November 7, 1862

November 7, 1862:  McClellan Is Fired.  On this date, Gen. Buckingham, on errand from Gen. Halleck, travels to the headquarters of Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, commander of the IX Corps, Army of the Potomac, and hands him a letter appointing him to command of the Army of the Potomac.  He is also ordered to relieve McClellan of command.  So Burnside and Buckingham board the train to McClellan’s headquarters and deliver the letter relieving him.  McClellan writes to his wife about the experience:

I am sure that not a muscle quivered nor was the slightest expression of feeling visible on my face. . . . They [Washington] shall not have that triumph. They have made a great mistake – alas for my poor country – I know in my innermost heart she never had a truer servant.

November 6, 1862

November 6, 1862: In accordance with Gen. Robert E. Lee’s recommendations, on this date, Stonewall Jackson and James Longstreet are both promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General, and Lee makes official the organization he has been using for some time: that the Army of Northern Virginia is organized into two Corps—the I Corps (Longstreet) and the II Corps (Jackson).

Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, CSA



 

Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, CSA

　
—Commodore Renshaw, of the U.S. Navy, sails into the harbor of Galveston, Texas, and demands the surrender of the city. All C.S. troops abandon the town, as does the Mauyor and city officials. A Mayor Pro Tem is selected by the townspeople to negotiate with the Yankees. Later in the day, a force of 150 Marines and sailors (which include some black sailors) land and go ashore, repossess the U.S. Custom House and raise the U.S. flag over it. Galveston is now in Federal hands.


—Ruffin Thompson, a soldier in the 18^th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, writes home to his family, and gives an unusually detailed account of the behavior of his personal slave, which offers us a window into the lives of slaveowners in the Confederate Army who had body-servants with them in the field:
Press [Preston] is a fine marcher, never lagged in the least, though he carried my baskets and his own. He went all through Maryland with the army, was at Harpers Ferry and saw the surrender. He had been left in Emmett Butler’s care by Harris – Emmett got him a pair of shoes at Harpers Ferry which have been doing him good service. He is short of clothing, as is the case with all here, white as well as black. Press left his clothing at Rapidan with the regimental baggage as the army passed up, and I guess we will get his carpet sack sometime today, as wagons have just gone after everything. Press is a faithful servant to me considering the chances he has. I am satisfied with him.
　
—George Michael Neese, a Virginian in the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia, gives a somewhat humorous account of the attempt of himself and comrades to make a shelter for the night:
November 6 — Last night was very cold, with a little rain. Six of us made a sort of sheltering shed out of rails and covered it with a tarpaulin. About midnight a horse ran over our house and played thunder with the roof. It tore a ruinous rent in the tarpaulin and came very near trampling on some of us. I never saw such crawling out of bed and house before as when the horse came through the roof.
　
—William Thompson Lusk, a young officer from Connecticut now with the Army of the Potomac in Virginia, writes home to his mother and comments on the relative inaction of the army:
I hardly can give you any hint of the intentions of the Army. We do not see the papers often enough to study the general movement of our troops, and cannot even make conjectures. We all hope , though, that we are engaged on some earnest and important undertaking. We feel that it is vital to act, and wish to act successfully. . . . With my present experience, I would not have leaped blindly as I did at the commencement of the war. I have had a hard struggle with pride and duty to make me persist, but a little of the caution displayed by most of my friends would have saved me many difficulties. If my friends have generally been more successful than I, I can at least feel consoled by the thought that what I have gained has been won by my own exertion. There, that is pretty egotism! Little boy blue, come blow your horn!
　
　
　
　

November 5, 1862

November 5, 1862:  In Virginia, Gen. Sigel’s cavalry scouts verify that Gen. Longstreet’s divisions in gray have occupied Culpepper Court House, and thus blocked McClellan’s possible road to Richmond, if he wanted his Army of the Potomac to beat Lee to the punch.  But McClellan’s leisurely pace is not likely to change, and he shows no signs of it now.  Pres. Lincoln reaches his limit, and decides that it is time to sack McClellan.  On the day after the election, Lincoln feels he can do this safely.  The President hands off the order to Gen. Halleck, and asks him to see that it is delivered to the general.

EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, November 5, 1862.

By direction of the President, it is ordered that Major-General McClellan be relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac, and that Major-General Burnside take the command of that army. Also that Major-General Hunter take command of the corps in said army which is now commanded by General Burnside. That Major-General Fitz. John Porter be relieved from command of the corps he now commands in said army, and that Major-General Hooker take command of said corps.

The general-in-chief is authorized, in [his] discretion, to issue an order substantially as the above forthwith, or so soon as he may deem proper.

A. LINCOLN.

---George Templeton Strong rgloomily uminates over the losses to Lincoln's party in the mid-term elections of yesterday, writing in his journal:

November 5.  As anticipated, total rout in this state [NY].  Seymour is governor.  Elsewhere defeat, or nominal success by a greatly reduced vote.  It looks like a great, sweeping revolution of public sentiment, like general abandonment of the loyal, generous spirit of patriotism that broke out so nobly and unexpectedly in April, 1861.  Was that after all nothing but a temporary hysteric spasm?  I think not. . . . We take advantage of the first opportunity of change, for its own sake, just a feverish patient shifts his position in bed. . . . I I am mistaken, and if this vote does endorse the policy of Fernando Wood and John Van Buren, it is a vote of national suicide.  All is up.  We are a lost people. . . . I will forge certificates showing that I was not born in America . . . and become naturalized as a citizen of Venezuela, Haiti, or the Papal States.  But I will not yet believe that this people is capable of so shameful and despicable an act of self-destruction as to disembowel itself in the face of the civilized world for fear Jefferson Davis should hurt it.

 

---Union army surgeon Alfred L. Castleman, back at the front after his furlough home, writes in his journal about the steady advance of his division:

5th.—Broke camp at 2 in the afternoon; moved four or five miles in a southerly direction, still keeping a few miles to the east of the Blue Ridge. No enemy encountered, and none found to-day by our advanced guard. Troops in fine health and spirits.

---Young Lieut. Josiah Marshall Favill, of the 57^th New York Infantry, tells of a dinner invitation to the home of a local planter there in Virginia;

November 5th. Still in camp at New Upperville, doing absolutely nothing, which seems to indicate a good deal of irresolution on the part of somebody. It is generally suspected that we have no plan of campaign and are just sloshing around waiting for something to turn up. Colonel Zook accepted an invitation for himself and staff to dinner at the house of a prominent Southern planter to-day, and we presented ourselves in full uniform. The house was large and stately, with wide halls and lofty ceilings, and the dinner was served in a very noble dining room. The appointments were in keeping with the style of the house, and the dinner proved excellent but very formal. [Mr.] Broom, who is neither formal, nor dignified, soon made himself at home, and at length induced a reasonable amount of sociability. The planter was a member of the Virginia legislature at the time the secession ordinance was passed, and was opposed to it. Finding himself in the minority, he retired to his ancestral domain, and has since endeavored to preserve a masterly inactivity, a difficult thing to do in these times. He gave us many interesting reminiscences of public men in Virginia, apparently knowing every man of note in the State.

 
---A several yellow fever epidemic continues to sweep through the vital port city of Wilmington, North Carolina. Eleven whites were buried on Nov. 4 alone.

---The British steamer Dart is captured trying to run the blockade off Sabine Pass, Texas, by the schooner USS Rachel Seaman.

---A sharp battle takes place at Lamar, Missouri, between Quantrill’s raiders and two companies of Federal garrison troops.  The Rebels drive the Yankees off, and capture the town, burning part of it.

 

---At Barbee’s Crossroads, Gen. Pleasanton’s cavalry clashes again with Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry.  The Rebel riders are beaten, and driven off.

---There is a sharp battle on the outskirts of Nashville, where Gen. Negley of the Union army inflicts severe losses on two divisions of Rebel troops, including John Hunt Morgan’s cavalry brigade.

 

 

November 4, 1862

November 4, 1862:  Election Day – The Union cause---or at least the Republican Party---takes huge losses on this day.  Democrats took the governorships and the majority of state house seats in New Jersey and New York, where the notorious pro-secession Horatio Seymour unseated Edward Morgan.  The Republicans also had slighter losses in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.  They suffered a net loss in Congress, however, which is where it hurt the worst.  Even though some sneaky district gerrymandering in Ohio kept another notorious pro-slavery congressman, Clement Vallandigham, from getting re-elected, the Democrats took all but five of Ohio’s congressional seats.  Republicans also took losses in the U.S. House from Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  But Republicans kept their seats in the New England states, and kept their majorities in Congress:  85 to 72 in the House, and 31 to 10 in the Senate.  One reason: fewer Republicans, who were more likely to join the army than Democrats were.  There was no provision for soldiers in the field to be able to vote: in Pennsylvania, only the 2,000 soldiers who were posted in the state itself were allowed to vote, even though another 250,000 Pennsylvanians were in uniform at the Front.  Mounting casualties, suspending civil liberties, and the shock of emancipation has cost the Republicans many votes.

Voting in New York, 1862

 

---Miss Sarah Morgan, once again back home in Baton Rouge (now in Confederate hands), writes of a rare occasion of social relaxation and flirting, and she and the other young ladies take an excursion to the local sugar house with several young men who are officers in the Southern army, showing how rare and treasured were such occasions for youth in wartime.  She also makes reference to a letter about her brother in the C.S. Navy in England:

November 4th, 1862.

O what a glorious time we had yesterday! First, there were those two gentlemen to be entertained all day, which was rather a stretch, I confess, so I stole away for a while. Then I got the sweetest letter from Miss Trenholm, enclosing Jimmy’s photograph, and she praised him so that I was in a damp state of happiness and flew around showing my picture to everybody, Mr. Bradford included, who pronounced him a noble boy, and admired him to my satisfaction. . . . Once there, I was surprised to find that one was Frank Enders, the one I least expected to see. The other was a Mr. Harold. I need not describe him, beyond this slight indication of his style. Before half an hour was over, he remarked to Anna that I was a very handsome girl, and addressed me as — Miss Sally! That is sufficient. . . .

The evening passed off very pleasantly; I think there were some eighteen of us in the parlor. About ten the General went to the sugar-house (he commenced grinding yesterday) and whispered to me to bring the young people down presently. Mr. Bradford and I succeeded in moving them, and we three girls retired to change our pretty dresses for plain ones, and get shawls and nuages, for our warm week had suddenly passed away, and it was quite cold out. Some of the gentlemen remarked that very few young ladies would have the courage to change pretty evening dresses for calico, after appearing to such advantage. Many would prefer wearing such dresses, however inappropriate, to the sugar-mill. With his droll gravity, Gibbes answered, “Oh, our girls don’t want to be stuck up!”

There was quite a string of us as we straggled out in the beautiful moonlight, with only Mrs. Badger as an escort. Mr. Enders and I had a gay walk of it, and when we all met at the furnace, we stopped and warmed ourselves, and had a laugh before going in. Inside, it was lighted up with Confederate gas, in other words, pine torches, which shed a delightful light, neither too much nor too little, over the different rooms. We tried each by turns. The row of bubbling kettles with the dusky negroes bending over in the steam, and lightly turning their paddles in the foamy syrup, the whole under the influence of torchlight, was very interesting; but then, Mr. Enders and I found a place more pleasant still. It was in the first purgery, standing at the mouth of the shoot through which the liquid sugar runs into the car; and taking the place of the car as soon as it was run off to the coolers, each armed with a paddle, scraped the colon up and had our own fun while eating. Then running along the little railroad to where the others stood in the second room over the vats, and racing back again all together to eat sugarcane and cut up generally around our first pine torch, we had really a gay time.

Presently “Puss wants a corner” was suggested, and all flew up to the second staging, under the cane-carrier and by the engine. Such racing for corners! Such scuffles among the gentlemen! Such confusion among the girls when, springing forward for a place, we would find it already occupied! All dignity was discarded. We laughed and ran as loud and fast as any children, and the General enjoyed our fun as much as we, and encouraged us in our pranks. Waller surpassed himself, Mr. Bradford carried all by storm, Mr. Enders looked like a schoolboy on a frolic, Mr. Carter looked sullen and tried lazily not to mar the sport completely, while Mr. Harold looked timidly foolish and half afraid of our wild sport. Mrs. Badger laughed, the General roared, Anna flew around like a balloon, Miriam fairly danced around with fun and frolic, while I laughed so that it was an exertion to change corners. Then forfeits followed, with the usual absurd formalities in which Mr. Bradford sentenced himself unconsciously to ride a barrel, Miriam to make him a love speech going home, Mr. Enders to kiss my hand, and I to make him (Mr. Enders) a declaration, which I instantly did, in French, whereby I suffered no inconvenience, as Miriam alone comprehended. Then came more sugar-cane and talk in the purgery, and we were horrified when Mrs. Badger announced that it was twelve o’clock, and gave orders to retire.

O the pleasant walk home! Then, of course, followed a last good-night on the balcony, while the two young men mounted their horses and Frank Enders vowed to slip off every time he had a chance and come out to see us. . . .I am afraid to say how late it was when we got to bed.

November 3, 1862

November 3, 1862:  At Harrisonville, Missouri, 300 irregular Rebel riders under Col. William Quantrill raid a Federal wagon train, shooting about half of the cavalry escort and taking some prisoners.  They also destroy the wagons and contents.  Several hours later, Col. Catherwood and detached troopers from the 5^th and 6^th Missouri Cavalry Regiments catch up with Quantrill and smash his column, driving them in a rout.

---Gen. Halleck sends this dispatch to Gen. Grant, urging him on to an invasion of Mississippi:

WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington, November 3, 1862.
Major-General GRANT, Jackson, Tenn.:

I approve of your plan of advancing upon the enemy as soon as you are strong enough for that purpose. The Minnesota and Wisconsin regiments should join you very soon, and the Governor of Illinois has promised ten regiments this week. I have directed General Curtis to re-enforce Helena, and if they cannot operate on Little Rock they can cross the river and threaten Grenada. I hope for an active campaign on the Mississippi this fall. A large force will ascend the river from New Orleans. General Stanley will be sent to General Rosecrans as chief of cavalry.

H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.

---Part of Grant’s army steps off today, and marched almost twenty miles, which takes them into Mississippi.  The Vicksburg Campaign has begun.

---A Yankee steamer, with a company of Colored Troops on board, ascends the Bell River in Florida.  The troops debark and drive in the Rebel pickets at one of their camps.  The Federal troops destroy a salt works, and then another, along with a good deal of grain, wagons, and equipment.  They then find two families of “contrabands” and brought them out to safety.

November 2, 1862

November 2, 1862: Elisha Franklin Paxton, an officer in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, writes home to his wife about his visit to his old regiment, musing on how they had all thought, at the beginning, that the war would soon be over:
In my old company I found many familiar faces in those who went with me to Harper’s Ferry last spring a year ago. We then hoped a few months would end the war and we would all be at home again. Sadly we were disappointed. Many of our comrades have gone to their long home, and many more disabled for life. And now when we look to the future we seem, if anything, farther from the end of our troubles than when they began. Many of us are destined yet to share the fate of our dead and wounded comrades, a few perhaps survive the war, enjoy its glorious fruits, and spend what remains of life with those we love. We all hope to be thus blessed; but for my part I feel that my place must be filled and my duty done, if it cost me my life and bring sorrow to the dear wife and little ones who now watch my path with so much anxiety and pray so fervently for my safe deliverance. The sentiment which I try to hold and cherish is God’s will and my duty to be done, whatever the future may have in store for me. I am glad to feel, darling, that although I have been writing to you for nearly eighteen months, and this has been the substitute for our once fond intercourse, I feel when I write now that I miss you none the less than I did when this cruel war first placed the barrier of separation between us. I hope as fondly as ever that the day may soon come when we will live in peace and quiet together. Eight years ago to-day, Love, we began our married life, very happy and full of hope for the future. Thus far it has been made of sunshine and shadow, joy and sorrow, strangely intermingled. The darker shade of life has for a long time predominated; may we not hope for a change of fortune ere long.

—Lieut. Josiah Marshall Favill, a young English volunteer serving in the 57^th New York Infantry Reg., records in his journal of their service at the top of Thoroughfare Gap, where the Confederates are trying to probe and break through. In this passage, he reveals how oddly unaccountable are idyllic experiences in the midst of war, including flirtation with the daughters of a nearby family, who are devoted secessionists nevertheless:
The rebel column promptly disappeared under cover of some friendly woods. At five o’clock much to our disgust, we were relieved by the brigade of regulars from Sykes’s division. I remained on the top of the mountain to point out the position of the picket line, and while waiting for the fresh troops to come up, dismounted, and lay down on the sweet, short grass, green as emerald, and enjoyed a charming little reverie entirely alone, without a human being in sight.
We enjoyed life on the mountain top, and were loath to descend, but not being our own masters have to take what is set before us. Headquarters are established in a small house by the road side, just at the base of the mountain. There are two fine young women, who with the entire family sit down with us to eat, our mess furnishing the cooks, and the food, and the house the appointments. The ladies are rebellious, but fond of attention, and so we have a good deal of fun.

—Near Philomont, Virginia, a furious skirmish ensues between cavalry troops under Gen. Pleasanton (U.S.) and Gen. Stuart (C.S.), with Stuart and his riders being beaten into retreat.


—In Wayne County, Missouri, Col. Dewey of the Federal army leads a cavalry raid to round up Rebel guerillas. After a march of 160 miles in eight days, on this date his force returns with 13,guerillas captured.


—The merchant vessel Levi Starbuck is captured by Capt. Semmes and the CSS Alabama, and is burned at sea.

November 1, 1862

November 1, 1862:  In northwest Arkansas, all Confederate forces have retreated southward into the Boston Mountains.  Gen. Hindman, who had sent Douglas Cooper and his Indian troops to contend with James Blunt’s Federals, takes all of his troops southward, and Union Gen. Schofield takes his troops to Osage Spring and Cross Hollows, just south of Bentonville, and makes camp.  (Oddly enough, Gen. Schofield makes his HQ nearly 30 miles away from his army at Elkhorn Tavern at the old Pea Ridge battlefield.)  A series of feints and miscues around Fayetteville leaves Schofield confused, and convinces him that he probably does not have anything to fear from Hindman. 

---Gen. Grant prepares to advance southward to Holly Springs, to break up the Confederate concentration there under Price and Van Dorn.

---John Beauchamp Jones, clerk in the Rebel War Department, writes in his journal about a worrisome proposal to actually trade through enemy lines in order to get food and supplies for the Confederate Army:

I have been startled to-day by certain papers that came under my observation. The first was written by J. Foulkes, to L. B. Northrop, Commissary-General, proposing to aid the government in procuring meat and bread for the army from ports in the enemy’s possession. They were to be paid for in cotton. The next was a letter from the Commissary-General to G. W. Randolph, Secretary of War, urging the acceptance of the proposition, and saying without it, it would be impossible to subsist the army. . . . Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of State, has given Mr. Dunnock permission to sell cotton to the Yankees and the rest of the world on the Atlantic and Gulf coast. Can it be that the President knows nothing of this? It is obvious that the cotton sold by Mr. Dunnock (who was always licensed by Mr. Benjamin to trade with people in the enemy’s country beyond the Potomac) will be very comfortable to the enemy. And it may aid Mr. Dunnock and others in accumulating a fortune. The Constitution defines treason to be giving aid and comfort to the enemy. I never supposed Mr. Randolph would suggest, nay urge, opening an illicit trade with “Butler, the Beast.” This is the first really dark period of our struggle for independence.

---Action in coastal North Carolina:  The naval vessels USS States of the Union and USS Northerner steam up Pungo Creek on Oct. 31, loaded with a detachment of the 3^rd New York Cavalry and two field pieces, all under the command of Major Garrard.  The force lands and takes possession of Montgomery, Germantown, Swanquarter, and Middletown, capturing a large number of horses and a few prisoners, officers amongst them.  This morning, this detachment skirmishes with a small force of Rebel cavalry and drives them off, and marches safely back to Montgomery to board the steamers.

---The USS Westfield and the USS Clifton stand in to port in Matagorda Bay, Texas, and begin shelling the town of Lavacca.  The Confederate artillery answers, and neither side gains much advantage.  Finally, the Union ships begin to run out of ammunition, and give up the assault.

---The Confederate States schooner Adventurer tries to run the blockade off the Louisiana coast, but is captured by the USS Kensington.