Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1913 — The CIVIL WAR [ARTICLE]

The CIVIL WAR

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

January 13, 1863. The United States gunboat Major Slidell, under the command of Lieutenant Van Dorn, surrendered to a party of Confederate partisans at Harpeth Shoals, on the Cumberland river, without firing a shot, and exposed to capture three transports laden with wounded Union soldiers. The wounded soldiers were all placed on one of-the transports, and the three other vessels destroyed. General Banks gave the following notice to the people of New Orleans: “Offensive personal demonstrations, by language or conduct of any character, by persons of any class whatever, with the Intention of giving personal affront, or tending to disturb the public peace, are forbidden, and will be punished with relentless severity. Parents will be held responsible for the respectful conduct of their children, and prompt steps will be taken to fasten on the proper parties any act of this character. All persons who may be witnesses of such conduct are directed, as a measure of public peace, to give information thereof to the provost-marshal, or at these headquarters.” The steamer Hampton was captured in Dividing creek, Virginia, by the United States steamer Currituck. Peace resolutions were introduced in the legislature of New Jersey. January 14, 1863. The Confederate iron-clad ram J. A. Cotton was destroyed in Bayou Teche, La., after a long and stubborn contest against four Federal gunboats that attacked her. under command of Commodore Buchanan, and a force of Union soldiers. The ram was supported by a small body of troops, among them some sharpshooters, one of whom killed Commodore Buchanan with a minnle ball. The steamer Forest Queen was captured and destroyed by Confederate irregulars at Commerce, Miss. The National gunboat Queen of the West was captured in the Red river, Arkansas. Proceeding on a reconnoissance, she was fired on near Gordon’s Landing by a Confederate battery of four guns, that proved too much for her. The Queen of the West was in command of Col. Charles E. Ellet, in command of the ram fleet in western waters. January 15, 1863. Mound City, Ark., was burned by a detachment of Union troops. The place was a famous haunt of partisan fighters. The bill authorizing the issue of one hundred million dollars in legal tender notes of the United States was signed and became a law. A detachment of the Twenty-second Wisconsin, carrying dispatches from Helena to Clarendon, Ark., fell in with a body of Confederate irregulars, and lost seventeen of their number by capture. The Union gunboat Columbia, stranded in Masonborough Inlet, N. C., was burned by the Confederates. January 16, 1863. Gen. James G. Blunt, of the Federal army, ordered the arrestof all attorneys and claim agents who might be believed to be inciting disaffection and insubordination among soldiers in the Union army. Commander Couthouy and the officers of the United States steamer Columbia, which grounded at Masonborough Inlet, N. C., the day before, surrendered themselves to the Confederates. The naval expedition up the White river, Arkansas, under command of John G. Walker, landed at Duval's Bluff and captured two eight inch rifles, two hundred stands of arms, and three platform cars on which the Confederates were attempting to carry off the guns. / The English sloop Brave, from Nassau, was captured by the gunboat Octorora. A Union meeting was held at New Orleans, in which resolutions were adopted urging an earnest and vigrous prosecution of the war. The transport ship Planter, with men and material belonging to the National army, was wrecked near Stranger’s Key, Bahama. The Confederate steamer Oreto ran through the blockading fleet and escaped from Mobile harbor, Alabama. January 17, 1863. , Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Johnson of the Confederate army issued an order promising full pardon te-absentee officers In the Departments of the West if they should return to their proper commands by the twelfth of February. Des Arc, Ark., was taken possession of by Captain Walker of the gunboat DeKalb, and a regiment of National Infantry. There was no resistance. A skirmish took place at Pollockville, N. C., resulting In the defeat of the Confederates and the occupation of the town by the Union forces. At Liverpoool, England, an antislavery conference took place in which Mr. Spence, a Southern sympathizer, attempted to revive the argument that slavery could be condoned on scriptrual ground, but he was refused a hearing. A resolution in favor of the National government was carried by a large majority, and a committee was appointed to bring

the subject before the people of Liverpool. JT Numbers of families that had removed from Charleston, apprehensive of an attack from the Federal forces, returned to their homes. January 18, 1863. The Chattanooga Rebel, after surmising how the birthday of Washington would be celebrated in the loyal st-te, said; “Here in the South we shall pay a different tribute to the day. We shall honor it by silent homage. It is said that the president will issue his proclamation of ‘fasting and prayer,’ as a fit commemoration of the trials, sacrifices and glories of, Washington. They are types of our own heroes and martyrs, and* whilst we remember and do reverence to the deeds and beauties of character which have consecrated the name of the father and country, we shall bear also in mind those Spartan virtues of manhood and those Southern virtues of womanhood which adorn our pages and ennoble our day." Federals take Duval’s Bluff and Des Arc, Ark., suffering only a trifling loss. The Confederates lost 150 prisoners.

January 19, 1863. President Lincoln addressed a letter to the workingmen of Manchester, England, in reply to resolutions adopted by them in a meeting, thanking them for their expressions of esteem and confidence, and assuring them of the continued friendliness of the two nations. The Third battalion of the Fifth Pennsylvania cavalry, on a reconnoissance in the direction of Barnesville, Va., had two exciting encounters with a body of Confederates, losing a number by capture In the first, and recovering them in the second. The Brig Estelle was and burned at sea by the Confederate privateer Oreto, formerly the Florida, under command of Capt. J. N. Maffit In a debate in • the Confederate house on President Davis’s proposition to execute Federal officers in retaliation for the Emancipation Proclamation, Mr. Foote of Mississippi announced an intention of bringing forward resolutions looking to the establishment of peace, his idea being to throw the responsibility for further bloodshed on the National government The house went into secret session to discuss further the plan of retaliation. (Copyright, 1913, by W. G. Chapman.)