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

March 19.—The correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, at Washington, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, (“Agate,”) wrote as follows concerning the Emancipation Proclamation: “A recent allusion to the fact that Mr. Secretary Chase’s pen supplied the concluding sentence of the Emancipation Proclamation, has been received with a surprise that indicates a less general knowledge on the subject than might have been expected.

“When the final draft of the Proclamation was presented by the President to the Cabinet, it closed with the paragraph stating that the slaves if liberated would be received into the armed service of the United States. Mr. Chase objected to the appearance of a document of such momentous importance without one word beyond the dry phrases necessary to convey its meaning; and finally proposed that there be added to the President’s draft the following sentence:

“‘And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.'”

“Mr. Lincoln adopted the sentence as Mr. Chase wrote it, only interlining after the word ‘Constitution’ the words, ‘upon military necessity;’ and in that form the Proclamation went to the world, and history.

“The President originally resolved upon the policy of issuing this Proclamation in the summer of 1862. As he has expressed it himself, every thing was going wrong; we seemed to have put forth about our utmost efforts, and he really didn’t know what more to do, unless he did this. Accordingly, he prepared the preliminary Proclamation, nearly in the form in which it subsequently appeared, called the Cabinet together, and read it to them.

“Mr. Montgomery Blair was startled. ‘If you issue that proclamation, Mr. President,’ he exclaimed, ‘you will lose every one of the fall elections.’

“Mr. Seward, on the other hand, said: ‘I approve of it, Mr. President, just as it stands. I approve of it in principle, and I approve the policy of issuing it I only object to the time. Send it out now, on the heels of our late disasters, and it will be construed as the convulsive struggle of a drowning man. To give it proper weight, you should reserve it until after some victory.’

“The President assented to Mr. Seward’s view, and it was withheld till the fall, when it was issued almost precisely as originally prepared. The one to which Mr. Chase supplied the concluding sentence was the final Proclamation, issued on the subsequent first of January”

—The Legislature of Georgia in both branches to-day adopted Linton Stephens’s peace resolutions, earnestly “recommending that our government, immediately after every signal success of our arms, when none can impute its action to alarm instead of a sincere desire for peace, shall make to the government of our enemy an official offer of peace, on the basis of the great principle declared by our common fathers in 1776, accompanied by the distinct expression of a willingness, on our part, to follow that principle to its true logical consequences, by agreeing that any Border State whose preference for our association may be doubted, (doubts having been expressed as to the wishes of the Border States,) shall settle the question for herself, by a convention to be elected for that purpose, after the withdrawal of all military forces on both sides from her limits.”

They also adopted his resolution declaring that “the recent act of Congress to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in cases of arrests, ordered by the President, Secretary of War, or general officer commanding the Trans-Mississippi military department, is an attempt to maintain the military in the usurpation of the constitutional judicial functions of issuing warrants, and to give validity to unconstitutional seizures of the persons of the people; and the said act, by its express terms, confines its operation to the upholding of the class of unconstitutional seizures, the whole suspension attempted to be authorized by it, and the whole act itself, are utterly void.”

“That in the judgment of this General Assembly, the said act is an alarming assault upon the liberty of the people, without any existing necessity to excuse it, and beyond the power of any possible necessity to justify it; and our Senators and Representatives in Congress are earnestly urged to take the first possible opportunity to have it blotted from the record of our laws.”

Both houses also adopted a resolution turning over to the confederate government all persons between the ages of seventeen and eighteen, and forty-five and fifty years.

They also unanimously adopted a resolution expressive of confidence in the President, and thanks to the confederate armies for reenlisting for the war.—Mobile Papers.

March 18.—Colonel Stokes’s Fifth Tennessee cavalry again overtook Champ Ferguson and his guerrillas on a little stream called Calfkiller River, near where it empties into Caney Fork, Tenn., and there killed eight of them.

—The behavior of the rebel brigade under General Pettigrew, at the battle of Gettysburgh, was vindicated in this day’s Richmond Enquirer.

March 17.—Colonel William Stokes, in command of the Fifth Tennessee cavalry, surprised a party of rebel guerrillas under Champ Ferguson, at a point near Manchester, Tenn., and after a severe fight routed them, compelling them to leave behind twenty-one in killed and wounded.—This morning, at a little before three o’clock, an attempt was made on Seabrook Island by a large force of rebels, who came down the Chickhassee River in boats. They approached in two large flats, filled with men, evidently sent forward to reconnoitre, with a numerous reserve force further back, to cooperate in case any points were found to be exposed. One of the boats came down to the mouth of Skull Creek, where they attacked a picket-boat containing a corporal and four men of the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania. They first fired three shots and then a whole volley, and succeeded in capturing the boat and those in it, after a severe hand-to-hand fight. Whether there were any casualties could not be ascertained. Further on, meeting an unexpected resistance, they retreated.

—Lieutenant-general Grant formally assumed the command of the armies of the United States to-day. The following was his order on the subject:

Headquarters of the Armies of the United States,

Nashville, Tenn., March 17, 1864.

General Orders, No. 12.

In pursuance of the following order of the President:

“Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C,
March 10, 1864

“Under the authority of the Act of Congress to appoint the grade of Lieutenant-General in the army, of February 29, 1864, Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, U. S. A., is appointed to the command of the armies of the United States.

“Abraham Lincoln.”

—I assume command of the armies of the United States. Headquarters will be in the field, and, until further orders, will be with the army of the Potomac. There will be an office headquarters in Washington, D. C, to which all official communications will be sent, except those from the army where the headquarters are at the date of their address.

March 16.—A party of guerrillas belonging to Roddy’s command made an attack upon the Chattanooga Railroad, at a point between Tullahoma and Estelle Springs, and, after robbing the passengers and committing other outrages, fled on the approach of another train loaded with soldiers. Among other atrocious acts was the following: There were four colored boys on the train acting in the capacity of brakemen, and two black men who were officers’ servants. These six poor creatures were placed in a row, and a squad of about forty of the robbers, under a Captain Scott, of Tennessee, discharged their revolvers at them, actually shooting the poor fellows all to pieces.—An engagement took place at a point two miles east of Fort Pillow, Tenn., between a body of Nationals and about one thousand rebels, who were routed with a loss of fifty killed and wounded.

—Captains Sawyer and Flynn, who had been held at Libby Prison, under sentence of death, in retaliation for the execution of two rebel spies, hung in Kentucky by General Burnside, were released. They were exchanged for General W. F. Lee and Captain Winder, who were held by the United States as personal hostages for their safety.

—The advance of General A. J. Smith’s forces, cooperating with General Banks’s, and under the command of Brigadier-General John A. Mower, reached Alexandria, La., accompanied by Admiral David D. Porter and his fleet of gunboats. —(Doc. 131.)

March 15.—Owing to the disturbance of the popular mind produced by the enrolment of slaves for the army in Kentucky, Governor Bramlette issued an address to the people of that State, suggesting moderation, and calling upon them “to uphold and maintain the Government as constituted, and obey and enforce its just demands, as the only hope of perpetuating free institutions.”—Fort De Rossy, on the Red River, below Alexandria, La., was captured this day by the combined military and naval forces of the United States, under General A. J. Smith and Admiral D. D. Porter.— (Docs. 96 and 131.)

March 14.—Major-General John Pope, from his headquarters, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, issued an official notice to emigrants by the way of the Missouri River and across the upper plains to the Idaho mines, warning them of the dangers of that route from hostile Indians, and recommending them to communicate with General Sully before attempting to pass that way.— A commission consisting of Captain George P. Edgar, A. D. C, Captain George I. Carney, A. Q. M., and M. Dudley Bean, of Norfolk, were appointed by Major-General Butler, for the purpose of caring for and supplying the needs of the poor white people in Norfolk, Elizabeth City, and Princess Anne counties, Va., who were a charge upon the United States, and employing such as were willing to work and were without employment, etc. —Skirmishing occurred at Cheek’s Cross-Roads, Tennessee, between Colonel Garrard’s National cavalry and Colonel Giltner’s rebel troops. The rebels were repulsed.

—President Lincoln issued an order calling for two hundred thousand men, in order to supply the force required to be drafted for the navy, and to provide an adequate reserve force for all contingencies, in addition to the five hundred thousand men called for February first—(Doc. 111.)

March 13.—A Union meeting was held at Huntsville, Alabama, at which resolutions were passed deprecating the action of the South, and calling upon the Governor of the State to convene the Legislature, that it might “call a convention to provide some mode for the restoration of peace and the rights and liberties of the people.” Speeches were made by Jere Clemens and D. C. Humphreys in support of the resolutions.

—General Butler, learning that the Fifth and Ninth Virginia cavalry, with a large force of armed citizens, were in the vicinity of King and Queen Court-House, immediately despatched an expedition from Yorktown under command of General Wistar, with which General Kilpatrick and a portion of his command essayed to cooperate. This rebel force was ascertained to be one thousand two hundred strong, and the same that ambushed and killed Colonel Dahlgren.

General Kilpatrick left Gloucester Point on Tuesday night, March eighth, in charge of the cavalry, and was ordered to scout Gloucester County to the north and east as far as Dragon River, and drive the enemy up the Peninsula, while Wistar landed his forces by transports on Wednesday at Shepherd’s warehouse, six miles above West-Point, on the Mattapony, with the purpose of heading off their retreat and charging their front and rear. Owing to a misapprehension of General Wistar’s orders, General Kilpatrick marched direct to West-Point, where he arrived about the same time with General Wistar.

A small cavalry force was then despatched to New-Market, and the infantry and artillery moved out as far as Little Plymouth, while Kilpatrick scouted across the Dragon River and tried to cross at Old and New-Bridge, but could not, owing to the swollen state of the stream. Our forces then moved down through the counties of King and Queen, Middlesex and Gloucester, making many captures and destroying large quantities of supplies. King and Queen Court-House was destroyed, and when near Carrolton’s store, Colonel Onderdonk, commanding the First New-York Mounted Rifles, and Colonel Spear, of the Eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry, came upon the looked-for rebel force of cavalry and citizens. This was in the midst of a severe rain-storm which had been pouring all day, and the mud was knee-deep; yet the rebels were gallantly charged, dispersed, and chased ten miles, their camp destroyed, about twenty killed, and seventy wounded and taken prisoners. The remainder made good their escape by recrossing the river into King William County.

The Union force comprised the Forty-fifth, Sixth, and Twenty-second National colored troops the First New-York Mounted Rifles, the Eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry, parts of Hart’s and Belger’s batteries, and some five hundred of Kilpatrick’s Richmond raiders. The only organized rebel force encountered were the Fifth and Ninth Virginia cavalry, having, however, many mounted and armed, though ununiformed citizens in their ranks, who claimed to be noncombatants.

On the raid large amounts of grain, provisions, arms, etc., were destroyed. One mill filled with corn belonging to the Ninth Virginia cavalry was burned. Several of Lee’s soldiers at home on recruiting service were captured; two Union officers recently escaped from Libby Prison were rescued, and one of Longstreet’s men captured.

The National forces returned to Yorktown today, without the loss of a man, and but very few horses, and the objects of the expedition were as fully accomplished as were possible. The enemy was severely punished for the death and brutalities perpetrated upon Colonel Dahlgren, and General Wistar highly complimented for the success of his expedition.

—President Lincoln addressed the following to Michael Hahn, the newly elected Governor of Louisiana: “I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the first free State Governor of Louisiana: now you are about to have a commission which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest, for your private consideration, whether some of the colored people may not be let in, as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help in some trying time to keep the jewel of Liberty in the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not to the public, but to you alone.”

—Two men belonging to the Thirty-second Missouri infantry, Archibald Towner, of company B, and Thomas Norris, of company D, while beyond their picket-lines, in Mo., were taken prisoners by a party of guerrillas, who took them to the top of a mountain near by and tied them to a tree, where they were kept until about sundown, when they were shot, robbed of every thing valuable, and thrown from the summit of the mountain down a precipice sixty feet. Norris miraculously escaped death, which he feigned while being handled by the murderers, and succeeded in reaching camp very much exhausted. He implicated many of the citizens who received their daily rations from the Government, and several in that vicinity were arrested for trial.

The body of Towner was found by the men of his regiment, while out in search of the guerrillas, and carried into camp.—Captain John T. Campbell’s Report.

March 12.—President Lincoln ordered as follows:

I. Major-General Halleck is at his own request relieved from duty as General-in-Chief of the army, and Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant is assigned to the command of the armies of the United States. The headquarters of the army will be in Washington, and also with Lieutenant-General Grant in the field.

II. Major-General Halleck is assigned to duty in Washington, as chief-of-staff of the army, under the direction of the Secretary of War and the Lieutenant-General commanding. His orders will be obeyed and respected accordingly.

III. Major-General W. T. Sherman is assigned to the command of the military division of the Mississippi, composed of the departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas.

IV. Major-General J. B. McPherson is assigned to the command of the department and army of the Tennessee.

V. In relieving Major-General Halleck from duty as General-in-Chief, the President desires to express his approbation and thanks for the able and zealous manner in which the arduous and responsible duties of that position have been performed.

—The rebel schooner Marion, bound to Havana, from Tampico, was captured by the steamer Aroostook, off Rio Brazos.—The rebel sloop Persis was captured off Wassaw Sound, Georgia, by the National gunboats Massachusetts and others.

March 11.—A detachment of the Seventh Tennessee cavalry, commanded by Colonel Hawkins, captured eleven guerrillas in the vicinity of Union City, Ky.—The rebel sloop Hannah, was captured by the Beauregard, off Mosquito Inlet, Ga.—The United States steamer Aroostook captured, in latitude twenty-eight degrees fifty minutes north, longitude ninety-five degrees five minutes west, the British schooner M. P. Burton, loaded with iron and shot. She cleared from Havana, and purported to be bound to Matamoras. When first seen she was steering direct for Velasco, some two hundred miles out of her course.— Admiral Farragut’s Report.

—The schooner Linda, with an assorted cargo, was captured off Mosquito Inlet, by the National vessels Beauregard and Norfolk Packet.