Your search returned 232 results in 80 document sections:

1 2 3 4 5 6 ...
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., Washington on the Eve of the War. (search)
representatives of the Southern States would oppose and denounce the project. What force, then, would the Government have at its disposal in the Federal District for the simple maintenance of order in case of need? Evidently but a handful; and as to calling thither promptly any regular troops, that was out of the question, since they had already all been distributed by the Southern sympathizers to the distant frontiers of the Indian country,--Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington Territory. In December, 1860, the military forces of the United States consisted of 1,108 officers and 15,259 men of the regular army; total, 16,367. The distribution of the army may be inferred from the map printed on page 8, and from the following memorandum (made on the 6th of December, 1875), by Adjutant-General E. D. Townsend, exhibiting certain changes in the stations of troops made under the orders of the Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, during the years 1858-60 : After the remo
Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, San Francisco-Early California experiences-life on the Pacific coast-promoted Captain-Flush times in California (search)
few weeks at Benicia barracks, and then was ordered to Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River, then in Oregon Territory. During the winter of 1852-3 the territory was divided, all north of the Columbia River being taken from Oregon to make Washington Territory. Prices for all kinds of supplies were so high on the Pacific coast from 1849 until at least 1853-that it would have been impossible for officers of the army to exist upon their pay, if it had not been that authority was given them to The only potatoes we sold were to our own mess. While I was stationed on the Pacific coast we were free from Indian wars. There were quite a number of remnants of tribes in the vicinity of Portland in Oregon, and of Fort Vancouver in Washington Territory. They had generally acquired some of the vices of civilization, but none of the virtues, except in individual cases. The Hudson's Bay Company had held the North-west with their trading posts for many years before the United States was re
J. B. Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, chapter 42 (search)
t is said were surprised and defeated last Sunday, with loss of 400 men, 500 horses, and 4 pieces of artillery. A rumor prevails that Early has gained another victory near Winchester. No news yet from our agent sent to North Carolina to purchase supplies, but we learn flour and bacon are not held one quarter as high there as here. I do sincerely hope Grant's raiders will keep quiet until I can get something to eat! August 11 Hot and dry. Dispatches from secret agents at Washington state that Grant and his staff have arrived, that half his army preceded him, and the remainder will soon follow. The campaign is considered a disastrous failure, and it is anticipated that henceforth the scene of operations is to be transferred from Richmond to Washington. They say President Lincoln's face expresses great terror, and affairs there are in a critical condition. A dispatch from Gen. Lee states that Gen. Bradley Johnson's brigade of cavalry was surprised and routed on the
Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Debates of Lincoln and Douglas: Carefully Prepared by the Reporters of Each Party at the times of their Delivery., Third joint debate, at Jonesboro, September 15, 1858. (search)
when I put the question to Mr. Lincoln, whether he will vote for the admission with or without slavery, as her people may desire, he will not answer, and you have not got an answer from him. In Nebraska slavery is not prohibited by act of Congress, but the people are allowed under the Nebraska bill, to do as they please on the subject ; and when I ask him whether he will vote to admit Nebraska with a slave Constitution if her people desire it, he will not answer. So with New Mexico, Washington Territory, Arizonia, and the four new States to be admitted from Texas. You cannot get an answer from him to these questions. His answer only applies to a given case, to a condition-things which he knows does not exist in any one Territory in the Union. He tries to give you to understand that he would allow the people to do as they please, and yet he dodges the question as to every Territory in the Union. I now ask why cannot Mr. Lincoln answer to each of these Territories? He has not done
General James Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, Chapter 1: the Ante-bellum life of the author. (search)
nd found my company with seven others of the regiment at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, in the autumn of 1842. Of the class graduating the year that we entered were G. T. Beauregard and Irvin McDowell, who, twenty-three years later, commanded the hostile armies on the plains of Manassas, in Virginia. Braxton Bragg and W. J. Hardee were of the same class. The head man of the next class (1839) was I. I. Stevens, who resigned from the army, and, after being the first governor of Washington Territory, returned to military service, and fell on the sanguinary field of Chantilly on the 1st of September, 1862. Next on the class roll was Henry Wager Halleck, who was commander-in-chief of the United States armies from July, 1862, to March, 1864. W. T. Sherman and George H. Thomas, of the Union army, and R. S. Ewell, of the Confederate army, were of the same class (1840). The class of 1841 had the largest list of officers killed in action. Irons, Ayers, Ernst, Gantt, Morris, and Burban
Philip Henry Sheridan, Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army ., Chapter IV (search)
The object of the second expedition was to retrieve this disaster. The force was composed of a small body of regular troops, and a regiment of Oregon mounted volunteers under command of Colonel James W. Nesmith--subsequently for several years United States Senator from Oregon. The whole force was under the command of Major Rains, Fourth Infantry, who, in order that he might rank Nesmith, by some hocus-pocus had been made a brigadier-general, under an appointment from the Governor of Washington Territory. We started from the Dalles October 30, under conditions that were not conducive to success. The season was late for operations; and worse still, the command was not in accord with the commanding officer, because of general belief in his incompetency, and on account of the fictitious rank he assumed. On the second day out I struck a small body of Indians with my detachment of dragoons, but was unable to do them any particular injury beyond getting possession of a large quantity
Philip Henry Sheridan, Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army ., Chapter V (search)
ilization. Acting under these influences, the Spokanes, Walla Wallas, Umatillas, and Nez Perces cast their lot with the hostiles, and all the savage inhabitants of the region east of the Cascade Range became involved in a dispute as to whether the Indians or the Government should possess certain sections of the country, which finally culminated in the war of 1856. Partly to meet the situation that was approaching, the Ninth Infantry had been sent out from the Atlantic coast to Washington Territory, and upon its arrival at Fort Vancouver encamped in front of the officers' quarters, on the beautiful parade-ground of that post, and set about preparing for the coming campaign. The commander, Colonel George Wright, who had been promoted to the colonelcy of the regiment upon its organization the previous year, had seen much active duty since his graduation over thirty years before, serving with credit in the Florida and Mexican wars. For the three years previous to his assignment t
Philip Henry Sheridan, Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army ., Chapter II (search)
to await Kershaw's division and Cutshaw's artillery, now on their return. By the morning of the 25th the main body of the enemy had disappeared entirely from my front, and the capture of some small squads of Confederates in the neighboring hills furnished us the only incidents of the day. Among the prisoners was a tall and fine looking officer, much worn with hunger and fatigue. The moment I saw him I recognized him as a former comrade, George W. Carr, with whom I had served in Washington Territory. He was in those days a lieutenant in the Ninth Infantry, and was one of the officers who superintended the execution of the nine Indians at the Cascades of the Columbia in 1856. Carr was very much emaciated, and greatly discouraged by the turn events had recently taken. For old acquaintance sake I gave him plenty to eat, and kept him in comfort at my headquarters until the next batch of prisoners was sent to the rear, when he went with them. He had resigned from the regular army
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1, Chapter 36: Third year as Secretary of War. (search)
from Florida was making satisfactory progress. During the year Indian hostilities in the West, Texas, New Mexico, and the Pacific, had been of frequent occurrence. The Sioux had been chastised in Kansas and Nebraska, and the Indians in Texas guilty of outrages upon frontier inhabitants and emigrants had been summarily punished by the troops sent against them. At the date of the report news had just reached the Department of the outbreak of Indian hostilities in Oregon and the Territory of Washington. The Secretary again renewed, and with increased emphasis, his former recommendations for a revision of the laws regulating rank and command, and for a reorganization of the army, so that the right of command should follow rank by one certain and determinate rule; that officers who hold commissions which entitle them to the command of troops should not, at an early period of the service, be placed permanently in positions on the staff which afford no opportunity for increasing m
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events, Diary from December 17, 1860 - April 30, 1864 (ed. Frank Moore), 1861, June (search)
ractising at a target on a low piece of ground, about a mile from Grafton, Va., five or six shots were fired upon the men by rebels, from a concealed position, without effect. A scouting party was sent out, and some five or six rebels, with arms in their hands, were captured and brought into camp. Among the rest were three of the Poe family, father and two sons, most notorious desperadoes.--National Intelligencer, June 26. The proclamation of Henry M. McGill, acting governor of Washington Territory, in response to the call of President Lincoln for troops, is published.--(Doc. 31.) Charles Henry Foster, in an address to the freemen of the First Congressional District of North Carolina, announced himself as a Union candidate for the United States Congress as follows: fellow-citizens: I hereby announce myself as an unconditional Union candidate for the Congress of the United States from this District. The usurpations of your Governor, and the revolutionary acts of your
1 2 3 4 5 6 ...