Posted on 01/19/2023 4:41:17 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
UP THE YAZOO, Thursday, Jan. 1, 1863.
I wrote you on the 25th an account of our adventures from Helena to Milliken's Bend; and again on the 29th wrote you, giving full details of our late battles, together with maps, diagrams, , of the battle-ground and surroundings.
I knew then, when mailing the letters, that I was among suspicious characters, and for that reason inclosed the letters in other envelopes, sealed them up, put on the proper number of stamps and addressed them to private parties in Cairo, with a request to remail them. I did not suppose at the time that offices here were under charge of gentlemen, who would descend to the small business of robbing mails and opening private letters; but in this my conclusions appear to have been incorrect. All the communications to newspapers have, whether addressed directly or to private parties in the North, been opened, their contents read and the letters retained.
It may be remarked here that had the Commanding General. W.T. SHERMAN, and his Staff, spent half the time and enterprise in the legitimate operations of their present undertaking, that they have in bullying correspondents, overhauling mail-bags and prying into private correspondence, the country would not now have the shame of knowing that we have lately experienced one of the greatest and most disgraceful defeats of the war.
It will, however, scarcely be expected that men whose forte lies in sneaking into the private affairs of other parties -- in ransacking mail-bags, tearing open envelopes and reading private correspondence, are calculated to carry out successfully an operation so gigantic as the reduction of Vicksburgh. The prime mover in the whole affair is a fellow named _____ , a subordinate on SHERMAN's Staff -- a man whose aptitude for sneaking,
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: May 2025.
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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The Vicksburgh Failure: a Full History of the Last Attempt to Capture the Rebel Stronghold – 2-5
News from Washington: More Rumors About the Cabinet – 5
Important Naval Movements: Four Men-of-War Gone to Sea – Two of them Iron-Clads – 5-6
Editorial: Jeff. Davis’ Message – 6
Editorial: The Intercepted Dispatches – 6-7
The Vicksburgh Affair – 7
Editorial: The Affair at Galveston – 8
General News – 8
Happy Birthday Rober E Lee!
Filthy Yankee dogs.
GERMAN immigrant staffed ranks of northern westerners. Invaded my state, in the rudest and most illegal of manners. They stole our livestock, ate all our chickens, tore down our fences, burned our houses and barns, destroyed our stores. They rendered my neighbors homeless and displaced persons. By virtue of their Springfields, swords and bayonets.
Rotten bastards , we will never forget . A pox upon your ancestors, eternally. Deo Vindice.
Was doing some research and found a document, a parole by the Federals, granting an uncle, who was wounded at Vicksburg, permission to go back home. His signature was his pledge to not fight again.
One recent Union immigrant was my great-grandfather.
In late December 1862 he and his company surrendered without a fight while guarding US Grant's supply lines along the Mobile & Ohio Railroad in Tennessee.
Their captor was Confederate cavalry commander, Nathan Bedford Forrest, who soon released them all on "parole", meaning they would serve their captivity in a Union POW camp, until released by prisoner swap for Confederate POWs.
So as of "today", January 19, 1863, my Union great-grandfather is sitting in a Union POW camp in St. Louis.
In due time he will be released temporarily to go home and help on his family's farm in Illinois.
In my opinion, Forrest's actions in releasing those captured Union immigrant soldiers will be repaid when they release Forrest from capture or death in a future battle.
As for which army caused more civilian destruction, the Union army was almost always supplied from official Union resources, while Confederate forces more often "lived off the land", especially when they operated in Union states & territories.
Maybe in the east. What I have been reading recently from Union soldiers in the west tells another story. E.g., Private Daniel Ambrose of the 7th Illinois Volunteers in tomorrow's diary entry.
"The troops still continue foraging, and in consequence the country has well nigh become impoverished, almost everything in the line of subsistence having been confiscated. But occasionally a hog, goose, or chicken ventures from some hiding place and falls a prey to the 'inveterate Yankees.'"
For sure there were some, most notably Grant's Vicksburg campaign, final stages, and Sherman's March to the sea.
But no way to quantify those to say, for example, "the Union Army lived on its own resources 85% of the time and lived off the land only 15%, While for Confederates it was the reverse."
We don't know, we can't say anything like that.
But I'd guess the real numbers are somewhere near those, based on everything I've read about the Confederate army and the Union's dependency on its own supply lines.
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