Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 141, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1912 — CIVIL WAR [ARTICLE]

CIVIL WAR

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

June 3,1862. Maj. Gen. Robert E. L«e was''assigned to the command of the Confederate army before Richmond, General Johnson having been compelled by a wound to withdraw, from the field. General Lee, In a brief address to his soldiers, informed them that the army had made its last retreat, and that henceforth every man’s watchword must be “Victory or death!” General Hooker of the Union army made a reconnoissance in force on Williamsburg, Va., reaching a point within four miles' of Richmond. The Confederates in the way were not numerous. The pickets fled at the approach of the large Union force; A letter was published in the Richmond Despatch, said to have been found in General Casey’s tent at the battle of Fair Oaks. It detailed a plan for the occupation of the southern states after the war. ; The sentence of death pronounced by General Butler on six persons at New Orleans, La., for having violated their parole, was commuted by him. He sentenced them to be confined at hard labor on Ship Island during the pleasure of the United States of America. June 4, 1862. Major General Halleck of the Union force at Corinth reported that General Pope, with forty thousand men, was thirty miles south of Florence, Ala., and pushing the enemy hard; that he, had ten thousand prisoners and deserters from the enemy and fifteen thousand stands of small arms captured. Also that he had captured nine locomotives. ’ Fort Pillow, otherwise called Fort Wright, on the Mississippi, near Memphis, was evacuated by the Confederates. After the occupation of the fort by the Federal troops, the Union gunboats steamed directly to Memphis. President Jeff Davis threatened retaliation in the case of Maj. W. Van Benthuysen, who had been arrested at New Orleans for “aiding the escape of a scoundrel and a spy.” Brigr Gen. J. T. Boyle assumed command of the Union forces in Kentucky, with headquarters in Louisville. A fight occurred near Jasper, Tenn., between a body of Union troops under the command of General Negley, and a large force of Confederate cavalry under General Adams, which resulted in a defeat of the Confederates. Sixteen hundred of General Prentiss’ Union troops, captured by the Confederates in the first day’s fight at Shiloh, arrived at Nashville, Tenn., under parole from the Confederate government. June 5, 1862. - The Twenty-fourth Massachusetts, while on a reconnoissance on the Paetollus road, near Washington, N. C., was attacked from ambush by a Confederate regiment and roughly handled, losing seven men killed and several wounded. The volunteer recruiting service in the United States, discontinued by general orders of April 3, Was restored. The Confederate artillery opened on the Federal forces at New Bridge, on the Chickahominy, in Virginia, in an attempt to prevent them from rebuilding the bridge for the passage of General McClellan’s army. Their flre was returned by the Union artillery, and they were compelled to withdraw, after an artillery duel lasting two hours. A heavy storm, which had lasted for two days, raised the Chickahominy river to an unprecedented height. First Lieut. D. C. Constable,, U. 8. N., was complimented by President Lincoln and promoted to the grade of captain for conspicuous service in command of the gunboat E. A. Stevens, which led the Union attack op Fort Darling, in the James’ river. Judge Birch, who was arrested at Rolla, Mo., for expressing disloyal sentiments, was released from arrest and paroled with the junderstanding that be was to report whenever required. James Trabue, one of the prominent merchants of Louisville, Ky., was arrested by the United States military authorities for refusing to take the oath of allegiance. Two regiments of the Pennsylvania “Roundhead” regiment, on James island, S. C-, were cut off by the Confederates, but after a sharp fight were rescued by the Eighth Michigan. The United States gunboat and mortar fleet arrived before Memphis, Tenn. June 6, 1862. At five o’clock in the morning the fleet before Memphis engaged the Confederate fleet of eight rams and gunboats, and, after a two hours’ fight, seven of the Confederate craft, were either captured or destroyed. At the conclusion of the battle, the mayor of Memphis surrendered the city. „ General Fremont’s army reached Harrlsonburgh, Va., at two o'clock in the afternoon and drove out the rear guard of General Jackson’s army. At four o’clock the First New Jersey cavalry, after driving the enemy through the village, fell into an ambuscade, and Colonel Windham, its commander, was captured. The regiment sustained a heavy loss. General Bayard subsequently engaged the enemy with his brigade and drove them from their

position, capturing their camp. The Confederates continued their- retreat. June 7, 1862. On the Chickahominy river the Confederates opened fire on the pickets of General Sumner’s Union force, but without effect. ; The Paris Constitutional published an article to show the impossibility of the south being conquered, and maintaining that mediation \ alone would succeed in putting an end to a war disastrous to the interests of humanity. William Mumford, a citizen of New Orleans, was hanged in that city by order of General Butler for an overt act of treason in pulling down the United States flag from the mint. ? In the Missouri convention a bill for the gradual emancipation of the slaves was submitted and defeated by a vote of fifty-two to nineteen. Memphis, Tenn., was formally taken possession of by the Union forces in the name of the government of the United States by Col. G. N. Fitch, commanding the Indiana brigade. The schooner Rowena, formerly the Garibaldi, ran into Stone Inlet, S. C., not knowing it to be in possession of the National forces, and was captured by the gunboat Pawnee. The Confederate batteries at Chattanooga, Tenn., were silenced by the artillery of General Negley’s command /after a bombardment of three hours. June 8, 1862. A reconnoitering party under Lieutenant BOnse of the Tenth Virginia Union regiment, captured three “bushwhackers” that had been doing mischief against the Union army in western Virginia. General Fremont attacked Stonewall Jackson seven miles beyond Harrisonburgh, Va., near Union Church or Cross Keys, at 8:30 in the morning. Jackson withdrew from his' position after several hours of fighting. General Turner Ashby of the Confederate cavalry was burled at Charlottesville, Va. Judge Swayne of Memphis, Tenn., refused to open the criminal court in that city after receiving an order from CoL G. N. Fitch, commanding United States Sorces, instructing him to confine himself to the hearing and adjudication of such cases only as were not based on the recognltiogpof the right of a state to secede from the Union, or on the presumption of the establishment of the so-called southern Confederacy, or recognizing the same. A small force of Union troops, while on a reconnoissance in the vicinity lof New Market, Va., captured a Confederate spy named Hance, who had been engaged in carrying information from the Union army to the Confederate headquarters in Richmond. A reconnoissance was made, under cover of the Union gunboats, by a body of National troops under Colonel Morrow, on James Island, 3. C. The Union forces drove the Confederates for two miles, and were at one time within three miles of the city of Charlestown, and in full view of Fort Sumter. The object of the reconnoissance accomplished, the troops fell back to their former position, losing two killed and seven wounded. June 9, 1862. General Jackson, too close pressed in his retreat from the Shenandoah, turned on the advance body of General Fremont’s Union army under General Shields, near Fort Republic, Va., and drove them back upon the main force. Having checked the Union army, he continued his retreat. The senate of the United States resolved Itself into a High Court of Impeachment for the trial of Judge Humphreys of Tennessee, for treason, but proceedings were postponed until the 26th. The house bill prohibiting slavery in the territories was passed. Secretary Wells addressed a long communication to the senate on the construction of armored ships. General Halleck at Corinth sent the following dispatch to the war department: “The enemy has fallen back fifty miles from here by railroad, and nearly seventy by wagon road. General Pope estimates the rebel loss from casualties, prisoners and desertion at over twenty thousand, and General Buell at between twenty and thirty thousand. “A person who was employed in the Confederate commissary department says they had one hundred and twenty thousand men in Corinth, and that now they cannot muster over eighty thousand. Some of the fresh graves on the road have been opened and found full of arms. Many of the prisoners beg not to be exchanged, saying they purposely allowed themselves to be taken. Beauregard himself retreated from Baldwin on Saturday afternoon to Okolona, Miss.” Brig. Gen. D. B. Birney, having been tried by court-martial and honorably acquitted of the charges against him, re-assumed command of his brigade by order of General Kearny, commanding division. - The house of representatives of the United States called for information concerning the formation" by General Hunter of a regiment of negro soldiers. (Copyright, 1912, by W. G. Chapman.)