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Judith White McGuire, Diary of a southern refugee during the war, by a lady of Virginia, 1864. (search)
he wilderness were sent South. I went to the Monumental Church this morning. Mr. -- read the service, and Mr. Johnston, of Alexandria, preached. Wednesday, may 11, 1864. The last three days have been most exciting. The enemy on the south side of the river have made heavy demonstrations; their force is perhaps 40,000; ours not half that number. The militia, the City Battalion, and the clerks have gone from Richmond. They have had a heavy fight at Port Walthall, and another near Chester, in which we had, upon the whole, the advantage of them. In the mean time a large body of raiders are going over the country. They have cut the Central Railroad, and burnt three trains of cars, laden with provisions for General Lee's army, and are doing all manner of mischief to public and private property. Not a word can we hear from General Lee, except through private telegrams sent from Guiney's Station. The wires (telegraph) above that place have been cut. Our accounts from Guiney's
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 53: battle of Drury's Bluff, May 16, 1864. (search)
ederate troops which had been ordered from Charleston under Beauregard, on May 14th reached the intrenched lines in the vicinity of Drury's Bluff. Butler moved forward again to confront them. General Robert Ransom said, in a monograph upon this battle: Beauregard, with headquarters at Charleston, had been urged to send up troops from his department, but none had arrived. Butler had moved up so as to cut the telegraph on the turnpike, and reach by a raiding party the railroad at Chester, during the first week in May. I was near Drury's Bluff with a battery of light guns and Barton's and Gracie's brigades, and our company of irregular cavalry. The President came to my camp, and finding out the state of affairs, asked if anything could be done to retard Butler's movements, stating that as Beauregard would not send troops, he had been peremptorily ordered to bring them, and that some were on the way. Knowing that audacity was my best arm, the next morning, with perfect leis
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events, Diary from December 17, 1860 - April 30, 1864 (ed. Frank Moore), 1862, May (search)
E, Twenty-seventh Indiana volunteers, (Colonel Gazlay's,) stationed with a squad of forty-eight men to guard a bridge at Elkton station, twelve miles from Athens, Ala., was attacked by six hundred rebel cavalry, under Col. Tom. Woodward, of Kentucky, and after a fight of half an hour, was captured, with all his men, five of them being killed. Captain C. was severely wounded. The rebels lost thirteen, who were buried at Athens.--Nashville Union, June 5. Two guerrillas were hung at Chester, Va., this day.--The House of Representatives adopted a resolution tendering its thanks to Major-General George B. McClellan, for the display of those high military qualities which secure important results with but little sacrifice of human life. --A fight took place at Slater's Mills, Va.--(Doc. 106.) General Paine's division of the Union army of the South-west was attacked in position two miles beyond Farmington, Mississippi, by the rebel division of Gen. Bragg. Bragg was held in check
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Volume 4., chapter 4.27 (search)
hment of Dearing's command, acting as an escort to General T. M. Logan, one of the bearers of my instructions to General Whiting the day before, who had come, with the utmost celerity and through great danger, to inform me that I need not rely on any advance being made that day by General Whiting. From him I also learned that Dearing, impatient at his commander's tardiness to obey my orders, and desirous of accelerating General Logan's return to me, had encountered the enemy's pickets near Chester, and had gallantly driven them in, forcing them back as far as the Half-way House and capturing a large number of stragglers; that there was great demoralization among the Federal troops; that nothing would have prevented Whiting from capturing the entire force of General Butler, had he followed my instructions. I ordered the original formation of our lines to be resumed, and General Hoke was directed to send two regiments along the Court House road to flank the enemy at that point, if p
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Volume 4., General Lee in the Wilderness campaign. (search)
of Northern Virginia and was compelled to communicate his suggestions to General Beauregard through General Bragg and the War Department at Richmond. This marred greatly the unity, secrecy, and celerity of action so absolutely essential to success. That he considered this separation of commands, and the consequent circuitous mode of communication with its uncertain results, a very grave matter is plain from the telegrams which he sent at this time. General Beauregard had telegraphed from Chester (half-way between Richmond and Petersburg), on May 30th, 5:15 P. M., as follows: War Department must determine when and what troops to order from here. I send to General Bragg all information I obtain relative to movement of enemy's troops in front. This called forth the following telegrams: The first dispatch is from the original in possession of General T. F. Rodenbough. The dispatch to Jefferson Davis is from the original in possession of the Massachusetts Commandery of the
Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler, Appendix. (search)
y 20, 1864, 10 P. M. (Received 7.40 A. M., May 21st.) Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War: Have been fighting all day. Enemy are endeavoring to close in on our lines. We shall hold on. Have captured rebel General Walker, of Texas troops. General Sheridan is at White House, and has sent for a pontoon bridge, which I have forwarded him. Have also sent one of my army gunboats with launches up the Rappahannock, as requested. B. F. Butler, Major-General. [no. 60. see page 669.] near Chester, May 30, 1864, 10 P. M. Gen. R. E. Lee, at Lee's Station: Hoke's division and Read's battalion of artillery have been ordered to report to you forthwith. I will follow with Johnson's as soon as enemy's movements here will permit. G. T. Beauregard. [no. 61. see page 670.] headquarters Department of Virginia and North Carolina, Half-Way House, May 14, 1864. General:--You are authorized to make the change in the troops indicated. Fort Powhatan is a very important position. Require
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 9. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), Some reminiscences of the Second of April, 1865. (search)
ched Greensboro, N. C. Here it was understood that Johnston was soon to capitulate — which he did. Here was the last I saw of President Davis, until I met him some years afterwards in Louisville; for I got back to Louisville, Kentucky, from Greensboro, North Carolina, by this circuitous rout, to-wit: From Greensboro to Charlotte N. C. on horseback, camping out at night on account of the large number in our party; from Charlotte to Chester S. C, by rail, carrying our horses on the cars; from Chester via Newberry, where I bought a horse for $7,000, to Augusta, Georgia, on horseback, before reaching which we were met by the horrible intelligence of the assassination of President Lincoln; stopping at the Planters' House, where I first paid $50, then $100, and before I left only $2.50 a day for board, and where I ordered of a merchant tailor a pair of cassimere pantaloons, for which I paid him $1,000; from Augusta again on horseback to Halifax county, Virginia, passing through South Caroli
Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Chapter 45: (search)
he turned off to cross the Chickahominy, and that night he was routed by the cavalry command of our gallant cavalier General Wade Hampton. Thus ended the combined movement with which Northern papers had regaled their readers by announcing as made with instructions to sack the rebel capital. During the first week in May, Major General B. F. Butler landed at Bermuda Hundred with a considerable force, and moved up so as to cut the telegraph line and reach by a raiding party the railroad at Chester, between Richmond and Petersburg. General Ransom, then in command of the defenses at Richmond and those of Drewry's Bluff, with a small force attacked the advance of General Butler, and after a sharp skirmish compelled him to withdraw. Meantime, because of the warning which Stuart had sent, General Ransom was summoned to Richmond to resist an impending assault by General Sheridan on the outer works north of the city. Taking the two disposable brigades of Gracie and Fry and a light batt
Raphael Semmes, Memoirs of Service Afloat During the War Between the States, Chapter 30: (search)
ng the British merchants, by the different cruises in the European sea, that have been recorded in this chapter, is stated in the diplomatic correspondence of the day to have been greater than that produced in the previous war by the squadron of the celebrated Thurot. Insurance rose to an enormous height, and in speaking of the cruise of Captain Wickes, in particular, Mr. Deane observes in one of his letters to Robert Morris, that it effectually alarmed England, prevented the great fair at Chester, occasioned insurance to rise, and even deterred the English merchants from shipping in English bottoms, at any rate, so that, in a few weeks, forty sail of French ships were loading in the Thames, on freight, an instance never known before. In the same letter the Commissioner adds: In a word, Conyngham, by his first and second bold expeditions, is become the terror of all the eastern coasts of England and Scotland, and is more dreaded than Thurot was in the late war. This same Captai
Alfred Roman, The military operations of General Beauregard in the war between the states, 1861 to 1865, Chapter 85: (search)
eral Beauregard, however, no longer doubting, from the character of the attack and the accumulated proofs of every kind then before him, that, on the evening of the 17th, most of General Grant's forces had been brought against Petersburg, and knowing that the reinforcement of one division would be to no purpose, at 6.40 P. M. on the 17th telegraphed General Lee as follows: Petersburg, June 17th, 1864:6.40 P. M. General R. E. Lee, Clay's House On south side of James River. (also to Chester, Va.): The increasing number of the enemy in my front, and inadequacy of my force to defend the already much too extended lines, will compel me to fall within a shorter one, which I will attempt to effect to-night. This I shall hold as long as practicable, but, without reinforcements, I may have to evacuate the city very shortly. In that event I shall retire in the direction of Drury's Bluff, defending the crossing at Appomattox River and Swift Creek. G. T. Beauregard, General. He a
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