June 19, 1862

June 19, 1862:  ---Battle of St. Charles.  In Arkansas, a Union attempt to establish communications by river to Gen. Samuel Curtis’s army in Central Arkansas, results in an expedition up the White River, with the ironclads Mound City, St. Louis, timberclads Lexington and Conestoga, and two transports carrying the 46^th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Reg.  At a bend in the river at St. Charles, Arkansas, the Rebels have set up two batteries of guns, and have sunk a gunboat in the river as an obstruction.  A lively artillery duel begins, with the Mound City taking the lead.  At one point, however, a Confederate solid shot pierces the Mound City’s armored casemate, killing several men and piercing the ship’s boiler.  The escaping steam kills or badly scalds most of the crew.  A few are able to escape, but Rebel riflemen shoot many of them in the water.  Only 25 men of the crew remain uninjured, but 125 are killed, and another 25 badly burned or wounded, including Commander Kilty, the skipper of the ironclad.  Strangely enough, the ship’s boiler is soon repaired, and the expedition continues upriver---but eventually gives up and returns to base.

U.S.S. Mound City

---Gen. Hunter, commander of the Dept. of the Southeast, in South Carolina, gives orders to arrest Gen. Benham for disobedience to orders and the fiasco at Secessionville, and appoints Gen. Horatio Wright to command in Benham’s stead.

---Gen. John Pope is summoned to Washington  by Sec. of War Edwin Stanton.

June 18, 1862

June 18, 1862:  Stonewall Jackson, in response to Lee’s order, entrains his troops to transport them to Richmond.  Down the Valley, the troops of Fremont, Sigel, and Banks are being organized for the anticipated onslaught of Jackson storming down the Valley again.  Rumors abound among the Federal commanders about how Longstreet had come to the Valley with more troops, and that Jackson was going to Richmond.  Meanwhile, Jackson moves quietly, keeping his own counsel.

---C.S. War Department clerk John Beauchamp Jones writes in his journal:  “JUNE 18TH—Lee is quietly preparing to attack McClellan. The President, who was on the battle-field, is very cheerful.”

---Charles Francis Adams, Jr., an officer in the U.S. Cavalry, writes home about the exhilarating experience of being under fire:

You have probably heard, through Southern sources and with their usual degree of truth, of the action yesterday and you may have been anxious for my safety, though I hope you were sufficiently ignorant of all the facts not to be apprehensive for me personally. The amount of the whole story is that we had a severe action and were repulsed with very heavy loss. This much you know; and for myself, General Williams’ brigade was in the advance of one of the attacking columns, was under fire about four hours, during the whole of which time the danger of his men was fully shared by the General and his staff. I would not have missed it for anything. I had never been really under fire before and the sensation was glorious. There we were, mounted officers, either standing right before the enemy’s works, while the shells went shrieking and hurtling just over our heads and sometimes broke close to us, or else carrying orders to all parts of the line, feeling that you carried life and death in your hands. I was frightened of course — every one is, except a few who don’t know what danger is; but my fear was not what I had imagined it might be. . . . In a word I don’t care if I’m never in action again, and I would rather not run its risk, though I should like once to join in the shouts of victory; but I would not for anything have lost the experience of yesterday and, without affectation, it was one of the most enjoyable days I ever passed.

---In session, the House of Representatives vote on a form of what will become the Second Confiscation Act, one more step toward universal emancipation, but one that comes as a military measure and not as social revolution:

    That all right and title of every person comprehended by this act, in and to the service of labor of any other person is hereby forfeited, and such persons held to labor, commonly called slaves, are hereby declared forever discharged; first if they are owned by any officer of the rebel army, any officer of the rebel government, or by any person who engages in rebellious acts against the Government of the United States. . . .

But, still possessed by the idea that colonization is the best solution for the race problem, Congress further states,

    That the President is authorized to negotiate for the acquisition by treaty or otherwise, for lands or countries in Mexico, South America, or in the islands of the gulf, for the right of settlement upon the lands of the persons freed by this Act.

    The yeas and nays were ordered. The question on the passage of the bill was taken and it was decided in the affirmative: yeas 82, nays 54. So the substitute was agreed to and the Bill was passed.

President Lincoln, ironically, opposes this legislation, believing that it will exacerbate pro-secessionist sentiments in the border states.  Indeed, the responses from border state legislators is vehement and rancorous.

---Katherine Prescott Wormeley, a nurse with the U.S. Sanitary Commission, at a hospital near the front on the Peninsula, writes home:

Our sick men were still with us, for Mr. Olmsted could neither get permission to put them on the “Elm City,” nor induce the surgeon of the Shore hospital to send his ambulances for them. Expecting every hour to move them, we were unable to put them into hospital clothing; and as they were very restless and crazy, this made our work less satisfactory than usual. . . . The painfulness of the day was greatly increased by a visit from a Sunday picnic of Congressmen and ladies. One of the former went to Mr. Olmsted and complained to him of what he saw on our boat. . . . But a few hours later a thing occurred which must have wiped from his mind the sting of reproach from such a quarter. Colonel ——, who was on the “Elm City,” very ill with typhoid fever, was madly anxious to get home. He knew he must die, and he craved to see his wife. The gentlemen of the excursion-party were asked to take him back on their boat. They refused; alleging that they were “a select party,” and “not prepared to incur infection:” they made the ladies the ground of their excuse. So Mrs. Griffin went at midnight to the ladies and begged them to consent to take him; and of course they did so. I could enlarge upon this, but the subject is hateful.

And then Mrs. Wormeley offers further observations about the Commission’s mission, perhaps revealing the Army’s medical disdain for the organization:

. . . indeed, the object of the Commission itself is not sufficiently understood. Those who admire its wise and noble work naturally feel the wish that larger power should be given to it. But the object of the Commission itself is not this. It seeks to bring the Government to do what the Government should do for its sick and wounded. Until that object is accomplished, the Commission stands ready to throw itself into the breach, as it did during that dreadful battle-week, as it does more or less all the time. The thing it asks for is not the gift of power, but that the Government should take the work away from it by doing it thoroughly itself.

June 17, 1862

June 17, 1862:  Union troops under Gen. George W. Morgan re-occupy the Cumberland Gap area.  At the same time, Gen. Ormsby Mitchel and his troops, having recently raided Chattanooga, Tennessee, still remain in the area.  Together, these two forces, to most observers, seem to have Eastern Tennessee bottled up for the Union, fulfilling Lincoln’s desire that the mostly Unionist people of this end of the state be free from Confederate persecution.

---Sarah Morgan records in her journal:

June 17th.

Yesterday, and day before, boats were constantly arriving and troops embarking from here, destined for Vicksburg. There will be another fight, and of course it will fall. I wish Will was out of it; I don’t want him to die. I got the kindest, sweetest letter from Will when Miriam came from Greenwell. It was given to her by a guerrilla on the road who asked if she was not Miss Sarah Morgan.

---Captain William Thompson Lusk, of the Union army near Charleston, writes his mother to tell of the disaster of the previous day as his troops partook in the ignoble Union defeat at the Battle of Secessionville:

My dear Mother:

Yesterday was for us a hard, cruel, memorable day, memorable for its folly and wickedness, memorable for the wanton sacrifice of human life to gratify the silly vanity of a man already characterized . . . You have heard already from rebel sources, I doubt not, of yesterday’s disaster. I can only say that the plan of the attack was ordered by Gen. Benham in direct defiance of his subordinate Generals’ opinion. Gen. Wright, Gen. Stevens and Gen. Williams pronounced on the evening of the 15th, the project of storming the battery attacked, as conceived in utter folly. They entered their earnest protest against the whole affair. But Benham was excited by stories of Donelson and Newberne, and would not yield. Had the fort been taken, it would have done us no good, except that we could have spiked the three guns it contained, but had it been taken, the éclat, perhaps, would have made Benham a Major-General, and for this contemptible motive between six and seven hundred men strewed the field, dead and dying. I do not know how I escaped unhurt — it must have been your prayers, mother — but this I know, that sixteen boys of my company were killed or wounded, fighting nobly, fighting like heroes on the parapet of the work, but fighting vainly to give a little reputation to . . . Mother, when I see their pale fingers stiffened, their poor speechless wounds bleeding, do you wonder at the indignation that refuses to be smothered — that my blood should flow feverishly to think that the country which our soldiers love so well, loves them so little as to leave them to the mercies of a man of. . . . Tell Walter that when galloping across the field yesterday I saw a sword and scabbard lying in my path. I looked instinctively at my side, and found, when or how I cannot say, my sword-belt had been torn or cut, and the sword was gone, but you can understand the pleasure I experienced at discovering the sword in my path was Walter’s gift, which I strangely recovered.

 

June 16, 1862

June 16, 1862:  Battle of Secessionville, So. Carolina – Gen. Henry Benham puts his two Federal divisions ( about 6,600 men) on the road early in the morning, with Stevens’ division drawn up on the right to attack Ft. Lamar near this town.  Gen. Wright’s Yankees are drawn up on Stevens’ left, to cover his advance.  Facing the Federals were about 2,000 Confederates under Gen. Nathan “Shanks” Evans.  The Federals step off at 4:00 AM, with the 8^th Michigan in the lead.  The 8-inch Columbiad cannon at the fort opens with a round of grapeshot which sweeps a large gap in the center of the Michigan line, but they keep pressing on until they reach the parapet, firing down into the fort.  Stevens throws in more regiments, but Evans places fresh men in the fort’s defenses.  Finally, Stevens calls a withdrawal, with heavy casualties.  At this time, Wright’s division is moving up, accompanied by Gen. Benham.  Wright wheels right into position, but is attacked on his left flank by fresh Southern troops from the north, under Hagood---with the Eutaw Battalion and the 24^th So. Carolina.  Wright details several regiments and some artillery to hold off Hagood, and tries to help Stevens, but neither general can see a way to advance across the open ground to the fort’s walls without severe losses.  By 9:00 AM, the Federals call off the assault.  Confederate Victory

Losses:   Union – 685          Confederate – 204

---Gen. Robert E. Lee orders Stonewall Jackson to begin plans to leave the Valley and join him at Richmond.

---Sarah Morgan writes in her journal of the vindictive treatment of other Louisiana women against the Yankees.  Sarah is herself a patriot and true-blue secessionist---but is horrified at the unchristian changes in her neighbors:

This war has brought out wicked, malignant feelings that I did not believe could dwell in woman’s heart. I see some of the holiest eyes, so holy one would think the very spirit of charity lived in them, and all Christian meekness, go off in a mad tirade of abuse and say, with the holy eyes wondrously changed, “I hope God will send down plague, yellow fever, famine, on these vile Yankees, and that not one will escape death.” O, what unutterable horror that remark causes me as often as I hear it! I think of the many mothers, wives, and sisters who wait as anxiously, pray as fervently in their faraway homes for their dear ones, as we do here; I fancy them waiting day after day for the footsteps that will never come, growing more sad, lonely, and heart-broken as the days wear on; I think of how awful it would be if one would say, “Your brothers are dead”; how it would crush all life and happiness out of me; and I say, “God forgive these poor women! They know not what they say!” O women! into what loathsome violence you have abased your holy mission! God will punish us for our hard-heartedness.

---Lt. Charles Wright Wills, of the Union Army of the Mississippi, in the 8^th Illinois Infantry, gives us a rather idyllic and pastoral view of life in camp after a rigorous campaign:

Rienzi, Tishomingo Co., Miss., June 16, 1862.

We are camped here enjoying ourselves grandly. As our brigade is scattered over a line of 50 miles we just pitch our headquarters in the quietest spot we can find independent of the command. There are only two companies now out of the 24 within 8 miles of us, and all we have to do with any of them is to send them orders and receive their communications and forward them. In the heat of the day we read and lounge in our tents, and mornings we go to the creek and bathe and then ride a dozen or so miles to keep our horses exercised. I have a clerk, too, for my copying, etc., so I’m a gentleman. Evenings I visit generally some of the half dozen families within a half mile of us of whom I borrow books and in return furnish them with occasional papers. We have splendid water and my health is perfect. This is the healthiest part of the South.

June 15, 1862

June 15, 1862:  James Island, South Carolina: South Atlantic Theater - Gen. Henry Benham of the Union army has two divisions of troops on James Island, adjacent to Charleston, and finds himself frustrated by being under Confederate artillery fire daily and having to way to retaliate effectively.  This is the closest Union forces have come to the Cradle of Secession, and many Northerners expect to hear of Charleston’s fall on a daily basis.  Although instructed by the theater commander, Gen. David Hunter, to “make no attempt to advance on Charleston or to attack Fort Johnson until largely re-enforced or until you receive specific instructions from these headquarters to that effect,” Benham has encountered heavy skirmishing and probing attacks by the Rebels, especially a very sharp fight on June 10, and is considering doing something about it.  He instructs his two division commanders, Gen. Isaac Stevens and Gen. Horatio Wright, to prepare for an attack, in spite of Stevens’ protests. 

---Gen Pierre G.T. Beauregard, in command of the Confederate Army of the Mississippi in the area of Tupelo, Mississippi, citing poor health as a reason, takes a leave of absence and turns over temporary command of the army to Braxton Bragg.  He says, “I have concluded to take advantage of the present lull in the operations of this army, due to the necessity of attending of the enemy, for absenting myself a short while from here, hoping to be back in time to assume the offensive at the earliest moment practicable.”  Time will prove that there will not be a moment practicable.

---Maj. Gen. James Longstreet, in an unwonted display of loquaciousness, issues a statement to the troops under his command in Lee’s army, and says,

Let officers and men, even under the most formidable fire, preserve a quiet demeanor and self-possessed temper. Keep cool, obey orders, and aim low. Remember while you are doing this, and driving the enemy before you, your comrades may be relied on to support you on either side, and are in turn relying upon you.
Stand well to your duty, and when these clouds break away, as they surely will, the bright sunlight of peace falling upon our free, virtuous, and happy land will be a sufficient reward for the sacrifices which we are now called upon to make.

---A New York Times editorial offers some views of the conflict, and how perceptions have changed, especially in regard to the question of whether a democratic republic can maintain itself, and whether a self-privileged aristocracy can win wars on the basis of being “high-borne”:

Another error exploded by the war is the belief of European politicians, that the American Republic had no inherent central and saving power to preserve it from intestine discord. Against foreign Governments the Union had always proved a unit. But monarchists and imperialists never believed the bond more than a rope of sand, if it should come to be tried by internal agitation. In the growing alienation between North and South, for some years past, these Anti-Republican prophets plainly foresaw the downfall of a Power of which they had become fearful and jealous. But time has falsified their faith, and henceforth the American Union will be regarded with an interest far deeper than ever before, by the so-called “leading Powers” of the old world. It is not likely that a new convention could be called to meet in London, or near any other European Court, to decide the fate of Mexico, or any other country on this continent, to which the United States Government had not been invited to send a Commissioner, and found it agreeable to do so. . . . The boasted “chivalry” of the South, which Southerners always arrogated, and which many Northern citizens somewhat reluctantly conceded, and Europe accepted as a fact, has been dissipated as a cheat and delusion.

“Chivalry” implied many things to the Southern mind. It meant high birth, to begin with. And here the ardent imagination of the Southrons reveled in complacent pride. . . . “Blood will tell,” boasted these arrogant slaveholders. They were high born, therefore they possessed all the traits that adorn high positions — a palpable non-sequitur, as history so uniformly shows. . . .

Where has any extraordinary achievement signalized either the army or the navy of the rebels? Not at Fort Donelson, where two Generals ran away, and an army of 15,000 men surrendered without a death-struggle for escape or for victory; not at New-Orleans, where two forts, a formidable fleet and a large army succumbed, without losing one hundred men, all told; . . . not at Yorktown, where the flower and strength of the rebel army grew pale behind their gigantic defences, and fled from the approaches of MCCLELLAN.

Nowhere on all the theatre of war, can we find a spot that will live in history as a Southern Thermopylae, made memorable by the heroic endurance or courage of Southern rebels — fighting, as they claim, for their homes, their negroes and their native land. Most wofully has the “Southern chivalry” failed to make good its claims. . . .

---Judith White McGuire, of Richmond, speculates on the irony of Gen. Philip St. George Cooke commanding the blue cavalry that chased Stuart---haplessly, as it turned out---on the Rebel’s now-famous raid:  “General Stuart must have gone, it is said, within a few miles, perhaps nearer, of his father-in-law, the Federal General Cooke. I wonder what the old renegade Virginian thinks of his dashing son-in-law? If he has a spark of proper feeling left in his obdurate heart, he must be proud of him.”

June 14, 1862

June 14, 1862: Gen. Stuart’s Wild Ride, Day 3 – At Jones Bridge over the Chickahominy, one of Stuarts’ troopers grew up at a nearby plantation which had its own little-known ford.  When they arrived at daybreak, they found the river twice as wide, and fast-running, and the ford useless.  Stuart led his men to the main bridge which, of course, had been destroyed.  The Rebels spent precious time finding timbers and lumber from a nearby warehouse, and were able to lay them across the stone abutments from the old bridge, and made a tenuous walkway for one trooper at a time to lead his horse across.  As the two cannot came at the end of the line, they got more lumber and were able to make it strong enough to bring the guns, limbers, and caissons across one vehicle at a time.  Why did the Federals not catch them?  Col. Warren and his brigade were marching hard after them, and Cooke’s cavalry caught up with them.  Unaccountably, Gen. Cooke elected to walk his horsemen with Warren’s infantry, even though Warren begs him to dash after the Rebels and catch them before they cross the river.  Cooke does not heed the younger man’s advice.  Back at the crossing, just as the Confederates are leaving, a scouting party from Rush’s Lancer, a Pennsylvania regiment, show up on the north bank, and a few shots are exchanged, but the Yankees make no effort to pursue.   Stuart’s men get away clean, and as they ride along the north bank of the James River, Stuart dashes ahead and reaches Richmond with the information Gen. Lee needed, and basks in the acclaim for a brilliant raid that exposed the Army of the Potomac’s hanging right flank, but also highly embarrasses Gen. McClellan’s inability to even come close to catching the gray riders.  Southern morale gets a substantial boost, and Stuart begins to acquire the status of a legend.

---Mary Boykin Chestnut writes in her diary:

June 14th.—All things are against us. Memphis gone. Mississippi fleet annihilated, and we hear it all as stolidly apathetic as if it were a story of the English war against China which happened a year or so ago.

The sons of Mrs. John Julius Pringle have come. They were left at school in the North. A young Huger is with them. They seem to have had adventures enough. Walked, waded, rowed in boats, if boats they could find; swam rivers when boats there were none; brave lads are they. One can but admire their pluck and energy. Mrs. Fisher, of Philadelphia, née Middleton, gave them money to make the attempt to get home.

Stuart’s cavalry have rushed through McClellan’s lines and burned five of his transports. Jackson has been reenforced by 16,000 men, and they hope the enemy will be drawn from around Richmond, and the valley be the seat of war.

John Chesnut is in Whiting’s brigade, which has been sent to Stonewall. Mem’s son is with the Boykin Rangers; Company A, No. 1, we call it. And she has persistently wept ever since she heard the news. It is no child’s play, she says, when you are with Stonewall. He doesn’t play at soldiering. He doesn’t take care of his men at all. He only goes to kill the Yankees.

June 13, 1862

June 13, 1862: Gen. Stuart’s Wild Ride, Day 2 - On this date, Stuart’s troopers right eastward. Just west of Hanover, they encounter troopers from the 6th U.S. Cavalry, who in turn withdraw. The Union cavalry officer informs his superiors that it is only a squadron of Rebels and nothing to worry about. Later in the morning, the Rebels surprise a few Yankee pickets at Haw’s Shop. Later in the day, they encounter a larger force of Federal cavalry, perhaps regiment-sized, and give pursuit as the bluecoats turn to retreat. Near Old Church, Stuart finds that the Federals have formed a line with the clear intent of stopping his raid. Stuart sends a squadron of horsemen forward to engage the Yankees, and Capt. William Latane has his men draw sabers and dash directly down the road at the blue line. Capt. Latane is shot dead out of his saddle, but the Yankees are sufficiently alarmed that, after exchanging a few shots, depart hastily. Stuart orders their camp burnt, and pauses to consider: he has already obtained the information Gen. Lee wanted–that is, that McClellan’s right flank is "in the air" and might be vulnerable to attack. Stuart ponders whether to go back the way he came, and risk being trapped by Union forces that certainly must be giving chase by now—or, to continue on and ride entirely around the Union Army—a bold stroke that would pay off in great morale dividends. He decides on the latter. His men ride on, picking up their pace. Along the way, they pass close enough to the Union army that they are within eyeshot of McClellan’s headquarter tents, but they ride quietly by. The Rebels also capture and burn a large supply wagon train, as well as a few schooners on the river. Meanwhile, the Yankee pickets are back in camp giving wildly exaggerated reports on Stuart’s force. A hastily-assembled Union cavalry force is assembled by the commander of the Reserve Cavalry (whose responsibility is the security of the behind-the-liines regions), who is Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke (former commander of the Mormon Battalion in 1847-48), a Virginian who refused to support the Rebel cause—and who also happened to be Stuart’s father-in-law. Cooke and his troopers give chase. 

At Old Church, Gouverneur K. Warren deploys his infantry brigade astraddle the road to catch Stuart on their way back. (No one dreamed that he would try to ride all the way around the Union host.) At Tunstall’s Station, where the road crossed the main railroad from White House (McClellan’s main supply port) to Richmond, Stuart’s men attack a Union army train as it goes by—loaded with Union infantry. The Confederates fire a couple of volleys, but the train continues on toward the Union camps. Some soldiers jump off, but are immediately made prisoners by Stuart’s men who, by this time, have already captured a large number of horses and mules, and so mount the Yankee prisoners on the latter. By dark, Stuart’s men have made it to Talleyville, and stop for a brief few hours of sleep. At midnight, they are off again, heading to the uncrossable Chickahominy River.

Gen. Stuart, same pose.

Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, his hapless father-in-law

—President Lincoln, now recognizing that his commanders in the Shenandoah Valley are retreating from the imagined threat of what Jackson might do to them, writes a rather testy telegram to Gen. Fremont, detailing the situation (which Fremont and Banks surely already knew), and offering with restraint some rather elementary military advice (which Fremont and Banks surely already knew) and thus how he and Banks ought to be able to trap Jackson and bring him to battle:

Washington City, D.C.--June 13 1862

Major Gen. Fremont:

We can not afford to keep your force, and Banks', and McDowell's, engaged in keeping Jackson South of Strasburg and Front-Royal. You fought Jackson alone, and worsted him.* He can have no substantial reinforcement, so long as a battle is pending at Richmond. Surely you and Banks in supporting distance are capable of keeping him from returning to Winchester. But if Sigel be sent forward to you, and McDowell (as he must) be put to other work, Jackson will break through at Front Royal again. He is already on the right side of the Shenandoah to do it, and on the wrong side of it to attack you. The orders already sent you and Banks place you and him in the proper positions for the work assigned you. Jackson can not move his whole force on either of you, before the other can learn of it, and go to his assistance. He can not divide his force, sending part against each of you because he will be too weak for either. Please do as I directed in the order of the 8th. and my despatch of yesterday, the 12th, and neither you nor Banks will be overwhelmed by Jackson. By proper scouts-look-outs, and beacons of smokes by day, and fires by night, you can always have timely notice of the enemy's approach. I know not as to you, but by some, this has been too much neglected.

A. LINCOLN

[*Or so Fremont erroneously reported about the battle at Cross Keys, which was a Rebel victory.]

—George Templeton Strong, referring to the United States Sanitary Commission’s efforts to improve the sanitation, feeding, and medical care of soldiers in the field, writes with frustration in his journal:

Nothing new. Letter from [Frederick Law] Olmstead this afternoon at No. 498, ten pages long, giving a fearful, sickening account of the weakness and inefficiency and imbecility of Dr. Tripler and his subordinates on the Peninsula; of carloads of wounded men dumped on swampy river shores without food, medicine, or attendance; of men with fractured thighs lying neglected and forgotten forty-eight hours in two inches of water, struggling to raise themselves so as to pick the maggots from their rotting wounds and fainting after the effort, and yet keeping a good heart through it. God propser Ellie [Mrs. Strong, his wife] in her mission!

—Lt. Col. Edward Porter Alexander, 27 years old, a Confederate artillery officer, writes home to his wife. Among other things, he advises her not to return to Richmond for the time being, expressing the common alarm in Richmond about being defeated by McClellan’s formidable host:

I don’t think, Darling, that it will do for you to come back to Richmond at all. I could see very little of you, & the city is hotter & more uncomfortable & expensive every day, & moreover I am now much afraid that we will lose it. You had better stay at Farmville till something turns up – which must happen soon.