Apr

30

April 30, 1862, A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary

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by John Beauchamp Jones

APRIL 30TH.—Troops from the South are coming in and marching down the Peninsula.

Apr

30

War Diary of a Union Woman in the South - The Fight for Food and Clothing

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edited by G.W. Cable

April 30.—The last two weeks have glided quietly away without incident except the arrival of new neighbors—Dr. Y., his wife, two children, and servants. That a professional man prospering in Vicksburg should come now to settle in this retired place looks queer. Max said:

“H., that man has come here to hide from the conscript officers. He has brought no end of provisions, and is here for the war. He has chosen well, for this county is so cleaned of men it won’t pay to send the conscript officers here.”

Our stores are diminishing and cannot be replenished from without; ingenuity and labor must evoke them. We have a fine garden in growth, plenty of chickens, and hives of bees to furnish honey in lieu of sugar. A good deal of salt meat has been stored in the smoke-house, and, with fish in the lake, we expect to keep the wolf from the door. The season for game is about over, but an occasional squirrel or duck comes to the larder, though the question of ammunition has to be considered. What we have may be all we can have, if the war last five years longer; and they say they are prepared to hold out till the crack of doom. Food, however, is not the only want. I never realized before the varied needs of civilization. Every day something is “out.” Last week but two bars of soap remained, so we began to save bones and ashes. Annie said: “Now, if we only had some china-berry trees here we shouldn’t need any other grease. They are making splendid soap at Vicksburg with china-balls. They just put the berries into the lye and it eats them right up and makes a fine soap.” I did long for some china-berries to make this experiment. H. had laid in what seemed a good supply of kerosene, but it is nearly gone, and we are down to two candles kept for an emergency. Annie brought a receipt from Natchez for making candles of rosin and wax, and with great forethought brought also the wick and rosin. So yesterday we tried making candles. “We had no molds, but Annie said the latest style in Natchez was to make a waxen rope by dipping, then wrap it round a corn-cob. But H. cut smooth blocks of wood about four inches square, into which he set a polished cylinder about four inches high. The waxen ropes were coiled round the cylinder like a serpent, with the head raised about two inches; as the light burned down to the cylinder, more of the rope was unwound. To-day the vinegar was found to be all gone and we have started to make some. For tyros we succeed pretty well.”

Apr

30

April 30, 1862, A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary

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by John Beauchamp Jones

APRIL 30TH.—Troops from the South are coming in and marching down the Peninsula.

Apr

30

The Proposed New Railroad to Washington.

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April 30, 1862, The New York Herald

The necessity for the establishment of a direct line of railroad communication between the city of New York and the seat of our central government is now so clearly apparent to the public as to be beyond all question. No great commercial and military nation can be content to depend on private enterprise and party corporations alone for the means of maintaining safe and regular communication with the great centre of its governmental system. An open and untrammelled way of ingress and egress - as far as possible free from obstructions, dangers and delay - is an absolute necessity for the welfare of the government, in war or in peace. In times of peace we require a route by which the public mails may be faithfully and economically carried; and when, as now, war stalks through the land, the most rapid ways of communication with the capital are necessary for the conveyance of troops, stores, and the other paraphernalia of war. The present rebellion has developed the most urgent reasons for the immediate construction of this through line. By the insane act of the southern rebels in firing on the national flag, and the consequent necessity of the enrollment of citizen soldiers for its defence, our quiet capital was suddenly transformed into a frontier city, beleaguered and threatened by large bodies of armed men, and only saved from capture and pillage by the unshakable patriotism of the people. A network of railways that could have carried reinforcements to Washington from every point where loyal men were ready to advance would have been of incalculable advantage to the nation. But being almost altogether isolated from its various sources of strength, and especially from this great emporium of wealth and power - the Empire city - it has been subject to the perils of being bombarded, if not captured. At this moment there are a large army and formidable fortifications for the defense of the capital; but should an extraordinary emergency arise, and large bodies of soldiers be required there, we can only depend on a single stem of railroad, generally irregular and unreliable, but doubly so when the occasion calls for promptness and despatch.
The bill now before Congress for the breaking up of an intolerable monopoly by the completion of a direct line from New York to Washington, is worthy of serious consideration, and we trust it will pass into a law without any difficulty. We stand in need of this new road for the purposes of public convenience as well as for the security and protection of the capital. No large European seat of government is so cut off from its tributary cities as Washington is from New York and other important points. The city of London has no less than ten railroads extending outward as a means of support. Paris has seven, and probably will soon have more. The Austrian capital, with all the financial encumbrances of the empire has four; and Berlin, the capital of Prussia, has five. Spain is also concentrating her different railway lines so as to make them converge at Madrid; but the United States, with an area of country larger than all the others put together, have hither to been satisfied to depend on one single line, and this burdened by reason of its monopoly, with so much private traffic that the wants of the government can never properly be attended to.
The propositions of the Metropolitan Railroad Company, for the completion of the new road, appear to us to be very just. They seek to overthrow a monopoly which is as grievous and pressing on the public as it is expensive and exhausting to the government. The construction of this road will open up five new lines to New York, with the additional advantage of having through trains, without changes, from one end of the route to the other.
In an economical point of view, therefore, as well as in consideration of the great advantages to be conferred on the people by the establishment of this direct railroad to Washington, we hope that the question will be fully and fairly considered, and that three or four months hence we shall have the satisfaction of knowing that our national capital is within early reach of one hundred thousand men who would pour in from every quarter if the occasion required, and the means of swift transportation be provided to carry them forward. Then can the capital be said to be safe; but never while entire dependence, public and private is placed on a solitary and overburdened road.

Apr

30

News from Washington.

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April 30, 1862, The New York Herald

WASHINGTON, April 29, 1862.
FINANCIAL AFFAIRS.
Deposits on temporary loan accounts have been received from the New York Clearing House banks at five per centum, because the certificates of deposit are used by these banks in the transactions of the Clearing House, and the deposits are, therefore, of more permanent character than those of other banks and individuals, who are allowed four per centum. This discrimination, however, will be continued only during the present week, when the rate for all depositors will be made uniform at four per centum, in as much as it seems certain that even at that rate the limit of the $50,000,000 fixed by law will very soon be reached.
The Secretary of the Treasury is now prepared to pay all indebtedness of dates prior to the 1st of February in cash; of of the month of February 40 per centum in cash, and of subsequent date 30 per centum in cash.
IMPORTANCE OF ST. HELENA SOUND, ETC.
Professor Bache, of the Coast Survey, reports that next to Port Royal, St. Helena Sound is the best harbor on the Southern coast. Two channels, of seventeen feet each at mean low water, enter it, and from the Sound the country may be penetrated by gunboats nearly to the railroad. The width of the Sound renders all its shores healthy, as all are freely reached by the sea breeze, and Otter Island especially is finely situated for a settlement and commercial town. If ever other interests than planting ones rule in this region, he looks to see its commercial advantage made use of, and the lumber from the heads of the Ashepoo and Combahee find a market nearer these great rivers than either Charleston or Savannah.
THE CONTRACTS FOR ARMS.
The Commission on Ordnance and Ordnance Supplies have, it is said, rejected all the foreign contracts, and considerably curtailed these for the manufacture of arms in the United States.
The Ordnance Office has issued proposals for manufacturing, within one year, Springfield rifled muskets and Harper’s Ferry rifles, together with carbines, revolvers, sabres, swords and scabbards. The department reserves to itself the right to reject any bid, and will consider none made through any agent, broker or party other than the regular manufacturers.
NEWLY INVENTED ARMOR AND PROJECTILES.
All the inventive talent of the nation seems to have been suddenly directed to the construction of irresistible projectiles, impenetrable armor for vessels, or infallible machines for blowing up all sorts of vessels. The propositions to the Navy Department for the adoption of various inventions may be measured by the bushel, and the models presented would freight the Great Eastern. Some of these propositions are frivolous, but many of them are meritorious, and render decision as to superiority difficult. As fast as projectiles are presented which will penetrate any armor hitherto used, some new armor is brought forward, capable of resisting even the new projectiles. The inventions are not all entirely new but have hitherto remained unnoticed. Among them is the application of corrugated iron to the construction of gunboats, alluded to in the HERALD a few days ago. It was patented about two years ago by Mr. Sely, who was for several years a carpenter in the navy. It is claimed that it will insure greater strength and power of resistance, combined with lightness, than any other armor. The passage of the bill making an appropriation for experiments to test the value of these inventions is much needed.
THE OHIO TROOPS AT THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.
The charges made against the Seventy-seventh and Fifty-third Ohio regiments, in connection with the battle of Shiloh, are said by representatives from Ohio to be entirely unjust and unmerited. These regiments are both from the Sixteenth Congressional district of Ohio, represented by Hon. Wm. P. Cutler, who has communicated to the War Department reliable information, exonerating the regiments from the charges preferred […..] running from the field of battle. It has shown […..] Seventy-seventh on Sunday sustained for four hours the attack of four times their numbers, and that the Fifty-third was similarly situated when compelled to fall back. They contested the ground firmly, rallying for several times to meet the attack of the advancing rebels. Both these regiments were engaged in the battle of Monday and behaved bravely. The imputation against them, of want of courage is pronounced a gross misapprehension of a deliberate perversion of the fact, to screen from censure those who were really to blame for allowing that portion of our army to be surprised by the enemy on Sunday morning.
EDUCATION OF COLORED CHILDREN.
Mr. Grimes introduced in the Senate today a bill providing that the school tax collected from colored persons in the District of Columbia shall be expended for the support of the colored schools. The colored people here are to be required to maintain their own schools.