Civil War Overview
Civil War 1861
Civil War 1862
Civil War 1863
Civil War 1864
Civil War 1865
Civil War Battles
Robert E. Lee
Civil War Medicine
Civil War Links
Civil War Art
Republic of Texas
Civil War Gifts
Robert E. Lee Portrait
Page) which they forced us by a long
course of brow-beating diplomacy which threw them out of power. It is true that
they, the inveterate enemies of England in this country, are now supported by
the sympathy of the commercial and aristocratic interest of England in their
effort to ruin us. And why not? What more dangerous enemy can England have than
a vast government which such men have controlled, and, so far as England knows,
may control again? She has no sympathy with the rebels as such. She supports
their cause only because their success is the ruin of a huge rival power.
It is not, therefore, in the
least worth while to bandy epithets. England is, and except when her kings were
pusillanimous tools of France, always has been, a cold, haughty, selfish power.
But have we in our national capacity been so conspicuously disinterested,
consistent, and modest as to challenge comparisons? Let us leave taunting aside,
and if war there must be, let us be sure that England is wrong in the cause of
war. Until her insolence infringes our rights her insolence is permissible. It
is our duty to confine ourselves exclusively to the maintenance of our rights,
and to vindicate them at such times and in such ways as shall seem wisest.
Whether we or England have been the greatest national swash-bucklers may be a
question. But there can be no question that for England under a plea of
neutrality to destroy our commerce is an invasion of our rights; and for us to
prevent her supplying our enemies under the same plea is not an invasion of
British rights. So long as we claim to be a living sovereign power we can not
tolerate either of these things. But surely we shall use our common sense in
deciding how our rights may most wisely be maintained.
THE question of belligerent
rights is one upon which neutrals and belligerents never have agreed, and never
will agree. The public mind of England rages over the seizure of a ship
suspected of carrying contraband, as if some outrage had been inflicted upon
British rights. And yet the seizure of the Peterhof is in strict consonance with
the letter and spirit of the British dispatch, which declares that upon
reasonable suspicion ships may be detained. To determine what is, abstractly,
"reasonable suspicion," is, of course, a hopeless task. But by the necessity of
the case the belligerent naval officer is created the judge. The matter is left
to his discretion. If the suspicion which he considers to be reasonable turns
out to be baseless, and he arrests an innocent ship, it is one of the vexatious
but unavoidable chances of a neutral commerce in time of war. It is a case which
requires, and should receive, the promptest acknowledgment, apology, and
reparation from the belligerent government. If the suspicion of such an officer
is incessant and incessantly causeless, his Government, acting in good faith,
will remove him from a station for which his want of sagacity unfits him. But if
his Government persists in keeping him upon a service in which he causelessly
harasses an innocent neutral commerce, his Government clearly intends to invite
difficulty with the neutral.
On the other hand, if a neutral
power takes the risk, for reasons that satisfy it, of trading in contraband with
a belligerent, it will happen that every ship sailing under that particular
neutral flag in certain regions is, by the general conduct of the neutral,
exposed to suspicion. Nor can it justly plead the frequency of detention under a
suspicion which it has itself awakened. It is notorious that the sentiment of
the trading class in England is friendly to the rebels. It is equally well known
that almost every runner of the blockade sails under the English flag. It is no
secret that foreign supplies reach the rebels through Mexico and Texas. Under
these circumstances a trader under the British flag, in that direction, is
obviously more liable to suspicion than a vessel under the Swedish or Italian
flags. It is by no fault of ours that she is strictly watched. It is no fault of
ours if, in many cases, the suspicion of a naval officer watching her should
often become "reasonable"—so often, indeed, as to be exasperating to the trading
interest which desires a virtual immunity. If the neutral were indeed neutral
frequent detention would be a just grievance. But a neutral systematically
dealing in contraband should not wince at the inevitable consequences. To play
at the same time for the advantages of a neutral and a belligerent is a
hazardous game. It certainly is not manly in him who attempts to carry water
upon both shoulders to complain that he is in danger of getting wet.
If it shall appear that
Wilkes has stopped the Peterhoff, or any other naval officer any other vessel,
from pure wantonness or simple desire of annoyance, we hope that he may be
summarily dealt with. But no man in his senses will claim that such a motive has
been in the least established in any detention or seizure yet made.
LIBERTY AND PRIVILEGE.
IN a late discourse upon Edmund
Burke, Mr. Richard O'Gorman alluded to the passage in Burke's speech on
Conciliation with America, in which he says that, wherever there is slavery,
"those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom." The
passage occurs in that part of the oration which is devoted to the consideration
of the probable obstinacy of resistance upon the part of the colonies, and it is
introduced by the remark that the spirit of religious dissent in the Northern
colonies will make them fight, and although this disposition may be checked in
the Southern by the prevalence of the Church of England, yet slavery will
restore the balance, because wherever there is slavery those who are free are
particularly proud of liberty, and may be expected to fight for it desperately.
The liberty of which he is speaking is political, not personal, liberty.
This was one of the splendid
generalizations and impressive prophecies in which great statesmen
sometimes indulge, and which are
so often brought to shame by experience. If Mr. O'Gorman did not tell his
hearers of the melancholy and utter failure of the expectation of his great
countryman's, we prefer to believe that, as a foreigner, he was ignorant of our
history, than that, as an exile for the same political liberty, he was pandering
to the meanest of all enterprises, a rebellion to perpetuate slavery.
The experience to which Burke
prospectively appealed to sustain his assertion laughed his sophism to scorn. He
uttered it in 1775, to dissuade Parliament from going to war by showing how
fiercely slaveholders would fight for liberty. Four years afterward, in 1779, a
Committee of the Continental Congress, appointed to take into consideration the
circumstances of the Southern States, report that "the State of South Carolina
......is unable to make any effectual efforts with militia, by reason of the
great proportion of citizens necessary to remain at home to prevent insurrection
among the negroes, and to prevent the desertion of them to the enemy; that the
state of the country, and the great number of these people among them, expose
the inhabitants to great danger from the endeavors of the enemy to excite them
to revolt or desert."
As a matter of fact the
slaveholding section, which, according to Burke, was to be so "proud and jealous
of freedom" as to be formidable to the British arms, was the nest of Toryism in
the Revolution. By the census of 1790 the Southern colonies had a population of
1,956,354; the Northern, 1,968,455. Of Continental troops the Southern colonies
furnished 58,421; the Northern, 172,496. Of militia the Southern colonies
furnished 12,719; the Northern, 46,048. These last are the figures authenticated
by the War Office. By the "conjectural" returns the Southern colonies furnished
two militia men to one from the Northern. Burke's was also a conjectural
That the Southerners fight well
no one denies. That they fight well because they are slavedrivers is an
assertion which is simply silly. Slavery being a system of barbarism, all who
are subjected to its influence have a certain ferocity common to all
semi-civilizations, and always attended with fear. But that is not "a high and
haughty spirit of liberty," nor heroism, nor pride of freedom. When Burke spoke
the Turks and Asiatics were slave-holders, and at once ferocious and cowardly;
but Burke would hardly have contended that they were braver or had a prouder
love of liberty than the British people. Privilege will always fight hard to
defend itself. But it is a degradation of language to dignify attachment to
privilege as a high love of liberty. Privilege is the denial of liberty; and
therefore the party of liberty in the long-run always conquers that of
HUMORS OF THE DAY.
ON the 10th inst., by the Rev.
Dr. Calculation, Mr. Timothy Economy to Miss Louisa Poverty. No Cards; no Fee;
This is surely common sense
To get a wife without expense.
Then all you can from that time
To keep until you reach the
Please publish the above without
charge, with the compliments of the groom.
An Irishman went into a public
house one day, and asked for a mug of beer in a great hurry, stating that he was
so dry that he thought he could drink a gallon. The publican told him if he
would drink it at one draught, without taking the measure away from his lips, he
should have it for nothing. "Agraid," said Pat; "and, be the holy Saint Pathrick,
I'll do that same." The landlord then drew off a gallon of ale, and slyly
slipping a red herring into the measure, handed it to Pat, who eagerly raised it
to his month and drank away until the measure had been elevated almost
perpendicular. The publican's eyes followed its motion in astonishment, and,
looking in it, he exclaimed, shaking the froth out, "Pat, didn't you feel any
thing going down with the beer when you drank it?" "Be jabers," said Pat, "I
thowt I felt a hop, Sur."
BETTER THAN A DOZEN.—Crazy as
George III. was said to have been, there was evidently a method in his madness
at times. Speaking to Archbishop Sutton of his large family, he used the
expression, "I believe your Grace has better than a dozen?" "No, Sir," replied
the Archbishop, "only eleven." "Well," rejoined the King, "is not that better
than a dozen?"
Widow Grizzle's husband lately
died of cholera. In the midst of the most acute bodily pain, after the hand of
death had touched him, and while writhing in agony, his gentle wife said to him,
"Well, Mr. Grizzle, you needn't kick round so, and wear all the sheets out, if
you are dying!"
We like fine writing when it is
properly applied: so we appreciate the following burst of eloquence: "As the
ostrich uses both legs and wings when the Arabian courser bounds in her rear—as
the winged lightnings leap from the heavens when the thunder-bolts are loosed—so
does a little boy run when a big dog is after him."
At a Sunday-school the other
afternoon, a bright-looking little fellow was asked: "What is conscience?" He
answered very properly, "An inward monitor." And, "What is a monitor?" "Oh, one
of the iron-clads!"
"Well, how do you like the looks
of the varmint?" said a "southwester" to a "down-easter," who was gazing with
round-eyed wonder, and evidently for the first time, at a huge alligator, with
wide-open jaws, on the muddy banks of the Mississippi. "Wa'al," replied the
Yankee, "he ain't what yeou may call a hansum critter, but he's got a great deal
of openness when he smiles!"
A university doctor desiring to
see a bird-catcher exercise his employment accompanied him to the field. As soon
as he saw the birds he hallooed in Latin, "There they are!" The birds took the
alarm. The sportsman, indignant at the absurdity of the professor, told him of
it in very plain terms. "My good friend," exclaimed the doctor, in great
astonishment, "who would have imagined that those birds would have understood
An old gouty gentleman, having
lost a pair of capacious shoes, said that the worst wish he had was, that the
shoes might fit the thief.
"How dreadful that cigar smells!"
exclaimed a clerk to his companion. "Oh no; it's not the cigar that smells," was
the reply. "What is it, then?" "Why, it's your nose that smells, of course."
When is a man thinner than a
lath?—When he is a-shaving.
A QUESTION FOR CLASSICAL
SCHOLARS.—Were the sacred fowls of the ancient Romans ever used for lay
All the women of the villages on
the shores of the Gulf of Mexico are in the habit of swimming. The young ladies
are all diving belles.
CONSUMPTION.—Two thin shoes make
one cold, two colds an attack of bronchitis, two attacks of bronchitis one
The discovery has been made that
without a mouth a man can neither eat, drink, talk, kiss the girls, nor chew
When is a lobster like a
mortar?—When it casts its shell.
There are two kinds of cats—one
with nine lives, the other with nine tails. The former always fall upon their
own feet, the latter upon others' backs.
When is a soldier like a
baby?—When he is in arms.
Rank and fashion may be all very
fine in times of peace, but rank and file must have precedence of them in time
"Come here, my dear; I want to
ask you all about your sister. Now tell me truly, has she got a beau?"
"No, it's the janders she's got,
the doctor says."
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.
THE operations of the Army of the
Potomac on the south side of the Rappahannock are fully chronicled on
General Hooker recrossed his army safely on 4th and 5th, and part, at least, of
his forces occupy their old camps. Some divisions are reported to have crossed
the river again; but of this we have no reliable information.
DEATH OF STONEWALL JACKSON.
General "Stonewall" Jackson was badly wounded
in the arm at the battles of Chancellorsville, and had his arm
operation did not succeed, and pneumonia setting in, he died on the 10th inst.,
The losses in the battles appear
to have been about ten thousand on each side.
GENERAL HOOKER'S ORDER TO HIS ARMY.
The following order has been
issued by Major-General Hooker:
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE
May 6, 1863.
The Major-General Commanding
tenders to this army his congratulations on its achievements of the last seven
If it has not accomplished all
that was expected the reasons are well known to the army.
It is sufficient to say they were
of a character not to be foreseen or prevented by human sagacity or resources.
In withdrawing from the south
bank of the
Rappahannock before delivering a general battle to our adversaries,
the army has given renewed evidence of its confidence in itself and its fidelity
to the principles it represents.
In fighting at a disadvantage we
would have been recreant to our trust, to ourselves, our cause, and our country.
Profoundly loyal and conscious of its strength, the Army of the Potomac will
give or decline battle whenever its interest or honor may demand.
It will also be the guardian of
its own history and its own honor.
By our celerity and secrecy of
movement our advance and passage of the rivers were undisputed, and on our
withdrawal not a rebel returned to follow.
The events of the last week may
swell with pride the hearts of every officer and soldier of this army.
We have added new laurels to its
former renown. We have made long marches, crossed rivers, surprised the enemy in
his intrenchments, and wherever we have fought we have inflicted heavier blows
than we have received.
We have taken from the enemy five
thousand prisoners and fifteen colors, captured and brought off seven pieces of
artillery, and placed hors de combat eighteen thousand of his chosen troops. We
have destroyed his depots filled with vast amounts of stores, damaged his
communications, captured prisoners within the fortifications of his capital, and
filled his country with fear and consternation.
We have no other regret than that
caused by the loss of our brave companions, and in this we are consoled by the
conviction that they have fallen in the holiest cause over submitted to the
arbitrament of battle.
By command of MAJOR-GENERAL
S. WILLIAMS, Assistant
The following address has been
issued by General Lee to the army under his command:
GENERAL ORDERS—No. 59.
HEAD-QUARTERS, ARMY OF NORTHERN
May 7, 1863.
With heart-felt gratification the
General Commanding expresses to the army his sense of the heroic conduct
displayed by officers and men during the arduous operations in which they have
just been engaged.
Under trying vicissitudes of heat
and storm you attacked the enemy, strongly intrenched in the depths of a tangled
wilderness, and again on the hills of Fredericksburg, fifteen miles distant,
and, by the valor that has triumphed on so many fields, forced him once more to
seek safety beyond the Rappahannock.
While this glorious victory
entitles you to the praise and gratitude of the nation, we are especially called
upon to return our grateful thanks to the only giver of victory for the signal
deliverance He has wrought.
It is, therefore, earnestly
recommended that the troops unite on Sunday next in ascribing to the Lord of
Hosts the glory due unto His name.
Let us not forget in our
rejoicing the brave soldiers who have fallen in defense of their country; and
while we mourn their loss let us resolve to emulate their noble example.
The army and the country alike
lament the absence for a time of one to whose bravery, energy, and skill they
are so much indebted for success.
The following letter from the
President of the Confederate States is communicated to the army as an expression
of his appreciation of its success:
"I have received your dispatch,
and reverently unite with you in giving praise to God for the success with which
He has crowned our arms.
"In the name of the people I
offer my cordial thanks to yourself and the troops under your command for this
addition to the unprecedented series of great victories which your army has
"The universal rejoicing produced
by this happy result will be mingled with a general regret for the good and
brave who are numbered among the killed and the wounded." R. E. LEE, General.
The success of General Stoneman's
expedition is admitted by the rebels themselves. His forces were divided
into three squadrons—one commanded by himself, and the
others by Generals Averill and
Buford. All performed
their work gallantly by cutting the railroad communications between Lee's
army and Richmond, and destroying all the bridges to within five miles of the
rebel capital. One party of the cavalry went to Louisa Court House, cutting up
the railroad there. Another pushed on to Columbia and Goochland, on the James
River, breaking the canal at the former point, and capturing rebel stores at the
latter. A portion of the force are said to have actually got within a mile and a
quarter of Richmond. Of the brilliant movement of Colonel Kilpatrick's command
General King says, in his official notice of his arrival at Gloucester Point:
"They burned the bridges over the Chickahominy, destroyed three large trains of
provisions in the rear of Lee's army, drove in the rebel pickets to within two
miles of Richmond, and have lost
only one lieutenant and thirty men, having captured and paroled upward of three
hundred prisoners. They have marched nearly two hundred miles since the 3d of
May. They were inside of the fortifications of Richmond on the 4th, burned all
the stores at Aylett's Station on the Mattapony on the 5th, destroyed all the
ferries over the Pamunky and Mattapony, and a large depot of commissary stores
near and above the Rappahannock, and came in here in good condition."
AFFAIRS ON THE PENINSULA.
Our army on the Peninsula is not
idle. All the bridges in the vicinity of White House have been destroyed. West
Point is now occupied by our troops.
General Dix, having returned to the
fortress, reported that Colonels Fitzpatrick and Davis had reached Gloucester
Point with 700 cavalry without losing a man.
GENERAL BUFORD'S RAID.
It is rumored that
Buford's light cavalry have gone as far as the Alleghany Ridge, in Western
Virginia, and cut the Richmond and Tennessee Railroad in several places,
destroying at the same time large quantities of rebel stores intended for the
Army of the Southwest.
CAPTURE OF PORT GIBSON,
General Grant has captured Port
Gibson and taken five hundred prisoners. He drove the enemy, eleven thousand
strong, from the place after a hard contest. Our loss was only fifteen hundred
in killed and wounded. The enemy retreated toward Vicksburg, destroying the
bridges over the two forks of the Bayou Pierre. These were rebuilt, and the
pursuit was continued. So General Grant telegraphs; and he also reports a
brilliant feat of Colonel Grierson with his cavalry in Northern Mississippi,
from whence he progressed rapidly southward, destroying bridges, railroads,
locomotives, and stores of all kinds, and was at last accounts supposed to be on
his way to Baton Rouge.
OF GRAND GULF.
The official report of
Porter, recording his great success in the capture of Grand Gulf, Mississippi,
was received at the Navy Department last week, and created much excitement in
Washington. The possession of this point places the formidable rebel
strong-holds at Vicksburg and
Port Hudson at our mercy. Admiral Porter says that
he now holds the door to Vicksburg. The fight lasted five hours and a half. The
forts were literally torn to pieces by the fire of our vessels, but all the guns
captured by our forces were in good condition. The works at Grand Gulf were the
most formidable ones the rebels possessed in the vicinity of Vicksburg. Admiral
Porter is now remounting the guns. Many of the rebels who fled from Grand Gulf
were captured by our pursuing forces.
GENERAL GRANT'S OPERATIONS.
A dispatch from Cairo on 11th
says that, according to the
Memphis Bulletin, Jackson is already invested, and
that the rebels have no way of getting out of Vicksburg but by cutting their way
through the national forces. A rebel dispatch from Jackson to Richmond, dated
the 5th, says that the Union troops were repulsed the day previous at Anderson's
Ferry, on the Big Black, after four hours' severe fighting.
UNSUCCESSFUL CAVALRY RAID.
General Braxton Bragg sends an
official account to Richmond of our cavalry raid in Georgia. He describes the
resistance offered to our troops as stubborn, and boldly maintained from point
to point, resulting in the capture of Colonel Streight's command by General
Forrest, near Rome. General Bragg claims one thousand six hundred prisoners,
with all their horses and rifles.
General Banks has been issuing
some important general orders. One condemns to death all who supply aid to the
enemy; another orders the registered enemies of the United States Government to
leave the Department by the 10th of May, and another forbids sheriffs and others
to conscript slaves for the rebel army, in pursuance of the action of the
The President has issued a
Proclamation preliminary to the enforcement of the Conscription Act defining the
position and obligations of inchoat cities under that law. Persons of foreign
birth who have declared their intentions to become citizens, are, by this
proclamation, pronounced liable to be drafted, if after the expiration of
sixty-five days from the date thereof they still remain within the territory of
the United States.
DEBATES ON AMERICAN AFFAIRS.
ON April 23d the Marquis of
Clanricarde, in the House of Lords, called up the subject of the seizure of
British merchant steamers while in the Matamoras trade, and inveighed against
the proceedings of Admiral Wilkes. In the course of his remarks he also alluded
to the fact that Minister Adams had granted a permit to a steamer carrying arms
and munitions to the Mexicans, and characterized it as a most unwarrantable act.
After remarks by other members, Earl Granville, on behalf of the Government,
deprecated angry discussion on imperfect information, and the subject was
dropped. In the House of Commons, Mr. Roebuck led off the debate on the same
topics, and delivered himself of a strong philippic against the Northern dis-United
States. Lord Palmerston gave assurances that the Government was giving due
consideration to the matters discussed. The debate was continued in the House of
Lords next day, when the Earl of Derby denounced the proceedings of the American
Government as monstrous. The case of the Alexandra was also under discussion,
and it was stated positively, on behalf of her builders, that she was not
deigned for the rebels. Earl Russell defended the policy of the Government, and
other members denounced the absurd tirade of Roebuck.
MINISTER ADAMS'S EXPLANATION.
It is said in London that Mr.
Adams, the United States Minister, has made a "frank explanation" respecting
"ticket of leave" letters to the Mexican traders, and that no diplomatic protest
on the part of England is necessary in consequence.
Earl Russell had called Mr.
Adams's attention to the fact, that it was reported to the Government in London
that Union agents were recruiting for the Federal army in Great Britain. A very
interesting correspondence ensued on the subject. The large number of
able-bodied young men leaving Cork by the Inman steamers was adduced by the Earl
in support of the charge. Mr. Adams denied that United States agents were so
employed, and quietly suggested that the "alleged distress" existing in Ireland
might account for the emigration "phenomenon."
Affairs in Poland remain
unchanged. Russia has renewed her propositions to Prussia for an offensive and
defensive alliance. A Russian courier has arrived in London, bearing, it is
supposed, the Czar's reply to Earl Russell's dispatch on Polish affairs.
SIEGE OF PUEBLA.
The latest news from Mexico is to
the 16th ult., by way of San Francisco, reporting the condition of affairs at
Puebla to the 15th ult., at which time the French had gained nothing since the
6th. At that time they held six blocks in the city and the Castle of San Javier.
They were bombarding some convents in the city, which they had failed to
capture. General Comonfort still held the road between Puebla and the City of
Mexico. General Ortega is confident that he can maintain Puebla against all the
assaults of the French.