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Thomas C. DeLeon, Four years in Rebel capitals: an inside view of life in the southern confederacy, from birth to death., Chapter 31: the Chinese-Wall blockade, abroad and at home. (search)
s lost opportunity the Treaty of Paris view first southern commissioners doubts the Mason Slidell incident Mr. Benjamin's foreign policy Deleon's captured despatches murmurs loud and deep Eknock weakly at the back door of foreign intervention. Slight reaction came, when Mason and Slidell were captured on the high seas, under a foreign flag. Mr. Seward so boldly defied the rampant g which might some day be light, would send hopeful despatches; or before the hopeful eyes of Mr. Slidell, would rise roseate clouds of promise, light with bubbles of aid-intervention-recognition! Slar delusion at the South. This was shared, to a certain extent, even by her government; and Mr. Slidell's highly-colored despatches would refan the embers of hope into a glow. But while Napoleon, njamin refused to view the European landscape, except through the Claude Lorrain glass which Mr. Slidell persistently held up before him. The expose of Mr. Yancey, the few sturdy truths Mr. Mason la
Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, Chapter 7: Atlantic coast defenses.-assigned to duty in Richmond as commander in chief under the direction of the Southern President. (search)
place I could go to now acceptable to us, that would inspire me with pleasure and local love. You and the girls could remain there in quiet. It is a poor place, but we could make enough corn-bread and bacon for our support, and the girls could weave us clothes. You must not build your hopes on peace on account of the United States going to war with England. Our rulers are not entirely mad, and if they find England is in earnest, and that war or a restitution of the captives Mason and Slidell. must be the consequence, they will adopt the latter. We must make up our minds to fight our battles and win our independence alone. No one will help us. In still another letter from the same place the general writes Mrs. Lee: I am truly grateful for all the mercies we enjoy, notwithstanding the miseries of war, and join heartily in the wish that the next year may find us in peace with all the world. I am delighted to hear that our little grandson is improving so fast and is beco
Lt.-Colonel Arthur J. Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, May, 1863. (search)
hem and eating every thing. The bivouacs are extremely pretty at night, the dense woods being lit up by innumerable camp-fires. 21st may, 1863 (Thursday). I rejoined General Johnston at 9 A. M., and was received into his mess. Major Eustis and Lieutenant Washington, officers of his Staff, are thorough gentlemen, and did all in their power to make me comfortable. The first is a Louisianian of wealth (formerly); his negro always speaks French. He is brother to the secretary of Mr. Slidell in Paris, and has learnt to become an excellent Staff officer. I was presented to Captain Henderson, who commanded a corps of about fifty scouts. These are employed on the hazardous duty of hanging about the enemy's camps, collecting information, and communicating with Pemberton in Vicksburg. They are a fine-looking lot of men, wild, and very picturesque in appearance. At 12 noon a Yankee military surgeon came to camp. He had been left behind by Grant to look after the Yankees
J. B. Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, chapter 9 (search)
tween Gen. Beauregard and Mr. Benjamin. great naval preparations in the North. the loss of Port Royal, S. C., takes some prestige. the affair at Belmont does not compensate for it. the enemy kills an old hare. Missouri secedes. Mason and Slidell captured. French Consul and the actresses. the lieutenant in disguise. Eastern Shore of Virginia invaded. Messrs. Breckinridge and Marshall in Richmond. November 1 There is an outcry against the appointment of two major-generals, recomilies. This is an equivocal business. Why did they not bring their families away before the storm burst upon them? November 18 To-day the Secretary told me, in reply to my question, that he had authentic information of the seizure of Messrs. Slidell and Mason, our commissioners to Europe, by Capt. Wilkes, of the U. S. Navy, and while on board the steamer Trent, a British vessel, at sea. I said I was glad of it. He asked why, in surprise. I remarked that it would bring the Eagle cowerin
J. B. Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, chapter 10 (search)
Secretary himself. December 23 Gen. T. J. Jackson has destroyed a principal dam on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. That will give the enemy abundance of trouble. This Gen. Jackson is always doing something to vex the enemy; and I think he is destined to annoy them more. It is with much apprehension that I see something like a general relaxation of preparation to hurl back the invader. It seems as if the government were waiting for England to do it; and after all, the capture of Slidell and Mason may be the very worst thing that could have happened. Mr. Benjamin, I learn, feels very confident that a rupture between the United States and Great Britain is inevitable. War with England is not to be thought of by Mr. Seward at this juncture, and he will not have it. And we should not rely upon the happening of any such contingency. Some of our officials go so far as to hint that in the event of a war between the United States and Great Britain, and our recognition by the for
J. B. Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, X. January, 1862 (search)
X. January, 1862 Seward gives up Mason and Slidell. great preparations of the enemy. Gen. Jackson betrayed. Mr. Memminger's blunders. exaggerated reports of our troops in Kentucky and Tennessee. January 1 Seward has cowered beneath the roar of the British Lion, and surrendered Mason and Slidell, who have been permitted to go on their errand to England. Now we must depend upon our own strong arms and stout hearts for defense. January 2 The enemy are making preparatioSlidell, who have been permitted to go on their errand to England. Now we must depend upon our own strong arms and stout hearts for defense. January 2 The enemy are making preparations to assail us everywhere. Roanoke Island, Norfolk, Beaufort, and Newbern; Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, Pensacola, and New Orleans are all menaced by numerous fleets on the sea-board, and in the West great numbers of iron-clad floating batteries threaten to force a passage down the Mississippi, while monster armies are concentrating for the invasion of Tennessee and the Cotton States. Will Virginia escape the scourge? Not she; here is the bulls-eye of the mark they aim at. January 3
J. B. Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, XXII. January, 1863 (search)
employees capable of performing military duty. It would be well to extend the inquiry to the War Deparment itself. A letter from Norfolk states that at a grand ball, in celebration of the emancipation of the negroes, Gen. Vieille opened the dance with a mulatto woman of bad character as his partner; and Mrs.V. had for her partner a negro barber. January 23 The Northern papers are filled with what purports to be the intercepted correspondence of Mr. Benjamin with Messrs. Mason and Slidell. Lord John Russell is berated. The Emperor of France is charged with a design to seize Mexico as a colony, and to recognize Texas separately, making that State in effect a dependency, from which cotton may be procured as an offset to British India. He says the French Consuls in Texas are endeavoring to detach Texas from the Confederacy. If this be a genuine correspondence, it will injure the South; if it be false (if the allegations be false), it will still injure us. I have no doubt of
J. B. Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, XXXII. November, 1863 (search)
ot control of it under Mr. Benjamin. Lieut. K. is from Louisiana, but originally from New York. Mr. Benjamin sent over to-day extracts from dispatches from Mr. Slidell and a Mr. Hotze, agent, showing how the government is swindled in Europe by the purchasing agents of the bureaus here. One, named Chiles, in the purchase of $650,000, Mr. Slidell says, was to realize $300,000 profit! And Mr. Hotze (who is he?) says the character and credit of the government are ruined abroad by its own agents! Mr. Secretary Seddon will soon see into this matter. Capt. Warner says the Federal prisoners here have had no meat for three days, Commissary-General Northroition, unless we retake the mineral country from the enemy. Mr. Memminger has sent a press to the trans-Mississippi country, to issue paper money there. Mr. Slidell writes that all our shipments to and from Matamoras ought to be under the French flag. There may be something in this. The President was expected back to-d
South, who looked upon the North and West as mudsills and drudges, quite unworthy of much consideration; and far too often a swaggering manner and a retinue of colored slaves gave a man a prestige over others of scholarly attainments, simple habits, and no attendants. The hotel was quite full of the most pronounced of the aristocratic type who were then threatening disunion. Among them were Wigfall, of Texas; Kelt, of South Carolina; Mason and Harris, of Virginia; Benjamin, of Louisiana; Slidell and Barksdale, of Mississippi; and a legion of others who were subsequently leaders in the Confederacy, and who have since paid the debt that all must pay sooner or later. Daily, during the dinner-hour, discussions were heated and often quite boisterous. Sometimes it seemed that a collision was imminent at the table, ladies frequently appearing with secession cockades, which gave encouragement to the advocates of secession. At first I used to listen to these discussions in mortal terror,
solve. You heard no mutterings from any quarter. Congress felt sure that, now the die was cast, Mr. Johnson would not attempt further arbitrary action, but would probably finish his term in a quiet way. He gratified himself and vented his spleen on Congress for their attempted impeachment by pardoning every one he could, especially those who had been debarred from political rights because of participation in the rebellion. His proclamation covered such cases as those of Jefferson Davis, Slidell, Mason, Mann, and other exiles who hastened to return to the United States after having sought refuge across the seas. He closed his career with a Farewell address, in which he arraigned all who opposed him, and lauded himself in a most remarkable manner. After Congress reassembled, the Tenure of Office bill was repealed in time for Grant to make such changes as he thought important. Reconstructive legislation continued, many of the States wishing to come back into the Union that t