One Hundred Fifty Years Ago Today: Mississippi

Showing posts with label Mississippi. Show all posts

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Confederate troops burn Hampton, Virginia

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USS Cairo

Confederate troops burn Hampton, Virginia, where Fortress Monroe is located with US General Benjamin Butler in command. General John Bankhead Magruder indicates that Butler’s quartering of runaway slaves and advocacy that they be made contraband is part of the reason for burning the town./1861
In Washington, the US War Department, trying to further improve operations, contracts with J.B. Eads of St. Louis to build seven shallow-draft ironclad river gunboats. These gunboats, the USS Cairo, Carondolet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburg, and St. Louis, will become the backbone of Grant’s Union naval force in the Western Theater beginning in February 1862./1861
Near Ship Island, Mississippi, the USS Massachusetts under Commander M. Smith captures the blockade runner sloop Charles Henry./1861

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Recruits flood armies; Skirmishes at Arlington, Fairfax, VA

Confederate Mail Service begins as Confederate and US postal services end official cooperation , though mail will continue across the lines throughout the war in various ways./1861
In northern Virginia, a small body of raw Confederate recruits routs and disperses 85 Regulars of the Second United States Cavalry at Chantilly, Virginia. The 2nd US Cavalry had been sent from Arlington to reconnoiter and engages the Confederate troops at Arlington Mills and Fairfax Court House. Virginia Militia Captain John Q. Marr, an officer of promise, of the Warrenton (VA) Rifles is killed. He is one of the first Southern officers to die for independence. The Yankees suffer several dead and wounded, and leave seven dead horses and many arms in the street./1861
In a decision aimed at both United States and Confederate States vessels, the British government declares British territorial waters and ports off-limit to belligerents vessels carrying spoils of war./1861
In Virginia, Southern boys are gathering into training camps and issued obsolete Mexican War flintlocks as frantic orders are placed in Europe for the new cap lock muskets./1861
At Cairo, Illinois, where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers join, gun emplacements are being tested including a 32-lb. mortar./1861
The Sons of Erin, citizens of Ireland living in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, volunteer for Confederate service./1861

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Lincoln calls for 42K more for Army, 18K for Navy

Lincoln: The Imperial President

Now in full preparation for the War which he inaugurated, President Abraham Lincoln, wanting to bring the US Army to a total of 156,861 and the US Navy to 25,000, calls for an increase in the regular army by ten regiments, for a total 22,714 men, for 42,034 volunteers, and for enlistments of 18,000 seamen. He has already angered the Upper South with his call for 75,000 volunteers from the state militias for three months. Now Lincoln is expanding the size of the regular Army from 16,000 to nearly 23,000, which will be under his direct control and free from considerations of state governors. The War Department also forms the US Department of the Ohio, which will be commanded by George Brinton McClellan. All these war orders are being made by the Administration without any authorization from Congress, which alone has the power to make war under the US Constitution. The President is Constitutionally only the Commander-in-Chief of what the Congress provides, but Lincoln continues to offend the Founding Fathers’ system of checks and balances by acting in the role of a Caesar before Congress reconvenes July 4./1861
Notwithstanding the Kentucky governor’s refusal, fourteen companies of Kentucky volunteers offer their services to the United States Secretary of War while the Connecticut legislature appropriates $2,000,000 for military purposes./1861
General-in-Chief of the US Army Winfield Scott presents his Anaconda Plan which includes a powerful blockade to “envelop” the seceded states along the entire length of the Mississippi River and subjugate the insurgents. At first jeered, the Anaconda Plan eventually works with great effect to strangle the Southern Confederacy. He also orders US troops to seize Arlington Heights, overlooking Washington D. C./1861
The Confederate government has sent three commissioners, Ambrose Dudley Mann, Pierre Rost, and William Lowndes Yancey, to London to lobby the British Government for recognition and support for the Confederacy. This afternoon they meet in an informal meeting with British Prime Minister Lord Russell at 10 Downing Street. They were introduced to Lord Russell through Southern sympathizer Sir William Gregory, MP for County Galway. The Prime Minister leaves the meeting looking flustered and insiders say that the reason for Lord Russell’s bright apparent frustration is thought to be that the commissioners tried to use cotton as a bargaining chip for recognition.The US State Department immediately complains to the British Ministry about their meeting with them, although the British say it was unofficial. The British do not want to upset their relations with the United States government./1861

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Jackson removes arms from Harpers Ferry

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Harper's Ferry, Virginia

In Montgomery, Alabama, Congressman Walter Brooke of Mississippi introduces a bill in Confederate Congress to move the capital city to Richmond, Virginia./1861
President Lincoln writes Gustavus V. Fox, to encourage him as he was deeply disappointed he could not resupply Fort Sumter in time to keep Major Anderson in the fort. Lincoln’s encouragement shows from his own hand his shrewd plan to force war on the South, “You and I both anticipated that the cause of the country would be advanced by making the attempt . . . even if it should fail."/1861
Soldiers of the 6^th Massachusetts Regiment who were killed in the Baltimore riots on April 19 are honored at ceremonies in Boston./1861
Governor Letcher of Virginia calls for volunteers for the Confederate army while in Nebraska Territory, a call for volunteers to support the Union goes out./1861
In one of his first orders as commander of the State Militia, Major General Robert E. Lee orders Major Thomas J. Jackson to the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, to remove all weapons and equipment for gun and cannon manufacturing as well as any other munitions and move them South to keep them from the danger of being stolen by Federal forces from the north or Unionist sympathizers from Virginia./1861

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Missouri Gov. Jackson

Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, part of the Unionist Douglas faction of the Democratic party, but privately a secessionist, calls out the Missouri Volunteer Militia for maneuvers about 4.5 miles northwest of the St. Louis Federal Arsenal at a place called Lindell's Grove. The militia, under command of General David M. Frost, names their training ground Camp Jackson after their governor. Governor Jackson wants them to prepare to assault and take the Federal Arsenal, the largest depository of munitions west of the Appalachian Mountains./1861
Federal forces seize two Confederate ships in the waters of the Atlantic, and the U.S. Navy blockades the mouth of the James River./1861
Union army officer James R. Greene, assisting in the evacuation of US troops from Texas, reports to fellow officer C. C. Sibley that, while carrying out his responsibility, he had heard a rumor that his command was to be made prisoners of war. Not believing it, he still checked it out and found it to be true./1861

Monday, April 25, 2011

Illinois militia steal from St. Louis arsenal

Much to President Lincoln’s relief, New York's 7th Regiment arrives in Washington, having gone around Baltimore by boat. Lincoln considers the monstrous anti-Constitutional act of sending US troops to prevent the Maryland Legislature from meeting and potentially arming the people of that state against the United States, but he concludes it would not be justifiable./1861
Governor John Letcher proclaims Virginia a part of the Southern Confederacy./1861
U.S. Arsenal, St. Louis, Missouri

Missouri is on the verge of secession, and St. Louis has one of the largest federal arsenals west of the Appalachian mountains. No wonder President Davis has been urging Missiouri governor Claiborne Jackson to seize it. Others also had their eye on that St. Louis arsenal. In a daring nighttime theft to damage Missouri secessionists, Illinois militiamen led by Captain James H. Stokes of Chicago, secretly steam on the Mississippi River from Alton, Illinois, to St. Louis, Missouri, and by theft remove 10,000 muskets from the Federal Arsenal with the help of federal troops there. In his return to Alton, Illinois, the next morning, he supplies munitions to the Illinois state militia./1861
Brig. Gen. Edwin Vose Sumner is appointed commander of the Department of California, replacing Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, who resigns to become a full General commanding Confederate Department No. 2, which encompasses most of the western Confederacy./1861
Battle of Indianola, Texas. Major C. C. (Caleb Chase) Sibley surrenders 420 United States Infantry troops to Confederate forces capture at Saluria, Texas./1861

Friday, April 22, 2011

Lincoln: "What is to become of the revenue?"

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Gov. T.H. Hicks

Maryland Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks calls a session of the Maryland legislature to consider secession. Unrest in Baltimore continues to threaten the security of the District of Columbia as troops go through Maryland on their way to Washington. President Jefferson Davis, communicating with Virginia Governor John Letcher, indicates his hope that he will be able to “sustain Baltimore if possible.”/1861
Pres. Lincoln

President Lincoln meets at the White House with a distinguished delegation of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of Baltimore led by Rev. Dr. Fuller of the Baptist Church of Baltimore. According to the Baltimore Sun, Fuller endeavors to impress on the President his unique responsibility and privilege to foment fratricidal war or a lasting peace. Lincoln asks, “But what am I to do?” Fuller urges him to recognize that the Southern States have formed a government of their own and they will not come back. Without referring to the constitutionality of secession, Fuller suggests he can simply recognize the Confederacy and both North and South can be relieved of their great anxieties and move forward in pursuit of peace. Lincoln responds, “And what is to become of the revenue? I will have no government, no resources,” reflecting the underlying reason for Lincoln’s great vision for preserving the Union – the fact that the Southern States provided a majority of Federal government revenue. As the conversation turns to the offense of troops coming through Baltimore to “subdue the South,” Lincoln insists that he has called the troops only for defense of the Capitol, not for invasion of the Southern States. “And,” Lincoln says, “I must have the troops, and mathematically, the necessity exists that they should come through Maryland. They can’t crawl under the earth, and they can’t fly over it, and mathematically they must come across it. Why sir, those Carolinians are now crossing Virginia to come here and hang me, and what can I do?” Despite Fuller’s pleading for a peaceful course, Lincoln remarked that there “would be no Washington in that, no Jackson in that, no spunk in that!” Dr. Fuller hoped that Lincoln would not allow spunk to override patriotism, but Lincoln said there was no way that he or Congress would recognize the Southern Confederacy. After the YMCA delegation departs the White House, they “agreed on the hopelessness of their errand and the sad prospect that any good thing from such a source, and the exclamation was actually made, ‘God have mercy on us, when the Government is placed in the hands of a man like this!”/1861
Following the destruction of the Norfolk Navy Yard, the Washington Navy Yard has become indispensible. But there are personnel problems. Today Commandant Capt. Franklin Buchanan resigns to serve with the South. The Chief of Navy Ordnance, George Magruder, flees to Canada for the duration of the war, and the entire yard has dwindled to 150 men./1861
The Clarksburg (present-day West Virginia) Convention calls for an anti-secessionist convention to be held in May, 1861./1861
Illinois state militia garrisons Cairo, Illinois, on the Mississippi River./1861
Arkansas Governor Henry M. Rector refuses to send troops to support Lincoln’s quota to suppress secession, stating, “the people of this commonwealth are freemen, not slaves, and will defend to the extremity their honor, lives, against Northern mendacity and usurpation.”/1861
North Carolina state militia assumes control of the Federal arsenal at Fayetteville, North Carolina./1861

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Lincoln chooses War, will relieve Sumter

Lincoln in 1861

FIRST DAY OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES-LINCOLN’S MILITARY ACT OF WAR- After a sleepless night, President Lincoln rises this Good Friday “in the dumps.” At noon his formal Cabinet meeting convenes. With all of the advice, arm-twisting, and recommendations during nearly a month in office, Mr. Lincoln finally announces his plan for Fort Sumter. There will be no evacuation as had been promised.

Instead, Lincoln favors Gustavus Fox’s plan for Fort Sumter with one change. Instead of a military expedition to reinforce and resupply Fort Sumter, the expedition would attempt to land peaceably only provisions. There would be no reinforcement of Sumter unless the effort to send “bread” to the garrison found resistance. The government would also communicate to South Carolina officials its intentions "to provision the fort peaceably if unmolested."

The discussion is so scattered that Attorney General Bates complains that no one could arrive at definite conclusions, suggesting instead that the President state his questions in order and require the members to respond directly. One by one, the cabinet officers present their recommendations, with the exception of Secretary of War Simon Cameron, who is conspicuously absent.

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Sec. of War Simon Cameron

In the end, the Cabinet vote splits 3-2 in favor of Lincoln’s plan with his own Secretary of War, Simon Cameron in absentia, saying he preferred to keep his wishes silent in the matter. Secretary of State William Seward and Interior Secretary Caleb Smith vote no. By being absent, Cameron was plainly trying to keep the Cabinet from being hamstrung by a 3-3 vote and at odds with their own fledgling President. Lincoln orders the expedition to be ready to sail by April 6th to reinforce and resupply Fort Sumter. Lincoln has strong-armed his own radical Cabinet into a foolish act of intimidation and war. /1861

[2nd SESSION OF CONVENTION] The South Carolina Convention of the People goes into secret session to debate the ratification of the Constitution/1861
Mississippi ratifies the Confederate Constitution./1861
William Wing Loring, former commander of the US Department of Oregon, assumes command of the U. S. Department of New Mexico as US Army troops abandon Fort Mason, Texas./1861

Friday, February 25, 2011

US warship lurks as peace commissioners sent to Lincoln

Confederate Senate in Alabama Senate chamber

President Davis and president of the Montgomery Convention, Howell Cobb, advise the US Congress that they are sending three commissioners from the Confederacy to the United States, A. B. Roman, of Louisiana; Martin J. Crawford, of Georgia; John Forsyth, of Alabama, to Washington to discuss peace terms with President-elect Lincoln. In other business, Confederate Congress declares that the Mississippi River is freely opened to navigation by all states of the Confederacy/1861

Governor Pickens of South Carolina telegraphs President Davis that a war steamer of the United States is lying off Charleston Bar laden with reinforcements for Fort Sumter and that he would like advice as to what to do. President Davis replies that Governor Pickens should use his own discretion/1861

In Washington, President-elect Abraham Lincoln, escorted by former New York Senator and Secretary of State-designate William Seward, attends an informal reception in both houses of Congress and visits justices of the Supreme Court during the afternoon. Meanwhile, US Supreme Court Justice from Alabama, Hon. John Archibald Campbell, acting as mediator, tells the Peace Commissioners meeting in Washington's prestigious Willard Hotel that according to Seward, the new Administration will evacuate Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina, and not reinforce Fort Pickens at Pensacola, Florida, yet nothing will change./1861

Old Alabama Senate Chamber

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Davis arrives in Montgomery, Lincoln kisses a girl

Jefferson Davis on a white horse

President-elect Jefferson Davis arrives at 10:00pm by train amid shouts from a large crowd in Montgomery, Alabama, from his plantation Brierfield near Vicksburg, Mississippi, to accept the call of the Southern people and be inaugurated to the Presidency of the Confederate States of America. Along the route, Davis made twenty-five speeches, returning thanks for the complimentary greetings to the crowds assembled at the various depots where he was received with military escorts and salutes. A Congressional committee and Montgomery authorities meet President Davis about eight miles from Montgomery, and formally received him. Two fine military companies from Columbus, Georgia, had joined the escort at Opelika, Alabama. Davis thanks the large crowd at the depot for the hospitality of the citizens of Alabama. In a short speech, he briefly reviews the present position of the South and says the time for compromises has passed. “We are now determined to maintain our position and make all who oppose us smell Southern powder and feel the Southern steel,” Davis says./1861

At 6am in San Antonio, Texas, the Commissioners of the Committee on Public Safety, representing the seceded Republic of Texas, Thomas J. Devine, S. A. Maverick, and P. N. Luckett, demand the surrender of the US Arsenal at San Antonio even as “during the past night,” according to the US Arsenal authorities, “the town of San Antonio had been invaded by armed bodies of Texans [(over 1,000 Texas militia)], who had seized the property of the United States.” US Brevet Major-General D.E. Twiggs, after reading the demand for surrender, says he “gave up everything,” but nothing official happens./1861

Lincoln and Grace Bedell, Westfield, NY

Even the anti-Republican Cleveland Plain Dealer “must confess to being most favorably impressed with both” Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln. The whistle-stop train trip from their home in Springfield, Illinois, to his inauguration in Washington has begun paying political dividends. Leaving Cleveland at 9:00 a.m., the presidential party has a packed travel day to Buffalo, New York. At Westfield, New York, Lincoln meets now twelve-year-old Grace Bedell, who had written to Presidential candidate Lincoln suggesting he grow a beard. Back during the campaign on October 15, 1860, the 11 year old Bedell had written Lincoln to suggest a way for him to get elected: “I have got 4 brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you. You would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.”

Lincoln replied four days later: “As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?” The silly affectation must have caught on for him, for today at Westfield, New York, Lincoln was sporting a beard.

The Philadelphia Enquirer reports what happened next and quotes Lincoln, “Some three months ago, I received a letter from a young lady here; it was a very pretty letter, and she advised me to let my whiskers grow, as it would improve my personal appearance; acting partly upon her suggestion, I have done so; and now, if she is here, I would like to see her; . . . A small boy, mounted on a post, with his mouth and eyes both wide open, cried out, ``there she is, Mr. LINCOLN,'' pointing to a beautiful girl, with black eyes, who was blushing all over her fair face.” The President left the car, and the crowd making way for him, he reached her, and gave her several hearty kisses, and amid the yells of delight from the excited crowd, he bade her good-bye.

In Buffalo, former President Millard Fillmore greets his arrival at 4:30pm. The crowd of 10,000 is so dense and aggressive that the guest party is separated and Maj. David Hunter dislocates his shoulder while escorting Lincoln./1861

Friday, February 11, 2011

Lincoln heads to Washington, Davis to Montgomery

Reenactment of the 1861 Lincoln Train

President-elect Abraham Lincoln departs Springfield, Illinois, for Washington, D.C., as preparations are well under way in the nation’s capital for his inauguration as the sixteenth President of the United States. This whistle-stop train trip is designed to maximize the President-elect’s exposure to the populace and capitalize on his election victory by winning over those who may be still wary of the administration of a relatively new, left-wing Republican Party.

But in a speech in Indianapolis, Lincoln doesn’t help himself. He gives his controversial views on the preservation of the Union, angering many of the more conservative Democrats across the country, especially those in the Upper South. The remarks seem to betray Lincoln’s ideas about state sovereignty and military invasion of the South at a time when he was playing down the idea of any crisis at all.

From the balcony of the Bates House where he will overnight, he says: "The words 'coercion' and 'invasion' are in great use about these days. . . . Would the marching of an army into South Carolina, for instance, without the consent of her people, and in hostility against them, be coercion or invasion? . . . But if the Government, for instance, but simply insists upon holding its own forts, or retaking those forts which belong to it, or the enforcement of the laws of the United States . . . or even the withdrawal of the mails from those portions of the country where the mails themselves are habitually violated; would any or all of these things be coercion? . . . What is the particular sacredness of a State? . . . I am speaking of that assumed right of a State, as a primary principle, that the Constitution should rule all that is less than itself, and ruin all that is bigger than itself. But, I ask, wherein does consist that right? . . . I am deciding nothing, but simply giving something for you to reflect upon."

There is also some excitement during the day when the satchel containing Lincoln’s copies of his Inaugural Address are missed, but later found./1861

His Excellency Jefferson Davis leaves his Mississippi plantation Brierfield near Vicksburg by train to accept the call of the Southern people to the Presidency of the Southern Confederacy/1861

Vice-President Alexander Stephens

On his 49^th birthday, the Honorable Alexander H. Stephens is inaugurated Provisional Vice President of the Confederate States of America, in Montgomery, Alabama, but perhaps in deference to Jefferson Davis he makes no official statement./1861

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Davis surprised at his election

The Davises receive news of his election at Brierfield

At home at Brierfield just south of Vicksburg, Mississippi, while pruning roses with his wife Varina Howell Davis, Jefferson Davis is completely taken aback at a telegram he receives today announcing his unanimous election to the Presidency of the new Confederacy of Southern States.

Mrs. Davis would later write, "He looked so grieved that I feared some evil had befallen our family. After a few minutes' painful silence, he told me, as a man might speak of a sentence of death ..."

Immediately he is involved in a swirl of activity involving plans to travel to Montgomery, Alabama, to take part in his inauguration.

The new Montgomery government keenly wants to hold Davis’ inauguration before Lincoln can take over the White House on March 4./1861

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Jefferson Davis elected President

J. Davis / A.H. Stephens

Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and Alexander Hamilton Stephens of Georgia are unanimously elected Provisional President and Vice President of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama. The men selected are at the moment unaware of the honor. The choice of these two devolved on the desire in the Convention to have the border states join the new Confederacy. Davis’ and Stephens’ moderate positions and able leadership will likely be attractive to these the border states. In a move to preserve order, the Provisional Congress resolves that the laws of the United States will remain valid unless they interfere with stated law of the new Confederacy./1861

In Tennessee, a referendum votes down a proposal 68,282 to 59,449 to hold a convention to consider secession./1861

At Fort Pickens, Pensacola Bay, Florida, although the USS Brooklyn has arrived to reinforce the installation, both Federal and state authorities decide that the balance of power should not be disturbed and for now there will be no reinforcement of Fort Pickens./1861

Sunday, August 7, 2011

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