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

December 4.—General Longstreet raised the siege of Knoxville, and fell back to Morristown, Tenn., in consequence of the approach of heavy reinforcements to General Burnside, under General Granger, as well as the great victory around Chattanooga.—(Doc. 19.)

December 3.—A large body of rebels, under the command of Chalmers and Forrest, made three desperate charges on a division of National cavalry, stationed at the Wolf River Bridge, Tenn., but were finally repulsed with heavy loss. The National troops were commanded by Colonel Hatch’s cavalry division, which suffered severely.

December 2.—General Braxton Bragg issued a general order from his headquarters at Dalton, Ga., transferring the command of the rebel forces to Lieutenant-General Hardee who, on assuming the position announced, in orders, that “there was no cause for discouragement The overwhelming numbers of the enemy forced us back from Missionary Ridge; but the army is still intact and in good heart; our losses were small, and were rapidly replaced. The country is looking to you with painful interest. I feel I can rely upon you. The weak need to be cheered by the constant successes of the victors of Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, and Chickamauga, and require such stimulant to sustain their courage and resolution. Let the past take care of itself. We care more to secure the future.”

December 1.—The army of the Potomac withdrew from before the works of the rebels on Mine Run, General Meade being convinced that they could not be taken without a great sacrifice of life. A soldier, writing from Kelleysville, on December fourth, gives the following account of the retrograde movement: “Since joining the regiment I have had very tough work, marching great distances in a short space of time, besides living on short rations. We crossed the Rapidan at Ely’s Ford, marching through the battle-field of Chancellorsville and the Wilderness, to within six miles of Orange Court-House, where we halted. Our impressions were, that we would reach Gordonsville before any serious opposition would be shown, but were mightily mistaken. The army skirmished with the rebels from the time we crossed the Rapidan until we halted, and through such a perfect wilderness as to be almost indescribable—the road, the only place where man or beast could walk, with both sides covered with dense woods, overrun with underbrush. So you can readily imagine what a place for troops to advance in line of battle, and manœuvre for instant action. Yet it was done, and with a hearty good will, for the impression animated the whole army we would give the rebels a sound whipping, as we were on their flank; but alas! they got wind of it, and formed a line of battle on the high ridge of hills on the opposite side of Mine Run. We would have cleared them out from there, but the whole of our army did not arrive in time. Night came on, and they improved the time by fortifying. When morning came, they had one of the most formidable works in view I ever saw. The creek, or run, was crammed with felled trees, to break our ranks when advancing in line, and then came immense breastworks with abattis in front, making it an impossibility to make a charge over. Yet that morning the whole line had orders to take off knapsacks and overcoats, and make the attack, or rather attempt it. When all was ready, and going on the advance, the order was countermanded, and with it came many light hearts, as we knew it was impossible to make any impression on what we saw before us, although we were willing to attempt it. We lay all that day, and the next until evening, when we picked up our traps, and made a splendid retrograde movement. To be sure, the army suffered a little in killed and wounded, but nothing in comparison to what it would have been if we had fought them. One of the men in my company was shot in the breast while skirmishing. We are now near Kelly’s Ford, and have arrived at the conclusion that General Meade acted wisely in not giving battle, for he would have been repulsed, and that would not do, when things looked so bright in the West”

November 30.—Fort Esperanza, in Matagorda Bay, having been blown up and abandoned by the rebels, was occupied by the National forces under the command of Major-General C. C. Washburne.—(Doc. 17.)—The rebel blockade-runner Chatham, was captured in Doboy Sound, Ga., by the gunboat Huron.

November 29.—Fort Sanders, near Knoxville, Tenn., was assaulted by the rebel forces under General Longstreet, who was repulsed with a loss of over eight hundred in killed, wounded, and missing. A few hours previous to the assault, the rebel General issued the following instructions to the commanders of the brigades who were to attempt it:

“Headquarters, November 29,1963.

“General: Please impress your officers and men with the importance of making a rush when they once start to take such a position as that occupied by the enemy yesterday. If the troops, once started, rush forward till the point is carried, the loss will be trifling; whereas, if they hesitate, the enemy gets courage, or, being behind a comparatively sheltered position, will fight the harder.

“Beside, if the assaulting party once loses courage and falters, he will not find courage, probably, to make a renewed effort. The men should be cautioned before they start at such work, and told what they are to do, and the importance and great safety of doing it with a rush.

“Very respectfully,

J. Longstreet,

Lieutenant-General.

“Major-General McLaws.”

—The schooner Winona was captured by the gunboat Kanawha, off Mobile Bay, Ala.

November 28.—A cavalry fight took place at Louisville, Tenn., between a party of rebels and two hundred and twenty-five men belonging to the Sixth Illinois regiment, resulting in the rout of the rebels.

November 27.—A delegation of Cherokees, headed by Captain Smith Christy, acting Chief, and including Thomas Pegg, a leading Indian, and William P. Ross, with Rev. J. B. Jones as interpreter, went in state to pay their respects to General McNeil, the district commander at Fort Smith, Ark., by order of an act of their National Council. The act recited the sufferings, and asked additional protection to the nation and authority to raise an Indian cavalry regiment After the presentation of their credentials, Chief Christy arose and said that their national council had instructed them to call and pay their respects to the Commanding General, express their confidence in his ability and bravery, and to state the condition and wants of their suffering people. He then recapitulated the contents of the documents they were preparing to present. The greatest annoyance was from roving banditti, who desolated their homes and murdered their people. Their lives and those of their families were not safe away from the military fort. They desired stringent measures to change this state of things. They wished carried into successful practice a plan of Colonel Phillips, to form districts allotted for settlement, which should be adequately protected in order that the families camped in the vicinity of Fort Gibson might remove to more comfortable homes. From their present condition of suffering and disease, they thought the patriotic acts and sacrifices of their nation had not been sufficiently appreciated.

General McNeil replied that it gave him very great pleasure to receive this token of respect of the Cherokee nation. Among the responsibilities of the command to which he had been assigned, there was none greater than his duty toward their suffering people. One of his first acts on assuming command was to represent the condition of the Indian tribes, and he had recommended some measures for the improvement of their condition. The Government is very desirous that you should make a crop this spring, and such a disposition of troops will be made that you can do it in safety.

Mr. Ross.—If white troops will keep away our white enemies, the loyal Indian troops can protect themselves.

General McNeil.—I ask if I may assure the Government that the Cherokees will not make civil war on their tribes except in self-defence.

Chief Christy.—You may.

—The rebel schooner Maria Alberta, while attempting to run the blockade, was captured off Bayport, Florida, by the National schooner Two Sisters.—The battle of Mine Run, Va,, was fought this day, between the Union forces, under Major-General Meade, and the rebels, under the command of General Lee.—(Doc. 15.)

— A party of surgeons belonging to the United States army, lately prisoners in Richmond, made the following statement: “We the undersigned consider it our duty to publish a few facts that came to our knowledge while we were inmates of the hospital attached to the Libby prison. We enjoyed for several months daily access to the hospitals where the sick and wounded among our Union soldiers were under treatment. As a resalt of our observation, we hereby declare our belief that, since the battle of Chickamauga, the number of deaths per diem has averaged fully fifty. The prevailing diseases are diarrhœa, dysentery, or typhoid pneumonia. Of late the percentage of deaths has greatly increased from causes that have been long at work, as insufficient food, clothing, and shelter, combined with that depression of spirits brought so often by long confinement. It may seem almost incredible that, in the three hospitals for wounded soldiers, the average mortality is nearly forty per day, and, we are forced to believe, the deaths in the tobacco factories and upon the Island, will raise the total mortality among all the Union soldiers to fifty per day, or fifteen hundred monthly.

“The extremely reduced condition of those brought from the island argues that hundreds quite sick are left behind who, with us, would be considered fit subjects for hospital treatment. Such, too, is the fact, as invariably stated by scores we have conversed with from that camp. The same, to a degree, holds true of their prisoners in the city. It would be a reasonable estimate to put the number who are fit subjects for hospitals, but who are refused admittance, at five hundred. One thousand are already under treatment in the three hospitals; and the confederate surgeons themselves say the number of patients is only limited by the small accommodations provided. Thus we have over ten per cent of the whole number of the prisoners held classed as sick men, who need the most assiduous and skilful attention; yet, in the matter of rations, they are receiving nothing but corn-bread and sweet potatoes. Meat is no longer furnished to any class of our prisoners, except to the few officers in Libby Hospital; and all the sick and well officers and privates are now furnished with a very poor article of corn-bread, in place of wheat-bread—an unsuitable diet for hospital patients, prostrated with diarrhœa, dysentery, and fever.

“To say nothing of many startling instances of individual suffering, and horrid pictures of death from prostrated sickness and semi-starvation, we have had thrust upon our attention, the first demand of the poor creatures from the island was always for something to eat. Self-respect gone, half-clad and covered with vermin and filth, many of them are often beyond all reach of medical skill. In one instance, the ambulances brought sixteen to the hospital, and during the night seven of them died. Again, eighteen were brought, and eleven of them died in twenty-four hours. At another time, fourteen were admitted in a single day, and ten of them died. Judging from what we have ourselves seen and do know, we do not hesitate to say that under a treatment of systematized abuse, neglect, and semi-starvation, the number who are becoming prematurely broken down in their constitutions must be reckoned by thousands. The confederate daily papers in general terms acknowledge the truth of all we have affirmed, but usually close their abusive editorials by declaring that even such treatment is better than the invading Yankees deserve.

“The Examiner, in a recent article, begrudged the little food the prisoners did receive, and the boxes sent to us from home, and closed by eulogizing the system of semi-starvation and exposure as well calculated to dispose of us. Recently several hundred prisoners per day were being removed to Danville, and in two instances we were standing in view of them as their ranks filed past. Numbers were without shoes, nearly all without blankets or overcoats, and not a man did we see who was well fed and fully clad; but to the credit of the prisoners in Richmond, of all ranks, be it recorded, that, although they have shown heroic fortitude under suffering, and spurning the idea that their Government had forgotten them, have held fast their confidence in the final and speedy success of our cause. In addition to the above statement, we wish to be distinctly understood that the confederate medical officers connected with the hospitals referred to, Surgeons Wilkins, Simmons, and Sobal, and the hospital steward, Hollet, are not in any way, as far as our observation has extended, responsible for the state of things existing there, but on the other hand, we are bound in justice to bear testimony to their kindness and the faithful performance of duties with the limited means at their disposal.”[1]

—Among the prisoners captured at Chattanooga, were found a large number of those paroled at Vicksburgh. General Grant inquired whether he should proceed against them according to the established usage in such cases, which is to shoot the persons so found. The War Department forbid, it being manifestly unjust to execute soldiers who were required by the rebel government to break their parole.—General John H. Morgan, with six of his officers, escaped from the penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio.—(Doc. 37.)

[1] The surgeons who signed this statement were, Daniel Meeker, United States Navy; C. T. Liner, Assistant Surgeon Sixth Maine regiment; J. L. Brown, Assistant Surgeon One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio volunteer infantry; and A. M. Parker, Assistant Surgeon First Maine cavalry.

November 26.—At Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a meeting of the United States Christian Commission was held, in behalf of the National prisoners at Richmond. Bishop Potter of Pennsylvania presided, and addresses were made by Governor Brough, of Ohio, Major Boles, late from Libby Prison, G. H. Stuart, President of the Christian Commission, and others.—An engagement took place at Warm Springs, North-Carolina. “It shows,” says a rebel correspondent, “that it was a very gallant affair on the part of our men. Lieutenant-Colonel Bryson, of the Twenty-fifth North-Carolina troops, with a detachment of eighty men, crossed the French Broad, and was joined that night by twenty militia, under Major Haywood. Proceeding on the march, and arriving at the enemy’s outpost at daylight, he was found in line of battle, having already discovered the plan. Although numbering about four hundred, the Yankees were charged and driven from the field. They came up the second time with the same result. A third time they were reenforced, perceiving which, Colonel Bryson gave the order to fall back, which was done in good order. In a hand-to-hand encounter, Sergeant Collins rushed forward and sacrificed his life to save Colonel Bryson’s. The enemy’s loss was thirty killed and wounded.”— Thanksgiving Day in all the loyal States.

—The Union army under the command of Major-General Meade, advanced, crossing the Rapidan at several points. General Lee, commanding the rebel forces, noticing the movement, issued the following general order: “The enemy is again advancing upon our capital, and the country once more looks to this army for its protection. Under the blessings of God, your valor has repelled every previous attempt, and, invoking the continuance of his favor, we cheerfully commit to him the issue of the coming contest.

“A cruel enemy seeks to reduce our fathers and our mothers, our wives and our children to abject slavery; to strip them of their property and drive them from their homes. Upon you these helpless ones rely to avert these terrible calamities, and to secure to them the blessings of liberty and safety. Your past history gives them the assurance that their trust will not be in vain. Let every man remember that all he holds dear depends upon the faithful discharge of his duty, and resolve to fight, and, if need be, to die, in defence of a cause so sacred and worthy the name won by this army on so many bloody fields.”—(Doc. 15.)