Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2., Chapter 1: effect of the battle of Bull's Run.--reorganization of the Army of the Potomac.--Congress, and the council of the conspirators.--East Tennessee. (search)
n a deep tin case provided for the purpose, when Mr. Ely was directed to draw one out, the officer whose name it should bear to be held as hostage for William Smith, convicted of piracy.
The lot fell upon Colonel Corcoran, then a prisoner in Castle Pinckney, in Charleston harbor.
The names of the other thirteen hostages were drawn in the same way. They were: Colonels Lee, Wilcox, Cogswell, Wood, and Woodruff; Lieutenant-Colonels Bowman and Neff; Majors Potter, Revere, and Vogdes; and Captains Rockwood, Bowman, and Keffer.--Journal of Alfred Ely, Nov. 10, 3861, pages $10 to 216, inclusive. The latter, as we have observed, were, for the sake of humanity, treated as prisoners of war, and in due time the hostages were exchanged.
On the establishment of the so-called government at Richmond, Davis's committee of advisers, whom he dignified with the title of Cabinet, was reorganized.
R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, had become his Secretary of State.
Judah P. Benjamin, his law officer, w
un early in the morning of the 5th.
May, 1864. Preparations for it had not been unobserved by the Confederates, who were standing on the defensive, with heavy forces at points, en echelon, between the Rapid Anna and Gordonsville, and were exceedingly vigilant.
Lee's scouts, in the thickets of The Wilderness, and his signal officers on the lofty summit of Clark's Mountain, had carefully watched the movements of the Nationals,
John Sedgwick.
this is from a fine photograph, from life by Rockwood, of New York City. and when these had fairly developed Grant's intentions, the Confederate commander, with singular boldness and skill, changed his front, and proceeded to foil his antagonist.
From Lee's center, near Orange Court-House, about twenty miles from the prescribed line of march of the Nationals, two roads running eastwardly, almost parallel to each other, penetrated and passed through The Wilderness.
One (the more northerly) was an old turnpike, the other a plank road.
Along
d proceed to destroy the bridge of the Charleston and Memphis Railroad across Bear Creek, I proceeded at once to execute the order.
My command consisted of 100 picked men of the following companies of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry: Company E, Captain Rockwood; Company G, Lieutenant Harper; Company H, Lieutenant Fisk; Company L, Lieutenant Merriman, and Company M, Lieutenant Allshouse, with 20 men each.
We took the Chickasaw and Iuka road as far as Bear Creek, driving the enemy's pickets across to guard us on that side, and marched the balance of the force into a swamp within a quarter of a mile of the bridge, where I dismounted the men, a part of them to fight on foot and a part to use axes.
I ordered one platoon, under command of Captain Rockwood, to march down by the side of the railroad toward the bridge, and another, under command of Lieu tenant Fisk, to march in the same direction on the track, and at, the same time placed two platoons, one under Lieutenant Callon and the other u
ed supply of ammunition, and without a full complement of men. One of them lost a wheel, shot away on the thirteenth, but supplied from their limber.
On the fifteenth, the trail of another howitzer was broken, and it was rendered useless.
They fired all their ammunition, about fifty rounds to the piece.
The cavalry of the brigade (Fourth Illinois, Col. Dickey) did excellent service in reconnoitring and in holding the enemy in check on the right.
Lieut.-Col. McCollough, Major Wallace, Capt. Rockwood and Capt. Townsend are worthy of particular mention for services rendered.
The field-music and bands of the several regiments and corps rendered very effective service in taking care of the wounded, especially in the Eleventh and Twentieth regiments.
The band of the Eleventh lost their instruments.
The surgeons and hospital assistants of the entire command performed their painful and important duties in a manner highly creditable.
To Surgeon Goodbrake, Acting Brigade-Surgeon, I fee
ith a proposal from Col. White for a suspension of hostilities.
Capt. Pell inquired for what purpose, and was told that it was in relation to the surrender of the Fort and garrison.
Lieut. Hill was at once despatched for Gen. Parke, and after his arrival a truce was agreed upon until the next morning.
Communication was at once opened with Gen. Burnside, who still remained on the Alice Price, and Gen. Parke passed the night on board.
A conference was held between the two Generals, Commodore Rockwood and Col. White, at which the same terms as first proposed by Gen. Parke were offered and accepted, and the articles were duly signed.
Gen. Parke agreed to hold the garrison as prisoners of war, on parole not to reenlist until duly exchanged; the officers to retain their side-arms, and officers and men to have the privilege of saving their private effects.
the surrender.
At nine o'clock the garrison marched out by companies, stacked arms on the glacis, and remained in line until
ates.
As these measures are intended to repress the infamous attempt now made by the enemy, to commit judicial murder on prisoners of war, you will execute them, strictly, as the mode best calculated to prevent the commission of so heinous a crime.
The list of hostages, as returned by General Winder, was as follows: Colonels Corcoran, Lee, Cogswell, Wilcox, Woodruff, and Wood; Lieutenant-Colonels Bowman, and Neff; Majors Potter, Revere, and Vogdes, and Captains Ricketts, McQuade, and Rockwood.
These measures had the desired effect; the necessity, that the Federal Government was under of conciliating the Irish interest, contributing powerfully thereto—Colonel Cor coran, the first hostage named, being an Irishman of some note and influence, in New York.
President Lincoln was accordingly obliged to take back his proclamation, and the Savannah prisoners, and Smith, were put on the footing of prisoners of war. But this recantation of an attempted barbarism had not been honestly mad
he humane treatment of rebel prisoners in Fort Warren.
I am informed, from trustworthy sources, that our soldiers who are prisoners of war at Richmond are neither well fed nor well clothed, and they are subjected to the most rigid military surveillance, and occasionally exposed to the insulting language and demeanor of the populace of that city.
Some of their number—among whom I may mention Colonel Lee and Major Revere, of the Massachusetts Twentieth Infantry, and Captains Bowman and Rockwood, of the Massachusetts Fifteenth (all of them gentlemen and soldiers, who have no superiors, in any sphere of human life, in all those qualities which ought to command respectful treatment)—are imprisoned in felon's cells, fed on felon's fare, in a common jail; huddled together in a space so narrow that there is not air enough for health or comfort; allowed, for exercise, to promenade half an hour each day on a narrow pathway surrounding their prison; and especially exposed to disease, by t
their salvation.
The great rebellion was to be put down, and its promoters crushed beneath the ruins of their own ambition; and now, he says,—
When the beauty of their Israel has been slain in our high places, and when her Lee and Revere, Rockwood and Bowman, lie in felon's cells, and hundreds of her sons wear out their hearts in sad captivity,—victims of their valor, and devotion to our Union,—one irrepressible impulse moves our people, and inspires our people in the field; one prayer toh was referred to the Committee on Federal Relations, that the Governor be requested to communicate with the President of the United States in regard to obtaining the release of Colonel Lee and Major Revere of the Twentieth Regiment, and of Captains Rockwood and Bowman of the Fifteenth Regiment, who are confined as hostages, in a felon's cell in Richmond, for captured rebel privateersmen.
Jan. 8. In the Senate—Mr. Stockwell, of Suffolk, from the Committee on Printing, reported in favor of p
to Mrs. Stowe by her English admirers in 1853xi
Portrait of Mrs. Stowe's grandmother, Roxanna Foote.
From a miniature painted on ivory by her daughter, Mrs. Lyman Beecher6
Birthplace at Litchfield, Conn.10
Portrait of Catherine E. Beecher.
From a photograph taken in 1875.30
The home at Walnut Hills, Cincinnati
From recent photographs and from views in the Autobiography of Lyman Beecher, published by Messrs. Harper & Brothers.56
Portrait of Henry Ward Beecher.
From a photograph by Rockwood, in 1884 .130
Manuscript page of Uncle Tom's Cabin (fac-simile)160
The Andover home.
From a painting by F. Rondel, in 1860, owned by Mrs. H. F. Allen186
Portrait of Lyman Beecher, at the age of eighty-seven.
From a painting owned by the Boston Congregational Club . 264
Portrait of the Duchess of Sutherland.
From an engraving presented to Mrs. Stowe.318
The old home at Hartford374
The home at Mandarin, Florida402
Portrait of Calvin Ellis Stowe.
From a photograph taken in
Portr
on the day after authentic information was received that Captain Smith had been put to death.
Thirteen others, drawn by lot, were placed in close confinement to await the issue of the hanging of the crew of the Savannah.
They were as finally settled—Captains Ricketts and Mc-Quade, who had drawn fatal numbers, on account of their wounds being substituted by others—Colonels Lee, Cogswell, Wilcox, Woodruff and Woods; Lieutenant-Colonels Bowman and Neff; Majors Potter, Revere and Vogdes; Captains Rockwood, Bowman and Keffer. None of the privateers were executed, and the hostages were subsequently released and exchanged.
An interesting episode took place in relation to Colonel E. Raymond Lee, of Boston, in connection with these transactions.
A few days before he had been designated, at the request of the prisoners, to go North on parole to procure clothing, blankets, etc., for their use during the approaching winter.
The papers had been prepared, and he expected to leave on his huma
