Capture of Jackson, Mississippi

 

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Civil War Harper's Weekly, May 30, 1863

Welcome to our online archive of Harper's Weekly newspapers. We have put our extensive collection of these original newspapers online for your study and research. These papers are full of unique content you will not see anywhere else.

(Scroll Down to See Entire Page, or Newspaper Thumbnails below will take you to the page of interest)

 

Blockade Runner

Vicksburg Blockade Runner

Vallandigham Arrested

Vallandigham Arrested

Capture of Jackson

Capture of Jackson, Mississippi

Port Gibson

Port Gibson

Kilpartick Raid

Kilpatrick's Cavalry Raid

Death of Stonewall Jackson

Death of Stonewall Jackson

Stonewall Jackson Obituary

Stonewall Jackson Obituary

Raven

The Raven Poem

Louisiana Campaign

General Banks's Louisiana Campaign

Cavalry Raid

Cavalry Raid

Cavalry

Cavalry

 

 

 

 

MAY 30, 1863.]

HARPER'S WEEKLY.

339

MAP OF THE VICINITY OF VICKSBURG AND JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, SHOWING THE THEATRE OF GENERAL GRANT'S OPERATIONS.

(Previous Page) The picture is a "composition," like the Heart of the Andes. That is to say, it represents Switzerland, and no particular scene in Switzerland; so that whoever has seen the cliffs, the lakes, the mighty mountains, and the cold gleam of glaciers among sunny clouds, will sit and sit before this picture, and look and look, until all the beauty and the grandeur of that land, all its sublimity and terror, all its tenderness and romance, fill his mind once more, as when, long ago, he leaned upon his Alpen-stock, and, listening to some echoing jodel among the heights, gazed down upon Luzerne or the Four Cantons.

The fore-ground of the picture is a projecting point of the cliffs which overhang a lake, by the side of which we see the meadows far below us. The placid water fills the middle distance; and beyond it, on the opposite shore, the castellated precipices rise and catch the earliest sunlight on their tops. But the whole depth and distance are filled with the mountains tossed up to the sky and mingled with the clouds—a mass of infinite shadowy depth and variety, swelling vast and dark and mysterious from the lake up to shining fields of eternal snow. Whoever has looked from the Weissenstein in the Jura across the valley of the Aar to the Bernese Alps has seen this marvelous spectacle. It was Switzerland at a glance. It is the Switzerland that lives in memory forever.

Mr. Gignoux has reproduced the Swiss landscape with a freshness, freedom, and fidelity that justify and enhance his high reputation as one of our chief masters of landscape.

POLICY AND RIGHT.

IN his late speech in Parliament Mr. Cobden shows England very clearly what risk she runs in provoking a war:

"How many of the ships which float upon the salt water belong to British capitalists? The lowest estimate I have heard formed of the number of these vessels, as entered through the insurance offices in the city and other quarters, shows that we have upon an average from £100,000,000 to £120,000,000 sterling worth of the property of British capitalists on the seas. Rest assured no other country has £30,000,000 worth, and that you have as much property at stake upon the ocean as all the rest of the world put together. You have, moreover, 10,000,000 people in the year to feed upon food brought from foreign countries. You get three-fourths of the tea and four-fifths of the silk from China; more than one half of the tallow and hemp from Russia; there is more cotton, more wheat, more Indian corn brought to us than to any other country. You are so powerful here in your island home that you can set the world at defiance; but the moment you begin a war of reprisals your commerce is the most vulnerable of any. ["No, no!"] Honorable gentlemen who deny the truth of that statement do not understand the position of the commerce of England."

To these risks observers upon our side of the sea add the probable loss of Canada and troubles in Ireland.

But we must remember that wars are not waged or prevented by considerations of policy alone. The wisest statesman in England, Edmund Burke, was opposed to the American war simply upon the ground of expediency. "I am not here going into the discussion of rights, nor attempting to mark their boundaries." "My consideration is wholly limited to the policy of the question." These were his words. He thought the war inexpedient, but Britain went to war. So now the shrewdest statesman in England may show the impolicy of war as conclusively as Burke, and we may calculate the harm our privateers will inflict upon British commerce; but, for all that, Britain may still be willing to go to war.

If, then, whatever may be the right between us, we think a war is now inexpedient, it is our duty to refrain from provoking it. Such a course can not dishonor us. No man with both hands engaged is dishonored by declining another fight. Of course whoever tempts him to it opens an account for future settlement.

LITERARY.

"Grape Culture, Wine and Wine-making, with notes upon Agriculture and Horticulture," by A. Haraszthy, Commissioner to report on the improvement and culture of the vine in California, is the title of a very interesting and valuable book, a Cyclopedia of Wines and Wine-making, just published by the Harpers. Mr. Haraszthy is a Hungarian by birth, but a naturalized American citizen, and was sent out under admirable auspices, both individual and national, to make a tour of examination in Europe. The results of his travel and study are in this work.

"The American Publishers' Circular" in a new form, Vol. I., No. 1, to be published on the 1st and 15th of each month, is issued by G. W. Childs, Philadelphia. This is a most convenient and attractive literary gazette, and will be invaluable to all who wish to know exactly what new books there are, by whom they are published, what their character is, and what is the current gossip of literary circles.

Dr. Draper's "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe" is a treatise upon the law of progress in civilization, soon to be issued by the Harpers. The scope of the work is necessarily not unlike that of Buckle's History of Civilization; but it was nearly completed when Buckle's book appeared. Such a work is like an egg. It must be excellent or it is worthless. But Dr. Draper has already established his position as a scholar and thinker, and his history will be a remarkable contribution to literature.

At last Englishmen begin to see how humiliating for them Kinglake's "History of the Crimean War" is. That the brilliancy of the book should have blinded them at first to what is conspicuous in it to all the rest of the world is surprising. But the Edinburgh Review opens upon him fiercely. It is pained to think how he has traduced the noble Gallic cock which is so fraternally allied to the British lion. And certainly Kinglake has

brought the present wearer of that gorgeous plumage to the bar of the world. But he does not traduce France. He exposes what he thinks the conspiracy which has stolen the name of France, and by murdering, imprisoning, and exiling leading soldiers and statesmen, by absolutely controlling the press, and by a perfect system of espionage, succeeds in holding France subject to its will. Louis Napoleon was said to have muttered, "C'est ignoble," when he had read it; and no copy of the work, and no notice of it or extract from it, is permitted in France. If it is true, it is, indeed, a portrait of the celebrated British lion which makes him ignoble indeed.

Mr. Edmund Kirke, a mask of which the secret has been well kept, has written another work upon Southern life, "My Southern Friends," published by Carleton. His previous book, "Among the Pines," is one of the most vivid pictures ever drawn of the melancholy condition of a society founded in the nineteenth century upon principles and systems which even the eighteenth century had long outgrown, and which Christian civilization repudiates. "My Southern Friends" is a supplementary sketch of the same interest of subject and vigor of treatment.

NEW MUSIC.

MR. WALTER RUSSELL JOHNSTON, the young organist at St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church in New York, has composed a very pleasing and richly-harmonized "Ave Maria," published by Pond & Co., which we cordially commend to our readers who are looking for a new and interesting "piece."

HUMORS OF THE DAY.

A NICE SPRING BONNET.

CUTLETS and other forms of meat are sometimes dressed a la Jardiniere. So are bonnets, according to the ensuing entry in Le Follet:

"An elegant Leghorn bonnet was edged with green ribbon. On this ribbon, which was quite flat, were placed here and there cherries, fastened together two by two, and falling so as to form a bunch. At the edge of the front a large bouquet of real corn."

The idea of this elegant bonnet suggests various reflections. If the cherries adorning it were real, as well as the corn, the fair wearer would be much run after; chiefly, however, by pursuers whom she might not much care about—the boys. Decorated with real fruits and vegetables, the bonnet a la Jardiniere, might suggest the inquiry:

"Mary, Mary,

Quite contrary,

How does your bonnet grow?"

There would be no difficulty in trimming a bonnet with mustard and cress, grown in a strip of moist flannel, or plush; and thus this new thing in bonnets might be nicely fringed all round the front with a border of salad. It would look sweetly pretty, and the trimming would be soon fit to cut; and then some days would have to elapse before another could be grown. In the mean time a new bonnet would be immediately necessary; which would be just the thing for the majority of young ladies.

BOYISH FREAK.—The other day a carpenter's son, aged six years, who had been left alone in his father's work-shop, was disturbed while engaged in the painful operation of screwing up his eyes. He was immediately taken to a surgeon.

CURIOUS METAMORPHOSIS.—Wonders will never cease! the other day we heard that "a horse was turned into a stable!" and this is the boasted Nineteenth Century.

"Was your son engaged before he went to the war?" asked Mrs. Rugg of a neighbor.

"No, but he has had several engagements since," she replied.

Among the addresses presented upon the accession of James I. was one from the ancient town of Shrewsbury, wishing his Majesty might reign as long as the sun, moon, and stars endured. "Faith, men," said the King to the person who presented it, "if I do, my son then must reign by candle-light."

Why didn't the last dove return to the ark?—Because she had sufficient ground for remaining.

"Good-morning, Mr. Jenkins! Where have you kept yourself this long time?"

"Kept myself! I don't keep myself—I board on credit!"

"Prevention is better than cure," as the pig said when it ran away with all its might to escape the killing attentions of the butcher.

"Too big for his business," as the lady said to the sweep who stuck in the chimney.

When a fiddler poisons himself with laudanum he may be said to have had too much of the base vial.

BAD ENGLISH.—Swearing.

An Irishman recently handed in to the Telegraph Office a dispatch intended to inform another Emeralder, employed upon the public works in a neighboring town, of the decease of a friend. It reads thus: "Barney, come home; I died last night."

A leading maxim with almost every politician is always to keep his countenance, and never to keep his word.

CONSOLING. — Losing a small fortune in an unlucky speculation, and all your friends wondering how you could have been such a fool.

A gentleman at table remarked that he could not endure fish unless it was well cooked. "This," said the waiter (as he handed him a plate of the desired dish), "is, I hope, suf-fish-ciently cooked to suit, Sir?" "Well, yes," replied the gentleman, as he tasted it, "it is done a good eel better than I anticipated it would be."

"Who is that with Miss Flint?" "Oh, that is a spark which she has struck," said a wag.

"Why don't your father take a newspaper?" said a gentleman to a little urchin, whom he caught in the act of pilfering one from his door-step. "'Cause he sends me to take it."

A philosopher being asked what was the first thing necessary toward winning the love of a woman, answered, "An opportunity."

"Boy, what is your name?" "Robert, Sir." "Yes, that is your Christian name; but what is your other name?" "Bob, Sir."

"Sally," said a swain to his intended, "give me a kiss, will you?" "No, I sha'n't," said Sally, "help yourself."

A consumptive man has a hollow cough, but a bankrupt merchant has a hollow coffer.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.
THE CAPTURE OF JACKSON.

THE capture of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, by the Union army of General Grant, is fully confirmed by the admission of the Vicksburg and Jackson papers, and by dispatches from Mobile and Chattanooga. General Hurlbut telegraphs from Cairo to General Halleck that this fact is stated by the above authorities. The rebel General Gregg abandoned Raymond on Tuesday, the 12th. On the next day he was reinforced by General Walker, of Georgia, at Mississippi Springs; but their combined forces were driven back to Jackson on Thursday. Our troops then followed and took possession of the city from the east. General Joe Johnston arrived at Jackson the day previous, but pushed on with three brigades toward Vicksburg. General Grant at last accounts had struck the railroad at Edward's Station, about eighteen miles from Vicksburg.

TELEGRAMS FROM GENERAL GRANT,

General Grant, under date of May 11, telegraphed to General Halleck as follows:

"My force will be this evening as far advanced along Fourteen Mile Creek, the left near Black River, and extending in a line nearly east and west, as they can get without bringing on a general engagement.

"I shall communicate with Grand Gulf no more, except it becomes necessary to send a train with a heavy escort.

"You may not hear from me again for several days."

General Grant also telegraphed General Halleck, from Raymond, Mississippi, on the 14th instant, as follows:

"McPherson took this place on the 12th inst., after a brisk fight of more than two hours.

"Our loss was fifty-one killed and one hundred and eighty wounded. The enemy's loss was seventy-five killed (buried by us) and one hundred and eighty-six prisoners captured, besides the wounded.

"McPherson is now at Clinton. General Sherman is on the direct Jackson road, and General McClernand is bringing up the rear.

"I will attack the State capital to-day."

RUMORED EVACUATION OF VICKSBURG.

The following is a telegram from General Hurlbut, dated Memphis, and received at Washington on 19th:

General Grant has taken Jackson. The Capitol is burned.

From five to ten thousand mounted men are concentrated near Okolona, threatening an advance in the direction of the Memphis Railroad.

A citizen just up from Jackson reports that the enemy abandoned Vicksburg on Sunday, marching on the ridge northeast to Livingston, which is twenty miles northwest of Jackson.

COLONEL GRIERSON'S CAVALRY RAID.

The cavalry raid of Colonel Grierson with his gallant Illinois cavalry was a magnificent success. He cut his way through the enemy's country with two regiments of cavalry, destroying on his route four millions of rebel property, capturing over a thousand men and twelve hundred horses, demolishing a camp of instruction with all its equipments, cutting the communication on the Great Northern and New Orleans and Jackson railroads, and destroying a large number of cars, telegraph-wire, water-tanks, and army stores. After passing through many dangers and working terrible damage he arrived at Baton Rouge on the 1st inst., to the great surprise of the inhabitants. From thence he pushed on to New Orleans, where he was received with great eclat. The whole movement only occupied seventeen days.

ANOTHER CAVALRY DASH.

A dispatch received from the commandant of the Tennessee division of the Mississippi squadron—S. L. Phelps —states that Colonel Breckinridge, of the First West Tennessee cavalry, with fifty-five men, dashed across the country from the Tennessee River to Linden, on the 12th inst., and surprised a rebel force more than twice his number, capturing Lieutenant-Colonel Frierson, a captain, one surgeon, four lieutenants, thirty rebel soldiers, ten conscripts, fifty horses, two army wagons, arms, etc. The court-house, which was the rebel depot, was burned, with a quantity of army supplies. The troops, with their prisoners, returned on board the gun-boats.

CAPTURE OF ALEXANDRIA.

We have accounts of the capture of Alexandria, on the Red River, by Admiral Porter.

REBEL DEMONSTRATION IN KENTUCKY.

The rebels are making a demonstration in Kentucky. Dispatches from Cincinnati, dated 18th, say that the rebel force in Wayne and Clinton counties is increasing. They are said to have seventeen thousand men and fourteen pieces of artillery. Four rebel regiments of infantry have passed through Jamestown, and twenty-four more regiments are reported at Morristown, East Tennessee. General Buckner is said to be at Clinton. There are rebel pickets on the Cumberland River at every available point. A letter from Richmond, Kentucky, says that the rebels have crossed the Cumberland, which is rapidly falling. These movements are regarded as indications of an attempt to outflank General Rosecrans at Murfreesboro.

A REBEL RAID.

Time movements of the rebel General Mosby, with his cavalry, in Virginia, continue to create some solicitude. It is said that he has descended the valley of the Shenandoah with a force of 800 men, and is making forays through the country northward, probably with a view to cut the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. At last accounts he was in the mountain, in Loudon County, in the vicinity of Lovettsville, and his movements tending toward Leesburg.

HOW OUR PRISONERS FARE IN DIXIE.

That brute, Captain Turner, a few days ago had charge of some of our prisoners from Richmond to City Point, and caused a man of the 119th Pennsylvania to be bayoneted because he could proceed no further. The villain would not give the poor fellow even a drink of water. A soldier of an Ohio regiment, taken at Rome, Georgia, was shot on Wednesday while reaching for a cracker at Belle Isle Prison. Our prisoners were compelled to walk from their places of capture at Fredericksburg to Richmond, thence to City Point. Some gave out on the march. A member of the 20th New York regiment died on the route.

DOINGS OF THE REBEL CONGRESS.

The first rebel Congress went out of existence at Richmond at ten o'clock on the night of the 1st instant. The most important measures passed during the session were a Taxation act for the support of the Government, the army,

and the navy; a Currency act, to promote the funding of Confederate notes in Confederate Bonds; the Impressment act, to authorize the seizure of all produce for army use; an act to organize a general staff for the army; the formation of a new flag, and the adoption of a new seal. The bill making it a penal offense to buy, sell, or circulate United States bonds and Treasury notes, or "greenbacks," was rejected in the Senate on the ground that the Constitution did not authorize Congress to provide any punishment for the crime which the House bill created. The acts providing for the election of members of Congress by general ticket, to authorize the conscription of resident foreigners, and for the repeal of all naturalization laws, were alto rejected. The joint resolutions offering terms of peace to the Northwestern loyal States were defeated in both Houses.

A BLACK ARMY CORPS.

General Banks has issued an order proposing the formation of an entire army corps of blacks, to be called the Corps d'Afrique.

THE SENTENCE OF VALLANDIGHAM.

Mr. Vallandigham has been sentenced to close imprisonment during the war in Fort Warren. This is the decision of the Court-Martial, as approved by General Burnside, but is, of course, subject to the judgment of the President.

MEETINGS TO PROTEST AGAINST IT.

A meeting to protest against the condemnation and sentence of Mr. Vallandigham was held at Albany on 16th. Some very strong speeches were made, and resolutions were adopted denouncing the arrest as an unwarrantable assumption of military power. Governor Seymour sent a letter to the meeting characterizing the arrest as "an act which has brought dishonor upon our country, which is full of danger to our persons and our hones, and which bears upon its front conscious violation of law and justice." A similar meeting was held here on 18th under the auspices of Fernando Wood. It proved a fizzle.

FOREIGN NEWS.
ENGLAND.

MR. ADAMS'S SPEECH TO THE TRADE UNIONS.

ON the 2d instant a deputation of the Trades Unionists waited upon Mr. Adams, the American Minister, to present the address recently adopted at a public meeting of that body, sympathizing with the North, and applauding President Lincoln for his Emancipation policy. Mr. Bright introduced the deputation and made a few remarks. Speeches were also made by several members of the deputation.

Mr. Adams having expressed the pleasure he felt at seeing so numerous a deputation of working-men before him, said: "Gentlemen, I accept with pleasure the duty you have imposed upon me in receiving your address to Mr. Lincoln. Representing, as I do, my country in England, you must be aware that I stand outside all local questions; therefore it is not my province to express dissatisfaction or satisfaction with those persons in England who express their opinions upon America. If there are any in this country who put a harsh construction on the conduct of the American Government, it is not my place to find fault or my right to criticise. It is my duty, however, to accept from the representatives of any body of Englishmen the favorable sentiments toward the Government I represent, and to reciprocate the frank, manly, and independent spirit in which they have been tendered. I understand, gentlemen, you attend here as representing large bodies of working-men, who advocate and uphold the rights of labor; and it is, therefore, but natural you should look with dislike upon any parties, in whatever countries they may exist, who infringe on those rights. You perceive that in the struggle now going on an attempt is made to establish a Government on the destruction of the rights of labor—a Government of physical power to take away the rights of labor. It is a question above all local right; it is a general principle, and therefore, though taking place in a foreign country, you have a right to express your opinion thereon. I accept the duty you impose on me with great pleasure, the more so as you have taken advantage of the occasion to speak on the question of war. I agree with your views. With two nations of the same race, of the same high spirit, both feeling proud of their superiority on the ocean, under present circumstances it would be indeed surprising if something should not spring up on that ocean which might occasion collision. I concur with you, gentlemen, as to the great forbearance which ought to be exhibited by both countries in construing the actions of each other. I trust that, in spite of all that has occurred, there is in the Government of each country a sufficient sense of responsibility, which will induce them to maintain friendly relations with each other. There must naturally be a feeling of pride, of fear lest one nation should appear to refrain from properly resenting what it might deem to be an offense, and in this lies the great danger. I feel confident, however, that if the two peoples of the two Governments would speak together in the same sense, in the same frank and unreserved terms as you have spoken to me this evening, all fear of any collision would be at an end. [Hear, hear.] I can assure you that, notwithstanding the speeches of some of my countrymen, notwithstanding the writings in some American journals, there is no nation under the sun for which America entertains a greater regard than England; and if the real sentiments of the people of each country can be clearly established to each other, I shall have no fear of their coming into collision. [Cheers.] I believe, gentlemen, you have taken the right course to produce this desirable understanding, and I shall undertake with great pleasure the duty of at once transmitting your address to President Lincoln." [Cheers.]

RUSSIA.

THE POLISH QUESTION.

The Russian replies to the notes of England, France, Spain, Italy, and Sweden, on the Polish question, had been received. Prince Gortchakoff defines the position of the Czar, both toward Poland and all her western friends, substantially in the state-papers addressed to England and France. In both of those countries the reply gave satisfaction; but the London press was of opinion that the one forwarded to the Cabinet of St. James was not just is explicit with respect to promises of reforms for Poland as was desired. The Paris Moniteur of the 5th instant says: "It is easy to be convinced, upon reading these documents, that they open a path to projects of conciliation, and that they contain the bases of negotiations likely to lead to a common understanding between the different Courts now seeking the means of upholding the legitimate interests of Poland."

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