This Week In 1865: Confederate Diary posts for March 6-8, 1865

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Ron Franklin

As General Grant tightened his grip on Richmond, and Sherman was coming up from behind, residents of the city looked forward fearfully to its evacuation by General Lee’s army.

Saturday, March 4, 1865

J. B. Jones

John Beauchamp Jones (1810-1866) was a writer who worked in the Confederate War Department in Richmond during the war. His diary was published in 1866 as “A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital.”

“Gen. Lee’s family, it is rumored, are packing up to leave [Richmond].”

It is now reported that Gen. Early made his escape, and that most of his men have straggled into this city.

The President and his wife were at church yesterday; so they have not left the city; but Gen. Lee’s family, it is rumored, are packing up to leave.

Twelve M. They are bringing boxes to the War Office, to pack up the archives. This certainly indicates a sudden removal in an emergency. It is not understood whether they go to Danville or to Lynchburg; that may depend upon Grant’s movements. It may, however, be Lee’s purpose to attack Grant; meantime preparing to fall back in the event of losing the day.

Four days hence we have a day of fasting, etc., appointed by the President; and I understand there are but three day’s rations for the army–a nice calculation.

Gen. Johnston telegraphs the Secretary that his army must suffer, if not allowed to get commissary stores in the North Carolina depots. The Secretary replies that of course his army must be fed, but hopes he can buy enough, etc., leaving the stores already collected for Lee’s army, which is in great straits.

Tuesday, March 7, 1865

J. B. Jones

“Preparations to evacuate the city are still being made with due diligence. “

Preparations to evacuate the city are still being made with due diligence. If these indications do not suffice to bring the speculators into the ranks to defend their own property (they have no honor, of course), the city and the State are lost; and the property owners will deserve their fate. The extortioners ought to be hung, besides losing their property. This would be a very popular act on the part of the conquerors.

The packing up of the archives goes on, with directions to be as quiet as possible, so as “not to alarm the people.” A large per cent. of the population would behold the exodus with pleasure!

Emma Leconte

Emma Florence LeConte (1847-1932) lived in Columbia, SC and witnessed Sherman’s burning of the city.

“We live in absolute ignorance while our fate is being decided”

We can hear nothing from our army. For the first time we are without the excitement of daily telegraphic news and I miss the breakfast-table discussions of the war news and the movements of the forces. We live in absolute ignorance while our fate is being decided, and speedy peace and long-continued war are trembling in the balance. At all events we miss perhaps a thousand unfounded and conflicting rumors. We are hoping for intervention, but that may mean humiliating concessions. If recognition meant the opening of our ports only that would be all we would ask. Once freely supplied with materials for war we would soon be independent. That is all we need.

Wednesday, March 8, 1865

J. B. Jones

“It may be feared the war is about to assume a more sanguinary aspect and a more cruel nature than ever before”

President Lincoln’s short inaugural message, or homily, or sermon, has been received. It is filled with texts from the Bible. He says both sides pray to the same God for aid – one upholding and the other destroying African slavery. If slavery be an offense, and woe shall fall upon those by whom offenses come, perhaps not only all the slaves will be lost, but all the accumulated products of their labor be swept away. In short, he “quotes Scripture for the deed” quite as fluently as our President; and since both Presidents resort to religious justification, it may be feared the war is about to assume a more sanguinary aspect and a more cruel nature than ever before. God help us! The history of man, even in the Bible, is but a series of bloody wars. It must be thus to make us appreciate the blessings of peace, and to bow in humble adoration of the great Father of all. The Garden of Eden could not yield contentment to man, nor heaven satisfy all the angels.

Another report of the defeat of Sherman is current to-day, and believed by many.

Ron Franklin

Posted in Campaigns, Diaries, Generals, The Confederacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This Week In 1865: Confederate Diary posts for March 4-5, 1865

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Ron Franklin

NOTE: General Jubal Early commanded the last Confederate force in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. On March 2, 1865, in an encounter at Waynesboro with cavalry units under Union General Philip H. Sheridan, Early’s army was defeated, routed, and for all practical purposes, disbanded.

Saturday, March 4, 1865

J. B. Jones

John Beauchamp Jones (1810-1866) was a writer who worked in the Confederate War Department in Richmond during the war. His diary was published in 1866 as “A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital.”

“Gen. Early’s little army is scattered to the winds”

We have vague reports of Early’s defeat in the Valley by an overwhelming force; and the gloom and despondency among the people are in accordance with the hue of the constantly-occurring disasters.

Confederate General Jubal A. Early

Confederate General Jubal A. Early

Gen. Early’s little army is scattered to the winds… Sheridan advanced to Scottsville; and is no doubt still advancing. Lynchburg is rendered unsafe; and yet some of the bureaus are packing up and preparing to send the archives thither. They would probably fall into the hands of the enemy.

Brig.-Gen. J. Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, has been rebuked by Gen. Lee for constantly striving to get mechanics out of the service. Gen. Lee says the time has arrived when the necessity of having able-bodied men in the field is paramount to all other considerations.

Brig.-Gen. Preston (Bureau of Conscription) takes issue with Gen. Lee on the best mode of sending back deserters to the field. He says there are at this time 100,000 deserters!

Two P. M. There is almost a panic among officials here who have their families with them, under the belief that the city may be suddenly evacuated, and the impossibility of getting transportation. I do not share the belief–that is, that the event is likely to occur immediately.

Gen. Lee was closeted with the Secretary of War several hours to-day. It is reported that Gen. L.’s family are preparing to leave the city.

George H. Murphy

George H. Murphy (born c. 1836 in Martinsburg, VA) was a lawyer who first joined the Confederate army in 1861. From May of 1864 he was a 2nd Lieutenant in the 23rd Virginia Cavalry. At the beginning of March, 1865, he was trying to get to Gen. Early’s army after a furlough.

“We know how badly in need of Cavalry Genl. Early is, but to get to him is impossible.”

The day spent in rolling ten pins. Cannot learn whether our Brigade has left Pendelton for the Valley.

Am in a quandary what to do. The enemy are between Staunton and Waynesboro. No possible chance of getting there. The roads miserable. Do not like the idea of laying here idle when we know how badly in need of Cavalry Genl. Early is, but to get to him is impossible.

Sunday, March 5, 1865

J. B. Jones

“Gen. Early, when last seen, was flying, and pursued by some fifteen well-mounted Federals, only fifty paces in his rear.”

I saw an officer yesterday from Early’s command. He said the enemy entered Charlottesville on Friday at half-past 2 o’clock P. M., between 2000 and 3000 strong, cavalry, and had made no advance at the latest accounts. He says Gen. Early, when last seen, was flying, and pursued by some fifteen well-mounted Federals, only fifty paces in his rear. The general being a large heavy man, and badly mounted, was undoubtedly captured. [NOTE: Early was not captured]. He intimated that Early’s army consisted of only about 1000 men! Whether he had more elsewhere, I was unable to learn. I have not heard of any destruction of property by the enemy.

There is still an accredited rumor of the defeat of Sherman. Perhaps he may have been checked, and turned toward his supplies on the coast. I learn by a paper from Gen. Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, that the machinery of the workshops here is being moved to Danville, Salisbury, and other places in North Carolina. He recommends that transportation be given the families of the operatives; and that houses be built for them, with permission to buy subsistence at government prices, for twelve months, that the mechanics may be contented and kept from deserting. This would rid the city of some thousands of its population, and be some measure of relief to those that remain. But how long will we be allowed to remain? All depends upon the operations in the field during the next few weeks-and these may depend upon the wisdom of those in possession of the government, which is now at a discount.

The Secretary of the Treasury is selling gold for Confederate States notes for reissue to meet pressing demands; the machinery for manufacturing paper money having just at present no certain abiding place. The government gives $1 of gold for sixty of its own paper; but were it to cease selling gold, it would command $100 for $1.

Ron Franklin

Posted in Campaigns, Diaries, Generals, The Confederacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This Week In 1865: Confederate Diary posts for March 1-3, 1865

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Ron Franklin

Wednesday, March 1, 1865

J. B. Jones

John Beauchamp Jones (1810-1866) was a writer who worked in the Confederate War Department in Richmond during the war. His diary was published in 1866 as “A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital.”

“The enemy’s columns are approaching us from all directions. They say the rebellion will be crushed very soon.”

We have no news, except from the North, whence we learn Lieut. Beall, one of our Canada raiders, has been hung; that some little cotton and turpentine were burnt at Wilmington; and that the enemy’s columns are approaching us from all directions. They say the rebellion will be crushed very soon, and really seem to have speedy and accurate information from Richmond not only of all movements of our army, but of the intentions of the government.

Lieut.-Gen. Grant has directed Col. Mulford, Agent of Exchange, to say that some 200 prisoners escaped from us, when taken to Wilmington for exchange, and now in his lines, will be held as paroled, and credited in the general exchange. Moreover, all prisoners in transitu for any point of exchange, falling into their hands, will be held as paroled, and exchanged. He states also that all prisoners held by the United States, whether in close confinement, in-irons, or under sentence, are to be exchanged. Surely Gen. Grant is trying to please us in this matter. Yet Lieut. Beall was executed!

Emma Leconte

Emma Florence LeConte (1847-1932) lived in Columbia, SC and witnessed Sherman’s burning of the city.

“Heavens – have we not suffered enough?”

There was a rumor afloat yesterday that a negro regiment was marching from Branchville to garrison Columbia – Heavens – have we not suffered enough? I do not believe it but the very thought is enough to make one shudder.

Thursday, March 2, 1865

J. B. Jones

“Tobacco is being moved from the city with all possible expedition.”

The Negro bill still hangs fire in Congress.

Remains of a Locomotive of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad

Remains of a Locomotive of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad

The government is impressing horses in the streets, to collect the tobacco preparatory for its destruction in the event of the city falling into the hands of the enemy. This fact is already known in the North and published in the papers there.

I saw a paper to-day from Mr. Benjamin, saying it had been determined, in the event of burning the tobacco, to exempt that belonging to other governments-French and Austrian; but that belonging to foreign subjects is not to be spared. This he says is with the concurrence of the British Government. Tobacco is being moved from the city with all possible expedition.

 Friday, March 3, 1865

J. B. Jones

“We must have a victory soon, else Virginia is irretrievably lost.”

This morning there was another arrival of our prisoners on parole, and not yet exchanged. Many thousands have arrived this week, and many more are on the way. How shall we feed them? Will they compel the evacuation of the city? I hope not.

Our nominal income has been increased; amounting now to some $16,000 in paper — less than $300 in specie [gold]. But, for the next six months (if we can stay here), our rent will be only $75 per month — a little over one dollar [in gold]; and servant hire, $40-less than eighty cents [in gold].

It is rumored that Gen. Early has been beaten again at Waynesborough, and that the enemy have reached Charlottesville for the first time. Thus it seems our downward career continues. We must have a victory soon, else Virginia is irretrievably lost.

Ron Franklin

Posted in Black Confederates, Black soldiers, Campaigns, Diaries, Slavery, The Confederacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This Week In 1865: Confederate Diary posts for Feb 28, 1865

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Ron Franklin

Tuesday, February 28, 1865

J. B. Jones

John Beauchamp Jones (1810-1866) was a writer who worked in the Confederate War Department in Richmond during the war. His diary was published in 1866 as “A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital.”

“The President’s inflexible adherence to obnoxious and incompetent men in his cabinet is too well calculated to produce a depressing effect on the spirits of the people and the army.”

The Northern papers announce the capture of Wilmington. No doubt the city has fallen, although the sapient dignitaries of this government deem it a matter of policy to withhold such intelligence from the people and the army. And wherefore, since the enemy’s papers have a circulation here-at least their items of news are sure to be reproduced immediately.

The Governor of Mississippi has called the Legislature of the State together, for the purpose of summoning a convention of the people. Governor Brown, of Georgia, likewise calls for a convention. One more State calling a convention of all the States may be the consequence-if, indeed, rent by faction, the whole country does not fall a prey to the Federal armies immediately.*

Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown

Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia

Governor Brown alleges many bitter things in the conduct of affairs at Richmond, and stigmatizes the President most vehemently. He denounces the President’s generalship, the Provost Marshals, the passport system, the Bureau of Conscription, etc. etc. He says it is attempted to establish a despotism, where the people are sovereigns, and our whole policy should be sanctioned by popular favor. Instead of this it must be admitted that the President’s inflexible adherence to obnoxious and incompetent men in his cabinet is too well calculated to produce a depressing effect on the spirits of the people and the army.

T. N. Conrad, one of the government’s secret agents, says 35,000 of Thomas’s army passed down the Potomac several weeks ago. He says also that our telegraph operator in Augusta, Ga., sent all the military dispatches to Grant

* For more on the convention of the states idea, see States rights would doom the Confederacy even if they won the war.

Emma Leconte

Emma Florence LeConte (1847-1932) lived in Columbia, SC and witnessed Sherman’s burning of the city.

“At the market place we saw the old bell – ‘Secessia’ – that had rung out every State as it seceded, lying half buried in the earth.”

Cousin Ada and I went to call on Mrs. Carroll yesterday but found she is not in town, having run away just before the advent of the Yankees!

Coming home we walked down Main Street – slowly in the middle of the street for fear of falling walls, trying to conjure up the well-known shops and buildings from the shapeless heaps. At the market place we saw the old bell – “Secessia” – that had rung out every State as it seceded, lying half buried in the earth and reminding me of Retzsch’s last Outline in “The Song of the Bell”, showing “That all things earthly disappear.”

We walked through the State-house yard and examined the marks of the shells in the new Capitol. Large pieces of granite are sometimes broken off. On one end alone we counted places where eight shells had struck and exploded. We have since heard that in the accidental explosion of the Charleston freight depot, from the igniting of powder strewn upon the floor, 150 or 200 people were killed.

Judith Brockenbrough McGuire

“Ministers of the Gospel and others have gone out to the various county towns and court-houses, to urge the people to send in every extra bushel of corn or pound of meat for the army.”

Judith Brockenbrough McGuire (1813-1897) was the daughter of a member of the Virginia state Supreme Court and the wife of an Episcopalian minister. A Confederate sympathizer, she fled with her husband from her Alexandria, VA home when the city was occupied by Union forces in May of 1861. For rest of the war the McGuires lived in the Richmond, VA area as refugees. Judith McGuire published “Diary Of A Southern Refugee During The War” in 1867.
Judith Brockenbrough McGuire

Judith Brockenbrough McGuire

Our new Commissary General is giving us brighter hopes for Richmond by his energy. Not a stone is left unturned to collect all the provisions from the country. Ministers of the Gospel and others have gone out to the various county towns and court-houses, to urge the people to send in every extra bushel of corn or pound of meat for the army.

The people only want enlightening on the subject; it is no want of patriotism which makes them keep any portion of their provisions. Circulars are sent out to the various civil and military officers in all disenthralled counties in the State, which, alas, when compared with the whole, are very few, to ask for their superfluities. All will answer promptly, I know, and generously.

Louis Leon

Louis Leon (1842-1919) was a Jewish Confederate soldier who was born in Germany, but settled in Charlotte, NC. He joined the rebel army in 1861, fought at Gettysburg in 1863, and was captured in May 1864. He spent the rest of the war in Northern prisons. His 1865 diary entries were written as a prisoner of war.

“The smallpox is frightful. There is not a day that at least twenty men are taken out dead.”

February – The smallpox is frightful. There is not a day that at least twenty men are taken out dead. Cold is no name for the weather now. They have given most of us Yankee overcoats, but have cut the skirts off. The reason of this is that the skirts are long and if they left them on we might pass out as Yankee soldiers.

Ron Franklin

Posted in Black Confederates, Black soldiers, Campaigns, Diaries, Slavery, The Confederacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This Week In 1865: Confederate Diary posts for Feb 26-27, 1865

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Ron Franklin

Sunday, February 26, 1865

J. B. Jones

John Beauchamp Jones (1810-1866) was a writer who worked in the Confederate War Department in Richmond during the war. His diary was published in 1866 as “A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital.”

“There is much alarm on the streets. Orders have been given to prepare all the tobacco and cotton, which cannot be removed immediately, for destruction by fire.”

Mr. Hunter is now reproached by the slaveowners, whom he thought to please, for defeating the Negro bill. They say his vote will make Virginia a free State, inasmuch as Gen. Lee must evacuate it for the want of negro troops.

Richmond, 1865-en'wikipedia'org@wiki@Richmond_in_the_American_Civil_War#mediaviewer@File~Richmond_Civil_War_ruins

Richmond, Virginia, 1865

There is much alarm on the streets. Orders have been given to prepare all the tobacco and cotton, which cannot be removed immediately, for destruction by fire. And it is generally believed that Lieut.-Gen. A. P. Hill’s corps has marched away to North Carolina, This would leave some 25,000 men to defend Richmond and Petersburg, against, probably, 60,000.

If Richmond be evacuated, most of the population will remain, not knowing whither to go.

Emma Leconte

Emma Florence LeConte (1847-1932) lived in Columbia, SC and witnessed Sherman’s burning of the city.

“Every night the entire horizon was illuminated by burning houses! Poor Carolina!”

Father describes Sherman’s track up there as the same it was in the lower part of the State – desolation and ruin. Every night the entire horizon was illuminated by burning houses! Poor Carolina! And the burning of Columbia was the most diabolical act of all the barbarous war. Father grits his teeth every time he sees the ruins or speaks of the horrors of that night.

As far as I can see the people are undemoralized and more determined than ever. The Yankee officers while here they paid the tribute to the women of this State of saying they were the most firm, obstinate and ultra rebel set of women they had encountered – if the men only prove equally so!

Father and I went to church this morning. We had a mournful looking congregation. Dr. Howe officiated, reading the first Chapter of Lamentations.

Monday, February 27, 1865

J. B. Jones

“Grant is said to be massing his troops on our right, to precipitate them upon the South Side Railroad.”

The Virginia Assembly has passed resolutions instructing the Senators to vote for the negro troops bill-so Mr. Hunter must obey or resign.

Grant is said to be massing his troops on our right, to precipitate them upon the South Side Railroad. Has Hill marched his corps away to North Carolina? If so, Richmond is in very great danger.

I saw Col. Northrop, late Commissary-General, to-day. He looks down, dark, and dissatisfied. Lee’s army eats without him.

I saw Admiral Buchanan to-day, limping a little. He says the enemy tried to shoot away his legs to keep him from dancing at his granddaughter’s wedding, but won’t succeed.

The President and Gen. Lee were out at Camp Lee to-day, urging the returned soldiers (from captivity) to forego the usual furlough and enter upon the spring campaign now about to begin. The other day, when the President made a speech to them, he was often interrupted by cries of “furlough!”

The ladies in the Treasury Department are ordered to Lynchburg, whither the process of manufacturing Confederate States notes is to be transferred.

A committee of the Virginia Assembly waited on the President on Saturday, who told them it was no part of his intention to evacuate Richmond. But some construed his words as equivocal. Tobacco, cotton, etc. are leaving the city daily. The city is in danger.

Joseph Waddell

Joseph Addison Waddell (1823-1914) lived in Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia. Before the war he was owner and editor of the “Staunton Spectator” newspaper. Waddell, who remained at home during the war, was anti-secession, but pro-Confederate.

“Every body feels that we are in the crisis of our fate.”

There was a rumor yesterday of a battle in which Beauregard was mortally wounded, but it is disbelieved. We have no intelligence. A battle, however, is expected and may take place any day.

Some public stores have been removed from Richmond to Lynchburg. Rumors of a large force assembling at Winchester, to move this way. Every body feels that we are in the crisis of our fate.

Much speechifying in the Courthouse to-day and in answer to an appeal from Richmond. A large amount of flour and bacon was contributed for the sustenance of the army; In addition many persons contributed Confederate States Bonds, several as much as $10,000 cash.

The Government is now paying $400 per barrel for flour -I have no idea what individuals have to pay for it, if it can be bought for currency. Kate gave ($800) eight hundred dollars a few days ago for an alpaca dress!

Ron Franklin

Posted in Black Confederates, Black soldiers, Campaigns, Diaries, Slavery, The Confederacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This Week In 1865: Confederate Diary posts for Feb 23-25, 1865

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Ron Franklin

Thursday, February 23, 1865

Emma Leconte

Emma Florence LeConte (1847-1932) lived in Columbia, SC and witnessed Sherman’s burning of the city.

“Yankees – that word in my mind is a synonym for all that is mean, despicable and abhorrent.”

The Yankees talk very strongly of conquering the South immediately – if so our day of rest is far off. Somehow I am still as confident as I ever was. If only our people will be steadfast. The more we suffer the more we should be willing to undergo rather than submit.

Yankee soldiers reenactors-flickr'com@photos@buddhakiwi@26989248Somehow I cannot feel we can be conquered. We have lost everything, but if everything – negroes, property – all could be given back a hundredfold I would not be willing to go back to them. I would rather endure any poverty than live under Yankee rule. I would rather far have France or any other country for a mistress – anything but live as one nation with Yankees – that word in my mind is a synonym for all that is mean, despicable and abhorrent.

I hope relief will come before famine actually threatens. We have to cut our rations as short as possible to try to make the food hold out till succor comes. Father left us with some mouldy spoiled flour that was turned over to him by the Bureau. We can only possible eat it made into battercakes and then it is horrid. We draw rations from the town every day – a tiny bit of rancid salt pork and a pint of meal. We have the battercakes for breakfast, the bit of meat and cornbread for dinner – no supper. We fare better than some because we have the cows. Mother had peas to feed them, and sometimes we take a few of those from them to vary our diet. Today as a great treat mother gave us boiled rice for dinner – some the negroes had brought us in the pillage of the stores. We enjoyed it immensely – the first I have tasted in many days.

Friday, February 24, 1865

 J. B. Jones

John Beauchamp Jones (1810-1866) was a writer who worked in the Confederate War Department in Richmond during the war. His diary was published in 1866 as “A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital.”

“Yesterday the Senate voted down the bill to put 200,000 negroes in the army.”

Yesterday the Senate voted down the bill to put 200,000 negroes in the army. The papers to-day contain a letter from Gen. Lee, advocating the measure as a necessity. Mr. Hunter’s vote defeated it. He has many negroes, and will probably lose them; but the loss of popularity, and fear of forfeiting all chance of the succession, may have operated on him as a politician. What madness!

The Bureau of Conscription being abolished, the business is to be turned over to the generals of reserves, who will employ the reserves mainly in returning deserters and absentees to the army. The deserters and absentees will be too many for them perhaps, at this late day. The mischief already effected may prove irremediable.

A dispatch from Gen. Lee, this morning, states that Lieut. McNeill, with 30 men, entered Cumberland, Maryland, on the 21st inst., and brought off Gens. Crook and Kelly, etc. This is a little affair, but will make a great noise. We want 300,000 men in the field instead of 30.

The markets are now almost abandoned, both by sellers and purchasers. Beef and pork are sold at $7 to $9 per pound, and everything else in proportion. Butter, from $15 to $20.

Saturday, February 25, 1865

 J. B. Jones

“The garrisons of Charleston and Wilmington may add 20,000 men to our force opposing Sherman, and may beat him yet.”

There are more rumors of the evacuation of Wilmington and even Petersburg. No doubt that stores, etc. are leaving Petersburg; but I doubt whether it will be evacuated, or Richmond, either. Grant may, and probably will, get the Danville Railroad, but I think Lee will disappoint him in the item of evacuation, nevertheless; for we have some millions in gold-equal to 300,000,000 paper–to purchase subsistence; and it is believed Virginia alone, for specie, can feed the army. Then another army may arise in Grant’s rear.

Mr. Hunter’s eyes seem blood-shotten since he voted against Lee’s plan of organizing negro troops.

The papers are requested to say nothing relative to military operations in South and North Carolina, for they are read by Gen. Grant every morning of their publication. The garrisons of Charleston and Wilmington may add 20,000 men to our force opposing Sherman, and may beat him yet.

Ron Franklin

 Photo credit: Desiree Williams via flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Posted in Black Confederates, Black soldiers, Campaigns, Diaries, Slavery, The Confederacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

This Week In 1865: Confederate Diary posts for Feb 22, 1865

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Ron Franklin

Wednesday, February 22, 1865

As J. B. Jones anticipates, Wilmington, NC fell to the Union on this day. General Sherman had taken Columbia, SC on the 17th. Though he denied ordering it to be burned, when his troops left, Columbia was in ashes. Emma LeConte had no doubts the hated Yankees were responsible for firing the city.

 J. B. Jones

John Beauchamp Jones (1810-1866) was a writer who worked in the Confederate War Department in Richmond during the war. His diary was published in 1866 as “A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital.”

Yesterday the Senate postponed action on the Negro bill. What this means I cannot conjecture, unless there are dispatches from abroad, with assurances of recognition based upon stipulations of emancipation, which cannot be carried into effect without the consent of the States, and a majority of these seem in a fair way of falling into the hands of the Federal generals.

To-day is the anniversary of the birth of Washington, and of the inauguration of Davis; but I hear of no holiday. Not much is doing, however, in the departments; simply a waiting for calamities, which come with stunning rapidity. The next news, I suppose, will be the evacuation of Wilmington! Then Raleigh may tremble. Unless there is a speedy turn in the tide of affairs, confusion will reign supreme and universally.

We have here now some 4000 or 5000 paroled prisoners returned by the Federal authorities, without sufficient food for them, and soon there may be 10,000 Federal prisoners from Wilmington, which it seems cannot be exchanged there. Is it the policy of their own government to starve them?

 Emma LeConte

Emma Florence LeConte (1847-1932) lived in Columbia, SC and witnessed Sherman’s march through the city.

I meant last night to write down some description of what I had seen, but was too wretchedly depressed and miserable to even think of it.

1865 Burning of Columbia by William Waud for Harper's Weekly

“The Burning of Columbia, South Carolina” by William Waud for Harper’s Weekly, 1865

Yes, I have seen it all – I have seen the “Abomination of Desolation”. It is even worse than I thought. The place is literally in ruins. The entire heart of the city is in ashes – only the outer edges remain. On the whole length of Sumter Street not one house beyond the first block after the Campus is standing, except the brick house of Mr. Mordecai. Standing in the centre of the town, as far as the eye can reach nothing is to be seen but heaps of rubbish, tall dreary chimneys and shattered brick walls, while “In the hollow windows, dreary horror’s sitting”. Poor old Columbia – where is all her beauty – so admired by strangers – so loved by her children! She can only excite the pity of the former and the tears of the latter.

Emma LeConte

Emma LeConte

With very few exceptions all our friends are homeless. We enter Main Street – since the war in crowd and bustle it has rivalled a city thoroughfare – what desolation! Everything has vanished as by enchantment – stores, merchants, customers – all the eager faces gone – only three or four dismal looking people to be seen picking their way over heaps of rubbish, brick and timbers. The wind moans among the bleak chimneys and whistles through the gaping windows of some hotel or warehouse.

As we passed the old State house going back I paused to gaze on the ruins – only the foundations and chimneys – and to recall the brilliant scene enacted there one short month ago. And I compared that scene with its beauty, gayety and festivity – the halls so elaborately decorated – the surging throng – with this.

The negroes are flocking in from the devastated country to be fed. Mayor Goodwyn has ordered them to be sent back, as the town is threatened with starvation. Indeed I do not know what will become of us unless relief comes in, from Edgefield or Augusta. In every other direction we understand the country is a desert – Orangeburg, Winnsboro’, Chester, Camden – all in ashes. Incarnate fiends! And Sherman! – “O for a tongue to curse the slave.”

Ron Franklin

Posted in Black Confederates, Black soldiers, Campaigns, Diaries, Slavery, The Confederacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lincoln in 1855: Slavery will never end peacefully

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Ron Franklin

Abraham Lincoln was a realist. At a time when many in the country, including most politicians, were desperately seeking a way to keep the slavery issue under wraps, Lincoln had already recognized that the South’s “peculiar institution” wasn’t going to just shrivel up and blow away on its own.

Lincoln sitting-WikiC, Mathew Brady pubdom

Abraham Lincoln

That’s what Lincoln wrote in a letter to a friend in 1855. Judge George Robertson was a former Congressman from Kentucky who had represented Lincoln in a family-related legal proceeding. Although Robertson was a slaveowner, he thought that slavery would one day disappear. But he didn’t expect or desire it to happen anytime soon. In fact, when Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, Robertson vehemently opposed it. He wanted fugitive slaves in Kentucky returned to their owners, and when one of his own ran away to a Union army camp and was not returned, he sued. That sequence of events put something of a strain on his relationship with Lincoln.

But in 1855 their relationship was still intact, and Robertson sent Lincoln copies of his writings and speeches concerning slavery. Lincoln’s reply shows that even then, six years before Ft. Sumter, he saw clearly that slavery would not end without a fight. Here’s Lincoln’s letter:

Springfield, Illinois, August 15, 1855
Hon: Geo. Robertson
Lexington, Ky

My Dear Sir:

The volume you left for me has been received. I am really grateful for the honor of your kind remembrance, as well as for the book. The partial reading I have already given it, has afforded me much of both pleasure and instruction. It was new to me that the exact question which led to the Missouri compromise, had arisen before it arose in regard to Missouri; and that you had taken so prominent a part in it. Your short, but able and patriotic speech upon that occasion, has not been improved upon since, by those holding the same views; and, with all the lights you then had, the views you took appear to me as very reasonable.

You are not a friend of slavery in the abstract. In that speech you spoke of “the peaceful extinction of slavery” and used other expressions indicating your belief that the thing was, at some time, to have an end. Since then we have had thirty six years of experience; and this experience has demonstrated, I think, that there is no peaceful extinction of slavery in prospect for us. The signal failure of Henry Clay, and other good and great men, in 1849, to effect any thing in favor of gradual emancipation in Kentucky, together with a thousand other signs, extinguishes that hope utterly. On the question of liberty, as a principle, we are not what we have been. When we were the political slaves of King George, and wanted to be free, we called the maxim that “all men are created equal” a self evident truth; but now when we have grown fat, and have lost all dread of being slaves ourselves, we have become so greedy to be masters that we call the same maxim “a self evident lie” The fourth of July has not quite dwindled away; it is still a great day—for burning fire-crackers!!!

That spirit which desired the peaceful extinction of slavery, has itself become extinct, with the occasion, and the men of the Revolution. Under the impulse of that occasion, nearly half the states adopted systems of emancipation at once; and it is a significant fact, that not a single state has done the like since. So far as peaceful, voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition of the negro slave in America, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free mind, is now as fixed, and hopeless of change for the better, as that of the lost souls of the finally impenitent. The Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown, and proclaim his subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves.

Our political problem now is “Can we, as a nation, continue together permanently — forever — half slave, and half free?” The problem is too mighty for me. May God, in his mercy, superintend the solution.

Your much obliged friend, and humble servant

A. Lincoln

Ron Franklin

Posted in Abraham Lincoln, Slavery | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Varina Davis’s critical assessment of Confederate spy Rose Greenhow

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Ron Franklin
Rose Greenhow, from her book

Rose Greenhow as pictured in her book, 1863.

As a Confederate spy in Washington, Rose Greenhow used her relationships with men in high level positions in the Union government or military to gain access to sensitive information. She was eventually caught, imprisoned in Washington, then banished across Confederate lines.

Greenhow was a major hero to the Confederacy, and when she drowned on October 1, 1864 while returning on a blockade running ship from a trip to England, she was buried with full military honors.

In its edition of October 12, 1864 the Richmond Daily Dispatch described the funeral:

Hundreds of ladies lined the wharf at Wilmington upon the approach of the steamer bearing Mrs. Greenhow’s remains. The Soldiers’ Aid Society took charge of the funeral, which took place from the chapel of Hospital No. 4.

The coffin…covered with the Confederate flag, was borne to Oakdale Cemetery, followed by an immense funeral cortege… Rain fell in torrents during the day; but as the coffin was being lowered into the grave, the sun burst forth in the brightest majesty, and a rainbow of the most vivid color spanned the horizon. Let us accept the omen… for her, the quiet sleeper, who, after many storms and a tumultuous and checkered life, came to peace and rest at last.

Varina Davis-en'wikipedia'org@wiki@Varina_Davis#mediaviewer@File~VHowellDavis

Varina Davis

But even though she had served the Confederate cause well, being credited by Jefferson Davis with providing information that allowed the rebels to win the battle of First Manassas, Rose Greenhow’s way of life did not meet with universal approbation in the South, especially among women.

Varina Davis, wife of the Confederate president, expressed her less than glowing assessment of Greenhow in a letter to her friend, the diarist Mary Chesnut:

October 8, 1864, Richmond, Virginia

Nothing has so impressed me as the account of poor Mrs. Greenhow’s sudden summons to a higher court than those she strove to shine in. And not an hour in the day is the vivid picture which exists in my mind obliterated of the men who rowed her in across ‘the cruel, crawling, hungry foam’ and her poor wasted beautiful face all divested of its meretricious ornaments and her scheming head hanging helplessly upon those who but an hour before she felt so able and willing to deceive. She was a great woman spoiled by education – or the want of it. She has left few less prudent women behind her– and many less devoted to our cause. “She loved much,” and ought she not to be forgiven? May God have mercy upon her and upon her orphan child.

By being “able and willing to deceive” men, Rose Greenhow had provided significant aid to the Confederacy. And they were grateful. But you have to wonder whether, if she had lived, the “hundreds of ladies” who buried her with such pomp and adulation would ever have truly accepted her.

Ron Franklin

For more on Varina Davis, see
Mary Elizabeth Bowser: Union Spy In The Confederate White House

Posted in Jefferson Davis, Spies, The Confederacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Virginia’s Governor urges use of slaves as Confederate Soldiers

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Ron Franklin
Silas Chandler

Silas Chandler, with rifle, and his owner, Andrew Martin Chandler

By December of 1864 it was clear to anyone who cared to see that the Confederacy was fast approaching exhaustion. Union armies under Grant in Virginia and Sherman in Georgia had placed a chokehold on the military resources of the South. But most importantly, after almost four years of bloody warfare, the Confederacy was simply running out of men who could, or would, fight.

As early as January of 1864 General Patrick Cleburne had proposed arming slaves to fight for the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis considered that idea so explosive that he not only ordered that Cleburne’s proposal be instantly and totally quashed, but that every written copy of the proposal be destroyed. (Fortunately for the historical record, one copy escaped).

But now, after a year that saw Sherman take Atlanta and move south from there, and with Grant at the gates of Richmond, discussion of the idea of putting blacks into the ranks could no longer be suppressed.

Virginia governor William “Extra Billy” Smith, in his December 7, 1864 message to the Senate and House of Delegates, put the issue officially on the table for consideration by the state legislature. Here are excerpts of what he said:

[The enemy has] seized our slaves and, in violation of all civilized war, armed them against us.

Under every disadvantage the war has been protracted deep into its fourth year, and we find ourselves looking around for material to enlarge our armies. Whence is it to come? … Foreign countries are in effect closed against us. Recruiting from the prisoners we capture will not, except to a limited extent, supply our wants, and the public attention naturally turns to our own slaves as a ready and abundant stock from which to draw.

This policy, however, has given rise to great diversity of opinion. Some consider it as giving up the institution of slavery. Others declare that to put our slaves in the ranks will drive our fellow-citizens from them and diffuse dissatisfaction throughout the country.

In reply, it is said that this policy will effectually silence the clamor of the poor man about this being the rich man’s war; that there is no purpose to mingle the two races in the same ranks, and that there cannot be a reasonable objection to fighting the enemy’s negroes with our own; that as to the. abandonment of slavery, it is already proclaimed to be at an end by the enemy, and will undoubtedly be so if we are subjugated, and that by making it aid in our defense it will improve the chance of preserving it.

This is a grave and important question and full of difficulty. All agree in the propriety of using our slaves in the various menial employments of the Army, and as sappers and miners and pioneers, but much diversity of opinion exists as to the propriety of using them as soldiers now. All agree that when the question becomes one of liberty and independence on the one hand or subjugation on the other, that every means within our reach should be used to aid in our struggle and to baffle and thwart our enemy. I say every man will agree to this; no man would hesitate.

Even if the result were to emancipate our slaves, there is not a man that would not cheerfully put the negro into the Army rather than become a slave himself to our hated and vindictive fee. It is, then, simply a question of time.

Has the time arrived when this issue is fairly before us? Is it, indeed, liberty and independence, or subjugation, which is presented to us? A man must be blind to current events; to the gigantic proportions of this war; to the proclamations of the enemy; who does not see that the issue above referred to is presented now… I will not say that, under the Providence of God, we may not be able to triumph; but I do say that we should not, from any mawkish sensibility, refuse any means within our reach which will tend to enable us to work out our deliverance . . .

I do not hesitate to say that I would arm such portion of our able-bodied slave population as may be necessary and put them in the field, so as to have them ready for the spring campaign, even if it resulted in the freedom of those thus organized . . .

No one would advocate the policy of thus appropriating our slaves except as a matter of urgent necessity… I therefore earnestly recommend to the Legislature that they should give this subject early consideration and enact such measures as their wisdom may approve.

Even with both the Governor of Virginia and Robert E. Lee himself urging quick action to arm slaves to fight for the Confederacy, slaveowners resisted. It wasn’t until March of 1865 that several companies of slaves were organized and began to drill in Richmond. By then it was far too late for the experiment to even be tried.

Within a month of the time the when Confederates, out of utter desperation, could bring themselves to begin training blacks as soldiers, Lee would surrender to Grant at Appomattox. At the time of that surrender, there would not be a single duly enrolled black soldier in Lee’s army.

Ron Franklin

© 2014 Ronald E. Franklin

Posted in Black Confederates, Black soldiers, Jefferson Davis, Secession, Slavery, The Confederacy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment