Posted on 04/28/2021 5:16:39 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
SPECIAL DISPATCH FROM WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON, Saturday, April 27.
I arrived here this evening, after a tedious trip via Annapolis.
Everything is going on well. Troops are arriving rapidly, though unable to get hold of cars enough to bring them all the way from Annapolis. The regiments all march to the Junction, eighteen miles, where they take the train for this city. A small train brings the baggage and supplies to the Junction.
One Regiment is kept constantly at the Junction -- each succeeding one relieving its predecessor, in order to keep possession of the road. Guards are stationed all along both roads, to protect the bridges and tracks. Parties of workmen are being detailed to put the roads in the best repair.
Another party left here to-day, to repair the telegraph line between here and Annapolis -- the military authorities having agreed to protect it.
I visited the New-York Seventh this evening at their quarters in the new Hall of Representatives, and found them in excellent spirits, singing patriotic songs and calling for speeches. Among the speakers were Orderly HALSTEAD and Mr. SIMONTON, of the TIMES. HALSTEAD congratulated the members of the Regiment at being in the receipt of a regular income since yesterday, when they were mustered into the service.
Members of the Regiment had been much concerned, because of the false reports sent North, relative to their having been opposed in their march hither. They complain of no privation, except their inability to get the Times.
Our advices from Baltimore show marked moderation of tone there, and the sun of this morning makes an ungracious, yet decided apology for the ruffianism of last week. I learn that the United States flag is again tolerated, and has been raised in several cases.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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
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Link to previous New York Times thread
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Well, THIS is going to be awful. :(
Just to be clear -- in this report from Chambersburg, PA, these are Northern freed-blacks, or recent escapees from Virginia, talking about forming a regiment (about 1,000 soldiers), possibly under command of John Brown, Jr., to attack Confederates in Virginia.
Since they don't expect official Union support, they plan to equip themselves privately, and to operate as guerillas after Virginians have attacked the United States.
So far as we know, nothing like this actually happened, but in less than two years the Union itself will begin to raise regiments of colored troops, enough to replace, man for man, the Union troops killed in the war.
As it happens, Chambersburg PA will be in Civil War news several times, including three different Confederate raids to burn it down, and, oh yes, to seize any African Americans -- freed or not -- for return to Confederate slave markets.
Also from Chambersburg, PA, refugees describe (I'm tempted to say "Democrats being Democrats"), but in this case it's Confederate soldiers seizing whatever they need for war from local farmers.
Such practices are not here named "contraband of war", but they soon will be, and it's important to notice that it begins with Confederate soldiers seizing their needs from Southern farmers.
Those farmers seeking refuge escape to the Union, not the other way around.
Just "yesterday" reports said Confederates were massing for an invasion (up the Mississippi) of Illinois.
Today a report of a regiment of Union troops moved to Cairo, IL, on the river to defend against possible Confederate attack.
Some of those Union troops are assigned to guard the Illinois railroad tracks to Cairo, a tedious & uneventful task for them.
But in two years the inability of Union troops (including a GGF) to protect Gen. Grant's railroad supply lines, against Confederate cavalry like those of Nathan Bedford Forrest, will force Grant to a major change in tactics around Vicksburg.
It is the notable exception to the rule that the CSA never pillaged and burned in any way like Sherman and the rest. If you are using Chambersburg to apply moral equivalence then good luck because no on is buying it.
In fact of about 440 named Civil War battles here over 100 were fought outside the Confederacy -- in Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Vermont & West Virginia.
Whenever Confederate forces operated outside the Confederacy they seized "contraband" (i.e., horses, livestock, slaves) and destroyed such Union assets as bridges & rail lines.
Confederates also attacked civilians, notably in Indiana (Corydon), Kansas (Lawrence), Pennsylvania (Chambersburg) and Vermont (St. Albans).
A typical Confederate operation was Morgan's 1862 raid into Kentucky:
These two psychopaths terrorized the Kansas and Missouri countryside preying on Union troops and southern civilians indiscriminately. Quantrill was a dangerous and disturbed man but of the two Anderson was a true violent psychopath.
The standing order of the Army of NoVa was to always stack arms when in camp. Enlisted troops NEVER carried weapons into town or anywhere even when in "enemy" territory when off picket duty. Only officers and cavalry carried side arms on "liberty".
The reason why this worked is the civilians on both side knew CSA troops where not going to harm them. They even taunted and made fun of them hoping to provoke a fight which get them arrested by a CSA officer.
Sure, that may well have been Lee's order, but the facts is, Confederate troops -- both organized and unorganized -- foraged for supplies whenever outside the Confederacy, which was more often than you might admit.
Indeed, some historians argue a major reason RE Lee lost at Gettysburg was because his most effective eyes-&-ears, JEB Stuart, was out foraging for supplies in Maryland instead of serving Lee in Pennsylvania.
Stuart was quite proud of his mile-long wagon train of captured supplies & mules, but Lee had needed his eyes-&-ears more.
Stuart's actions were typical of Confederate armies outside the CSA -- they seized what they needed as "contraband of war" (including alleged fugitive slaves) and destroyed such Union assets as bridges & railroad equipment.
And then there were massacres, of which I count eight:
You are so full of it. You are falsely comparing what Sherman and the rest did to the south with what the CSA did? Why not be proud of the destruction, Sherman sure was.
Nothing false about it -- roughly one battle in four was fought outside the Confederacy, and that ratio holds for the levels of destruction caused by each side.
Indeed, even in their own states Confederates burned some of their own cities to prevent the Union from capturing anything of value.
So, by analogy, you tell me, should we be "proud of the destruction" in WWII?
Remember, Germans bombed Britain until the end, including V-1 and V-2 rockets, those bombs causing death & destruction among the Brits.
But for every ton of bombs dropped on Brits, the Brits & Americans dropped something like 10 tons on Germans, causing ten times the damage and killing ten times the number of civilians.
Indeed, by war's end, when American & British troops began to see the destruction they caused in Germany, there was considerable recoil.
British commander, "Bomber" Harris, had been a hero before, but after Dresden was shunned & rebuked.
Bomber Harris was still "proud of the destruction", but many people ever since felt quite different about it.
And yet the fact remains, whether we're proud or not, that bombing saved uncounted Allied lives and was essential to Allied victory.
So you tell me, are you "proud of the destruction" in WWII?
YouTube: Bombing run over Dresden
The Avro Lancaster. Probably the best heavy bomber of WW2.
Gave the Jerries a sound thrashing.
The fact of the matter is the Confederate guerrillas preyed on each other as much as they did Union forces.
The Civil War, as any civil war, is a opportunity for families and various regional factions of one sort or another to settle old scores and personal grudges.
The Pro-Union “Swamp Dragoons’’, ‘The Dixie Boys’’ were just some of these types of outlaws.
Most of them, in fact all of them were nothing more than thieves and murderers.
It got so bad at one point Lee had to put a stop to the organizing of guerrilla bands.
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