March 13, 1862

March 13, 1862: Gen. John Pope and his 18,000-man Army of the Mississippi have Gen. John McCowan of the Confederate Army (with only 3,500 men) trapped in New Madrid, Missouri, at a sharp bend in the Mississippi River. Pope’s plan is, by taking New Madrid, to leave the Confederate fortress at Island No. 10 cut off from supplies and reinforcements. Island No. 10 is at a bend in the river where the gunners would have a clear shot for a long stretch of river at any gunboats approaching from upstream. Pope advances his troops and his heavy artillery in close, and the Rebel guns reply with some effect, knocking out one of Pope’s siege guns. On the Rebel left flank, the CSN gunboat flotilla offer sufficient cover to drive the Union troops back. Pope loses only 32 men. After dark, Gen. McCowan and the Rebel troops abandon New Madrid and withdraw to Island No. 10.

New Madrid and Island No. 10

—In New Mexico, on this date, Confederate troops enter Santa Fe as the small Union force abandon’s the territorial capital. Gen. Sibley, CSA, issues an amnesty proclamation for anyone who had borne arms against the Confederacy. The Union Army finds the native New Mexican militia troops to be fading away, but a regiment of 900 Colorado troops arrives at Fort Union, 100 miles northwest of Santa Fe, where a small Federal force is gathering.

—President Lincoln finally approves McClellan’s plan to ferry his army to the tip of the James Peninsula and approach Richmond from the southeast, so long as he leaves troops to protect Washington and the railroad junction at Manassas.

—Gen. Ambrose Burnside and his Coast Division, having steamed along the Pamlico Sound from Roanoke Island in the coastal waters of North Carolina, now lands his three brigades on shore of the Neuse River, just outside of New Bern, the largest port in coastal Carolina, next to Wilmington. Capt. William J. Bolton of the 25^th Massachusetts Infantry, describes the landing in his journal:
A reconnaissance was made to ascertain the depth of the water by the gunboat Delaware. . . . Very soon afterwards, the signal for the troops to land was hoisted, and at 8:30 A.M. the regiment commenced to disembark at Slocum’s Creek, and less than twenty minutes three regiments were on shore.　Some of the steamers having grounded the men leaped overboard and waded to the shore, holding their cartridge boxes out of the water.　 The enthusiasm while all this was going on could not have been excelled.
     The three brigades were soon formed and put in motion, Foster with his brigade moved up the main country road, Reno with his brigade moved up along the railroad, Parke following up along the country road in supporting distance of the other two brigades, the whole marching column abreast of Commodore Rowan’s flotilla of gunboats, who were engaged in shelling the woods as we advanced.　It was raining in torrents and the roads were ankle deep in mud.　The enemy were now fleeing before us.

---The New York Times publishes reports on the retreat of Joe Johnston’s army in Virginia from Manassas:
It seems to be confirmed that the enemy had, two weeks since, between fifty and sixty thousand troops at Centreville and Manassas, and that they only began their retreat last Friday. Why they went is a mystery; as the number of men, in the fortifications they had prepared, would have been equal to three times their force assailing them from without. They must have feared to trust their men whose enlistments were expiring, or their powder, which many accounts agree is of very inferior quality.

"Masterly Inactivity" - a satire on the "sitting war" between McClellan and Johnston's Rebels to date.

—The Florence (Ala.) Gazette publishes this editorial on Union activity and troop movements near this town:
We learned yesterday that the Unionists had landed a large force at Savannah, Tenn. We suppose they are making preparations to get possession of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. They must never be allowed to get this great thoroughfare in their possession, for then we would indeed be crippled. The labor and untiring industry of too many faithful and energetic men have been expended on this road to bring it up to its present state of usefulness to let it fall into the hands of the enemy to be used against us. It must be protected. We, as a people, are able to protect and save it. If unavoidable, let them have our river, but we hope it is the united sentiment of our people, that we will have our railroad.

—Mary Boykin Chestnut writes in her diary:
March 13th.—Halcott Green came with dismal news. Ben McCullough is dead—and Price, killed in the last great victory.
Victory? Where? so far off . Nobody believes a word.
Mr. Chesnut fretting and fuming. From the poor old blind bishop downward everybody is besetting him to let off students—theological and otherwise—from going into the army. One comfort is that the boys will go. Mr. Chesnut answers: "Wait until you have saved your country before you make preachers and scholars. When you have a country, there will be no lack of divines, students, scholars–to adorn and purify it." He says he is a one-idea man. That idea is to get every possible man into the ranks. . . .
Read Uncle Tom’s Cabin again.
These negro women have a chance here that women have nowhere else. They can redeem themselves—the "impropers" can. They can marry decently, and nothing is remembered against these colored ladies. It is not a nice topic, but Mrs. Stowe revels in it. How delightfully Pharisaic a feeling it must be to rise superior and fancy we are so degraded as to defend and like to live with such degraded creatures around us— such men as Legree and his women.
The best way to take negroes to your heart is to get as far away from them as possible. As far as I can see, Southern women do all that missionaries could do to prevent and alleviate evils. The social evil has not been suppressed in old England or in New England, in London or in Boston. People in those places expect more virtue from a plantation African than they can insure in practise among themselves with all their own high moral surroundings— light, education, training, and supports.