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MAP OF GENERAL GRANT'S OPERATIONS AGAINST
VICKSBURG, IN MISSISSIPPI.
GRANT'S MARCH.
ABOVE we give a Map showing the
course of
General Grant's victorious march from Bruinsburg, near Grand Gulf, to
Jackson and Vicksburg. The following official dispatch tersely describes what
they did on the way:
REAR OP VICKSBURG, Wednesday,
May 20, 1863.
The Army of the Tennessee landed
at Bruinsburg on the 30th of April.
On the 1st of May we fought the
battle of
Port Gibson, and defeated the rebels under General Bowen, whose loss
in killed, wounded, and prisoners was at least 1500, and loss in artillery five
pieces.
On the 12th of May, at the battle
of Raymond, the rebels were defeated with a loss of 800.
On the 14th of May we defeated
General Joseph E. Johnston, and captured Jackson, with a loss to the enemy of
400, besides immense stores and manufactures, and seventeen pieces of artillery.
On the 16th of May we fought the
bloody and decisive battle of Baker's Creek, in which the entire force of
Vicksburg, under General Pemberton, was defeated, with the loss of twenty-nine
pieces of artillery and 4000 men.
On the 17th of May we defeated
the same force at the Big Black River Bridge, with the loss of 2600 men and
seventeen pieces of artillery.
On the 18th of May we invested
Vicksburg closely.
To-day General Steele carried the
rifle-pits on the north of the city.
The right of the army rests on
the Mississippi above
Vicksburg. JOHN A. RAWLINS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.
On
pages 360 and 361 we give a
picture which will enable our readers to form an idea of what is meant by
"carrying a line of rifle-pits," "storming heights," "taking a position with the
bayonet," terms of very frequent use at present, and which convey but a vague
meaning to those who have not witnessed the stern realities of war. The reader
can fancy, if he pleases, as he looks at the picture that he is gazing at the
gallant onslaught of Grant's army upon the rebel rifle-pits and breast-works at
Vicksburg. We have appended to the picture the memorable words of warning which
were uttered in Congress, while the Southern men were still there, by
Representative, now
General, Logan. Alluding to the Southern pretension that
they would hold the mouth of the Mississippi, he said that "the men of the
Northwest would hew their way to the Gulf of Mexico with their swords." Similar
words were uttered at the same time by Representative McClernand, who, like
Logan, had up to that time acted with the South in politics, and who, like him,
is now a General in Grant's army.
THE PRISON AT JACKSON,
MISSISSIPPI.
WE illustrate on page 364 THE
PRISON AT JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, where many good Union men have been confined
since the war broke out, and which was lately destroyed by General Grant. The
gentleman who sends us the sketch adds the following account:
"On the 29th December last, at
the gallant charge of Blair's brigade upon the works of the rebels at Chickasaw
Bluffs near Vicksburg, Colonel Thomas C. Fletcher, of the Missouri Wide Awake
Zouaves, who was wounded and captured by the rebels, was with twenty other
officers put in the jail at Vicksburg, where they were kept in the most
loathsome cells and fed upon the worst fare ever meted out to the vilest
criminals for one month. They were then removed to Jackson, Mississippi, and
thrust into the old rickety ruin of the bridge which was yet standing above
water, the remaining part having fallen down. Here they were kept for another
month in the coldest season of the year, without beds or bedding; no fire or
lights were allowed them. Three hundred and eighty privates, also prisoners,
were put into the bridge with them. Almost every day two or three were carried
out dead, and sometimes the dead lay at the entrance of the bridge unburied
for four days. The above is a
sketch of the bridge made by Colonel Fletcher himself, and we have from him
assurance of the correctness of this statement of a cruelty and barbarity of
treatment shown to him while wounded, and to his fellow-prisoners and brother
officers, unequaled even by the rebels in their cruelty to our soldiers
heretofore while in their hands."
Colonel Fletcher appends the
following certificate:
"The within statement is in all
respects correct, but does not fully represent the barbarity of our treatment by
the rebels.
THOMAS C. FLETCHER,
"Colonel 31st Missouri
Volunteers.
"ANNAPOLIS, MD., May 7, 1863."
THE ENGLISH PIRATE
"ALEXANDRA."
WE publish on page 364 an
illustration of the new Anglo-Rebel pirate "ALEXANDRA," which has just been
built at Liverpool. She was built by Miller & Co. of Liverpool for a firm by the
name of Fawcett, Prescott & Co. of the same town, both firms connected with the
rebel piratical business. Just as she was approaching completion the
remonstrances of our Government in relation to the piracies of the Alabama and
Florida, together with some expressions of indignation by leading British
orators, compelled the Government to show some semblance of a desire to enforce
the laws, and the Alexandra was seized and is now held by the authorities. It is
not believed, however, that the seizure will involve any thing worse than a
temporary detention. The ship-owners and commercial interest of England are
decidedly in favor of the destruction of our merchant navy by pirates, and after
a farce of a trial the Alexandra will be set at large to prey upon our ships
after the manner of the Alabama and Florida. She is a three-masted schooner with
engines of 300 horse-power.
CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.
WE give on
page 365 a portrait,
from a photograph by Brady, of the notorious CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM, ex-Member
of Congress from Ohio.
The first that we can remember of
this man is his appearance at
Harper's Ferry on the occasion of John Brown's
raid. When poor John Brown, mortally wounded, and laid by the body of his dead
son, was confronted by the infuriated slave-holding leaders of Virginia, and
bullied, as only slave-owners can bully, the most insolent, outrageous, and
brutal of the old man's tormentors was Clement L. Vallandigham. In his
constituency, which is Dayton, Ohio, it does not seem, however, that the disgust
which his conduct created every where else injured him in the least. He was
again returned to Congress, and took his seat as usual. Throughout the three
sessions of the Thirty-seventh Congress he was conspicuous as an opponent of the
United States and a sympathizer with the rebels. He voted against every measure
which was intended to enable the Government to prosecute the war, and did every
thing which ingenuity and malice could devise to hamper the Administration,
weaken the country, comfort the enemy, and provoke foreign interference. At the
election of November last he was dropped, and General Schenck elected from his
district. Since then he has been perambulating the country, delivering seditious
speeches, urging the people to resist the draft, misrepresenting the purposes
and policy of the Government, and endeavoring to provoke an outbreak at the
West. For one of these speeches he was arrested a fortnight since by order of
General Burnside, tried by court-martial, and sentenced to imprisonment in a
Federal
fortress pending the war.
General
Burnside accordingly ordered him to he taken to
Fort Warren. The President has
since altered this sentence to expulsion beyond the Union lines. He was
accordingly taken to
General Rosecrans's army at Murfreesboro, and by him
dispatched to the rebels under a strong escort of cavalry. The rebel officer
refused to receive him, but allowed him to remain under guard until the pleasure
of
Jeff Davis should be ascertained. Vallandigham insisted on being considered a
prisoner of war.
GOVERNOR ANDREW G. CURTIN.
WE present our readers on
page
365 with an admirable likeness of the present distinguished Governor of
Pennsylvania, ANDREW GREGG CURTIN. Of all the public men now prominent in the
country there is no one who has created a deeper interest in, and none deserves
better for the untiring energy and faithful devotion in aiding to maintain the
integrity of, our Government.
Governor Curtin is about
forty-five years of age, and was born in Centre County, Pennsylvania. His
education was liberal, and having graduated at the law school connected with
Dickinson College, Carlisle, he commenced the practice of law at Bellefonte, the
seat of justice of his native county. For some years he devoted himself
exclusively to his profession, and earned an enviable reputation as a counselor
and as an advocate. His prominence in the politics of the State was in the
Presidential canvass of 1844. He entered upon this with zeal, and became
recognized as one of the most efficient stump speakers of the day. From that
time he actively participated in all the political contests in the State. Upon
the election of Governor Pollock he was proffered the position of Secretary of
State and Superintendent of Common Schools. Although the youngest man who had
ever filled these offices, his administration of them was marked by an untiring
fidelity to the public interests; and his labors in this department, while they
exhibited signal ability, contributed largely to the success of Governor
Pollock's administration.
In the early part of the year
1860 a State convention was held at Harrisburg for the selection of a
Gubernatorial candidate. This being the year of the Presidential election, the
action of the convention was looked forward to with greater anxiety than had,
perhaps, ever been known in Pennsylvania. General Hone of Pittsburg, Judge
Haines of Chester, Taggart of Northumberland, and Covode of Westmoreland, were
among the candidates. Each of them had warm and devoted friends, who had not
failed to exert themselves for the success of their respective candidates. It,
however, soon became manifest that the advantages were on the side of Curtin,
and upon the third ballot he was nominated by an overwhelming majority. He
immediately went into the canvass with a spirit and activity that his warmest
admirers could scarcely expect him to maintain to the end; but in this he showed
that he had not himself overmeasured his strength. His
Democratic competitor,
the Hon. Henry D. Foster, was warmly esteemed by his party friends; and,
doubtless, feeling the contest to be one of overwhelming importance, he also
manifested a determination to exert his utmost powers as the standard-bearer of
his party. The rival candidates both went upon the stump; and without any
disposition to detract from the merits of
General Foster, it is impossible to
deny that the great success of Governor Curtin as a public speaker contributed
largely to the result of his election by a triumphant majority. The National
Convention at Chicago for the nomination of a Presidential candidate occurred
during the summer. Governor Curtin was alive to the
fact that there would be some
candidates presented to that body whose nomination would, to say the least, act
as a dead weight in the preliminary contest in Pennsylvania at the October
elections. His personal interests were involved in this; but above all, and as
was shown by his course, of infinitely larger consideration to his mind would be
the public calamity that might follow an injudicious nomination. With
characteristic boldness and candor he prepared to do what he could toward
preventing any unwise nomination by going to Chicago in person, there openly to
disclose his views and convictions, rather than to pursue the secret and
tortuous paths of chicanery and intrigue, by which, it is true, he might have
averted much of personal enmity and bitterness that would possibly flow from
chafed and disappointed aspirants for political elevation. He then and there
claimed to know the people of Pennsylvania, their prevailing sentiments, and the
temper which the nomination of this or that candidate would be accepted. The
stake which he held, and the right afforded by his position for him to speak
with somewhat of authority, were accepted as of influential value. It is but
just to say that the result showed him to have been right, and that on this
occasion, as in the many emergencies that have arisen since he came into
authority as Governor, he has never failed in his estimate of public sentiment
throughout the Keystone State.
With clear and decided
convictions upon every question that has arisen during his eventful
administration, he has yet never permitted himself to be carried away from his
contemplation and study of the mind of the people. Of this great essential of
practical statesmanship he has time and again shown himself the possessor, as he
has also illustrated its inevitable importance. While watching the current of
popular events he has neither permitted himself to lose sight of the breakers
and shoals that must needs be avoided, nor has he fallen into the contrary error
of seeking to traverse the ocean of great events upon which the nation is
embarked by a system of back-water navigation.
SCENES AT NEW ORLEANS.
THE two pictures on
page 357,
from sketches by our special artist Mr. Hamilton, will be found described at
length in the following extract from the Times correspondent :
MAY-DAY.
I was present, on the first of
May, at one of the most beautiful and interesting celebrations that ever
occurred here—the festival of the Madison Girls' School. Pleasing as it was, it
might not have been considered of sufficient public importance for mention here,
if—in the present. condition of
New Orleans—such gatherings did not bear a
political significance, and a very deep one.
May-Day has been always a time of
festive gatherings for the schools here, but their celebrations were, hitherto,
held indoors. On this occasion the scene selected was the old City Park, some
distance out of New Orleans, the grandest collection of old wide-spreading oaks
that ever charmed the eye of painter.
Here the young ladies met, under
the care of Miss Whitley, their accomplished Principal, crowned the "May Queen"
with all due ceremony, and spent the whole day in dancing, music, swinging, and
every species of innocent sport, in which they were joined by very many
"children of a larger growth" from the city. Captain Walters, Commander of the
gun-boat Kineo, had kindly sent there a large quantity of canvas to lay on the
grass for dancing, with abundance of ropes for swings, and detailed two or three
of his sailors to come and arrange matters for his young friends.
In spite of the beauty and gayety
of the scene, as these graceful young creatures flitted over the green sward, in
their light dresses, like a swarm of butterflies, I could not lose sight of the
fact that this was a Union demonstration among the citizens of New Orleans, and
that at least two-thirds of the children present were the offspring of enemies
of the United States, either open or concealed. If such a scene appeared
extraordinary to a stranger, how much more must it have done so to those old
residents present, who could contrast it with the state of things existing as
short a time ago!
The fact is that the school
authorities here are making strenuous efforts to administer an antidote to the
venomous poison of secession, too long corrupting the tender minds of the rising
generation, and their efforts are being attended with the greatest success. In
every public school it is now a specified regime, that the exercises shall daily
commence and close with patriotic hymns, and that the selection of themes for
recitations, etc., shall all have the same tendency. Union flags have been
raised over every school-house in the first district—the Madison school having
the honor of inaugurating the movement—and soon there will not be a single place
of education in the city without its emblem of loyalty. By such efforts as
these, and by getting these innocent young creatures to mingle frequently wills
friends, whom they have been cruelly taught to look upon as mortal enemies,
their minds become stamped with ideas of truth and genuine love of their
country, which no amount of false teaching can hereafter erase.
It was really interesting to
watch some little dark-haired Southern beauty innocently romping with her
blue-eyed playmate—the daughter of some officer from Maine or Massachusetts—and
then to be reminded that the father of the former was a "registered enemy." "Do
you see that exquisite girl laughing with that young officer?" said a gentleman
to me; "she has a brother in the rebel army." I looked again, soon afterward,
and the charming young couple had walked off, in earnest conversation. Who
thinks that any "North" or "South" was poisoning the current of their sweet
thoughts? Keep on your May-Day festivals, my friends. I saw more, in the
innocent pastimes of that one day, to undermine and overthrow the satanic rule
of Jeff Davis than if I had seen a whole brigade of his followers annihilated on
the battle-field.
"REGISTERED ENEMIES."
In my last I sent you two very
important orders just issued by General Banks—one of them requiring "registered
enemies" to leave this Department on or before the 15th May. General Bowen has
since then published the following:
"OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL GENERAL
OF LOUISIANA,
NEW ORLEANS, May 1, 1863.
"Notice is hereby given to the
registered enemies of the United States within the Department of the Gulf, that,
in accordance with the order of the Commanding General, they will be required to
leave the said Department and go within the lines of the enemy, on or before the
15th day of May instant. Such persons now registered as enemies but desirous to
return to their allegiance and willing to take the prescribed oath of fidelity
and obedience to the United States, a copy of which oath is herewith published,
will make application for that purpose to this office before the 10th day of
May.
"JAMES BOWEN, Brigadier-General,
P. M. G."
"OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL, GENERAL,
DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, No. 208
CARONDELET STREET, NEW ORLEANS, —, 1863.
"I do hereby solemnly and
sincerely swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will support, protect,
and defend the Constitution and Government of the United States against all
enemies, whether domestic or foreign, (Next
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