Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Lincoln moves to curb freedom of New York press

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of th...Image via Wikipedia
President Lincoln
  • In Washington, President Abraham Lincoln issues a proclamation declaring the seceding States in a state of insurrection and prohibiting all trade and public intercourse with them. This proclamation is important as a legal issue. First, it serves notice that no further compromising will be done with the seceded states. In addition it ends a thriving cotton trade in the border states. Most importantly, it makes lawful any action that the Administration would like to take against anyone in the North whom it deems to be trafficking with the enemy. These actions could include curbing freedom of the press and jailing suspected individuals without charges for indefinite periods (suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, which is protected and guaranteed in the US Constitution). And the Lincoln Administration doesn’t waste any time. In New York, the Lincoln Administration indicts several New York newspapers in court for alleged pro- Confederate leanings, among them are the New York Journal of Commerce, the Brooklyn Eagle, and the New York Daily News/1861 
  • Patriot and Union forces clash at Fredericktown and Kirkville, Missouri/1861 

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Feds invade the Valley; Suspension of habeas corpus extended to NYC

The first cannon used to defend the Valley
  • Raphael Semmes in the CSS Sumter burns the Golden Rocket at Sea in the Gulf of Mexico. /1861 
  • Federal troops under Gen. Robert Patterson cross the Potomac River at Williamsport, Maryland, and head toward Harper’s Ferry and the Shenandoah Valley where they intend to curtail the movement of Confederate forces toward Manassas Junction, Virginia. In the process, they push Confederate troops under Thomas J. Jackson off the field at the Battle of Hoke’s Run in West Virginia. Also, Colonel Thomas J. Jackson fights an engagement at Hainesville near Martinsburg, West Virginia. At this battle the first hostile cannon shot is fired in the Defense of the Valley of Virginia./1861 
  • In Washington, Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to General of the Army Winfield Scott, expands the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus to areas between Washington and New York City. Previously he has already suspended it between Baltimore and Washington and in parts of Missouri. The Supreme Court has already ruled Lincoln’s suspension unconstitutional, but Lincoln ignores the ruling, extending his tyranny up the seaboard, taking away the rights of citizens to speak against the government or have some recourse against the military. The rights of habeas corpus are enshrined in the United States Constitution, and are so central to a civilized society that to suspend them strips the rights of every citizen. Habeas corpus (Latin for “bring forth the body") provides for a citizen's right to a fair trial, the right to face one's accuser, and force the accuser to prove the guilt of the accused. Habeas corpus protects against unlawful arrests and prevents unlawful imprisonment. It is a common feature of Western civilization. That is, until Lincoln arrived in town from Springfield, Illinois. In other business, General John Fremont meets with President Lincoln in Washington to discuss Fremont’s appointment to command US forces in Missouri where there have been crazy politics and violent unrest. Lincoln wants Missouri stabilized and forced by military might to stay in the Union. Never has a US President been so brazen./1861
  • At Wheeling, in western “Federal” Virginia, a new legislature convenes with the backing of the Lincoln Administration./1861

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Lincoln: "Bag Jackson"

    A photograph of a British 1865 Gatling gun at ...Image via Wikipedia
    1865 British Gatling Gun
  • Today in the hayloft of Hall’s carriage shop across from the Willard Hotel in Washington, J.D. Mills of New York demonstrates his new shooting machine to three Cabinet members, five generals, and the Governor of Connecticut. Mills had demonstrated the new weapon for President Abraham Lincoln in yesterday. It is a single barreled gun mounted on an artillery carriage – similar to the Gatling Gun, an early form of the machine gun. The gunner simply turns the crank and the .58 caliber bullets, in special metal jackets, feed in one after the other. The commander of the Washington defenses, Gen. Joseph Mansfield, begs for some of the machines. The Chief of Ordnance, General James Wolfe Ripley, however, refuses to order them on the ground that they use too much ammunition./1861
  • In Washington, President Lincoln calls a conference with Gens. Scott, Meigs, and John A. Dix, and cabinet to consider the military situation. "The President expresses a strong desire to bag [Gen. Thomas J. ('Stonewall')] Jackson [(CSA)]."/1861

Monday, May 2, 2011

11th New York Fire Zouaves arrive in Washington

  • Elmer E. EllsworthImage via Wikipedia
    Col. Ellsworth
    Northern state militias from various states continue to be raised and sent to the defense of the capital. The 11th New York Fire Zouaves arrive today at Washington. Their distinctive dress of baggy red pants and short blue jackets mimics the Muslim Turks. Their commander, 24 year old Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, would be one of the first officers killed in the War on May 24./1861
  • Confederate General Earl Van DornImage via Wikipedia
    Gen. Earl Van Dorn
    The Texas Quartermaster and Commissary General P. N. Luckett writes to the new Confederate military commander in Texas Earl Van Dorn, on instructions from Texas Governor Clark, that he will deduct from the funds recently obtained as part of the surrender of U.S. property in Texas a sufficient amount to equip the regiment of state troops commanded by Col. John S. Ford. Also asks that the regiment be accepted into Confederate service./1861

Saturday, April 30, 2011

US troops evacuate Indian Territory

Fort Washita, Indian Territory
  • Under orders from President Lincoln, US troops evacuate the forts in Indian Territory, leaving the Five Civilized Nations – Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles – virtually under Confederate jurisdiction and responsibility. US Col. William H. Emory evacuates Fort Wachita and marches to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas./1861
  • John Archibald Campbell. Library of Congress d...Image via Wikipedia
    Justice J.A. Campbell
  • US Supreme Court Justice John Archibald Campbell of Georgia, who had acted as a mediator between the Confederate peace commissioners and Secretary of State William Seward and who had been a leader in the Washington Peace Conference, resigns today from the U.S. Supreme Court to serve as Assistant Secretary of War for the Confederacy./1861 
  • The Tennessee State Legislature convenes in secret session in Nashville. Rumors say they have adopted a secession ordinance, which they will announce after an attack on Washington that is expected to take place on May 4./1861
  • Confederate diplomats Pierre Rost and William Lowndes Yancey arrive in London, joining Ambrose Dudley Mann who arrived April 15th. Immediately they begin meeting with those in the British Government who are sympathetic to the South./1861 
  •  The New York City Yacht Club votes to volunteer its vessels to the Federal Navy if needed to put down the insurrection in the South./1861

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Lincoln thanks 7th New York

  • President Lincoln addresses and thanks the Seventh New York Infantry on this Sunday afternoon at their quarters – the unfinished chamber of the United States House of Representatives./1861

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Peace Commissioners: Sumter expedition an act of war

  • In Washington, the Confederate Peace Commissioners there send a letter to the US State Department declaring justly that the active naval and military operations are ACTS OF WAR. Meanwhile, Mr. Malice toward None's fleet sails for Charleston/1861 
  • Two more vessels of Fox’s secret Fort Sumter Expedition depart New York City for Charleston Harbor – the Pawnee and the Baltic. After anchoring overnight at Sandy Hook waiting for the tide, the transport steamer Baltic sets sail at 8:00am with Navy Captain and Expedition planner Gustavus Vasa Fox aboard along with 200 men under arms to reinforce Fort Sumter, reinforcements that Lincoln told South Carolina Governor were not aboard. This expedition will get Fox an appointment by the Lincoln Administration as Assistant Secretary of the Navy./1861
  • From Montgomery, Alabama, Confederate Secretary of War Leroy P. Walker orders General Beauregard at Charleston, South Carolina to stop Major Anderson's mail to Fort Sumter. "The fort must be completely isolated," he commanded. Beauregard immediately responds that the mails have already been stopped./1861
  • [SECOND SESSION] In the closing hours of the Second Session of the Convention in Charleston, a review of the session is made in the reading of the major resolutions passed/1861 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Act of war: Sumter relief fleet sails for Charleston

Revenue cutter USS Harriet Lane
  • [SEIGE OF FORT SUMTER] At Charleston, South Carolina, Confederate Brigadier General Beauregard, following orders by Secretary of War Leroy P. Walker in Montgomery, Alabama, notifies US Major Robert Anderson commanding Fort Sumter that he is cutting off communications between Charleston (and thus Washington authorities) and Fort Sumter, putting Anderson in an information blackout. The Confederate government about a week ago began to smell a Yankee rat after Presidential envoys had promised the evacuation of Fort Sumter but nothing had happened. They had begun to wonder if their diplomatic courtesies in the face of repeated acts of war were the victims of a kind of political and military bait and switch by the Lincoln Administration, buying time while they prepared to reinforce Fort Sumter. Indeed, their gut was right, and their intelligence confirmed it./1861
  • FEDERAL ACT OF WAR AGAINST THE SOUTH! A Federal fleet sets sail from the Brooklyn Navy Yard for Charleston, SC, to reinforce and resupply Major Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter. The Expedition, as it is called, is commanded by Navy Captain Gustavus V. Fox and consists of the armed side-wheel steamer Harriet Lane, the second class screw sloops Pawnee and Pocahontas, the transport Baltic with 200 men and provisions, and three tugs viz. the Freeborn, Uncle Ben, and Yankee. The ships are to sail individually to preserve the secrecy of the expedition. The tugs have most of their machinery below the waterline and any above is protected by hay or cotton bales. Upon arriving at Charleston Harbor, they are ordered to pass about 1300 yards from the land batteries under cover of darkness, moving at 14 knots on a cross course to avoid being struck by shells. If hit, however, there are sufficient launches to save the on-board military reinforcements whom Lincoln had told Governor Pickens would not be present on the expedition. Launches are to be used anyway if the seas are calm. Confederate gunboats could make short work of the launches, but fire from Sumter would fight them off. This is all fanciful, however, because what the Lincoln Administration and Expedition mastermind Gustavus V. Fox think is a top secret mission is known by Confederate authorities. It is because of this fleet's expedition that Beauregard will prepare to ask Anderson to surrender Fort Sumter and, subsequently, fire upon the fort prior to the Expedition’s arrival. But Lincoln, however bungling a President, is a shrewd strategist. He will achieve his goal of having the Confederates fire on the US flag./1861 

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Lincoln's confusion, bungling, and lies

  • In Washington around three this afternoon, a frustrated President Lincoln receives official notification of what he had feared – that his March 12th orders to reinforce Fort Pickens had not been carried out. The wisdom of a Navy captain meets the ineptitude of the Lincoln Administration. US Captain Henry A. Adams, in command at Pensacola, had decided not to break the Buchanan Administration’s "truce" at Fort Pickens because of the length of time elapsed from the issuance of Lincoln's March 12th orders to their arrival in his hands and the rapid changes going on across the country. Not only that, the orders were also signed by an improper authority – US Army General Winfield General Scott – and could not supersede previous orders signed by Buchanan’s navy secretary. Before committing what he considered "a hostile act" and an "act of war," he has written to Lincoln asking if the March 12 reinforcement orders were official and still in effect./1861
  • David Dixon Porter, Superintendent of the Acad...Image via Wikipedia
    Lt. David D. Porter, USN
    Meanwhile, another confusing mess of crisscrossed orders ensues. US Captain Samuel Mercer receives instructions from Navy Secretary Gideon Welles to command the paddle-wheel steamer USS Powhatan as part of the Fort Sumter Expedition. Before Mercer can depart for Charleston, Capt. Montgomery Meigs and Lt. David Dixon Porter board the Powhatan and present Lincoln’s signed orders for the ship to relieve Fort Pickens instead. The order also transfers command of the Powhatan from Mercer to Porter, who has been disgruntled and on the verge of resigning the US Navy for lack of opportunity. The three men consult about the conflicting orders, and Mercer agrees to the “imperative” nature of the President’s order. He therefore turns over command of the Powhatan to Porter who sets sail immediately from Brooklyn, NY, around 2:45pm for Pensacola Bay. In the meantime, President Lincoln, who desperately wants the Sumter Expedition to succeed, has directed Secretary of State William Seward this morning to re-reverse his orders for the USS Powhatan, removing the ship from reinforcement of Fort Pickens and ordering it back into the Fort Sumter Relief Expedition. At 3:00pm, commandant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Captain Andrew J. Foote, receives Seward’s telegram with the President’s order  for Porter to turn command of the Powhatan back over to Mercer and sail for Charleston. Foote dispatches a steamer in pursuit of the Powhatan and overtakes the steamer, but Porter refuses to abandon his course. He insists that with orders signed by the President himself, they cannot be superseded by a Cabinet officer. Porter argues that it is too late, assuming that the other ship in the Pickens expedition, the Atlantic is already under full steam for Pensacola Bay. If he were to turn back, the Pickens expedition’s troops and supplies would be endangered. At 6pm, Foote telegraphs Porter’s reply to Navy Sec. Welles: "I received my orders from the President and shall proceed and execute them." Alas for the administratively challenged Administration, the powerful warship and its new commander, continues to Pensacola instead of Charleston, and the Fort Sumter Expedition will go forward without the Powhatan./1861
    Francis Wilkinson PickensImage via Wikipedia
    Gov. Francis Pickens
  • Meanwhile, US State Department Clerk Robert S. Chew leaves Washington with a message to South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens that the Federal government will provision Fort Sumter, but not reinforce it with more men, provided there is no resistance or interference from the Confederate forces with the US Navy’s resupply efforts. This is a lie. Fox is at that moment outfitting 200 troops in New York to join the expedition./1861

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Davis makes Cabinet appointments

Confederate Cabinet
  • Jefferson Davis begins to form a Cabinet in Montgomery. Robert Toombs will become Secretary of State. Leroy P. Walker will be Secretary of War. Christopher G. Memminger will head Treasury. Judah P. Benjamin will be Attorney General, the first Jewish Cabinet member in the history of North America. Stephen Mallory will be Secretary of the Navy, and John Reagan will become Postmaster General, a position he will hold throughout the life of the Confederacy./1861

Lincoln at Astor House, NYC
  • President-elect Abraham Lincoln, using his trip to his inauguration to an advantage, is greeted by an estimated 250,000 well-wishers in New York City. According to the Morning Courier and New York Enquirer, Lincoln was greeted by “thunders of applause . . . deafening cheers, waving of handkerchiefs.” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, however, stated that while the crowd showed “much respect” there was “little enthusiasm.”/1861

  • Louisiana state militia takes control of the US paymaster’s office in New Orleans./1861

Thursday, February 17, 2011

US Arsenal in San Antonio surrenders

Ambrotype believed to be of Twigg's surrender
  • In San Antonio, the Texas Commissioners of Committee of Public Safety again demand immediate official surrender of the US Arsenal, noting that they are anxious to avoid a collision between US Army and over 1,000 Texas militia because of the national ramifications. Brevet Major-General D.E. Twiggs, a Georgian, immediately surrenders the garrison, keeping his men’s arms, equipment, medical, food, and transportation stores so that his force may be withdrawn./1861
  • On this Lord’s Day, President-elect Lincoln and his party, traveling to Washington for his inauguration as the sixteenth President of the United States, observe a day of rest in Buffalo, New York. Former President Millard Fillmore, a resident of Buffalo, calls on Lincoln at 10am and takes him by Fillmore’s own carriage to attend his Unitarian church service, returning to the hotel for Mrs. Lincoln, then to Fillmore’s home to dine with them. Back at the hotel, Lincoln receives friends, eats supper with his family, then hears an Indian preacher, Father John Beason, in the evening./1861

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

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Confederate Constitution adopted

Old Alabama Senate Chamber
  • Delegates to the Convention in Montgomery adopt a provisional Constitution, and a provisional Confederacy officially comes into existence. With several significant changes, including a six-year term for President, the right to own slaves, the outlawing of the slave trade, the right of a free state to join the Confederacy, an appeal to Almighty God in the preamble, and the sovereign power of the states, the document closely resembles the United States Constitution. /1861
  • Fulfilling orders from Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown, state military authorities in Savannah seize five ships loaded with goods bound for New York. The seizure is in response to New York police seizing 200 guns purchased by a Macon firm for shipment to Georgia. Governor Brown had contacted the governor of New York to have the guns released, but Governor Edwin Morgan failed to respond. So finally Governor Brown ordered that Georgia military forces seize every ship at the port of Savannah belonging to citizens of New York./1861
  • The Confederacy receives a $500,000 loan from Louisiana. The money came from the New Orleans mint and the United States Customs office, lately seized by the Louisiana Militia./1861 

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Texas secedes

Texas Ordinance of Secession
  • In Texas, Governor Sam Houston in Austin, a staunch Unionist, has refused to call a convention of the people of Texas  to consider secession. Why? Perhaps because he has been recommended from all over the country to be Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War. Today the people of Texas bypass Governor Houston by calling for a vote on secession to be ratified by public referendum on February 23. Today by a vote of 166-7, Texas becomes provisionally the seventh state to secede from the Union, regaining its sovereignty as the Republic of Texas./1861

  • AN ORDINANCE
    To dissolve the Union between the State of Texas and the other States united under the Compact styled "the Constitution of the United States of America."

    WHEREAS, The Federal Government has failed to accomplish the purposes of the compact of union between these States, in giving protection either to the persons of our people upon an exposed frontier, or to the property of our citizens, and

    WHEREAS, the action of the Northern States of the Union is violative of the compact between the States and the guarantees of the Constitution; and,

    WHEREAS, The recent developments in Federal affairs make it evident that the power of the Federal Government is sought to be made a weapon with which to strike down the interests and property of the people of Texas, and her sister slave-holding States, instead of permitting it to be, as was intended, our shield against outrage and aggression; THEREFORE,

    SECTION 1.-- We, the people of the State of Texas, by delegates in convention assembled, do declare and ordain that the ordinance adopted by our convention of delegates on the 4th day of July, A.D. 1845, and afterwards ratified by us, under which the Republic of Texas was admitted into the Union with other States, and became a party to the compact styled "The Constitution of the United States of America," be, and is hereby, repealed and annulled; that all the powers which, by the said compact, were delegated by Texas to the Federal Government are revoked and resumed; that Texas is of right absolved from all restraints and obligations incurred by said compact, and is a separate sovereign State, and that her citizens and people are absolved from all allegiance to the United States or the government thereof.

    SEC. 2. This ordinance shall be submitted to the people of Texas for their ratification or rejection, by the qualified voters, on the 23rd day of February, 1861, and unless rejected by a majority of the votes cast, shall take effect and be in force on and after the 2d day of March, A.D. 1861. PROVIDED, that in the Representative District of El Paso said election may be held on the 18th day of February, 1861.

    Done by the people of the State of Texas, in convention assembled, at Austin, this 1st day of February, A.D. 1861.
  •  Because of dwindling supplies and the growing tension in Charleston Harbor, it has been determined that all non-essential persons will be evacuated from Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina. The U.S. War Department today sends word to Fort Columbus in New York: "About twenty women & children from Major Anderson's command at Fort Sumter are on their way to New York." /1861
  • President-elect Lincoln finishes his visit with his step-mother, Sarah Bush Johnston, in rural Illinois. When he is ready to leave for Springfield, then on to Washington, DC, for the inauguration, she clutches him and cries, saying she would never see him again and that he would be assassinated. Lincoln tries to console her, then leaves, arriving in Springfield in the afternoon, where he writes Secretary of State-designate William H. Seward, “I am inflexible” to any compromise with the South and extension of slavery in the territories/1861 

    Saturday, January 22, 2011

    NYC police seize Georgia, Alabama muskets

    At the port of New York City, the city police under orders from their superintendent John A. Kennedy, seize a cargo of 38 boxes of muskets bound for Savannah, Georgia (thence by railroad to Alabama), aboard the steamer Monticello, and place them in the state arsenal in the city, intending to keep them from Southern hands. This incident will precipitate a demand by Georgia Governor Joe Brown to New York Governor Morgan to return the 200 guns which were purchased by two businessmen in Macon (the rest of the more than 900 total muskets were headed to Alabama). The New York governor will not respond to repeated telegraphs from Governor Brown which will lead to retaliation by the Georgia governor./1861