March 12, 1862

March 12, 1862: In a swift move, Gen. Burnside’s Coast Division in Pamlico sound lifts anchor in Goldsborough’s fleet of transports and sails from Roanoke Island south to the town of New Berne (Newbern), No. Carolina, a port on the mainland side of the Sound, on the Neuse River. David L. Day of the 25^th Massachusetts records:

March 12. This morning weighed anchor and our fleet, comprising upwards of 50 sail, steamed up the Pamlico sound for Newbern. After a few hours’ sail, large numbers of wild geese and ducks attracted our attention. Wide marshes which extend into the sound are their feeding ground, and from these they make their way a long distance into the sound. These waters appear to be their winter quarters. About 3 p. m., we enter the Neuse river, which is here about two miles wide. Situated on the left bank, thirty miles up the river, is the city of Newbern. Slowly we steam up the river, seeing nothing but the low, piney shores, and the smoke of the enemy’s signal fires. About 8 p. m., when 15 miles up the river, in a wide place forming a kind of bay, we dropped anchor for the night. The transports lay huddled together in the middle of the river, while a cordon of gunboats surrounds us as a picket. A dark, black night has settled down on us, and all is still and silent as the tomb. Not a sound is heard or a light seen, save the enemy’s signal fires, far up the river. This stillness is dreadful. It is really oppressive, and seems as though it has remained unbroken since the morning of creation. Our errand here is to make an attempt to occupy the city of Newbern, and if anybody attempts to stop us, there will be a big fight and somebody will be hurt.

—Ever candid, Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman of the Union Army of the Potomac, makes this ascerbic observation of the abandoned Confederate fortifications around Manassas:

12th-—On examining the fortifications at Manassas to-day, we find them mounting "wooden guns." Subordinate officers have no right to ask questions, but if I were not a subordinate I should be strongly tempted to ask if, in eight to twelve months of anxiously watching the enemy, it were not possible to find out the nature of his defences? I really hope this oversight, or, rather, want of sight, does not indicate a wilful negligence on the part of some of our superiors.

"Quaker" Guns in Rebel Earthworks

—Jeremy Francis Gilmer of the Confederate Army in Alabama writes to his wife, Louisa ("Loulie") Gilmer, in Savannah, on the affairs of the Southern cause, including this grim account of the Battle of Pea Ridge, and the death of Gen. McIntosh, who was a personal friend: I am sorry to tell you that the reported victory of Van Dorn in Missouri turns out to be no victory _ Desperate fighting took place between his forces and the enemy the 7^th inst: with heavy loss on both sides _ on ours; Genl: McCulloch and McIntosh. (Brother of Mrs Keeney) and Col: Hebert. (Brother to Col: Paul Hebert, who was formerly an officer of the Corps of U.S. Engineers) _ were killed Van Dorn’s forces slept on the field of battle, but next day they gave battle only to escape and then retreated southward toward the interior of Arkansas _ I was shocked when the news of McIntosh’s death was recd _ what sorrow this will bring to our friend Mrs. Keeney_ her only Southern Brother killed in a miserable war in which her feelings are on one side, and her husband & other brother on the other side_ She in a distant land, where her Southern friends receive nothing but curses loud and deep _ Oh how I pity her ___ —Mary Boykin Chestnut writes in her diary: March 12th.—In the naval battle the other day we had 25 guns in all. The enemy had 54 in the Cumberland, 44 in the St. Lawrence, besides a fleet of gunboats, filled with rifled cannon. Why not? They can have as many as they please. "No pent-up Utica contracts their powers;" the whole boundless world being theirs to recruit in. Ours is only this one little spot of ground—the blockade, or stockade, which hems us in with only the sky open to us, and for all that, how tender-footed and cautious they are as they draw near.
Floyd and Pillow are suspended from their commands because of Fort Donelson. The people of Tennessee demand a like fate for Albert Sidney Johnston. They say he is stupid. Can human folly go further than this Tennessee madness ? —An exchange of letters between the chief engineer of Gen. McClellan (who is in the midst of ferrying his army down to Ft. Monroe at the tip of the James Peninsula for his big push to Richmond) and Asst. Sec. of the Navy Gustavus Fox reveals the general’s extreme anxiety about the CSS Virginia (Merrimac) and it threat to his sea-borne operation:

FAIRFAX COURT-HOUSE,

March 12, 1862.　

G. V. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy:
The possibility of the Merrimac appearing again paralyzes the movements of this army by whatever route is adopted. How long a time would it require to complete the vessel built at Mystic River, working night and day? How long would Stevens require to finish his vessel, so far as to enable her to contend with the Merrimac? If she is uninjured, of course no precaution would avail, and the Monitor must be the sole reliance. But if injured so as to require considerable repairs, these things are important to be considered . The General would desire any suggestion of your own on this subject.
By order of Major-General McClellan:

J. G. BARNARD,
Chief Engineer. —Mr Fox’s answer reveals also the uncertainty of the Navy Department concerning the ability of the USS Monitor to keep the Virginia bottled up in Norfolk:

NAVY DEPARTMENT, March 13, 1862.　

Major General GEORGE B. McCLELLAN,
Fairfax Court-House.

The Monitor is more than a match for the Merrimac, but she might be disabled in the next encounter. I cannot advise so great dependence upon her. Burnside and Goldsborough are very strong for the Chowan River route to Norfolk, and I brought up maps, explanation, &c., to show you. It turns everything, and is only 278 miles to Norfolk by two good roads. Burnside will have New Berne this week. The Monitor may, and I think will, destroy the Merrimac in the next fight; but this is hope,not certainty. The Merrimac must dock for repairs.

G. V. FOX.
---Senator Morrill of Maine, in the U.S. Senate, proposes hearing "(S.No. 108) for the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia." First to speak is Sen. Davis of Kentucky (a slave state yet loyal), who proposes: "That all persons liberated under this act shall be colonized out of the limits of the United States and the sum of $100,000 from the Treasury will be used for this purpose." Sen. Davis argues this:


The liberation of the slaves in this District, or in any State, will be just equivalent to settling them in the country where they live; and whenever the policy is inaugurated, it will inevitably and immediately introduce a war of extermination between the two races.

Here there are a great many vagabond negroes in a state of slavery in this city. They are now idle and comparatively worthless; and whenever they are liberated they become greatly more so. A negro's idea of freedom is freedom from work. After they are liberated they become lazy, indolent, thievish vagabonds, Men may hug their delusions, but these are facts heretofore, and they will remain facts in the future. I know this just as well as I know that these gentlemen around me belong to the Caucasian race.
The negroes that are now liberated, and that remain in the city, will become a sore and a burden and a charge upon the white population. They will be criminals; they will become paupers, and the power that would liberate them ought to relieve the white population of their presence. . . . If at the time you commenced this war, you had announced as the national policy that was to prevail the measures and visionary schemes and ideas of some gentlemen on this floor, you should not have had a solitary man from the slave States to support you. You will unite the slave States by this conduct as one man, one woman, to resist your deadly policy.