We have begun this article with the words of Gen. J. E. B. Stuart as best describing this unique battle which has ended some two days ago. We will present some highlights of the battle and follow this with an eyewitness account.

The general opinion here as expressed by Col. Alexander Porter and others is that Gen. Hooker made a significant mistake in sending his cavalry under Gen. Stoneman to harass the Army of Northern Virginia, which gave him no eyes on the battlefield. This raid wasted more than a week and came nowhere near endangering Richmond. There were only brief disruptions of railroad transportation and telegraphic communication.  Hooker also feared leaks of information and apparently communicated his battle plans to no one, not even Old Abe. Further, Gen. Hooker had a fear that Gen. Jackson was near to his Federal troops and planning some mysterious counter-attack. Then rumors spread that Jackson was retreating while he was actually advancing, so that his sudden appearance near dusk on May 2nd ready to attack on a wide front was even more mysterious. The ultimate mistake was stopping in the Wilderness instead of passing beyond it into open ground. Gen. Hooker believed he was choosing the best ground for the final battle, but his hesitation robbed him of this choice.

There were three Federal brigades that should have been sent in at a crucial moment, but Hooker was unconscious, due to a column of the Chancellor home falling on him. None of his corps commanders took action; there was once again a paralysis of will that has plagued the Army of the Potomac for some two years. We heard passed through the lines a comment made by a witty Yankee captain, one George Armstrong Custer, that when the word came that Gen. Hooker was wounded during the fighting, he said if so, “it was a wound he received from a projectile which requires a cork to be drawn before it is serviceable.” Finally “Fighting Joe” as has been typical of all commanders of the Army of the Potomac could not imagine that an army half the size of his own would choose mobility in the field as opposed to waiting behind fortifications, that is, waiting to be starved out. Hooker’s ponderous planning and slow marching were out-matched by the daring of Lee and Jackson. We have also heard that Hooker’s commanders when asked about April 4th or so, if they should renew the fight voted 3-2 to fight, and the General ignored their advice and returned after nearly a week to Falmouth, his earlier place of encampment.  

As our forces were left in control of the field with Hooker’s retreat, they are burying the thousands of dead from both sides. Our troops have been plentifully resupplied from the goods abandoned by the Yankees as we were last year after Second Manassas. Our sources, who are everywhere, tell us that Old Abe and “Old Brains” Halleck spent an interesting day on May 7th with “Fighting Joe”. Such visits usually mean a series of comments from Old Abe as to who else could have done any better, maybe success will come the next time, and then dismissal by letter. Little Mac, the Young Napoleon, has now been more than six months in exile, cast out into the wilds of New Jersey, where will Hooker be sent into exile? We think it will be to the West. Will there be a generals’ revolt against him; the word leaking out here is that Gen. George Meade was one of the few who kept his head. If selected, he will be the fifth commander of the Army of the Potomac in the past calendar year.    

We now turn to some of the observations of Col. Edward Porter Alexander, a noted artilleryman for his thoughts on the battle.

Col. Alexander:

“I arrived near Fredericksburg on April 27th to assess Gen. Jackson’s artillery units which had been in winter camp.  Two days later we heard the news that Hooker’s army had crossed the Rappahannock. I telegraphed the winter headquarters of the army to have all artillery, including my own unit, sent forward. I knew Hooker’s army was near to 139,000 men. He sent his cavalry under Gen. Stoneman to destroy our communication lines with Richmond, and most of our cavalry went in pursuit of Stoneman. When Gen. Sedgwick had an army cross eighteen miles above Frederickburg, while Hooker made his plans for a flank attack, we were facing the best maneuvers yet aimed at us in two years of warfare. With pluck, luck, and skill we extricated ourselves from this bold strategist.

“On May 1st, I was supervising the artillery units on the Plank Road some five miles from Chancellorsville. Up the road came a shabby column of our soldiers in gray, and in the lead were Gens. Lee and Jackson. How little did we know that Gen. Jackson’s effective life as a leader would be forever altered in 36 hours. I now knew that all our gun emplacement work was for naught as we would be moving our artillery for an offensive battle. At this same time Gen. Hooker was in Chancellorsville with some five corps, and he made the mistake of stopping. He was concerned that Lee and Jackson were ahead. The evening before there had been a skirmish with our cavalry, and Hooker had encountered a “mare’s nest” and he now feared some surprise from the Gallant Stonewall. He magnified the danger of the forces in front of him, as he knew many had underestimated Jackson before. Jackson was nowhere near, but Hooker had no eyes, no cavalry, to tell him that Jackson was below Fredericksburg; he could be waiting, very near,  in this woods, the Wilderness.

“The Wilderness had once been a dense forest of timber, mostly clear-cut some fifty years before to fuel the iron furnaces, and the second growth was almost impenetrable, some abattis works with fallen trees and sharp stakes in logs would make it a death trap. Chancellorsville is situated a mile or two within this dense forest that extends for miles. Hooker needed to move through these thickets to open country where he could deploy his artillery and link up with Gen. Sedgwick and his 30,000 men. He did order four of five corps to move forward, but it was too late. Our skirmish lines started firing along the Plank Road, and the enemy halted to engage our forces. I brought up more artillery and Hooker’s forces started to disappear into the woods. As his withdrew his troops Hooker feared that Gen. Jackson was coming, and countermanded his orders to move forward and retreated to Chancellorsville, which left him in the Wilderness, and at a great disadvantage.

“Our men encountered strong opposition and would have been in desperate straits if Hooker had not withdrawn, because his forces were in strong positions. There had been severe fighting on our right flank, and this was a factor in the midnight conference of Jackson and Lee. Three miles to our rear below Fredericksburg was Gen. Sedgwick, with some 25,000 men heavily entrenched. They could at any time disrupt our lines of communication. They were being held in check by some 10,000 men with Gens. Early and Barksdale’s brigades and some artillery units. Our army was divided into three sections, with 36,000 under Lee and Jackson, the 10,000 with Early/Barksdale, and 2,000 more. Hooker had 105,000 men entrenched in the Wilderness. With Lee in front of Hooker, Jackson was to march without being noticed past Hooker’s  flank, which we believed and found to be extended some ten miles.

“On this day we started at dawn on a march of 14 miles. The crucial part of the march was down a narrow road, and it took twelve hours to march 10 miles. A normal cross-country march of ten miles should take five hours; this had unavoidable delays. From sunrise at 5:20 A.M. to the arrival at 5:10 P.M., we marched and then moved into place. If Hooker had had Stoneman and his cavalry we could have never made this march undetected and unmolested. I have thought repeatedly this this was case of million dollars for each minute of daylight. Each moment we lost of clear sunshine made our movement more dangerous as we would have to encounter the heavily entrenched enemy in the dense wooded areas. 

“The disposition of the men in line took a long, long time as the rear units were far back. Then about 6:00 P.M. Gen. Jackson gave the order to move out and our men had a mile and half to go through the undergrowth in the Wilderness. The enemy did not recognize our cavalry bugles as being anything but their own; the first indication of our presence was the flight of deer, turkeys, and rabbits, in front of our advance. Our passage through the woods took some 45 minutes. The mingled roar of our musketry, and the Confederate yell signalled Gen. Howard of our presence; his men held for some twenty minutes and then fell back in the most extreme panic that I have ever seen in battle.   The million dollar minutes of sunshine were fast departing. It was now 6:00 and the sun was to set at 6:50; we had the enemy on the run, but our lines were completely broken up in the woods. The men had stopped singly and in groups to fire and reload. They made havoc of the fleeing crowds, and the enemy were all gone before we could bring the artillery forward.

“I later saw the results of this panic at Hazel Grove; there was an ugly marsh there some 50 yards wide, and the panic of men, beef cattle, ambulances, mules, artillery, wagons, and horses, meant many were stuck in the mud. Those coming from behind in every increasing numbers trampled the earlier groups into the mud. As they were crushed down group by group, the pile of debris grew to be many feet high. There was one clear area near Hazel Grove of some 400 yards which was perfect for artillery, and Gen. Pleasanton was already there, and waiting for our approach. With supporting infantry he could pour a wall of fire on Gen. Dan Sickles. Unfortunately, at this time Gen. Jackson called a halt, and the last million dollar moment of daylight was gone.

“Gen. Jackson was stopping the advance to check on the enemy lines and put Gen. A. P. Hill and his men in line and making sure they had full cartridge boxes; this restless and impatient quality of the General’s then caused him to ride some 200 yards down the road. Neither Gen. Hill’s or Gen. Jackson’s officers saw fit to tell the new lines of troops that they were riding in front of their line of fire, and these nervous troops in the dark heard some the sounds of some twenty-odd horses riding at a steady gait and knew not 200 yards away were Yankee artillery units. That impatience with the time the day’s march had taken and the desire to begin an renewed attack some two hours after sunset resulted in serious injury to Gen. Jackson, the wounding of Gen. A. P. Hill, and the deaths of several men as they came under fire twice from our troops and at least twice from Yankee artillery. There were no more advances that night.

“Gen. Stuart was now in command and knew nothing of the disposition of our troops; I will never forget how I spent the hours from 9:00-3:00 A. M. riding along to ascertain our lines of battle. I tried to get a view of the enemy’s positions and follow all the roads within our limits where artillery might pass. The woods were so thick, there was little to be done with artillery, and I had only one view of the enemy’s lines. There were false alarms all night with single musket shots and then whole volleys of firing. I finally selected five artillery positions where even if the enemy’s line could not be seen, we could rake with fire a wooded area the enemy would have to cross. With Gen. Jackson’s (now Gen. Stuart’s) 20,000 and Gen. Lee’s 12,000, we still faced 100,000 under Gen. Hooker entrenched in the woods.

“This was one of those rare actions that did commence at daylight as ordered; it was punctual to the minute. I don’t recall eating any breakfast; I don’t recall eating anything at all for days; I suppose we ate from our haversacks as we marched along. As I went back and forth from battery to battery, I narrowly missed having my head taken off by a shell; had I a taken a step even two inches to the right I would have been killed. The shell breezed right by me. I first saw this object plainly coming out of the bushes at a distance of ten feet. Moments later as I was standing by Capt. Parker, one of our infantry men brought two prisoners out of the woods. As he turned a shell cleanly took off his leg below the knee, as he fell backward, he dropped his musket and partially caught himself on his hands as he fell; then he clutched at the stump and yelled angrily to the prisoners, “Pick me up!” They had jumped like lightning to get behind the nearest trees along the roadway. A powder monkey, a young boy from Parker’s unit, came up bringing ammunition to the front and called out to the trembling prisoners, “What in Hell are you running from your own shells for?” This all took place in an instant.

“We were making little progress toward removing the enemy from their trenches, but after one or two hours the enemy’s position at Hazel Grove was taken. Gen. Stuart sent immediate word to me to being our battery of 30 guns to the hill. We could now fire over the Chancellorsville plain, and we could even see the Chancellor house some 2,000 yards away. The enemy along the Plank Road had some 25 pits for guns in a long row, and they put up an obstinate defense. We could never have dislodged them if their line had not begun to crumple on the left. With the enemy’s infantry gone, Gen. Stuart and I decided to move our guns into the open on the Plank Road and fire down the road. This when Gen. Stuart to rally our men sang. “Old Joe Hooker, would you come out of the Wilderness?” At this point we saw one of our brigades with a battle flag and a Virginia state flag advance to the left end of the enemy’s gun pits. I rode rapidly to the Hazel Grove position to deploy our artillery on the plateau. From there we opened up on the swarming fugitives, infantry, artillery, wagons–everything–swarming about the Chancellorsville house. After the fugitives fled, and we moved our artillery down to the house, which had caught fire, I saw there were several wounded Yankee officers there, who had to be evacuated from the burning house. Gen. Lee and his staff rode up and our two armies were united.  

“General Sedgwick with 30,000 men had been ordered to come to Chancellorsville and attack our forces from the rear. He lost much time in taking Marye’s Hill in Fredericksburg and by the time he left there Gen. Stuart had been able to unite with Gen. Lee’s forces due to the accident to Gen. Hooker. Unconscious and without having ever shared his battle plans, three of the six corps did not enter the fight. Therefore, orders were never given by anyone on his staff, despite the repeated calls for reinforcements. Word came to of Gen. Sedgwick’s advance, and we were caught between the two grand divisions. I now felt the end of the day was going to get hotter. There was a spirited battle at Salem Church and Sedgwick was driven back; this did not begin until 5:00 P.M. We now formed a night bivouac of my entire battalion along the road.

“Gen. Lee came down early the next morning and said we were going to attack Sedgwick from the rear. We were ready with plenty of ammunition and waiting for the ball to begin. At 10:00 Gen. Lee returned, and it was a rare time when I saw him lose his temper. He shared his vague anger with us; someone had lost him valuable time; this person was never identified; Gen. Lee did not know the location of the enemy’s line of battle, and someone show have known this; and Gen. Lee himself had wasted a lot of personal time to find out the location of the enemy. As we came to know, Gen. Lee knew the enemy’s left flank reached to the river, but where was the right flank? I thought the quickest way to find out would be to move on the enemy, but the Gen. was so angry, I kept my ideas to myself. About 6 P.M., we advanced on the enemy, and had a little artillery practice, but very little was achieved. When we later did attack Sedgwick, on Monday, I located Bank’s Ford where the enemy would eventually have to cross the river; I marked the location and we shelled the spot all night long; I knew the curve of the shells would strike ground somewhere and bring discomfort to the enemy.

“The next day, May 5th, I received ordered to set up artillery units at U. S. Ford, as part of the plan to attack Hooker in his trenches. I found a spot for six guns to fire into the trenches. I also saw how there was fresh dirt thrown up by the enemy, an easy thing to do in the Wilderness to build barricades that would be impenetrable. I had no sleep that night; I was on the ground with my group of 100 men where our pits were to be. I did go to a nice frame farm house nearby to warn the occupants of the impending battle. I told them to evacuate at dawn,  as the shells from the enemy’s left battery would go over our heads and land near their farm house. We were ready before daylight with all our ammunition to occupy the pits, and we had sent off the horse. Suddenly, there was a volley fired at us from across the river, a distance of about 600 yards. . Then two or three other batteries opened up on us. This was not the direction we had expected the enemy to be. We did not return fire as I told the men to stay down in the pits. I sought out infantry commanders to find out the situation, and received the glad news that the enemy was gone. If I could remove my guns safely, we were to return to Fredericksburg. This was easier said than done as the rain began. We got within three miles of Fredericksburg and pitched our tents there. I was nearly reeling from lack of sleep, but we cooked a big supper.

“Then Frank Huger put his head outside the tent and was asked if we were some Virginia regiment, and he said no; we were the only group camped there. A surgeon then said he had an ambulance with Col. Blanker who had lost his leg. Frank told them they couldn’t go anywhere tonight in the rain, bring the Colonel inside, get some supper, and spend the night with us.  We hurried to get some food ready, and the Colonel was brought in; his leg had been amputated above the knee; there were now five of us crowded in the tent, but we were all cheerful as could be and by lying on edge could sleep through the night. That is how the Battle of Chancellorsville ended for me.  

“Upon reflection, I think Gen. Hooker failed for three reasons. First, he lost his nerve when he saw that Gens. Lee and Jackson were on the warpath against him. Then he became timid, and gave us time to making a turning movement toward his flank. His second blunder was to allow part of his army to be attacked and defeated and not use the other part. He had been knocked unconscious, but why did none of his corps commanders take responsibility? I can only say they feared the moral effect of Gen. Lee’s prestige. Segwick’s blunders can only be ascribed to timidity. Finally, Hooker lacked confidence that he could repulse Lee even with his entire army behind a short line, which any engineer would label impregnable. He could have had his men  fifteen deep behind that line. He should have also known Gen. Lee’s audacity and not waited a day or two for him to attack. “ 

 NB:

Thank you Gen. Alexander for your stirring account. Our next journey is to the bedside of Gen. Stonewall Jackson, who is recuperating from his wounds a day’s journey from here.

We now bring you eyewitness accounts of the Second Battle of Fredericksburg, which has resulted in the retreat of the enemy forces under General Hooker. First, we will include a chronology of the week-long battles around Chancellorsville.

Apr. 28th. Gen. Hooker’s army began to cross the Rappahannock, upstream from Fredericksburg. There remained a large Federal force confronting the city. This movement across the river appeared to be a flanking attack on Gen. Lee’s army.

Apr. 29th. Gen. Hooker’s army moved large forces across to the east and west of Fredericksburg to encircle the Army of Northern Virginia.

Apr. 30th. The Army of the Potomac set up headquarters in the Chancellor home, hence Chancellorsville became a battlefield. Gen. Hooker said Gen. Lee must fly or come out from behind defenses and fight. This refers to the extensive defenses constructed since the first Battle of Fredericksburg some five months before.

May 1st. Gen. Lee moved his army out of Fredericksburg to block Hooker’s army from emerging from the Wilderness. After brief skirmishes, Hooker ordered his army to withdraw and concentrate in an area near Chancellorsville. In a midnight conference with Gen. Jackson, Gen. Lee decided to split his army again as Gen. Longstreet was away at Suffolk. Gen. Jackson was to attack Hooker’s flank while Gen. Lee made a demonstration in front of Hooker’s army.

May 2nd. Gen. Jackson’s movement into the Wilderness was mistaken by the Yankees as a withdrawal. By 6 P.M. Gen. Jackson was in place and his men launched a strong attack. The Federals were rolled back to Chancellorsville. Gens. Jackson and A. P. Hill were wounded by friendly fire about 9 P.M. while scouting the Yankee troop placements.

May 3rd. In the early morning Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s left arm was removed. At dawn, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart leading Gen. Jackson’s forces took a hill called Hazel’s Grove and our artillery fired on the Federals in Chancellorsville. A shell split a column on the Chancellor home and knocked down the tipsy man leaning on the column for support, Fighting Joe Hooker. He was unconscious and then unstable for the rest of the day. Lee took Chancellorsville about 10 A.M. but his planned assault never emerged. The second Battle of Fredericksburg had taken place, and Lee had to stop Early’s withdrawal due to being outnumbered four to one. The result  was a sharp battle around the Salem Church from late afternoon to dark. Gen. Longstreet was called back from Suffolk.

May 4th. Federal forces were driven back, but escaped across the Rappahannock; the battle ended as Hooker decided to withdraw all his forces back across the river. The Federal Army was estimated at 133,000; double our forces. Estimated casualties, Federals 17,000; Confederate 12,500.

May 5th. Heavy rain blocked Gen. Lee’s efforts to prevent Hooker’s retreat.

May 6th. Gen. Lee’s army advanced into the Wilderness to find Hooker’s army had gone. Gen. Jackson was convalescing at a home in Guiney’s Station. Gen. A. P. Hill, who had been only slightly injured, was assigned to command the Second Corps.  

Now to some eyewitness accounts that we gathered during the battle as well as the past rainy days beginning on May 5th.

General Jubal Early:

“The landing on April 29th of portions of the Federal army on our side of the Rappahannock was done so quietly in the early morning fog that the first indications we had were the reports of the pickets that the Yankees had already crossed in force. Additionally, they were digging trenches and securing their artillery batteries. I knew that could be a feint, but I could not wait for orders and moved up my men. In a short time the 13th Georgia and other units came under fire, but we delayed the enemy’s laying of bridges until about 10:00 A.M. Then I heard another crossing had been made at Deep Run where bridges had been laid and infantry and artillery were pouring across.  Now breastworks and artillery emplacements were plainly visible in this area. There was no activity seen in front of Fredericksburg, where there were still heavy gun emplacements manned by the enemy on the heights overlooking the city. Gen. Lee during the winter had increased the trenches and general fortifications in Fredericksburg, so that they were much stronger than in the previous December. I shared his belief that the direct assault would come there with spring weather and dry roads. Now we faced flanking movements above and below our troop concentrations.

“During the day, Gen. Jackson came up with his forces, and Gen. A. P. Hill’s forces were drawn up in a line behind Gen. Jackson’s as well as Gens. McLaws’ and Barkdale’s. There were also Gen. Rodes’ skirmishers. There was no attack made during the day, but many more Yankee infantry could be seen under cover of trees along the river as if waiting to cross.  We had our men behind the railroad line, which provided good cover, but we were becoming more thinly stretched. I came to realize that our lines were now six miles long. We fired some artillery at the enemy who were crouched in bottom fields along the river. This had a good effect in terms of keeping them in place. I spent the night along the front lines.

“During the next day, the 30th, the enemy were digging trenches to connect their two river crossing points. There were fewer infantry visible on the heights overlooking Fredericksburg, but the artillery batteries were still strongly manned. Gen. Lee realized the threat was not from our front, but from a flanking movement on his left. Gen. Jackson ordered me to hold my position and some other troops were made available to me. Gen. Pendleton’s artillery remained on Marye’s and Lee’s Hills, the sites of so many casualties a few months ago. A number of gun batteries containing some seventeen pieces of artillery were also left with me. Gen. Lee directed me to hold the line as he moved that day and on May 1st to block Gen. Hooker at Chancellorsville. This stretching of my line left the interval between Deep Run and Lee’s Hill manned only by skirmishers with the only major defense being artillery cross-fire.

“On May 1st the enemy continued entrenching between the two crossing points. Gen. Pendleton sent forward an artillery battery of four guns placed near the pine trees at the right of the enemy’s crossing. On the 2nd, there were more Federal infantry on the other bank, and to test their strength artillery fire was opened on them at Deep Run and near the Pratt house. There were responses from two sets of batteries, but not the third. I rode to the top of Lee’s Hill to observe the enemy, and saw there were many more infantry moving on the opposite bank. I was then approached by Col. Chilton of Gen. Lee’s staff with a verbal order to move my troops to Chancellorsville. A large group of Yankee forces had been seen moving near Falmouth. I told the Col. that I was holding back a large force that would imperil Gen. Lee’s army, but Col. Chilton countered that Fredericksburg was not as important as blocking Hooker at Chancellorsville to guard the major routes to Richmond. He said that once Hooker was defeated, Fredericksburg could easily be retaken. There was no discretion left to me in Gen. Lee’s orders, and I began to move my troops leaving only a small number behind.

“I later found that Col. Chilton had misunderstood the orders from Gen. Lee and that Gen. Lee had said I was to move part of my forces only if the forces opposing me were not sufficient to detain all of my forces. They obviously were sufficient to detain all of my forces and then some. We had to exercise caution given the enemy batteries across the river and the large number of enemy infantry near us. This cautious withdrawal took several hours. My division was in full view of the enemy lines on the hills across the river which is to say in full view of their heavy artillery batteries. I determined to leave a brigade and regiment in defense of the area as well as some artillery. At this point an enemy balloon went up, and I was sure our movement had been discovered, but it was not, due to the incompetence of Yankee observers. We were dark getting into line along the Plank Road. Then I received a note from Gen. Lee saying that I should withdrew my troops only if it could be done safely, but if I thought I could neutralize or hold in check a large force of the enemy, I should remain where I was, which in this case was in Fredericksburg. At this point I determined to move forward to aid Gen. Lee who might sorely need my troops.

“At this point I received a message from Gen. Barksdale that the enemy had advanced with a  large force at Fredericksburg, and if we did not return, all the artillery would be captured. Gen. Barksdale concluded his message by saying he was already heading back. I determined at once to return to my former position. It turned out that most of the enemy forces were not advancing, and those that were had been stopped at the railroad line. We returned safely to our positions near Fredericksburg between 10:00 and 11:00 P.M,. and I threw out my skirmishers along the River Road.

“By early light I could see that none of the enemy were present on the opposite shore which meant that they were on our side of the river, but the point of attack was unknown. There was a large force with artillery at Deep Run, and there was a force threatening Marye’s Hill with infantry and artillery. The mass of the Yankee infantry was concealed in the wooded areas. We soon found there were three divisions, one between Deep Run and Hazel’s Run, one covering the bridge, and one facing Fredericksburg. Our artillery dislodged the enemy behind the railroad embankment, then we began to pour artillery fire on large bodies of infantry headed toward Fredericksburg. I stayed with my division on the weakest point on the right; I feared the enemy could come up Deep Run and divide my forces.

“The enemy batteries across the river were firing on Barksdale’s artillery, and there were simultaneous assaults by the enemy on Lee’s and Marye’s Hills with demonstrations against the heights above. The enemy took Marye’s Hill, but at a terrible cost; our little band of men held out through two massive assaults before their lines were broken. There were thousands of enemy casualties. Then an enemy column came up from the rear and captured another artillery unit. Those on Lee’s Hill had held out as long as possible, but as our forces withdrew from Marye’s Hill to avoid capture, so did those on Lee’s Hill. I did not realize this until a short time later. I then called up Gen. Gordon whose was on my right with three regiments to follow me on the Telegraph Road. I soon found Gen. Pendleton and blocked his retreat, then I found Gen. Barksdale rallying his forces. Had I known that Gen. Sedgwick’s plan was to attack only Lee’s and Marye’s Hills, I would have concentrated all my forces there. As it was we were scattered and lost these hills on that day. I knew they had to be retaken as enemy artillery placed there could  enfillade our troops. I received two messages from Gen. Lee as to the necessity of retaking the fort on Marye’s Hill. That night on May 3rd I concentrated my forces for an early morning attack. ”

General John B. Gordon:

“I had my forces on Gen. Early’s right and the next morning May 4th it was determined by the General to retake the fort on Marye’s Hill. I had never been in battle with this new brigade, and I had also misunderstood the order; my brigade was to be part of the group retaking the fort. I believed my brigade alone was to retake the fort. I said to them, ’We will know each other better when the battle of the day is over, I trust that we shall go together into that fort, and if there is a man in the brigade who does not wish to go with us, I will excuse him if he will step to the front and make himself known.’ Of course, no man stepped to the front, and I announced, ‘There is no man found who desires to be excused, and every man in this splendid brigade has thus declared his purpose to go into the fortress.’ There was prolonged and loud cheering after this, and we moved briskly to the attack. We were under full headway when I received an order to halt, but the order had come too late. My men were under heavy fire and almost into the fort, and a few more minutes would decide the result of the charge.

“When we reached Lee’s Hill, we found it empty, but a body of infantry was moving along the Plank Road toward Marye’s Hill and the ridge above, There was a considerable body of infantry coming between two houses and some artillery. I sent out skirmishers and made preparation to descend the hill and cross over Hazel Run above Marye’s Hill. There were two large groups of enemy infantry, possibly brigades moving very near, threatening my left. Graham’s artillery battery fired on them and drove them from the ridge. I then led my men in  dash across the run and after a sharp engagement drove off the infantry behind the road embankment. We captured some prisoners and several baggage and assistance wagons, including a battery wagon and a forge, and their teams. In this way we gained possession of Marye’s and Cemetery Hills, again.

General Early:

“I told Gen. Gordon afterward in a playful manner that had his charge failed, I would have had him court-martialed for disobedience of orders.”

General Gordon:

“I also remember that day that I came into possession of a fine horse; it belonged to a Union officer who had been killed and the horse was running toward our lines. She is a superb battle horse; she is absolutely transformed in combat, much like a horse in riding to the hounds in a fox hunt.  She thrills to the delight of battle. The bones of her legs are converted into steel-springs and her sinews into india-rubber. With head up and nostrils distended, her whole frame seems to thrill with a delight akin to that of foxhounds when the hunter’s horn summons them to the chase. With the ease of an antelope, she will bound across ditches and over fences which no amount of coaxing can induce her to undertake when not in the excitement of battle. Her courage is equal to her other high qualities. She is afraid of nothing. Neither the shouting of troops, nor the rattle of rifles, nor the roar of artillery, nor their bursting shells, intimidates her in the slightest.”

General Early:

“After our success in retaking the Hills, we had cut the enemy’s connections to Fredericksburg.  I ordered Gen. Barksdale’s brigade to take cover behind the stone wall and move as rapidly as possible to take possession of Fredericksburg. I then learned that the enemy’s wagon trains had escaped, and that the town was heavily fortified. I then sent orders to Barksdale to desist from attacking the the town. We waited and late on the night of May 4th, Barksdale asked for reinforcements as the enemy were moving through the town with troops and artillery; I told him to wait, they might be retreating, and we soon found that they were. On the 5th the enemy had crossed the river and by the 6th the rain came, and the campaign was over. We are rejoicing still over this brilliant and important victory.”

With a heavy heart we must describe the serious injury sustained by General Jackson some four days ago. We have been able to interview a number of people; the first eyewitness account comes Captain R. E. Wilbourn, Chief Signal Officer of the 2nd Corps. We have taken the liberty of condensing these narratives, but will remain true to their words.

Captain Richard E. Wilbourn, Chief Signal Officer:

“I will not retell for you the details of the battle, but will say the scene was quiet, on the evening of May 2nd, and the enemy were no longer at our immediate front. It was a little past 8:45 P.M. and there was bright moonlight All firing had stopped and Gen. Jackson took advantage of this lull to visit Rodes’ troops who had been in the thick of the fighting since the battle began. Gen. Jackson ordered Gen. Powell Hill to the front, with his fresh troops and requested that the change be made as quickly as possible. The General said, “….when you reach Chancellorsville, allow nothing to stop you! Press on to the United States Ford.”

“We were within half a mile of the open fields of Chancellorsville. where the enemy was said to be strongly entrenched. Gen. Jackson showed great impatience to get Hill’s troops into line, and he sent members of his staff with orders for this movement to be done more swiftly.

“Gen. Jackson had sent orders to Gen. Stuart that left no doubt that he intended to storm the enemy’s trenches as soon as the troops were in line, if this could bed done before the enemy recovered from their shock and confusion, Jackson could place his army between Hooker and the river. During this time, Gen. Jackson sat on his horse in front of the line on the pike. I was sent with an order for Gen. Hill; I galloped to see him some 50 yards away, and rode with him to the lines; he stopped a few feet from the front of these lines. I rode on to Gen. Jackson, who was in sight a few paces in front of Hill. By the time I reached him, he had sent the last of his staff officers with orders to Hill to move forward and then Gen. Jackson started riding slowly down the pike toward the enemy.

“I was riding on his left side, and two of my signal men were behind me, followed by more couriers riding two abreast. Gen. Jackson wanted to ride to the skirmish line while he waited for Hill’s message and ascertain from the pickets on the line what was known about enemy movements. His orders were always to keep a skirmish line in front of the line of battle. We had reached a point opposite an old dismantled house, and I was delivering Gen. Hill’s reply. To our great surprise, our small group was fired upon by a group of our troops, of less than a battalion in strength, who were a little to our right. There was at first a single gun discharged, probably as an accident, and then that misunderstood signal caused a volley of shots to be fired across the pike at us.

“I can hardly believe that the troops saw us, but had heard our horses’s feet on the pike, and they fired in the supposed direction of the enemy. I now know that a small group of Yankee artillery had previously fired on these troops, and they feared we were another group of mounted forces moving along the pike. Many of our escorts and their horses were shot down. As the firing began, our horses wheeled to the left, and Gen. Jackson galloped away, and I followed by his side. The few who had not been dismounted by the volley followed us. We sought to go into the woods to be out of range of the bullets, and had not gone over 20 yards from the pike into a thicket when the brigade on the left of the turnpike heard us coming from the direction of the enemy. They had dawn up not 30 yards from us and fired a volley as they knelt on their right knees, as could be seen from the flash of their guns, as they were set to repel a cavalry attack. In this volley, Gen. Jackson was wounded. 

“We now heard Gen. Hill calling at the top of his voice for the troops to cease firing. He and the troops along the pike had seen us go by, and I do think these troops had fired upon us. I was alongside of Gen. Jackson and saw his arm fall at his side, loosing the reins as the volley came from our left side. His horse wheeled suddenly, and began to run toward the enemy. The limb of a tree took off his cap, and I rode after him. I could see that he was flat on his horse’s back. In my haste the limb took off my hat also. The General soon regained his seat on his horse, had the reins in his right hand, and turned his horse toward the pike and our men. I caught his horse as he reached the pike. No one else was in sight besides the General, Private Wynn, and myself.

“I held the General’s horse and asked what I could do for him, and did he feel able to ride to our lines. He answered, “You had best take me down.” Then he began to slide from his horse as he partially fainted from loss of blood. I was on the side of his broken arm and the horse was pointed toward the enemy. We were now near where we had first been fired on, and the horse was nervous, suffering from his own wounds. The Gen. said he could not understand why he had been fired upon from the direction of Lane’s regiment. I asked him if he was hurt, and he replied, “I fear my arm is broken.” I asked, “See if you can move your fingers. If you can work your fingers, it is not broken.” Gen. Jackson replied, “Yes, it is broken, I cannot move my fingers.” I asked , “General, what can I do for you” He replied,”I wish you would see if it is bleeding much.” I dismounted and asked, “Where were you struck?” His answer, “About halfway between the elbow and the shoulder,” and now he was in obvious pain. I felt his rubber poncho sleeve and there was the lump of a broken bone and blood coming down his sleeve and dripping from his wrist. He also complained of a bullet wound in his right hand. I said that I would have to cut his sleeve to dress his arm, and he replied that I needed to help him down from his horse.  He said to come around to the other side.

Gen. Jackson fell over me, and I supported him in my arms until Priv. Wynn could get his feet out of the stirrups; then we carried him some 10-15 steps north of the pike, where he was laid on the ground with his head resting in my lap. Gen. Hill and Capt. Leigh held his arm while I cut away the sleeve. All this time Gen. Hill was saying that he had tried to stop the firing, and Gen. Jackson responded that he was in severe pain from his broken arm.

“I proceeded to dress the General’s wounds, cutting off his coat sleeves, he said to me to cut away all the sleeves. The Gen. was coherent but spoke only when any of us asked questions. I tied a handkerchief above and below his wounds, and made a sling for his arm. Wynn went for Dr. Maguire and an ambulance, and I was alone with Gen. Jackson until Gen. Hill came up. General Jackson revived a little and asked for a skillful surgeon to attend to him. At this point Lieut. Morrison arrived and said the enemy was only fifty yards away and we must move the General. As I had finished tying up his broken arm, I asked the General about any other wounds, and he said he had a wound in his right hand, but it was trifling. When we offered to carry him, he said he could walk, and did so for a few steps. I knew his injuries were serious and he needed immediate medical attention. Capt. Leigh was sent in search of a surgeon.

We were moving slowly leading three horses; we tried to keep the General’s identity a secret, but soon the word spread, and soon men arrived with a litter. At this point the enemy were a short distance away and opened fire. There were both a battery and an infantry group and they pelted us with a terrific fire of grape, shells, Minnie balls, etc. As the enemy advanced at a rapid rate, the men around us were caught in confusion and panic. I thought for a time Gen. Jackson and our party would fall into the hands of the enemy. The horses jerked loose and one of the litter bearers was shot through both arms. At this point, General Jackson fell to the ground on his wounded side, and his wound began to bleed afresh. The three others close-by made their bodies a human shield and told Gen. Jackson he was risking his life if he raised up.

“I rode away in search of some whiskey to revive the General, and met Dr. McGuire and Col. Pendleton a short distance away. The ambulance came up, and we loaded Gen. Jackson safely into the vehicle. So many of our troops had fled that I was determined to stay with the General and nurse his wounds as I was sure the enemy would soon capture us. Gen. Hill, we heard, had been injured in the enemy’s attack. The enemy was soon driven back, and it became quiet again. I soon heard the rumor that the General had said to fire at anything that came from the direction of the enemy, but I heard no such order.

Private David Joseph Kyle, Scout, 9th Virginia Cavalry

“I had returned from the delivery of a number of messages; I am 19 and have been in the service for two years; I had served also as a courier for Gen. “Rooney” Lee. For the past three days I had been a messenger for Gen. Stuart. I had brought a dispatch to Gen. Jackson about 6:30 and because of my knowledge of the Chancellorsville area, I was asked to stay as a guide; I was “impressed” into his service. It was now about 9:00 and Gen. Jackson was becoming increasingly nervous. I was behind the couriers in our column of two as the Gen. attempted to ascertain the strength and location of the scattered Union line. Gen. Hill fell in with our group with his staff and rode with us, but well behind. We all proceeded slowly down the Plank Road; I heard no attempt to inform staff officers of the North Carolina regiment that we passed of our identities. We were headed toward the Rappahannock and Gen. Jackson wanted a parallel road to better scout out the enemy. Mountain Road ran parallel to the Plank Road, which was now too full of debris as well as too dangerous to be of use.

“Gen. Jackson called to me and asked where the two roads went that angled off from the Plank Road and I replied, “that they ran sorter parallel with the Plank Road and came out on it about half a mile below towards Chancellorsville.” We then started down the narrow Mountain Road, and the General remained suspicious of the narrow trails. I became aware that I was the only one who knew this area, and Gen. Jackson at first kept about 200 yards back and then rode next to me. We were soon almost to the skirmish line of the 33rd North Carolina, who were busily felling trees for defensive barricades. There were some 200-300 yards ahead in the dark. Jackson sat for a short space of time on his horse, Little Sorrel and listened. Then we continued up Mountain Road, and it was now about 9:30. I followed pretty close to him, but then as Gen. Jackson started to turn out of the road, some four or five horsemen crowded in ahead of me, and I sorter reined in my horse, and this made a little space between myself and Gen. Jackson.

“We heard a series of gunfire as we now know a Pennsylvania regiment got in between the two North Carolina regiments, the 7th and 33rd. We were now back on the Plank Road near the dismantled Van Wert house. Gen. Hill and his men were seated near the 18th North Carolina; Gen. Jackson was now about a hundred yards from this regiment. Suddenly a shot was fired across the Plank Road and then five or six men began firing. Little Sorrel wheeled away from the gunfire, and Gen. Jackson had the reins in his left hand as he used his right to push away branches. There were now random shots toward any sound, particularly sounds of horses. The 18th Carolina were firing on horsemen coming from the direction of the Yankee lines.

“Lieut. Joe Morrison’s horse was shot from under him, and he fell into a tree, briefly losing consciousness. With his horse now dead he ran toward the Tarheels and called on them to cease firing as they were firing into their own men. Major John D. Barry of the 18th said that order was a lie and for his men to fire into the group, “It’s a lie! Pour it to them, boys!” he yelled. Our two parties Jackson’s and Hill’s were 25 yards from the fire, and our groups melted. Gen. Jackson was hit by three .57 caliber bullets. I saw that he had been hit and Little Sorrel bolted. Capt. Wilbourn and Private Wynn jumped to support the General. Ten of our group of nineteen were struck. I came up to Gen. Jackson and heard him say, “All my wounds are by my own men.”

 Captain James Power Smith, Aide-de-Camp, to Gen. Jackson

“I have seen many things over the past several days; we were awakened early on April 29th by the news that Hoooker’s army was crossing the Rappahannock in the fog on pontoon boats. Gen. Jackson had spent the night at the Yerby home, and his wife had brought their infant child for him to see. I carried the message of the movement of the Federal troops to Gen. Lee who was camped a mile away. We did not move on that day or the following day, the 30th. After midnight on May 1 and daybreak at 6  A. M. our troops were moved, and stopped Hooker’s advance on the Old Plank Road, near the Tabernacle Church, some four miles east of Chancellorsville. Gen. Jackson took command of the advance. All the Yankee’s advance troops by nightfall on the 1st had been driven back on Hooker’s main forces. That night just after midnight I was awakened by the sight of two men sitting on old cracker boxes with a small fire of twigs before them. It was Gens. Lee and Jackson who talked late and then slept on the pine needles. I slept with my saddle for a pillow wrapped in a horse blanket.

“It was full daylight when someone rudely kicked my foot to say the General wanted me. I heard the rythmic click of canteens from the marching infantry and jumped on horseback to join Gen. Jackson. He was sitting on horseback with his cap pulled low watching the troops pass, and he gave me orders to distribute on the ambulances and the wagon trains. When I returned, Gen. Jackson and his staff had gone with the troops. I rode some ten torturous miles given the small progress of infantry on bad roads and found Gen. Jackson at 3 P.M. seated on a stump. He was writing a dispatch t0 Gen. Lee as to the fact that the enemy had halted to make a stand and it was his plan to attack as soon as it was practicable. Then he added, “I trust that Kind Providence will bless us with great success. ” The assault came between five and six in an area of dense undergrowth; this area is rightly called “the Wilderness”. The Federal troops under Gen. Howard were scattered through field and forest as they were preparing their evening meal. The Yankee officers were asleep under trees and the butchers at work slaughtering beef. Soon by the quiet church and the Chancellor home were thousands of the dead and wounded.

“I had been ordered to stay at the point where the attack began and to be the center of communications. There was a fine black charger found tied to a tree and abandoned by his owner and this became my mount for just this evening. About 8 P.M. I gathered my couriers about me and went in search of Gen. Jackson. After I passed men seeking their units and prisoners under guard, I came to an old cabin in a field and saw horsemen gathered there. I was told Gen. Jackson was just ahead on the road. I had not gone a hundred yards before I heard a shot and then a company volley on the right and then another upon the left. I then met Capt. Murray Taylor, and aide of Gen. Powell Hill, and he said that both Gen. Jackson and Hill had been wounded, and some of their men killed. I passed our line of battle and found Gen. Jackson’s horse beside a sapling about a rod from the men who were caring for the General.

“Gen. Jackson told me of the tragic sequence of events and they were confirmed by those around him. The fresh Confederate troops had been quickly sent forward to relieve the brigades that were scattered in the brush in the twilight. Gen. Jackson was half a mile from the Federal forces and in front of the fresh troops who were unaware of his presence. He had come back down the road and the troops were now on his left. He was not two rods from Pender’s North Carolina troops when they opened fire. His worst injury was to his left arm which left the large bone splintered to the elbow joint and bled freely. I put his arm into a sling, and couriers were sent to Dr. Hunter McGuire, the surgeon for the corps. I helped the Gen. walk for a distance through the woods as the Plank Road was not safe; soon the Gen. was exhausted and we found men to carry a litter. In carrying the General on a litter, we came under enemy artillery fire. One carrier was wounded and the others hid behind trees; the Gen. was dropped on his left arm and for the first time groaned with pain.  I became a human shield for the General; the litter bearers carried him for some twenty more minutes until we reached a field hospital. After midnight in a specially prepared hospital tent, Gen. Jackson’s left arm was amputated just below the shoulder and the bullet was removed from his right hand.

“I sat by Gen. Jackson all night long, and kept him warmly wrapped and undisturbed as he slept. He aroused at 9 A.M. the next day to the sound of cannon fore as Gen. J. E. B. Stuart was in his place and  was heavily engaged.  A dispatch was sent to Gen. Lee to announce Gen. Jackson’s disability, and Gen. Lee responded that he would heve been glad to have been wounded in place of Gen. Jackson and congratulated him upon his victory. I read the note to Gen. Jackson and he was pleased but said the real thanks for the victory should be given to God.  He passed a long day on Sunday and was much improved. On Monday he was transferred by ambulance to more comfortable quarters.”

Thanks to a complex system of telegraphic connections, we have received a series of dispatches from our friend, the Shadow, who has been at Vicksburg with General Grant. We will now attempt to weave these conversations with the leading participants into a seamless narrative.

Gen. Grant:

“I arrived here at the front on January 29th; the following day I ordered Gen. McPherson to cut the levee at Lake Providence which would allow us to reach the Red River just above Port Hudson some 400 miles from Vicksburg. The city of Vicksburg sits on the first high bluff on the Mississippi below Memphis. The Yazoo River empties into the Mississippi some nine miles above the city. This river is significant for our plan to go around the city to avoid the gun emplacements on the bluffs as all along the river the bluffs are highest next to the river, unless the the river erodes the bluffs and then flows into bayous. There was also an attempt made to dig a canal a mile in length below Vicksburg to move supplies and men out of the range of the enemy’s guns from the river to another body of water. This construction work first with 4000 men and then with two dredges was abandoned after a flood some three weeks ago. The essential problem here is that the enemy control the river all the way from Port Hudson to Vicksburg.    

“At the point where the Yazoo River begins, there is an island barely above water, which was manned and labeled Fort Pemberton. There were two failed attacks on these fortifications on March 11th and 13th by our gunboats. Two days ago we abandoned any canal schemes as passage through bayous and rivers would be some 470 miles to come out above Port Hudson. Some two weeks ago I went with Admiral Porter on a gunboat expedition, and we took several gunboats and transports down to Black Bayou; we met some sharpshooters, and I sent for Sherman and he found some 4000 Confederates ready for a fight, so we have withdrawn from that plan. This was the fourth of our attempts to get behind Vicksburg.

“I need also extend my thanks to Gens. Joseph Johnston and Baxton Bragg, and that that supreme strategist, Mr. Jefferson Davis, who were so concerned that what were doing here was a feint that they agreed to send a crucial number of troops from here to  Tullahoma, Tennessee to guard lower Tennessee and northern Mississippi, and these troops are still there. The ability of our forces to camouflage their purpose made it impossible for Gen. Pemberton to justify the requests that his troops be returned to Vicksburg. His defenses as well are all trained on the river from the city bluffs.  His manpower can not long resist a war on all sides as we are coming from his vulnerable side, from the direction of the rising sun.” 

NB:

Admiral Porter and General Sherman spent March 14th-27th exploring Chickasaw Bayou. I will let General Sherman’s earlier conversations describe for you the obstructions placed by the enemy and the inconsistent water levels. He is currently in the field.

General Sherman:

“I had been ordered by Gen. Grant on March 16th ‘to proceed as early as practicable up Steele’s Bayou and through Black Bayou to Deer Creek, and thence with the gunboats now there by any route that they might take to get into the Yazoo River, for the purpose of determining the feasibility of getting an army through that route to the east bank of that river, and at a point from which they may act advantageously against Vicksburg.’ I was detailed two steamers to attempt this route, and the party on one was to push on until reaching Black Bayou and the other to commence their work in Steele’s Bayou. General Grant believed the only real obstacle would be some five miles of overhanging trees at about the midpoint of Steele’s Bayou.

“We traveled in a navy tug about sixty miles up Steele’s Bayou and met at that point the gunboat Price and turned into the crooked channel, which is well-named Black Bayou. There were many overhanging oak trees, some a foot thick. Then we entered into Deer Creek, and I overtook Admiral Porter and went some two miles with him; he requested that I use all possible manpower to clear Black Bayou. Admiral Porter was going up Deer Creek with his ironclads.

“On the 19th I heard the sound of gun-fire and I received a message from Admiral Porter that he had been attacked; the message was delivered written on tissue paper concealed in a plug of tobacco. The Admiral was need of rescue, as he had met a force of infantry and artillery. I ordered a force of 800 men to the rescue, all that I could spare, and as I was almost alone, I took a canoe down Black Bayou, and soon found the gunboat Price and the Silver Wave that had just arrived with fresh men. We put men in an empty coal-barge behind  a tug and crashed through the trees. We lost the smoke-stacks,the pilot house, and everything above deck on our trip, and made only 2 and 1/2 of the four miles on the first day.

On the 21st, I was leading men on foot and we could still hear Porter’s guns. We walked a road along Deer Creek, and when we had to cross water, it was hip-deep. We stopped at a plantation near some Indian mounds and heard from a picket that Admiral Porter was in retreat having met strong resistance with obstructions placed by the enemy in Deer Creek. 

Admiral Porter:

“I had almost reached the Rolling Fork, when the woods became full of sharp-shooters, who were behind every tree, bush, and levee. Any man who poked his head out from the armored area was shot. We could not handle our clumsy boats in the channel. The enemy had anticipated our movement and a party of some 400 had completely restricted our access to the upper part of Deer Creek by felling trees into the river. A crew of rebels had gotten behind us and felled trees in the river to block our retreat.    

“General Sherman arrived with sufficient force to allow us to back down Deer Creek and escape. I had made up my mind that if we were trapped by the enemy, we would blow up our gun-boats and trek overland.  There were no more sharp-shooters, but we were still three days in backing out of Deer Creek and into Black Bayou and arriving at Hill’s plantation. From there I proceeded to the mouth of the Yazoo River.”

General Sherman:

“On April 8th, I expressed my concern that with the main road to Memphis secure, we were not having councils of war. I now feel that the diversion by General Van Dorn in the burning of the supply depot in Holly Springs has already caused us some four  months of useless struggle. I am certain that Vicksburg could have been taken in January by coming through Oxford, Mississippi.  I was an eyewitness to the flotilla that passed Vicksburg on the night of April 16th. There were seven ironclads personally led by Admiral Porter, on the Benton. In anticipation of boats being severely damaged I had four yawl-boats hauled across the swamp, to reach the river below Vicksburg. There were manned by sailors ordered to pick any wrecks from the flotilla.

“I was out in the stream when the flotilla passed by, and it was a sublime sight. Admiral Porter’s ship was the first to draw fire and soon  there were houses set on fire on both sides of the river. I heard the roar of cannon and the bursting shells. Then the Henry Clay was set on fire and burned down to the water line. Each gun boat returned fire while the transports hugged the opposite shore. When the Benton was abreast of us, I boarded her and had a few words with Admiral Porter, as his was drifting toward the lower batteries, I left and we pulled toward the shore. The gun-boat Tuscumbia was towing the transport, the Forest Queen, toward the bank and out of the range of fire. Captain Conway of the Forest Queen was the only commander of a transport that refused volunteers for his crew; he kept his original crew.

“On the night of April 26th, six transports with numerous barges loaded with hay, corn, freight and provisions made their way safely past Vicksburg, so that General Grant’s army had adequate supplies now below Vicksburg to move overland. I am now waiting for the roads to dry.   

General Grant:

“When it was first proposed to run the blockade at Vicksburg with river steamers, there were but two captains or masters who were willing to accompany their  vessels and but one crew. Volunteers were then called in from the army; the requirement being experience in any capacity in navigating western waters. There were five times more volunteers than could be used. Most came from General Logan’s divisions  from southern Illinois.

“The enemy now knew that we were deeply in earnest and and on the night of April 16th, Admiral Porter’s upper fleet consisting of six gun-boats and several transports ran the batteries at Vicksburg. The enemy had no idea this could be done with regular steamboats fortified with cotton bales and large barges fortified with coal and forage lashed along-side. We lost one transport that caught on fire in full view of the city; we also lost two other boats and some barges. Eight boats were able to get past both Vicksburg and Warrenton. The movement of our boats soon disturbed the pickets in small boats that they crossed the river to the voillage of De Soto and set several houses on fire to illuminate the river to aid their attack. Our sharpshooters took advantage of this unexpected illumination.

 ”We also have a sizable flotilla at Grand Gulf and will continue to send barges past Vicksburg. This will enable us to ferry a  large force across the river and attack Vicksburg from the rear. There will be no withdrawal of our forces from this area until Vicksburg has fallen.

“I do not speak to the majority of reporters as when I do not reveal my plans they label me as indolent and unintelligent. My troops have suffered in this winter encampment as they cannot find dry ground for camping and the area is malarial. Measles and small-pox have taken their toll. We have excellent hospital arrangements and medical personnel, which have reduced the levels of sickness. When the waters recede, we will renew our plan to take Vicksburg from the south and east. 

“There has been a great deal of talk about our army as nothing more than organized looters; in my Special Orders No. 110 of April 20th, I made the following provisions under Item 13: “Commanders are authorized and enjoined to collect all the beef cattle, corn and other necessary supplies on the line of march; but wanton destruction of property, taking up articles useless for military purposes, insulting citizens, going into and searching houses without proper orders from division commanders, are positively prohibited. All such irregularities must be summarily punished.”  

“I can now tell you that General Sherman on the 29th, successfully crossed the river at Bruinsboro, and today defeated Bowen at Port Gibson. We will cut the railroad connections to Jackson, which is fifty miles to the east. I am myself now headed into the field. Watch for my campfires as I put the squeeze on Vicksburg.”        

 We await the next article from the Shadow.

News from All Around: The Washington Mirror-Observer on Life in Richmond: Bread Riots and Food Shortages

[We wanted to share with our readers some recent "news" articles from a sister publication in Lincoln-Land to see the depths to which Yankee newspapers will sink. In this case, the topics are inter-related; the bread riots and food shortages in our beloved capital city of Richmond. NB]

W. H.  Seward  Weakley from the April 17, 1863 Washington Mirror-Observer:

Confederate currency will soon be worth little more than the paper that it is printed on; as the saying went during the Revolution, it soon will be “not worth a Continental”,  throughout the Starving South. Our sources in Richmond have verified the prices there are indicative of uncontrolled inflation.  Meal is $12 a bushel, corn meal $17, meat has almost disappeared, butter is $3.50 a pound, coal is at $20.50 a ton, wood $30 a cord, and there was six inches of snow as late as last week. The common soldiers are paid as high as $30 a month; their actual income in hard currency is 55 cents a month.

The depth of hunger and despair can be gauged by the notorious “Bread Riot” of April 2nd, which began on a bright spring morning as a mob of “disreputable” citizens plundered more than bread in the capital city. First, a few hundred women and children, by some freak of nature, had simultaneously arrived at the Capitol Square. Their plan was to go to city bakeries and ask for one loaf for each person as their fair share. The military authorities in Richmond, bent on proving there was a conspiracy to riot, now claim that a  few men were the primary source of agitation, not the hungry. This small crowd were foreign-born, a class of “exempted” aliens, who have shied away from military service as they had in Ireland and Germany. This was made possible by the Asst. Secretary of War,  Judge Campbell, who has made them legally exempt. This was probably due to a local plan to keep them close by as a source of cheap labor. 

A mob moved from the western gates of the square, marched past the War Department, crossed Main Street, and rapidly increased in numbers. They  were generally silent and in good order. A delegation went to the nearby home of Gov. Letcher, and unfortunately, interrupted his hearty breakfast. He told them to stop by his office later. The common reaction of “better” people was expressed by a black maid who grabbed the small white child who was her responsibility and pulled him away, so that as she said he would not to catch anything from these “dirty white folks”.

Gov. Letcher, now fed and ready for action, had an alarm bell rung to bring out the Police Guard. Then Col. Josiah Gorgas arrived with a guard unit from the Armory. At this point the head of the YMCA, Mr. William M. Mumford, told the crowd to come to his building, and they would be fed. A few did, but most continued on to the business district. A woman with a white feather in her hat was out front with Miss Minerva Medford, who was armed with a pistol. At first flour, ham, and other foods were grabbed along with some jewelry and tools. Within an hour, however, the unwashed had emptied most of the stores of the speculators in necessities for the military, whether, leather, wool, or cotton. As the mob increased in numbers, a boy was seen leaving a store with a hat full of money. The mob had many of the most common weapons: hammers, axes, knives, and the most formidable of all Irish weapons, sharp-tongued women.

As with a plague of locusts, the mob absorbed every high-value item in their path.  The later claim was that the riot started when either a mother and child or a starving young woman told a passerby that they were looking for something to eat. However, their want list was mainly alphabetical: apples, apple jack, bread, biscuits, cloth, cookware, etc., as they were urged on by the sharp-tongued women. These same women, it was later claimed, who bewailed the plight of their starving children, were apparently about to feed them stolen shoe leather and cavalry boots, which are best served boiled, or so it would seem. To this diet was to be added heaps 0f cotton cloth and woolen goods. Seldom was a store bothered that was stocked with flour, bacon, or other food staples. About this time, firemen cooled them down with hoses, which was perhaps another bad idea, as this fueled, not dampened, their resolve.  

The resolute Gov. Letcher, who was first summoned from his breakfast to handle the situation, now faced a full-scale disorder, and alerted to the loss of plate glass, women’s finery, and money, he sprang to action. He considered simply firing on the crowd, but thought better as many carried stout lengths of rope. He then bravely had Mayor Mayo read the Riot Act and gave the group five minutes to disperse. A few women dispersed, but most doubted the city battalion would fire on its own people. Perhaps a few hardy individuals mentioned the justice meted out by Judge Lynch to the well-fed Governor. The crowd at this point was reliably estimated at 10,000 people.

What we cannot neglect to tell our readers was how President Davis handled the situation. Suddenly the President appeared; he would have arrived, mounted on his tall steed as would have Washington or Grant, but his best horse had been taken from his stable the night before. As a namesake of Jefferson, who loved the yeoman class, Mr. Davis bravely addressed the throngs of Dutch, Fenian, and former bondmen  from a dray wagon near the Capitol. He told them to go home so that the bayonets of the Home Guard could be turned against the enemy. He said such ri0ts would only increase hunger as food deliveries to the city would no longer be considered safe. At some point in the crisis, the Captain of the Guard attempted to influence the crowd by mentioning the fact that each rifle contained “two bullets and a charge of buckshot”.

President Davis was more diplomatic; he knew that there had been a similar riot very recently in Salisbury, North Carolina, and he wanted to defuse this situation. Therefore, he offered his last loaf of bread to the crowd and was met with cheers as he followed this offer and tossed them all the money he had in his wallet and possibly his pocket watch. As least his wife was reported to have said so later in the day while sampling pastries and some thinly-sliced pound cake, during her afternoon high tea.

The crowd dispersed and the Home Guards arrested some 38  people, half of them labeled as “toughs”, the rest of them professional thieves, Irish and Yankee hags, and gallows birds from all lands. This gives rise to a new way to confront any national crisis; throw rice and money at the problem. We hope this does not have to become a regular occurrence. The ancient Romans distributed bread and lentils on a weekly basis, but their motto also was “bread and games”. Do such planned riots as on April 2nd come under this category of games? Only time will tell.

The next morning the most corrupt of all the speculators in Richmond, which covers a wide ground, Gens. Elzey and Winder, wanted the Sect. of War to consider bringing in troops camped nearby to gain some combat experience by firing on the mob, which by this time consisted entirely of women and children still in the street, or at the very least, roughing them up. The Sect., as might be expected of all political generals or cabinet members, hesitated for a while, then said no, as this would be an absurd situation. He said that such action was a state or city decision, not a decision to be made by the national government, certainly not by a dignified member of the Davis cabinet and government. For him this was states’ rights at its best; it was no longer his problem. The Home Guard easily dispersed the crowd and made a few arrests. By the end of the day, food coupons and government rice and flour were being distributed, which has to be taken home and baked or boiled, so no longer were the people steaming,  just their rice.

Mayor Mayo Denounces the Rioters: “Men’s hats are not bread!”

The Mayor, Mr. Mayo, has conducted trials for days where with the shortage of chairs the defendants have sat on their hard-won boxes of stolen food. His most noted comment made the day after the riot has been this, “There is no reason there should be any suffering among the poor of this city. More money has been appropriated than has been applied for. It should be, and is, well understood, that the riot yesterday was not for bread. Boots are not bread, brooms are not bread, men’s hats are not bread, and I never heard of anybody’s eating them.”

Col. Josiah Gorgas equally shocked by claims of any local poverty stated that when daily wages are $1.50-$3.00 a day, even with flour at $30.00 a barrel, people will not starve. Sources tell us he made this foolish comment immediately after talking with President Davis who said he could barely make ends meet on his salary. As an outsider, we cannot see how people in Richmond can ignore widespread hunger and blame it and most war time problems on malcontents and agitators as does our equally ill-informed President Lincoln.  

The Richmond Examiner, not surprisingly, wanted to put all the mob to death. [We should mail them a copy of Carlyle's French Revolution.]

President Davis on Food and Battle Plans: Crops to be Planted Near the Troops

 On the agricultural side, which translates as essential foodstuffs, President Davis has joined the Congressional opposition to the planting of tobacco and cotton. He wrote just ten days ago that “Let fields be devoted exclusively to the production of corn, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, and other food for man and beast; let corn be sown broadcast for fodder…” Suffice it to say he continued by saying more food should be planted in areas where southern troops are concentrated. He did not discuss what would happen if his  troops move, but food will have to follow the troops. He also continued to say that the northern armies and navies had been soundly defeated, as happens to all who would subjugate a free people. However, the same powerful armies and fleets remain, and will, he writes, be driven by Mr. Lincoln “to desperate efforts to effect the unholy purposes in which it has thus been defeated.”

The President has also expressed his full confidence in Gen. John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg, despite the fact that he was born in the North. How these rumors begin that only those from the Deep South are committed to the Cause is beyond us. We can only believe that the Confederate Congress does not have enough to do if they torment the President about the loyalty of the commanders. 

Lincoln Tours Fredericksburg: W. H. Seward Weakley’s Eyewitness Account

[If our readers believe that only our President Davis receives heavy criticism, read on as Mr. W. H. Seward Weakley describes President Lincoln and the new General-Commanding of the "Army of the Potomac". N.B.]

Newspapers all over the North that have made their way to our office here in Washington, tell of Mr. Lincoln still being focused on Virginia. He is currently making a tour of the sites of the failed campaigns of the winter, including Fredericksburg. a less kinder commentator would call this the “unmitigated disaster tour”. Rumor has it that the most befuddled of generals, H. W. Halleck, and the foul-tempered War Secretary E. M. Stanton have been on some of the “secret” tours as well.  Mr. Lincoln is making this sojourn with the most prominent of  the ”unholy types” the hard-drinking womanizer, Joe Hooker, whose name has already been immortalized by his many female camp followers. Perhaps ”Fighting Joe” exhaling bourbon fumes reminds Old Abe of Stephen A. Douglas, who met a hero’s death on his final drinking tour in the West, the Campaign of ’61, some two years ago while drumming up support for Lincoln’s War.  We Yankees usually call this “Dutch Courage”. Even though a Scot, Little Mac was a champagne man as we remember; we await news on what those unholy and wholly unwashed and uncivilized men, Grant and Sherman are consuming in Mississippi, probably anything declared contraband.

It is well-known that General Hooker correctly identified that scamp Gen. Halleck as a heartless profiteer (lawyer) in his pre-war days, and rumor has it that the price of command is that Halleck must stay out of the loop. As Mr. Lincoln might say, “That reminds me of a joke.” Halleck has never been known to express a definite opinion since being recalled to military service. Perhaps Old Abe is impressed because Halleck wrote a book, not may generals can say that. It is an open secret that Hooker is gearing up for decisive action and when making any strategic plans he will keep reporters far from his tent.

 [This marks the end of Mr. Weakley's roasting of both Presidents and their minions. NB]

Richmond, April 24, 1863, Nevill C. Blacklidge, Special Correspondent

Another Breakdown in Yankee Security–A Purloined Letter: Lincoln’s Advice to Hooker

We have received through unnamed reliable sources who travel by unknown channels, a copy of the letter from Old Abe to “Fighting Joe”.  As these two politicos control the destiny of the United States and are bent on military action in a matter of days, this letter may reveal, in part, our own destiny this spring. We will now quote the most interesting portions.

Mr. Lincoln to General Hooker:

“I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. …. I have done this on upon what appear to me as sufficient reasons. And yet, I am not quite satisfied with you, as I consider you ambitious, and I am well aware of how you have previously undermined your superior officer, Gen. Burnside. This was done in my hearing in our conversations at the War Department and may at any time be confirmed by Gen. Halleck and Sect. Stanton. You have done the country a great disservice as you thwarted your superior officer in his most recent campaign, which as we both know was a dismal failure.

“I have heard of your saying that both the Army and Government needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. … What I ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. … I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the Army, of criticising their Commander, and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist you … to put it down. Neither you, nor Napoleon, if he were alive …, could get any good out of an army, while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance go forward, and give us victories.”

 [We can only hope that Mr. Lincoln's hopes are misplaced, and that we may again this Spring be blessed with ceaseless, heaven-sent rain to be followed by mud of immeasurable depths to welcome "Fighting Joe" Hooker as we welcomed Little Mac last year. Welcome to Virginia in the Spring, General Hooker! May you have a memorable visit! NB]

A group of us gathered last night to share our thoughts as we begin the third spring of this war. Those of us who have been here since the Fall of ’61 have seen the triumphs and the reverses of war, and we thought our readers might benefit from some of our first hand impressions. We have also tried to render these comments as accurately as we could without the taking of notes, which tends to stifle conversation; we will vouch, however,  for the general accuracy of our memory of the comments.

NB: “To begin, how are things in the War Department and what excitement did I miss while at home in Alabama?”

Mr. J. B. Jones:

“I remember vividly the Legislature on February 1st reporting on the general prices of food, and the average is a seven-fold increase in every area since April 1861. Beef is a dollar a pound. Apple brandy is up to $15.00 a keg, that bought a suit of clothes before this war. Everything from jeans to shoe soles are close to a tenfold increase. Boots are now $60.00.  In early February also there were representatives here from Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois who wanted to bring those states into the Confederacy.  I would hope that Ohio would also join a Northern Confederacy. They were to meet on Valentine’s Day in Frankfort, Kentucky to formalize their plans. No more word on that, but West Virginia is now part of Lincoln Land, by a process I would call secession from Virginia.

“There was a period of 8-10 hours on February 2nd when Old Bory announced the Charleston blockade had been lifted, but by nightfall,  just as with the mosquitoes and many other forms of vermin, the Yankee gunboats were back. The do-nothing Congress to celebrate all of this raised their pay. Houses in Richmond without furniture now average $1800.00 per year, ours is $800 furnished with the landlord’s wife and her family residing in one room. They failed to find a home outside the city this past fall, and we are all now in the five room cottage. Our landlord has lost his mind, and is in an asylum. The family says the problem is hereditary, but I believe it is the stress of war. Food is now often so scarce a rat is on our house comes out for food and is as friendly as a cat. I hope we will always have some food scraps or eventually we may have to eat our new pet. Perhaps strangest of all, you may now walk for miles and never encounter a beggar; did they ever exist at all?   

“General Lee also attempted in February to launch a food-drive for his hungry soldiers, but the Commissary Department was opposed. I wanted to reopen my War Department ledger for charitable contributions, in this case the soldiers needed meat. I wrote a letter to President Davis who lives next door to our department, but nothing happened immediately. Red tape is mightier than patriotism still. By late February the waterfront of Vicksburg had to be abandoned after assaults by Union gunboats, at the same time Gen. Lee approved my plan to raise food for the troops. By February his troops were on a ration of eighteen ounces of flour, four ounces of “bacon” (at least it is labeled that), with occasional rice, sugar, or molasses. Yesterday these hungry men observed Pres. Davis’ day of fasting, such is their loyalty to Gen. Lee.     

“By March 1st, our landlord returned after seven months with fellow lunatics, and our house was so crowded we had to move. Mrs. G, our landlady, now wants to take in boarders to make more money than renting, and turkeys are now $15.00 each and beef is up to $1.25. I hope our little pet is safe as we could not take him along. Renters are usually not allowed to being along rats as they arrive; they usually are already non-paying and have taken up residence in most rental homes; part of the problem is that no salaried person can afford a boarding house, not even a confirmed bachelor. We moved to a house with three childless widows already in residence. Two rooms have been fitted up for us. There are fruit trees and a vegetable garden. I have fantasies of all kinds of fresh vegetables for our table by summer. My income as well may improve when my book New Western Scenes is printed in May, my royalty will be 12 1/2 cents a copy.

“We heard in early March that Lincoln’s Congress voted him total power to arrest any citizen, to raise 300,000 troops, and voted him $900,000,000. This war is costing the Yankees a reported $2,000,000 daily. I am sworn not to reveal our own departmental budget. On March 6th, I passed by 53rd birthday, gray-haired but still erect. I can and often do work without glasses. Col. Gorgas came into our office about March 6th, to renounce citizenship to Lincoln land and file an oath of allegiance. He is our Chief of Ordnance, but apparently has met with criticism is some quarters because he is from Pennsylvania. About two weeks ago, General Toombs resigned; he is former Sect. of State and currently Governor of Georgia; his move fueled speculation that he plans to make a separate peace with Lincoln. This would surely spell the doom of our nation. At this point it all remains speculation. On Mar. 13th a government lab blew up killing five or six persons. Most of the fatalities were indigent girls employed in manufacturing rifle cartridges.

“Last week the most recent round of currency inflation began and ten dollars were needed for one gold dollar. Threats of an invasion by Gen. Hooker are fueling inflation, but we are safe because Gen. Longstreet is here, and Gen. G. W. Smith is gone.  Do you remember that a week ago today we had a foot of snow on the ground?  The same day we heard that Gen. Hooker had collected some 40,000 slaves on the peninsula for service in his spring campaign. We are gaining 1,000 conscripts each week. In east Tennessee we enrolled 25,000 conscripts in the past week, but only 6,000 are considered fit for duty. In 60 days half of our men will go home as their term of service will have ended. Finally, yesterday was another of President Davis’ days of fasting. Most of us have been fasting for months, I would say! But I do not fault the President; I would not take on his burdens for any amount of money.”

NB:

“Thank you; I want to turn now to Miss Sallie B. Putnam for some reflections.”

SP:

“I think first of the summer of ’62 when the Female College closed, and the facilities were turned into a permanent hospital. The Southern Female Institute continued, as did Mr. Powers’ seminary, Miss Pegram’s school, and St. Joseph’s Academy under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church. There was a great need for textbooks, however. There was no new stock and few came through the blockade. as they were a low priority for that eccentric trade. Soon any out-dated and discarded textbooks were sought out. The enormous cost of publication made it impossible to obtain new books. Newspapers shrank to a single or a double sheet, often printed on brown paper, and letters were now written on what had once been considered wrapping material. Writing paper was so coarse that it was filled with blots in letters to loved ones in the military. Envelopes were now made from turned wall paper. Amusements were gone as our only theatre had burned, and women now spend evenings sewing. By fall the patients were turned out of buildings, and these same buildings became warehouses.

“As money grew shorter last fall there soon became an auction house on every block, and the blockade intensified. In the jewelry shops there had never been finer diamonds exhibited as well as fine watches. As the value of the currency declined, speculation increased. We ladies cannot manufacture new dresses, so we have been turning those we have. We have to call this “cheerful fortitude”.  A few books came through, Macaria, by Mrs. Evans of Mobile, and Les Miserables.  Tobacco planting, that noxious weed, has been replaced by cereal grains to feed the populace. Gentlemen’s clothes are now well worn, often of homespun material.

“After Fredericksburg, there were hundreds of refugees and even more hundreds who were wounded and brought here. As the blockade made its impact, many women wandered into Maryland to find items of clothing, and other necessities, usually to be robbed by Lincoln’s customs house authorities on the border. This has been a dreadful winter; wagons had to drag through incredible mud. One friend in King and Queen Country wrote me last week that she has been mud-bound since mid-January. Some weeks ago I went down to White House in a borrowed buggy to buy some goods directly from blockade runners, and found nothing of value. On my return trip I was challenged by government agents who demanded if I had goods from blockade runners, which I did not, and then demanded my passport. I told them I had no need of a passport to travel to and from Richmond. I was saved by a Confederate officer of my acquaintance who vouched for me.

“Finally, I was a witness to the Bread Riot this month. This name conceals the real intent of this lawless mob. Some Dutch, Irish, and free Negroes, heavily armed, were breaking into stores for the purpose of thieving. There were women swearing loudly, carrying knives, and dragging heavy leather cavalry boots and shoe leather, and men with heavy bolts of material. Few attacked any stores with groceries. Some of the rioters were keepers of stores who were thus able to increase their stock.  The northern newspapers, not surprisingly, claimed all of our city was starving. All in all, this has been an unforgettable winter, and I, for one, long for the spring.”

NB:

“i have interviewed survivors of the Friday the 13th munitions explosion, and I able to add these details without disclosing anything confidential. On Friday the 13th, one 10 year old girl and five twelve year old girls were among reporting for work at the Confederate States Laboratory on Brown’s Island a long wooden building at the foot of Seventh St. The Rev. John H. Woodcock was in charge of this building. There were some seventy workers there with only one coal stove to heat the building. They were loading precussion caps with powder and packaging the caps and filling friction primers for use in artillery. During the twelve hour work day each person was expected to fill 1200 caps, an average of 100 per hour, with girls receiving $1.50 a day and adult women $2.40.

“On this morning the Superintendent, Capt. Wesley N. Smith, walked past the work station of young Mary Ryan, age 18, and advised her to be cautious. Shortly afterward co-workers Lizzie Dawson was breaking up cartridges and Mary Cordle had emptied a box of powder. They both looked up as Mary Ryan tapped a board containing primers. Then came an explosion as Mary Ryan had set off the primer which exploded the loose powder compounded by the coal stove. Peeople nearby believed that it was test firing of a cannon at the Tredegar Works. The roof blew upwards, the walls then collapsed. and the roof fell downward on the workers. Ten to twenty died immediately, those who were on fire leapt into the river. Many were transported to local hospitals. Sadly those seeking their deceased children had to identify badly charred bodies. The dead ranged from 9 to 67 in ages and only two were male, a 15 year old boy, Robert Chaple, and Rev. Woodcock. The final tally is 45 killed and 23 injured. 20 of the 29 girls killed were ages 16 or younger. Col. Gorgas in his investigation determined that Mary Ryan’s way of loosening primers, even though observed by her supervisors, was the cause of the explosion, which only by chance had not resulted in a disaster before Friday the 13th.  New employees who are adult women are now receiving $3.00 a day, which I would consider hazardous duty pay.

J. B. Jones:

“The female clerks in the War Department make a minimum of $500.00 a year, and the basic requirement is to be able to sign your name. These are the forces of inflation at work. Prices in this city are easily ten times those in rural Georgia, cane syrup is a dollar a gallon there, and 50 dollars here. Due to fears of counterfeiting, all currency and bonds must be signed by the Chief  Clerk of the Treasury. There are many women daily numbering everything and counterfeiting his signature as they do their part for the cause.  Since we are not minting coins, postage stamps are passing as “small change” currency. Many people as well as banks and corporations are issuing paper currency of dubious value. The Crenshaw Woolen Mills here organized before the war on a capital fund of $200,000 declared dividends for 1862 as being $530,000.  There are many more such examples. Sadly those being squeezed by the inflation of currency want to blame Jewish merchants and bankers. They also blame the high rate of draft-dodging on Yankees, foreigners, and Jewish residents. The Hon. Henry Foote, member of Congress, claims four of five merchants in our city are Semitic, and that local officials have permitted a swarm of foreigners to come to our city. Soon these Know-Nothings say, our city will be overtaken by Jewish Shylocks. I also hope this will be a better year coming. We have high hopes for Gens. Lee and Longstreet.”

 With this I conclude, and we all remain hopeful for the spring.

We apologize to our readers as we have been called home to Alabama due to the illness of our father, Jacob C. Blacklidge, resident since 1819 of Cahawba. Father is now much improved by the early spring weather. On our return we came by way of the camp of General James Longstreet near the James River. We hope the spring weather in southeast Virginia is as kind to our gallant armies as it was last spring. May the creeks and rivers once again rise this spring to confound our enemies as they confounded Little Mac in the past year.

We will now provide a summary of our conversations with Gen. Longstreet and others as well as a summary of dispatches that his staff so kindly shared.

General Longstreet:

“ A month ago today. General Lee was made aware that General Joseph Hooker had moved some Federal troops toward Washington, but more ominously a larger force of three corps was headed toward Newport News and  Hampton Roads in what may be another spring of Richmond under attack from the southern coastline. These were the remnants of Franklin’s “Grand Division” that got “chewed up” at Fredericksburg. To forestall that, I was directed to send troops from two divisions to the James River “to resist an attack on Richmond from this new base” in  General Lee’s words. His belief was that these Yankee troops  will coalesce into an army for Burnside.

“There were some three weeks ago some 3,000 Yankee cavalry at Centreville, three regiments of cavalry moving out from a base at Chantilly to scout as far north as Paris and easily able to connect with those in Winchester. Gen. Hooker is holding in winter camp until Lincoln’s conscription law god into effect and he figures to have more troops with the spring. The rivers remain high and the mud has reached record depths around General Lee’s camp.”

NB:

“General, would you be so kind as to narrate for us what happened with General Burnside’s army that resulted in his removal from command?

General Longstreet:

“General Burnside had been searching for a crossing at a point further down the Rappahannock. Gen. Jackson was sure the crossing would be attempted and planned to take his troops to meet it  He was told that the neck of land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock was so interlaced with wet-weather streams and ravines that the landing below would not be practical for the Federals. There were quicksands on the west side that would be formidable for any army, and Gen. Jackson was not about to take my advice, but Gen. Lee ordered him to hold his troops in place.

“Only a few hours later my picket guards along the upper river heard an army working its way through the mud and they had to be Federal troops. Some of our pickets called out that they would help them pull their batteries through the mud if they would just agree on a place of crossing. The bottomless mud in the roads defeated them and they retreated to their camp before our troops were even called out. From various Yankee newspapers, I particularly enjoy those from New York City, I have learned more details of what has come to be called Burnside’s “Mud March”, which I think was the last straw for Lincoln and Stanton.

“The weather had been deceptively dry and mild in January and Gen. Burnside moved his army toward the United States Ford above Fredericksburg, cross there on pontoon bridges, make for Falmouth Ford, come behind our army and force into a battle in open fields. General Lee knew the value of United States Ford and our troops were dug in there with extensive gun emplacements to contest any crossing.  Between January 19-21st Burnside had a huge number of men on the move. On the afternoon of January 20th, his luck ran out. The rains began, first light, then heavier, and then a howling winter storm. The Federals took shelter in the scrub timber far away from their tents and their log cabin quarters. Then in dim sunlight on the 21st the Yankees met our bottomless mud as they saw last spring around Richmond. The pontoon trains had started late and became mixed with artillery and every type of supply wagon imaginable. There were soon double and triple teams of horses and  mules, accompanied by 150 men pulling each pontoon boat. In some cases a whole regiment was needed to pull one piece of artillery. The rain fell even heavier and the temperatures dropped.     

“The attempt to build camp fires caused so much smoke that my men were engulfed by it across the river. As long as there was light to see, my men called out helpful advice on the best route to Richmond and offered more mules and help to pull out the wagons. I now know the Federal supply wagons were nowhere to be found, and the Yankees dined on cold salt pork, the rain had dissolved their sugar and in even hardtac,k which could stand to be left out in most downp0urs, was ruined. On the 22nd the rain continued without let-up  and we heard a lot of noise; we heard later that some of the wagons filled with whiskey had gotten through, and the men received their ration. There were some free for all fist fights until the men were worn out.  Before long all of them retreated to Falmouth and that was the end of the “Mud March” of the Federals.”

Gen.  Jubal Early:

“I am now free to discuss several little-known battles during our winter encampment since these battles are now safely over.  These involved a series of snow ball fights where some Georgia residents from Savannah despite superior numbers were defeated by a smaller force. This was due to the fact that those from Savannah had little practical experience in the formation and battlefield use of these weapons. I have spent the past month guarding the river near Fredericksburg and have a flying trip down here to confer with Gen. Longstreet. The enemy are still entrenched on the Stafford Heights, and we expect some action in a matter of days as we are still sizing up Gen. Hooker.”

,

“

We now continue our narrative of the Radical Republican response to the Hon. Clement Vallandigham’s speech for an end to the war. The onslaught was led by Mr. Bingham of Ohio. He called Mr. Valladigham’s remarks an apologia for rebellion; he is what should be labeled as “breath of body” speakers. He cannot utter more than three sentences in succession without saying,  “As long as I have breath in my body I will oppose…. [anything that ends bloodshed we would add].

 He then proceeded to say how dare anyone hold the present Executive responsible for the bloodshed in the recent past. He then fell to blaming the former Executive, Mr. Buchanan, particularly for the December 4th, 1860 Message where the President doubted that he could use coercion. This he said has led to a war where rebellion could be possible through coercion as the coercion would all be on one side, the South. Mr. V. was then denounced as one of the party who aided in the dismemberment of the Union. Now Mr. V. should denounce the Rebellion as he had failed to do so before. In February 1861 Mr. V. of urging the division of the nation into four parts. He has said that other states have no right to stop secession, and an independent South would triumph over a vi0lated Constitution and a shattered Union.

The came the denunciation of any attempt to end this war. Mr. V  said his colleague has no basis for any belief that the South would submit to an armistice and rejoin the Union. No government in history, he noted, had laid down its arms to pacify a rebellion and then survived.

This was followed by Mr. Wright of Pennsylvania who professed himself to be in poor health, but made an even more aggressive speech. First he pictured a peace where he kissed a sword “held by the arch traitor in Richmond” which sword “would be dripping with the blood from my loins”. Then he spoke of the Crittenden resolutions of July 1862 which pledged the Yankee Congress to fight it out, even if it became a war of extermination. [This, of course, follows of the old line that I may not have started the fight but I will surely finish it.] ”The day of peace has passed by, and passed by forever.”Then he characterized the leaders of the South. ”They have been the direct and immediate cause of the deaths of three hundred thousand of the loyal youth of the country.”

After mentioning graves from Maine to Washington, Mr. Wright became more violent. There are abettors of violence all over the North, their hands red with crimes. For these Mr. Wright has the following in mind. “… these men’s necks ache for the halter.” He says any claim of southern prosecution is false. There can be no terms of peace, and he states if it takes the lives of 300,000 more men to win this war, so be it. We need not continue; the abolitionists plan to continue this war of retribution.  

We now bring you news from the Federal City Asylum, the Yankee Congress in Fortress Lincoln.  The abolitionist inmates of the Asylum have been spewing threats of violence and retribution against all their perceived enemies in  incredibly verbose speeches, dutifully reported in the Congressional Globe.  These rantings blame every problem in America on the  Democratic Party and the South. Since there have been no southern Presidents elected in past three contests, they must demonize fellow northerners.  They first magnify the “sins”  of former President James Buchanan corrupted by the “diabolical”  Virginian, Gen. John B. Floyd, then Secretary of War. Then  they move on to General Franklin Pierce and Colonel Millard Fillmore, whose sins were moderation and appeals to compromise.

It seems time that some  Jacksonian Democrat, one of great courage, should place  Old Abe’s head and cranial bumps under close observation. The difficult job has been taken up by one who has been inside the mental institution, the Federal Congress. This Ohio phrenologist, an expert in the indicators of mental derangement, is the Hon. Clement L. Vallandigham. On January 14th, he challenged with new policies the Illinois Robespierre and the other leaders of the Black Republican Terror. He has been emboldened by the disasters of this war, the massive fatalities among Ohio soldiers, and his own re-election, receiving four times the number of votes he amassed in 1860.

Here are some of his major points.

 1. Revolution came with a civil war because a candidate was elected who was hostile to the property rights of half of the nation, specifically the right to own slaves.

2. The spirit of persecution for opinion’s sake, previously known only in the Old World for the first time came to our Republic. Stripes and hanging were everywhere threatened, and sometimes executed as were public hangings.

3. When the Congress came into session on July 4, 1861 it was not to promote peace, but to register and ratify and acts of the Executive who now had 300,000 men under arms. What pleases the President, that is law!  The rule of the mob was followed by a rule of iron law. Habeus corpus, the free press, freedom of speech and person, of the mails, of travels, of one’s own house, of religion, of the right to bear arms, due process, judicial trial, trail by jury all went down by the kingly blow of the Executive. The right to declare war and form an army was usurped by the Executive and Congress was unable to stop the corruption and the lust for power. Thus was Civil War launched on America; can any man see the end of it?

4. My opposition to abolition cost me ten years of political office. I now feel that no union of Democratic candidates in 1860 could have blocked the Republicans. They were bent on war as seen by the cavalier way in which they rejected the Peace Conference in February 1861. I preached for ten years that the success of the anti-slavery party would bring disunion and conflict, and now we have seen two years of war and bloodshed on a scale unimagined even in the Napoleonic Wars. There are a million men in arms. One in every ten homes in this nation has a wounded or dead son, father, or brother and there is no end in sight.

5. The war for the Union met with the approval of Congress with the idea that our southern brethren could be whipped into love and harmony. The concept that the war was necessary to preserve the Union was a reason unlike any other wars. Such conflicts are fought to change a form of government, to give up territory, to abolish a domestic institution, –in short, a war of conquest and subjugation, but never for –the Union!

6. The realization must come to both sides that this war cannot be won. Superior forces poorly commanded have been fought to a stalemate by numerically inferior forces that were brilliantly commanded. Two states wanted this war, Massachusetts and South Carolina. As Gen. McClellan wrote in a letter last year, he wished he could take the Army to South Carolina and wipe out the ultra-secessionists and then take it to Massachusetts and wipe out the ultra-abolitionists. We have seen the fruit of the extremists’ rhetoric, and the illegal acts of an Executive who grew up as a frontier fighter, a tavern brawler, turned railroad lawyer,  for whom any tactic would be used to win. That was his motto then and that is his motto now. 

7. For this reason, with faltering enlistments, he has brought forward the agenda he has denied for some eight years since the birth of the Republican Party, abolition at any cost. He feels pride in the Emancipation Proclamation. We know this will make it impossible to ever reconcile the two sections as this goes forward. To further this, will the Executive draft more men, raise taxes, promise to seize southern property to pay the national debt? Will more money be printed that is worth 47 cents on the dollar, based upon our gold standard?

8. Slavery was the subject of this war; it was the agitation against slavery that was the cause. This ceaseless agitatation resulted in the Republican victory and caused this Civil War. It was slavery that Senator Seward labeled as the source of the “irrepressible confict”. He should have rightly said it was the abolitionist cause he so fervently preached that lit the fuse. Free labor in the South will doom this Union. The “irrepressible conflict” is between slave and free labor. We need less of the talk of Plymouth Rock and more of the spirit of Roger Williams from my New England colleagues. When the bigots are no longer in control in Massachusetts, we will see the fruits of moderation.

9. From the signs that I see the South is ready to return to the Union. This will require an end to the agitation for abolition. The South should return under the same constitutional guarantees as were in place 50 years ago, three-fifths, speedy return of slaves for labor, no more abolition agitation, and the right to temporary transit of slaves into free territories. Without this, there can be no permanence of a “restored” union. There will be more security for the South secure in the ownership of their slave property under this system than as a separate nation. To those who say this will continue African slavery, my response is that it is in the Constitution. This is the price of Union. Those who hate slavery more than the Union are the ones who must demand permanent separation.

10. The South has over-valued their personal courage and under-valued ours in the North; the men of the West are the equal of any. The North’s primary military mistake was the belief that with over-whelming numbers the South could be crushed in one blow, but twenty months of warfare have taught us the wisdom of a century. I have spoken boldly because I haver surrendered any thoughts of material gain in my political career. Any gain that I achieve will be in the Hereafter. For any that I might have offended, I have been devoted to the Union all my life, and I will not desert it in its sorest trial. The fondest dream of my youth was to live to the hundredth anniversary of our nation, and to be the primary speaker at the celebration. The men of my generation after two years of war should turn their hearts from bloody intents to works of art and peace. That day will find us again the United States. We are in the very crisis of this revolution, and if we do not turn to peace and begin the work of reunion, I see nothing before us but social and political revolution, anarchy, and bloodshed, compared with which the Reign of Terror in France was a merciful vistation. 

We can only hope that Congressman Vallandigham’s words will fall on receptive ears. In our next article we will detail the response in Lincoln’s Congress to his words of peace and  conciliation. 

 We are providing our readers with a condensed narrative of President Davis’ Annual Address to the Congress that convened on January 12th in the Capitol. These are the major points of interest on domestic issues. Any discussion of foreign policy will induce our readers to slumber as there have been not been any significant changes in the past year. Following the summer adjournment of the Congress, our nation was attacked on our frontiers, thew western rivers and the eastern coast. The military forces were so large that the enemy anticipated victory based upon the sheer weight of numbers. This hope has now been vanquished with victories in Virginia. Thanks to the “consummate leadership” of our General, the new commander Burnside was soundly defeated as have been McDowell, Pope, and McClellan in the past eighteen months.

2. In the West there have been tremendous losses of life on both sides and most recently Federal forces have been repulsed from Vicksburg. On the east coast there have been no victories and the enemy continue to live in the shelter of their ships. Galveston has been retaken from the enemy, along with the capture of their garrison as well as  a warship. Fortifications in all regions are being improved.

3. A people determined to be free cannot be subjugated; no superiority of numbers can win over valor in defense of rights and liberties of a free people. The enemy have come to realize that they cannot win this war. With continued courage and trust in our cause, we believe this will be the last year of the war. The purpose of the enemy has altered with the seasons. First, was the claim that the war was being waged against us for the restoration of the Union.

The second phase of the war became in 1862 that of blood, violence, and revenge. The major evidence of revenge has been in the destruction of  private property. The wanton bombardment and then looting of  Fredericksburg, Virginia is a case in point. They will not have the resources or courage for fourth year of a struggle unchecked by success. The public in the North will not support the wicked and mercenary aims of the Federal leaders. Our enemies have forced us into a war through their lust for gain and insane passions.

The third phase of the war since January 1st has been an assault on the property of our nation and its tranquility through an “Emancipation Proclamation”. This has put the lie to the proclamations of Mr. Lincoln from March 1861 that he would never seize property or challenge any of the institutions of the South. Now four million peaceful and satisfied workers find their lives and homes are to be forever disrupted as the abolition of slavery has been made the principal fuel to stoke the flames of continued war. They are encouraged to assassinate their masters, while they themselves will be doomed to extermination through hunger as they destroy their own homes and food supplies with help from the northern hordes. Soldiers who are captured will be paroled; they are the unwilling instruments of these criminal activities. Their officers will be treated as criminals engaged in inciting servile insurrections. 

4. The armed forces of the United States have committed every conceivable atrocity during the past years. General Butler has hanged civilians for the destruction of flags! We have already proclaimed him a felon to be arrested and charged with murder. Officers of the Union armies can no longer be paroled or treated as anything but felons. One General McNeil murdered seven prisoners of war in cold blood, and in he past six months letters to the War and Treasury Departments about such crimes as those of General Butler and others have been ignored. We have received form letters that charges will be investigated or there is no verification of  the alleged crimes. So much for Mr. Lincoln’s declaration of almost two years ago that under his administration the peace, property, and security of the United States would never be placed in jeopardy.

We look forward to the responses of Congress and those  from our readers.