Showing posts with label John B Turchin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John B Turchin. Show all posts

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Nineteenth Illinois Veterans.

The Nineteenth Illinois Veterans Club held a meeting at the Grand Pacific last evening, Colonel A. W. [Raffin] in the chair.  Letters of regret were read from General John B. Turchin and others who could not be present at the recent reception.

Comrade W. H. Christian offered the following resolution, which passed:

WHEREAS, It has come to the knowledge of this club that Captain O. E. Eames has prepared a paper giving incidents of the history of the Nineteenth Illinois Infantry, therefore,

Resolved, That he be requested to read the paper to this club at the next meeting.

After the transaction of routine business, the club adjourned to the first Tuesday in April.

SOURCE: “Nineteenth Illinois Veterans,” The Inter Ocean, Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, March 3, 1880, p. 8.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Diary of William Howard Russell: Chapter XLII

I shall here briefly recapitulate what has occurred since the last mention of political events.

In the first place the South has been developing every day greater energy in widening the breach between it and the North, and preparing to fill it with dead; and the North, so far as I can judge, has been busy in raising up the Union as a nationality, and making out the crime of treason from the act of Secession. The South has been using conscription in Virginia, and is entering upon the conflict with unsurpassable determination. The North is availing itself of its greater resources and its foreign vagabondage and destitution to swell the ranks of its volunteers, and boasts of its enormous armies, as if it supposed conscripts well led do not fight better than volunteers badly officered. Virginia has been invaded on three points, one below and two above Washington, and passports are now issued on both sides.

The career open to the Southern privateers is effectually closed by the Duke of Newcastle's notification that the British Government will not permit the cruisers of either side to bring their prizes into or condemn them in English ports; but, strange to say, the Northerners feel indignant against Great Britain for an act which deprives their enemy of an enormous advantage, and which must reduce their privateering to the mere work of plunder and destruction on the high seas. In the same way the North affects to consider the declaration of neutrality, and the concession of limited belligerent rights to the seceding States, as deeply injurious and insulting; whereas our course has, in fact, removed the greatest difficulty from the path of the Washington Cabinet, and saved us from inconsistencies and serious risks in our course of action.

It is commonly said, “What would Great Britain have done if we had declared ourselves neutral during the Canadian rebellion, or had conceded limited belligerent rights to the Sepoys?” as if Canada and Hindostan have the same relation to the British Crown that the seceding States had to the Northern States. But if Canada, with its parliament, judges, courts of law, and its people, declared it was independent of Great Britain; and if the Government of Great Britain, months after that declaration was made and acted upon, permitted the new State to go free, whilst a large number of her Statesmen agreed that Canada was perfectly right, we could find little fault with the United States Government for issuing a proclamation of neutrality the same as our own, when after a long interval of quiescence a war broke out between the two countries.

Secession was an accomplished fact months before Mr. Lincoln came into office, but we heard no talk of rebels and pirates till Sumter had fallen, and the North was perfectly quiescent — not only that — the people of wealth in New York were calmly considering the results of Secession as an accomplished fact, and seeking to make the best of it; nay, more, when I arrived in Washington some members of the Cabinet were perfectly ready to let the South go.

One of the first questions put to me by Mr. Chase in my first interview with him, was whether I thought a very injurious effect would be produced to the prestige of the Federal Government in Europe if the Northern States let the South have its own way, and told them to go in peace. “For my own part,” said he, “I should not be averse to let them try it, for I believe they would soon find out their mistake.” Mr. Chase may be finding out his mistake just now. (When I left England the prevalent opinion, as far as I could judge, was, that a family quarrel, in which the South was in the wrong, had taken place, and that it would be better to stand by and let the Government put forth its [strength] to chastise rebellious children. But now we see the house is divided against itself, and that the family are determined to set up two separate establishments. These remarks occur to me with the more force because I see the New York papers are attacking me because I described a calm in a sea which was afterwards agitated by a storm. “What a false witness is this,” they cry; “see how angry and how vexed is our Bermoothes, and. yet the fellow says it was quite placid.”

I have already seen so many statements respecting my sayings, my doings, and my opinions, in the American papers, that I have resolved to follow a general rule, with few exceptions indeed, which prescribes as the best course to pursue, not so much an indifference to these remarks as a fixed purpose to abstain from the hopeless task of correcting them. The “Quicklys” of the press are incorrigible. Commerce may well be proud of Chicago. I am not going to reiterate what every Crispinus from the old country has said again and again concerning this wonderful place — not one word of statistics, of corn elevators, of shipping, or of the piles of buildings raised-from the foundation by ingenious applications of screws. Nor am I going to enlarge on the splendid future of that which has so much present prosperity, or on the benefits to mankind opened up by the Illinois Central Railway. It is enough to say that by the borders of this lake there has sprung up in thirty years a wonderful city of fine streets, luxurious hotels, handsome shops, magnificent stores, great warehouses, extensive quays, capacious docks; and that as long as corn holds its own, and the mouths of Europe are open, and her hands full, Chicago will acquire greater importance, size, and wealth with every year. The only drawback, perhaps, to the comfort of the money-making inhabitants, and of the stranger within the gates, is to be found in the clouds of dust and in the unpaved streets and thoroughfares, which give anguish to horse and man.

I spent three days here writing my letters and repairing the wear and tear of my Southern expedition; and although it was hot enough, the breeze from the lake carried health and vigor to the frame, enervated by the sun of Louisiana and Mississippi. No need now to wipe the large drops of moisture from the languid brow lest they blind the eyes, nor to sit in a state of semi-clothing, worn out and exhausted, and tracing with moist hand imperfect characters on the paper.
I could not satisfy myself whether there was, as I have been told, a peculiar state of feeling in Chicago, which induced many people to support the Government of Mr. Lincoln because they believed it necessary for their own interest to obtain decided advantages over the South in the field, whilst they were opposed totis viribus to the genius of emancipation and to the views of the Black Republicans. But the genius and eloquence of the Little Giant have left their impress on the facile mould of democratic thought; and he who argued with such acuteness and ability last March in Washington, in his own study, against the possibility, or at least the constitutional legality, of using the national forces, and the militia and volunteers of the Northern States, to subjugate the Southern people, carried away by the great bore which rushed through the placid North when Sumter fell, or perceiving his inability to resist its force, sprung to the crest of the wave, and carried to excess, the violence of the Union reaction.

Whilst I was in the South I had seen his name in Northern papers with sensation headings and descriptions of his magnificent crusade for the Union in the West. I had heard his name reviled by those who had once been his warm political allies, and his untimely death did not seem to satisfy their hatred. His old foes in the North admired and applauded the sudden apostasy of their eloquent opponent, and were loud in lamentations over his loss. Imagine, then, how I felt when visiting his grave at Chicago, seeing his bust in many houses, or his portrait in all the shop-windows, I was told that the enormously wealthy community of which he was the idol were permitting his widow to live in a state not far removed from penury.

“Senator Douglas, sir,” observed one of his friends to me, “died of bad whiskey. He killed himself with it while he was stumping for the Union all over the country.” Well,” I said, “I suppose, sir, the abstraction called the Union, for which by your own account he killed himself, will give a pension to his widow,” Virtue is its own reward, and so is patriotism, unless it takes the form of contracts.

As far as all considerations of wife, children, or family are concerned, let a man serve a decent despot, or even a constitutional country with an economizing House of Commons, if he wants anything more substantial than lip-service. The history of the great men of America is full of instances of national ingratitude. They give more praise and less peace to their benefactors than any nation on the face of the earth. Washington got little, though the plundering scouts who captured Andre were well rewarded; and the men who fought during the War of Independence were long left in neglect and poverty, sitting in sackcloth and ashes at the doorsteps of the temple of liberty, whilst the crowd rushed inside to worship Plutus.

If a native of the British Isles, of the natural ignorance of his own imperfections which should characterize him, desires to be subjected to a series of moral shower-baths, douches, and shampooing with a rough glove, let him come to the United States. In Chicago he will be told that the English people are fed by the beneficence of the United States, and that all the trade and commerce of England are simply directed to the one end of obtaining gold enough to pay the Western States for the breadstuffs exported for our population. We know what the South think of our dependence on cotton. The people of the East think they are striking a great blow at their enemy by the Morrill tariff and I was told by a patriot in North Carolina, “Why, creation! if you let the Yankees shut up our ports, the whole of your darned ships will go to rot. Where will you get your naval stores from? Why, I guess in a year you could not scrape up enough of tarpentine in the whole of your country for Queen Victoria to paint her nursery-door with.”

Nearly one half of the various companies enrolled in this district are Germans, or are the descendants of German parents, and speak only the language of the old country; two-thirds of the remainder are Irish, or of immediate Irish descent; but it is said that a grand reserve of Americans born lies behind this avant garde, who will come into the battle should there ever be need for their services.

Indeed so long as the Northern people furnish the means of paying and equipping armies perfectly competent to do their work, and equal in numbers to any demands made for men, they may rest satisfied with the accomplishment of that duty, and with contributing from their ranks the great majority of the superior and even of the subaltern officers; but with the South it is far different. Their institutions have repelled immigration; the black slave has barred the door to the white free settler. Only on the seaboard and in the large cities are. German and Irish to be found, and they to a man have come forward to fight for the South; but the proportion they bear to the native-born Americans who have rushed to arms in defence of their menaced borders, is of course far less than it is as yet to the number of Americans in the Northern States who have volunteered to fight for the Union.

I was invited before I left to visit the camp of a Colonel Turchin, who was described to me as a Russian officer of great ability and experience in European warfare, in command of a regiment consisting of Poles, Hungarians, and Germans, who were about to start for the seat of war; but I was only able to walk through his tents, where I was astonished at the amalgam of nations that constituted his battalion; though, on inspection, I am bound to say there proved to be an American element in the ranks which did not appear to have coalesced with the bulk of the rude, and, I fear, predatory Cossacks of the Union. Many young men of good position have gone to the wars, although there was no complaint, as in Southern cities, that merchants' offices have been deserted, and great establishments left destitute of clerks and working hands. In warlike operations, however, Chicago, with its communication open to the sea, its access to the head waters of the Mississippi, its intercourse with the marts of commerce and of manufacture, may be considered to possess greater belligerent power and strength than the great city of New Orleans; and there is much greater probability of Chicago sending its contingent to attack the Crescent City than there is of the latter being able to despatch a soldier within five hundred miles of its streets.

SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, Vol. 1, p. 354-9

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

1st Lieutenant Charles Wright Wills: Sunday, July 27, 1862

Headquarters, 1st Brigade Cavalry Division,
Tuscumbia, Ala., July 27, 1862 (Sunday).

We received orders for our brigade to march on the 19th, and started the 21st. We only made Jacinto that night, when the colonel and myself stayed with Gen. Jeff. C. Davis, who is a very approachable, pleasant and perfectly soldier-like man. There is a strong sprinkling in him, though, of the Regular Army and West Point. Next day we rejoined the command and marched 15 miles, camped at Bear Creek, 22 miles west of this place and just on the Mississippi and Alabama line. Thursday we joined General Morgan's division and that night the brigade camped within four miles of Tuscumbia, and the headquarters came on into town. This is a perfect little Eden. Houses for 2,200 people with only 1,200 living here at present. We stayed at the hotel Thursday night, and the old negro who lighted me to my room amused me considerably with his account of General Turchin's proceedings here. Turchin brought the first federal force across the Tennessee in Alabama, and I guess he “went it loosely.” The old Negro said that he only had 1,200 men and brought no luggage, knapsacks or anything else with him, but went away with 300 wagons, and everything there was in the country worth taking. That his men made the white women (wouldn't let the colored women) do their cooking and washing, and that although they only brought one suit of clothes, they put on a new one every morning and always looked as though they had just stepped from a bandbox. People here hate General Mitchell's whole command as they do the d---1, and many of them more. Well, we've settled once more, and I'll be contented if allowed to stay here for sometime. We're guarding about 100 miles of railroad from Iuka to Decatur, and it promises to be pretty rough work. Day before yesterday a guerilla party swooped down on a station 24 miles east of here where General Thomas had 160 men and captured all but 20 of them. We are relieving General Thomas' command from duty here, but the Rebels saved us the trouble of relieving that party. We sent out a force yesterday of three companies and the Rebels surprised and killed and captured 20 of them. I have just heard that there has been a fight eight miles south of here to-day, between our cavalry and the Rebels, no particulars yet. 'Tis the 3d Michigan that has suffered so far. The 7th Illinois are out now after the party that surprised the Michiganders yesterday, but have not heard of them since they started yesterday p. m. We are quartered in the house of a right good secesh, and are enjoying his property hugely. His pigs will be ripe within a week, and we'll guard them after our style. The old fashion is played out as far as this brigade is concerned. We take what is necessary and give vouchers, which say the property will be paid for at the close of the war, on proof of loyalty. This valley is 60 or 80 miles long, 15 miles wide and the most beautiful country imaginable. It is now one vast cornfield. The residences in this town are superb, and the grounds most beautifully ornamented and filled with shrubbery. There is a spring here that throws out 17,000 cubic feet of water each minute. It supplies the town. General Thomas, whom we relieved, has gone to Huntsville to join Buell. I think they are going to Chattanooga then. People are intensely secesh here, and whine most mournfully when compelled to take the oath, or even to give their parole of honor not to give information to the enemy. Our headquarters is a mile from any troops, just for the quiet of the thing. Peaches are just in season now, and there are oceans of them here. Blackberries are still to be found, and we have plenty of apples.

The weather is beautiful, not too warm and still require my double blanket every night, and often cool at that. We have information that Hardee with a force is marching on this place, and it is the most probable rumor that I have heard since the evacuation. Time will tell.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 117-9

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Private Charles Wright Wills: September 17, 1861

September 17, 1861.

Well, I've slept half of this day and feel sleepy yet. I had a tough time on picket last night. We were divided into four squads and owing to the small number of men we had out (only 50) the corporals had to stand guard as privates; so I had all the stationing of reliefs to do myself and did not get a minute's sleep all night. We were not troubled any by the enemy but the mosquitoes and fleas gave us the devil.

A coon came sliding down the tree Sam Nutt was stationed under, and he thought he was taken sure. The people here say that there are lots of bears and tiger cats killed here every winter. Sam has been to Cairo to-day and says that Keef, Fred Norcott and Cooper are all much better. There is a rumor now that our right is going to Virginia, but I don't believe it. It is too good to be true. Our cook has been sick for several days and we have been just about half living on account of our being too lazy to cook. I don't mean to be disrespectful when I say I was about as glad to see him cooking again this morning, as I would be to see you. He is a splendid nigger, seems to think the world of us boys. He buys a great many little things for us with his own money, which as we are all out, is a good institution. We are to get our pay next week the officers say. My pay is some $18 or $20 a month now. I am entitled to a straight sword now, but as I have to carry a musket also, I'll trade it off for gingerbread if they'll let me, and if they won't I'll lose it sure for I have enough to carry without it. I can hear the tattoo now before the colonel's quarters at the other end of the camp and our boys are singing, “Home Again” as they lie around me in our tent. I thank goodness that none of them get homesick like some do that I know in our right. I do despise these whiners. I expect (I have just this instant heard that they have been fighting in Washington for the last 24 hours. Now I'll finish the sentence I had commenced) to be with those I love in eight months if the expected battle in Washington results favorably for our country, if not, do not look for me for three years. If they whip us again there I want to fight the rest of my life if necessary, and die before we recognize them as anything but Rebels and traitors who must be humbled. I don't believe yet awhile the news but I kind o' feel it all through me that there is a battle more to be recorded and that we are the victors. All that we have heard is that they are fighting. Colonel Turchin's 19th left Cairo last night for the east somewhere. We are rapidly learning to appropriate and confiscate. On our last scout one of our boys rode a stray horse back and another came in with a female jackass and her child. Chickens are very scarce here now and the natives complain that sweet potato hills have turned into holes since we have been here. Our mess have this p. m. confiscated the roof of a man's barn to cover our cook house with.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 31-2

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Senator John Sherman to Major General William T. Sherman, August 24, 1862

MANSFIELD, OHIO, Aug. 24, 1862.

Dear Brother:

Your letter of Aug. 13, with enclosures, was received. I have read carefully your general orders enclosed and also your order on the employment of negroes. I see no objection to the latter except the doubt and delay caused by postponing the pay of negroes until the courts determine their freedom. As the act securing their freedom is a military rule, you ought to presume their freedom until the contrary is known and pay them accordingly. . . .

You can form no conception at the change of opinion here as to the Negro Question. Men of all parties who now appreciate the magnitude of the contest and who are determined to preserve the unity of the government at all hazards, agree that we must seek the aid and make it the interests of the negroes to help us. Nothing but our party divisions and our natural prejudice of caste has kept us from using them as allies in the war, to be used for all purposes in which they can advance the cause of the country. Obedience and protection must go together. When rebels take up arms, not only refuse obedience but resist our force, they have no right to ask protection in any way. And especially that protection should not extend to a local right inconsistent with the general spirit of our laws and the existence of (which has been from the beginning the chief element of discord in the country. I am prepared for one to meet the broad issue of universal emancipation. . . .

By the way, the only criticism I notice of your management in Memphis is your leniency to the rebels. I enclose you an extract. I take it that most of these complaints are groundless, but you can see from it the point upon which public opinion rests. The energy and bitterness which they have infused into the contest must be met with energy and determination. . . .

Such is not only the lesson of history, the dictate of policy, but it is the general popular sentiment. I know you care very little for the latter. . . .

It is sometimes passionate, hasty and intemperate, but after a little fluctuation it settles very near the true line. You notice that Fremont, Butler, Mitchell, Turchin and Cochran are popular, while Buell, Thomas, McClellan and others are not. It is not for military merit, for most persons concede the inferiority in many respects of the officers first named, but it is because these officers agree with and act upon the popular idea. . . .

I want to visit you in Memphis and if possible go see the 64th and 65th. If it is possible or advisable, let me know and give me directions how to get there. It is but right that I should see the regiments I organized, and besides I should like to see you if I should not incommode you and interfere with your public duties. . . .

Since my return I have spent most of my time in my Library. I have always felt that my knowledge of American politics was rather the superficial view of the politician and not accurate enough for the position assigned me. I therefore read and study more and speak less than usual. . . .

We all wait with intense anxiety the events impending in Virginia. We all fear results for a month to come. Now is the chance for the rebels.

Affectionately yours,

JOHN SHERMAN

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 156-8

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Kentucky Grand Army

The Kentucky Grand Army

There are about 115,000 troops in Gen. Buell’s department, divided into three brigades of from 3,000 to 5,000 each and four grand divisions from 20,000 to 30,000 each.  The division commanders are:

1.  General Alexander McDowel McCook.
2.  General George H. Thomas.
3. General Ormsby M. Mitchell.
4. General Thomas L. Crittenden.

Gen. Thomas has left the line, at Somerset and London, on the road to East Tennessee.  Gen. Mitchell has the center, and is now at Bowling Green.  Gen. Crittenden has the right of the line, and with a portion at least of his command, has co-operated with Gen. Grant at Fort Donelson.  The division of Gen. McCook is the “reserve,” and is in the rear of bowling green.

This army has some of the best military talent in the country among its leading officers, as it has also some of the best troops.  The following are among the brigade commanders: –

General Ebenezer Dumont, of Indiana.
General AlbinSchoepf, of D. C.
General Thomas J. Wood, of Kentucky.
General William Nelson, of Kentucky.
General Richard W. Johnson, of Ky.
General Jerre T. Boyle, of Kentucky.
General James S. Negley, of Penn.
General William T. Ward, of Kentucky.

Also of Colonels commanding brigades: –

Colonel John B. Turchin, 19th Illinois.
Colonel William B. Hagen, 41st Ohio.
Colonel Joshua W. Sill, 33d Ohio
Colonel Henry B. Carrington, 18th regulars.
Colonel Edward N. Kirk, 34th Illinois.
Colonel Mahlon D. Manson, 10th Indiana.
Colonel Carter, 1st East Tennessee

There are five other brigades (Twenty in all) but we have not the names of their commanders at hand. – Chicago Tribune.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, February 20, 1862, p. 2

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Employment Of Loyal Blacks

The correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette with Gen. Mitchell’s Division, relates and incident which shows how willingly the loyal blacks respond to the call of our army commanders:

“There is one thing for which Col. Turchin is worthy of all praise. The most of the planters in the neighborhood of the bridge which he built, had fled from their plantations, or were so frightened that they did not attempt to exercise any authority over their slaves. – The colored people, of course, came crowding around our troops. Col. Turchin asked them if they were willing to work. They all with the utmost alacrity, declared that they were; and in a short time, 150 pairs of stout, honest dusky hands were working away at the bridge. Never did laborers perform more cheerful willing service; and when at meal time they drew up in two ranks, for the purpose of receiving their rations, a happier and more smiling, grinning set of countenances is seldom ever seen.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 10, 1862, p. 3

Sunday, April 4, 2010

From the Upper Tennessee

CAIRO, April 27. The river is still rising and in some places is gradually making its way over the levee. The Illinois Central Railroad track is being protected by throwing up entrenchments. The steamer McClellan arrived from Pittsburg, whence she left at 4 o’clock Saturday. The rebels are inaugurating a system of guerilla warfare along the Tennessee river. Boats were fired on Yesterday from the banks a short distance above Ft. Henry. Our army is steadily advancing towards Corinth. Gen. Pope’s division is on the extreme left, at Hamburg, four miles above Pittsburg Landing. A reconnaissance in force from Gen. McCook’s division encountered a large force of rebel infantry and cavalry, eight miles from the Landing on Thursday. The rebels formed in line of battle, fired one volley and retreated in great disorder with considerable loss, leaving our troops in possession of their camp, which we burned. – They were well supplied with camp and garrison equipage, and armed with new English Enfield rifles. We took 59 prisoners. Two of our cavalry were wounded. Enemy’s loss in killed and wounded not ascertained, as they carried them off the field. The roads had been improving, but heavy rains on Friday rendered them again almost impassable. The body of Maj. Gen. C. F. Smith has arrived in charge of Dr. Hewitt. It will be taken to St. Louis, and after being incased in a metallic coffin will be interred in vault with military honors, and then turned over to the family of the deceased. Gen. Smith died at 4 o’clock on Friday of chronic diarrhea, contracted in Mexico from which he has since been continually suffering. The Memphis Avalanche of Wednesday, April 23d, says that a raft upon which were field pieces, a 13 inch mortar, and 16 of our men, was captured by the rebels near Fort Pillow, and taken down river. It insists that the battle at Shiloh was a Confederate victory. Genls. Buell and Beauregard had effected arrangements for exchange of the wounded prisoners. Publication of war news had been interdicted by the rebel government. Passengers from the Tennessee river bring further rumors that Corinth is being evacuated by Beauregard, who will make the next stand at Columbus, Mississippi. Col. Turchin’s brigade had moved back from Tuscumbia to Huntsville, where Gen. Mitchell was still encamped. – Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, April 29, 1862, p. 2