Day 62. May 1, 1862.

May Quotes:

Edward Ayers: But there was nothing simple or inevitable about anything related to the Civil War.

Belligerent Muse: Five Northern Writers and How They Shaped our Understanding of the Civil War Stephen Cushman P. 142

But the language of military history, whether written by a participant in events treated by that history or by someone narrating those events one hundred years later, tends to promote explanation over surprise. In doing so, however, it may be forfeiting a crucial connection to the strange and unprofessional, the inexplicable and indecorous, which also formed part of the historical truth….

Hannah Arendt: ….if a patent forgery…. is believed by so many people…. the task of the historian is no longer to discover a forgery…. the forgery is being believed. This fact is more important than the…. circumstance that it is forgery.

Frederick the Great: Tell my soldiers what they really fight for, & the ranks would be empty in the morning.

Malcolm X: Revolution is never based on begging somebody for an integrated cup of coffee. Revolutions are never fought by turning the other cheek. Revolutions are never based upon love-your-enemy and pray-for-those-who-spitefully-use-you. And revolutions are never waged singing ‘We Shall Overcome.’ Revolutions are based upon bloodshed.

Ron Paul: What if the American people woke up and understood that the official reasons for going to war are almost always based on lies and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests?

Albert Camus: Be careful, when a democracy is sick, fascism comes to its bedside, but not to get news from it.

62

forty-five thousand Federal troops were converging on Jackson….

May Thursday 1^st

Quite cloudy this morning. It rained the grater part of the night. I slept in the ambulance last night. I slept very well all night. This morning at 8oclock we took up the line of march for New Market. We had quite a mud tramp some rain or showers. We passed through Mt Jackson. We saw where there was some of the confederate was buried. There was three large buildings which had been built lately. One was about 125 feet long the other two was occupied for Hospitals by our own men. We came on through the grate Shanandoa fleet where Gen Grant* of the Rebel army he owns 2000 acres which he paid 200 000 dollars for it 7 years ago. We came on 3 miles South of New Market to camp Coburn. We travel 16 miles today where our Brigade was. We put up the tents. Raining this evening

*Unless this is the biggest scoop in American history, “Gen Grant of the Rebel army” was actually with the North. Likely Ephraim is referring to Lee, who at that time owned the “old Custis place” that McClellan writes of May 14.

Note: According to several sources, including Robert K. Krick, weather of the first five days of the month has been lost to history. What is known is it ranged from the early to late 50’s to begin each day.

Terrible Swift Sword Bruce Catton P. 293

“By the first of May, when McClellan was almost ready to open his bombardment at Yorktown and Johnston was almost ready to foil him by departing, the general Confederate situation in Virginia was desperate. On the peninsula, Johnston with 55,000 men faced an army approximately twice that large. At Norfolk, which was about to be abandoned, the Confederate Major General Benjamin Huger had 10,000 soldiers, who presumably would join Johnston; they were balanced by 12,400 Federals under old General Wool at Fort Monroe, who would eventually be put under McClellan’s command. In northern Virginia, from the Shenandoah Valley to the tidewater city of Fredericksburg, there were some 75,000 Federal troops in the separated commands of McDowell and Banks and in the Washington lines. In addition, Pathfinder Frémont had upwards of 17,000 scattered up and down the mountain valleys of western Virginia; he was beginning to pull them together and was contemplating a move south to break the railroad line that connected Virginia and Tennessee. To meet this immense array—which, for all anyone in Richmond knew, might at any moment be welded into one army—the Confederacy had 13,000 men under Brigadier General Joseph R. Anderson, below the Rappahannock watching McDowell; 6000 or more under Stonewall Jackson in the upper Shenandoah; 2800 under Brigadier General Edward Johnson west of Staunton, to keep an eye on Frémont; and 8500 under Major General Richard Ewell, poised at one of the gaps in the Blue Ridge, ready at need to join Jackson against Banks or to move east and join Anderson against McDowell. Since the Confederate authorities had a fairly accurate count on Federal strength, a simple exercise in addition was all anyone needed in order to understand the inadequacy of Confederate manpower in Virginia.”

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era James McPherson P. 454

“In May 1862, prospects for the Confederacy’s survival seemed bleak. Most of the Mississippi Valley had fallen to the enemy. In Virginia, McClellan’s army of 100,000 had advanced to within hearing of Richmond’s church bells.** Irvin McDowell’s corps, which Lincoln had held near Fredericksburg to cover Washington, prepared to march south to join McClellan’s right wing. This would give the Union forces closing in on Richmond some 135,000 men, about twice the total that Joseph E. Johnston could bring against them. Although McClellan’s past performance suggested that he would lay siege to Richmond rather than attack Johnston’s army, the fall of the Confederate capital seemed only a matter of time.”

**The church bells. Southerners could hear hours ticking away until of course they started melting them down for ordnance. Meantime, Little Mac’s dispatches to Lincoln, each one bringing darker news than the last. Here I am, says he, & keeps doing nothing. Needs more cowbell.

[Telegram.]

“Executive Mansion, May 1, 1862.

Major-General McClellan.

Your call for Parrott guns from Washington alarms me, chiefly because it argues indefinite procrastination. Is anything to be done?

A. Lincoln.”

Also note: By now there must be a betting pool in the Oval Office behind L’s back, how long until he utterly melts down about McClellan.

Nature’s Civil War: Common Soldiers and the Environment in 1862 Virginia Kathryn Shively Meier P. 122 Hospital Organization

“Particularly after April 1862, the U.S. Medical Department had undergone a significant reorganization, increasing the number of surgeons and medical staff and the ranks of medical officers. “The medical organization of a regiment consists of a surgeon with an assistant, together with a hospital steward and a dispenser of medicines. There may be other officers, but there are at least these,” read an article in the Christian Recorder. It then detailed the structures involved in serving the soldiers: “Every regiment has its own hospital, and if a suitable building is not at hand, one or more large tents are furnished for this purpose by the quartermaster.” It even equipped the reader to calculate the number of hospitals. “The number of the hospitals in our present army may be estimated by ascertaining the number of regiments and brigades. If five hundred regiments are in the whole field, there will be five hundred hospitals, in addition to the large number of Division and General Hospitals– the latter of which are principally in the cities.” While the estimates were overly generous, they did give readers a sense of overall organization and available resources.”

Note: 1865:

The Civil War The Final Year: Told by Those Who Lived It Edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean P. 717-718 Diary of Samuel T. Foster, of the 34^th Texas Cavalry had joined the Army of Tennessee, and wrote this entry near Greensboro, North Carolina.

“WHAT WERE WE FIGHTING FOR”:

NORTH CAROLINA, APRIL-MAY 1865

May 1^st 1865

“Have just heard the best sermon that it has ever been our good fortune to hear before. Rev. JB McFerrin preached to us out in the open woods, the men sitting on the ground, and the preacher holding one book while the other is on the ground.

His text is Revelations 11^th Chapter, and the latter part of the 10^th verse “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a Crown of life–” The congregation joined in the singing with their whole souls and for prayer all without an exception knelt down, and for the sermon it held those rough weatherbeaten soldiers spell bound for more than an hour by the eloquence of the preacher– It was a time long to be remembered.

In the evening we receive our parols, which read as follows—

Greensborough

North Carolina

May 2^nd 1865

In accordance with the terms of the military convention entered into on the twenty-sixth day of April 1865 between General Joseph E. Johnson Commanding the Confederate Army: and Major General W.T. Sherman, Commanding the United States Army in north Carolina, S T Foster Company “I” Granburys Brigade Consolidated, has given his solemn obligation not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly released from this obligation; and is permitted to return to his home, not to be disturbed by the United States Authorities so long as he observes this obligation and obey the laws in force where he may reside

SM Litchee

Maj & CM U.S.A.

Special Commission”

Note: Lincoln’s letter April 1863 to Democrats: “You are dissatisfied with me about the negro. Some of the commanders of our armies in the field who have given us our most important successes, believe the emancipation policy, and the use of colored troops, constitute the heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion. You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but, no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively to save the Union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. There will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while, I fear, there will be some white ones, unable to forget that, with malignant heart, and deceitful speech, they have strove to hinder it.”

Note: Forward to 1869:

https://www.clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/the-secret-life-and-letters-of-general-george-gordon-meade/

Note: Grant & Lee will meet just once after the war: May 1, 1869. Lee was by then President of Washington College, & Grant had been U.S. President for two months. It is generally agreed that Grant made a joke about destroying railroads, at which Lee did not laugh, & you can just picture the withering air between them. The war itself was not broached. This is General Meade’s account at, yes, our– & Hays’– favorite hotel, the Willard:

WILLARD HOTEL
May 2, 1869

“To Mrs. George G. Meade

Today I accompanied General Howard, whom you will remember from West Point, to attend services at his church, the First Congregational at 10th and G streets. The regular minister preached his final sermon on Sunday last and has since departed under a cloud, taking half the congregation with him and alleging many improprieties by Howard who claims the cause of the split is to be found in their different desires for the future of the negro race, a question of integration versus independent development. He has always been quite the radical and remains a familiar of the Grant administration, for whom he heads the Bureau of Freedmen.

Speaking of Grant, I shall not soon forget the events of yesterday morning. The President was ensconced in the lobby at Willard’s and somehow espying me through the fog created by cigars and brandy even at such an early hour, insisted that I accompany him to the White House as he was expecting a person of great importance and of both our acquaintance. As we walked the two blocks of the city, Grant confided in me that the best of his former army staff such as Rollins, Dent, Porter, and Badeau were either with him at the White House or were named Sherman, which he found vastly amusing. Upon reaching his new home he inadvertently called the doorkeeper “Meade,” although that worthy servant politely corrected him to “Pendel” more than once as he slipped the chain to allow us entry to the second floor.

Leaving me quite alone in the secretary’s anteroom, Grant went into his office and closed the door. To my surprise, only one hour later John Motley, our former Ambassador to the Austrians, came into the room followed within a few minutes by none other than General Lee and a civilian couple. I rose at once and held out my hand, but he only gave me his hat, understandably confusing me with the absent secretary. All four personages then entered Grant’s office, and the door was once again closed. Grant made loud and boisterous sallies about destroying southern railroads, the inexplicable result at Gettysburg, had Lee visited the new cemetery at Arlington and the like, but Lee is soft-spoken and I was unable to hear his necessarily brief replies if any.

After no more than ten minutes, a visibly embarrassed General Lee and his party took their leave and he [sic] his hat from me with a brief word of thanks. Grant emerged, also flushed in the face, to say that he’d forgotten my presence but hoped I had enjoyed almost catching up with Lee for a change, before once again vanishing into his office. I sat for a time bemused by his behavior and then left to return to the hotel and my abandoned breakfast plans.

As I walked I fell to pondering why a subordinate commander humiliated at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg should obtain the honor of having a university named after him and a good position within a presidential administration, while another and more significant leader who shone at those same battles may receive no more recognition than a gold medal of Congress, an honorary law degree from Harvard, and an onerous military department.

My business here in that most tiresome matter of Reconstruction being almost concluded, I anticipate returning to Philadelphia on Tuesday next.”

Note: General Johnston retreats up the Peninsula in May 1862.

Note: On this day a in a year, a Joint Resolution signed by President Davis will read, “….negroes or mulattoes, slave or fess, taken in arms should be turned over to the authorities in the state in which they were captured and that their officers would be tried by Confederate military tribunals for inciting insurrection and be subject, at the discretion of the court and the president, to the death penalty.” The resolution also included all White officers captured while leading them. So there you have it. Jeff wanted everyone not-Jeff dead.

saw where there was some of the confederate was buried….

The Portent

“Hanging from the beam,

Slowly swaying (such the law),

Gaunt the shadow on your green,

Shenandoah!

The cut is on the crown

(Lo, John Brown),

And the stabs shall heal no more.

Hidden in the cap

Is the anguish none can draw;

So your future veils its face,

Shenandoah!

But the streaming beard is shown

(Weird John Brown),

The meteor of the war.”

Note: On May 13, 1861, John Tebbutt stood that night looking at the sky from Australia & “detected a faint nebulous object.” C/1861 J1 1861 II was a comet that cast a shadow at night, & for two days Earth was within the comet’s tail, and “streams of cometary material converging toward the distant nucleus could be seen,” when it sailed itself into the outer stretches of the atmosphere that are held close to Earth in solar winds.

With each return, a comet brings the same questions we asked when it was here before. Behold the sign. It came before it was discovered (eerie to think of all the things unseen yet nevertheless right there if we just glance at the right place in the right second), & cast shadows at night & they saw it in telescopes until May 1862. It was here in the middle of the 15^th century too, & too it will return in the 23^rd. It will migrate the same way from century to century the way American wars move decade to decade, as each generation calculates its own new bearing on the sky & the Civil War, which may become more real in this future none of us alive will walk around in.

The “Comet of the War” lit across the sky like a massive stretchmark like how a cornea clouds quicker if you die with your eyes open, the streams of cometary material bleeding liberty, dust & light reflecting the sunlight making its tail bright, one long colorless flame beyond the laws of this or any other world. The Great Comet of 1861 became visible for three months just by looking up at the sky. Its last perihelion was June 12, 1861 with an orbital period of 408 years. In 2063 it reaches its aphelion, meaning it will get farthest from the sun it’s going to get. I guess then it starts turning around? I’ll be gone. You take over.

Wikipedia says July 2, 1861, Raphael Semmes, commander of the CSS Sumter wrote, “Day passed into night, and with the night came the brilliant comet again, lighting us on our way over the waste of waters. The morning of the second of July, our second day out, dawned clear, and beautiful, the Sumter still steaming in an almost calm sea, with nothing to impede her progress.”

More: Semmes wrote of the June 30 escape of his vessel from New Orleans: “The evening of the escape of the Sumter was one of those Gulf evenings, which can only be felt, and not described. The wind died gently away, as the sun declined, leaving a calm, and sleeping sea, to reflect a myriad of stars. The sun had gone down behind a screen of purple, and gold, and to add to the beauty of the scene, as night set in, a blazing comet, whose tail spanned nearly a quarter of the heavens, mirrored itself within a hundred feet of our little bark, as she ploughed her noiseless way through the waters.”

Another description: July 5, 1861, James Riley Robinson, on the schooner Conchita, in the Mexican harbor of Agiabampo: “I awoke in the night at 1 o’clock, when I had a glorious sight of the largest comet I ever beheld. The head, or nucleus, was large as Venus, and very bright and blazing, and about 20 degrees above the horizon, pointed to the north, while the bright, long tail reached full half way across the heavens. It was a most wonderful sight.”

Back to the War Comet, one last account, this from an Emily Holder standing in Fort Jefferson, FLA. “Its appearance was sublime, as it extended over nearly half of the heavens… many wondered if the world was not coming to an end.”

Note: And the warnings of what’s coming again in the old engravings of historical meteor storms with the long white billow-streak a majestic swath across a sky, or a vertical slit-cut pupil, a glassy refraction flashing on the camera lens to bring out what will appear later, already seeing but not able to warn of what is to become the physical manifestation of a million meteors, lights once living then knocked out. /This sentence seemed like a good idea when I wrote it years back, but now I’m… not… so… sure/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.31301/

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