Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 203, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1912 — The CIVIL WAR [ARTICLE]

The CIVIL WAR

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

August 12, 1862. General Burnside, commanding the Ninth army corps of the Army of the Potomac, issued an order informing his army that the seizure erf the property of Confederates, under the recent order of President Lincoln, based on an act of congress, would not be tolerated unless made tn the presence and under authority of an officer. The prize steamer Ladona, captured while endeavoring to steal into the Ogeechee river, Georgia, arrived at Philadelphia. Col. John H. Morgan, with his force bf Confederate irregulars, captured Gallatin, Tennessee, together with a Union force under Colonel Boone, a large quantity of supplies, a railway train laden with grain, a number of government horses, etc. In the evening Colonel Miller, arriving from Nashville with reinforcements for the Union troops, fell upon Morgan's rear guard, the main body of his force having withdrawn, killing six and wounding a number of the partisans. The Confederate congress voted their thanks to Gen. Robert E. Lee and the officers and men in his command for “their late brilliant victory, oulminatlngJn the signal defeat of the combined forces of the enemy in the two great battles of Manassas.” Stonewall Jackson, Confederate general, detaching his army from General Lee's, began a raid down the Shenandoah valley. August 13, 1862. A collision occurred off Ragged Point, on the Potomac, between the steamers Peabody and West Point, in which 75 lives were lost The West Point was en route to Washington with convalescents from the army of General Burnside. Colonel Guitar with a Union force overtook the Confederate partisans under Colonel Poindexter at Yellow Creek, Clinton county, Missouri, and defeated them. The French bark Harriet Rail! was released by the authorities of the United States. A battle was fought at Clarendon, Arkansas, between General Hovey’s Union division and a part of Hindman's Confederate force, which had been sent forward Irom Little Rock to check the advance of the nationals. The conflict was savage through several hours. Hindman eventually withdrew, losing 700 prisoners. An expedition consisting of the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts and a marine battery, under command of General Stevenson, embarking on board the gunboats Wilson and Ellis at Newbern, North Carolina, proceeded to Swansboro and destroyed the Confederate salt works at that place. General Pope, at Cedar Mountain, Virginia, telegraphed General Halleck, in Washington, at 7:30 in the morning: “The enemy has retreated under cover of the night. His rear is now crossing the Rapidan, toward Orange Court House. Our cavalry and artillery are In pursuit.” August 14, 1862. D. A. Mahoney, editor of the Dubuque Herald, was arrested by the United States marshal, charged with discouraging enlistments. A body of national troops out looking for cotton near Helena, Ark., encountered a force of Confederate irregulars, and came off narrowly. General Pope, commanding the Union army of Virginia, issued an order commanding officers and soldiers of the army to abstain from entering the houses, molesting the persons or disturbing the property of citizens, under pain of speedy and severe punishment. Whatever provisions, forage or other articles might be required for the subsistence or use of the troops would be taken possession of, but only by an officer with authority. The Confederate General Breckinridge addressed a note to Col. H. E. Paine, commanding United States forces at Baton Rouge, La., complaining that the Union troops in that vicinity had wantonly burned many private houses; had taken or destroyed much private property without compensation; had seized and carried away into imprisonment, upon false •nd frivolous pretexts, many unarmed citizens, and that negro slaves were being armed and organized to be employed against them. He informed him that such acts were regarded as in violation of the usages of civilized warfare, and that, in the future, upon any departure from those usages, “he would raise the black flag, and neither give nor ask for quarter." August 15,. 1862. A squad of cavalry from Washington, D. C., went into St Mary's county, Md., and encountered neat Leonardstown Capt. William Clark of the Thir-ty-seventh Virginia regiment, with a number of recruits, traveling in a wagon on their way td join the Confederates. When they were observed the ggvalry broke from the wagons, abandoned the trains and brokpfor the woods. The national cavalry'pursued them, and several shots were exchanged. Nine of them. Including one officer, were taken and sent to the Old Capitol prison. A sharp fight took place at Merriweather’s Ferry, on the Onion river, in between a body of

Union troops tinder the command of CoL W. T. Hanis and a force of Confederate partisans under Colonel Binfield, resulting in the rout of th* Confederates, who lost twenty men killed and nine taken prisoners. General Pope was confronted near the Rapidan by General Lee, and fell back across the Rappahannock. August 16, 1862. The U. 8. gunboat Pocahontas, one of the blockading squadron off Charleston, 8. Q, proceeding up the Black river on reconnoissance in search of a Confederate steamer reported in the river, found that the Confederates had sunk the steamer. On her return trip the Pocahontas was fired into by bands of irregulars, who fringed the river for twenty miles. Owing to the range no Injury was done the vessel, although some men were wounded. A body of Confederate partisans under Col. A. R. Johnson captured Hopkinsville, Ky. A quantity of ammunition and a number of rifles fell into their hands. Colonel Johnson gave notice that he had committed the seizure as a Confederate soldier, and that if any southern man or his property should be molested in consequence he would retaliate on the Union men of the place. A company of Confederate cavalry, making a rapid movement across the Rapidan river near Crooked Run, Va., captured Lieutenant Black and five men of the national army. . An expedition consisting of a number of Union -'gunboats, rams and transports left Helena, Ark., and proceeded down the Mississippi. The Richmond Examiner, editorially discussing the approaching session of the Confederate congress, sal 1: "It will be for congress to repair, as it best can, the npischlef done the public service by a weak and impracticable executive; to look at the reduction of our forces In the field; the decay of military discipline; the demoralization of our armies; and the jeopardy to which our cause has been put by a long course of trifling conduct, childish pride of opinion, unworthy obstinacy, official obtuseness, conceit, defiance of public opinion, imperiousness and despotic affectation on the part of those intrusted with the exect ion of the war.” The evacuation by the Union army of Harrison’s Landing, on the James river, where it bad taken refuge after the disasters of the Peninsula ca:npalgn, was completed. A national force was badly defeat* d by partisans near Lone Jack, Ma August 17, 1862. The office of the Constitutional Gazetteer, a newspaper published at Marysville, Kan., was demolished by a party of National soldiers belonging to Captain Bowen's company. Archbishop Hughes delivered an Important patriotic sermon in St Patrick’s cathedral, New York city. After reciting his course of action in Europe, he called upon the whole north to come out in its strength, for “volunteering to continue and for a draft to be made.” He said that if 300,000 men were not enough, to call but another 300,000. “The people . should Insist on being drafted, and so bring this unnatural strife to a close” by strength of might alone. The Sioux war broke out in Minnesota: The Sioux Indians, angered by a breach of promise on the part of the United States government, excited by reports of war from the south, and made frantic by their medicine men, massacred 500 people at Acton, Meeker county. August 18, 1862.

The war department of the United States took steps to check the political appointment df generals in the army in the following order: “Hereafter no appointments of major generals or brigadiers will be given except to officers of the regular army, for meritorious and distinguished services during the war, or to volunteer officer, who,' by some successful achievement in the field, shall have displayed the military abilities required for the duties of a general officer. “No appointment to such grades will be issued by the war department till an examination is made to ascertain if there is any charge or evidence against the character, conduct, or fitness of the appointee, and if there should be any such charge or evidence a special report will be made to the president” Col. Michael Corcoran of the Sixtyninth New York, was appointed brigadier general. Bob Edwards, famous as a partisan fighter, was killed by a party of Union troops sent out to punish a band of partisans that had fired on the Union pickets at Romney Road, Virginia. The congress of the Confederate states reassembled at Richmond, Va., whence they had fled in alarm at the approach of McClellan’s army in the Peninsula campaign. The steamers Skylark and Sallie, carrying stores of the United States government, were burned at the mouth of Duck creek, in the Tennessee river, nearly fifty miles above Fort Henry, by a party of irregulars. The Skylark had gone aground, and the officer In charge was transferring her cargo to the Sallie when the Confederates attacked and captured them both. Col. John H. Morgan, whose raids through Tennessee and Kentucky kept the Union sympathizers in constant dread, issued a notice that for every dollar exacted from hl* southern friends to pay for property destroyed by him, he would have two from Union sympathisers. (Copyright, IM by W. G. Chapman.)

The Holstein breed of dairy cattle, as yet, do not occupy a very prominent position, on the average Indiana farm. This breed seems to be especially adapted for the supplying of city milk and as our state Increases in population larger numbers of Holstein cows are almost sure to be kept. Already, we see indications of this in observing the breeds used in supplying the milk tor Indidnapolis, Chicago and many smaller cities. In order that Purdue might have information available for Indiana farmers concerning this breed of cattle, they purchased, a few years ago, some Holstein cows from which our present herd descended. The herd at present contains ten bead of females, five of which are yearling heifers and calves. As Purdue had no Holstein bull to breed its cows to, It was necessary to secure an individual for this purpose. On June 6 and 7 the wrlter attended the Breeder*' Consignment sale at Syracuse, N. Y., and purchased Sir Paul Beets Segis (see photograph), a five-year-old son of King Segis. This bull was bred by Mr. H. A. Moyer, tbe well-known Holstein breeder of Syracuse, N.' Y., and sold at the age of six months to a Mr. Stone, also of Syra-

cuse, for SSOO. Mr. Stone, used this bull on a herd of well-bred cows and his only object In selling him was to secure another to use on the daughters of Sir Paul Beets Segis. Sons sired by Sir Paul Beets Segis won third place at the New York state ,falr during the seasons of 1910 and 1911. His dam, Aaggie Pietertje Pauline, is a 24.95 pound daughter of th* famous bull, Paul Beets DeKoi, who baa 101 tested daughters, the highest being Segis Aaggie DeKoi Beets, with 82.06 pounds of butter in seven days. On the sire’s side we need not speak, as King Segis is so well and favorably known wherever Holstein blood is tpv predated. He has, at tbe last report, predated. This wonderful sire has 474 tested cows in the first three generations of his pedigree, 240 of them In the first two or the direct descendants of only seven individuals. With the blood of this splendid bull mixed with tbe blood of our present herd we should expect to produce a strain of Holstein* that would fully demonstrate the value of selecting high class individual* even within pure breed*.