"Misery upon misery.
Mobile going as New Orleans went.* Those western men have not held their towns as we have held and hold Charleston, or as the Virginians hold Richmond. And they call us frill-shirt, silk-stocking chivalry, a set of dandy Miss Nancys. They fight desperately in their bloody street brawls. We bear privation and discipline best. Brag is a good dog. Holdfast, a better."
*Victories by U.S. Admiral David Farragut preceded the fall of both New Orleans and Mobile. At the battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, Farragut steamed past Confederate shore batteries to enable Union troops to besiege forts protecting the city.
Showing posts with label Union Navy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Union Navy. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Sunday, September 13, 2015
June 1862,
regarding Thomas B. Huger
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| Thomas B. Huger (d. April 25, 1862) |
"Tom Huger* resigned his place in the U.S. Navy and come to us. The Iroquois was his ship in the old navy. They say as he stood in the rigging, after he was shot in the leg, his ship leading the attack upon the Iroquois &c&c, his old crew in the Iroquois cheered him. And when his body was borne in, the Federals took off their caps, in respect for his gallant conduct. When he was dying, Meta Huger said to him, 'An officer wants to see you. He is one of the enemy.'
'Let him come in. I have no enemies now.'
But when he heard the man's name:
'No, no. I do not want to see a Southern man who is now in Lincoln's navy.'
The officers of the U.S.N. attended his funeral."
*Thomas B. Huger served in the U.S. Navy for over 20 years before he resigned his commission in January 1861 after his native state of South Carolina seceded from the Union. He subsequently became a First Lieutenant in the Confederate Navy. He was mortally wounded while battling Federal Navy ships near Fort Jackson and Fort St Philip on the Mississippi River, and died the following day.
Monday, September 7, 2015
27 April 1862,
New Orleans, the aftermath
"New Orleans gone—and with it the Confederacy. Are we not cut in two? That Mississippi ruins us if lost. The Confederacy done to death by the politicians. What wonder we are lost. Those wretched creatures the Congress and the legislature could never rise to the greatness of the occasion. They seem to think they were in a neighborhood squabble about precedence.
The soldiers have done their duty.
All honor to the Army. Statesmen busy as bees about their own places or their personal honor—too busy to see the enemy at a distance. With a microscope they were examining their own interest or their own wrongs, forgetting the interest of the people they represent. They were concocting newspaper paragraphs to injure the government. No matter how vital, nothing—nothing—can be kept from the enemy. They must publish themselves night and day and what they are doing, or the omniscient Buncombe will forget them.
This fall of New Orleans means utter ruin to the private fortunes of the Prestons. Mr P came from New Orleans so satisfied with Mansfield Lovell and the tremendous steam rams he saw there. While in New Orleans, Burnside offered Mr P five hundred thousand dollars, a debt due from him to Mr P, and he refused to take it.* He said the money was safer in Burnside's hand than in his. And so it may prove—ugly as the outlook is now. Burnside is wide awake. He is not a man to be caught napping."
*John S. Preston sold his extensive Louisiana sugar plantations to John Burnside, a New Orleans merchant, in 1857. These holdings helped make Burnside the greatest sugar planter in the state during the 1860s.
The soldiers have done their duty.
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| Panoramic view of New Orleans, 1862, Federal fleet at anchor in the river |
All honor to the Army. Statesmen busy as bees about their own places or their personal honor—too busy to see the enemy at a distance. With a microscope they were examining their own interest or their own wrongs, forgetting the interest of the people they represent. They were concocting newspaper paragraphs to injure the government. No matter how vital, nothing—nothing—can be kept from the enemy. They must publish themselves night and day and what they are doing, or the omniscient Buncombe will forget them.
This fall of New Orleans means utter ruin to the private fortunes of the Prestons. Mr P came from New Orleans so satisfied with Mansfield Lovell and the tremendous steam rams he saw there. While in New Orleans, Burnside offered Mr P five hundred thousand dollars, a debt due from him to Mr P, and he refused to take it.* He said the money was safer in Burnside's hand than in his. And so it may prove—ugly as the outlook is now. Burnside is wide awake. He is not a man to be caught napping."
*John S. Preston sold his extensive Louisiana sugar plantations to John Burnside, a New Orleans merchant, in 1857. These holdings helped make Burnside the greatest sugar planter in the state during the 1860s.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
19 November 1861,
The Trent Affair
"Oh, for a growl from the British Lion. Look out for hoarse thunder. I have heard a British goddamn swear on St Catherine docks. I know how thoroughly they can do it.
Slidell and Mason seized under the Meteor Flag of England—and brought back to Fortress Monroe prisoners!*
Something good obliged to come out of such a stupid blunder. Yankees must bow their knee to the British—or fight them."
*Taken from the British ship Trent by the U.S.S. San Jacinto near Cuba on 8 November 1861, James Mason and John Slidell arrived at Fort Monroe, Virginia, on 15 November. Many, North and South, believed the incident would bring British recognition of the Confederacy and perhaps war between England and the Union.
Slidell and Mason seized under the Meteor Flag of England—and brought back to Fortress Monroe prisoners!*
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| John Slidell (left) and James Murray Mason, Confederate diplomats, taken captive by the U.S. Navy while en route to Britain and France |
Something good obliged to come out of such a stupid blunder. Yankees must bow their knee to the British—or fight them."
*Taken from the British ship Trent by the U.S.S. San Jacinto near Cuba on 8 November 1861, James Mason and John Slidell arrived at Fort Monroe, Virginia, on 15 November. Many, North and South, believed the incident would bring British recognition of the Confederacy and perhaps war between England and the Union.
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