Harper’s Weekly – March 16, 1861

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | March 16, 1861

[Homer_J_Simpson]

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous Harper’s Weekly thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3940776/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Two Nights in the Senate – 1, 3
The Inaugural Procession at Washington Passing the Gate of the Capitol Grounds – 2
The Lounger – 3-4
Humors of the Day – 4-5
Interior of Fort Sumter – 5-6
The Norfolk Navy-Yard – 5, 7
The United States Frigate “Sabine” off Fort Pickens – 5, 8
The Inauguration – 9-10, 13
The Work of a Wind – 10
Domestic Intelligence – 10-12
Foreign News – 12, 14
The Lover’s Sacrifice – 14-15
A Day’s Ride: A Life’s Romance, By Charles Lever, Ch XLI-XLII – 15-17
The Forts in Texas – 17-18, 20
Arsenal at Washington – 19-20
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, Ch XXIV-XXV – 20-22
Office-Seekers at Washington during the Inauguration – 23
The New Opera. Ballo in Maschera – 24
A Dust-Storm in Broadway – 24

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from March 15 (reply #27).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3940776/posts#27

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Regarding the William Howard Russell diary entries: He was an Irish war correspondent of the Times of London and recently arrived in the U.S. Maybe he is expecting trouble to break out. He will remain here until 1863 reporting, I understand, from both the north and the south. He is, or will be by summer, a celebrity journalist. Jim Miller has almost daily journal entries by Russell at the Civil War Notebook site. I will plant them in my Harper’s Weekly threads.

His first entry is long so I just posted the link (last one in this reply). If it is indicative of his practice he will provide lots of interesting detail for years to come. Note that he correctly spells “Fort Sumter” but incorrectly places Fort Pickens in Alabama.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Russell

Simon Cameron to Abraham Lincoln, March 16, 1861
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/09/simon-cameron-to-abraham-lincoln-march.html

Salmon P. Chase to Abraham Lincoln, March 16, 1861
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/09/salmon-p-chase-to-abraham-lincoln-march.html

Caleb B. Smith to Abraham Lincoln, March 16, 1861
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/09/caleb-b-smith-to-abraham-lincoln-march.html

Major Thomas J. Jackson to Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, March 16, 1861
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/02/major-thomas-j-jackson-to-mary-anna_19.html

Diary of William Howard Russell: March 16, 1861
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/12/diary-of-william-howard-russell-march.html

[BroJoeK]

On the Civil War timeline a number of important events are going on "as we speak", so to speak...

• February 27: US Congress authorizes seven new heavily armed navy steam sloops of war.

• February 28: North Carolina votes "no" on secession.

• March 1: Maj. Anderson alerts Washington about food shortages in Fort Sumter.

• March 3: Jefferson Davis orders CSA Gen. Beauregard to prepare a military assault on Fort Sumter.

• March 4: Lincoln inaugurated.

• March 5: Maj. Anderson sets latest date for resupply or surrender at around April 16.

• March 6: Confederate Congress authorizes 100,000 troops for 12 months.
  Jefferson Davis appoints commissioners to deal with Washington office holders.

• March 7: Missouri votes "no" on secession.

• March 11: The Confederate convention at Montgomery unanimously adopts the Confederate constitution.

• March 13: Lincoln orders Seward not to receive Confederate emissaries.

• March 15: Lincoln's cabinet advises against (5-2) resupplying Fort Sumter.
  Only Postmaster Bates strongly supports it, Chase at Treasury is wishy-washy, the rest opposed.

  The Confederate Congress thanks Louisiana for sending it $536,000 from the US mint in New Orleans.

• March 16: Jefferson Davis appoints ministers to visit Europe and use "cotton diplomacy" when possible.
  Arizona Territory convention illegally votes "yes" on secession.

Confederates authorized 100,000 troops at a time when the US army totaled around 16,000 mostly scattered in small forts out west.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I missed that big item about the authorization of 100,000 Confederate troops. I went back and checked the NYT reporting on the Congress of the C.S.A and found only “The Army bill passed as reported, and 50,000 men will soon be ready to take the field.” That in the March 9 edition (page 4).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3940772/posts

[BroJoeK]

The Statutes at Large of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, lists:

"An Act for the establishment and organization of the army of the Confederate States of America. March 6, 1861, ch. 29 47"

Wikipedia says:

"The provisional, volunteer army was established by an act of the Provisional Confederate Congress passed on February 28, 1861, one week before the act which established the permanent regular army organization, passed on March 6."

And later:

"The Confederate Congress gave control over military operations, and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the President of the Confederate States of America on February 28, 1861, and March 6, 1861.
On March 8 the Confederate Congress passed a law that authorized Davis to issue proclamations to call up no more than 100,000 men.[20] "

The source for that is listed as: "[20] United States. War Dept (1900). Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. p. 134."

Finally:

"The [Confederate] War Department asked for 8,000 volunteers on March 9, 20,000 on April 8, and 49,000 on and after April 16.
Davis proposed an army of 100,000 men in his message to Congress on April 29.[21]

On August 8, 1861, the Confederacy called for 400,000 volunteers to serve for one or three years."

The Confederate force at Fort Sumter is estimated up to 6,000 and at Fort Pickens perhaps another thousand.

My source is Fredriksen's Civil War Almanac which is less than 100% accurate...

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, March 17, 1861
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/03/rutherford-b-hayes-to-sardis-birchard_16.html

Diary of William Howard Russell: Sunday, March 17, 1861
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/diary-of-william-howard-russell.html

Russell on NYC housing: “Some of the doors are on the same level as the street, with a basement story beneath; others are approached by flights of steps, the basement for servants having the entrance below the steps, and this, I believe, is the old Dutch fashion, and the name of “stoop” is still retained for it.”

On American women: “[T]he American woman is not only well shod and well gloved, but that she has no reason to fear comparisons, in foot or hand with any daughter of Eve, except, perhaps, the Hindoo.”

On the political temper in NYC: ”I met several gentlemen, one of whom said, ‘the majority of the people of New York, and all the respectable people, were disgusted at the election of such a fellow as Lincoln to be President, and would back the Southern States, if it came to a split.’”

William Howard Russell – check him out.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I didn’t doubt your 100,000 figure. Even with that in the planning, expecting to “soon” have 50,000 of them ready to go seems a bit optimistic.

I always thought it was crazy that McClellan and others in the union accepted intel about Confederate troop numbers so easily, given the disparity in the untapped manpower resources, north and south. It makes more sense to me now, seeing that the south was quicker to authorize a mobilization. If the manpower isn’t enlisted it doesn’t count for battle planning purposes.

[BroJoeK]

quoting William Howard Russell: "On the political temper in NYC: 'I met several gentlemen, one of whom said, ‘the majority of the people of New York, and all the respectable people, were disgusted at the election of such a fellow as Lincoln to be President, and would back the Southern States, if it came to a split.’ ”
William Howard Russell – check him out."

To DiogenesLamp -- I've been telling you, these are the people you keep calling Lincoln's "Northeastern Power Brokers".
They were Southern sympathizing Democrats, they hated Republicans generally and Lincoln especially, just as today they hate "deplorables" and Donald Trump.

I'm asking you to let that sink in...

[BroJoeK]

"I didn’t doubt your 100,000 figure.
Even with that in the planning, expecting to “soon” have 50,000 of them ready to go seems a bit optimistic."

At a time when the US Army was roughly 16,000 and most scattered in small forts out west, an authorized Confederate army of 100,000 a full month before events at Fort Sumter seems a bit overwhelming.
But how many did they actually have?

1. 8,000 volunteers called on March 8
2. 20,000 volunteers called on April 8
3. =28,000 theoretically enlisted by, say, April 12

But the actual Confederate force is estimated as max of 6,000 at Charleston Harbor (under Beauregard) and maybe 1,000 at Fort Pickens (under Bragg), as of April 12.
And Charleston could have been as few as 600 with Fort Pickens just a few hundred.

[Rebelbase]

Stoop is of Dutch origin. Learn something new every day.

[Rebelbase]

The irony of an open Washington DC during a period of national unrest and succession at Lincoln’s inauguration vs. Biden’s inauguration with national guard troops and checkpoints after a fabricated “insurrection” by civilians is rich.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I’ve only read carefully the first two of Russell’s pieces since he reached these shores. He is a Roman candle of information. If this keeps up I can see myself developing a man crush on our foreign guest.

[colorado tanker]

Neither of my parents were Dutch, so far as I know (German and English I think), but they used the word “stoop.”

[BroJoeK]

+1

X 10

X 10¹⁰ !

[Rebelbase]

Stoop is the common vernacular in the real estate industry.

[DiogenesLamp]

Yes, there were New Yorkers that sympathized with the Southern side, and why not? They were raking in about 60% of the total revenue produced by Southern exports.

They would want that to continue, wouldn't they?

Also, don't forget that William Seward was their guy, and many rightly believed that Lincoln had stolen the nomination from him with a bunch of chicanery, which is in fact true.

I can fully understand why they would be disgusted by the man who had stolen an election from them.

This thread loads too slowly for me. I will probably have to skip any further discussion in it.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from March 1 (reply #34).

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3937001/posts#34

William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis, American

[Homer_J_Simpson]

James Buchanan to Major-General John A. Dix, March 18, 1861
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/07/james-buchanan-to-major-general-john.html

Thomas Bayne to William Still, March 18, 1861
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/04/thomas-bayne-to-william-still-march-18.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bayne_(Sam_Nixon)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Still

Diary of William Howard Russell: Monday, March 18, 1861

https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/diary-of-william-howard-russell-monday.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Russell

Sample paragraph. It sounds like the 69th New York Regiment is far from ready to march “On to Richmond.”

“First came the acting Brigadier-General and his staff, escorted by 40 lancers, very ill-dressed, and worse mounted: horses dirty, accoutrements in the same condition, bits, bridles, and buttons rusty and tarnished; uniforms ill-fitting, and badly put on. But the red flags and the show pleased the crowd, and they cheered “bould Nugent” right loudly. A band followed, some members of which had been evidently ‘smiling’ with each other; and next marched a body of drummers in military uniform, rattling away in the French fashion. Here comes the 69th N. Y. State Militia Regiment — the battalion which would not turn out when the Prince of Wales was in New York, and whose Colonel, Corcoran, is still under court martial for his refusal. Well, the Prince had no loss, and the Colonel may have had other besides political reasons for his dislike to parade his men.”