[Jake]

Richmond Dispatch, March 4, 1862:

We make some extracts from the proceedings of the Northern Congress on the 25th and 26th of February:

Mr. Trumbull, (Rep.,) of Lt., moved to take up the bill for the confiscation of the property of rebels. He said there was pressing proceedly. Within a few weeks the property of a rebel General in this city had been sold, and the proceeds transmitted to him., while we were sitting here and imposing paper currency on suffering soldiers.

Mr. Pomeroy, (Rep.,) of Kansas, objected to the third section, which provides for colonization. He thought we could not afford to send out of the country the laboring men and producers; and if insisted upon, he should move to amend by providing colonization for slaveholders, who are dangerous to the country, and whose loss would not be felt.

Mr. Willey, (Union,) of Va., wanted to know where there was any constitutional power for the President's colonizing n***** (I'll do the asterisking for you). He was willing to co-operate in the most stringent measures for the confiscation of property, but had the Senator from Illinois counted the immense cost of the scheme of colonization? It would cost $500 a head to colonize and keep ignorant slaves.

Mr. Pomeroy said his amendment would obviate that, as there would be only a few slaveholders to colonize.

Mr. Willey--I propose to hang all such traitors, and thus save all the expense of transportation.

[Applause in the galleries, which was immediately suppressed by the chair]

[Jake]

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Shelby

Shelby Foote on William Faulkner. Much of the subject dwells on Southern mentality.

[Ace917]

Originally Posted by Jake

McClellan, independently of the tragic event, didn't show signs of moving. Not until March did he start moving his troops on boats in what would be called the Peninsula campaign.

McClellan continually drug his feet in getting his troops moving and missed too many opportunities to end the war early. Lincoln listened to McClellan's critics but failed to act out of loyalty to his general. McClellan's motives are evident in his letters to his wife where he complained that he had no support from the White House and passed the blame for his failures on everyone but his cook. It took some critical months for Lincoln to finally admit McClellan was the wrong man for the job and replaced him with a succession of generals who were not much better.

[Jake]

There was political pressure in not firing McClellan too soon, as well. McClellan was democrat, and if he got the boot early, considering the public thought of him as the "young Napoleon " and hung on his every word, he would have politically capitalized on the shake-up, showing that, indeed, Lincoln was not the man who should be president. He was very popular with his soldiers, voters in their own right. McClellan opposed emancipation.

McClellan thought of the president as a "Gorilla". He once let Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward wait at his house; when McClellan did arrive and was told of the visitors, he went upstairs to wash up, then told his servant to tell the two to come back another time. He didn't share his military plans with the president, and Lincoln had to give him direct orders to start moving the army towards Richmond. During battles, McClellan was many times well behind his men, and in places like Malvern Hill and Antietam, while enjoying advantage or eventual advantage, he either told his army to back off or not to persue the enemy for a final crushing defeat.

Lincoln famously quipped, "If (McClellan) won't use his army, I'd like to borrow it for awhile."

Grant said, "McClellan is one of the great mysteries of the war."

[Jake]

Richmond Dispatch, March 4, 1862:

The announcement by Lord John Russell that England will not recognize the Southern Confederacy until it has established its own independence to her satisfaction, puts a quietus to any expectations of aid and encouragement from that quarter. We have never known but one man in the Southern Confederacy who, at the beginning of this contest, doubled that England would have to succumb to King Cotton, and that was John B. Floyd.

Whilst we have repeatedly warned the community against manifesting any dependence on foreign support, we have never entertained the shadow of a doubt that their interests would ultimately compel both England and France to break the blockade. If the counsels of France had been followed, it would have been broken before this time Mr. Massey, an influential member of Parliament, lately stated that the Emperor of the French had repeatedly urged the British Government to that course, but his recommendations had all been declined.

We need not recapitulate here the ten thousand interests — commercial, manufacturing, and political — which throw their gigantic weight into the scale against the six hundred millions of British money in the North which might have been confiscated in the event of a war between the United States and Great Britain. That these interests would direct her course and make her an ally of the South, was always believed at the North more firmly and universally than it has ever been in the Southern States.

The North has managed to convince England that she can get the cotton without breaking the blockade, and England has been credulous enough to swallow that story.

t was, that, beyond all dispute, English anti-slavery influence has been brought to bear for nearly thirty years upon the domestic institutions of the Southern States in such a manner as to leave no doubt in reflecting minds that her object was, not to abolish slavery — for her commerce and manufactures were dependent upon its products — but to divide the United States, on which she was dependent for products essential to her welfare. Slavery in Brazil, in Cuba, in other countries, received no attention from English philanthropists; it was only slavery in America that excited their horror and aroused their energies. It was to America that they sent emissaries, stirring up the smouldering embers of fanaticism in New England, and urging on that war of aggression upon Southern Rights which has culminated in the present bloody struggle.

If Lord Russell expects to get Southern cotton or Northern capital by this late disclosure of British policy, he only proves to the world that he is in his dotage. He will get neither. Why did he not declare the position of England long ago?

Let him now get the cotton if he can. If the South is worthy of independence, she will make a bonfire of the whole rather than permit the North or Great Britain to seize a pound of it. Let the South now show her faith by her works. Let her plant no more cotton for the benefit of foreign or Northern consumers. Whatever be the result of this struggle — and if the Southern people are true to themselves, there can be but one result —England has lost forever the friendship of the North, and has thrown away from her that of the South.

[Jake]

On March 6, 1862, a peculiar warship left New York Harbour, bound southwards. It was called the "Monitor" and had iron shielding.

Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, in mid-to-late 1861, heard news that the Confederacy was creating an 'ironclad" ship from one of its burnt ships in the Norfolk area. When Virginia seceded from the Union, one of the last things the Union did was scuttle the ships at the Gosport Naval Yard. One of the ships, the USS Merrimack, was saved by the Confederates, and was refitted with iron casing. Welles saw the danger in this, and with good reason. He wanted one for the Union as well.

Most of the hull underwater, and with a swivel turret gun, the Monitor left New York Harbour. Three days later, every war fleet around the world - British and French etc etc etc - would become obsolete.

[Jake]

March 4, 1862, Major General Henry Halleck to Major General U.S. Grant:

"You will place Major-General C.F. Smith in command of expedition, and remain yourself at Fort Henry. Why do you not obey my orders to report stength and positions of your command?"



March 6, 1862, Elisha Hunt Rhodes, from Massachussetts, whose diary is celebrated in Civil War history circles, who at this point is working in Washington as a clerk:

"I hope I shall be ordered back to my regiment soon. Not that I am dissatisfied with my position here, and the General is very kind to me, but I want to be with the boys in the next campaign and do my part as a soldier. I have no fear of the future. If I die upon the battlefield I hope to receive the reward of the righteous and feel resigned to God's will."

2 days later, Rhodes would be back with his regiment and promoted to Sargeant Major.

[Jake]

Shelby Foote:

"... March 8. A single Confederate ten-gun vessel, steaming out of Norfolk on what had been planned as a trial run, made obsolete the navies of the world. Between noon and sunset of that one day, the strange craft - which resembled, one said, "a terrapin with a chimney on its back" - served graphic notice that the proud tall frigates and ships of the line, with their billowing sails and high wooden sides that could flash out hundred-gun salvos, would soon be gone in all their beauty and obsolescence."

It was the Merrimac, rechristened the Virginia (it is still best remembered as the Merrimac).

"Her top speed was 5 knots, and what with her great length and awkward steering, it took half an hour to turn her in calm water."

"It was washday aboard the Federal Warships, sailor cloths drying in the rigging. Yet there was plenty of time in which to get ready at what was coming so slowly at them."

"The USS Congress and USS Cumberland cleared for action, and when the Virginia came within range, the former gave her a well-aimed broadside: which broke against the sloping iron with no apparant effect at all. Ports closed tight, she came on, biding her time as she closed the range, unperturbed and inexorable. Another salvo struck her, together with shots from the coastal batteries: with no more effect than before. Then her ports came open, swinging deliberately upward on her hinges to expose the muzzles of her guns. Turning, she raked the Congress with a starboard broadside and rammed the Cumberland at near right-angles just uner her fore rigging, punching a hole which one of her officers said would admit "a horse and a cart" - except for the iron beak which broke off in her when the Confederate swung clear."


The Cumberland began to sink, the captain of the Congress tried to get away but ran aground in the attempt. The Virginia pounded on the Congress until it surrendered. The Virginia as ready to take prisoners.

The captain of the Virginia, Franklin Buchanan, the founder of the Naval Academy, was about to be wounded by unexpected Union fire. The Virginia dropped back, and retaliated by launching red-hot cannonballs at the Congress. The Union ship burned. On the quarterdeck, Buchanan's brother, who stayed with the Union, died in the flames.

Foote continues:

"Ashore, a Georgia private, writing home of the sea battle he had watched, exulted that the Virginia had 'invented a new waz of destroying the blockade. Instead of raising it, she sinks it.'

"Lincoln had his cabinet in session by 06:30 [pm], the prevailing gloom being broken only by the Secretary of War, who put on for his colleagues a remarkable display of jangled nerves."

Stanton went on to say that the Virginia would change the whole outlook of the war, destroying forts, ports, maybe even launching a few cannonballs at Washington. Navy Secretary Welles, according to Foote, was composed, looked at his hated colleague, and smirked that the Union had its answer to the Virginia. The Monitor had already left New York 2 days earlier and will soon be in position to take on the feared Confederate vessel.

The Monitor and Virginia were prime examples of David and Goliath. The Monitor had 2 11-inch guns, on a revolving turret, which would fire volleys of greater effect than the Virginia. The Monitor's armor was at least 5 inches thick, whereas the Virginia's was 4 inches.

The Monitor's captain was a Rebel prisoner of war, and was keen to get back at the enemy.

The Monitor arrived in the evening of March 8, and saw the damage the Virginia had done. Three frigates went to the Congress' and Cumberland's aid, but all three were repulsed by the Virginia, one of them the Minnesota. The Monitor stayed the night alongside the Minnesota, expecting to see the Virginia head for the frigate the next day.

[Jake]

The Monitor had to endure a storm before reaching the area of engagement, which nearly sunk her. In any case, the three frigates which engaged the Virginia towards the evening of the 8th were all aground, and the Monitor waited alongside the Minnesota until morning.

Morning came, and the Virginia started its second day attack, on the Minnesota. The Virginia didn't know what to make of the wierd ship alongside the Minnesota heading straight for her. "We thought at first it was a raft on which one of the Minnesota's boilers was being taken to shore for repairs."

Soon, however, the firing started. Confederates knew of the Monitor project as much as the Unionists knew of the Merrimac project. For the next four hours, ironclad against ironclad, each not taking advantage of the other's weaknesses - the Virginia was not ironclad below the water line, and the Monitor, although heavily armoured, was not the sturdiest built craft (a direct hit would send screwheads flying aross the turret). The Virginia ran aground, but managed to free itself. The Monitor had to protect the Minnesota as much as beat the Goliath.

And yet, both fired away, and both found that neither did any major damage.

After about 2 hours, the Monitor went to shallow water to reload its guns, and its commander, Lieutenant John L. Worden had a look on deck at the Virginia, now heading for the Minnesota. The Union frigate fired a volley at the Virginia which should have sent a wooden ship straight to the bottom of the sea, but the Virginia was virtually unscathed.

The crew of the Virginia knew the only way to win against the Monitor would be to board her, but that was highly impossible, due to the maneuverability of the Monitor compared to the Virginia. During the last attempt at boarding, as the Monitor's Worden was looking through a sight slit in the Pilot House, the Virginia fired a 9 inch shell squarely at the pilot house, immediately blinding Worden, but also breaking the crossbeam and partly lifting the iron lid, admitting daylight into the pilot house.

Worden had enough energy to exclaim, "SHEER OFF," and the Monitor headed for shallow waters. The Virginia had to ease off as well, as the ebb tide was running and would risk running the Confederate ship aground again, perhaps permanently this time.

In the end, neither won, yet both were celebrated as victors. In any case, now the American navy (on both sides) was about receive orders to build ironclads. The French and British ironclad project leaders could now finally impress on their leaders to take the projects seriously, as the Monitor/Virginia battle altered the entire make-up of navies around the world.

Worden, now a bloody mess, in his cabin, asked a subordinate, "Have I saved the Minnesota?"
"Yes," was the reply, "and whipped the Merrimac!"
"Then I don't care what happens to me."

[Jake]

Lincoln was told Worden was in Washington the day after the Merrimac-Monitor battle.

The president dismissed his cabinet, and went to visit Worden. Tears in his eyes, Lincoln couldn't say much for the moment after Worden said, "You do me great honour."

Lincoln finally replied, "It is not so. It is you who honour me and your country, and I will promote you."

The Merrimac/Virginia showed its face one more time, but on seeing the Monitor there, retreated back into obscurity. In the end, the Merrimac was finally scuttled, and the Union naval blockade, which the Merrimac was initially refitted into ironclad in order to help destroy, continued its pressure. The Confederates never really recovered the seas after the Merrimac's attack on the Congress and Cumberland.

[Jake]

7 days later, on March 16, George Templeton Strong, a diarist and lawyer in New York City, wrote this in his diary:

"Sunday came the news... the disastrous tidings that the Merrimac was on the rampage among our frigates in Hampton Roads, smiting them down like a mailed robber-baron among naked peasants. General dismay. What next? Why should not this invulnerable marine demon breach the walls of Fortress Monroe, raise the blockade, and destroy New York and Boston? ... The nonfeasance of the Navy Department and of Congress in leaving us unprotected by ships of the same class, after ample time and abundant warning, is denounced by everyone."

So basically everyone knew of the Merrimac, but far fewer knew that the Monitor already showed its worth. The public thought the Union didn't have anything to compete against the Merrimac, much like Stanton at the Cabinet meeting.

Later, Strong would be informed of the Monitor project and ship.

[Jake]

Mary Chesnut, in South Carolina, already wrote of the Merrimac on March 7:

"The Merrimac business has come like a gleam of lightning illumining a dark scene. Our sky is black and lowering."

On March 11:

"This terrible battle of the ships Monitor, Merrimac, etc. All hands on board the Cumberland went down. She fought gallantly and fired a round as she sank. The Congress ran up a white flag. She fired on our boats as they went up to take off her wounded. She was burned. The
worst of it is that all this will arouse them to more furious exertions to destroy us. Thoy hated us so before, but how now?"

[Jake]

George Templeton Strong:
"We sent Judge [Mark] Skinner of Chicago to the White House, being an old friend of Lincoln's, to make a casual calland fish for authentic news. He brought back intelligence of victory in Missouri, or in Northwest Arkansas."

On March 8, a two day battle in Northwestern Arkansas in a place called Pea Ridge, added to Union victories there. The Confederate army's numbers were larger than those of the Union's.

[Jake]

New York Times, Monday, March 10, 1862:

"There was a large business done in the Stock Exchange on Saturday, at ordinary prices on the Railway Shares, and steady figures for the Government Stocks. Gold, 101 3/4; Exchange, 112@112 1/2.

The Flour market was quite heavy, on Saturday, and prices tended downward. No important movements transpired in Wheat. Corn was plenty and lower Barley was active and buoyant. Cotton was in good request at advanced rates. A fair business was transacted in the principal kinds of Provisions, as also in Hay, Tallow, Hides, Leather, and Sugars. Whisky was a shade cheaper. Wool was dull and drooping. Resin and Spirits Turpentine were firmer. The changes in other branches of trade were not important."

[Jake]

March 18, 1862, Savanna Tennessee:

"My Dear Julia,

You will see by the above that I am far up South in the State of Ten. When you will hear of another great and important strike I cant tell you but it will be a big lick so far as numbers engaged is concerned.... With one more great success I do not see how the rebellion is to be sustained....
I will try and have you hear from me often but it will not be possible to communicate as often as heretofore....Kiss all the children for me and give my love to all at home.

Goodnight dear Julia, Ulys [Ulysses S Grant]"

[Jake]

March 21, 1862:

"I am tewnty years of age today. The past year has been an eventful one to me, and I thank God for all his mercies to me.... I have now been in the service for 10 months and feel like a veteran. Sleeping on the ground is fun, and a bed of pine boughs better than one of feathers. We are still waiting for orders which must come very soon."

Elisha Hunt Rhodes, one of the many soldiers under George McClellan's command out east waiting to move....

[Jake]

March 19, 1862, New York:

"A brief article in the 'Christian Remembracer' read tonight at the Society Library made me tingle. 'On the whole, justice is on the side of the rebellion. Slavery has nothing to do with the war. That arose from selfish legislation by Northern majorities on questions of tariff and protection.' (so thinks the English shop-keeper, though he supposes himself to write as a churchman and Catholic.) The moral tone of the South is exalted, while the North is base altogether. The church of South Carolina and other Southern States is healthy and vigorous. In the Northern States, it seems numerically stronger, but that is because the corporation of Trinity Church happens to own all the business portion of the great city of New York! And so on. So talks the organ of what is best and most hopeful in England, the mouthpiece of the Catholic-minded party in the English church!!!"

George Templeton Strong.

[Jake]

March 19th, 1862:

He who runs may read. Conscription means that we are in a tight place. This war was a volunteer business. To-morrow conscription begins the 'dernier ressort.'...

Conscription has waked the Rip Van Winkles. The streets of Columbia [South Carolina] were never so crowded with men. To fight and to be made to fight are different things.

To my small wits, whenever people were persistent, united, and rose in their might, no general, however great, succeeded in subjugating them. Have we not swamps, forests, rivers, mountains every natural barrier? The Carthaginians begged for peace because they were a luxurious people and could not endure the hardship of war, though the enemy suffered as sharply as they did! "Factions among themselves" is the rock on which we split. Now for the great soul who is to rise up and lead us. Why tarry his footsteps ?"

March 20th.

The Merrimac is now called the Virginia. I think these changes of names so confusing and so senseless. Like the French "Royal Bengal Tiger," " National Tiger," etc. Rue this, and next day Rue that, the very days and months a symbol, and nothing signified.

General Gonzales told us what in the bitterness of his soul he had written to Jeff Davis. He regretted that he had not been his classmate; then he might have been as well treated as Northrop. In any case he would not have been refused a brigadiership, citing General Trapier and Tom Drayton. He had worked for it, had earned it; they had not. To his surprise, Mr. Davis answered him, and in a sharp note of four pages. Mr. Davis demanded from whom he quoted, "not his classmate." General Gonzales responded, ' ' from the public voice only.' ' Now he will fight for us all the same, but go on demanding justice from Jeff Davis until he get his dues at least, until one of them gets his dues, for he means to go on hitting Jeff Davis over the head whenever he has a chance.

"I am afraid," said I, "you will find it a hard head to crack. ' ' He replied in his flowery Spanish way : ' ' Jeff Davis will be the sun, radiating all light, heat, and patronage; he will not be a moon reflecting public opinion, for he has the soul of a despot ; he delights to spite public opinion. See, people abused him for making Crittenden brigadier. Straightway he made him major-general, and just after a blundering, besotted defeat, too." Also, he told the President in that letter : ' 'Napoleon made his generals after great deeds on their part, and not for having been educated at St. Cyr, or Brie, or the Polytechnique,' 'etc., etc.

Mary Chesnut, South Carolina

[Jake]

April 4, 1862:

To William T Sherman:

I would direct ... that you advise your advance guards to keep a sharp look out for any movement in that direction [Purdy, Tennessee], and should such a thing be attempted, give all the support of your division, and Gen. Hurlbut's if necessary. I will return to Pittsburg [Landing] at an early hour tomorrow, and will ride out to your camp.

U.S. Grant

The day after tomorrow and the next day, 150 years ago, there would be almost 24000 casualties, including about 3500 killed, at Pittsburg Landing and environs, with what would become the Battle of Shiloh/Pittsburg Landing.

[Jake]

To give an idea, on June 6, 1944, there were about 21000 casualties during D Day operations.

So basically you have a battle in the western theatre, considered by many the secondary theatre compared to the eastern theatre when talking of the Civil War, and the battle casualties were roughly equal to D Day, perhaps a tad higher. This would, I think, be the first major slaughter during the Civil War, and there would be many more to follow, including the bloodiest day in US history, Antietam, another bloody day, Gettysburg, and more to come. It was a very bloody affair, that Civil War.