May 28, 1863, Tyler Reporter

                      The idea has been suggested to us that, under present circumstances, it would be wise and safe to organize companies of Minute Men in every portion of the State, and especially in Eastern Texas.  Banks’ late raid into Louisiana should be an all sufficient warning to us, and an unmistakable evidence of what our enemies will do whenever the opportunity is presented to them.  Gen. Smith suggests to the people of Texas the great necessity of being ready, and that pure patriot, Gen. McCulloch, seeing the danger to which his State has been and is still exposed, makes a most earnest and eloquent appeal to those at home, urging them to organize and hold themselves in readiness to meet the foe at a moment’s notice.  some may be disposed to settle down with an idea of quiet security, now that Banks’ army has left Red River and retreated from their late scene of action and immediate danger no longer stares us in the face; but should Vicksburg fall (God forbid it!) it will, in our humble judgment, be but a short time until we will find the enemy again at our doors.  We hope Vicksburg will stand; we believe Vicksburg will stand–but it may not; and whether it does or not, no injury can arise from preparation to meet emergencies.  Will some of our influential citizens take the lead in this matter?  In other counties companies are being organized–let us not be behind.

May 28, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG.

LATEST OFFICIAL DESPATCHES.

The following despatches, from General PEMBERTON, the commander at Vicksburg, were sent to Jackson, Mississippi, and from thence telegraphed to President DAVIS;

VICKSBURG, May 20. – The enemy assaulted our entrenchments yesterday on our centre and left. They were repulsed with heavy loss. Our loss is small. The enemy’s force is at least sixty thousand.

VICKSBURG, May 21. – The enemy kept up a heavy artillery fire yesterday. Two of our guns were dismounted in the centre; our works, however, were uninjured. Their sharpshooters picked off officers and men all day. Our works were repaired and our guns replaced last night. Our men are encouraged by a report that Gen. JOHNSTON is near with a large army, and are in good spirits.

MAY 21, 2 p.m. – We have had brisk artillery and musketry firing today; also heavy mortar firing from gunboats.

3 o’clock, p.m. – During the past two days transports with troops have gone up the river. Their destination is unknown.

(The Latest.)

RICHMOND, May 27. – A trustworthy private despatch received from Canton, Mississippi, and dated yesterday, says: ‘All is well at Vicksburg. The garrison holds out bravely.’

May 28, 1863, Natchez Daily Courier
                      Permit me to call your attention to one deserving your ever ready sympathies.  A noble, patriotic, devoted woman, a resident of this city, has lately returned home on a visit to her children, after an absence of two years, having followed her husband, a soldier, to Virginia, where she has been incessantly engaged in ministering to the wants of the sick and wounded in the Hospitals, the tented field and on many a field of battle.  She was actively employed in the above capacity in the fights before Richmond, at the second battle of Manassas, and at Sharpsburg, Md., marching with the army, having canteens of water strung around her, for the parched and thirsty, and with her haversack containing splinters, lint and bandages for the wounded.  Having obtained a furlough to visit her home, she was stopped on the route and made a prisoner by Grierson’s cavalry on their late raid; her trunk, containing all her wearing apparel, was burnt with the Railroad cars, her purse was taken from her, the contents torn into shreds and trampled in the mud.  She was then made to march to Brookhaven, a distance of 125 miles, when she was released, with the thread of imprisonment during the war if caught again.  Finding no conveyance, she walked to this place, and is now destitute; but cheerful, hopeful, resolute, and determined to return shortly to the army, and resume her duties as a “Ministering Angel,” to the suffering soldier.  Her name is Mrs. Spangler, and she lives near Brown’s Sawmill.                C.

May 28, 1863, The Ranchero (Corpus Christi, Texas)

                      We learn from the True Issue that the Chief Justice of Fayette county has invested nine thousand dollars of the State bounty for the relief of soldier’s families, into cotton and shipped it to the Rio Grande, there to be converted into necessary supplies and returned to Fayette.  This example is worthy of imitation.  If the Chief Justices of all the counties would take the amount placed in their hands by the State for the relief of soldier’s families, and do likewise, there would be a relief, indeed, to the family of the soldier.

May 28, 1863, The Ranchero (Corpus Christi, Texas)

                      A number of officers stationed at this post, taking advantage of the short stay of Gen. Magruder, and staff, here, tendered them a complimentary ball on the 20th inst., at Anacreon Hall, which was accepted.  We have only room to say that it was a magnificent affair, and was agreeable to all participants.  The Hall was splendidly decorated with evergreens and flowers.  Upon the right side, and high upon the wall, was the name of Major General J. B. Magruder, the letters being ingeniously formed by the entwining of evergreens.  On the opposite side, were the two quotations–”Wait not for orders; but attack the enemy at once, and furiously, wherever he shall be found;” and–”From Palo Alto to the City of Mexico!  From Great Bethel to Galveston–a succession of Victories!” both being beautifully enclosed in a wreath of flowers, and, of course, complimentary to the General.  Mr. Jacob Ziegler, the superintendent and indefatigable caterer, prepared a sumptuous table, which received full attention.  It is needless to say that the fair ladies of Corpus Christi contrived the decorations, and were the embodiment of beauty and loveliness upon this occasion.

May 28, 1863, The New York Herald

The latest news which the government has received from Vicksburg is by way of Memphis, up to four o’clock on the morning of the 24th ult. Vicksburg was then holding out, and Grant was hopeful of success. It is said that a storm interrupted telegraphic communication between Memphis and Cairo yesterday. Rumors by way of Cincinnati from Murfreesboro state – but without any confirmation – that Vicksburg had fallen on Sunday, and that General Pemberton had got his army away safely, losing all his artillery. Another despatch from Chicago says that on Friday morning last General Pemberton sent a flag of truce to General Grant offering to surrender Vicksburg if General Grant would allow the rebels to lay down their arms and march out, and that the offer was refused. We give all these stories for what they are worth.

We have considerable news upon the subject from the Southern journals. Their tone with regard to the state of affairs at Vicksburg is not very cheerful, though a little more confident than it was a few days ago. General Forrest is said to have arrived at Shelbyville, Tenn., from Murfreesboro, and will take command of Van Dorn’s division. A Savannah journal says that as General Bragg and General Rosecrans are both afraid of provoking a battle at Murfreesboro it is quite probable that they are both sending off portions of their armies westward, Rosecrans to reinforce Grant, and Bragg to reinforce Pemberton. This would imply the admission on the part of the rebel journal that Bragg, at all events, was sending his troops towards Vicksburg.

Richmond papers of the 25th state that an official despatch from General Johnson, dated the 23d. says an officer who left Vicksburg on Tuesday reports that an assault near the Yazoo road on Pemberton’s intrenchments had been repelled. It is said that another [continue reading…]

May 28, 1863, Tri-Weekly Telegraph (Houston, Texas)

                      Col. Wilcox while here gave us a correct drawing of the new Confederate flag, and a description of the seal.  The flag is white, with a red union, having a St. Andrew’s cross of blue, on each bar of which are three white stars, with a large one at the crossing.  To make a flag, say a yard and a quarter by three yards; take the usual size of the Beauregard battle flag, seven eights by one and one quarter of red.  On each side of this place a strip of blue, say 4 inches wide, running from each corner, diagonally across.  This makes the cross, and on this put the stars.  Now make a white flag, three yards by one and one quarter leaving space to put in the Union, and you have it.

                      The seal is an equestrian figure of Washington enclosed in a wreath of cotton, corn, tobacco, rice and wheat, with the motto Deo Vindice, (God the vindicator.) the idea of the Cavalier and the Puritan are both discarded; the Puritan whose idea of liberty was the privilege of persecuting others, and the Cavalier whose violence and licentiousness were equally disgusting with the cant of the Puritan.

May 28, 1863, The New York Herald

Our Army Correspondence.

CROSSING OF BIG BLACK RIVER, May 16, 1863.

GENERAL GRANT’S RAPID MARCHING.

The situation remains unchanged at this point. When we arrived here on the heels of the retreating enemy, the army was entirely exhausted. We had marched continuously from Milliken’s Bend for seven days, and with hardly an hour’s rest night or day. We had fought a severe battle and achieved a splendid victory, and it was proper that a few days’ respite should be given the tired soldiery. This rest is working wonders. The men are now anxious to move. They are in the best of spirits and confident of their ability to whip the enemy. The indications are that in the desire to advance they will soon be abundantly gratified. Tomorrow, they say, we move upon the railroad bridge and the city of Vicksburg. One division is already several miles in that direction. It is intrenched, and the whole country is being thoroughly scouted, to arrive if possible at the enemy’s intentions. He doubtless means fight and defence.

A RECONNOISSANCE IN FORCE was made across the river at this point yesterday. Our troops penetrated the country to the north a distance of seven or eight miles, and found the enemy occupying an advantageous position, and drawn up in line of battle to receive them. There was slight skirmishing in front; but, as an engagement was [continue reading…]

May 28, 1863, Tri-Weekly Telegraph (Houston, Texas)

                      We were gratified yesterday by receiving a long visit from the talented representative in Congress of the San Antonio District, who gave us a great deal of valuable information, and buoyed us up with his testimony of the unwavering confidence in our cause, exhibited by the people all over the Confederacy.  After hearing his description of our hospitals, and being cheered with the information that the sick and wounded of our army were cared for as men should be, we felt a desire to repel the wholesale slanders, which are so frequently written in relation to the people at home.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been sent to the army by the liberality and patriotism of our men and women and instead of the sick soldier and dying volunteer being neglected and forgotten, we are told that their quarters are made comfortable, and their hospitals “kept like a parlor.”  Who does it?  The women of our State have toiled in the good cause, and the men have given them glorious encouragement by their never failing liberality–Soldiers’ wives and families too, are better cared for in Texas than in any other State, and we hope to hear of no more sweeping denunciations of those who are not on the field of battle.  Col. Wilcox gives a glowing description of Lee’s army–no profanity, no bickering among officers, no backbiting or jealousy, but a harmony and unity wonderful to behold.  Each private bears himself as if were a hero, and they go to the battlefield certain of being victorious.  There is no such army in the world.

May 28th, 1863.—Since that day the regular siege has continued. We are utterly cut off from the world, surrounded by a circle of fire. The fiery shower of shells goes on day and night. H.’s occupation, of course, is gone, his office closed. Every man has to carry a pass in his pocket. People do nothing but eat what they can get, sleep when they can, and dodge the shells. There are three intervals when the shelling stops, either for the guns to cool or for the gunners’ meals, I suppose,—about eight in the morning, the same in the evening, and at noon. In that time we have both to prepare and eat ours. Clothing cannot be washed or anything else done. On the 19th and 22d, when the assaults were made on the lines, I watched the soldiers cooking on the green opposite. The half-spent balls coming all the way from those lines were flying so thick that they were obliged to dodge at every turn. At all the caves I could see from my high perch, people were sitting, eating their poor suppers at the cave doors, ready to plunge in again. As the first shell again flew they dived, and not a human being was visible. The sharp crackle of the musketry-firing was a strong contrast to the scream of the bombs. I think all the dogs and cats must be killed or starved, we don’t see any more pitiful animals prowling around…. The cellar is so damp and musty the bedding has to be carried out and laid in the sun every day, with the forecast that it may be demolished at any moment. The confinement is dreadful. To sit and listen as if waiting for death in a horrible manner would drive me insane. I don’t know what others do, but we read when I am not scribbling in this. H. borrowed somewhere a lot of Dickens’s novels, and we reread them by the dim light in the cellar. When the shelling abates H. goes to walk about a little or get the “Daily Citizen,” which is still issuing a tiny sheet at twenty-five and fifty cents a copy. It is, of course, but a rehash of speculations which amuses half an hour. To-day we heard while out that expert swimmers are crossing the Mississippi on logs at night to bring and carry news to Johnston. I am so tired of corn-bread, which I never liked, that I eat it with tears in my eyes. We are lucky to get a quart of milk daily from a family near who have a cow they hourly expect to be killed. I send five dollars to market each morning, and it buys a small piece of mule-meat. Rice and milk is my main food; I can’t eat the mule-meat. We boil the rice and eat it cold with milk for supper. Martha runs the gauntlet to buy the meat and milk once a day in a perfect terror. The shells seem to have many different names; I hear the soldiers say, “That’s a mortar-shell. There goes a Parrott. That’s a rifle-shell.” They are all equally terrible. A pair of chimney-swallows have built in the parlor chimney. The concussion of the house often sends down parts of their nest, which they patiently pick up and reascend with.

Note: To protect Mrs. Miller’s job as a teacher in post-civil war New Orleans, her diary was published anonymously, edited by G. W. Cable, names were changed and initials were generally used instead of full names—and even the initials differed from the real person’s initials. (Read Dora Richards Miller’s biographical sketch.)

Siege of Vicksburg.

Wednesday, 27th.—11 A. M. Four gunboats steamed up and commenced shelling at us, which was responded to by our siege guns, at the same time a gunboat attempted to pass the batteries from above but was sunk in about fifteen minutes under the Rebel guns. It was reported that this was the Gunboat “Cincinnati,” one of the best boats on the river; just out on its first trip. It was said that it was attempting to silence a battery that could not be turned on river or on the land. 12 M., gunboats moved out of range of siege guns. All is quiet. One man killed; two wounded.

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

27th.—The news from Vicksburg by the morning’s papers is very delightful, if authentic. We pause for confirmation of it. The young people among the villagers and refugees have been amusing themselves, during the past two evenings, with tableaux. I am too old to enjoy such things in these troubled times, but one picture I regretted not seeing. It represented the young Confederacy. The whole bright galaxy was there—South Carolina in scarlet, restive and fiery; Virginia, grave and dignified, yet bright with hope, seemed to be beckoning Kentucky on, who stood beyond the threshold, her eyes cast down with shame and suffering; Maryland was at the threshold, but held back by a strong hand; all the rest of the fair sisters were there in their appropriate places, forming a beautiful picture.

I am amused to see how the Democrats of the North are speechifying and exciting themselves about the arrest of Vallandigham, and how Lincoln will soon make them back down.

Wednesday, 27th–Our brigade, with four others, all under the command of General Blair, left this morning for Benton’s Crossroads. The expedition is to keep General Johnston from coming in to reinforce the rebels at Vicksburg. Cannonading and picket firing opened up early this morning. Our army, by sapping and mining after night, is gradually working its way closer to the fortifications. Our men are well protected during the day by earthworks.

27th. In the morning Rob went over to town with his Charlie. I believe he has said that he would prefer to give up a hope in Heaven rather than the horse. In the afternoon I took my boots over to town to get them repaired. Went for them in the evening.

May 27th. At daylight this morning it was apparent to all who heard the heavy firing of artillery, and rapid discharges of musketry, that an attack had been made by our forces upon the enemy’s works. The firing continued without intermission during the whole forenoon of this day. During the afternoon, occasionally heavy firing of artillery and musketry, the rebels replying at intervals with two great guns; lower fleet bombarding the rebel earthworks at Port Hudson, mortars, or bombers, as our boys call them, engaged also. A report has been circulated about the decks that during Banks’s attack this morning, a battery of six guns had been captured by us, the enemy drove into their main works, and some two or three of our regiments were inside of their entrenchments.

From the diary of Osborn H. Oldroyd

MAY 27TH.–It was three o’clock this morning before we camp­ed. A tiresome tramp we have had, and after halting, but a few minutes elapsed before we were fast asleep. We were up, however, with the sun, took breakfast and were on the march again at eight o’clock. We halted two hours at noon, during which time we had dinner and rest. Camped again in the evening without having come in contact with the enemy. We do not know where Johnston is, but shall find him if he is in the neigh­borhood. This excursion party is composed of six regiments, and should we meet Johnston, and his force prove to be the largest, we shall have to fight hard, for we are now some distance from re­inforcements. The health of our boys, however, is good–although one of them complains of worms–in his crackers. A change from city to country life seems generally acceptable–and yet as it was, our residence was only suburban.

MAY 27th.—Gen. Beauregard’s statement of the number of his troops, after 10,000 had been ordered to Mississippi, with urgent appeals for the order to be countermanded, came back from the President today, to whom it had been referred by Mr. Secretary Seddon. The President indorsed, characteristically, that the statement did not agree in numbers with a previous one, and asked the Secretary to note the discrepancy! This was all.

The president of the Seaboard Railroad requests the Secretary to forbid the common use of the bridge over the Roanoke at Weldon, the tracks being planked, to be used in case of a hasty retreat; the loss might be great, if it were rendered useless. It is 1760 feet long, and 60 feet high.

Mr. John Minor Botts is here in difficulty, a negro being detected bearing a letter from him to the enemy’s camp. The letter asked if no order had come from Washington, concerning the res­toration of his slaves taken away (he lives on the Rappahannock) by Hooker’s men; and stating that it was hard for him to be insulted and imprisoned by the Confederate States—and deprived of his property by the United States—he a neutral. Gen. F. Lee thought he ought not to be permitted to remain in proximity to the enemy, and so sent him on to Richmond. He was to see the Secretary to-day.

Hon. D. M. Lewis, Sparta, Ga., writes that he will cut his wheat on the 28th (to-morrow), and both for quality and quantity he never saw it equaled. They have new flour in Alabama; and everywhere South the crops are unprecedented in amount.

To-morrow is election day. For Congress, Col. Wickham, who voted against secession, opposes Mr. Lyons. But he has fought since!

We have a letter from Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, dated at Calhoun, Miss., 10th inst. He says the enemy on the railroad at Clinton numbered 25,000. We got our baggage out of Jackson before it was abandoned. Pemberton marched to Edward’s Station with 17,000 men. Gen. Johnston himself had 7500, and some 15,000 more were on the way to him. We had 3000 at Port Hudson—being over 40,000 which he meant to concentrate immediately. I think Vicksburg ought to be safe.

Our government has been notified that, if we execute the two officers (selected by lot) in retaliation for the execution of two of our officers in Kentucky, two men will be shot or hung by the enemy. Thus the war will be still more terrible!

Vallandigham has been sent to Shellbyville, within our lines. I think our people ought to give him a friendly greeting.

May 27, 1863, Montgomery Weekly Advertiser

                      In the “Home Department” of the New Orleans True Delta, of a recent date, we find the following account of the efforts now being made to prevent the schoolmistresses of New Orleans from teaching the young ideas rebelward.  If anything can be more ridiculous and contemptible than the course of the officers of the “best Government in the world,” towards female teachers, because some of their pupils draw rebel pictures on their slates and copybooks, we have yet to see it.

                      The police, it appears, made a descent on and search in several schools for young ladies, and brought quite a number of badly drawn Confederate flags and secession emblems into court to give evidence of a successful exploit.  At the same time the principals of the establishments were arraigned in the provost court and their cases adjudged.  The first party was a Miss Hall, principal of a school on Carondelet street, evidently a respectable spinster, who pointed to British protection, and expressed her indignant surprise at the inquisitive visitation and search from a police officer.  She gave it as her opinion that some of her pupils in the lower classes could have, by way of amusement, drawn the political emblems complained of, but called on the police officer to sustain her in the assertion that in the room of the graduates and other high classes of the school, an unsurpassed lady like deportment had been evident, and that nothing political was found there.

                      The judge remarked that the authorities felt it their duty to endeavor that the mind of the rising generation should be trained with proper loyal feelings, and that it was necessary to sustain this object by inflicting a fine of $100 in the present case.  A short time after Mrs. Loquet, principal of a school on Camp street, was arranged on the same charge of permitting seditious emblems to be drawn and cherished by the female pupils.  The policeman stated that the accused had expressed the subject was none of her concern, for her to interfere about. [continue reading…]

May 27, 1863, The New York Herald

Grant’s three weeks’ brilliant campaign against Vicksburg proves him to be a general of no common order. He is the only Union general now in the field the celerity of whose operations can bear a comparison with the achievements of Napoleon in his campaign in Italy and Germany.

The Southern journals generally attribute his success to the incompetence of Pemberton, while it is whispered in Richmond and elsewhere in the confederacy that the rebel general has sold himself to Grant, and deliberately and willfully made such disposition of his troops as enabled the Union general to defeat the rebel armies in a series of battles. The same stories were told of Tighlman at Fort Henry, and Buckner at Fort Donelson. But the true secret is the superiority of Grant’s generalship, which combines pluck, energy and skill. Some generals possess one of these qualities, while they are wanting in the other two. It is the combination of them that constitutes a good general. From the time that Grant landed on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, covering a period of three weeks, he has fought five battles, in all of which he has been victorious, capturing the capital of the State of Mississippi and closely investing its great strategic stronghold on the river, after first reducing the key thereof – the formidable fortifications of Haines’ Bluff. Contrast with this success the failure of Sherman in the vicinity of the same city, and the failure of Hooker in his attempt to get within striking distance of Richmond, and it will be seen that both suffer severely by the comparison, whatever may be the reputation they have gained for their campaigns against newspapers.

Hooker has had command of an army three or four times the size of Grant’s for the last five months – an army doubling in numbers that of Lee. With far fewer and less formidable obstacles in the way than were presented to Grant, he has not been able [continue reading…]

May 27, 1863, Galveston Weekly News

                      Passengers by the Central train yesterday report that the leading thoroughfares of travel in the country are filled with refugees from Louisiana, on their way to some place where they can find corn plenty and Yankees scarce.  A large proportion of the negroes they bring are females, the males having either escaped to the enemy of their own accord, or been stolen by them and prevented from returning.

May 27, 1863, Savannah Republican (Georgia)

Augusta, May 23, 1863.

                      Mr. Editor:–Having read in the morning papers of this day, May 23d, a set of resolutions drawn up and signed by J. N. Taliaferro, Capt. and Edward Clayton, Secretary, of the “gallant Walker Light Infantry,” of this city, now encamped at the Isle of Hope, in which they make a most earnest appeal to the citizens of  Augusta to send beyond the lines, or place in confinement, certain persons whom they accuse of giving “aid and comfort” to the enemy.  Now, as I do not wish any innocent person to suffer for my misdemeanors, I take this method of acknowledging my crime–if crime it be.  I have a son, dear to me as live, who is detained in Washington by circumstances beyond his control, and with whom we can hold no communication from this side by letter, as we have written a dozen of them, which he has never received.

                      Hoping to find one in the groups of Federal prisoners who would take a letter or message to him, I went with one of my daughters to see them.  Shall I say, that that Providence, who has guided me through a long life of three-score years, directed me to one who I think (though among our enemies) is a gentleman and a Christian.  I stopped in front of him, beckoned him to come to me, and asked him if he was going to Washington, and if he would take a letter for me; also, if he knew the Rev. Dr. Hall of the Church of the Epiphany.  He said he did, and would take letters or bundles or anything for us with pleasure, as he was Paymaster of the Indianola, taken at Vicksburg, and was obliged to report at Washington as soon as he was exchanged.  I returned home and got together such photographs as we had of my family and but one letter, that had been written the night previous, and went down again in the afternoon before the train left to give him the package (to which were then added two letters from some friends in this city) and sent some messages to my son.  The second time I went I took my whole family of children that he might report to my son that he had seen us all, which I did not think a crime, and as I have been taught from my earliest infancy to “Do unto others as I would have others do unto me,” under like circumstances, I extended to him some little courtesy which I thought due to a gentleman.

                      Mr. Editor, I make this confession publicly that the innocent shall not suffer for the guilty, and I also think my devotion to the good of my country, from the first dawn of this ungodly strife up to the present moment, must be understood by all right-minded persons.  One of my daughters presented to the Confederate Guard a bouquet in consideration of his kindness in allowing us to converse with the prisoner.  My greatest object in holding this communication with the prisoner was to let my son know the particulars of my heart-rending sorrow for the death of my gallant son, Edward, who lost his life at the head of (his) Cox’s battalion of Georgia sharpshooters in the bloody battle of Murfreesboro’.  Yours, most respectfully,

Margaret C. Hall.

May 27, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

Our readers will remember that, some four years ago, it was proposed, in the City Council, to sell two large lots on South Bay, purchased during the administration of Mr. MILES, with a view to the extension of the Battery Garden westward towards Ashley River. Although at first the proposal met with favor in that body, it was afterwards abandoned, in consequence of the popular feeling. This was manifested in a numerously signed memorial praying the Council to let matters stand as they were, and to throw no obstacles in the way of completing the Battery hereafter, as soon as practicable. We had supposed the affair definitely settled, by the concurrence of Council in the views thus presented. We regret to see that this scheme has been again started and that the clearly expressed will of the community seems about to be set aside for the sake of a small speculation. The Battery is a matter of both pride, pleasure and healthful recreation with the people of Charleston. When properly finished to the Ashley River, it will be worthy of the taste of our people, and unrivaled in its kind on the American continent. Let us not, in a short-sighted materialism, give up its benefits. Two lots will neither empty nor fill the coffers of the city.

May 27, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

NEWS FROM THE WEST.

TULLAHOMA, May 25. – All is quiet in front. The Nashville Union of May 22d contains Cairo dates of the 20th. Col. CLANTON had made a raid towards Little Rock, destroying 200,000 bushels of corn, several large buildings filled with commissary stores, and many grist mills. They encountered a rebel brigade, which, after a small engagement, retreated. Col. HATCH made a raid from Corinth on the 20th, bringing in 400 prisoners and 600 horses. He encountered the rebels near the Tallahaschie and escaped unhurt. He says that the rebels had evacuated Warrenton, below Vicksburg, after having destroyed the batteries there.

A despatch from New York, dated May 20, says that Beast BUTLER had been summoned to Washington. It was believed that he had been appointed to the command of the Department of Gen. CURTIS, who has been relieved. MEAGHER’S resignation has been accepted.

Arrangements have been perfected by the Northern Government to add one hundred thousand cavalry to its army within six months.

The rebel force on the Blackwater was reported to number 30,000. There is no news from Mississippi later that May 15.

MAY 26 – A small raiding party of the enemy advanced near McMinnville yesterday, but retired without accomplishing anything.

May 27, 1863, The Charleston Mercury

Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, contains about 10,000 inhabitants, and is situated on Pearl River, about forty-six miles east of Vicksburg, and about two hundred miles north of New Orleans. The Southern Mississippi Railroad, from Vicksburg to Meridian, Miss., and the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad to Memphis and the North, cross each other at Jackson.

Vicksburg is situated on elevated uneven ground, on the east bank of the Mississippi, about forty-six miles west of Jackson, and by the course of the river about four hundred miles from New Orleans. Railroads are projected and partly completed to Shreveport, in Louisiana, on the west, and to Selma, Ala., on the east. The latter road (Southern Mississippi) crosses the New Orleans, Jackson and Northern Railroad at Jackson, and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Meridian, Mississippi.

Meridian is a small place, 234 miles west of north of Mobile, situated on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, where it is crossed by the Southern Mississippi from Vicksburg to Selma. It is about 140 miles east from Vicksburg, and 94 east from Jackson.

Grenada is situated at the head of steamboat navigation on the Yalabusha River, one of the tributaries of the Yazoo, and 113 miles north by east of Jackson, on the New Orleans, Jackson and Northern Railroad.

Canton is a flourishing town in Madison County, Miss., of which it is the county seat. It is situated on the New Orleans, Jackson and Northern Railroad, about twenty-five miles northeast of Jackson.

Raymond is a village about sixteen miles southwest of Jackson, and about eight miles south of the Southern Mississippi Railroad, with which it is connected by a branch road, and about the same distance from the New Orleans, Jackson and Northern Railroad. [continue reading…]