NEWS: The Alleghanian; 5 Feb 1863; Ebensburg, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Patty Millich Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ _________________________________________ The Alleghanian Ebensburg, Pa. Thursday, 5 Feb 1863 Volume 4, Number 19 Local and Personal Maj. George Raymond, formerly of Hollidaysburg, has resigned his position under the Government as commercial Agent at Balize, Honduras, and with his family is now in Washington city. At Home Wm. H. Sechler and John Deets, of Co. A, 11th Pa. Reserves and William Makin of Co. F, 133d, Pa. Vols., are now at home. The two former have received an honorable discharge from the service, while the latter is on a brief furlough to recover from the effects of a wound received at the battle of Fredericksburg. Success to them all. Letter from Conemaugh Conemaugh, Feb. 3, 1863 News items are so very scarce about here that we begin to think "there is nothing new under the sun." About ninety secesh prisoners passed through this place on last Friday en route for Fortress Monroe. I understand that they were captured in Tennessee. They presented quite a squalid appearance and were poorly clad, some with old hats, old coats, ragged and very dirty. There was no uniformity whatever in their clothing. Although there is quite a number hereabouts who appear to sympathize deeply with their "Southern brethren," and the cars stopped a considerable length of time at the station for wood and water, yet few or none of the "sympathizers" called to pay their respects or to offer any consolation whatever to their brethren in prison, thus proving that if republics are ungrateful, secession sympathizers are ditto. [Signed] R The Case of Lieut. F. M. Flanagan Inasmuch as a variety of conflicting rumors are going the rounds in connection with the dismissal of Lieut. Flanagan from the service and, as each of these rumors does a brave officer and worthy gentleman gross injustice, I deem it no more than right to state as follows: during the stay of our company – Co. F, 133d Penna. Vols. – at Fairfax, Virginia, a petition was framed by a number of the members requesting Lieut. F. to resign. This he refused to do and subsequently, the Secretary of War was petitioned to order his removal. A couple of weeks prior to the battle of Fredericksburg, an examining committee sat upon his case, and thereupon declared him to be incompetent to hold a commission At the battle of Fredericksburg, however, he acted so bravely and gallantly that a reaction took place in the minds of his opponents. The entire company without any exception, now absolutely adores him for the energy and pluck he then and there exhibited. When his discharge arrived in camp, shortly after the battle, and was made known to the company, a petition was immediately gotten up, under the superintendence of Lt. Col. William M'Cartney, of the 133d, begging for his reinstatement. This petition was signed by every member of Co. F, while Col. Allbach, commanding the brigade, wrote a letter to the Secretary of War, recommending him for re-appointment. So that the probability is that Lieut. Flanagan will be reinstated in command; in which case he will certainly be promoted to be Captain of the company, that post being vacant since the death of the lamented Capt. Jones This is a plain statement of facts. Lt. Flanagan, to be sure, has been dismissed from the service but he now stands higher in the estimation of his men than he ever did before. That he will be reinstated and promoted to a higher position in this company I have not the least doubt. Very Respectfully, [Signed] Ellis R. Williams From our Volunteers Near Belle Plain Landing January 26, 1863 Letter from Co. A, 11th Pa. Reserves The Grand Army of the Potomac received marching orders on the 20th inst. Our regiment moved about one o'clock P. M. in the direction of Falmouth. We marched about ten miles when it became dark and we encamped for the night. Soon after camping it began to rain and continued raining all night without intermission, making the ground one vast swamp and rendering sleep impossible. Next morning at daylight, wet and un-refreshed, we continued our march. The roads were so muddy, however that marching was an almost utter impossibility and after six hours hard marching, we had succeeded in advancing only four miles. We went into camp about noon, the roads having become impassable. The artillery had stuck fast in the mud and the wagons were in the same condition. Eighteen horses were required to draw one piece of artillery and a caisson whereas in ordinary weather six horses could do the job with ease. We remained in camp until the morning of the 23d, the weather in the meantime becoming no better, when we were ordered back to our old encampment. Had the weather remained pleasant and the roads passable, I feel confident our army would have been victorious. Gen. Burnside's plans were well laid and we were all determined to win or die. We noticed in THE ALLEGHANIAN of the 22d inst., a record of the death in Richmond prison of William W. Davis, a member of our company. When the news was read to the boys, it spread a gloom over all. He was a brave soldier and a Christian. His kindness and gentlemanly deportment had endeared him to the members of his company and regiment. He always had a kind word and pleasant smile for every one he met and under all difficulties, displayed the most cheerful spirit and fortitude. No one ever heard him utter a harsh word nor saw his face draw an angry frown. But, alas! He is gone forever. No costly monument marks his resting place, but he has a monument in our hearts which will last forever. His name will always remain green in our memories. The mother and relatives of the deceased have the sympathies of Co. A in their bereavement. Richard R. Davis is missing since the battle of Fredericksburg and we fear he is dead. James P. Rummell died at Wind Mill Point on the 20th inst., of chronic diarrhea. He was a native of Cherry Tree, Indiana county. The Paymaster is expected here daily. Some of the members of our regiment have not been paid for eleven months – which is an outrage on human forbearance. It is to be hoped that measures will be adopted by which the army will be paid more regularly hereafter. The families of soldiers, many of them, must be suffering in consequence of this neglect to pay. Our company at present consists of thirty men fit for duty and five sick, making a total of thirty-five men in camp. There are none seriously ill. [Signed] D. J. Belle Plain Landing, Va. Jan. 19, 1863 Another letter from Co. A, 11th Reserves Without doubt our present encampment is the most out-of-the-way place we have yet been at. We are emphatically "out in the wilderness," and pretty effectively cut off from communication with the civilized world. Our sutlers are not permitted to come here and the consequence is we are without any of those little necessaries usually furnished by them, for a consideration, to wit: tobacco, postage stamps, paper, envelopes, etc. That absence of these latter commodities will, I think, satisfactorily account for so few letters being sent home by the boys. Until lately our division had but a Colonel in command, but now Gen. Doubleday has charge of us. This is right; we were sadly in need of a commander. It would be good policy, furthermore, to fill all the vacant posts in the regiment. At present we have but five line and two field officers. The effective force of the regiment is but 225 men. Sergt. Wm. W. Evans, Richard Davis and Wm. W. Davis, of our company, were wounded and taken prisoners at the battle of Fredericksburg. They were taken to Libby Prison at Richmond. From some of our regiment who have lately been released we learn that Sergt. Evans was wounded in the left leg and that Davis – most likely Wm. W. Davis – had died there. As an item of general information I should not forget to mention that our regiment has not been paid off for eleven months! Of course, soldiers as a general thing don't need very much money; but then, it is quite convenient to have a little of the article in your pocket – enough that you may be able to resent the imputation of being "dead broke." Besides, a large proportion of the soldiers here have families at home who are dependent on Uncle Sam's remittances for a subsistence. I see it stated in the papers that Paymasters, with their "pockets full of rocks," are bobbing around in all directions. That they, in their perambulations, may not fail to come across the Pennsylvania Reserves - and that shortly - is the prayer, night and morning of. [Signed] D Co. C, 19th U.S. Infantry The Battle of Murfreesboro Camp near Murfreesboro, Tenn. January 9, 1863 (Extracts from a private letter) My Dear Sister: Five of the darkest days that ever passed over my head are gone and thousands lay 'neath the gory field off which I came unscathed. Oh! It was dreadful, was the carnage of that brief period. One third of our company fell on the deadly field where we fought the enemy muzzle to muzzle. At dawn on the morning of Dec. 31st, the Rebels attacked Gen. Gill's division, commanded by Gen. Johnson, capturing eleven cannon at the first onslaught by reason that the horses were off being watered. They hurled their columns against us with irresistible impetuosity. Brigade after brigade rushing on, with bullets and steel, their cannon hurling forth showers of iron hail, caused our men to retreat in confusion. I may say, we were absolutely routed. You can scarcely imagine what a feeling it produces upon the observer to see thousands of men, panic stricken, running hither and thither. The woods were darkened with soldiers flying from the line of battle, some wounded, others without hats or guns and all seemingly scared almost to death. Rousseau viewed the crisis with tears in his eyes. He rode before his veterans and told them what was left for them to do. To rescue the army from a ruinous disaster, they must turn the tide of battle; they must resist to the last drop of precious blood or consent to be chased across the Ohio River. Rosecrans came dashing up, cold sweat oozing from his forehead. Just here a cannon ball took off Gareshea's (his A. A. G.) head and the blood splashed into Rosecrans' face. He glanced at his favorite aid's mangled body a moment then pointed down to a dark line of cedar woods as he told Rousseau something. We saw Rousseau shake his head and then he rode up to us. The die was cast – the Regulars must hold those cedars. So we were double-quicked into position and laid down at orders with our guns cocked and fingers on triggers. But a minute more and the "butternuts" came, six deep double-quick on us but, ah! "The Regulars were there!" We poured such an unerring shower of bullets into their advancing columns as to stagger them. The scene that ensued beggars description. We were only about one hundred feet apart in the dark cedar woods. They couldn't drive us, for the volleys we poured in quick succession into their ranks was too much on flesh and blood. If it was any satisfaction to our dying to see the enemy bit the dust, they had it. Shortly the Regulars were alone. The volunteers had fled from both ends of our line and retreat or capture was our only alternative. We chose the former and after being ordered three times to retreat, we left. After leaving the cover of the woods, it was a run for life. The Rebels were on our heels and the withering blast that strewed the ground with dead and dying was terrible! Our old commander, Stephen D. Carpenter, fell first, riddled with bullets, thus terminating his twenty-five years of service. Just as we passed our batteries, some twenty five or thirty cannon opened with a roar that fairly shook the earth. Rousseau flung his hat away and yelled – "Rally, boys, rally! Rally, boys, rally!" We had done our duty – gained a few minutes of infinite value to our army. Rosecrans telegraphed to Washington that he had "sacrificed the Regulars to save his army." We lost one third our brigade. All this happened before noon. We lay in line of battle for two days and nights. On New Year's morning, we were surrounded and things never seemed more gloomy. About noon, the Rebels massed a powerful force against our right wing but Rosecrans was wide awake and quicker than lightening he double-quicked three lines of battle to meet them. They attacked us, but found us ready. Both armies lay on their arms all night. Friday, the 2d of January, dawned amid the booming of artillery. About noon Rosecrans succeeding in getting his army extricated from the chaos to which it had been reduced and his columns and divisions were again brought into line. Things began to wear a brighter aspect. We ran out of provisions, however, and our men had to commence eating dead horses. You must not doubt me when I say that we had to put three guards, with fixed bayonets, over a load of unhusked corn to keep the men from stealing it until it could be divided equally! In the afternoon we gained a great victory. The Rebels made a deadly onset on our left wing, commanded by Gens. Crittenten and Thomas, driving our men back. Rosecrans galloped along the lines and in thirty minutes had out twenty thousand men, in two columns, who charged bayonets on the foe. They piled the ground with dead Rebels, five of them to one of us and captured several flags. We drove them back about a mile on the left and advanced our lines about a quarter of a mile. On the morning of the 3d, the battle was continued. The Regulars were ordered to the front to dig trenches. Every spadeful of dirt we threw out was stirred and made light by the buzzing of bullets. It makes one feel somewhat ticklish to have a lot of sharpshooters picking at him, but to tell the truth I felt no fear. Many were shot down, however, while working. It rained all day, too, and the water ran in and filled the trenches about as fast as they were dug. But we were satisfied – "Old Rose" wasn't going to retreat. That night we spent in the trenches; it rained all the time and a muddy ditch with twelve to eighteen inches water in it rather added to our discomfort yet the boys cracked jokes all night about "that foot race out of the cedars." We didn't like to run but knew it was death to remain. Well, next morning we found that the enemy had evacuated Murfreesboro and fled in the night. They couldn't stand six days' hard fighting without sleep. We were not sorry. Then we got to burying the dead. We hauled nineteen hundred of our killed out of the "dark cedars" alone. The Regulars were all buried on a little knoll together. But, oh! You should have seen the piles of dead Rebels that lay scattered around, proving with what desperate determination the attack had been made. Many a little boy lay there lifeless, their faces wearing an innocent smile – they seemed not to have known the hatred that was deeply imprinted on the weather beaten faces of the Arkansas brigade. We are now in camp at Murfreesboro and straightening up again. *** Your affectionate brother, Reuben Jones The 54th Pa. Vols. The Johnstown TRIBUNE understands indefinitely that Lieut. Col. B. M'Dermit has resigned his position in this regiment and that Maj. Linton has been made Lieut. Colonel and Capt. Sutor, of Co. A., Major. The 11th Pa. Cavalry This regiment, to which belongs Capt. Jim Skelly's Cambria county cavalry company (Co. F) was fully engaged in the late fight on the Blackwater and suffered severely. In the published list of casualties we can distinguish no names of persons resident hereabout. Quarterly Meeting The Quarterly Meeting for Cambria circuit will be held at the M. E. Church, this place, commencing on Saturday, 14th inst., at 2 o'clock P. M. Rev. Lynch, Presiding Elder, will be present. Important to School Directors The attention of School Directors throughout this county is invited to the following section of the Common School Law, passed this winter, in relation to their duties: "That it shall be the duty of the board of directors in each school district to publish annual statement of the amount of money received and expended and the amount due from collectors and setting forth all the financial operations of the district, in not less than ten written or printed handbills to be put up in the most public places in the district." The notice should be signed by the President of the School Board and attested by the Secretary. It is the custom in some districts to publish the statement in the county papers which answers the same purpose as handbills. New Paper A new paper to be called the JOHNSTOWN DEMOCRAT is to be established in Johnstown about the middle of the present month. J. F. Campbell, formerly of the Blairsville RECORD and more recently of the Greensburg REPUBLICAN, will be the editor. We wish the new enterprise all manner of success providing, of course, that the paper prove loyal to the Government. A Democratic print of this class would be something out of the common run in this county. Eulogy By invitation R. L. Johnston, Esq. will deliver a eulogy in the Court room on our late and lamented brethren and townsmen, Richard M. Jones and George W. Todd and all the others that fell at the battle for Fredericksburg, Va., on the evening of the 23d of February, inst. at 7 o'clock. [Signed] G. W. Wisegarver Hugh Jones Edw. D. Evans, Committee Eclipses There will be four eclipses this year as follows: 1. A partial eclipse of the sun, May 18. Invisible in the United States, except in California and Oregon. 2. A total eclipse of the moon, June 1, in the evening. Visible in part of the United States but generally as a partial eclipse. 3. The annual eclipse of the sun, Nov. 11, invisible in America. 4. A partial eclipse of the moon in the morning of Nov. 25. Digits 11:40. Visible in the United States. Summary of War News [extracts from lengthy article] Gen. Couch is now in command of the Right Grand Division; Gen. Meade the Center; Gen. W. F. Smith on the Left and Gen. Sigel, the Reserve. Gen. Hunter has arrived at Port Royal and resumed his command. He has issued a general order, promising active operations at once and laying out the programme for a vigorous campaign. President Lincoln on the Peninsular Campaign While Maj. Gen. Hitchcock was under examination before the McDowell court of Inquiry on the 16th, the following letter from the President was placed before the Court: Washington, April 9, 1862 To Maj. Gen. M'Clellan: My Dear Sir: Your dispatches, complaining that you are not properly sustained, while they do not offend me, pain me very much. Blenker's Division was withdrawn before you left here and you know the pressure under which I did it and as I thought, acquiesced in it, certainly not without reluctance. After you left I ascertained that less that 20,000 unorganized men, without a field battery, were all you designed should be left for the defense of Washington and Manassas Junction and part of this even was to go to Gen. Hooker's old position. Gen. Blank's corps, once designed for Manassas Junction was divided and led up on the line of Winchester and Strasburg and could not leave that position without again exposing the Upper Potomac and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This presented or would present, when M'Dowell and Sumner should be gone, a great temptation for the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock and sack Washington. My explicit directions sustained by the judgment of all the commanders of corps, that Washington should be left secure, had been entirely neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain M'Dowell. I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave Banks at Manassas Junction. But when that arrangement was broken up and nothing was substituted for it, of course, I was not satisfied. I was constrained to substitute something for it myself. And now allow me to ask you, do you really think I could permit the line from Richmond via Manassas Junction to this city to be entirely open, except what resistance could be presented by less that 20,000 unorganized troops? This is a question which the country will not allow me to evade. There is a curious mystery about the number of troops now with you. I telegraphed you on the 6th, saying that you had over 100,000 with you. I had just obtained from the Secretary of War a statement taken, as he said, from your own returns, making 108,000 then with you and en route to you. You now say you will have but 85,000 men when all en route to you shall have reached you. How can this discrepancy of 35,000 be accounted for? As to Gen. Wool's command, I understand that it is doing precisely what a number of your own would have to do if that command was away. I suppose the whole force which has gone forward to you is with you by this time; and if so, I think it is the precise time for you to strike a blow. By delay the enemy will readily gain on you; that is, he will gain faster by fortifications and re-enforcements than you can by re-enforcements alone. And once more let me tell you, it is indispensable to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help. This you will do me the justice to remember. I was always opposed to going down the Bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas, as only shifting and not surmounting a difficulty; that we would find the same enemy and the same or equal entrenchments at either place. The county will not fail to note – is noting now – that the present hesitation to move upon an entrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated. I beg leave to assure you that I have never written or spoken to you in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you so far as in my most anxious judgment I consistently can. But you must act. Yours, very truly, [Signed] A. Lincoln