Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1912 — The CIVIL WAR [ARTICLE]

The CIVIL WAR

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

January 28, 1862. t Reconnoisance from Port Royal, South Carolina, having developed that -the Savannah river could be entered through a passage several miles above Fort Pulaski, and that the fort could in that way be cut off from the city, Captain C. H. Davis, U. S. N., and Captain C. P. R. Rodgers, U. S. N., started with an expedition of gunboats to accomplish tlfe fact. Sailing the one up the Wilmington narrows on the east of the river, and the other up Wall’s cut and Wright river on the west, they came out on opposite sides of the river to find themselves blocked by piles and shallows. While they were there Commander Tatnall, C. S. N., sailed into view with five Confederate gunboats convoying supply ships to the fort. There was a spirited engagement. Three of the Confederate boats reached the fort, discharged, and returned up river. The others turned back. A petition from the people of Illinois, asking that slavery be not abolished in the District o: Columbia, and praying for the expulsion of members of Congress who asked its abolition, was presented in the United States senate by Mr. Saulsbury of Delaware. ' ■' - A division of Union troops, -under command of General Jeff C. Davis, left Versailles, Missouri, on a march fer Springfield. The War Department directed General McClellan to arrest General Stone, who commanded the Federal army in the Rail’s bluff engagement, on charges too indefinite te be specified. January 29, 1862.

Messrs. Mason and Sidell, the Confederate commissioners to England and France, respectively, who had been taken from the British steamer Trent by Captain Wilkes of the San Jacinto, and afterward released by the United States government, arrived In Southhampton, England, after an adventurous Voyage. The left Boston, where they had been detained In Fort Warren, on board the British S. S. Rinaldo, bound for Halifax. Owing to a heavy storm, the Rinaldo was unable to make Halifax, and put about for Bermuda, whence the commissioners' were transfered to St. Thomas, •where they boarded a West India packet. They were received at Southampton by the officers of the Confederate steamer Nashville and other gentlemen. No demonstration was made on their landing. Lieutenant-Colonel John Burke, with fifty men of the New York Thirtyseventh, General Heintzleman’s Union force, attacked a house near Occoquan Bridge, where members of the Texas Rangers were holding a stag dance, shortly after midnight. The Rangers returned the fire of the Union men through windows and portholes cut through the siding of the house. After a number of rounds, the Federal troops were notified that the occupants of the house surrendered. On entering, it was found that all had been killed excepting one man, who claimed that he had been engaged ta fiddle for the dance, and had urged the men to surrender from the first. The Nationals had one snan killed and four wounded. The House Delegates of Virginia passed resolutions, in secret session, thinking General Joseph E. Johnston for his distinguished service and conferring on him for life the right to appoint two cadets a year to the State Military Institute. January 30, 1862. > The Monitor was launched from Sneeden's ship yard, at Greenpoint, Long Island, New York. The Monitor, which was designed as an "ironplated steam battery,” had attracted much attention throughout the north for several months previous to its launching. Embodying a distinctly new idea In naval construction, it had been the subject of much adverse, criticism from experts, and was regarded with popular skepticism. The launching was viewed with curiositiy by a large crowd of spectators. Naval salutes from several vessels greeted , its first appearance in the water. Captain Join Morgan, a Confederate partisan fighter, captured six Union soldiers in a church near Lebanon, Ky. It was reported in the north that he permitted five of the men to leave with their clothing, but forced the sixth into the church and set fire to it. The alleged Intended victim succeeded in making bls escape. The First Ohio cavalry apprised of the occurrence set out In pursuit of Captain Morgan, but failed to come up with him, owing to the condition of the rsihdSi The senate of the United States passed a resolution Introduced by H. M. Rice of Minnesota directing the secretary of war to procure from officers and soldiers, then prisoners in the southern states, allotment pay for their families. January 31, 1862. Queen Victoria declared her termined purpose "to observe thefiHties of neutrality during the existence of hostilities between the United thfi states calling themselves the Confederate States of America,” and "to prevent, as tar as possible, the use of her majesty’s harbors, ports and coasts, and the waters

within her majesty’s jurisdiction, in aid of warlike purposes of either belThe congress of the United States passed an act authorizing the President to take possession of the telegraph and railroad lines in the United States, whenever in his judgment the public safety required ‘it, declaring that any-attempt to resist the unrestrained use by government of such property, when too powerful to be suppressed by ordinary means, should be punishable by death, as a military offence, directing the president to appoint three commissioners to assess and determine the damages suffered by railroad or telegraph companies in consequence of such seizures, and placing the transportation of troops, munitions of war, etc., under the Immediate control of the secretary of war or his agents. It was finally provided that the act should not be In force any longer than was necessary for the suppression of the rebellion. Wm. H. Seward, secretary of state for the United States, directed the release from Fort Lafayette <jf all prisoners taken on board vessels that had violated the blackade. Four men who were engaged in constructing a telegraph line through Kentucky for the use of the national forces were captured by a band of Confederates and taken south. February 1, 1862.

Mr. Dole, commissioner of Indian affairs for the Federal government, met the chiefs of several tribes in conference at Leavenworth, Kan. The chiefs most prominent at the interview were Opothleoholo of the Creeks, Alektustenuck of the Semlnoles and several representatives of the lowa tribes. Mr. JDole assured the Indians that the government had no intention of calling on them for help in fighting the southern states, but told them that an expedition would be sent into the Indian Territory to punish certain tribes that had proved false to their allegiance and, instigated by southerners, had attacked loyal Indians and driven them from their homes. " The name of Wolfe county, Kentucky, was changed to by the provisional government that’ had been set up in the state by citizens of southern sympathies. “The county of Zolllcoffer will perpetuate on the records of Kentucky the name of one whose fame belongs to struggling freedom everywhere," said the Louis-ville-Nashville Courier. A company of the Second cavalry, Forty-first Indiana volunteers, commanded by Capt. J. B. Presdee, was Involved in a skirmish with a* band of Confederates near Bowling Green, on the Green river, Kentucky. The fight was drawn. The Confederates were reported to have lost two killed and three wounded. The value of the Confederate dollar had fallen to sixty cents, on the first of February.

February 2, 1862. Lieutenant Colonel White’s Confederate cavalry encountered a Union force of cavalry, estimated at three hundred strong, on the mountains in Morgan county, Tennessee. Colonel White charged the enemy at once. Captain Duncan, in command of the Federal cavalry, held them to a stiff defense, rallying them twice from a condition of great demoralization. The issue of the conflict was still in doubt when a lad, J. Roberts, fifteen years old, brought down the Union officer with a bullet through the head. The loss of their leader threw, the Federalists into hopeless confusion, and they fled, leaving seven of their number dead on the field. The bark Trinity left Boston, Mass., for Fortress Mbnroe, Va., with three hundred and eighty-six rank and file and eleven officers of the Confederate army, who had been made prisoners In the war in the south and confined in Fort Warren, Boston harbor. The men were to be exchanged for an equal number of Union soldiers in the .hands of the Confederates. A formidable land and naval expedition under General Grant and Commander Foote left Cairo, 111. The force consisted of seven gunboats and 15,000 men on transports. The objective of the expedition was Fort Henry, Tenn.'/ February 3,1862. In accordance with the decision of the adntfnlstration in Washington, the privateersmen who had been confined in the city prison were released and confined as political prisoners in Fort La Fayette. The persons captured on the British ship M. 8. Perry, who had been held at witnesses, were released. , By the operation of Earl Russell’s circular of neutrality, the Confederate privateer Nashville was sent away from Southhampton. The Union gunboat Tuscarora, anchored off Coweq, set out in pursuit of her as she passed, but was detained by the British Frigate “Shannon,” (Bl). Under international law she could not be permitted to proceed in chase of the Confederate within twenty-four hours. The British press congratulated the country on having rid itself of’the belligerent vessels, and the prospect of being freed from others of the same character for the rest of the war. /•: ■ - '' Mr. Chandler presented in the senate of the United States resolutions from the rejffirmlng the &yaRMHHBpt state to The United States. Indorsing the conftkoation 'df the property of southerners. and asking for the abolition of slavery as the cause of the war. - The French minister at Washington on behalf of his government made an offer of mediation between the north and- south.' * • - - - *• (Copyright, 1312, by W. G. Chapman.)