The
Adams Sentinel (Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania) was not unlike other newspapers in that its pages were
filled with news of the present conflict. On this evening of February
3, 1863, they could have no inkling that the town it served would
become the headline. Here is what the paper brought its readers in
Other News:
Locusts
Coming This Year
Joseph
Harris writes to the St. Clairsville (Ohio)Chronicle that the locust
will be on hand this year, it being the 17th since their
last appearance. He says:
The
Pharaoh locust made their first appearance on the wing May 19, 1846;
on the 23rd commenced singing;on the 31st
commenced boring the trees and laying eggs. June 6, commenced dying;
the males first. On the 25th all dead. (Taken from notes
taken at the above dates.)This year there will be locusts in abundance. Prepare your small trees by tying them up with straw for 25 days and you are safe, if you do it right.[1]
The
Sentinel also reported of an interesting, yet disgraceful episode
that occurred in the United States Senate. Under discussion was a
bill pertaining to political arrests and the suspension of the writ
of habeus corpus. This short article is a followup to the main
disturbance and bears no headline:
In
the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, Mr. Clark of Rhode Island, introduced a
preamble and resolution,stating that Senator Saulsbury had behaved in
a turbulent and disorderly manner when called to order by the Vice
President, and had drawn a pistol and threatened to shoot the
Sergeant at Arms, and that such conduct being disgraceful to the
Senate, and destructive of all order and decorum, that said Senator
be expelled from the Senate. The resolution was laid over.
On
Thursday,Senator Saulsbury, having apparently returned to a sound
state of mind, apologized for his conduct in the Senate on Tuesday
last. It is probable that the resolution for his expulsion will not
now be called up.
The
account of the tumult is related across the page, and the tirade is
full of anti- Lincoln venom. Statements from Saulsbury include:
(Saulsbury)
stated that Mr. Lincoln was the weakest man ever placed in high
office. He said he had been in conversation with him, and knew he was
an imbecile.
(Saulsbury)
if he wanted to paint a despot,he would paint the hideous form of
Abraham Lincoln.[2]
The
entire scene seems to have played out over several hours with the
disgruntled Saulsbury being escorted from, then returning to the
chamber several times. He was finally removed once and for all.
Willard Saulsbury Sr. was a Democrat from Delaware. The resolution to
expel him in fact was never taken up and he remained in office until
1871.
 |
| Willard Saulsbury Sr. |
Pittsburgh
Gazette Reports some mischief on February 26:
Snowballers
Arrested
Two
boys named Edward Fennity and – Howard were yesterday arrested for
throwing snowballs at a man who was driving through the streets of
Allegheny. The man declined to prosecute, and the boys were let off
on paying the costs.
The paper also warns of a scam
that the authorities feel may be in its early stages:
A
few days since a rather good looking girl was engaged as a domestic
at the residence of a gentleman on Penn Street, and worked well until
the evening of the second day, when she suddenly disappeared,
carrying away a set of fine furs, some dresses and some other
clothing belonging to the lady of the house – together with her
jewelry box,containing a valuable gold watch, three sets of jewelry,
and other articles , worth probably $250. It is now believed that the
whole affair was a well arranged scheme of robbery – that the girl
had a confederate in the business, and that she will endeavor to play
the same game upon others.[3]
George B. McClellan was seen in Boston, Massachusetts and the Boston Evening Transcript of February 6 reported two instances:
General
McClellan visited the Everette School today, and was of course
enthusiastically received by the little folks, to whom he was
introduced by the teacher as “the savior of his country.” Mac
being Mac. [4]
Another sighting found him at 11
o'clock on a special train bound for Salem.
At
Lynn a large concourse of people were gathered to see him and a
salute of 13 guns was fired. On his arrival at Salem a salute was
also fired, and the pressure of the crowd at the railroad station
made a passage through it very difficult. He was driven at once to
the Essex House, and was there introduced to a large number of the
prominent citizens. Col. Goodrich of Gen. Burnside's staff, and other
soldiers who had seen service, were also present. Gen. McClellan was
afterward entertained at the house of Geo. Peabody, Esq., and
returned to this city [Boston]
during the
afternoon.
Last
evening Gen. McClellan was presented with a very handsome sword, with
a richly chased hilt containing a diamond. The sword was purchased at
a cost of several hundred dollars by some of his friends in this
city, and was presented by the Citizens Committee. No speeches were
made, but a letter from the Committee requesting his acceptance of
the weapon was read by one of their number. The General afterward
attended a soiree at a private residence.[5]
McClellan at his finest no
doubt. He may have been cultivating prominent citizens in an effort
to return to command of the Amy of the Potomac or to the army in some
other capacity. It surely appears that way.
The Daily Journal at
Wilmington North Carolina got wind of the story and offered this in
the February 7 issue, via the Richmond Whig. It questions
McClellan motives:
Yankee
Generals
The
two dismissed Yankee heroes, McClellan and Burnside, are having a
pleasant time down East. McClellan is in Bosting, hob-nobbing with
the cod-fish aristocracy of the ancient Burg. He has been honored
with a series of grand receptions,by Ed. H. Elridge,(Eldredge)
Esq., Wm. Gray, Esq., Mr. Wolcott and Mr. Lawrence – 800 invited
guests, refreshments. He had visited Cambridge, attended by that
prince of flunkies, the Honorable Edward Everett, and was promised a
grand demonstration in Faneuil Hall. “Those who have had the good
fortune to meet the General (says Jenkins) are uniform in their
commendations of the man. Though not a brilliant conversationalist,
he is unmistakably a sensible man – which is much better.”
The
motive of this visit to the Puritans is yet a secret. These are the
people that had McClellan dismissed, and have persecuted all
connected with him. Does he seek to humiliate them by extorting
ovations, or is he seeking a restoration to the command of the Army,
by a public acknowledgment
of the supremacy of the genuine Yankee?[6]
This
was only half of the short article reporting on the trip, and it was no more flattering to Burnside in the other half.
The
Boston trip was made at the invitation of conservative Republicans
there. Perhaps the article in the Daily Journal was correct in
its assumption that McClellan was gaining a measure of satisfaction
at the Boston elites, and the Republican Party's, expense. The
Republicans may have found themselves with their collective heads in
a noose. If they could cozy up to McClellan, the soldiers might tend
to vote for their party. Affection for Mac was still high in the Army
of the Potomac. After the Battle of Fredericksburg, Francis Blair
Sr. wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln dated the December 18 urging
him to give McClellan a high command, preferably the Army of the
Potomac:
“We
must look to the army as a great political as well as war machine.
The soldiers are to give us success in the field and at the polls.
McClellan is dear to them. He will bring them to the support of the
country & you.” [7] The Republicans needed Mac.
 |
| Democratic Presidential Campaign - 1864 |
McClellan
may have began nursing his political aspirations during the Winter of
1862 – 63, and the trip to Boston was a way for him to gain some
traction. It is interesting that McClellan was living in New York
City (Manhattan) and was often seen in company of several prominent
conservative Democrats, including John Jacob Astor who had been a
volunteer on his staff during the Peninsular Campaign as well as
other friends, old and new, who were influential Democrats. It would
not be uncommon to continue long standing relations with those men.
Still, it may have given the Republicans pause. New York City
newspapers followed his movements as did numerous other papers around
the country.
And
there was :
The
War
The
Scientific American of February
21 brings news of a new implement of devastation:
 |
| Crozier's Patent Automatic Battery |
All that is necessary, then, in this battery, is to work the handle up and down,and the battery vomits forth a discharge of bullets which is truly terrible to contemplate in its destructive power. [8]
Although
the Seventh Indiana (119th Regiment of Volunteers) did not
muster in until October 1863, news of the Enrollment Act was being
spread in the Northern press in February. The act was signed by
Lincoln March 3, and posters like this would blossom across the
country during the late Winter and Spring of 1863.
The Picket
Sources
1-The
Adams Sentinel, February 3, 1863 (image 2) from Google news
2-ibid
3-
The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette, February 26, 1863, images 2 and 3 at
Google news,
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=TNEldfgDb5MC&dat=18630226&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
4-Boston
Evening Transcript, February 6, 1863, image 2 from Google
news.google.com
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=sArNgO4T4MoC&dat=18630206&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
5-
Ibid, image 4
6-
Daily Journal, Wilmington North Carolina, February 7, 1863 image 2
from Google news.google.com
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Cew3JUE5alsC&dat=18630207&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
7-
Sears, Stephen W., George B. McClellan The Young Napoleon, 1988,
page 351
8-
The Scientific American, February 21, 1863, page 1 and 2 from
Internet Archives,
http://archive.org/stream/scientific-american-1863-02-21/scientific-american-v08-n08-1863-02-21#page/n0/mode/2up
Broadside
from Indiana Historical Society, Civil War Materials collection,
http://images.indianahistory.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/dc008&CISOPTR=202&CISOBOX=1&REC=9
McClellan
and Saulsbury from the Library of Congress
No comments:
Post a Comment