Sunday, 15th–We had an all day rain. I was relieved from guard at 9 o’clock a. m. We see very little of our chaplain at this camp, for he is seldom here and we have no one to occupy the regimental pulpit. Two brigades of General Quimby’s Division boarded the transports and left today for Vicksburg.

Sunday, March 15th.

To my unspeakable surprise, I waked up this morning and found myself alive. Once satisfied of that, and assuring myself of intense silence in the place of the great guns which rocked me to sleep about half-past two this morning, I began to doubt that I had heard any disturbance in the night, and to believe I had written a dream within a dream, and that no bombardment had occurred; but all corroborate my statement, so it must be true, and this portentous silence is only the calm before the storm. I am half afraid the land force won’t attack.

We can beat them if they do; but suppose they lay siege to Port Hudson and starve us out? That is the only way they can conquer.

We hear nothing still that is reliable.

Just before daylight there was a terrific explosion which electrified every one save myself. I was sleeping so soundly that I did not hear anything of it, though Mrs. Badger says that when she sprang up and called me, I talked very rationally about it, and asked what it could possibly be. Thought that I had ceased talking in my sleep. Miriam was quite eloquent in her dreams before the attack, crying aloud, “See! See! What do I behold?” as though she were witnessing a rehearsal of the scene to follow.

Later. Dr. Kennedy has just passed through, and was within the fortifications last night; brings news which is perhaps reliable, as it was obtained from Gardiner. It was, as we presumed, the batteries and gunboats. One we sunk; another, the Mississippi, we disabled so that the Yankees had to abandon and set fire to her, thirty-nine prisoners falling into our hands. It was her magazine that exploded this morning. Two other boats succeeded in passing, though badly crippled. Our batteries fired gallantly. Hurrah! for Colonel Steadman! I know his was by no means the least efficient!

Clinton, they say, will inevitably be sacked. Alas, for mother and Lilly! What can we do? The whole country is at the mercy of the Yankees as long as Gardiner keeps within the fortifications. Six miles below here they entered Mr. Newport’s, pulled the pillow-cases from the beds, stuffed them with his clothes, and helped themselves generally. What can we expect here? To tell the truth, I should be disappointed if they did not even look in at us, on their marauding expedition.

15th. After the morning work was done, bathed all over. Thede and Lu Emmons came in and stayed some time. Wrote a line to Major Purington and a letter to Cousin Augusta Austin. Read an excellent sermon in the Independent on the differences between the good and bad. Day passed very quietly.

Washington Sunday March 15^th 1863.

I saw today what has of late become quite common here, a Company of thirty or forty Prisoners and refugees from Virginia march through the City under guard to the Provost Marshalls office. The most of them were refugees from Richmond, foreigners, some of them with their families. Some of the party were Virginians fleeing from the Rebel conscription and eight or ten were prisoners taken up as Spies near Fairfax Court House, residents of that neighborhood accused of being Spies or giving information to the Enemy. The refugees from Richmond said it was nearly impossible of laborers to live there, provisions were so dear. The Hotels chg^d $6.00 pr day and coffee and butter were rarely seen on their tables. It was quite pleasant till about noon when it began to hail, and it hails still (10 o’clock) this afternoon. We had for an hour very sharp lightning and very heavy thunder with hail instead of rain. Tonight the ground is covered. I presume it will turn to water and mud tomorrow. I was at Charleys during the thunderstorm. “Sallie” was much frightened. Spent an hour at Maj William^s this evening. No further news from Vicksburgh or the South. Everything looks favorable now for the Union cause. I shall be disappointed much if we do not soon hear of important successes, and that is what we must have.

March 15th.—Weather dark and cloudy. We had a good congregation in our little church. Mr.–– read the service. The Bishop preached on “Repentance.” Richmond was greatly shocked on Friday, by the blowing up of the Laboratory, in which women, girls, and boys were employed making cartridges; ten women and girls were killed on the spot, and many more will probably die from their wounds. May God have mercy upon them! Our dear friend Mrs. S. has just heard of the burning of her house, at beautiful Chantilly. The Yankee officers had occupied it as head-quarters, and on leaving it, set fire to every house on the land, except the overseer’s house and one of the servants’ quarters. Such ruthless Vandalism do they commit wherever they go! I expressed my surprise to Mrs. S. that she was enabled to bear it so well. She calmly replied, “God has spared my sons through so many battles, that I should be ungrateful indeed to complain of any thing else.” This lovely spot has been her home from her marriage, and the native place of her many children, and when I remember it as I saw it two years ago, I feel that it is too hard for her to be thus deprived of it. An officer (Federal) quartered there last winter, describing it in a letter to the New York Herald, says the furniture had been “removed,” except a large old-fashioned sideboard; he had been indulging his curiosity by reading the many private letters which he found scattered about the house; some of which, he says, were written by General Washington, “with whom the family seems to have been connected.” In this last surmise he was right, and he must have read letters from which he derived the idea, or he may have gotten it from the servants, who are always proud of the aristocracy of their owners; but not a letter written by General Washington did he see, for Mrs. S. was always careful of them, and brought them away with her; they are now in this house. The officer took occasion to sneer at the pride and aristocracy of Virginia, and winds up by asserting that “this establishment belongs to the mother of General J. E. B. Stuart,” to whom she is not at all related.

MARCH 15th.—Another cold, disagreeable day. March so far has been as cold and terrible as a winter month.

Camp 103d Illinois Infantry, Lagrange, Tenn.,
March 15, 1863.

I have just returned from a walk to and inspection of the cemetery belonging to this nice little town. There, as everywhere, the marks of the “Vandal Yankees” are visible. The fence which formerly enclosed the whole grounds has long since vanished in thin air, after fulfilling its mission, boiling Yankee coffee, and frying Yankee bacon. Many of the enclosures of family grounds have also suffered the same fate, and others are broken down and destroyed. The cemeteries here are full of evergreens, hollies, cedars, and dwarf pines, and rosebushes and flowers of all kinds are arranged in most excellent taste. They pride themselves more on the homes of their dead than on the habitations of the living. I can’t help thinking that their dead are the most deserving of our respect, though our soldiers don’t waste much respect on either the living or dead chivalries. Many of the graves have ocean shells scattered over them, and on a number were vases in which the friends deposit boquets in the flower season. The vases have suffered some at the hands of the Yankees, and the names of Yanks anxious for notoriety are penciled thickly on the backs of marble grave stones. Quite a variety of flowers can now be found here in bloom. I have on my table some peach blossoms and one apple blossom, the first of the latter I have seen. Some of the early rosebushes are leaved out, and the grass is up enough to make the hillsides look quite springlike. For three or four days we have needed no fire, and my coat now hangs on the forked stick which answers for a hatrack in my tent. We left Jackson the morning of the 11th, all pleased beyond expression, to get away. We were from 8 a.m. until 11 o’clock p.m. coming here, only 55 miles. The engine stalled as many as ten times on up grades, and we would either have to run back to get a fresh start, or wait until a train came along whose engine could help us out. We lay loosely around the depot until daylight and then moved out to our present camp, which is one of the best I have ever seen, a nice, high ridge covered with fine old forest trees. This town has been most shamefully abused since we left here with the Grand Army last December. There are only about three houses which have a vestige of a fence left around them. All the once beautiful evergreens look as though three or four tornadoes had visited them and many of the finest houses have been compelled to pay as tribute to the camp fires, piazzas and weatherboarding. Not a chicken is left to crow or cackle, not a pig to squeal, and only such milch cows as were composed entirely of bone and cuticle. The 7th Cavalry is here, and also the 6th Illinois and 2d Iowa. There is only one other regiment of Infantry, the 46th Ohio. [continue reading…]

March 15, 1863, The New York Herald

Our Port Royal Correspondence.

PORT ROYAL, S.C., March 7, 1863.

The gunboat Conemaugh, Lieutenant Commander Eastman, accomplished a very clever thing last week while on her post off Georgetown, S.C. A steamer was discovered one morning making her way towards the entrance of the North Santee, which lies to the north of the Georgetown shoals, with the intention of running into that river, which has not recently been covered by a blockade, in consequence of the almost utter impossibility of any vessel, save small flat bottomed ones, of crossing the bar, which has but a few feet of water on it and is always dangerous. It would seem that the Conemaugh was discovered by the stranger about the time she was made out by the latter, and the former, fearing chase and capture, from which she was not likely to escape, was headed for the shore and run on it at full speed. The captain, officers and crew immediately took to their boats and landed, after having set fire to the after part of the vessel. Lieutenant Commander Eastman immediately sent boats to her, which reached her after the fire was nearly extinguished. They found her totally deserted and, after having entirely extinguished the flames, began an examination of the ship and her cargo. She was found to be a new style of Clyde built iron steamer, named the Queen of the Wave, and loaded with a valuable cargo of merchandise and powder. The former, being in the after hold, was partially destroyed, but the powder, stowed forward, was in uninjured and in good condition. Fortunately for the ship the fire had not extended forward, or she would have been blown to atoms. The Queen of the Wave was evidently built for a blockade runner and to ply to ports where vessels of only the lightest draught could enter. She is of five or six hundred tons burden and draws only five feet when loaded. She is the lightest draught steamer that has yet attempted to run the blockade, and shows conclusively that the neutral English and the rebels have determined to introduce that style in preference to those of ordinary draught, which can only enter ports now closely blockaded.

It is doubtful whether her hull will be saved, but the Wissahickon has been sent up to endeavor to save her engine – a [continue reading…]

March 15, 1863, The New York Herald

A telegram was received in Washington yesterday from General Rosecrans, stating that information had reached him of the evacuation of Vicksburg by the rebels. It was known that they have been for some time past moving their stores into the interior, but it was thought at Washington that they had no time to abandon the place so soon, and that therefore General Rosecrans’ information is premature. That such a movement is contemplated all the indications render probable.

A despatch from Memphis says that Admiral Porter received intelligence that Yazoo City was captured and the rebel fleet destroyed by the Yazoo expedition. It is probable that General Quinby’s division, on its return from Young’s Point, has gone to reinforce the expedition on the Yazoo. Our latest reports last night from Memphis prepare us for some great results at Vicksburg, eventuating from the possession of Yazoo City. The capitulation or abandonment of the great rebel stronghold at any moment seems a matter of certainty.

General Hunter’s army at Port Royal is about to move on some important expedition, if we can judge from the order just issued by the Commanding General to his soldiers, in which he says that after long and weary delays, due to causes over which no one in his department had control, they have at length the cheering prospect of active and very important service.

There is nothing later from General Hooker’s army.

The British steamship Australasian, from Liverpool, brought on freight 508 bales of cotton.

March 15, 1863, The New York Herald

Interesting Marriage Ceremony in General Hooker’s Army.

The Altar Formed of All the Regimental Drums, &c., &c., &c.

Our Falmouth Correspondence.

IN CAMP, NEAR FALMOUTH, March 13, 1863.

Yesterday was a gala day in the camp of one of the brigades stationed here, or, as one of the officers present pronounced it, a […..] a day.” The occasion was the marriage of Captain Daniel Hart, Company E, Seventh regiment New Jersey Volunteers, to Miss Helen A. Lammond, of Washington, D. C. Captain H., is one of the most popular officers of the brigade, and his friends were determined that nothing should be wanting to make the day one of unalloyed happiness. The camp, in anticipation of the event, had been beautifully decorated with evergreens and every preparation made to give a lot to the affair. At precisely noon the regiment was drawn up, forming three sides of a hollow square, fronting the canopy under which the ceremony was to take place, when, the band playing “Hail to the Chief,” General Hooker, with his stuff, followed by a large number of general officers, among whom were Generals Sickles, Berry, Birney, Mott, Carr, Revere, Bartlett, Ward and others, proceeded to occupy a position on the left of an altar extemporized for the occasion, and formed of drums placed one upon another.

Everything being in readiness, with Colonel Francine and Lieutenant Colonel Price as groomsmen, and Miss Ida Lammond (a sister of the bride) and Miss Mollie Lewis, of Philadelphia, escorted by a guard of honor (twelve officers of the regiment), advanced to the canopy, where the worthy captain of the regiment, the Rev. Dr. Rose, performed the marriage ceremony in the impressive Episcopal form. As the party advanced to their position they were received by the [continue reading…]

Camp Winder, March 15,1863.

I will devote a part of this quiet Sunday evening to a letter home. Our camp looks to-day like it was Sunday. We stop our usual work when Sunday comes, and, like Christian people, devote it to rest. To-day I attended our church and listened to a very earnest and impressive sermon from one of our chaplains. He is one of the best men and best chaplains I ever knew. He devotes his whole time to his duties, and remains all the time with his regiment, sharing their wants and privations. I am sorry to say we have few such in the army. Many of them are frequently away, whilst others stay at houses in the neighborhood of the camp, coming occasionally to their regiments.

To-day I had a visit from the father and mother of a poor fellow who has been tried by a court martial for cowardice. She was in great distress, and said it would be bad enough to have her boy shot by the enemy, but she did not think she could survive his being shot by our own men. I gave her what comfort I could, telling her his sentence had not been published and there was no means of knowing that he was sentenced to be shot; that if it turned out to be so when the sentence was published, she could petition the President for his pardon; that he was a good man and would pardon her son if it was not an aggravated case. I pitied her, she seemed so much distressed. I heartily wish this sad part of my duties were over. I have about twenty of my men in close confinement, whose sentences have not been published, many of whom are condemned to death. It is for Gen’l Lee to determine what shall be done with them.

Whilst I write the sleet and hail are falling fast, accompanied by frequent claps of thunder, cold and chilly withal. Winter, it seems, will never end. Last week it was all the while a severe wind and freezing cold. I really don’t care much now how long it lasts. I do not wish to move from here until spring is fairly opened. My men are comfortably fixed here, and when we move the huts must be left behind, and, besides this, most of the blankets sent off, as we have no wagons to haul them. My men, I fear, when we move will have to get along with such clothing and blankets as they can carry. Many of our horses have died this winter for want of forage, and those that remain are much reduced in flesh and strength.

I have received your miniature, reminding me of times when you and I were young; of happy hours spent, a long time ago, when I used to frequent your parlor in the hope that you might be what you now are, my darling wife. Then the present was overflowing with happiness, the future bright and beautiful. We have seen much of each other, much of life, its joys and sorrows, since then. By the grave of our first child we have known together the deep sorrow of parting with those we love forever. In this long absence of two years, we have felt the sadness of a separation with such chance of its being forever as we did not dream of when we began life together. May God in his mercy soon bring us together in our dear home, never to separate again, to spend what of life is left to us in peace and happiness. Good-bye.

March 14th. This morning at five thirty, called all hands to up anchor, signalized the fleet to get under way, started ahead, ran some distance further up the river, came in sight of the batteries at Port Hudson; at seven thirty A. M., brought ship to anchor; the whole fleet came to anchor at the same time. Here we are able to command a view of the enemy’s batteries; we are lying within four miles of them, just out of range of their guns. The mortar schooners are lying about one mile ahead of our ships, under cover of a point of land; in this position they will bombard the enemy; it is quite probable that an attack will be made to-night. This afternoon an officer came on board with dispatches from Gen. Banks. The mortars have opened fire upon the batteries, simply to get range. Another rebel steamer came down the river this afternoon, making five in all; they lay under cover of the batteries.

It is now decided to make an attack to-night. We took the small gunboat Albatross in tow; she was made fast to our port quarter. The Richmond and Monongahela had, each of them, a gunboat made fast to them also. This was done after dark, so that the enemy could not see our movements; at nine P. M., everything being in readiness, signals were made for the whole fleet to get under way, and follow us up; we beat to quarters, and waited for the fleet to form in line of battle. A very few minutes elapsed before we were all in motion, each vessel taking its respective station; at ten P. M., the tugboat Reliance came up with despatches for the Admiral; spoke, and sent her back to hasten the rear ships; at ten thirty Richmond reported rear ships moving up to station; we moved along very slowly and very cautiously; the night being so very dark, we endeavored to approach the enemy as near as possible without being seen. As soon as we were discovered, the enemy opened their batteries upon us. It was some time before we could get any of our guns to bear; as a matter of course, we were obliged to stand and take it; however, we kept on our course with but one object in view, “conquer or die.” After being under fire of the enemy’s guns for some time, we succeeded in getting our guns to bear, then the firing became general and fearful in the extreme; our ships were all in full blast. In the meantime, the mortar vessels, six in number, let drive their missiles of death. By this time, our ships had got right under the batteries, and in the thickest of the firing. Unfortunately we ran aground; it was not long, however, before we were afloat again, as full steam was applied, and we succeeded in backing off; the enemy, in the meantime, did their utmost to destroy our noble ship.

We were under fire of the enemy’s guns one hour and ten minutes; our ship sustained more damage in this battle than any other we have been in yet. After we had passed by the batteries, our first duty was to ascertain the fate of our fleet; as it was so intensely dark, it was impossible to see the length of the ship from us; not many minutes elapsed before we were informed that the Hartford, and the gunboat which we had in tow, were the only vessels out of the whole fleet that had succeeded in passing by the batteries. We passed on out of range of their guns, and brought ship to anchor. What had become of the balance of our fleet, was now a mystery to us. It was very evident that our ships had met with a serious fate, or else some of them would have passed by. We could see from our anchorage a large fire raging below the batteries, supposed to be the side-wheel steamer Mississippi, from which a frequent number of explosions were heard.

Saturday, 14th–I was on guard at Colonel Crocker’s headquarters in the old Sparrow house and had a fine room to stay in over night. The Sixteenth Iowa got two months’ pay today. Major Wilson of the Thirteenth Iowa left today for his home in Iowa on a thirty-day furlough, and I sent $35.00 home by him. The weather is quite warm.

Saturday, March 14th.
5 o’clock, P.M.

They are coming! The Yankees are coming at last! For four or five hours the sound of their cannon has assailed our ears. There! – that one shook my bed! Oh, they are coming! God grant us the victory! They are now within four miles of us, on the big road to Baton Rouge. On the road from town to Clinton, we have been fighting since daylight at Readbridge, and have been repulsed. Fifteen gunboats have passed Vicksburg, they say. It will be an awful fight. No matter! With God’s help we’ll conquer yet! Again! – the report comes nearer. Oh, they are coming! Coming to defeat, I pray God.

Only we seven women remain in the house. The General left this morning, to our unspeakable relief. They would hang him, we fear, if they should find him here. Mass’ Gene has gone to his company; we are left alone here to meet them. If they will burn the house, they will have to burn me in it. For I cannot walk, and I know they shall not carry me. I ‘m resigned. If I should burn, I have friends and brothers enough to avenge me. Create such a consternation! Better than being thrown from a buggy – only I’d not survive to hear of it!

Letter from Lilly to-day has distressed me beyond measure. Starvation which threatened them seems actually at their door. With more money than they could use in ordinary times, they can find nothing to purchase. Not a scrap of meat in the house for a week. No pork, no potatoes, fresh meat obtained once as a favor, and poultry and flour articles unheard of. Besides that, [continue reading…]

14th. Robinson went home to make a chest for H. quarters. Went over to Capt. N.’s and saw T. E. Davis, Morey, E. W. and Joe Dewey. A letter from Major Purington inquiring about his papers. Got them out and commenced work. Covil said he would do it if I would help him. Evening attended class.

Saturday March 14^th 1863

News that Vicksburgh is evacuated by the Rebels comes tonight pretty well authenticated. Nothing further from “Yazoo,” but we are expecting good news from that section all the time. I am rather in hope that Vicksburgh is not evacuated. I think its Capture by Gen^l Grant a sure thing and I would like to have the Rebel Army captured too. I realy hope they will not be allowed to take away all of the three hundred cannon which they say they have there. The rebels had captured the Gun Boat “Indianola” but blew her up on the approach of a Sham “Iron Clad” which was made out of an old barge and sent floating down the River in the night. They are now mourning over it. I have attended to some business today for Mr Short. Went on to the Av’e after leaving the office and purchased a pocket Dictionary. I am frequently bothered and in doubt about my spelling and have had nothing to refer to. I suppose my folks are much disappointed that I am not at home tonight as I presume they expected me. I must go the forepart of the week. I have been quite busy this evening. Called at Charleys, at Doct Munsons & Mr Reeds, [and] Mr Schrams who was not at home and spent most of the evening at Mr Haws on I Street. They are very pleasant people. Got back to my room about 11 o’clock.

March 22

       The successful running the blocade has given a great deal of wealth to some people and there is considerable activity in the selling negroes & City property. Mr Grimball has sold his negroes 48 to Mr G. Trenholm for eight hundred & twenty round some were old & some inferior & some very small children. They all went together & to a kind master which we are very thankful for. I wish he could sell the Plantations too and pay his debts & then get a little farm the desire of his heart. Property has been selling very well.

MARCH 14th.—Gen. Pemberton writes that he has 3000 hogs-heads of sugar at Vicksburg, which he retains for his soldiers to subsist on when the meat fails. Meat is scarce there as well as here. Bacon now sells for $1.50 per pound in Richmond. Butter $3. I design to cultivate a little garden 20 by 50 feet; but fear I cannot get seeds. I have sought in vain for peas, beans, corn, and tomatoes seeds. Potatoes are $12 per bushel. Ordinary chickens are worth $3 a piece. My youngest daughter put her earrings on sale to-day—price $25; and I think they will bring it, for which she can purchase a pair of shoes. The area of subsistence is contracting around us; but my children are more enthusiastic for independence than ever. Daily I hear them say they would gladly embrace death rather than the rule of the Yankee. If all our people were of the same mind, our final success would be certain.

This day the leading article in the Examiner had a striking, if not an ominous conclusion. Inveighing against the despotism of the North, the editor takes occasion likewise to denounce the measure of impressment here. He says if our Congress should follow the example of the Northern Congress, and invest our President with dictatorial powers, a reconstruction of the Union might be a practicable thing; for our people would choose to belong to a strong despotism rather than a weak one—the strong one being of course the United States with 20,000,000, rather than the Confederate States with 8,000,000. There may be something in this, but we shall be injured by it; for the crowd going North will take it thither, where it will be reproduced, and stimulate the invader to renewed exertions. It is a dark hour. But God disposes. If we deserve it, we shall triumph; if not, why should we?

But we cannot fail without more great battles; and who knows what results may be evolved by them? Gen. Lee is hopeful; and so long as we keep the field, and he commands, the foe must bleed for every acre of soil they gain.

March 14, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

The Savannah Republican, of yesterday, gives a full and highly interesting account of the late engagement at Fort McAllister, from which we condense the following:

Fort McAllister is situated on the right bank of the Ogeechee, and occupies the farthest point of mainland jutting out into the marsh. The river flows straight from a point about a mile above the fort to a distance of about a mile and a half below, where it makes a bend and runs almost south and behind a point of wood, thence onward to Ossabaw Sound and the ocean. During the afternoon of Monday three iron Monitors – the Montauk, the second supposed, from the descriptions in the N. Y. papers, to be the Passaic, and the third the Weehawken – steamed up from behind the point of wood, rounded the bend and came up to within a short distance of the fort, the Montauk about a thousand yards off and the other two in the rear, some hundred and fifty yards from each other. Here they anchored in line of battle for the next day, and the night was passed in quiet. Around the point, and a little over two miles distant, lay three mortar schooners and an old steamer, which also took part in the fight and kept up a rapid fire throughout. Such was the force and disposition of the enemy. The Montauk and another iron- clad were armed with one 15 inch and one 11 inch gun each, and the third with 8 inch rifle guns. The mortar boats threw 10 and 18 inch shells.

Our battery remained as in the former fight, except that it had been reinforced with a 10 inch columbiad. Another part of our force on the day which should not be overlooked, was a detachment of the Hardwick Mounted Rifles, Captain McAllister, under command of 3d Lieutenant E. A. Elarbee. These men went up the river and crossed over the marsh by night to a point about two hundred and fifty yards from the Montauk, and in full rifle range, where they dug out a rifle pit in the mud, and remained the greater part of the fight, it is believed, not without important success, as will be seen hereafter.

Thus stood matters up to a quarter to nine o’clock Tuesday morning, when our troops, wearied with waiting, opened on [continue reading…]

March 14, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

War is now, by necessity and the law of self-preservation, the occupation of the people of the Confederate States. War, vigorous, energetic war, is the only road to Peace, and the only mode of achieving our Independence. Active, untiring, vigilant preparation is the business of the hour. – And the success or failure of the coming campaign, upon which so much depends of weal or woe, is very much bound up in the earnest, timely and conscientious exertions of the officers charged with the execution of the conscript law and with the collection of stragglers absent from their posts of duty. The public eye should now be intently fixed upon enrolling officers and surgeons detailed on this vital service. Triflers and pleasure seekers in such positions should be made to feel the frown of every community where their idleness or inefficiency is practised. Surgeons who examine in a mood of good natured accommodation to ailing competents, and soother their consciences by the satisfaction they give, should be taught by public opinion the wrongs they perpetrate on their country wrestling for life in a dreadful struggle. And what words of contumely and scorn can be too strong for those who, capable of striking for the right in such a cause, skulk and dodge, and deprive the country of defence to the whole extent of their own capacity to fight. Let the women of the country drive them forth.

March 14, 1863, The New York Herald

There are symptoms of a coming movement in General Hooker’s army. The transportation resources are being cut down, and officers have been notified that all superfluous baggage must be sent home. The officers of the line are to be allowed nothing in the shape of camp equipage, except shelter tents which they can carry on their backs. This means an active and probably arduous campaign. The roads have dried up in that vicinity considerably within the past few days, and everything now looks favorable for a forward movement.

On the rebel side equally active preparations appear to be going on. Charleston is awaiting calmly for an attack, and General Beauregard has revoked all furloughs and recalled absentees to their posts.

A despatch from Memphis reports a fight on the Yazoo river, in which seven thousand prisoners and eight transports are said to have been captured. It was known at Washington that such a movement by our gunboats was in contemplation with the intention of cutting off the supplies of the rebels, and therefore it is quite probable that a battle has taken place, although the particulars have not yet reached us.

There is nothing later from Vicksburg.

Rumors were rife in Cairo yesterday and reached this city by telegraph that Fort Donelson and Fort Henry had been captured by the rebels; but the reports are not credited. A gentleman who arrived in Cincinnati on Thursday from Savannah says that immense armies are massed in Tennessee – one to hold General Rosecrans in check while the other flanks him, enters Kentucky, and moves direct on Louisville and Cincinnati. They are only waiting for the rivers to fall and the roads to dry to commence operations.

General Granger’s force, who went in pursuit of Van Dorn, returned to Franklin on Wednesday. The rebels fled beyond [continue reading…]

March 14, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

The Northern papers publish the report of Commodore DUPONT in relation to the attack of our gunboats upon the blockading fleet. He mentions that our iron-clads went out of Charleston, unperceived by the blockaders, and attacked the blockaders; that the Mercedita was first attacked, and a heavy rifle shell passed through her condenser and the steam drum of her port boiler, and exploded, blowing a hole four or five feet square, killing the gunner and scalding a number of men. He says Captain STELLWAGEN surrendered – crew and officers were paroled, though nothing was said of the ship, the executive officer, Lieutenant Commanding ABBOTT, having gone on board the enemy’s gunboat and made the […..] arrangement. He states that only casualties were on the Mercedita and the Keystone State. On the Keystone State they were very large – about one-fourth of her crew were killed and wounded, and among the former the medical officer of the ship, Surgeon GOTWALD.

The Commodore states that the Mercedita had arrived at Hilton Head, but the whole story though is so lamely told as to leave little or no doubt but that the Mercedita went down, and never got to Hilton Head or anywhere else, except to Davey Jones’ locker.

March 13th. To-day the gunboat Sachem started up the river, also two transports loaded with troops. The day has been spent in getting the ship ready for action. This afternoon, army signal officers came on board to accompany us up the river. Mortar vessels are moving up to take their positions for bombarding; at four P. M. we got under way, and started up the river, followed by the Richmond, Mississippi, Monongahela, and gunboat Kineo. As soon as the ships were got under way we beat to quarters.

The Admiral, Fleet Captain and Captain Palmer commanding, also Mr. Kimberly, executive officer, inspected the ship fore and aft, to see that all things were in readiness; at seven thirty P. M. came to anchor for the night, it being so very dark it was deemed necessary, as every precaution is required under the circumstances.

Friday, 13th–The weather is quite pleasant and all is quiet. There is nothing of importance.