August 8, 1862

August 8, 1862: Eastern Theater, Bull Run Campaign - Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s troops advance northward, along the line of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, approaching Barnett’s Ford over the Rapidan River. Pope’s Army of Virginia (Union) is about to collide with part of the Army of Northern Virginia (Confederate). Confusing nomenclature. Union cavalry under Gen. George Dashiell Bayard skirmishes with advancing Confederates as the two armies make contact. Bayard and Buford, with cavalry, and Crawford with his brigade of infantry, constitute the Union advance force. A.P. Hill’s division is the Confederate advance force. Since the skirmishing is happening on this front, near a hill called Cedar Mountain, Pope orders Banks and Sigel to converge at Culpepper, north of the mountain, with their corps. Gen. Rufus King near Fredericksburg prepares to march west to reinforce Pope.

—On this date, Sec. of War Stanton issues two orders: One that prevents anyone eligible for military service from leaving the country, and another that suspends the writ of Habeas Corpus for persons arrested for disloyal activity, especially discouraging men from joining the army.


—As the officers of the now-destroyed CSS Arkansas come to visit the Morgan girls and their friends, Sarah relates this amusing incident:
Those girls did me the meanest thing imaginable. Mr. Talbot and I were planning a grand combined attack on Baton Rouge, in which he was to command a fleet and attack the town by the river, while I promised to get up a battalion of girls and attack them in the rear. We had settled it all, except the time, when just then all the others stopped talking. I went on: "And now, it is only necessary for you to name the day —" Here the girls commenced to giggle, and the young men tried to suppress a smile; I felt annoyed, but it did not strike me until after they had left, that I had said anything absurd. What evil imaginations they must have, if they could have fancied I meant anything except the battle!

—Charles Wright Wills continues his log of events and people, with some unfortunately uncomplimentary—but alas, very common and characteristic—reflections on the negroes:
My pet negro got so lazy and worthless I was compelled to ship him. I’ll take back, if you please, everything good that I ever said of free negroes. That Beauregard nigger was such a thief that we had to also set him adrift. He stole our canned fruit, jellies and oysters and sold some of them and gave parties at the cabins in the vicinity. This was barely endurable but he was a splendid, smart fellow and the colonel would have kept him, but he got to stealing the colonel’s liquor. That of course, was unpardonable, when the scarcity of the article was considered. . . . Orders have been given us to put every woman and child (imprison the men) across the line that speaks or acts secesh, and to burn their property, and to destroy all their crops, cut down corn growing, and burn all the cribs. That is something like war. ‘Tis devilish hard for one like me to assist in such work, but believe it is necessary to our course. Having been very busy preparing reports and writing letters all day, feel deuced little like writing you. People here treat us the very best kind, although they are as strong Rebels as live. Bring us peaches and vegetables every day. I can’t hardly think the generals will carry out the orders as above, for it will have a very demoralizing effect upon the men. I’d hate like the deuce to burn the houses of some secesh I know here, but at the same time don’t doubt the justice of the thing.

August 7, 1862

August 7, 1862: Gen. Robert E. Lee, in an attempt to coordinate with Gen. Jackson, gives him instructions on Jackson’s possibilities—and explains why Lee must still keep a close eye on what the Yankees are doing in the Tidewater part of Virginia:
. . . Porter's mortar fleet is in Hampton Roads; his gunboats at City Point and Curl's Neck. I hope to determine to-day what it means, but at present it seems to me too hazardous to diminish the forces here until something more is ascertained. I therefore cannot promise to send you the re-enforcements I intended and still desire. As the expectation of re-enforcements may delay your operations and otherwise embarrass you and prevent your making an advantageous movement, you had better not calculate on them. If I can send them I will; if I cannot, and you think it proper and advantageous, act without them. Being on the spot you must determine what force to operate against. I agree with you in believing that if you advance into Fauquier [County] the force at Fredericksburg, if it be Popes, would in all probability follow; but if it be Burnside's, and Pope in your front is strong enough to resist you, it might operate injuriously on your rear, also to the railroad, your communications, &c. . . . I must now leave the matter to your reflection and good judgment. Make up your mind what is best to be done under all the circumstances which surround us, and let me hear the result at which you arrive. I will inform you if any change takes place here that bears on the subject.
I am, very respectfully, &c.,

R. E. LEE,
General, Commanding.
—McClellan’s advance has finally occupied Malvern Hill, and skirmishes with Rebel cavalry. Meanwhile, Lee has put his troops on the road toward Malvern Hill. They camp on the night of the 6^th, and this morning, as they advance toward Malvern Hill to push back the Yankee incursion, they find Malvern Hill empty. McClellan has pulled the Federal troops back. 

—A Union officer names Charles Wright Wills, now of the 8^th Illinois Infantry, writes in his journal from Tuscumbia, Alabama, where his regiment is bivouacked, and tells of the activity of Rebel raiders trying to destroy the rail lines which the Federals now use for supply, as well as his feelings about slavery and the War and how it is prosecuted—and a few prophetic remarks about General Pope’s arrogance: 
This has been the hottest day of the summer, and I’ve been in the sun all day with thick woolen clothes on, wool shirts, too. I started for Decatur about 7 this morning and got back at 5 p.m. All platform cars, no possible chance for shade. I rode on the cowcather going out, and on the tender, which was ahead, coming back. We got within ten miles of Decatur when we came to two bridges burned last night, and had to come back. There is not a bridge or culvert on this road as far as our brigade guards it, that has not been burned, at least once, and many of the cattle guards even have been burned. They don’t fire on the trains though in this country, which is some little consolation to the traveler. Since we have been guarding the road, some two weeks, they have burned in our district four bridges, one water tank, and two station houses, and torn up rails several times. All this work is done in the night. . . . The negroes are under no restraint whatever, now. Don’t half work, their masters say, About 40 negro women who were clearing a piece of woodland dropped their axes and picks and came out to the road as the train passed. They were by odds the most antic and amusing lot of slaves I have yet seen. . . . I have seen but two negroes yet that have marks of severe punishment. They were man and wife, and belong to a planter living 12 miles from here. The man I think is made a cripple for life from blows by a club on his ankles and knees, the woman is badly cut on the arms and shoulders, as with a horsewhip, but she’s all right yet. How a man can be fool enough to so abuse such valuable property as this is more than I can understand. . . . Colonel Kellogg seems to think that I will be mustered out in a short time. I’ll promise you one thing, that if I am, I’ll not enlist again until the policy of this war changes, and in actions as well as words, too. J. Pope is disgusting me with him very rapidly. John is a horrid blower of his own horn. If he don’t astonish this country, after all of his blowing, the country will astonish him to his entire dissatisfaction before he’s many months older. Oh! if Grant will only go to work and get somebody whipped, or if he’d retreat, that would be better than doing nothing, though not as good as advancing.

—Sarah Morgan gets news of the already-decided Battle of Baton Rouge a day late, and mourns the loss of the town to the Yankees again:
Evening.
I am so disheartened! I have been listening with the others to a man who was telling us about Baton Rouge, until I am heartsick. He says the Yankees have been largely reinforced, and are prepared for another attack which will probably take place to morrow; that the fight was a dreadful one, we driving them in, and losing twelve hundred, to their fifteen hundred. It must have been awful! And that our troops have resolved to burn the town down, since they cannot hold it under the fire of the gunboats.

—George Templeton Strong of New York City writes in his journal about McClellans’ fading star:
McClellan’s great name is growing very obscure, I regret to say, and we generally doubt whether he is a genuine congener of Napoleon after all. As we deified him without reason, I suppose we are free to reduce his rank whenever we like. Prevailing color of people’s talk is blue. What’s very bad, we beging to lose faith in Uncle Abe.Strong continues:
We gradually come round to a better opinion of McClellan’s movements during the memorable battle week; incline to believe his march on the James River a most delicate and critical operation, successfully executed under the most disadvantageous conditions, winding up with demoralizing repulse and slaughter of the rebels at Malvern Hill.

—Gen. Stonewall Jackson orders his three divisions (Winder, A.P. Hill, and Ewell) to break camp and march northward from Gordonsville.

August 6, 1862

August 6, 1862:  In answer to Gen. McClellan’s letter requesting reinforcements and protesting the order to withdraw from the Peninsula, Gen. Halleck offers a carefully reasoned and patient argument as to why the Army of the Potomac’s continued presence on the James Peninsula could only jeoparize the Union cause.  Halleck savvily uses some of Little Mac’s own arguments (and his chronic over-estimation of Rebel numbers) against him in doing so:

. . . I assure you, general, it was not a hasty and inconsiderate act, but one that caused me more anxious thought than any other of my life. But after full and mature consideration of all the pros and cons, I was reluctantly forced to the conclusion that the order must be issued. There was to my mind no alternative.
    Allow me to allude to a few facts in the case. You and your officers at our interview estimated the enemy's forces in and around Richmond at 200,000 men. Since then you and others report that they have received and are receiving large re-enforcements from the South. General Pope's army now covering Washington is only 40,000. Your effective force is only about 90,000. You are 30 miles from Richmond and General Pope 80 or 90, with the enemy directly between you, ready to fall with his superior numbers upon one or the other, as he may elect. Neither can re-enforce the other in case of such an attack. If General Pope's army be diminished to re-enforce you, Washington, Maryland, and Pennsylvania would be left uncovered and exposed. If your force be reduced to strengthen Pope, you would be too weak to even hold the position you now occupy should the enemy turn around and attack you in full force. In other words, the Army of the Potomac is split into two parts, with the entire force of the enemy directly between them. They cannot be united by land without exposing both to destruction, and yet they must be united. . . . The only alternative is to send the forces on the Peninsula to some point by water, say Fredericksburg, where the two armies can be united.
    Let me now allude to some of the objections which you have urged. You say that to withdraw from the present position will cause the certain demoralization of the army, "which is now in excellent discipline and condition." I cannot understand why a simple change of position to a new, and by no means distant, base will demoralize an army in excellent discipline, unless the officers themselves assist in that demoralization, which I am satisfied they will not. Your change of front from your extreme right at Hanover Court-House to your present position was over 30 miles, but I have not heard that it demoralized your troops, notwithstanding the severe losses they sustained in effecting it.
    A new base on the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg brings you within about 60 miles of Richmond, and secures a re-enforcement of 40,000 or 50,000 fresh and disciplined troops. The change with such advantages will, I think, if properly represented to your army, encourage rather than demoralize your troops. . . .

   But you will reply, why not re-enforce me here, so that I can strike Richmond from my present position? To do this you said at our interview that you required 50,000 additional troops. I told you that it was impossible to give you so many. . . . To keep your army in its present position until it could be so re-enforced would almost destroy it in that climate. The months of August and September are almost fatal to whites who live on that part of James River.
    And even after you got the re-enforcements asked for, you admitted that you must reduce Fort Darling and the river batteries before you could advance on Richmond. It is by no means certain that the reduction of these fortifications would not require considerable time, perhaps as much as those at Yorktown. This delay might not only be fatal to the health of your army, but in the mean time General Pope's forces wold be exposed to the heavy blows of the enemy, without the slightest hope of assistance from you.

By referring to Pope’s army as part of the “Army of the Potomac,” it should have encouraged McClellan that he would have overall command of the united armies, but we shall see that as McClellan’s troops are shipped farther north, that they will be added piecemeal to Pope’s army, under the exigencies of the developing campaign in northern Virginia.

---John Beauchamp Jones, clerk in the Confederate War Department, writes in his journal:

AUGUST 6TH.—Jackson is making preparations to fight. I know the symptoms. He has made Pope believe he’s afraid of him.

—The Richmond Daily Dispatch publishes this story with a humor and a little pathos about the lack of basic equipment for Confederate troops:

In the Wrong clothes.

Detective J. W. Goodrick arrested yesterday, on Main street, a man clothed in a complete Yankee uniform, the knapsack denoting the fact that the owner belonged to the “10th Mass. Vols.” On being accosted, the man pulled out a passport, by which it appeared he was a member of a Georgia regiment, in search of the Transportation office. He said he had captured the clothes in battle, and being better than his own, he had put them on. The officer let him go, but advised him to procure another suit as soon as possible.

—In the ongoing court-martial of Gen. Richard Garnett, Stonewall Jackson prefers charges against Garnett for dereliction of duty and insubordination, for retreating too soon at the Battle of Kernstown in March.  Garnett defends himself with a spirited line of argument, pointing out that his officers all agreed that Garnett’s brigade stayed too long, not too short.  Not knowing Jackson’s plans meant that Garnett had no orders at the time, whether to stay or retreat.  Jackson’s case flags.

—In her journal, Sarah Morgan of Baton Rouge, who had fled across the Mississippi a few days earlier in anticipation of the impending Confederate attack, details how she and her sisters and friends discover the eventual Southern defeat, and personally witness the end of the mighty CSS Arkansas:

Presently came tidings that all the planters near Baton Rouge were removing their families and negroes, and that the Yankees were to shell the whole coast, from there up to here. Then Phillie, Lilly (Nolan), and I jumped in — the carriage that was still waiting, and ran after the others to bring them back before they got in danger; but when we reached the end of the long lane, we saw them standing on the high levee, wringing their hands and crying. We sprang out and joined them, and there, way at the bend, lay the Arkansas on fire! All except myself burst into tears and lamentations, and prayed aloud between their sobs. I had no words or tears; I could only look at our sole hope burning, going, and pray silently. Oh, it was so sad! Think, it was our sole dependence! And we five girls looked at her as the smoke rolled over her, watched the flames burst from her decks, and the shells as they exploded one by one beneath the water, Coming up in jets of steam. And we watched until down the road we saw crowds of men toiling along toward us. Then we knew they were those who had escaped, and the girls sent up a shriek of pity.

On they came, dirty, half-dressed, some with only their guns, others, a few, with bundles and knapsacks on their backs, grimy and tired, but still laughing. We called to the first, and asked if the boat were really afire; they shouted, “Yes,” and went on, talking still. Presently one ran up and told us the story. How yesterday their engine had broken, and how they had labored all day to repair it; how they had succeeded, and had sat by their guns all night; and this morning, as they started to meet the Essex, the other engine had broken; how each officer wrote his opinion that it was impossible to fight her with any hope of success under such circumstances, and advised the Captain to abandon her; . . . Several of the crew were around us then, and up and down the road they were scattered still in crowds.

, . . . so I rushed down a levee twenty feet high, saying, “O Mr. Read! You won’t recognize me, but I am Jimmy’s sister!” He blushed modestly, shook my hand as though we were old friends, and assured me he remembered me, was glad to meet me, etc. Then Miriam came down and talked to him, and then we went to the top of the levee where the rest were, and watched the poor Arkansas burn. . . .

After a while the men were ordered to march up the lane, . . . But long after they left, we stood with our new friends on the levee watching the last of the Arkansas, and saw the Essex, and two gunboats crowded with men, cautiously turn the point, and watch her burn. . . . We saw them go back as cautiously, and I was furious, knowing the accounts they would publish of what we ourselves had destroyed. We had seen many shells explode, and one magazine, and would have waited for the other, if the clouds had not threatened rain speedily. But we had to leave her a mere wreck, still burning, and started off on our long walk.

August 5, 1862

August 5, 1862:  On the way downriver to aid Breckinridge on the attack on Baton Rouge, due to engine trouble, the CSS Arkansas, near Baton Rouge, runs aground while under attack from the ironclad USS Essex.  Her skipper Commander Isaac Stevens orders her abandoned and burned.  The Arkansas drifts downstream until the fire reached the magazine and she explodes. 

---Gulf Theater, Battle of Baton Rouge, Louisiana:  Gen. John C. Breckinridge orders his forces forward, and their initial attacks drive the Federals under Gen. Thomas Williams back into the town.  At the head of a counterattack, Gen. Williams is killed outright.  As the Rebels push the Federals all the way back against the waterfront, they listen in vain for the guns of the Arkansas.  Instead, Federal naval guns and a few well-placed batteries on land begin to rake the Confederate troops, already severely depleted by casualties and exhaustion.  Breckinridge orders a retreat from the city, turning a tactical victory into a strategic retreat.  Breckinridge’s troops march to Port Hudson to begin preparing its defenses, upstream from Baton Rouge.  Union Victory.

Losses:  Union – 383       Confederate – 456

---John Henry Brown, a portrait painter in Philadelphia, writes in his journal:

Still too warm for painting.

The President has called for three hundred thousand more soldiers by draft. It has created great excitement. I confess it gives me some uneasiness. I believe that a days march, under such a Sun as we now have, would kill me, besides I have no heart for this War, nor money to get a substitute. Things look worse for the Union now, than at any time during the War.

---At Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Gen. James S. Wadsworth of the Army arrests the editors and publishers of the Patriot and Union, for distributing posters and flyers designed to discourage and thwart the recruitment effort.

August 3, 1862

August 3, 1862:  Gen. Hooker returns to Harrison’s Landing from his attempt to re-take Malvern Hill and probe the defenses of Richmond, since both of his guides got lost on the roads, and his division still was not out of camp yet. 

---Gen. Halleck sends orders to McClellan finally revealing that the Army of the Potomac will pull out of the Peninsula area and go north to Aquia Creek.

---Jesse Bailey, a Confederate soldier posted at Vicksburg writes home to his parents about the difficulty of finding sufficient food:

. . . I have missed the fever five days, I feel very well this morning.

I haven’t got much news to write you. The health of the company is very bad at this time. It is very hard times here we don’t get much to eat. I will tell you what we have to live on. We get one pound of meal and a half pound of beef for one day’s lunch (?) to the man, and the beef is so poor till it stinks. When we don’t get beef we get a half pint of molasses a day to the man. You know that ain’t for sick men to eat. I went out yesterday evening and stole some roshenears (young corn) and some watermelons. We take every thing we can lay our hands on that will do to eat. Crop is very sorry here, there is some good corn in the bottom lands. The Yankees have all left here and gone. Father I am sorry to hear that you ain’t a making no corn. Corn is a going to be hard to get.

I want you to write how you air a getting a long. . . . Father, I want you to kiss the children for me. I want to see you all very bad but I don’t know when I will see you. If we never meet in this world let us all try to meet in the better one. I hope that we will meet again. I must come to a close, I want you to write as soon as you get this letter. You must excuse my bad hand for I wrote this on my knee. So nothing more.

Jesse Bailey

---Jerry Flint, a young Union soldier with Gen. Williams’ troops in Baton Rouge, writes home to his brother in Illinois:

You have probably heard through the papers of the feat performed by this ram [CSS Arkansas]. I stood right on the bank of the river and saw the whole performance. The fleet, all except the Tyler was laying at anchor or they would easily have stopped it. It will probably do no more harm for if it ventures over from under the guns of Vicksburg it will be captured.

We have daily rumors of a large force approaching this place but as yet we have not been molested.

I suppose that by this time you are right in the midst of harvesting. I would like to be with you for I think I have not forgotten how to tie up bundles yet. There was a time when I thought perhaps I might be home by the time grain was ripe but since our defeat at Richmond the prospect is not quite so bright and the war bids fair to last another year.

If I am doomed to stay another year in this sultry climate there is but one thing I desire, and that is good health. With my health as good as it has been, or is now I am good for heat or anything else but with sickness there is but little show for a man. . . . Unless your health is better than it was the last year before I came away, a soldier’s life would use you up in three months. I know you could not stand it, although you may feel first-rate while around home. Besides as long as White and I are both in the service I think the family is pretty fully represented being only three of us any way.

August 2, 1862

August 2, 1862:  Gen. John Pope puts his Army of Virginia into motion, in order to bring the scattered pieces of his army into concentration.  Pope has been given two tasks by the War Department: 1) to shield Washington from a Confederate advance, especially while McClellan is still on the Peninsula, and 2) to interrupt the line of communication between Jackson and Lee at Richmond.  Pope advances a brigade of infantry under Gen. Samuel Crawford and his cavalry under Buford south toward Orange Court House, only 10 miles from Jackson’s force at Gordonsville.  (See map.)  This advance surprises Jackson’s pickets and drives them out. 

—At Harrison’s Landing, McClellan finally responds to Halleck’s orders to push at Richmond to see if Lee is still there—a reconnaissance in force.  McClellan details Gen. Joseph Hooker and his division to advance northward over Malvern Hill and test the enemy’s lines.

—A skirmish near Ozark, Missouri, results in the larger Rebel force being driven away by a company of Federal infantry, who captured much of the Rebels’ arms and equipment.

—On July 29, Federal troops capture Belle Boyd, the teenage temptress who did such effective spying for Stonewall Jackson a few months back.  On this date, she is committeed to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC.

August 1, 1862

August 1, 1862: Due to the surprise artillery attack across the James River in the wee hours of the morning, Gen. McClellan sends this dispatch to Sec. of War Stanton. The letter clearly indicates that McClellan, at this late date, still has not realized how his stock has fallen back in Washington. Nor has he realized that this lack of confidence has meant that the decision to pull his army out of the Peninsula area has already been made. (Indeed, some troops have already been pulled out and taken to Washington.):
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.
Berkeley, August 1, 1862-8 a.m.
Firing of night before last killed some 10 men and wounded about 15.
No harm of the slightest consequence done to the shipping, although several were struck. Sent party across river yesterday to the Cole's house; destroyed it and cut down the timber. Will complete work to-day, and also send party to Coggins'Point, which I will probably occupy. I will attend to your telegraph about pressing at once. Will send Hooker out. Give me Burnside, and I will stir these people up. I need more cavalry; have only 3,700 for duty in cavalry division.
Adjutant General's Office forgot to send Sykes' commissions as major-general with those of other division commanders; do me the favor to hurry it on.

GEO. B. McCLELLAN.
Major-General, Commanding.
—Pres. Jefferson Davis is enraged over the barbarity of Gen. John Pope’s orders concerning the civilians of northern Virginia and their property. He pens this strong letter to Gen. Lee as to which policies the Army of Northern Virginia will adopt, in retaliation:
The general order issued by Maj.-Gen. POPE on the 23d of July, the day after the signing of the cartel, directs the murder of our peaceful inhabitants as spies, if found quietly tilling the farms in his rear, even outside of his lines; and one of his Brigadier-Generals. STEINWEHR, has seized upon innocent and peaceful inhabitants to be held as hostages, to the end that they may be murdered in cold blood if any of his soldiers are killed by some unknown person whom he designates as "Bushwhackers." Under this state of facts this Government has issued the inclosed General Order, recognizing Gen. POPE and his commanding officers to be in the position which they have chosen for themselves -- that or robbers and murderers, and not that of public enemies, entitled, if captured, to be considered as prisoners of war. . . .

For the present we renounce our right of retaliation on the innocent, and shall continue to treat the private enlisted soldiers of Gen. POPE's army as prisoners of war: but if, after notice to the Government at Washington, of our continuing repressive measures to the punishment only of commissioned officers who are willing participate in these crimes, the savage practices are continued, we shall reluctantly be forced to the last resort of accepting the war on the terms chosen by our foes, until the outraged voice of a common humanity forces a respect for the recognized rules of war. . . .

Very respectfully, yours, &c.,
JEFF. DAVIS.
　
—Today, Pres. Lincoln pardons 90 soldiers who had been condemned by court-martial.

—Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman, of the Union army, notes his impressions of the previous night’s bombardment:
August 1st.—The month was ushered in by the opening of a cannonade, precisely as the clock struck twelve, on our shipping, from the south side of the river. For a short time the firing was very brisk. It was from some batteries of flying artillery which had taken position during the night. They were soon silenced, but not till after they had killed and wounded a number of our sailors, and done some damage to our shipping.