Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1913 — The CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK [ARTICLE]

The CIVIL WAR FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

March 10, 1863. Jacksonville, Fla., was captured by the First South Carolina colored regiment, under the command of Col. T. W. Higginson, and a portion of the Second South Carolina colored regiment, under Colonel Montgomery. The peole were in great terror of an indiscriminate massacre, but the negroes were controlled by their white officers, and nothing untoward occured. The sloop Peter of Savannah, Ga., was captured by the United States gunboat Gem of the Sea while attempting to run the blockade at India River Inlet, Florida. General Granger, ' overtaking the Confederate rearguard at Rutherford’s Creek, Tenn., captured several of their number. President Lincoln issued a proclamation ordering all soldiers, whether enlisted or drafted, who were absent from their regiments without leave, to return to their respective regiments befort the first of April, on pain of being arrested as deserters and punished as the law provided.

, A detachment of National troops, consisting of the Sixth and Seventh regiments of Illinois cavalry, under the command of Colonel Grierson, attacked and destroyed a camp of Confederate irregulars near Covington, Tenn. March 11,1863.

A preamble and resolutions looking toward peace were offered in the Confederate house of representatives by. Mr. Conrad, of Louisiana, as follows: 1 “Whereas, the present administration of the United States, by Its reckless disregard of all constitutional restraints, by its persistent efforts to subvert the institutions of these states, and the ferocious war which it is waging for that purpose, has more than realized the worst apprehensions of our people, and fully justified their wisdom and foresight In averting, by timely separation from the Union, the calamities which a longer continuance in It would have rendered inevitable; and

“Whereas, a portion of the people of the United States have recently manifested their disapproval of the war, of the objects for which and the manner in which It is being conducted, and their desire for its speedy termination, and several foreign powers, notably the government of France, have expressed a similar desire; “Now, therefore, the congress of the Confederate States, deeply impressed with the conviction that It is their duty to leave no means untried to put an end to a contest Injurious to the civilized world and disastrous to the parties engaged, believing that its prolongation can only tend to embitter and perpetuate feelings of hostility between states which, however politically disunited, must ever be intimately connected by Identity of language and religion, and by the immutable laws of geographical amity and mutual supply and demand, deem the present time, when there is a momentary lull in the conflict, a suitable one to utter the words of peace. The sale of pictures of Confederate soldiers and statesmen was prohibited. March 12, 1863.

The expeditionary force of Gen, Gordon Granger, which moved against the Confederate army under Van Dorn, returned to Franklin, Tenn., having driven the enemy beyond the Duck river. The Infantry went no farther than Rutherford creek, but the cavalry, under Colonel Minty, made a thorough reconnolssance of the country beyond the creek, as far as Duck river.

The second day’s march brought the expedition to Rutherford creek, where for a time the Confederates promised fight Their positions were well chosen, their artillery commanding the pikes and several crossings. A blinding rain, however, prevented General Granger attempting the passage of the stream, which was floodhlgh and foaming.

The troops bivouaced for the night, expecting to drive the enemy on the succeeding day. The day came in clear and beautiful, giving the artillerists a fine opportunity for practice, which they improved excellently by numerous shots. Preparations were made for an advance, and the infantry skirmishers thrown out The cavalry, under Colonel Minty, supported by the Thirty-eighth Illinois infantry, made a crossing two miles up the creek in the face of the enemy, who fell back from the National approaches. Soon word came that the Confederates were in rapid retreat, and Anally at night the cavalry returned, announcing that all the enemy bad fled beyond Duck river. March 13, 1863.

Fort Greenwood, on the Tallahatchie river, Mississippi, succeeded in discouraging an attack that had lasted for three days. The gunboats Chillicothe and DeKalb, together with a battery of heavy Parrott guns, kept up a fire for seventy-two hours on the fort, which replied to the last minute, although with a diminishing fire. The Union attack finally withdrew, in deepair of reducing the fort. The schooner Aldebaran was captured by the Confederate privateer Florida.

A slight skirmish took place at Berwick City La, ending in the dispersal

of a party of Confederates, who had attacked a National war party from Brashear City. The signal station at Spanish Wells,. S. C., was surprised and captured sarly in the morning by a party of Confederates, who took the lieutenant in command and eight men prisoners. March 14, 1863. Newbern, N. C., garrisoned by thw Ninety-second New York, was saved from an attack by a Confederate force under General Pettigrew by the timely arrival of a Federal fleet of gunboats,, Which opened on the Confederates and drove them off when their attack was pressing hard on the defenders of the place. The attack lasted four hours before it was broken np by the Uniongunboats. Brig. Gen. B. 8. Roberts, U. 8. V., in, command of the defenses of the Upper Potomac, issued orders regulating the trade between Maryland and Virginia. The Confederate batteries at Port Hudson, La., repelled a terrific attack by the entire Union fleet of gunboats in the river, under Admiral Farragut. The fire lasted for several hours. The Union fleet suffered heavily in killed and wounded, and several vessels were roughly handled. A force of National cavalry, under - Colonel Minty, returned to Murfrees- ~ boro after a succesful raid in neighboring territory of several days duration. They dispersed squads of partisans, captured prisoners, seized mules, tents, wagons and provisions, and obtained important information concerning the postion and strength of the Confederate forces. March 15, 1863.

The schooner Chapman, about leaving San Francisco, Cal., was boarded and seized as a privateer by officers of the United States government. Twenty secessionists, well armed, and, six brass Dahlgreen guns, with carriages suitable for use on shipboard, were found. Correspondence found on the persons of the prisoners identified them as in the interests of the Confederates.

Eight hundred paroled Union soldiers, en route to Chicago, were detained in Richmond, Ind., and amused themselves by demolishing the office of the Jefferson newspaper. The British steamer Brittania, from Glasgow, with a valuable carg? on board, successfully ran the blockade and entered Wilmington, N. C.

Another attempt was made by the National forces under General Grant, assisted by the gunboats and fleet, to reach a foothold on the Vicksburg shore through Steele’s Bayou and Haines Bluff. The attempt was not only a failure, but narrowly escaped being a disaster. The Federal fleet, entrapped in the Bayou, had great difficulty in getting clear again. March 16, 1883. A boat laden with about two thousand dollars* worth of contraband goods was captured while attempting to run the blockade on the Elizabeth river, near Norfolk, Va. A numerous and enthusiastic meeting was held in the City Hall at Burlington, N. J., for the purpose of forming a Union league. Addresses were delivered by James W. Scovel and James C. Botts. The Federate abandoned an attempt to get below Vicksburg via Lake Providence. The problem presented to Grant In getting at Vicksburg was to get a foothold below Vicksburg on the east side of the river, with an assured communication with the North. He had failed in a direct movement through Mississippi, and he had failed to get a foothold above the city. The object was to , get below the city without being cut off by the fortress. Lake Providence was considered as a possible device.. It marked the old bed of the Mississippi, twenty miles west of Vicksburg, and connected by an elaborate and Intricate chain of bayous and small streams with the Red river, and thence to the Mississippi; a circuit of four hundred miles of waterway, all of it remote from Vicksburg. There was one flaw in the plan. Baxter Bayou, a link in the chain, was a shallow cypress swamp. Soldiers had been set to work cutting a channel through this bayou; and it was this channel cutting that was abandoned, other plans having been adopted by General Grant (Copyright UU, by W. O. Chapman.)