MAY 1st.—Gov. Vance writes that Gen. Hill desires him to call out the militia, believing the enemy, balked in the attempt on Charleston, will concentrate their forces against North Carolina. But the Governor is reluctant to call the non-conscripts from the plow in the planting season. He thinks the defense of North Carolina has not [...]
APRIL 30th.—The enemy are advancing across the Rappahannock, and the heavy skirmishing which precedes a battle has begun. We are sending up troops and supplies with all possible expedition. Decisive events are looked for in a few days. But if all of Longstreet’s corps be sent up, we leave the southern approach to the city [...]
APRIL 29th.—Gen. Beauregard is eager to have completed the “Torpedo Ram,” building at Charleston, and wants a “great gun” for it. But the Secretary of the Navy wants all the iron for mailing his gun-boats. Mr. Miles, of South Carolina, says the ram will be worth two gun-boats. The President of the Manassas Gap Railroad [...]
APRIL 28th.—The enemy’s raid in Mississippi seems to have terminated at Enterprise, where we collected a force and offered battle, but the invaders retreated. It is said they had 1600 cavalry and 5 guns, and the impression prevails that but few of them will ever return. It is said they sent back a detachment of [...]
APRIL 27th.—A dispatch from Montgomery, Ala., states that the enemy have penetrated as far as Enterprise, Miss., where we had a small body of troops, conscripts. If this be merely a raid, it is an extraordinary one, and I feel some anxiety to learn the conclusion of it. It is hard to suppose a small [...]
APRIL 26th.—This being Sunday I shall hear no news, for I will not be in any of the departments. There is a vague understanding that notwithstanding the repulse of the enemy at Charleston, still the Federal Government collects the duties on merchandise brought into that port, and, indeed, into all other ports. These importations, although [...]
APRIL 25th.—We have bad news from the West. The enemy (cavalry, I suppose) have penetrated Mississippi some 200 miles, down to the railroad between Vicksburg and Meridian. This is in the rear and east of Vicksburg, and intercepts supplies. They destroyed two trains. This dispatch was sent to the Secretary of War by the President [...]
APRIL 24th.—We lost five fine guns and over a hundred men on the Nansemond; and we learn that more of the enemy’s gun-boats and transports have passed Vicksburg! These are untoward tidings. Gens. Pemberton and French are severely criticised. We had a tragedy in the street to-day,, near the President’s office. It appears that Mr. [...]
APRIL 23d.—The President’s health is improving. His eye is better; and he would have been in his office to-day (the first time for three weeks) if the weather (raining) had been fine. The expenses of the war amount now to $60,000,000 per month, or $720,000,000 per annum. This enormous expenditure is owing to the absurd [...]
APRIL 22d.—The President is reported to be very ill to-day–dangerously ill—with inflammation of the throat, etc. While this is a source of grief to nearly all, it is the subject of secret joy to others. I am sure I have seen some officers of rank to-day, not fighting officers, who sincerely hope the President will [...]
APRIL 21st.—Gen. Longstreet lost, it is said, two 32-pounder guns yesterday, with which he was firing on the enemy’s gun-boats. A force was landed and captured the battery. Gen. Lee writes that his men have each, daily, but a quarter pound of meat and 16 ounces of flour. They have, besides, 1 pound of rice [...]
APRIL 20th.—We have nothing definite from Suffolk, or from Washington, N. C. But we have Northern accounts of their great disaster at Charleston. It appears that during the brief engagement on the 7th inst., all their monitors were so badly damaged that they were unable to prolong or to renew the contest. They will have [...]
APRIL 19th, SUNDAY.—It is now said Longstreet captured two transports, instead of gun-boats, and 600 prisoners. Mr. Benjamin reports that the enemy’s gun-boats, which passed Vicksburg, have recaptured the Queen of the West! It must be so, since he says so. Mr. Baldwin, the other day, in Congress, asserted a fact, on his own knowledge, [...]
April 18th.—We have nothing more from the Peninsula, Suffolk, N. C., or South Carolina; but it is rumored that the enemy’s gun-boats (seven or eight) have passed down the Mississippi in spite of our batteries at Vicksburg, which sunk one of them. If this be true, it is bad news. We have lovely weather now, [...]
APRIL 17th.—From the Northern papers we learn that the defeat at Charleston is called by the enemy a RECONNOISSANCE. This causes us much merriment here; McClellan’s defeat was called a “strategical movement,” and “change of base.” We have some rumors to-day, to the effect that Gen. Hill is likely to take Washington and Newbern, N. [...]
APRIL 16th—The Federal papers have heard of the failure to take Charleston, and the sinking of the Keokuk; and yet they strive to mollify the disaster, and represent that but little damage was sustained by the rest of the fleet. Those that escaped, they say, have proved themselves invulnerable. The Keokuk had ninety shots on [...]
APRIL 15th.—There is a dispatch, unofficial, from the West, contradicting the news of the defeat of Van Dorn. On the Cumberland River, another dispatch says, we have met with new successes, capturing or destroying several more gun-boats. And Wheeler has certainly captured a railroad train in the rear of the enemy, containing a large sum [...]
APRIL 14th.—We have nothing additional from Gen. Wise’s expedition against Williamsburg; but it was deprecated by our people here, whose families and negroes have been left in that vicinity. They argue that we cannot hold the town, or any portion of the Peninsula in the neighborhood; and when the troops retire, the enemy will subject [...]
APRIL 13th.—The Federal monitors, gun-boats, and transports no more menace the City of Charleston! The fleet has sailed away, several of the iron-clads towed out of the harbor being badly damaged. But before leaving that part of the coast, the Yankees succeeded in intercepting and sinking the merchant steamer Leopard, having 40,000 pairs of shoes, [...]
APRIL 12th.—Gen. Van Dorn, it is reported, has captured or destroyed another gun-boat in the West. Night before last another riot was looked for in this city by the mayor, and two battalions of Gen. Elzey’s troops were ordered into the city. If the President could only see the necessity of placing this city under [...]
APRIL 11th.—Gen. Beauregard telegraphs that Gen. Walker has destroyed another Federal gun-boat in Coosa River. They are looking for a renewal of the attack on Charleston, and are ready for it. Gen. Lee writes that he is about sending a cavalry brigade into Loudon County to bring off commissary’s and quartermaster’s stores. This will frighten [...]
APRIL 10th.—We are not informed of a renewal of the attack on Charleston. It is said our shot penetrated the turret of the Keokuk, sunk. In New York they have been exulting over the capture of Charleston, and gold declined heavily. This report was circulated by some of the government officials, at Washington, for purposes [...]
APRIL 9th.—Nothing additional has occurred at Charleston, the enemy not having renewed the attack. At Vicksburg all was quiet, and the enemy abandoning their canal. Such news must have a depressing effect upon the North. They will see that their monitors and iron-clads have lost their terrors. They have lost some twenty war steamers within [...]
APRIL 8th.—We learn to-day that the enemy bombarded our forts at Charleston, yesterday, two hours and a half. But few of our men were injured, and the forts sustained no damage of consequence. On the other hand, several of the iron-clads and monitors of the enemy were badly crippled; one of the latter, supposed to [...]
APRIL 7th.—Nothing definite has transpired at Charleston, or if so, we have not received information of it yet. From the West, we have accounts, from Northern papers, of the failure of the Yankee Yazoo expedition. That must have its effect. Judge Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War, has decided in one instance (page 125, E. B. [...]