They brought the missing news from Richmond-We were Victorious #cw 150

June 3, 1862

Came Father & Mary to dinner.  They brought the missing news from Richmond, the want of which left us so wide a field for speculation yesterday.  On Sat, the 31st, our scouts reported that a portion of the enemy having crossed the Chickahominy the night before & the terrible rains of Friday night & Saturday morning having raised the swamp so that they were cut off, it was determined at once to attack them & the last account was that a terrific fight was raging, we being in the ascendant, but as the mail has failed every day since, we know nothing more.

Waited in painful suspense for the mail which in part confirmed the above, but the enemy does not seem to have been cut off, for he was constantly reinforced during the fight.  We were Victorious, driving them from the position & Camp which we captured & held, taking also some of the finest pieces of Artillery known in scientific warfare, three entire batteries & some single pieces, but at a terrible loss to us both in men & officers.  We drove the enemy three miles from his camp.  He then made a detour & attacked us in the Flank but here again he was repulsed & he spent the night in the wet swamps without food or shelter, we occupying his tents.  Our Commander Gen Joe Johnson was wounded in the groin & the command now devolves upon Gen Gustavus Smith a native of Va and said to be an able general, which God grant he may prove himself.  Amongst the killed is Gen Johnston Pettigrew, a native of our State but now hailing from S Carolina.  A young man of high attainments & great Ambition, he was destined to have made himself a name in the world.  God be with his poor sisters.  Mary I know was much devoted to him.  One Louisiana Regt charged shouting, “Butler!” “Butler!” & carried everything before them!  Ah! if mens blood can be stirred the conduct of that infamous villain should do it!  I hope when he hears it that his coward heart will sink beneath the fear it will excite in him.  The other particulars are not authentic, so I will wait for further news.

The last accounts were that Stonewall Jackson was at Martinsburg in Maryland, had destroyed a portion of the Baltimore & Ohio RR & threatened Washington or Baltimore. Lincoln was in a panic, calling loudly for the “Loyal men of the North to defend the Capitol,” whilst volunteers & recruits were pressing there with all expedition.  The Rout of Banks was complete; 4000 prisoners, & an immense quantity of stores of all kinds, baggage, tents, arms, ammunition, horses, etc., have fallen into our hands.  The next account will be I hope that Jackson has taken Washington, blown up the White House & the Capitol, scattered Congress, & driven Lincoln to the disguise of the long Cloak & Scotch cap once more.

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

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God help the poor. We can wear old clothes and live off the plantation for years without suffering #cw150

May 23, 1862

Came Patrick home from Richmond.  He saw the Sec of War who told him that holding as he did a Commission, the Conscript Law does not put an end to his efforts but that he could still muster in Companies already organized & could also attach any Independent Companies now in service to his command who wished to join him.  As to the transfer of the Infantry Companies, as the papers have not yet come before him, he could give no decision—so he is to go on for a month more.  I had hoped that the matter would now be decided, the suspense now be over, & that we could settle down to one thing or the other, but it appears not.  Before Butler’s order, I had cooled greatly about the Battalion, and my desire for Patrick to go into active service, thinking that the Conscript Law called out men enough without him and younger & stronger men; but that infamous order has roused me to that degree that I wish every man in the country to rise & drive out this dreadful crew.

Just before dinner came father.  He looks very badly; this severe cold has made him really sick.  Patrick suffers still with his knee & I from loss of strength, but I call myself well.  Transplanted Tomatoes & set out Dahlia offsets.  Sent to Looking Glass for the rest of my Egg plants, but they are far from promising, for which I am sorry as mama is so fond of them.

A letter from Frank Jones tells us that he was in the fight at Drury’s Bluff where the Gunboats were repulsed.  It was a gun from his ship, the Patrick Henry, which first disabled the Galena.  We had but two guns mounted & yet see the execution they did!

Pickets from a Cavalry force station above us have been posted at Montrose & Polenta immediately opposite us to give warning of the approach of the enemy up the River.  War is indeed brought to our very doors.  The first victims to it, however, will be the young Spring chickens.  No flag of Truce on their behalf.  I must see to that.

Tallyrand’s saying that in public matters a blunder was worse than a crime seems true about the surrender of Norfolk, for few crimes could have spread the distress that that has entailed on this whole section of country.  Most of the money in circulation was Norfolk money.  All our crops are sold there & it is our general Exchange.  The money now is not current—& many have their all—of ready funds—lying in the hands of some Norfolk merchant, not only unavailable but in great danger of total loss.  God help the poor.  We can wear old clothes and live off the plantation for years without suffering if we can only get salt, but what is to become of those who have no such resource?

McClellan sent a Flag of Truce to our army on the Peninsula to inquire into the fate of 200 men who crossed Warwick Swamp & made an attack upon us.  Gen Johnson’s answer was, “we had two left to send to Richmond—the rest we buried.”  Terrible!  This was the skirmish in which Col McKenny of the [Fifteenth] N C was killed.  That unfortunate Regt has since lost a second Col who was killed two days after he took command.

 

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

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just read Butlers infamous proclamation about the ladies of New Orleans, and cannot find words to express my horror and indignation #cw150

May 22, 1862

I have just read Butlers infamous proclamation about the ladies of New Orleans, and cannot find words to express my horror and indignation.  Was such a cold blooded barbarity ever before conceived?  Can he have a gentleman under his command?  If so we shall soon see, for no man with one spark of honour or humanity will serve under such a chief!  If the U S Government does not at once disavow this brutal order, it will be stamped with infamy deeper even than Austria’s!  And yet is it worse than the order of Gen Hunter emancipating the slaves of Florida, Georgia, and S Carolina, which appears in the same paper?  Coarser and more brutal in words, more directly insulting, but in spirit is it less infamous?  Are its intended consequences (which God in his mercy avert) less horrible?  Good God!  Have we come to this?  To insult, to threatened disgrace and infamy?  No!  Even tho’ our foes should be those of our own households, we have a spirit unconquerable, invincible!  We have severed all bonds.  We no longer will hold any intercourse with you, ye puritanical, deceitful race, ye descendants of the Pilgrims, of the hypocrites who came over in the Mayflower.  Plume yourselves on your piety, your civilization.  Wrap yourselves in your own fancied superiority.  We are none of you, desire naught from you.  We detest you!

 

*Butler’s proclamation:

“As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subjected to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous noninterference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation.”

May 23, 1862

http://www.civilwarhome.com/butlerwomanorder.htm

 

Source: Edmondston, Catherine Ann Devereux, 1823-1875, Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston 1860-1866. Crabtree, Beth G and Patton, James W., (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1979). http://nc-historical-publications.stores.yahoo.net/478.html

 

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Everyone weakens the cause who allows himself to doubt of our success. #civilwar150

Camp nearRichmond,Va., May 21st, 1862

My dear Wife

I know you have thought fifty times, why cannot I go to see him, he is at Richmond, and my dear such thoughts have crossed my brain, but had to be given up in their infancy, for it would be imprudent for a lady—especially with children—to come on here now.  Every nook and corner is filled with soldiers dirty, etc. etc., and then again there is not telling when the city may have to suffer what New Orleans was only threatened.

By the way, have you seen Gen. [B.F.]Butler’s order or proclamation in which he says if another lady dares treat a Yankee officer discourteously they shall be treated as women of the town—that is, women of bad repute.  Did you ever hear of such brutality, trying to frighten our poor women into showing respect to his miserable drunken rabble.  Can such people succeed.  I pray not.  May the Lord have mercy upon us and make our hearts brave and theirs more cowardly than they are.  What can we expect when their chief officers—and one who pretended to be favorable to the south before the war broke out, act as Butler proposes if we should be subjugated.

McClellan is making his way slowly towards us but unless he travels faster than he usually does, it will be some days yet before he gets here.  He has 12 miles off yesterday, with a little stream between him and us.  He will make every effort in his power to beat us, but he will have a hard time of it.

I received a very desponding letter from David two days ago.  Each individual seems to think that when their little village is within reach of the enemy that the country is gone.  I rather gave him a piece of my mind yesterday.  I do not think one should allow anyone to know if he thinks so that he fears for the ultimate result.  Everyone weakens the cause who allows himself to doubt of our success.

… Mr. Stuart went into the Convention yesterday with the intention of having the Bishop come to camp and preach for us today.  I hope he will come.  We have the most beautiful place around my tent I ever saw, for him.  I have my tent in a beautiful little nook of the hills.  Beech and honeysuckles all over and around a nice little stream we have dammed up to make us a bathing place….  It is perfectly charming I just wish you could see it.  Mr. Stuart is a regular trump.  I like him so much.  He seems to be a most excellent Christian and an agreeable and industrious companion.  He makes himself very useful instead of troublesome as I feared.  I feel that association with him will be of great benefit to me.

As drill is about to come off I must close but will write again tomorrow or next day.  My love to all.  God bless you and the children.

Your devoted Husband

 

Sources: William Hassler, ed., One of Lee’s Best Men: The Civil War Letters of General William Dorsey Pender (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999). William Dorsey Pender papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill. http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/p/Pender,William_Dorsey.html

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