April 24th. Commences with pleasant, warm weather. This afternoon, signalizing to vessels of lower fleet. Received a mail from sloop-of-war Richmond during the day, across the point of land, which separated us from vessels of our fleet below, and which gladdened the hearts of many, or of all those who were so fortunate as to receive a letter from home and friends most dear. At five P. M. hove up anchor again, and steamed up river. At seven P. M. brought ship to anchor a short distance above Bayou Sara. Albatross and ram Switzerland anchored astern.

24th. After breakfast had a visit with Henry Drake. Examination for commissions. Henry went in. None in before allowed. A very pleasant day. About noon rations came. Issued in the P. M. A little slave child buried. Exercises by the chaplain. Serious thoughts. An immortal soul gone out of a poor slave. Wrote to Will in the evening. Read Independent. Letter from home.

Friday, 24th–We are now in camp twenty miles above Vicksburg. Received orders to clean up our camp ground and to have company drill forenoon and afternoon. A large detail was put to work and when the camp was put in order we had our regular drills, one hour each time. A large fleet of troops came down the river this morning.

All Quiet on the Roanoke.

April 24. The noise of the battle is over and we are no longer harassed by war’s dread alarms, but can now sit down, eat our fresh shad and herring and drink our peach and honey in peace and quiet.

A Broker’s Office.

Our provost marshal, Major Bartholomew of the 27th Massachusetts, has opened a broker’s office, where he is exchanging salt and amnesty for allegiance oaths, and as this is the fishing season, he is driving a right smart business. The natives for miles around come in droves, take the oath, get their amnesty papers and an order for salt, and after being cautioned not to be found breaking their allegiance they go away happy. There are probably some honest men among them who would like to do about right if they dared to, but the whole thing looks ludicrous, for there is evidently not one in a hundred of them who would ever think of taking the oath were it not for the hope of obtaining a little salt. The boys call it the salt oath.

Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Lagrange, Tenn.,
April 24, ’63.

We have just returned from the hardest and yet by far the most pleasant scout in which I have up to this time participated. We started from here one week ago to-day, Friday, and my birthday (how old I am getting) on the cars. We were four and a half regiments of infantry, one six-gun battery and no cavalry. At 3 o’clock p.m. we were within seven miles of Holly Springs and found two bridges destroyed. We worked that p.m. and night and finished rebuilding the bridges by daylight the 18th. We had only moved two miles further when we reached another bridge which we found lying around loose in the bed of the stream. The general concluded to abandon the railroad at this point, so we took up the line of march. We passed through Holly Springs at 12 m. I don’t believe that I saw a human face in the town. A more complete scene of desolation cannot be imagined. We bivouacked at dark, at Lumpkin’s mill, only one mile from Waterford. At 9 p.m. a dreadful wind and rain storm commenced and continued until 1. We were on cleared ground, without tents, and well fixed to take a good large share of both the wind and water. I’m positive that I got my full portion. ‘Twas dark as dark could be, but by the lightning flashes, we could see the sticks and brush with which we fed our fire, and then we would feel through the mud in the right direction. Nearly half the time we had to hold our rubber blankets over the fire to keep the rain from pelting it out. After the storm had subsided I laid down on a log with my face to the stars, bracing myself with one foot on each side of my bed. I awoke within an hour to find that a little extra rain on which I had not counted, had wet me to the skin. That ended my sleeping for that night.

Nineteenth.—We went down to Waterford and then turned westward, which course we held until nearly to Chulahoma. When we again turned southward and reached the Tallahatchie river at “Wyatt,” where we camped for the night. Our regiment was on picket that night and an awful cold night it was. We marched through deep, yellow mud the 19th nearly all day, but I don’t know that I marched any harder for it. Up at 3 o’clock and started at 4, the 20th, and marched 25 miles southwest, along the right bank of the Tallahatchie. Our rations were out by this time and we were living off the “citizens.” The quartermaster with a squad of men [continue reading…]

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. Dixon, Clerk of the House of Representatives, recently dismissed one of his under clerks, named Ford, for reasons which I have not heard; whereupon the latter notified the former of an intention to assault him whenever they should meet. About two P.M. they met in Bank Street; Ford asked Dixon if he was ready; and upon an affirmative response being given, they both drew their revolvers and commenced firing. Dixon missed Ford, and was wounded by his antagonist, but did not fall. He attempted to fire again, but the pistol missed fire. Ford’s next shot missed D. and wounded a man in Main Street, some seventy paces beyond; but his next fire took effect in Dixon’s breast, who fell and expired in a few moments.

Many of our people think that because the terms of enlistment of so many in the Federal army will expire next month, we shall not have an active spring campaign. It may be so; but I doubt it. Blood must flow as freely as ever.

April 24, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

FROM NEW ORLEANS.

JACKSON, MISS., April 21. – The New Orleans Era thus sums up the results of battle of Grand Lake: ”One thousand rebels captured, the rams Queen of the West and Diana, the transport Cornie, with three rebel gunboats and three other transports either captured or destroyed.’ The Yankee wounded, 190 in number, had arrived at the St. James Hospital. FARRAGUT states that he has only four days’ rations. The rebels have erected heavy batteries at Grand Gulf. Col. ELLET, lately the Yankee commander of the Queen of the West, is alive and commands the ram Switzerland. There are upwards of 10,000 negros in the Department of New Orleans consuming Government rations. The measles prevails amongst them as an epidemic. One hundred employees of the Yankee Government at Louisville have deserted to the Confederates.

MOVEMENTS IN MISSISSIPPI.

JACKSON, April 21. – The enemy reached Senatobia from the rear at noon yesterday. They sent a detachment to Sardis to cut the telegraph wires there. Their infantry are provided with bridles to carry off all the horses they could find, and negros were driven off, willing or unwilling. The Yankees are now undoubtedly retreating. Trustworthy citizens report that a large Yankee cavalry force camped within twelve miles of Houston on Sunday night. They avowed their purpose to destroy the Mississippi Central Railroad, commencing at Wiaona or Duck Hill. A telegram announces that the Yankees have burned the Court House and other buildings at Hernando. They state their loss on Sunday to have been one Major, one Captain and seventeen privates killed, and about fifty wounded.

THE CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE.

CHATTANOOGA, April 22. – The enemy, 8000 strong, have advanced upon a village five miles this side of McMinnville and destroyed a locomotive. McMinnville is reported to be in the possession of the enemy. The enemy is also reported to [continue reading…]

April 24, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

The information we have through letters and persons of observation, from Abbeville, Edgefield, and Barnwell Districts, give very encouraging prospects for the growing wheat, and the stand of much corn is good for the season. A letter from Abbeville District, dated the 21st instant, says: ‘I trust there will be 75,000 to 100,000 bushels wheat for sale from this District. In Edgefield it is equally promising.’ We hope the holders of corn and flour in the country will not allow the weevil to feast, when our soldiers and their families are needing the staff of life. So far as the extortioners and speculators may be hurt by the abundant prospect of the grain, ere long to ripen, they may have sour and bitter bread for their daily rations.

April 24, 1863, The New York Herald

The Richmond papers of Wednesday, in their despatches from Port Hudson, confirm the news, already announced in these columns, of the attack upon the Queen of the West at Grand Lake by our gunboats, and the capture of her officers and crew. The Queen, it appears, got aground and was blown up by a shell from the Calhoun. The Diana, which was assailed about the same time in the Atchafalaya river by the Union gunboat Clifton, was burned by the rebels. A despatch from Berwick Bay on the 15th says that there was then a Union force beyond Franklin, Louisiana, and still advancing. The Richmond Whig states that a squad of Union cavalry, estimated at fifteen hundred, were advancing on Pontotoc, Mississippi, on the 19th. Their advance guard reported there that night, and as the rebels were concentrating to resist them, an engagement was imminent.

The latest from Charleston is to the 18th. The Courier of that date describes an attack by the Union gunboat Flambeau upon the wreck of the Keokuk, while some parties of rebels from Morris Island were endeavoring to dismantle her. They were driven away by the fire of the gunboat. The Mercury of the 15th states that the guns had all been recovered from the Keokuk.

The news from Suffolk and the Nansemond river, as contained in the letters of our correspondents, is highly interesting, although the main facts of importance have been given to our readers before. The action of General Dix and the visit of General Halleck are alluded to in detail.

There is nothing from General Foster’s command, at Washington, N.C. The Wilmington (N.C.) Journal, of the 18th inst., admits, with mortification, that General Hill has abandoned the siege of Washington, and that the expedition has turned out a failure. [continue reading…]

April 24, 1863, Natchez Daily Courier

 The Montgomery Mail says:

            After diligent enquiry we are able to present the following list of Paper Mills now in operation within the limits of the Southern Confederacy:

            Alabama 1.–At Spring Hill, in Mobile county.
            Georgia 3.–At Columbus, Marietta and Athens.
            South Carolina 5.–One at Greenville and four others.
            North Carolina 8.–Lincolnton, Shelby, Fayetteville, Salem, Concord and three others at Raleigh, viz:  Neuse River, Forrestville and Mantua.
            Virginia 2.–Both at Richmond.
            Tennessee 1.–At Knoxville.

            It will be seen that there are twenty Paper Mills now in operation in the South, and there can be do doubt that they would be able to supply the newspaper demand if the materials for manufacturing paper could be obtained at reasonable rates.

            Let all friends of the press and of self-reliant economy and of the use of our own resources, save all rags and other materials for paper and offer them for sale at reasonable prices.

April 24, 1863, Daily Mississippian (Jackson, Mississippi)

            The Greensboro (Miss.) Motive, says we can scarcely pass a house when traveling but that we hear the hum of a wheel and the noise of a loom–worked by some fair hand, which is busily engaged in making clothes for some dear ones in the army.  Go to church and there you can tell where home industry is–see the fair ones with bright eyes and glowing cheeks, dressed in their beautiful homespun.  It is not with them who can sport the finest silks, but who can make the prettiest homespun.–How beautiful and comely they look in these dresses!  God bless these fair ladies who are doing such a noble part by our soldiers.  Can such a people be subjugated?

April 24, 1863, The New York Herald

We perceive by the letters of our correspondents in Louisiana that Adjutant General Thomas has recently arrived out West, ostensibly to look after the welfare of the army, but really to undertake the serious business of organizing negro regiments and brigades of the federal service. As an initiatory step in this direction, we are told that four regiments are already in formation at Lake Providence, and that in other places officers were recruiting […..] some degree of success.” We think it is high time that the government should look into this absurd and dangerous matter. It is nothing but an absolute waste of time and money to attempt anything so Quixotic as the formation of negro military forces. In the first place, there is no necessity whatever for such auxiliaries; and in the next, the idea can never be carried out to any practical result. So far as the experiment has been tried it has not only ended in lamentable failure, but it has brought about some of the most deplorable disasters of the war. For two years past our disorganizing and bloodthirsty abolitionists have been incessantly prating about the invincibility of black soldiers, and yet every attempt to solve the question by the organization of a single useful regiment has ended in complete failure. If our generals in North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana and other places had always confined themselves to the care and discipline of the regular white army, and had left the foolish illusion of negro regiments alone, we should certainly have had fewer reverses and more victories to record. The failure of the late attack upon Charleston is principally to be attributed to the extraordinary notions of our generals on the negro question. Instead of looking boldly at the difficulties attendant on military operations against that almost impregnable rebel city, General Hunter spent nearly all his time drumming up negro recruits for regiments which never had and never will have any positive existence. Everywhere else where the same scheme has been put in operation it has miserably failed. With an army of trained white soldiers in the field more than sufficient to overrun the whole South, we go on from day to day procrastinating and disputing about the organization of a handful of poor negroes, who, instead of being useful, would be a positive obstacle to the progress of our arms. If we had not soldiers enough to fight our battles there would be some excuse for this fanatical delusion; but with a magnificent army in the field – such and army as the world has never before seen – and with millions yet ready and [continue reading…]

April 23d. At six A. M. weighed anchor, got under way, and steamed down the river, Albatross and ram Switzerland in company, bringing up the rear. On our way down came to several times, for the purpose of destroying some flat boats which we came across in the river, and which were used in the transportation of sugar, molasses, &c., across the river to the rebel forces at Port Hudson. At two P. M. brought ship to anchor, five miles above the batteries at Port Hudson. Engaged signalizing (by means of army signals) from masthead to lower fleet.

23rd. In the morning Dod killed the beef. Issued some rations. Received letters from home and Lucy Randall, also one from Charlie Crandall. Does me good to hear of him, an old schoolmate. Pitched quoits with Henry Drake. In the evening played three games of chess with Capt. Nettleton, all success.

Thursday, 23d.—Last night about midnight, several gunboats passed the batteries, and the scene of the night of the 17th was repeated with greater fury. Regiment called out and remained until morning. Orders to have everything ready to move at any time.

(Note: picture is of an unidentified Confederate soldier.)

Thursday, 23d–Brig. Gen. M. M. Crocker took command of our brigade today. I got a pass to go down to the landing to buy bread for the officers’ mess in my charge. Our troops are encamped by the thousands all along the Mississippi river, for thirty miles up from Vicksburg. There is much sickness among the new troops in camp here, caused by using the river water and by camping on the low ground. Many of them have already died and their bodies have been buried upon the levee instead of in the low ground. It is reported that five of our transports loaded with supplies for the army below ran the blockade last night. One of the transports when almost past was hit by a solid shot and sunk.

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 prices charged for supplies by the farmers, to save whose slaves and farms the war is waged, in great part. They are charging the government $20 per hundred weight, or $400 per ton for hay! Well, we shall soon see if they be reluctant to pay the taxes soon to be required of them—one-tenth of all their crops, etc. If they refuse to pay, then what will they deserve?

April 23, 1863, Peoria Morning Mail (Illinois)

Our dispatches this morning announce the evacuation of Vicksburg.The news comes through rebel sources, yet little reliance can be placed in the rumor.

April 23, 1863, Clarke County Journal (Alabama)

We are glad to learn that the plan which some of our liberal and patriotic citizens have adopted to aid the poor of the upper counties is proving successful, says the Selma Reporter. A large sum of money has been raised, besides a considerable quantity of provisions, which are being judiciously distributed among the needy. The Central Supply Committee are very active in the discharge of their duties, and it is hoped that none of our people will forget the importance of adding to the means already placed in their hands for doing good. Many have been liberal in making contributions; let others follow their example. In a charitable and patriotic point of view, they will be more than compensated by the satisfaction it will afford them, and in the rejoicing it will create among the destitute. Carry on the good work.

April 23, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

FROM PORT HUDSON.

PORT HUDSON, April 21. – The New Orleans Era of the 16th confirms the report of the destruction of the Confederate prizes, Queen of the West and Diana. The former got aground in Grand Lake. The Yankee fleet approached and a fierce bombardment ensued. A shell from the Cobham exploded on the deck of the Queen of the West, igniting a quantity of powder. The fire, communicating with the magazine, caused an explosion, blowing up the boat. The Diana is reported to have been burned by the rebels; 136 prisoners, including seven commissioned officers and three sergeants; eighty of them being from the crew of the Queen of the West, had arrived at New Orleans on the 15th; among them Capt. FULLER, the commander of the fleet, who was slightly wounded in the ankle, and is now at St. James’ Hospital. The prisoners report forty-five of the crew missing, supposed to be drowned or killed. A despatch from Berwick Bay, of the 15th, reports the Federals beyond Franklin. They had joined their forces and were marching on.

FROM BRAGG’S ARMY.

CHATTANOOGA, April 21. – A number of prisoners arrived today from Tuscumbia, captured by RODDY’S cavalry. The fight began at Deer Creek. The enemy, 5000 strong, drove our advance to Cave Creek, eight miles from Tuscumbia, where we made a stand, capturing, after a severe fight, 170 prisoners. Our loss is reported to have been 20 killed and 40 wounded. Enemy’s loss heavy. The Yankees have not yet advanced, our forces still holding them in check.

Seven more persons have been sent South through the lines by order of ROSECRANS. One family was allowed a half hour to go South or to a Northern prison.

Scouts from the Tennessee River report that 24 transports are landing troops at Eastport, eight miles from Iuka. The troops are chiefly cavalry.

All is quiet in front, with no immediate prospect of a battle.

April 23, 1863, Peoria Morning Mail (Illinois)

Correspondence of the World.

Federal Flotilla, Mouth Yazoo
River, Miss., April 9.

 The interest attached to the operations before Vicksburg will hardly be borne out by the facts. A greater contrast could hardly be presented than things as they are in General Grant’s army and the combined fleets, and the light in which they are viewed by the people at large. Expectation is on the tiptoe at Memphis and all points north of that city to learn the latest news from below, and the slightest fact in relation to actual operations, which are very few in reality, is seized with the avidity of gluttony and worried into the most incredible shapes, which, in their turn, change to the next eye, and are represented as “further particulars” or “corrections” of the meager account from which they sprang. This is unavoidable, however deplorable it may be, for considering the difficulties of transmitting intelligence and the many biased mediums through which it must necessarily pass, it is no wonder that the public is frequently cheated out of its just dues by those whose only desire is to cheat it out of its purse. To make this more clear it is necessary to state that the mail is very unreliable, that there is no telegraph nearer than Cairo, Ill., and that there is a strict military surveillance over matter for the public journals. With almost every boat leaving the fleets for the North there are interested and irresponsible parties who carry such accounts above as will best shape public opinion and feeling to our interests, and such people have little care how much damage may be sustained by others so they can profit by the deceit. As there is much in forestalling public opinion, these traffickers in principle know it, and, availing themselves of the opportunities afforded them to anticipate news through its legitimate channels, pervert truth and present it only in such a light as shall show them the way to gain.

 The capture of Vicksburg is uncertain. The position, naturally strong, has been improved n every possible manner and there is apparently no abatement in the efforts to guard all its distant approaches by such means as the best military skill and foresight could suggest. While this is palpable to the most unsophisticated eye, expeditions are fitted out week after week in the vain hope that some of them may succeed in finding a vulnerable place to assail, and by carrying it, upon some hitherto unexplored passage into the rear of the city. This reminds one of the fellow who stood on his head to take off his boots; yet it is well to give the troops something to do, and these expeditions have some good result; they prove the impossibility of clearing the Mississippi river by circumvention, and they teach the geography of the country.

 The batteries at Vicksburg are not casemated; hence, it is probable that they are a good deal of a bugbear to the iron-clad fleet, not yet fully tested in storming them. Last summer demonstrated that they could be silenced in two hours’ bombardment, but the want then was troops to hold the city after the forts were carried. It is not unfair to suppose, then, that now, as the fleet is even more powerful than it ever has been, and that troops are abundant, either a want of co-operation or some circumlocution policy prevents the taking of the place.

 The steamer Magnolia, hitherto occupied by Gen. Grant as his headquarters, has been set free from military possession, and the general, with his staff, has gone ashore at Milliken’s Bend, La., a few miles above Young’s Point, opposite the mouth of Yazoo river. The latter place has become dreadfully disagreeable and unhealthful. Thousands of troops had been encamped upon a few acres of swampy land for several weeks and the hygiene of the place was sadly neglected, for it was believed that the stay would be brief, and carelessness for the future engendered disregard for present precaution. In a space of a few hundred square yards it is not uncommon to see a row of tents, with no attempt at cleanliness, and half a dozen graves partially trodden under foot. This was an unavoidable condition several weeks ago, but now, with the daily improvement of the weather and the manifestations of a long stay, it should be the duty of the commander to enforce the most rigid discipline in the sanitary departments of the army.

 The new headquarters of General Grant is a vast improvement upon Young’s Point, for the land is higher, and there are no swamps for many miles around it. The “place” belonged to a wealthy planter, whose name it bears, and every care has evidently been taken in past years to improve it. High levees run the entire length of the plantation to guard against the encroachments of the Mississippi, and the now abandoned fields betoken the bounteous crops of cotton gathered in the years gone by. Milliken’s Bend is generally regarded as one of the most beautiful places on the Mississippi river, but the eye accustomed to eastern scenery would find very little in it suggestive of beauty. The land is flat and the soil rich, but no attempt has been made toward landscape gardening. The planter’s home is generally surrounded with rude flower-beds and shrubbery, but outside that, his plantation has ever been regarded as a workshop or manufactury–simply to make money. It will require the work of years to restore these plantations that have been occupied as camp grounds to their former state of perfection.

 The same dullness in the army characterizes the fleet, which still lies at anchor at the mouth of the Yazoo river. Haine’s Bluff rejoices in the peaceful possession of itself, and its guns still grin defiance at the unassailing foe. Repairs are being made to the boats injured in the last expedition, which was not a success, in a military or naval point of view, and that settled air which indicates repose breathes softly around our fleet. The more anxious for fight men daily express the wish that the enemy would open the raft above and send down another Arkansas to stir the lazy spirit of the fleet and awaken action.

 Some are of the decided opinion that Vicksburg is evacuated, with the exception of the few soldiers who are left to man the batteries, but the best information received contradicts this flatly, and the highest intelligence would seem to show that there remains but one way to make it ours, and this is by hard fighting.

April 23, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

We lay before our readers the proceedings and debate in the House of Representatives in Congress, on the resolutions denouncing Martial Law. It is the very best conclusion that we can make to our observations, calling their attention to three points.

1. The usual motion to postpone the resolutions, and thereby to kill them, was made and carried; but on the motion to reconsider this postponement, and debate arising, the reconsideration prevailed, and the resolutions were passed. If the proceedings had been in secret session, there would have been not the slightest chance of their passing.

2. The Government is not ignorant of the acts of Major-General HINDMAN. General ALBERT PIKE has not only perferred charges for high crimes and misdemeanors against him, but has printed and circulated a pamphlet, to give them notoriety and publicity.

3. There was but one Representative from South Carolina who voted on the resolutions – Mr. BOYCE – and he voted for them. Mr. MILES had not returned from Charleston when the vote was taken.

April 23, 1863, The New York Herald

The steamer Key West, which arrived at this port yesterday from Beaufort, S.C., with dates of the 20th inst., reports that the story of the rebels having abandoned the siege of Washington, N.C., is fully confirmed. We have no later news from that direction.

A despatch from Memphis, dated Tuesday, reports some spirited engagements in that quarter. It says that on Saturday evening last three regiments of infantry and one of cavalry left Memphis on a reconnoitering expedition. When near Nonconna the cavalry came upon a detachment of Blythe’s rebel cavalry. A fight ensued, resulting in the repulse of the rebels. The next morning the cavalry again attacked the rebels, killing twenty, wounding forty and capturing eighty. The rebels fled in great confusion across the Coldwater, where they received reinforcements, and our forces fell back to Hernando. The rebels were so severely handled that they did not attempt to follow.

At Hernando we were reinforced by infantry and artillery, under Colonel Bryant, who moved to the Coldwater and attacked the rebels on the opposite side of that river. The fight lasted until sundown, and was confined chiefly to the infantry, as the artillery could not be as successfully used as desired. Our loss is five killed and fifteen wounded.

The particulars of the passage of Admiral Porter’s fleet under the batteries of Vicksburg show the fact that the transport Henry Clay was so severely damaged by shot that she sunk, and that all hands made for a flatboat as the boat was going down. It is believed that they were lost. The pilot floated down the river nine miles on a plank, and was picked up opposite Warrenton. There are eleven gunboats below Vicksburg now, including three under Farragut. The Navy Department has received an official account of the running of Admiral Farragut’s fleet by the batteries at Warrenton, and his conflict with the batteries at Grand Gulf, the main facts of which we have already published. [continue reading…]

April 22d. Commences with cool, pleasant weather. Crew employed painting ship, &c. Our color has always been black, but owing to a late order from the Department, at Washington, all vessels composing the Western Gulf Squadron are now to be painted a lead color, which is hardly distinguishable from the water of the Mississippi.