His loss was very slight, if any. The enemy, while in pursuit, destroyed two tanneries and a lot of leather at Sperryville, Rappahannock County; also, two tanneries, a flour-mill and some government workshops at Luray, in Page County. They also committed many other excesses, including the taking away of negroes, and shot a confederate named Smedley, at Washington, Rappahannock County, after he had surrendered.—Richmond Papers.

—The rebel privateer Alabama captured the American ships Sonora and Highlander, both lying at anchor at a point about ten miles east of the North Sands light-ship, near Singapore, East-Indies. Captain Semmes ordered the captains of both ships on board the Alabama, examined their papers, and allowing them to take a small quantity of clothing, burned their ships, and sent them adrift in their boats without any water or provisions.