May 31, 1863
---Siege of Vicksburg, Day 9
---Siege of Port Hudson, Day 4
---The Hartford
Courant, of Connecticut, reports a story of a Confederate Army captain who
enters Union lines outside of Savannah, Georgia, who offers news of conditions
in the South:
His accounts of the failure of food
at the South corroborate the numerous statements from other sources already
published. For some time the army in Virginia has subsisted on quarter rations
of bacon and flour. The existence of such an article as beef has become almost
traditional. Luxuries like tea and coffee have almost wholly disappeared.
Further South the scarcity is less pinching. Yet in Savannah flour sells for
eighty dollars a barrel. Board for a laboring man is ten dollars per week.
Georgia is nearly exhausted of meat and there is no young stock coming on to
supply future necessities.
The railroad lines are rapidly
wearing out. A governmental order has been promulgated prohibiting all trains
from running faster than ten miles per hour. . . . If the war continues much
longer, the great source of Southern resistance—the power of rapid
concentration at threatened points by means of the interior lines of
communication—will fail.
Of the temper of the confederates
he speaks fully. In Lee’s army the soldiers are tired of the war, and ready to
welcome peace on any terms. Convinced of the impossibility of wearying out the
North, they desire that the North may finish the war by conquering them. On the
contrary, the people at home are still as determined as ever. . . .
Their notions of the peculiar
institution are as sublimated as ever. In fact, the subject of slavery
constitutes the burthen of Southern thought and the chief topic of Southern
conversation. They believe in the divinity and perpetuity of the system, and are
resolved in the adjustment of peace to compel the United States to sign a bond
to return all fugitives. The colored soldiers who have dug trenches, built
fortifications and fought battles for the Union, must all be sent back to
servitude. This smacks of the habitual modesty of the rebels.
Under the changes of war, the rich
are growing richer, and the poor poorer. Planters with products to sell have
“heaps” of confederate paper, which is now at a discount of seven hundred per
cent in Savannah. They take advantage of the necessities of the needy to buy up
their Negroes, &c., which these are obliged to sell to procure the means of
subsistence.
---Sergeant Alexander G. Downing, of the 11th
Iowa Infantry with Grant’s army near Vicksburg, writes in his journal of the raiding
expedition his regiment is part of, and the emphasis, apparently, of destroying
civilian property:
Sunday, 31st—We camped by
the river last night, and early this morning started for Haines’s Bluff. We
marched along some fine cornfields. We reached Haines’s Bluff in the afternoon,
and went into bivouac to the south of that place. We were as far east as
Mechanicsville, forty-two miles from Vicksburg. On this raid we burned some
fine plantation houses and other improvements. I saw only one residence left
standing, and that was where the family had the courage to remain at home. The
weather has been hot and the roads dusty.
---Osborn H. Oldroyd, a young officer in the 20th
Ohio Infantry Regiment, in Grant’s army, writes in his journal of his
experiences on the same raid through the Mississippi countryside---which
includes a somewhat surprisingly frank observation about the attractions of
being a slave owner:
MAY 31ST.—We were aroused by the
bugle call, and in a few minutes on the march again. Halted at noon on a large
plantation. This is a capital place to stop, for the negroes are quite busy
baking corn-bread and sweet potatoes for us. We have had a grand dinner at the
expense of a rich planter now serving in the southern army. Some of the negroes
wanted to come with us, but we persuaded them to remain, telling them they
would see hard times if they followed us. They showed indications of good
treatment, and I presume their master is one of the few who treat their slaves
like human beings.
I must say—whether right or
wrong—plantation life has had a sort of fascination for me ever since I came
south, especially when I visit one like that where we took dinner to-day, and
some, also, I visited in Tennessee. I know I should treat my slaves well, and,
while giving them a good living, I should buy, but never sell. . . .
May has now passed, with all its
hardships and privations to the army of the west—the absence of camp comforts;
open fields for dwelling places; the bare ground for beds; cartridge boxes for
pillows, and all the other tribulations of an active campaign. Enduring these
troubles, we have given our country willing service. We have passed through
some hard-fought battles, where many of our comrades fell, now suffering in hospitals
or sleeping, perhaps, in unmarked graves. Well they did their part, and much do
we miss them. Their noble deeds shall still incite our emulation, that their
proud record may not be sullied by any act of ours.
Camped at dark, tired, dirty and
ragged—having had no chance to draw clothes for two months.
---John C. West, a Texan serving in the 4th Texas
Infantry in Lee’s army, writes in his journal of his regiment’s move, which
indicates how Lee begins to move his army, division by division, west and north
in his planned invasion of the North:
Sunday, May 31st.
This morning about daylight we
received orders to be ready to march at 8:30. All is bustle now getting ready.
I have been to the spring for water and have just returned; have read the 52nd
chapter of Isaiah, and 35th Psalm; am now about to pack up.
Sunday evening at sunset.—We have
marched about fourteen miles to-day—a hot dusty march. Nothing of interest
occurred. We are now bivouacked in a pine grove twenty miles from
Fredericksburg, with our arms stacked with orders to be ready to leave at a
moment’s notice. The march has not fatigued me anything like as much as many
hunts I have taken at home. Some friend of the soldiers has been kind enough to
send us a number of religious papers, and I am now enjoying the “Christian
Observer,” published at Richmond.
I have two comments. The first comment deals with the first passage. It would have been hard to fight a defensive war. The South lost a lot of resources to the Northern invasions. You do have to give the South credit for their willingness to fight for four long years. During those years, they were watching their home towns being destroyed by the North. It is true though that war makes the rich richier and the poor poorer.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been hard to stay motivated in very harsh conditions. Also, it is interesting to learn about how the North destroyed southern homes and cities. I understand that it is a military tactic, but it just seems really cruel to attack your neighbor. I understand that if the North didn't destroy the southern resources the war would have probably lasted longer.
When fighting a war, it is important to hold standards. I think that some Union regiments and divisions lacked respect for the South.
Jory Johnson
Often, they were. And yet most Northern troops completely respected property and so on. Often, the tone was set by the commander of your unit---whether he would allow or even encourage looting and marauding.
DeleteOsborn H. Oldroyd's journal entry gives insight into the mind of southern soldier. He makes the observation that only few slaves are treated like humans by their owners. He also hints at feeling guilty for the way he may have treated his slaves in the past. Perhaps the trials of war had a humbling effect upon all those who participated.
ReplyDeleteWell--except that Oldroyd is a Northern soldier, and he is fantasizing a bit with the idea of owning slaves, and living the Master's sort of life. He believes that he could control the brutishness that absolute power would create in a man, by telling himself that he would be a benevolent master: "I know I should treat my slaves well, and, while giving them a good living, I should buy, but never sell. . . ."
DeleteSelling ones' slaves was frowned upon, but it happened all the time.