Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 308, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1912 — The CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK [ARTICLE]

The CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

December 9, 1862. A fight took place near LaVergne, Tenn., between a detachment of Union troops, acting as a guard and escort to a forage train of fifty wagons, and a large force of Confederates, resulting in a repulse for the attacking party. * , The United States dispatch boat De Soto proceeded to Concordia, Ark., and burned forty-two houses, in retaliation upon the burning of the steamer Lake City at that place the day before. General Butler issued a repetition of ■General Order No. 55 at New Orleans, by which certain cotton brokers who had subscribed to the rebellion was assessed at the rate of 25 per'cent, of the amount of their subscription for the relief of the poor of the city. In skirmish near Brontville, Tenn., between a reconnoitering force ofUnion troops and a small body -of Confederates, the latter were defeated, and lost two pieces of light artillery. ! December 10, 1862. The bombardment of the Confederate batteries at Port Royal, on the Rappahannock riyer, in Virginia, was resumed by eight Union gunboats, and lasted for four hours, at the end of which time the Confederates ceased firing. At the commencement of the engagement the gjmboat Teazer succeeded in bringing out two schooners that lay within range of the enemy’s guns. Several of the gunboats were hard hit. The town of Plymouth, N. C., garrisoned by a small Union force, was captured and partially burned by a body of Confederates, who also attacked the Union gunboat Southfield, Captain Behm, which was lying in the stream opposite the town. The vessel escaped with considerable damage. The bill creating the state of West Virginia, previously adopted by the senate, passed the United States bouse of representatives by a vote of ninety-six to fifty-five. J. Wesly Green published in the New York Evening Post a long statement in which he maintained that he had brought peace proposals from Jefferson Davis to Washington, and that he had several interviews with President Lincoln and two with thte cabinet. December 11, 1862. The United States gunboat Cairo was sunk in the Yazoo river by a torpedo. She went down Beven mindtes after striking. The crew was saved. Colonel Jones of the Confederate army was captured by a scouting party of the Sixth Missouri cavalry near Warrensburg, Mo. President Lincoln, complying with a request from the senate, sent in all the information to hand concerning Indian barbarities in Minnesota. An expedition, consisting of a large force of all arms, left the Union headquarters at Newbern, N. C., for the interior of the r ßtate for the purpose of destroying railroad communications north and south.

General Bragg, commanding the Confederate forces at Murfreesboro, Tenn., sent a communication to General , Rosecrans, commanding the Union army, informing him that, as a number of citizens of Tennessee were arrested and imprisoned in the penitentiary at Nashville charged only with political offenses or proclivities, he should enforce rigid and unyielding retaliation against the commissioned officers who should fall into his hands until this violation of good faith should be corrected. __ Governor Vance, of North Carolina, issued a proclamation prohibiting the transportation from the Btate of articles of food and apparel, for the period of thirty days. Fredericksburg, Va., was bombarded by the National forces under General Bujnsides. The two armies were confronting each other across the river; the Confederates heavily entrenched on the hills behind the town. December 12, 1862. The Fifty-second Illinois had a hard time with a Confederate force in a skirmish near Corinth, Miss., but finally drove them off with a considerable loss. One thousand seven hundred and fifty Union prisoners, captured and paroled by the Confederate partisan fighter, John H. Morgan, arrived at Nashville, Tenn., on their way north. A heavy reconnoissance of a Union force under General Ferry from Suffolk to the Blackwater river developed the Confederates in force along the river in the vicinity of Zuni. There was a brisk artillery fight of two or three hours, which held the Confederates in their position and permitted the Union force to return to their camp. The gunboat Essex, accompanied by the transport Winona, was driven ' away from the fortifications at Port Hudson, which it was reconnoitering, by a heavy and well practiced fire from the Confederate guns. General Stuart’s Confederate cavalry, in a raid on Dumfries, Va„ captured the Union pickets and destroyed government stores and telegraph equipment General Foster’s column, advancing into North Carolina from Newbern to

destroy the railroads, encountered I* sistance from a small Confederate force fourteen miles from hIS base, but drove them off. The Confederate salt works at Yellville, Ark., which had cost the Confed* erate government $30,000. were de* stroyed by National troops Sts thousand dollars worth of saltpeter was destroyed. Brig.-Gen. Stanley,* with a Union force from Nashville, raided Franklin, Tenn., where he destroyed mills and other valuable property useful to the Confederates, and captured several prisoners. December 13, 1862. The Union Army of the Potomac, under General Burnside, was disastrously defeated at the Battle of Fredericksburg, with a terrible loss. The Confederates under Lee, occupying the hills behind the town, where they were heavily entrenched and armed with artillery, repulsed a‘ number of terrific assaults from the Union lines, who attacked persistently, but without avail. The battle was one of the most bloody and fiercely contested of the war to that time, and one of the most disastrous to the Union forces. Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, reviewed the army of General Bragg at Murfreesboro, Tenn. A large force of Union infantry and cavalry surprised a band of Confederates at Tuscumbia, Ala., and captured seventy of them. Governor Johnson, provisional governor of Tennessee, issued an order assessing certain individuals in the efty of Nashville in various amounts in behalf of the “many helpless widows, wives, and children in the city of Nashville who have been reduced to poverty and wretchedness in consequence of their husbands, sons, and fathers having been forced into the armies of this unholy and nefarious rebellion.” General Foster’s expeditionary force into North Carolina had trouble with Confederates at South Wept creek, North Carolina. The Confederates, heavily outnumbered, were driven off. A fleet of small boats, leaving Newbern, N. C., to attack the Confederate works at Kinston, was compelled to retire because of slack water in the river, which made it impossible for them to navigate. December 14, 1862. A Confederate force seized seven hundred rifles, forty thousand rounds of ammunition, several hundred uniforms, and a large supply of provisions, belonging to the Thirty-ninth National Kentucky regiment, at Wireman’s Shoals, five miles below Preatonburg, Ky., overpowering the Union guard that was conveying the stuff to the regiment. The True Presbyterian and the Baptist Recorder, published in Louisville, Ky., were suppressed, and the editor of the Recorder sent to the military prison, for utterances hostile to the Federal .government. Coffeeville, Miss., was occupied by the Union cavalry of Colonels Lee and Mlzner. General Foster’s Union column* advancing into North Carolina to destroy railroads, fought a pitched battle -frith the Confederates under General Evans at Kinston, N. C. The Confederates were 'defeated, with a loss of a battery of artillery hundred prisoners, and the Federhla occupied the town. y At Helena, Ark., a Union picket guard, consisting of a lieutenant and twenty-three men, was surrounded and captured by a band of Confederate irregulars. There was a slight skirmish at Woodsonville, Tenn. A body of Confederate cavalry made a raid on Poolsville, Mo., at eight o’clock in the evening, and captured a party of the Scott Nine Hundred cavalry. Mexican bandits attacked a wagon train laden with provisions and clothing for the troops at Ringgold Barracks, Tex., killing all the soldier guard and teamsters with the exception of one man, who escaped. The train was on the way from Fort Brown to the Batracks. December 15, 1862. The National war committee of the Citizens of New York addressed an urgent memorial to congress asking for the passage of a law authorizing the granting of commissions to private armed vessels for the capture of the Alabama and other Confederate cruisers that were hurting business. The memorial also suggested a reward to be paid for the capture or destruction of the privateers. The advance of General Bank’s expedition to the Red river country of Arkansas arrived at New Orleans, having come from New York by boat. General Hovey’s expedition returned to Helena, Ark. General Butler, having been superceded by General Banks as commander of the Department of the Gulf, issued his farewell address to the “Soldiers of the Army of the Gulf,” and another to the “People of New Orleans,” in which he reviewed his government since he had been appointed to the command of the department. (Copyright, 1912. by W. G. Chapman.)