A Youth's History of the Great Civil War
Van Evrie, Horton & Co., ©1866
Revised edition, ©2006 www.ronie-mooney-encs.us
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CHAPTER XLI, THE OPENING EVENTS OF 1864
ANOTHER year had now rolled around, and yet the South was not whipped. The year 1863 had closed with gloom to the Confederates. But still their spirits seemed as firm as ever. The year 1864 opened more auspiciously. General Rosser's raid into Western Virginia in January, and Pickett's expedition against Newbern, North Carolina, in February, had both been successful, and materially assisted in dispelling the despondency.
But greater operations than these were soon to transpire favorably to the Confederates. General Sherman, with thirty-five thousand men, started early in February on an expedition from Vicksburg, marching eastwardly. He was supported by the cavalry of Generals Smith and Grierson, and it is supposed his design was the capture of Mobile; but he failed utterly. General Forrest fell upon the Federal cavalry and cut it to pieces, and General Sherman, having advanced as far as Meridian, Mississippi, and finding himself without support, retraced his steps.
Finding he could not conquer, he fell to marauding and pillaging. While at Meridian he sent out detachments and burnt or desolated Enterprise, Quitman, Hillsboro, Canton, Decatur,Lauderdale Springs, and other towns in Mississippi, destroying the provisions of the inhabitants and robbing them of their valuables. It is said he drove off not less than 10,000 negroes from the plantations, many of whom were taken to Vicksburg and forced into the army.
The next unlucky expedition the Federals attempted, was that commanded by a rampant abolition officer, one General Truman Seymour. He tried to penetrate the interior of Florida, but having marched as far as Olustee, he was there met by General Finnegan, with a small Confederate force, who whipped the negro-loving general so severely that he ran almost back to Jacksonville before he stopped.
I have now to relate a still more remarkable defeat. This time it is General Banks, whom Stonewall Jackson so soundly whipped in Virginia. Mr.Lincoln had sent General Bands to New Orleans, in place of Butler. In March, he concocted, in connection with Admiral Porter's fleet, an expedition up the Red River against Shreveport. The real object of this movement was "to steal cotton," but General Banks called it a military expedition.
When General Banks arrived at a place called Mansfield, he found something in his path. It proved to be Generals Kirby Smith and Dick Taylor, with an army. A battle took place, in which General Banks was literally "whipped out of his boots." He fell back to a place called Pleasant Hill, and there he got whipped again the next day. At night he ran away, and did not stop until he got under the shelter of Admiral Porter's fleet at Grand Encore. From thence he fell back to Alexandria, and was in a great hurry to get back to New Orleans.
Admiral Porter, too, came very near being caught with all his fleet. The Red River fell very suddenly, and he could not get his boats over the rapids at Alexandria. So he was forced to dam up the waters of Red River, which he did as speedily as possible and thus he got his boats away.
Thus ended General Banks' military exploits, for he soon after returned to Massachusetts, where they elected him to Congress.
Besides these marked successes of the Confederates, they had been very active with their cavalry. General Forrest, after defeating Smith and Grierson, had moved into Kentucky, going even into Paducah and Columbus. Mosby was almost every day surprising the Federal outposts in the vicinity of Washington.
Colonel John S. Mosby was one of the most daring partisan chiefs in the Confederate service. He was here, there, and everywhere. Intimately acquainted with all the country about Washington, he scarcely allowed the abolition crowd there a chance to sleep. Time and again they had tried to catch him by all sorts of devices, but he was too much for them every time.
I have now to relate one of the most remarkable episodes of the war. On the 28th of February, General Kilpatrick, with 5000 picked men, started on a raid to Richmond. When he set out vague hints were given in the abolition papers that the country would soon he startled by great events. This man, Kilpatrick, was a low, brutal fellow, and well adapted to any vile work, as we shall see before we get through with what we are relating.
After he reached Beaver Dam, near Richmond, he divided his force into two parts, which took different directions. One portion he commanded himself. The other was placed in charge of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, a giddy, foolish, impulsive young man, who probably did not even realize what a criminal errand he was on.
Kilpatrick reached the outer defences of Richmond, and though there was scarcely any force to resist him, he seems to have got frightened, and, satisfied with boasting that he had seen Richmond, galloped off towards the Peninsula.
Dahlgren, more impulsive and fool-hardy, resolved to fight, and though there was nothing but a regiment of boys, mostly clerks in Richmond, to oppose him, yet he was badly whipped and tried to retreat. His command broke up into squads. Riding along, he saw a few Confederates, and supposing they were skulkers, he shouted,
"Surrender!"
"Fire," cried Lieutenant Pollard, who commanded the young men, and the next moment poor Dahlgren was dead.
And now comes the remarkable part of this story. From papers found on young Dahlgren's body, it was discovered that the object of the expedition was to release the Federal prisoners confined in Richmond, to destroy and burn the city, and kill Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet!
It is not necessary to give these papers in full here, but the above is their purport. The abolition papers denied the authenticity of these documents, and declared that they were forged by the Confederates. It certainly seems almost impossible to believe that such a horrible crime as the cool and deliberate murder of Davis and his cabinet could have been contemplated, and yet, if the alleged papers are authentic, there is no room to doubt it.
Upon this point I will quote the authority of Mr.D.A.Pollard, the Southern historian. He says; "Yankee newspapers, with consistent hardihood, disputed the authenticity of these papers. The writer, whose relative was engaged in the affair, and who himself was familiar with all the incidents relating to these papers, may assert most positively that there is not a shadow of ground to question their authenticity. He saw the originals. In half an hour after they were found, they were placed in the hands of General Fitzhugh Lee; and the soiled folds of the paper were then plainly visible. The words referring to the murder of the President and his Cabinet were not interlined, but were in the regular context of the manuscript. The proof of the authenticity of the papers is clinched by the circumstance that there was also found on Dahlgren's body a private notebook, which contained a rough draft of the address to his soldiers, and repetitions of some of memoranda in the papers. The writer has carefully examined this note-book--a common memorandum pocket-book, such as might be bought in New York for fifty cents-in which are various notes, some in ink and some in pencil; the sketch of the address is in pencil, very imperfectly written, as one who labored in composition, crosses and re-crossed. It does not differ materially in context of language from the more precise composition, except that the injunction to murder the Confederate leaders is in the rough draft made with this additional emphasis,'kill on the spot.'"
Right here the terrible thought comes up, if this be true, these men would never have dared to attempt the deed referred to, if it had not received the open or secret sanction of higher authority! People may doubt whether Lincoln and Seward could have been guilty of even such a thought; but when we remember into what monsters fanaticism has transferred men in all ages of the world, we are prepared to believe anything possible. How many thousands of people have been killed in cold blood by men, while lifting up their hands to heaven, and claiming they were doing God service.
And this abolition fanaticism or delusion is no exception to the general rule. How many otherwise good people have been led to sanction war, and all sorts of cruelty, to crush out what they believe, or think they believe, is a sin. This whole war shows how abolitionism brutifies mankind, and crushes out all the generous traits of humanity from those who have come thoroughly under its influence.
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