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John Beatty, The Citizen-Soldier; or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, July, 1861. (search)
oon, not semi-circular, but blazing up like a great gaslight, and, finally, the full, round moon had climbed to the top, and seemed to stop a moment to rest and look down on the valley. July, 27 The Colonel left for Ohio to-day, to be gone two weeks. I came from the quarters of Brigadier-General Schleich a few minutes ago. He is a three-months' brigadier, and a rampant demagogue. Schleich said that slaves who accompanied their masters to the field, when captured, should be sent to Cuba and sold to pay the expenses of the war. I suggested that it would be better to take them to Canada and liberate them, and that so soon as the Government began to sell negroes to pay the expenses of the war I would throw up my commission and go home. Schleich was a State Senator when the war began. He is what might be called a tremendous little man, swears terribly, and imagines that he thereby shows his snap. Snap, in his opinion, is indispensable to a military man. If snap is the only th
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in a Black Regiment, Chapter 7: up the Edisto. (search)
, already mentioned. I wrote it down in tent, long after, while the old man recited the tale, with much gesticulation, at the door; and it is by far the best glimpse I have ever had, through a negro's eyes, at these wonderful birthdays of freedom. De people was all a hoein‘, mas'r, said the old man. Dey was a hoein‘ in the rice-field, when de gunboats come. Den ebry man drap dem hoe, and leff de rice. De mas'r he stand and call, Run to de wood for hide! Yankee come, sell you to Cuba! run for hide! Ebry man he run, and, my God! run all toder way! Mas'r stand in de wood, peep, peep, faid for truss [afraid to trust]. He say, Run to de wood! and ebry man run by him, straight to de boat. De brack sojer so presumptions, dey come right ashore, hold up dere head. Fus' ting I know, dere was a barn, ten tousand bushel rough rice, all in a blaze, den mas'r's great house, all cracklin‘ up de roof. Did n't I keer for see 'em blaze? Lor, mas'r, did n't care notin‘ at a
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)
ld world is increasing, requiring us to expand and acquire new territory from time to time, in order to give our people land to live upon. If we live upon the principle of State rights and State sovereignty, each State regulating its own affairs and minding its own business, we can go on and extend indefinitely, just as fast and as far as we need the territory. The time may come, indeed has now come, when our interests would be advanced by the acquisition of the Island of Cuba. When we get Cuba we must take it as we find it, leaving the people to decide the question of slavery for themselves, without interference on the part of the Federal Government, or of any State of this Union. So, when it becomes necessary to acquire any portion of Mexico or Canada, or of this continent or the adjoining islands, we must take them as we find them, leaving the people free to do as they please — to have slavery or not, as they choose. I never have inquired and never will inquire whether a new St
John G. Nicolay, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln, condensed from Nicolay and Hayes' Abraham Lincoln: A History, Chapter 18. (search)
at the same time, absorbed greater public attention, and for a while created an intense degree of excitement and suspense. Ex-Senators J. M. Mason and John Slidell, having been accredited by the Confederate government as envoys to European courts, had managed to elude the blockade and reach Havana. Captain Charles Wilkes, commanding the San Jacinto, learning that they were to take passage for England on the British mail steamer Trent, intercepted that vessel on November 8 near the coast of Cuba, took the rebel emissaries prisoner by the usual show of force, and brought them to the United States, but allowed the Trent to proceed on her voyage. The incident and alleged insult produced as great excitement in England as in the United States, and the British government began instant and significant preparations for war for what it hastily assumed to be .a violation of international law and an outrage on the British flag. Instructions were sent to Lord Lyons, the British minister at Was
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events, Diary from December 17, 1860 - April 30, 1864 (ed. Frank Moore), 1861, July (search)
o the command of the National forces on the upper Potomac, was issued to-day.--(Doc. 106.) General Cadwallader of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, was honorably discharged from the service of the United States.--General Order, War Department, No. 46. Brigadier-General John Pope, commanding the National troops in Northern Missouri, issued a proclamation to the people of that district, warning all persons taken in arms against the Federal authority, who attempt to commit depredations, or who molest peaceful citizens, that they will be dealt with, without awaiting civil process. --(Doc. 107.) In general orders of this date, Maj.-Gen. McClellan expresses his satisfaction with and confidence in the soldiers of his command, the Army of the West; and recapitulates their recent exploits.--(Doc. 108.) All of the vessels previously reported as prizes to the privateer Sumter, and by her sent into a Cuban port, were liberated by the Captain-General of Cuba.--N. Y. Express, July 29.
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 7: Secession Conventions in six States. (search)
mount them. The arrangement for the Wyandot and Supply to anchor near Fort Pickens was not carried out; and, to the astonishment of Slemmer, he was informed that Commodore Armstrong had ordered both vessels away, the former to the south side of Cuba, and the latter to her final destination off Vera Cruz, with coals and stores for the Home Squadron there. He remonstrated, but in vain. That night Captain Berryman sent him some muskets which he had procured, with difficulty, from the Navy Yarde gunners. strange restrictions. Captain Berryman was ordered not to fire a shot unless his vessel should be attacked. In case Pickens should be assailed, the Wyandot must be a passive spectator! She might as well have been on the south side of Cuba, if these instructions had been obeyed. Slemmer was now left to his own resources. He was in one of the strongest forts on the Gulf coast, but his garrison consisted of only eighty one souls, officers and men. There were fifty-four guns in pos
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 15: siege of Fort Pickens.--Declaration of War.--the Virginia conspirators and, the proposed capture of Washington City. (search)
e utmost, if he should attempt to take possession of and occupy Fort Taylor. The disaffected were so numerous that Brannan was compelled to act with the greatest circumspection. At one time it seemed impossible for him to be of any practical service to his country, so completely was he in the power of the secessionists, civil and military. At that time the United States steamer Mohawk, Captain T. A. Craven, was cruising for slave-ships in the vicinity of the Florida Keys and the coast of Cuba; and at about the time of Mr. Lincoln's election, November 6, 1860. Captain (afterward Quartermaster-General) M. C. Meigs arrived, to take charge of the works at the Tortugas. He went by land, and was satisfied from what he heard on the way that an attempt would be made by the secessionists to seize the forts at the Keys, for their possession would be an immense advantage to the conspirators in the event of war. It was determined to defeat their designs, and to this end Captain Meigs wor
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 23: the War in Missouri.-doings of the Confederate Congress. --Affairs in Baltimore.--Piracies. (search)
aptain William Perry, of South Carolina; one of which was captured by an armed Government vessel, and the other was destroyed by one. The Savannah was a little schooner which had formerly done duty as pilot-boat No. 7, off Charleston harbor. She was only fifty-four tons burden, carried one 18-pounder amidships, and was manned by only twenty men. At the close of May she sallied out from Charleston, and, on the 1st of June, captured the merchant brig Joseph, of Maine, laden with sugar, from Cuba, which was sen t into Georgetown, South Carolina, and the Savannah proceeded in search of other prizes. Three days afterward, June 3, 1861. she fell in with the National brig Perry, which she mistook for a merchant vessel, and approached to make her a prize. When the mistake was discovered, the Savannah turned and tried to escape. The Perry gave The Savannah. hot pursuit, and a sharp fight ensued, which was of short duration. The Savannah surrendered; and her crew, with the papers of
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2., Chapter 6: the Army of the Potomac.--the Trent affair.--capture of Roanoke Island. (search)
er of Corcoran, the eminent banker of Washington City. The Theodore touched first at Nassau, New Providence, a British port, where blockade-runners and Confederate pirate-ships always found a welcome and shelter during the war, and thence went to Cuba. At Havana, the Ambassadors were greeted with the most friendly expressions and acts, by the British Consul and other sympathizers, and there they took passage for St. Thomas, Nov. 7, 1861. in the British mail-steamer Trent, Captain Moir, intend2. in the track of that vessel in the Bahama Channel, two hundred and forty miles from Havana, and awaited its appearance. He was gratified with that apparition toward noon on the 8th of November, when off Paredon del Grande, on the north side of Cuba, and less than a dozen miles distant. On the appearance of the Trent, all hands were called to quarters on the San Jacinto, and Lieutenant D. M. Fairfax, a kinsman of Mason by marriage, was ordered to have two boats in readiness, well manned an
Admiral David D. Porter, The Naval History of the Civil War., Chapter 37: operations of the East Gulf Squadron to October, 1863. (search)
vy could show his high appreciation of Bailey's gallantry and devotion to his country's service. The limits of this command extended along the Florida Peninsula from Cape Canaveral on the east, to Pensacola on the west. Up to December, 1863, the little squadron under Bailey had exercised the greatest watchfulness along the coast, had captured many prizes, and had apparently broken up the illicit traffic by which the Confederates had been supplied with munitions of war. Lying adjacent to Cuba, and at no great distance from the English possessions of Nassau and Bermuda, the coast of Florida presented many available points for the introduction of all kinds of material by means of small vessels that could enter the shallow harbors, streams and inlets with which this State abounds. But notwithstanding the advantages these small craft possessed for eluding the blockaders, they could not carry on their trade with impunity. From the time that Bailey took command, up to the end of the
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