Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1913 — The CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK [ARTICLE]

The CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

(December 23, 1862- ■ President Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation declaring General Butler, recently relieved of command of the Department of the Gulf, to be a' felon and deserving of capital punishment, and ordering that he should no longer be considered or treated merely as a public enemy of the Confederate-States, but an outlaw and common enemy to mankind. The Confederate schooner Pelican, with a cargo of eighty-two bales of cotton, ran the blockade at Mobile, Ala. Maj. P. Graham and Lieut E. T-. Dorton, both of the Fifteenth Arkansas Confederate cavalry, “being of the wickedness and folly” of seceßßion, respectfully requested “alike the privilege of returning peacefully to their allegiance and their homes" In the north. A trusty negro saved a squadron of the Eighth Pennsylvania cavalry from being captured by a party of Confederates, who had planned to cross the Rappahannock fourteen miles belbw Port Conway, Va., and seize them. The negro, who got wind of the sqheme from other blacks, informed the National soldiers, and the attempt was abandoned when the Confederates found their plan was discovered. The National forces moved from Romney, Va., and took possession of Winchester. ° December 24, 1862. In promulgating President Lincoln’s CXelftnlnary proclamation of emancipation of the slaves, General Banks, commanding' the .Department of the Gulf, issued an address to the people of Louisiana in order to correct misunderstanding and misapprehension concerning the purpose of the emancipation.

In a public letter written December 24, 1860, given out on this date, Alexander H. Stephens, vice president of the Confederate States of America, said: “While I hope for the best, I am prepared for the worst. The election of Mr Lincoln, I am well persuaded, is owing muoh more to the divisions of the Democratic party and the disastrous personal strifes among Its leaders at Baltimore and Charlestown, than to any fixed determination on the part of a majority of the people of the North to wage an exterminating warfare against Southern institutions. ... I can but believe that there Is still enough patriotism in* the land, north aB well aB south, to save the present Union under the existing constitution, with, all its guarantees and obligations, if the great heart of the nation can be touched and aroused. All that is wanting is a little time and patriotic forbearance.” The advance guard of the Confederate General Morgan’s advancing column had a brush near Munfordsville, Ky., with the Second Michigan cavalry. A portion of the Eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry had a lively skirmish on the Blackwater river, near Franklin, with a Confederate cavalry squadron and infantry company. A detachment of General Sherman’s expeditionary command, under Gen. M. L. Smith, destroyed a section of the Vicksburg and Texas railway, about ten miles west of Vicksburg, and burned the station at Delhi and Dallas. i December *25, 1862.

General Morgan's advance guard came upon a force of Union cavalry Under Colonel Gray at Green’s Chapel, near Munfordsville, Ky., and fell back on the main column with a loss of nine killed, twenty-two wounded, and five prisoners. The Confederate schooner Break O’ Day, with a cargo of cotton, ran the blockade at Mobile, Ala. Colonel Shank, in command of the Twelfth Kentucky Federal cavalry, attacked General Morgan’s rear gu,ard at Bear Wallow, Ky., and . punished them severely before he could be driven off. He captured twelve officers and men.' In a skirmish Morgan’s advance guard drove off the Second Michigan, at Bacon creek, near Munfordsville, Ky., capturing twenty men two officers. 'December 26, 1862. Thirty-eight Indians were hanged at Mankato, Minn., for particlpatloh in the late massacres in that state. ■' President Jefferson Davis delivered an extended address on the subject of secession before the legislature of Mississippi, assembled at Jackson. Major Stetens, of the Fourteenth Kentucky cavalry, with one hundred and fifty men, who had been ordered to find a large band of Confederate irregulars in the eastern part of Powell oounty, Kentucky, after traveling all night over obscure and dangerous bridle-paths, came upon the Confederates in camp In the morning, and dashed among them, surprising and capturing their leader, a noted partisan, and eleven of the band. The rest dispersed and hid In the mountains. ] December 27, 1862,

General Morgan captured Elisabethtown, Ky., with his force of Confederate cavalry, after a brief resistance on the part of the garrison, under command of Lieut. H. 8. Smith. The Con-

federates seized a large amount of property. Dumfries, Va., was defended from attack of a Confederate forte under Generals Stuart and Fitz-Hugh Lee, by the garrison, in a fierce struggle that lasted for several hours. The Confederates, outweighed in the artillery arm. retired without taking the town. General Sherman’s army disembarked near the mouth of the Yazoo river and moved forward on Vicksburg. The attack on the Confederate forces was begun by'the troops in conjunction with, the fleet of gunboats. The gunboats, after several hours’ firing, were compelled to retire, considerably disabled, but the troops, after a desperate striiggle of eight hours duration,- closing at nightfall, drove the Confederates from some of their outer defenses toward their main works. Both forces rested dn their arms for the night. December 28, 1862.

The trestle work at Muldraugh’s Hill, Ky., guarded by the Seventy-first Indiana infantry, was captured by the Confederate force under Gen. John H. Morgan after a ten hours’ fight, and destroyed, . . The National force evacuated New Madrid, Mo., after destrpying the barracks and magazine. A reconnoitering force of Union, troops, coming upon a small body of Confederate cavalry near Suffolk, Va., put them to flight and captured a number of horses and arms that they left behind. A Union force under General Blunt entered and captured Van Buren, Ark., ■.taking the Confederate garrison, an amoiint of ammunition, four steamboats laden with supplies, and a ferry boat A Union expedition under Major Foley sent by Major-General Granger to-Elk Fork, Campbell county, Tenn., to rout out a Confederate camp reported theje, surprised the enemy, and drove them off, destroying their equipment and takinjg several prisoners. Vicksburg was attacked again without result. The attack, ibegun early in the morning, continued all day without affecting the positions of the two armies. The Confederates were found to have made good use of the time permitted them through the dilatory tactice of General Halleck, after the battle of Corinth, and ta.have strongly fortified their positions in and about the city, which is located on a river bluff and among hills. Stuart’s Baton Rouge cavalry defeated a detachment of Union cavalry near Clinton, La. December 29, 1862.

A party of Mexicans, under the leadership of a half-breed named Munoz, invaded the. state of Texas and stole forty horses and fifty head of cattle from a ranch In Zapata county. Demand was made through the United States military authorities for the arrest and punishment of the robbers by the Mexican officials, also the restitution of the property. Governor Lopez, of Tamaulipaß, had the criminals arrested, but they subsequently escaped. The property was not recovered. The United States provisional court for the state of Louisiana was opened dfNew Orleans, with the reading of the order from President Lincoln, establishing the tribunal and appointing Judge Charles A. Peabody to preside over it. (Copyright, 1912, by W. G. Chapman.)