February 2, 1863, The New York Herald There are men whom fate marks as its own – men who seem irresistibly to attract the masses, and who, almost without an effort, gain influence and power. Those men are instruments in the hands of Providence, and are imperatively called upon to fulfill their missions. Events the [...]

February 2, 1863, The Charleston Mercury Not since the memorable Saturday and Sunday which succeeded the fall of Fort Sumter, has our community been as elated as during the two days just gone by. Our ability to cope with and sink the hostile vessels which have so long sealed our harbor, is at length indisputably [...]

February 2, 1863, The Charleston Mercury In Saturday’s issue we briefly announced the capture of the Yankee gunboat Isaac P. Smith in the Stono River. We are now enabled to present to our readers the full particulars of the exploit. Several days ago a secret expedition was organized, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel YATES, [...]

February 2, 1863, The New York Herald The great, and to all appearance decisive, point of the war is the opening of the Mississippi river. With the exception of some small movements on the coast, all the most important operations of the campaign are now concentrated in that direction. The great Northwest demands the opening [...]

Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Jackson, Tenn., February 1, 1863. I’m on duty as “field officer of the day,” and have been temping around in the mud looking to policing, guards, etc., and just now a detail has come for me to go on picket to-morrow. I was only relieved from picket yesterday morning. We are [...]

FEBRUARY 1st.—The Virginia Legislature, now in session, has a bill under discussion for the suppression of extortion. One of the members, Mr. Anderson, read the following table of the prices of AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE. Before the war. Now White wheat, per bushel $1 50 White wheat, per bushel $4 50 Flour, per barrel 7 50 Flour, [...]

February 1, 1863, The New York Herald The expected fight at the Blackwater has come off. General Corcoran had a brilliant action with the rebel chief, Roger A. Pryor, on the night of the 29th, and completely defeated him. The conflict took place at a point ten miles from Suffolk, and the battle opened by [...]

February 1, 1863, The New York Herald With the report of a neat little victory achieved by General Corcoran on Friday last, near the Blackwater river, in Southeastern Virginia, our attention is naturally called to the movements and objects of the campaign in that quarter, on both sides. From Suffolk (which is some twenty miles [...]

February 1, 1863, The New York Herald The intelligence from Savannah, via rebel sources, is very important. General Pryor, who commands the rebels on the Blackwater, informed General Peck that he received information of a recent engagement near Savannah, in which the rebels had suffered defeat. The probable locality of the said defeat is on [...]

JANUARY 31st.—We have dispatches from Charleston, to-day, which reconcile us to the loss of the cargo captured by the blockading squadron early in the week. An artillery company captured a fine gun-boat in Stone River (near Charleston) yesterday evening. She had eleven guns and 200 men. But this morning we did better still. Our little [...]

Friday, January 30th. A whole week has passed since I opened this book, a week certainly not spent in idleness, if not a very interesting one. For I have kept my room almost all the time, leaving Miriam and Anna to entertain their guests alone. Even when Mr. Halsey called on Sunday, I declined going [...]

JANUARY 30th.—There is a rumor that Kentucky has voted to raise an army of 60,000 men to resist the execution of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Fort Caswell, below Wilmington, has been casemated with iron; but can it withstand elongated balls weighing 480 pounds? I fear not. There are, however, submarine batteries; yet these may be avoided, [...]

June 29th. From twelve midnight to four o’clock this morning the mortars and batteries of the army firing from the rear into the rebel batteries, the enemy not taking any notice whatever. This morning, Lieut. J. H. Higbee, U. S. M. C., with a corporal, went over to the army in charge of the three [...]

JANUARY 29th.—It appears from the Northern press that the enemy did make three attempts last week to cross the Rappahannock; but as they advanced toward the stream, the elements successfully opposed them. It rained, it snowed, and it froze. The gun carriages and wagons sank up to the hubs, the horses to their bodies, and [...]

JANUARY 28th.—The bombardment of Fort McAlister continued five hours yesterday, when the enemy’s boats drew off. The injury to the fort can be repaired in a day. Not a man was killed or a gun dismounted. The injury done the fleet is not known. But the opinion prevails here that if the bombardment was continued [...]

JANUARY 27th.—It is too true that several thousand of our men were captured at Arkansas Post, and that Little Rock is now in danger. There seems to be no probability, after all, of an immediate advance of the enemy across the Rappahannock. But there are eight iron-clad gun-boats and ninety sail at Beaufort, North Carolina, [...]

JANUARY 26th.—The Northern papers say Hooker’s grand division crossed the Rappahannock, ten miles above Falmouth, several days ago. Burnside has issued an address to his army, promising them another battle immediately. Gen. Lee advises the government to buy all the grain in the counties through which the canal runs. He says many farmers are hoarding [...]

JANUARY 25th.—Gen. Lee mentions, in his recent correspondence, an instance of the barbarity of some of the Yankee soldiers in the Abolition Army of the Potomac. They thrust into the Rappahannock River a poor old negro man, whom they had taken from his master, because he had the smallpox; and he would have been drowned [...]

JANUARY 24th.—Gen. Smith writes that he deems Wilmington in a condition to resist any attacks. The exposition of Mr. Benjamin’s dispatches has created profound mortification in the community. Another transport has been taken from the enemy in the Cumberland River. No further news from Arkansas. There is a white flag (small-pox) within seventy yards of [...]

  Friday night, January 23d. I am particularly happy to-day, for we have just heard from Brother for the first time since last July. And he is well, and happy, and wants us to come to him in New Orleans so he can take care of us, and no longer be so anxious for our [...]

JANUARY 23d.—The Northern papers are filled with what purports to be the intercepted correspondence of Mr. Benjamin with Messrs. Mason and Slidell. Lord John Russell is berated. The Emperor of France is charged with a design to seize Mexico as a colony, and to recognize Texas separately, making that State in effect a dependency, from [...]

Camp Reed, Jackson, Tenn., January 22, 1863. I received your four-volume letter of the 5th, 12th, 13th inst. last night, and return you my sincere thanks for the time and writing material you expended in my behalf. I suppose that you now understand why you did not receive my letters. You ask me how I [...]

Thursday, 22d January. What a rush of visitors last night! One would imagine they had all come by appointment, expressly to have an impromptu dance, which they certainly enjoyed, by the way. There was little Captain C––, the Susceptible and Simple, who so innocently says “I seen” and “I done it,” without the faintest suspicion [...]

JANUARY 22d.—We have reliable intelligence of the sinking of the U. S. gun-boat Hatteras, in the Gulf, by the Alabama. She was iron-clad, and all the officers and crew, with the exception of five, went down. Gen. Whiting telegraphs to-day for the use of conscripts near Wilmington, in the event of an emergency. Several ships [...]