Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1911 — The CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK [ARTICLE]

The CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

December 17, 1861. A spirited encounter between Colonel Willich’e German regiment of Indiana troops and Col. Terry's Texas Rangers, supported by two regiments of Confederate infantry, resulted in no final advantage to either side. CoL Willlch was attacked by the Texas Rangers on the sooth side of Green River, opposite Mumfordsville, Ky. His soldiers withstood three fierce assaults of cavalry.' In the third advance Col. Terry was killed. The Confederate infantry coming up in support, Col. WiUlch would have been in serious trouble if reinforcements had not arrived. Each combatant ultimately withdrew. A union expedition under Gen. Pope In Missouri scattered a Confederate camp near Shawnee Mound, Mo. The Confederates were reported 2,200 strong. One hundred and fifty prisoners were taken. A squadron of the First New Jersey cavalry, belonging to Gen. Helntsleman’s division, under command of Capt. Shellmire, made a reconnoisance Into Virginia. A portion of the squadron, commanded by Lieut. Janville, got into trouble with a band of Confederates whom they encountered near the Bone Mills, on the Orange and Alexandria railroad. Twenty-eight Union soldiers, who attended si corn husking when they wdfe on a reconnoisance, were surprised and captured by Capt Wilcox and 14 Confederates. The belligerent tone of the British press in the Trent affair created tremendous excitement throughout the United States and the Confederacy. The Confederate States saw hope of obtaining an ally in England.

December 1$ 1861. . A general belief prevailed In England that the seizure of Mason and Slidell by Capt. Wilkes would result in war between England and the United States. The English press generally could see Q 0 other outcome. The Observer, the ministerial organ, Baid that England wished peace, but would gain much by war—the rectification of her Canadian boundaries, the opening of Southern ports and the advantage of having taught the United States a lesson. The absence of any reference to the Trent affair •in President Lincoln’s message to congress was construed as indicating an Intention to make Immediate war with England. The pressure on the government at Washington to resort to arms in settlement of the dispute with England was great Napoleon 111. of France notified the powers of that he believed the United States had exceeded the rights of international law in the seizure of the emissaries, and would so inform the American government. A detachment of Gen. Pope’s forces under Col. J. D. C. Davis, and Maj. Marshall surprised a Confederate camp at Milford, north of Warrensburg, Mo., and forced the southerners to surrender. Thirteen hundred prisoners were taken; and a thousand stands of arms, a thousand horses, stores, equipment, ammumnltion and general supplies were seized. A reconnoitering expedition of Federal.’vessels under Commander Drayton, U.- S.' N., returned to the North Edisto from an expedition in search of Confederate defenses. Some deserted fortifications were discovered on Edisto island. December 18, 1861.

In an artillery duel near Point of Rocks, Maryland, on the Potomac river, a Confederate battery on the Virginia shore was silenced and its supporting infantry driven from their position. The Confederate battery of three guns opened on the encampment of Col. Geary's Pennsylvania regiment. firing accurately. The fire was returned with two guns. One of the Confederate pieces was disabled early in the exchange. After the Confederates had retired the National guns opened on an old furnace where n number of them had taken refuge, killing and wounding several. The British ship Cheslre, of Liverpool, Capt Craig, was brought into New York harbor a prise with a crew from the U. S. S. S. Augusta, Capt. Parrot. The Cheslre was discovered in, six fathoms of water off Tybee Island. Upon being boarded Capt. Craig showed clearance papers for Nassau, but could not satisfactorily explain what he was doing so far from Iris course. The cargo of the Cheslre consisted of blankets, coffee, •ad4»lt. The Memphis Appeal reported the confiscation of $2,600,000 worth of property belonging to Union sympathisers. ‘The 11th lowa and four companies of the 3d lowa returned to Jefferson City, Missouri, from an expedition up the Missouri river, with property valued at $6,000 and a number of prisoners. A party of the 6th Connecticut crossed the Potomac at Dam No. 6 and burned a mill which had been occupied by Confederate troops. December 20,1861.

A vigorous engagement was fought between a National foraging party, finder Geo. E. O. C. Ord, and'a Confederate force under Gen. Stuart. The Union force, consisting of Gen. Ord'e brigade, a regiment of Infantry, a battery of light artillery and two squadr

ro«s of cavalry, encountered four regiments of Confederate infantry and a six-gun battery. The lighting was severe. The Confederates were defeated, hut withdrew in fair order, and were reformed in the rear of their former position. The loss was: Confederates, 43 killed, 148 wounded, 44 missing; Federals, 7 killed, 60 wounded. A party of Confederates from Gen. Price’s army destroyed the Missouri railroad for a distance of 160 miles, beginning nine miles south of Hudson, Missouri, and extending to the town of Warrenton. Major McKee, with 103 men of CoL Bishop’s command, recaptured a National stock train that had been seized by Confederates near Hudson, Missouri The stone fleet, consisting of sixteen old whaling vessels that had been purchased by the United States in New England and loaded with stone and bricks, arrived off Charleston and were sunk in the shin channel for the purpose of more effectively closing the port of Charleston. A resolution offered in the United States senate directing the Committee on the Judiciary to report a bill confiscating all property of supporters of the Confederacy, the liberation of slaves, and their protection from recapture by their masters, failed .to pass by two votes. Two regiments of British infantry sailed for Canada from England, to the tune of “I Wish I were in Dixie,” and "Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot" December 21, 1861. The Southern papers of this date were filled with expressions of delight at the prospect of war between the United States and England over the seizure of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, emissaries from the Confederate states to Great Britain and France, when under the protection of the British flag on board the British steamer Trent. . - I —| —-—— The Kentucky House of Representatives, by a vote of 69 to 11, concurred in the state senate’s amendment to the bill reported by the House Committee on Federal Relations, thanking President Lincoln for his modification of Gen. Fremont’s order and Secretary Cameron’s report, and requesting the president to dismiss Secretary Cameron from the cabinet. Union pickets at Stump Neck, on the Potomac, intercepted mail carriers of the secret mail route from the South to the North, obtaining a quantity of mail of a private character, much of which was significant? The Gunboat Resolute, U. S. N., discovering a detachment of Confederate cavalry at Holland Point, near White House on the Virginia shore of the Potomac, dispersed them with shell fire. r The Cabinet of the United States decided that troops should not pass through Baltimore thereafter unless obliged to do so by interruption of other routes of travel. Maryland north of Washington was in arms against the federal government. December 22, 1861. General Halleck, commanding the Department of the Missouri of the Union army, issued an order from St Louis declaring that anyone caught in the act of burning bridges or destroying railroads would be shot, and that anyone charged with the crime would be tried for his life by a military commission. He further ordered that slaves of southern sympathizers were to be impressed by officers of the Union army to repair damages done; that anyone claiming to have Union sympathies and who knew of projected destruction, who did not Inform, would be treated as particeps criminis, and that towns in the vicinity of destroyed property would be held for the expense of repair, unless it could be proven that there had not been sufficient force among their citizens to prevent the destruction. Four companies of Union soldiers sent out from Newport News under Major Schoepf with orders to bring in fuel, encountered the Confederates in force near New Market Bridge, and withdrew. Being reinforced by Col. Max Weber’s New York infantry, they returned and closed with the Confederates. The result was a slight skirmish, from which both sides voluntarily retired. The purpose of the Union expedition was frustrated. Citizen volunteers of Richmond, Virginia, under Capt. T. M. Ladd, who had offered to escort 176 Federal prisoners south, formed on Capitol square and received muskets and ammunition for the journey. The Confederacy commissary and ordnance stores at Nashville, Tennessee, were destroyed by lire. The loss was estimated at nearly 31,000,000.

December 23, 1861. General Rosecrans, in command of the Federal army in Western Virginia, issued an address to his troops in which, after referring to their record in the service, he urged them to perfect themselves in drill, instruction and discipline. He promised that he would organise a board of examiners for the army that would rid it of all officers unworthy the responsibility In which their command placed them. The prize schoner Charity, captured off Halteras Inlet on December 17 by the U. 8. S. 8. Stars and Stripes, was wrecked off Hempstead, Long Island, on her way to New York.

She was under charge of Capt George Ashbury. In a fight near Joseph Coerson’i house, in Perry coqpty, Kentucky, 11$ Confederates wens driven from the field by a body of Union troops. Th# loss on each side w# slight (Copyright MU. by W. a ChepsMuO