MARCH 17th.\u2014On Saturday, the enemy\u2019s lower Mississippi fleet attacked our batteries at Port Hudson. The result reported is that only one of their gunboats got past, and that in a damaged condition. The frigate Mississippi, one of the best war steamers of the United States, was burned, and the rest retired down the river, badly repulsed. We sustained no loss.<\/p>\n
To-day, the Secretary of War sent in a paper indorsing Judge Meredith\u2019s \u00a0opinion in regard to foreigners who have accepted service in our country, \u00a0viz., that they are liable to conscription. This is in the teeth of the decision of the Assistant Secretary, Judge Campbell, Col. Lay\u2019s father-in-law, and upon which the bureau has been acting, although Gen. Rains, the \u00a0Superintendent, permitted it with reluctance, upon the assurance of Col. L. \u00a0that such was the will of the department. This business may produce an explosion.<\/p>\n
I walked with Gen. Rains this afternoon in Capitol Square. He is annoyed at the action of Col. Lay in following the instructions of the Assistant Secretary of War in regard to foreigners. The decision had not the sanction of the \u00a0Secretary of War, Mr. Seddon. He thinks several thousand<\/em> men may have been permitted to escape military service by it. He intended to lay Judge \u00a0Campbell\u2019s decision before the President, but it disappeared very mysteriously from his desk. And to-day it reappeared just as mysteriously. \u00a0And, simultaneously, and quite as mysteriously, a paper appeared, signed by Mr. Seddon, Secretary of War, suggesting that the bureau act in conformity with Judge Meredith\u2019s opinion, directly in the teeth of Mr. \u00a0Assistant Secretary Campbell\u2019s decision! And it was dated March 13th, full four days before. What delayed it, and who brought it, no one seemed to know. Col. Lay suggested that it be sent back, with an indorsement that the \u00a0bureau had been already acting under the decision of Judge Campbell (just \u00a0the reverse of the opinion), Assistant Secretary of War, \u201cby order of the \u00a0Secretary of War.\u201d<\/p>\n To this Gen. R. demurred, and said the bureau would conform its action to \u00a0Mr. Seddon\u2019s suggestions; and he charged a clerk to preserve that<\/em> paper. \u00a0Col. L. grumbled awfully at Mr. Seddon\u2019s off-hand decision, without mature reflection.<\/p>\n Gen. Stewart (of Maryland) was at the office a short time before, and advocated Mr. Seddon\u2019s views; for he knew how many Marylanders would be embraced in the decision, as well as other foreigners.<\/p>\n Lieut.-Col. A. C. Jones, Assistant Adjutant-General, had, in the name of the bureau, notified Gen. Winder, this morning, that Marylanders, etc. were not liable to bear arms for the South after being in the service two years!<\/p>\n The general says he will have all the commandants of conscripts written to immediately; and that he will have an interview with the Secretary of War in relation to the matter.<\/p>\n Every man we can put in the field is demanded; and many fear we shall not have a sufficient number to oppose the overwhelming tide soon to be surging over the land. At such a crisis, and in consideration of all the circumstances attending this matter, involving the loss of so many men, one is naturally startled at Judge Campbell\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MARCH 17th.\u2014On Saturday, the enemy\u2019s lower Mississippi fleet attacked our batteries at Port Hudson. The result reported is that only one of their gunboats got past, and that in a damaged condition. The frigate Mississippi, one of the best war steamers of the United States, was burned, and the rest retired down the river, badly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":88021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-88807","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news-of-the-day"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/John-Beauchamp-Jones.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cw-chronicles.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}