Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1913 — The CIVIL WAR [ARTICLE]

The CIVIL WAR

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

April 6, 1863. > ' Gen. R. B. Mitchell, with three hundred and fifty Union cavalry, went out from Nashville on the Lebanon turnpike to Green HIU, Tenn., where tie led a dashing charge into a Confederate camp containing a large number of conscripts. Five men were killed and fifteen captured in the sabre charge. All their horses, arms and equipments were taken. The Confederates were composed of parts of Morgan’s and McCoun’s men. A stillhouse, containing forty casks of liquor, was destroyed. General Mitchell's command made the march of fifty-five miles in twelve hours. The United States gunboats Hartford, Switzerland and Albatross, which had been blockading the mouth of the Red river since the first of the month, got under way early in the morning and proceeded down the Bayou Sara, where they stopped, seized upon and threw into the river, ten thousand sacks of corn, after which they proceeded to Port Hudson, coming to anchor five miles below the Confederate batteries. Gold sold in Richmond, Va., at four hundred per cent, premium. The National steamer Fox, (Whittemore) was captured by a party of Confederates at Pass a L’Outre, Mississippi river. The New England Methodist conference, in session at Charleston, Mass., adopted a report supporting President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, expressing entire confidence in his administration, and pledging moral and material aid to him in his every eifort to crush the rebellion. April 7, 1863. Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, was attacked by a fleet of Iren clads and monitors, under the command of Admiral DuPont. After a terrific bombardment of two hours’ duration, the Union vessels withdrew, badly shaken and damaged. The Confederates disabled five of seven monitors, and sank the Keokuk. 'The United States gunboat Baratarla was lost while making reconcoissance in Amite river; Louslania. A successful expedition into Gloucester county, Virginia, to capture and destroy cattle and grain belonging to the Confederates, was made by Col. A. H. Grlmshaw of the Fourth Delaware infantry. He succeeded in de-’ stroylng over ten thousand dollars worth of property that had been collected by the Confederates, and in capturing three hundred cattle, sheep, and so forth. April 8, 1863.

The Richmond Despatch of date said: '"We have published the gist of the •correspondence between Mr. Mason ■and Lord Russell, on the question of the legality of the blockade of our ports by the Yankee government, and the recognition of the Confederacy. Ho southern man can read it without feelings of indignation and contempt —lndignation for the cold and stony haughtiness, not to say rudeness of manner, of the,British minister toward Mr. Mason, afterward only partially atoned for by a disavowal of any intention of personal disrespect, and contempt for the subterfuges resorted to, to cover a selfish policy. . . . We must not forget, whatever the ministry may do or propose, that our country had received the most valuable assistance from the people of England, and at this time there are schemes on foot there of great importance to us/’ Tfye English schooner tyfeggie Fulton was oaptured by the Gem. of the Sea when attempting to run the blockade at Indian River inlet, Florida. The Union gunboat George Washington, going aground while on a reconnolterlng expedition on the Broad river, South Carolina, was), blown up by a shell which a party of Confederates ashore succeeded in throwing into her magazine. The steamers Saxonla and Lovell were captured and burned on the Cumberland river by a party of Confederate partisans under Woodward. The Tallahatohia fleet, consisting of the divisions under Generals Ross and Quimby, and numerous gunboats and mortar boats, arrived at Helena, Ark. The expedition, which had been absent forty-three days, left Fort Greenwood on the fifth. As soon as the bustle was observed by the Confederates they bpaned a brisk fire upon the woods where batteries had been planted, which continued until the last boat steamed up the river. On the passage, the boats were frequently fired on by irregulars. Twen-ty-five or thirty men s)ere killed and a number wounded. April I, 1863.

Col. N. U. Daniels of the Second Regiment of the Louisiana National ▼olnnteers, with one hundred and eighty men, left Ship Island on an expedition to Pascagoula, Miss. He reached that plaoe and landed his force at nine o’clock In the morning, took possession of the hotel, and raised the National flag. Immediately after this he was attacked by a body of Confederate cavalry supported by one company of infantry. After a severe light, he succeeded In repulsing them. Colonel Daniels held the place until two in the afternoon, when, hearing that a large force of

Confederates was 4m tbs march toward him. he withdrew and returned to Ship island. , A large war meeting was held in Chicago, at which speeches were made by William A, Howard of Michigan, Senator Trumbull, and others. A sharp fight took place at Blount's Mills, N. C. April 10, 1863. Jefferson Dayis, In compliance with the request of the Confederate congress, issued an address to the people of the Confederate states, invoking their attention to “the present position and future prospects of our country, and to the duties which patriotism imposes on us kU during this great struggle for our homes and our liberties." Another expedition from Newbera to the succor of General Foster, surrounded at Washington, N. C., by heavy forces of Confederates, was unsuccessful, being compelled to return. Franklin, Tenn., waß attacked by the Confederate forces under General Van Dorn, 'who was defeated by the National force of occupation under Gen. Gordon Granger. The Confederates in the vicinity of Fort Donelspn, Tenn., having been gathering together all the horses in the neighborhood fit for cavalry service, 9eneral Rosecrans ordered his eavairy to seize the horses. Inafight which resulted from the attempt near Waverly the Confederates lost several men, but no horses. Lieutenant Rickerton at the Eighteenth Ohio, stationed at Demosville, Ky., searching for Jim Caldwell’s party of Confederate partisans, encamped for the night within thirty' yards of them without either party being aware of their mutual proximity. The Confederates, marching in the morning, were discovered and surprised by the enemy, and badly shaken up. Caldwell was compelled to escape. April 11, 1863. ' The Confederate steamer Stonewall Jackson, formerly the Leopard, while attempting to run the blockade at Charleston, S. C., was hotly chased by half a dozen blockaders, which fired at her, and she received several shots in the hull. Captain Black, finding escape impossible, beached and then burned his vessel. The crew and passengers got in the boats and proceeded to Charleston, while the Federate watched the craft-bum to the water’s edge. Her cargo consisted of several pieces of field artillery, two hundred barrels of saltpetre, forty thousand army shoes, and a large assortment of merchandise. A strong Union force under the command of A D. Straight left Nashville, Tenn., on a raid into Alabama and Georgia. The National cavalry at Whittaker’s Mills was destroyed by a sudden descent in the early morning of the Fifty-ninth Virginia Confederate regiment, which had moved out the night before. Commissary and hospital stores and an immense amount of ammunition were destroyed, a number of horses killed, and a number of Federate killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. The Confederates withdrew without the loss of a man. A brief skirmish ocurred in the vicinity of Blackwater, Va., between Union picket* and a party of Confederates, in which the Union men were forced back with the loss of several of their men, taken prisoners. At Sheffield, England, an engraver waß arrested and committed, charged with forging the treasury notes of the Confederate States. April 12, 1863.

Information having been received by General King, commanding the Union forces at Yorktown, of the presence of a large body' of cavalry in Gloucester county, Col. A. H. Grimshaw, Fourth Delaware volunteers, in command of the post at Gloucester Point, was ordered to send out a detachment of Infantry for the purpose of reconnoiterlng the enemy's position, and, if possible, driving him from some hills which he was reported to occupy, about ten miles beyond the Union lines. Lieutenant Colonel Tevis, Fourth Delaware, started out at two p. m. with one hundred and fifty volunteers from his own regiment, and having ascertained the force of the enemy to be about two hundred cavalry, pushed forward to attack them. The enemy fell back, leaving two of their pickets in the hands of the Union troops. The detachment returned to camp about nine o’clock in the evening, having burned a saw mill and two large grist mills filled with grain and flour for the Confederates in Richmond. The prisoners belonged to Fltz-Hugh Lee’s regiment, the Fifth Virginia cavalry. They were well armed, and carried printed orders, signed by J. B. B. Stuart, to seize a number of horses for the use of their regiment, "to replace those killed of disabled during the last campaign.” Lieut. Col. Edgar A. Kimball of Hawkin’s zouaves, Ninth regiment. New York volunteers, was killed by Gen. Michael Corcoran, at a point near Suffolk, Va. (Copyright, Mil, by W. a. Chapman.)