October 15, 1863

October 15, 1863

---The experimental submarine, the C.S.S. H.L. Hunley, sinks for a second time during testing and training in Charleston Harbor, killing the seven men in its crew.

---Gen. William T. Sherman, his divisions en route to Chattanooga, is in the neighborhood of Corinth, Mississippi, and he writes to Gen. Grant, reporting that although Confederate troops are harassing his progress, his troops are moving well toward Nashville.  Sherman encourages Grant to accept the job of overall command (which he is certain will be offered to him) and to arrive in Nashville in person:

I am very anxious you should go to Nashville, as foreshadowed by Halleck, and chiefly as you can harmonize all conflicts of feeling that may exist in that vast crowd. Rosecrans and Burnside and Sherman, with their subordinates, would be ashamed of petty quarrels if you were behind and near them, between them and Washington. Next, the union of such armies and the direction of it is worthy your ambition.

---U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles writes in his journal about the election results, and the defeat of famed Copperhead Clement Vallandigham and others, and hoping that George McClellan’s support for them will take the wind out of Little Mac’s political sails:

The election returns come in triumphantly for the Union. Woodward and Vallandigham, both Rebel sympathizers, have been defeated. General McClellan, whose reticence and caution have hitherto been well maintained, unwisely exposed himself. I am informed he refused to write a letter until assured by those in whom he had full trust that there was no doubt of Woodward’s election. I doubt if his letter helped Woodward to one vote, but it has effectually killed McClellan.

---Charels Francie Adams, Jr., an officer in a Masschusetts cavalry regiment, writes to his father, about the possibility of McClellan running for president against Lincoln the next year, and whether Mac will have much support amongst the army:

At present my means of information are not very good and I cannot tell how the Army feels, but my impression is that the October vote will foreshadow exactly the November vote. Soldiers don’t vote for individuals; they don’t vote for the war; they have but one desire and that is to vote against those who delay the progress of the war at home; they want to vote down the copperheads. The vote just taken reflects this feeling and this only, and in November, you will see a repetition of the same thing. McClellan has no popularity in the Army except among a few officers in his old Army, and these are now growing surprisingly few. In the West he has no friends. In November I do not think he will poll one vote out of six. So the election according to all precedent may be considered as no longer an open question.