April 1, 1862

April 1, 1862:  Near New Madrid, Missouri, Commodore Andrew Foote, laying siege to Island No. 10, sends a picked force of soldiers from the 42^nd Indiana Infantry and some sailors by rowboat to the Confederate fortifications on the island, where they landed in the face of a rising electric storm and spiked (made inoperable) 6 large cannon in the Rebel lines, and rowed back across the river just as the storm was whipping up into a frenzy.  That night, a tornado sweaps through New Madrid, and swept along the river; it struck Union and Confederate camps and killed several men in each.

---The Richmond Daily Dispatch, on this date, publishes an editorial pleading for public cooperation in donating church bells for the making of cannon:

The Ordnance Bureau of the Confederate States the use of such bells as can be spared during the war, for the purpose of providing light artillery for the public defence. While copper is abundant, the supply of deficient to convert the copper into bronze. Bells contain so much tin that 2400 pounds weight of bell metal, mixed with the proper quantity of copper, will suffice for a field battery of six pieces.

Those who are willing to devote their bells to his patriotic purpose will receive receipts for them and the bells will be replaced, if required, close of the war. . . .

---In the U.S. Senate, Sen. Wright of Indiana speaks on the proposed bill to free the slaves in the District of Columbia:

. . . I am no apologist for slavery. I am opposed to it. But I cannot vote for this bill abolishing slavery in the District.

My reason is that the Senate has decided against the principle of colonization. In Indiana we have settled this question explicitly and firmly by constitutional provision. Illinois is doing it. Ohio will do it. We tell you that the black population shall not mingle with the white population in our States. We tell you that in your zeal for emancipation you must ingraft colonization upon your measure. We intend that our children shall be raised where their equals are; and not in a population partly white and partly black; and we know that equality never can exist between the two races.