The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, 1861-1865, vols. 1-5. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868.

Confederate States in 1863: Alabama through Virginia

SOUTHERN STATES – CONFEDERATE – 1863

ALABAMA. The details of the Census of 1860, additional to these published in previous volumes, have not yet been issued by the Government.

The changes which took place in the State of Alabama during 1868 present no new aspect. Immediately after the occupation of the peninsula, opposite Vicksburg, by General Grant's army, in January, measures were taken to cut off the communication between the inhabitants in the east and west sides of the Mississippi through Red River. From that stream the inhabitants on the east side of the Mississippi had access to vast supplies, particularly of salt, sugar, and molasses. A large portion of the Confederate army was supplied from the same source. This communication was destroyed by the gunboats of Admiral Porter, which were below the batteries at Vicksburg, and by vessels of Admiral Farragut's fleet at New Orleans. In April a scarcity of provisions prevailed in the southern part of the State, which created an advance in prices. This was attended with a depreciation of the currency, and food soon advanced almost beyond the reach of the poor. About the 15th of April a scene occurred in Mobile, which was thus described:

"A number of ladies, perhaps a dozen, composed of the wives and daughters of soldiers' families, who represented themselves and their families to have been deprived of anything to eat in the last few days, save a small portion of corn bread, were seen perambulating our streets until they came up to a provision store on Whitehall street. They all entered it, being preceded by a tall lady, on whose countenance rested care and determination. She asked the merchant the price of bacon. He replied, stating that it was $1.10 per pound. She remonstrated with him as to the impossibility of females in their condition paying such prices for the necessaries of life. He remaining inexorable in his demand, the tall lady proceeded to draw from her bosom a long navy repeater, and at the same time ordered the others in the crowd to help themselves to what they liked, which they did accordingly, giving preference to the bacon, until they had taken about $200 worth. They went out, and on being questioned by some gentlemen as to what they meant, they related their suffering condition.

"Seeing what was going on, and feeling a deep sympathy for these ladies, a number of gentlemen, of very moderate means, who themselves have families to support, set to work to raise a subscription in their behalf."

 This was one of several instances of distress which occurred at Mobile. The famine existed chiefly in the families of absent soldiers.

The scarcity of provisions was such as to induce all the authorities to wisely prepare for the ensuing winter. The Confederate Congress urged the people to plant less cotton and more corn; and the Governors of the States repeated the request.

Governor Shorter issued an appeal to the planters of the State at this time, urging the importance of raising articles necessary to keep the people from starving. He said:—" Failing to accomplish our subjugation by the force of arms and the power of numbers, the enemy has called to his aid the terrible appliances of want and starvation, and is carrying out this savage and inhuman policy by the wholesale larceny of slaves, the seizure of provisions, and even the destruction of agricultural implements. Are you, the planters of Alabama, prepared to aid in this policy by pursuing a course which may tend to its accomplishment? Look around you this moment, when the crop upon which the poor must mainly depend is not yet planted, and behold the want and destitution which, notwithstanding the munificent provision made by public and private benevolence, are to be found at the hearthstones of many whose legitimate protectors have fallen in battle, or are now fighting in defence of your homes and property. Let us not deceive ourselves. The failure to raise the largest possible quantity of supplies in the present year may bring disaster Page 7 and ruin upon our cause. The soldier must be fed and his family provided for, and our home population, white and black, must be supported. The experience of the past and the necessities of the present give serious and solemn warning as to the future. Let not our armies, which have hitherto, by the blessing of God, proved invincible, be conquered or disbanded by the want of subsistence in their camps, or be demoralized by the presence of famine in their homes. These results can and will be prevented if the planting community realize their heavy responsibility, and discharge their full duty to the country. The Legislature of Georgia is called to reassemble to reconsider its late action upon this important subject; and the Confederate Congress, perceiving the danger, have given timely notice of its approach by an earnest appeal to the whole country. The indications of a continuance of the war are so unmistakable, and the necessity of providing the means indispensable to its prosecution so urgent, that I have thought it not improper to unite in the appeal to that class of our population through whose active energies and foresight alone these means can be supplied." An address was also made to the people by the Senators and Representatives of the State in Congress, urging them to plant corn and raise hogs and cattle. At this time bands of deserters from the Southern army and Union men were organized in the northern part of the State. In Wayne and the adjoining counties they were quite numerous.

After the losses at Gettysburg and the retreat of General Lee from Pennsylvania, extraordinary efforts were made to recruit the Southern armies. On the 20th of July, Governor Shorter issued a call for an extra session of the State Legislature to be convened August 17th. The reason for this session was to provide for the better defence of the State.

In his message to the Legislature the Governor confined his remarks to the subject of military defence. He examined the question relative to the classes exempt under the State and Confederate enactments, and being without means of ascertaining the number of exempts, he supposed there were several thousand. He recommended that all persons between the ages of sixteen and sixty, including those having substitutes, those of foreign birth domiciled within the State, and all who had evaded the full requirements of the Confederate Government, should be embraced in an amendment to the militia laws as liable to military duty; also that the officers of the State should be charged with the duty of arresting stragglers and deserters, and that the judicial officers should be held to a rigid enforcement of the penalties against their abettors. He concluded as follows:

Alabama has and will cheerfully respond to every demand upon her, so long as the unnatural foe perseveres in his unholy crusade. May the invaded people not give way to alarm and false security, but nerve themselves to an undying resistance to the despotism which has decreed the emancipation of our slaves, the confiscation of our lands, and the subjugation of a free people. God in his providence will not permit such a calamity.

The Senate adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That the people of Alabama and the State hereby pledge the entire resources of the State, to the last dollar and the last man, to a successful prosecution of the war now being waged by the North for the subjugation of the people of the Confederate States, and that we will never yield the contest until the achievement of the acknowledgment of our independence as a separate people.

A joint resolution relative to the employment of slaves was adopted as follows:

Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to provide by law for the employment in the service of the Confederate States of America, in such situations and in such numbers as may be found absolutely necessary, of the able bodied slaves of the country, whether as pioneers, sappers and miners, cooks, nurses or teamsters.

On the 22d of August, Robert Jemison, jr., was elected to fill the unexpired term of William Yancey, deceased, in the Senate of the Confederate Congress. He was a member of the convention which passed the ordinance of Secession, and at that time a "cooperationist" (see Annual Cyclopaedia, 1861. Alabama), but became "a firm and uncompromising supporter of the war." For many years he had been a member of the State Legislature from Tuscaloosa county.

At the election for State officers in August, 1863, Governor John G. Shorter and Thomas H. Watts were the candidates for the office of governor. The result in fifty-two counties was: Watts, 22,223 votes; Shorter, 6,342 votes. The former was elected by a large majority. Governor Watts had been tone of the electors named on the Bell and Everett ticket at the presidential election in 1860. Soon after his election it was stated that he was in favor of a reconstruction of the Union. A letter was addressed to him on this subject, to which he made the following reply:

CONFEDEDERATE STATES of AMERICA,

Department of Justice, Richmond, September 12th

HON. Ira Foster, Quartermaster-General of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia:

Dear Sir: I dare to-day received your letter of the 1st inst., forwarded to me from Montgomery, Alabama, and hasten to reply. You say that my name, since the Alabama election, has been freely used by many in connection with "reconstruction, meaning thereby that some people in Georgia suppose I am in favor of re-union with the Yankee Government of the North. I am surprised and mortified that any body in the South should so interpret the Alabama election. If those who claim my election as indicating any such feeling in Alabama had read my letter of the 21st March to General Lawler, and my short address to the people of Alabama, dated 6th June last, they would never have entertained such false notions. It is due to the gallant people of my State to call attention to the resolutions of the recent called session of the Legislature, passed unanimously, pledging all the men and resources of the State to prosecute the war until the independence of the Confederate States is fully established. For myself, I will not forfeit my self-respect by arguing the question of " reconstruction." He who is now, deliberately or otherwise, in favor of "reconstruction " with Page 8 the States under Lincoln's dominion, is a traitor in his heart to the State of his residence and deserves a traitor's doom. If I had the power, I would build np a wall of fire between Yankeedom and the Confederate States, there to burn, for ages, as a monument of the folly, wickedness, and vandalism of the Puritanic race! No, sir! rather than reunite with such a people, I would see the Confederate States desolated with fire and sword. When the men of the South become such base cowards as to wish for such reunion, let us call on the women of the South to march to the battle field, and in the name of God and justice, bid them fight under the banner of Southern liberty! The call would not be made in vain. Let the patriotic sires, whose children have bared their breasts to Yankee bullets and welcomed glorious deaths in this struggle for self-government, rebuke the foul spirit which even whispers "reconstruction." Let the noble mothers, whose sons have made sacred with their blood so many fields consecrated to freedom, rebuke the fell heresy! Let our blood-stained banners, now unfurled " to the battle and the breeze," rebuke the cowardice and cupidity which suggest "reconstruction." The spirits of our heroic dead, the martyrs to our sacred cause, rebuke, a thousand times rebuke, "reconstruction "! We have little cause for despondency, none for despair! Let us now nerve ourselves afresh for the contest, and let us not forget that

“Freedom's battle, once begun.

Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,

Though baffled oft. Is ever won ! "

If we are true to ourselves, true to the memories of the past, true to our homes and our firesides, and true to our God, we can not, we will not be conquered! In any and in every event, let us prefer death to a life of cowardly shame! Your obedient servant,

T. H. WATTS.

In October, Mobile was visited by the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. After a review of the local troops, he was called out by the people and made a brief speech, which was thus reported:

He congratulated the people upon the fact—which he assured them he felt to be the fact—that our cause is now in a better condition than it was a year ago. Having just come from the scene of the great battle of Chickamauga, it was impossible that he should not refer to that, and though it could not be expected that he should allude to contemplated movements, yet he was happy to say that the brave victors of that bloody field stood ready and anxious to strike the blow which should secure the complete fruits of their glorious victory. He could say more—that he believed they would strike the blow, and that Rosecrans' unwieldy legions would be destroyed, or driven for refuge to the Ohio. The same spirit animated our armies elsewhere, and all they needed was to be properly seconded by the people at home to send the hordes of Yankees back to their beloved Boston, or an other place from which their return might be more difficult.

The citizen soldiery, also, he believed, were emulous of the reputation of their brethren in camp. He bad been much moved, as he rode along the lines, at seeing among them young boys, some very young, and men whose heads were silvered with the frosts of many winters.

He could remind all these, regulars and others, that they are not common soldiers. They present a spectacle which the world has never witnessed—the best population of the country poured into the army. Such men may be appealed to from other incentives than that of rigid military discipline. The time, the cause, all considerations, require efforts which may be demanded of an army of heroes, for such they are.

Besides these, there are some too old to bear arms, but they, too, can do something. Let them contribute their means to the support and relief of those who are contributing their blood; and let those who are too poor for this contribute their influence. There is something that all can do. Self must be entirely forgotten; and let those who are deaf to any other appeal, remember that he who is hoarding up wealth, in such a time as this, is hoarding up infamy, the mark of which he and his posterity must bear who shall have grown rich by this war.

The number of troops contributed to the Confederacy by the State is at present unknown. The military operations of the year touched the northern part of the State; but no important actions took place.

The foreign commerce of the State was confined to the cargoes of two or three steamers which reached Mobile through the blockade, and the export of some cotton which escaped in small vessels.

ARKANSAS. The military operations and their consequences comprise all that is really important in the history of this sparsely settled State, during 1863. The battles in the north-western part of the State, at the close of the previous year, resulted in causing the enemy to fall back upon the Arkansas river. Their forces were so reduced that only desultory operations took place, until the attack upon Helena, on the 4th of July, when the Confederate General Holmes, with about fifteen thousand men, was defeated by General Prentiss. Vicksburg having now surrendered, General Steele was detached from General Grant's army and ordered to Helena. On the 81st of July, General Steele reported to General Hurlbut, commanding the sixteenth army corps, and was placed in command of all the troops at Helena, and the cavalry division under Brigadier General Davidson, then operating in Arkansas, making an aggregate of about twelve thousand men, for the purpose of making an expedition, the object of which was the possession of the State. Notwithstanding the reduction of his force by sickness and leaves of absence, and resignations by which only General Davidson was left as a general officer, he completed his organization and pushed his entire force on to Clarendon, about forty miles from Helena, and began crossing the White river, on the 17th of August. Here General Steele found that the number who were sick had increased to a thousand, and he ordered them to be sent to Duvall's Bluff, a very healthy location on the White river. On the 28d the rest of his command followed. From this point a successful advance was made, and after skirmishing with Marmaduke's cavalry all along the way, General Steele's whole available force, on the 2d of September, was concentrated at Brownsville. After a two days' reconnoissance the army again reached the Arkansas river on the 7th. The 8th and 9th were occupied in a reconnoissance, and the 10th saw the two columns of the Union army, numbering not more than seven thousand men, marching nearly abreast on either side of the Arkansas toward the capital. The panic and confusion which this sudden approach caused in Little Rock are indescribable. The streets were filled with women and children and knots of citizens, listening to the sound of cannon constantly growing nearer and nearer, and the shells from General Steele's batteries, which had now been planted almost opposite the city, shrieking and howling over their heads and breaking in the woods beyond them. Officers of the enemy, thinking themselves secure, were eating their suppers in the houses. The rapid rush of flying horsemen, the clouds of dust, the glad hurrahs, and gleaming sabres of others dashing through the dusty streets in hot pursuit, were the first intimations of danger. Women and children ran in panic to their homes, the crowd of citizens quickly dispersed, and Confederate officers mounting their horses were captured while endeavoring to escape. A little later, windows were thrown up and handkerchiefs waved, and curious throngs gathered in the door yards, closely scrutinizing each squadron as it passed.

A squadron of cavalry dashed up to the United States Arsenal as soon as the forces entered the city, and arrived just in time to prevent its being blown up by the enemy. There was over a ton of powder in the magazine, and two or three thousand rounds of fixed ammunition in the various buildings. The public records of the city had been removed to Washington, and the machinery in the machine shops to Arkadelphia.

The mayor of the city at once sent the following communication to General Davidson:

MAYORS’S OFFICE, Little Rock, September 10th, 1863.

To the Officer Commanding Federal Army:

The army of General Price has retreated and abandoned the defence of this city. We are now powerless and at your mercy. The city is now occupied alone by women and children and non-combatants, with perhaps a few stragglers from the Confederate forces, [ay Task of you protection for persons and property? I have been ill for some days, and am unable to visit you in person.

Very respectfully, C. P. BERTRAM), Mayor.

General Davidson caused guards to be placed upon every street corner of the city, and, to the credit of his division, it is said that, although they beheld their comrades shot from their saddles from houses in the suburbs, and entered the city amid the gathering shades of night, which would have concealed all manner of crimes, not a single act of violence or injustice was done to the citizens of the place, or any article of private property disturbed.

General Steele and staff crossed the Arkansas in a skiff, as the bridges were not passable, and entered Little Rock soon after General Davidson. He immediately appointed General Davidson military commander of the capital and vicinity. Upon assuming this command, he adopted several regulations, among which was one allowing the municipal authorities of the city to temporarily continue the exercise of their functions. Another invited citizens of the surrounding country to bring in their produce Page 15 for sale to the inhabitants and the troops. Another prohibited all officers and soldiers, other than those on provost guard duty, or belonging to the staffs or escorts of generals, from being in the city without a pass; officers and soldiers were expected to remain constantly with their commands unless absent on duty. Another regulation provided that no house should be occupied by any officer or soldier without the order of the general commanding the city.

Seven steamboats were successfully destroyed by the enemy. Four, ono of which was a ferryboat, were saved. One of the largest boats on the western waters was drawn up ashore, and was receiving a plating of railroad iron. It was also destroyed.

The capture of Little Rock was a fatal blow to the Confederate authority in the State. North of the Arkansas river, and west of the Cairo and Fulton railway of Missouri, the country had been desolated by the war, and subjugated by the Federal army so thoroughly, that it had long been abandoned by the forces of the enemy. The victories of General Blunt in the Indian Territory, had more decisively caused the Arkansas river to become their defensive line. But with Little-Rock as a base, the rebel General Holmes had carried on a troublesome war by means of expeditions sent northeast to Jackson port, east to Helena, southeast to Napoleon, west to the Indian Territory, and south into Louisiana. At the time General Steele commenced his march toward Little Rock, General Blunt marched south of the Arkansas river, through the Indian Territory, toward the Red river, and General Stevenson advanced from Vicksburg along the line of the Shreveport railroad to Monroe, and thence up the Washita toward El Dorado, in Southern Arkansas. These combined operations alarmed General Holmes, especially when General Blunt captured Fort Smith, in Arkansas, General Steele drove the army of General Price across the Bayou Metoe, and General Stevenson took possession of the southern border of the State. He, therefore, abandoned his position, and retreated southwest toward Texas.

In the western part of the State, General Blunt issued an address to the people, in which he assured them that his occupation of the country would be permanent, that the whole of the Indian Territory and Western Arkansas was under the control of the United States forces, and that the rebel troops had been driven beyond the Red river, and that hundreds of refugees had arrived to enlist in his army. He closed thus:

Many applications have been made by citizens for safeguard. None will be issued. The best safeguard you can have is the American flag unfurled over your premises; and if you deport yourselves as good loyal citizens, your conduct must be your safeguard. If it be your desire to disenthrall yourselves from the tyranny and oppression to which you have been subrted, organize a civil government under the authority of the United States. Every facility will be afforded I leave the matter.

The inhabitants of the northern part of Arkansas were always warm friends to the Federal Union, and thus continued amid all the desolation. The great opposition made to the ordinance of secession (see Annual Cyclopaedia, 1861, Arkansas), showed a majority of the people, under a fair test, as firmly opposed to it. Under the existing state of affairs, therefore, large numbers of men began to desert from the enemy, and movements commenced among the people in favor of the Union. These movements were begun by those sincerely attached to the Union, and were supported by others, who thought that the Confederate cause was lost. As usual, the fears of large numbers restrained their action. At Little Rock, such persons were afraid to risk the possibility of the return of the rebel forces, apprehending in such an event, injury to person and property in case they had been active in the cause of the Union. They pointed to the experience of Union men in the northern part of the State and in other localities. The cause, however, moved forward, and constantly gained vigor. A newspaper was established at Little Rock. Union meetings were held, and resolutions, pledging unconditional support to the Union, were adopted. Regiments of citizens were organized for the army, both white and colored. Citizens of distinction came forward to advocate the Union cause; among others, Brigadier-General E. W. Gantt, of the Confederate army, once held as a prisoner of war. He thus described the feeling of the people near the close of the year:

The people of Arkansas are ready to return to their allegiance to the Government, and to renew their devotion, which shall know hereafter neither change nor decay. The loyalty to .Toff. Davis in Arkansas does not extend practically beyond the shadow of his army, while the hatred of him is as widespread as it is intense. The Union sentiment is manifesting itself on all sides and by every indication—in Union meetings —in desertions from the Confederate army—in taking the oath of allegiance unsolicited—in organizing for home defence, and enlisting in the Federal army. Old flags that have been hid in the crevices of rocks, and been worshipped by our mountain people as holy relics, are flung to the breeze, and followed to the Union army with an enthusiasm that beggars all description. The little county of Ferry, that votes only about six hundred, and which has been turned wrong side out in search of conscripts by Hindman and his fellow-murderers and oppressors, with their retinue of salaried gentlemen and negro boys, sent down a company of ninety-four men. Where they came from, and how they kept their old flag during these three years of terror, persecution and plunder, I can't tell. But they were the proudest looking set of men I ever saw, and full of fight.

In December, there were eight regiments of Arkansas citizens that had been partly or wholly formed for service in the Federal army, besides several thousand who had joined companies of other regiments. Under the amnesty proclamation of President Lincoln, issued December 8th (tee Public Documents), a pardon was issued to General Gantt, and, at the beginning of 1864, preparations were made to reorganize the State Government. For this the President issued the following proclamation:

Page 16 EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, January 20th, 1864.

Major-General Steele:

Sundry citizens of the State of Arkansas petitioned me that an election may be held in that State, in which to elect a Governor; that it be assumed at that election, and thenceforward, that the Constitution and laws of the State, as before the rebellion, are in full force, except that the Constitution is so modified as to declare that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; that the General Assembly may make such provisions for their freed people as shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, and provide for their education, and which may yet be construed as a temporary arrangement, suitable to their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class; that said election shall be held on the 28th of March, 1864, at all the usual places of the said State, for all such voters as may attend for that purpose; that the voters attending at each place at eight o'clock in the morning of said day may choose Judges and Clerks of Election for that purpose; that all persons qualified by said Constitution and laws, and taking the oath prescribed in the President's Proclamation of December 8th, 1863, either before or at the election, and none others may be voters: that each set of judges and clerks may make returns directly to you, on or before the day of next; that in all other respects, said election may be conducted according to said modified Constitution and laws; that on the receipt of said returns, when 5,406 votes shall have been cast, you can receive said votes, and ascertain all who shall thereby appear to have been elected; that on the day of next, all persons so appearing to have been elected, who shall appear before you at Little Rock, and take the oath, to be by you severally administered, to support the Constitution of the United States and modified Constitution of the State of Arkansas, shall be declared by you qualified and empowered to immediately enter upon the duties of the offices to which they shall have been respectively elected. You will please order an election to take place on the 28th or March, 1864, and returns to be made in fifteen days thereafter.

A. LINCOLN.

The subsequent proceedings will form a part of the record of 1864.

ARKANSAS POST is the capital of the county of Arkansas. It is situated on the left bank of the Arkansas river, about fifty miles from its mouth. It was settled by the French, in 1685. The surface of the country is generally level, and about one third of it is occupied by Grand Prairie, the largest in the State. The soil is adapted to the production of corn and cotton. Arkansas Post was captured by General McClernand's command, aided by a naval force, in January, 1868.

ARKANSAS RIVER. This river, next to the Missouri, is the largest tributary of the Mississippi. It rises in the Rocky Mountains, near the boundary between Utah and the Indian Territory, and pursues an easterly course for several hundred miles. About the 98th degree of W. longitude, it flows south-easterly to Fort Smith, on the western boundary of the State of Arkansas. Traversing that State, and dividing it into two nearly equal portions, it empties into the Mississippi, in latitude 83° 54' N.; longitude 91° 10' W. Its length exceeds two thousand miles; and it is navigable a distance of eight hundred miles during nine months of the year. Its width for 600 miles from its mouth is about half a mile. The soil on its banks, in Arkansas, is generally very productive.

FLORIDA. In civil, military, or political affairs no change of importance occurred in the State of Florida during 1863. Governor Milton, in a message to the Legislature, recommended that every man and boy capable of bearing arms, who was not already in the military service of the Confederacy, or liable to conscription, should be organized as State troops, armed and occasionally drilled. The object of this organization was for the protection of the lives and property of the citizens generally. He proposed to embrace in it those who had substitutes in the army, or who resided in the State five days, or those who might be in it an hour for the purpose of speculation, including also aliens. They were not to be subject to be ordered into the army, nor from their ordinary pursuits, except to repel invasions, and to maintain suitable police regulations. The number of soldiers' families in the State needing assistance was three thousand three hundred and ninety-eight, comprising eleven thousand six hundred and seventy-three persons. Early in March, General Hunter, then in command of the Department of the South, ordered Jacksonville to be occupied by the colored troops under Colonel Higginson. It was known that there were less than three thousand troops of the enemy in the State, and it was thought that a small force could be made effective in opening it to the occupation of local citizens, and creating an avenue of escape for the hunted negroes gathered in the interior. Jacksonville was under the command of the gunboats; but its occupation seems to have been ordered before General Hunter was prepared permanently to hold it. The place is the key of East Florida, and its permanent occupation would have compelled the abandonment by the enemy of all the territory east of the St. John's. It was at first occupied by the colored troops, who were soon after reenforced by the 8th Maine and 6th Connecticut, for the purpose of making a more extended and powerful movement. They came with ten days' rations, but were delayed in disembarking, which had been accomplished but a short time when an order to return reached them. Two short reconnoissances were made. Some prisoners and cattle were taken. As the troops embarked the place was fired by incendiaries. This was the third occupation of the town, thus' far during the war. Still later in the year the troops were withdrawn from Pensacola in West Florida, and that place was also burned.

LOUISIANA. The most important subjects of general interest connected with affairs in Louisiana, during 1868, relate, 1st, to the Provisional Judiciary adopted in that State; 2d, the movements to organize a State Government; and 3d, the organization of the labor of the freedmen.

After the capture of New Orleans and some other parts of Louisiana by the Federal forces, the military being under command of Major-General Butler, and the naval under Admiral Farragut, in April, 1862, a system of government for the territory rescued from the enemy became necessary, and nothing was called for by the wants of the community more than some tribunal to decide controversies which were constantly arising. All the functions of the previously existing disloyal Government having been suspended, and among others the judiciary, a new one for the time being, embracing among others the judicial powers, must take its place. At first, as questions arose, they were often decided by the major-general himself. Some were by him from time to time referred to other persons for examination and decision: to the various members of his staff; to other officers and military men under his command, and sometimes to civilians. The decisions of these gentlemen were required to be respected and obeyed, and the justice obtained in this manner, uncertain as it was, without system and in a great degree accidental, depending much on first impressions of the gentlemen to whom reference was made, the opportunity for investigation, or the want of it, was still immeasurably better than none, and was in fact a necessity of society. Soon, however, institutions in the nature of courts were established by the general commanding, and an officer was detailed to hear and decide controversies of a particular character. Soldiers were detailed to execute his commands, to bring the accused before him for trial, and to see that the judgment pronounced was executed. Such a court had no name in fact, but was known by the name of the officer holding it. It had no formal records, although probably some one of the men detailed kept a list of the persons against whom judgment was rendered, and some brief memorandum of the judgment itself, such as the number of dollars of fine or of days of imprisonment, and this person shortly came to be called clerk, if he was not originally so termed.

About June, and five or six weeks after the Page 586 occupation of the city by the Federal forces, a court was established called the Provost Court of the army of the United States, having at first, as its name imports, power only to decide questions relating to the army, officers or soldiers. From time to time other questions were referred to this court, relating to persons not connected with the army, and particularly to matters of police and the punishment of crimes generally, and the jurisdiction over cases of this kind from frequent repetition of the references of them to it became habitual. Before the summer after the conquest had expired, this court exercised unquestioned jurisdiction of all criminal cases arising in the city of New Orleans. Shortly after this acquisition of jurisdiction, civil matters, in the absence of courts endowed for that purpose, were referred from time to time to this court.

The major-general commanding the department, and his staff under him, being in possession of the power, were of course appealed to by the wronged or distressed. This was done naturally, without reflecting further than to see that they seemed to have the power of government and to restrain and redress wrongs. They hail it, and they alone had it, and as conquerors, they had the right and theirs was the duty to exercise it. The right and duty in such a case come directly from the possession of the power and the necessity for its exercise, and this is very manifest when the matter is viewed in a practical light. They follow so necessarily and naturally that they are never questioned. Where society by conquest and the suspension of its civil institutions is reduced to its elements, nothing is plainer than that it is the duty of those who have the power, however obtained or held, to protect the weak against the strong and to maintain order and the rights of citizens among themselves. This right and duty in such a state of wants and means are as apparent as is in the simplest case the connection of cause and effect.

In August following the conquest of the city, General George F. Shepley, of Maine, was appointed Military Governor of Louisiana, and among other things he immediately set about providing a system of courts for the State. Most of the judges of the courts that had been in operation there, and the other officers of them, were disloyal, and having fled the country on its capture were still absentees in the Confederacy so-called, and could not have been continued in office even if they had been willing to remain. Governor Shepley therefore had substantially to erect new courts. He found it easier and more natural to erect such as they had before had, and accordingly he appointed John S. Whittaker Judge of the Second District Court of the parish of Orleans. The oldest Second District Court had been a court of probate and successions, in addition to possessing the ordinary powers of a local court in oivil matters. This action seemed like setting in motion that old oonrt under the new motive power of the Federal Government. It was in fact, perhaps, more properly speaking, the establishment of a new court by the Executive of the Federal Government, with the jurisdiction and powers theretofore pertaining to the court previously bearing that name. This court therefore had all the powers pertaining and belonging to the old court of that name, among which were those of a Probate Court. It had also power to hear and decide civil cases generally, where the defendant resided in the parish of Orleans or was a nonresident of the State. Where a defendant resided in the State, however, and not in the parish of Orleans, this court could not entertain a suit against him, that having been under the jurisdiction of the constitutional State court to whose jurisdiction this court had been appointed to succeed.

The Sixth District Court of the parish of Orleans was also put in motion shortly after the capture of the city.

Rufus K. Howell, the incumbent of that bench, had always been a loyal man, and having early taken the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government, was allowed to resume his functions and continue his court under the government of the Federal arms. He continued under his old commission which he had received from the State of Louisiana before her attempted secession, and had held and acted under after the act of secession and during the Confederate rule. Here was one commission that had been held from the State of Louisiana while she was yet loyal and free from secession, continued through the day and rule of secession into the time of the capture and government of the State by the Federal army, and still held and its functions exercised by that same firm man and worthy judge under Federal rule.

This court, like the one before mentioned, retaining and exercising all the powers it had possessed, as originally constituted, had general jurisdiction in civil cases, where the defendant was a resident of the parish of Orleans, or was a non-resident of the State, and was served with process within it.

The Fourth District Court of the parish of Orleans was also established, and Judge J. Hiestand was appointed to its bench. This court, in addition to the general jurisdiction in civil cases, possessed by the other district courts of the parish of Orleans, entertained appeals from justices' courts, the hearing of which constituted a large part of its business.

These three civil courts were all of them constituted by Governor Shepley, in September, and October, 1862, and entered upon the discharge of their duties about the 1st of November, that being the time when the courts in New Orleans, from usage immemorial, resume their session after the vacation of summer.

These were the only courts of civil jurisdiction in the State, and their jurisdiction was limited as against defendants resident of the Page 587 State, to citizens of the parish of Orleans. As to other residents of the State, outside the parish of Orleans, there was no court in which they could be sued. The Federal army held several counties in this condition.

The Provost Court, under Judge Joseph M. Bell, administered all the criminal justice of the State in all its departments, and, previous to the establishment of the civil courts, had occasionally exercised jurisdiction in civil cases.

This was the condition of things when, on the 15th day of December, 1862, the officers of the United States Provisional Court for the State of Louisiana, arrived in New Orleans, from New York.

This court was constituted by an order of the President, and Chas. A. Peabody of New York made judge, with power to appoint all other officers. He appointed the officers mentioned in the order, and the court thus constituted was composed of the following persons: Charles A. Peabody, Judge; Augustus D. B. Hughes, Clerk; Isaac Edward Clarke, Marshal; George D. Lamont, Prosecuting Attorney.

This court, made up as to its personnel in the North, and sent constituted and organized for immediate business to Louisiana^, attracted much attention, as well for the novelty of its constitution as for the character and extent of its jurisdiction and powers, which are only limited by the limit of human acts and transactions capable of becoming subjects of judicial investigation.

They embrace all causes, civil and criminal, including causes in law, equity, revenue and admiralty, and particularly all such powers and jurisdiction ns belong to the district and circuit courts of the United States.

This court, embracing within its jurisdiction all things of judicial action in the State and having jurisdiction of certain cases concurrently with other courts, had also an extensive field of labor, unoccupied and untouched by any other court.

The parts of the State held by our armies outside the parish of Orleans had no courts, civil or criminal, and no process from the courts of the parish of Orleans went thither. No local courts could well be created there, for our tenure of the country was not always permanent, or at least was liable to fluctuation from time to time. At one time, and for months together, a large and wealthy tract of country, embracing several counties, would be in possession of, and held by, the Federal army, and, at another time, another part of the State of equal extent would be so hold, and these districts, ono after the other, by the retirement of the Federal army from them, returned to the occupation and control of the rebel army. This was the case in different parts of the State, at different times, to such an extent that perhaps no part of the State, except the city of New Orleans, had been uniformly held by the Federal arms, since its first capture by them.

A central court, therefore, with power to bring litigants to the focus of the State, and whose operations, practically, would expand and contract with the flow and ebb of our army, was a great desideratum, and almost indispensable to the administration of justice in those parts of the State. This want, not only as to matters within the cognizance of State courts, but also as to those within the cognizance of the Federal courts throughout the State, embracing the eastern and western judicial districts of Louisiana, the Provisional Court was well calculated to supply.

No review of the judgments of this court by any other was allowed, and cases originating there were heard and determined there in the first instance, and then in review; and in all cases, as well those originating there as these brought there on appeal from other courts, the rights of parties were finally settled there. "His judgments, to be final and conclusive," says the executive order—meaning the judgments of Judge Peabody.

The power to hear and determine finally all cases involves the power to hear and determine finally cases originating in other courts, as well as those originating in the court in question, and, accordingly, cases were brought to this court on appeal from other courts, and were there determined finally. From the United States Circuit Court cases pending there on appeal from the District Court of the United States were transferred, by order, to this court, and there heard and decided.

Other courts of the kind may have been created by generals in command of armies of occupation, but no account of any bearing any comparison with this, in the fulness and completeness of its powers and organization, is to be found. (See Provisional Court for Louisiana.)

From the local courts of the State—and the First, Second, and Sixth District Courts, of the parish of Orleans, among others—appeals had lain in former times to the Supreme Court of the State, a court having only appellate jurisdiction, and being the court of lust resort under the State system of judiciary. Accordingly, these courts now organized held that their decisions were subject to be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the State, and on appeals being taken, in accordance with the practice theretofore existing, they treated them as regular, and stayed proceedings on the judgments appealed from, until a decision of the Supreme Court. In this manner many of the judgments rendered in the district courts above mentioned, of the parish of Orleans, were stayed and in suspense.

The Supreme Court had not been organized or set in motion since the reestablishment of the Federal authority there. Two of the former judges had actually fled with the Confederates, on the capture of the city, and the other had. not acted. In this condition of things the three district courts were of little practical benefit. All the judgments they Page 588

 rendered which were of moment to induce the defeated party to appeal, were carried by appeal to the Supreme Court, a court of that time having an ideal, rather than a real, existence; for it was, if not wholly dead, at least in a state of suspended animation. The necessity for a court to decide these cases, and the accumulations of former years, led to the appointment of judges for the Supreme Court of Louisiana, and, accordingly, in April, 1863, the following judges were appointed:

Chief Justice—Charles A. Peabody, of New York.

Associate Justices—John S. Whittaker, of New Orleans, and of New Orleans.

Throughout nearly the entire year 1863 the courts above mentioned, all provisional in their nature, constituted the judiciary establishment of Louisiana, a State, in times of peace, of very large products and transactions, and numerous and large litigations, and having in those times, in the parish of Orleans alone, eight or ten courts, and in each of the other parishes of the State, of which there were forty-six, at least one local court of record of general jurisdiction.

The Provost Court, which had been presided over from its institution by Major Joseph M. Bell, of Boston, a member of General Butler's staff, on his retirement with General Butler in December, 1862, to relieve an urgent want at the time, was taken charge of by Judge Peabody, of the Provisional Court, who, for several months, held both courts, in one dispensing justice in civil matters, and in the other the entire criminal justice of the State daily.

He was succeeded in the Provost Court by Augustus De B. Hughes, Esq., of New York, who continued to preside over that court until near the end of August, 1863, when that court was discontinued, and a new one with the 6amo name, but powers somewhat different, was instituted, at the head of which, as judge, was A. A. Atocha, a native of New Orleans, but, until recently, a citizen of New York.

In November, 1863, E. Hiestand, then judge of the Third District Court, was appointed to the First District Court of the parish of Orleans, a court of general criminal jurisdiction, and this court was opened, and the trials of criminal cases arising in the parish from that time were chiefly in that court.

Two recorders' courts, performing the duties of police and committing magistrates, and trying for petty offences, were organized in September, by the Military Governor. The city, in times of peace, had four. These courts relieved the Provost Court of much of its business, and left that to the legitimate duties of a provost court of the army.

Parish courts of general jurisdiction, like the old constitutional courts of the same name, were also established in the parishes of Jefferson and St. Bernard, East Baton Rouge, and a few others in the latter part of the year 1863. In some instances, the same judge was authorized to hold several of those courts.

Late in the year 1863 the Second District Court of the parish of Orleans (a probate court), was authorized by Governor Shepley to perform the duties of a probate court for other parishes of the State in which there was no court of that kind, the necessity of such a provision becoming very urgent, and it being not expedient to erect new courts for that purpose.

Such was substantially the condition of the provisional judiciary of Louisiana at the end of the year 1863, twenty months after the capture of the city of New Orleans.

All of the few courts there, except the United States Provisional Court, under Judge Peabody, were creations of the Military Governor, bearing the names and having the jurisdiction and attributes of old constitutional courts of the State in former times, with some few modifications by way of enlargement or curtailment of their powers, made by the Military Governor of the State. , Those courts required no written constitutions or orders defining their powers. They had the powers theretofore belonging to the courts whoso names they bore, which had been well known and recognized in the community. The appointment of a judge and other officers to a certain court was, in effect, the establishment of a court having the powers theretofore belonging to the court named, and the investment of the judge with the powers theretofore under the State government pertaining to the office of the same name. The process of constituting and endowing a court in this manner is very brief and simple. There is, for instance, the Second District Court of the parish of Orleans. An order to the effect that a certain man is appointed judge of the Second District Court of the parish of Orleans, puts at once into existence a court having the powers formerly belonging to that court, and gives him the powers and rights and privileges previously belonging to one holding the office of the same name, and this even to the extent of determining his salary or compensation for services, which it was always held was the same as that provided by law for the same officer under the State constitution.

These courts, well adapted to the wants of such a community in times of peace, perhaps were not so well suited to times of war, when industrial and commercial pursuits are, in a great measure, suspended, and resorts to courts are much less frequent, and for causes very different—when the amount of judicial force required is much less, but the flexibility and power of adaptation called for are much greater.

The Provisional Court, on the contrary, had a written charter, prepared with reference to the occasion, and was eminently adapted to the wants of the locality—in the then condition of things. Its powers to hold its sessions in the State, wherever in the condition of the country it could, and of changing its place from Page 589 time to time; of calling to itself, wherever sitting, litigants, whether plaintiffs or defendants; of expanding to cover whatever of the State was held by our arms, and of contracting its operations territorially as the territory held by our arms should be contracted; the comprehensiveness of its jurisdiction as to subject matters and parties, and the conclusiveness of its decisions, in each case terminating the litigation, were features most of them peculiar to it, and giving it immense powers; it may well be added, however, that powers so immense as those possessed by this court could properly be confided for exercise only to a man having qualifications of the highest order.

For further facts of interest, the reader is referred to the article, Provisional Court fob Louisiana.

The movement for the reorganization of a State Government in Louisiana, commenced early in the year. In February, 1863, the question was brought before the principal Union associations of New Orleans, as the only channel through which public opinion could be reached. The plan finally adopted was upon the theory that the Constitution of Louisiana was destroyed by the rebellion, and could not be again put into operation. Its principal features were as follows:

1st. Civil reorganization by loyal citizens of Louisiana, without the control or interference of the military authorities, except for protection.

2d. The appointment in each parish (county) of the State—within the United States lines— of a civilian, as Commissioner of Registration, empowered to open books of registration, in which should be inscribed the names and residences of any citizens of the United States, having resided six months in the State and one month in the parish, and who should swear to such qualification; and in addition that he took the oath freely and voluntarily for the purpose of establishing a State Government loyal to the United States.

3d. That after a sufficient number of citizens should be inscribed, and a sufficient area of the State embraced, the Military Governor should order an election of members of a convention to frame a new constitution; representation in the convention to be based on the ratio of one delegate to every 2,500 of the (white) population, according to the last census of the United States.

4th. That on the adoption of this constitution by the people made voters under it, an election of State officers should be ordered.

Those who prepared this plan stated the reason for the adoption of the white basis of representation to be that the only part of Louisiana in which they could operate was the first and second congressional districts, which had been excepted by the President from the operation of his emancipation proclamation of January 1st, 1863; and it was only by adopting the white population as the basis of representation that they could bring the slaveholder to an equality with themselves at the ballot-box. After discussion for three months, the machinery of the movement was completed by the appointment of a committee known as the "Free State General Committee." It was composed of five delegates from each of the Union Associations of New Orleans and the adjoining parish of Jefferson, wherein alone such associations had been formed. Of this committee Thomas J. Durant was chosen president and James Graham, secretary. The committee, having matured their plans, laid them before the Military Governor, G. F. Shepley, who entirely approved of their purpose, and consented to carry out the registration. For this object he appointed Mr. Durant Attorney General and Commissioner of Registration, with power to appoint registers in the parishes.

Under the laws of Louisiana previous to secession, a registration of voters was required in the city of New Orleans only, and an office for that purpose had existed. This office had been held by Governor Shepley, in 1862, previous to the election of Messrs. Hahn and Flanders to Congress at Washington. The system adopted was only to register those who took the oath of allegiance required by General Butler, but it had no reference to, and afforded no proof of, qualification to vote under the laws of Louisiana. Neither did it come up to the regulations adopted by the committee and approved by the Military Governor. A new registration was therefore ordered by the Governor, at which the applicants were required to take an oath. It was commenced also in the country parishes as well as New Orleans, but these were soon overrun by the enemy, and not a foot of Louisiana beyond the city and outside of the range of Union cannon was left in possession of the Federal forces. The military excitement which now ensued, in July, suspended for a time all efforts at registration.

The regulations of the committee adopted for the purpose of registration, prescribed the place where the office should be opened in New Orleans, the manner of registering the names, and the following oath to be sworn and subscribed by the citizens:

I,. ------, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am a citizen of the United States of America; that I have resided six months in the State of Louisiana, and one month in this parish; that I am of the age of twenty-one years and upward; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America, and will support the Constitution thereof; and that I now register myself as a voter, freely and voluntarily, for the purpose of organizing a State Government in Louisiana, loyal to the Government of the United States.

It was also declared, under the approval of the Military Governor and attorney-general, that any person swearing falsely to any material part of the above oath would be deemed guilty of perjury, and be liable to prosecution and punishment accordingly.

Meantime, delegates from a meeting of planters had been sent on to Washington to petition the General Government for authority to proceed to the election, in November, of Federal, and State officers, in pursuance of the Constitution of the United States, and the State Constitution of Louisiana. The subject was laid before the President, and considered officially, and the following reply made:

Executive Mansion, 

Washington, June, 19th; 1863. 

Messrs. K. E. Mathiot, Bradish Johnston, and Thomas Cottman;

Gentlemen: Your letter, which follows, has been received and considered:

To his Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States.

The undersigned, a committee appointed by the planters of the State of Louisiana, respectfully represent that they have been delegated to seek of the General Government a full recognition of all the rights of the State as they existed previous to the passage of an act of secession, upon the principle of the existence of the State Constitution unimpaired, and no legal act having transpired that could in any way deprive them of the advantages conferred by the Constitution. Under this Constitution this State wishes to return to its full allegiance, in the enjoyment of all rights and privileges exercised by the other States under the Federal Constitution. With the view of accomplishing the desired object, we further request your excellency will, as the commander-in-chief of the army of the United States, direct the Military Governor of Louisiana to order an election, in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the State, on the first Monday of November next, for all State and Federal officers.

With high consideration and respect, wo have the honor to subscribe ourselves your obedient servants,

E. E. Mathiot,

Bradish Johnston,

Thomas Cottman.

Since receiving the letter, reliable information has reached me that a respectable portion of the Louisiana people desire to amend their state Constitution, and contemplate holding a convention for that purpose. This fact alone, as it seems to me, is a sufficient reason why the General Government should not give the committee the authority you seek to act under the existing State Constitution.

I may odd, that while I do not perceive how such a committal could facilitate our military operations in Louisiana, I really apprehend it might be so used as to embarrass them.

As to an election to be held next November, there is abundant time, without any order or proclamation from me just now. The people of Louisiana shall not lack an opportunity for a fair election for both Federal and State officers by want of anything within my power to give them.

Your obedient servant,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Two parties of individuals were thus engaged in distinct efforts to restore a State Government. The one acted upon the theory that the Constitution was destroyed by secession, and the other that its operation was only suspended. This led to considerable discussion of the effect of the Secession Act upon the State. The first Constitution of Louisiana was adopted January 22d, 1812, and on April 8th, the State was admitted into the Union. In 1845, a new Constitution was adopted, which was superseded by another Constitution in 1852. On the 12th of December, 1860, a law passed the Legislature, providing for a State Convention on the ground that " the condition of public affairs" required "action for the interest and welfare of the State." Everything was legally done up to the opening of the Convention on January 23d, 1861. This body passed the act of secession, and in many material points remodeled and reconstructed the Constitution mt 1852, "and made or assumed v. make substantially a new Constitution of 1861 —not in conformity with or in allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, but to that of the Confederate States. The conservative portion wished to reorganize the State tinder the Constitution of 1852, on the ground that the acta of the Convention which framed the ordinance of secession and the Constitution of 1861 were void, and that the Constitution of 1852 was still in force. The Free State Committee desired to call a Convention and form an entirely new Constitution. The real point of issue between these parties is thus set forth in the organ of the latter:

Although much breath has been wasted upon this subject (the Constitutions of '52 and '61) by certain ingenious politicians amongst us, who prate so loudly of their loyalty, and yet who are extremely desirous of holding important offices of honor and emolument under the National and State Government, yet, for the reasons before set forth, the question is altogether immaterial; for, in the conflict of arms incident to this rebellion, the predominant ideas of the good people of Louisiana have far preceded either Constitution; tried to reorganize now the State on the slave basis which both Constitutions and the laws passed under them recognized, has become an utter impossibility. Free soil and free speech have grown up into absolute necessities, directly resulting from the war, which be converted into dust and ashes all the Constitutions which Louisiana has ever made, embodying the ideas of property in our fellow-man, and all the baneful suits of this system of African slavery. The present war is nothing but the conflict of the ideas of eUrery and liberty. The war must necessarily last until of or the other idea fully, fairly, and decisively triumphs. We can neither progress nor regress until this question is determined. We cannot have peace until public opinion is brought quite up to this point. We cannot reorganize the civil Government of our city, and still less that of our State, and get rid of the fearful incubus of martial law now pressing down our energies "J its arbitrary influence, unless we believe, give utterance to and establish the fundamental principle of our national Government: "all men are created free equal." We know of no better way to effect this than by calling a Convention as soon as possible, to declare the simple fact that Louisiana now is and will forever be a free State.

The Free State General Committee, or their friends for them, insist that in August the Military Governor, General Shepley, was in Washington, and at that time the plan of the committee was adopted in the Cabinet, and adopted in-all its parts, as above stated, and a special order was issued from the "War Department to General Shipley, directing him to carry the pi*" into execution. They say, "this order may be seen at the War Department," 8uch fact8 43 these would place the movement under the guidance and control of loyal citizens of Louisiana, who were steadfast opponents of slavery, and demanded its immediate abolition throughout the State. They further insist as follows:

During the absence of Governor Shepley, near the end of August, 1862, President Lincoln wrote to General Banks, referring to the registration then being Page 591 conducted by Mr. Durant, approving or the plan of calling a State Convention instead of u State election under the old Constitution, and expressing the hope that the work of the Convention might be completed in season to hold the elections before the next session of Congress. The Free State Committee, being apprised of this letter, gave to the President the reasons, which none but those on the ground could understand, of the difficulty, indeed of the impossibility of so expediting the registration outside of New Orleans as to be ready for the election at so early a date.

In October, 1863, Mr. B. F. Flanders, returning from Washington, reported that the President bad complained that the work was too slow, and that, on his pointing out to the President that there was not a sufficient amount of territory and of the population of Louisiana under the occupation and protection of the forces of the United States to justify an election, according to the views of the President himself, as formerly expressed, in attempting to organize a State Government, the President immediately said he would modify his previous opinion, and would then say that so great was, in his view, the necessity for immediate action, that he would recognize and sustain a State Government organized by any part of the population we then had control of, and that he wished Mr. Flanders to say 30 on his return to Louisiana.

On the 27th of October, the papers of New Orleans contained an address " To the Citizens of Louisiana," signed W. P. Pugh, president, E. Ames, vice-president of the Executive Central Committee of Louisiana. The citizens were addressed "as citizens loyal to the Government of the United States," and the address proceeds:

The want of civil government in our State can, by a proper effort on your part, soon be supplied, under laws and a constitution formed and adopted by yourselves in a time of profound peace. It is made your duty, as well as your right, to meet at the usual places, and cast your votes for State and parish officers, members of Congress, and of the State Legislature.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

The day, as fixed by our laws, is Monday, the 2d day of November next, 1863. There is nothing to prevent your meeting on the day fixed by law, and selecting your agents to carry on the affairs of government in our own State. The military will not interfere with you in the exercise of your civil rights and duties, and we think we can assure you that your action in this respect will meet the approval of the National Government. Even now, the day of election in every rebellious State has passed, with the exception of Louisiana, and should you suffer that to pass, the whole country will be in a state of anarchy, without any civil government of the people's own choosing, and subject to the danger of being thrown as "vacated" territory, into the hands of Congress, where the wish of many is, that our State, with others, shall be thrown. We charge this design upon a certain faction here and at the North, the result of whose action, in our minds, threatens to destroy republican liberty and republican institutions.

Louisiana has always been at heart loyal to the United States. She never seceded by a majority vote. The true interests of her citizens comported only with her remaining loyally in the Union. She was juggled and forced into the position of seeming rebellion, but in our opinion she was and is still one of the United States. Now that it is practicable—thanks to the gallant army and navy of the United States—her citizens desire to assume forthwith their old status, and to replace the star of their State, with lustre bright as ever, on the glorious Sag of our common country. We raise no minor points. Our objects are to restore the Union and preserve the National Constitution.

A correspondence took place between this committee and tie Free State Committee, in which the latter were invited to cooperate in the movement. This the latter declined, on the ground that the movement was illegal and unjust. They further say:

There is no law in existence, as stated by yon, directing elections to be held on the first Monday of November.

The Constitution of 1852, as amended by the Convention of 1861, was overthrown and destroyed by the rebellion of the people of Louisiana, and the subsequent conquest by the arms of the United States, does not restore our political institutions.

But not only is your movement illegal, but unjust; you are only a party. What principles of State policy you may entertain, you have not referred to in your communication. As a party, then, without the consent and against the wishes of the only lawful authority here, the military governor and the commanding general, you Undertake to appoint your own commissioners of election; hold the polls at such places as you may select; admit such electors as you may deem proper, and on such proceeding you propose to declare yourselves (for who could be chosen but yourselves?) officers of the State of Louisiana, and to assume the functions of a State Government here; while in all these proceedings, the plan of which is known only to yourselves, your opponents have no opportunity of participating. We beg you to reflect bow unjust such a course would be, could it be carried out.

We look upon the result of such an attempt as a nullity, producing no legal effect.

No general election took place in response to this address. An announcement was made that the intention of holding an election was abandoned. It was claimed that an election was held in some parishes, and certain persons were chosen as members of Congress. At the commencement of the session in December, 1863, persons appeared in Washington, claiming to be members of Congress under this election. Their claims were rejected.

Meantime, the registration proceeded, and the Free State Committee, in order to hasten forward their plan, conferred with the Military Governor for the purpose of holding an election about January 25th, 1864, for delegates to a State Convention. It was then anticipated that the election would be held at that time.

On the 5th of November, the free colored population of New Orleans held a meeting, and resolved to address the Military Governor, Shepley, for the liberty of being registered as voters, to the right of which they considered themselves as entitled. The following address was adopted at the meeting:

To Hit Excellency Brigadier-General G. F. Shepley, Military Governor of Louisiana:

The undersigned respectfully submit the following to his Excellency;

That they are natives ot Louisiana and citizens of the United States, that they are loyal citizens, sincerely attached to the country and the Constitution, and ardently desire the maintenance of the national unity, for which they are ready to sacrifice their fortunes and their lives.

That a large portion of them are owners of real estate, and alt of them are owners of personal property; that many of them are engaged in the pursuits of commerce and industry, while others are employed as artisans in various trades; that they are all fitted to enjoy the privileges and immunities belonging to the condition of citizens of the United States, and among Page 592 them may be found many of the descendants of those men whom the illustrious Jackson styled " his fellow citizens," when he called upon them to take up arms to repel the enemies of the country.

Your petitioners further respectfully represent that over and above the right which, in the language of the Declaration of Independence, they possess to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they are supported by the opinion of just and loyal men, especially by that of Edward Bates, Attorney General, in the claim to the right of enjoying the privileges and immunities pertaining to the condition of citizens of the United States; and to support the legitimacy of this claim, they believe it simply necessary to submit to your Excellency the following considerations, which they beg of you to weigh in the balance of law and justice.

Notwithstanding their forefathers served in the army of the United States in 1814 and 1815, and aided in repelling from the soil of Louisiana a haughty enemy, over confident of success, yet these and their descendants hare ever since, and until the era of the present rebellion, been estranged and even repulsed, excluded from all rights, from all franchises, even the smallest, when their brave fathers offered their bosoms to the enemy to preserve the territorial integrity of the republic.

During this period of forty-nine years they have never ceased to bo peaceable citizens, paying their taxes on assessments of more than nine millions of dollars.

At the call of General Butler they hastened to rally under the banner of Union and Liberty, they have spilled their blood and are still pouring it out for the maintenance of the Constitution of the United States; in a word, they are soldiers of the Union, and they will defend it so long as their hands have strength to hold a musket.

While General Banks was at the siege of Port Hudson, and the city threatened by the enemy, your Excellency called for troops for the defence of the city, and they were foremost in responding to the call, having raised the first regiment in the short space of forty-eight hours.

In consideration of this fact, as true and as clear as the sun which lights this great continent; in consideration of the services already performed, and still to be rendered by them to their common country, they humbly beseech your Excellency to cast your eyes upon a loyal population, awaiting with confidence and dignity the proclamation of those inalienable rights which belong to the condition of citizens of the great American republic.

Theirs is but a feeble voice claiming attention in the midst of the grave questions raised by this terrible conflict, yet confident of the justice which guides the action of the Government, they have no hesitation in speaking what is prompted by their hearts. "We are men, treat us as such."

General, the petitioners refer to your wisdom the task of deciding whether they, loyal and devoted men, who are ready to make every sacrifice for the support of the best Government which man has been permitted to create, are to be deprived of the right to assist in establishing in the new Convention a Civil Government in our beloved State of Louisiana, and also in choosing their representatives, both for the Legislature of the State, and for the Congress of the nation.

The prayer of the petitioners does Dot appear to have been granted.

On the 24th of December, an order was issued by the Military Governor, directing the several registers to keep a book of the names of persons taking the oath issued with the amnesty proclamation accompanying the message to Congress. The registration for voters was likewise continued. On the 8th of January, 1304, General Banks announced that he should issue a proclamation ordering an election of State officers. A crisis had come with the Free State Committee. The plan they had proposed to pursue would be a failure unless the general commanding would accede to their wishes. Entreaties to allow the convention election to go on were made to General Banks, aided by the demonstration of an immense public meeting assembled in its favor. He was, however, unyielding, and on the 11th of January issued the following proclamation:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF

New Orleans, January 11th, 1863.

To the People of Louisiana:

I. In pursuance of authority vested in me by the President of the United States, and upon consultation with many representative men of different interests, being fully assured that more than a tenth of the population desire the earliest possible restoration of Louisiana to the Union, I invite the loyal citizens of the State qualified to vote in public affairs, as hereinafter prescribed, to assemble in the election precincts designated by law, or at such places as may hereafter be established, on the 22d of February, 1864, to cast their votes for the election of State officers herein named, viz.: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Auditor of Public Accounts— who shall when elected, for the time being, and until others are appointed by competent authority, constitute the civil Government of the State, under the Constitution and laws of Louisiana, except so much of the said Constitution and laws as recognize, regulate, or relate to slavery, which, being inconsistent with the present condition of public affairs, and plainly inapplicable to any class of persons now existing within its limits, must be suspended, and they are therefore and hereby declared to be inoperative and void. This proceeding is not intended to ignore the right of property existing prior to the rebellion, nor to preclude the claim for compensation of loyal citizens for losses sustained by enlistment or other authorized acts of Government.

II. the oath of allegiance prescribed by the President's proclamation, with the condition affixed to the elective franchise, by the Constitution of Louisiana, will constitute the qualification of voters in this election. Officers elected by them will be duly installed in their offices on the 4th day of March, 1864.

III. The registration of voters, effected under the direction of the Military Governor and the several Union Associations, not inconsistent with the proclamation or other orders of the President, arc confirmed and approved. IV. In order that the organic law of the State may be made to conform to the will of the people, and harmonize with the spirit of the age, as well as to maintain and preserve the ancient landmarks of civil and religious liberty, an election of delegates to a convention for the revision of the Constitution, will be held on the first Monday of April, 1864. The basis of representation, the number of delegates and the details of election will be announced in subsequent orders.

V. Arrangements will be made for the early election of members of Congress for the State.

VI. The fundamental law of the State is martial law. It is competent and just for the Government to surrender to the people, at the earliest possible moment, so much of military power as may be consistent with the success of military operations; to prepare the way, by prompt and wise measures, for the full restoration of the State to the Union and its power to the people; to restore their ancient and unsurpassed prosperity; to enlarge the scope of agricultural and commercial industry, and to extend and confirm the dominion of rational liberty. It is not within human power to accomplish these results without some sacrifice of individual prejudices and interests. Problems of State, too complicate for the human mind, have been solved by Page 593 the national cannon. In great civil convulsions, the agony of strife enters the souls of the innocent as well as the guilty. The Government is subject to the law of necessity, and must consult the condition of things, rather than the preferences of men, and if so be that its purposes are Just and its measures wise, it has the right to demand that questions of personal interest and opinion shall be subordinate to the public good. When the national existence is at stake, and the liberties of the people in peril, faction is treason.

The methods herein proposed submit the whole question of government directly to the people—first, by the election of executive officers, faithful to the Union, to be followed by a loyal representation in both Houses of Congress; and then by a convention which will confirm the action of the people, and recognize the principles of freedom in the organic law. This is the wish of the President. The anniversary of Washington's birth-day is a fit day for the commencement of so grand a work. The immortal father of his country was never guided by a more just and benignant spirit than that of his successor in office, the President of the United States. In the hour of our trial let us heed his admonitions!

Louisiana, in the opening of her history, sealed the integrity of the Union by conferring upon its Government the Valley of the Mississippi. In the war for independence upon the sea, she crowned a glorious struggle against the first maritime power of the world, by a victory unsurpassed in the annals of war. Let her people now announce to the world the coming restoration of the Union, in which the ages that follow us have a deeper interest than our own, by the organization of a free Government, and her fame will be immortal !

N. P. BANKS, M. G. C.

The Free State General Committee and their friends insisted that the general stepped in and determined the constitutional question adversely to them (radicals), by declaring the Constitution of the State in force. They further insisted that he declared martial law, which was nothing but his will, to be superior to the Constitution, which implied that he could amend the Constitution wherein he pleased; and that the laws, with regard to slavery, though untouched by the President, were declared inoperative by the general; and that all these assumptions of power were of the most dangerous character to the liberties of the people, and to republican government. The committee, however, determined to participate in the election, for the sake of the power the Governor would have in the convention election, but protested against it. Mr. Michael Hahn was nominated for Governor by those who favored the proclamation of General Banks, and Mr. Benjamin F. Flanders was nominated by the free State men. Mr. Hahn was elected by a large majority of the votes cast. The friends of the Free State General Committee said: "The result of the election is merely the registration of a military edict, and is worthy of no respect from the representatives and executive of the nation." The friends of the Free State General Committee insisted that by this election no State Government was created. They said: 1. ''It is not such in accordance with the President's proclamation. That proclamation declares that whenever, in certain States named, not less than one tenth of the voters, in I860, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall reestablish a State Government, etc., such shall be recognized as the true Government of the State," etc.

They further said:

Have the military proclamation of the commanding general and the election held under it on the 22a of February, in the meaning of the President, "reestablished a State Government?" Clearly not. The commanding general's proclamation recognizes the old Constitution of Louisiana of 1852, as being in existence, and orders an election under it, in which the votes of the people have nothing to do with reestablishing Government; there establishment having been made beforehand for them by the general proclaiming the old Constitution as existing.

2. Nor is the result of the election, and the seven officers chosen, a State Government. The people have elected a Governor, a Lieut.-Governor, and five officers of the executive department. This is not a State Government, for by the Constitution of Louisiana, which the commanding general declared in force, as well as by all other State Constitutions, the Government consists of three Departments: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The reason why an election for members of the Legislature was not ordered is plain, although not avowed; there is not within the Union lines, where a real election could be held, a sufficient number of parishes to elect a majority of the whole number of members constituting the Senate and House of Representatives, and less than a majority is, by the Constitution, not a quorum to do business; so that under this pretended State Government, no officer elected can be legally paid, for that can only be done by an appropriation made according to law.

The same Constitution provides that the judges of the Supreme and District Courts, as well as justice of the peace, shall be elected by the people; the judges now in office have been simply appointed by General Shipley; and should Mr. Holm, under pretence of being civil Governor, undertake to appoint judges, the act would be a mere usurpation without the shadow of right.

No State Goverment, then, is reestablished by this election.

But still further, the proclamation of the President has not been complied with, as to the persons who voted.

The Constitution of Louisiana, of 1852, art 12, says: "No soldier, seaman, or marine in the army or navy of the United States" "shall be entitled to vote at any election in this State."

The commanding general issued an order permitting soldiers recruited in Louisiana, and baring the other qualifications, to vote. How many votes of this kind were polled, we are not able to say; that many did, and many sailors and others disqualified, also voted, is notorious.

Again, the act of the Louisiana Legislature, of March 20th, 1856, provides for the appointment in New Orleans, of a register of voters, and that no man shall vote who is not registered, and that the office of registration shall be closed three days before the election, and no one registered on those three days. Now, prior to the late election, the register having closed his office according to law, orders were at once given to two other officers, the recorders of the city, who have no such powers or functions by law, to register voters, which they did night and day, and such persons as they registered were allowed to vote.

The commanding general, in his proclamation of the 11th of January, says that he will order the election of members of a Constitutional Convention, to be chosen on the first Monday of April, and that he will, by a subsequent order, fix the basis of representation, the number of delegates, and the details of the election. This will put the whole matter under military Page 594 control, and the experience of the last election shows that only such a Convention can be had as the overshadowing influence of the military authority will permit. Under an election thus ordered, and a Constitution thus established, a republican form of government cannot be formed. It is simply a fraud to call it the reëstablishment of a State Government. In these circumstances, the only course left to the truly loyal citizens of Louisiana is, to protest against the recognition of this pretended Government, and to appeal to the calm judgment of the nation to procure such action from Congress as will forbid military commanders to usurp the powers which belong to Congress alone, or to the loyal people of Louisiana.

The further details of this subject belong to the record of 1864. (See Congress, U. S., for the admission of members from Louisiana.)

Outside of the lines of the Union army and its posts, the enemy had a general control of the State during the year, and the Confederate Government was recognized. At the usual time in November, it was reported that an election for State officers was held, at which Henry W. Allen was chosen Governor without opposition, and B. W. Pearce Lieut.-Governor. The representatives to the Congress at Richmond were also elected by a general ticket, and not by districts.

The Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln was declared by him not to extend in its operation to the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, St. Martin, and New Orleans, including the city of New Orleans. The slaves held in these parishes did not become freedmen when the Union army occupied that portion of the State. Only one point of difference marked their position thus far during the war as compared with it during the twenty previous years. An act of Congress forbade the forcible return of the slave to his master by any military force of the United States. This was the only change in the fortunes of the slaves. As these excepted parishes were held by a Federal military force, it followed that the slaves were at liberty to go whithersoever they pleased outside of the plantations. Consequently thousands, and tens of thousands of them became hangers on to the camps, and filled New Orleans with a pauper population. The welfare of whites and blacks soon required some decisive steps for the amelioration of the evil. On the plantations many of the owners remained. They, under the advice, and with the cooperation of General Banks, endeavored to come to terms with the negroes as to their future relations with each other. Each planter made such terms with the employed as he found convenient or possible. Rules were also adopted on some plantations relative to the labor. These rules provided that the negroes should labor the usual number of hours, and receive about their usual supply of food; but beside this they were to have wages averaging from three to ten dollars a month—one half of it at the end of each month, the balance at the end of the. year. Various punishments were prescribed for bad conduct, and rewards for good conduct, such as would appeal, it was hoped, to the sensibilities, instincts, and interests of the negro. The punishments and fines prescribed under this system of free labor were as follows: The punishments on the place will be: First, fines; second, the stocks; and lastly, expulsion from the place. The penalty for the first offence will be a fine of one dollar; second, three dollars; third, five dollars; and fourth, expulsion. . No hand will leave the place without written license. If a hand leave the place, or is expelled, his back wages will be forfeited to the hospital funds, out of which the physician and medicines must be paid. Each band will be responsible for the loss or careless damage of tools, stock, or any other property. Stealing will be punished by a tine of twice the value of the property stolen, one half to go to the hospital fund. By this method large numbers were induced to return to the plantations. The wages which they received were low, because the able-bodied were generally taken into the army, and because the crop generally raised being sugar, h was more uncertain than cotton. At the close of the year, the system of labor adopted was declared to be a "decided success." A large number of the negroes were enlisted, forming a corps d'Afrique, and many were also employed by the Government on plantations worked by its orders. A more complete view of the system of labor adopted by General Banks will be obtained from the rules prescribed for its regulation during the year 1864, with the experience and results of the year 1863 before him. The following were the rules prescribed:

General Order, No. 23.

HEADQUARTERS, DEPAPTMENT OF THE GULF

New Orleans, February 3d, 1864.

The following general regulations are published for the information and government of all interested in the subject of compensated plantation labor, public or private, during the present year, and in continuation of the system established January 3(th, 1S63:

I. The enlistment of soldiers from plantations under cultivation in this Department, having been suspended by order of the Government, will not be resumed except upon direction of the same high authority.

II. The Provost Marshal General is instructed to provide for the division of parishes into police and school districts, and to organize from invalid soldiers, a competent police for die preservation of order.

III. Provisions will be made for the establishment of a sufficient number of schools, one at least for each of the police and school districts, for the instruction of colored children under twelve years of age. which, when established, will he placed under the direction of the Superintendent of Public Education.

IV. Soldiers will not be allowed to visit plantations without the written consent of the commanding officer of the regiment or post to which they are attached, and never with arms, except when on duty, accompanied by an officer.

V. Plantation hands will not be allowed to pass from one place to another, except under such regulations as may be established by the provost marshal of the parish.

VI. Flogging and other cruel or unusual punishments are interdicted.

VII. Planters will be required, as early as practicable after the publication of these regulations, to make Page 595 a, roll of persons employed upon their estates, and to transmit the same to the provost marshal of the pariah. In the employment of hands, the unity of families will bo secured as far as possible.

VIII. All questions between the employer and (be employed, until other tribunals are established, will be decided by the provost marshal of the parish.

IX. Sick and disabled persons will be provided for upon the plantations to which they belong, except such as may be received in establishments provided for them by the Government, of which one will be established at Algiers, and one at Baton Rouge.

X. The unauthorized purchase of clothing, or other property, from laborers, will be punished by fine and imprisonment. The sale of whisky, or other intoxicating drinks, to them, or to other persons, except under regulations established by the provost marshal general, will be followed by the severest punishment.

XI. The possession of arms, or concealed, or dangerous weapons, without authority, will be punished y fine and imprisonment.

XII. Laborers shall render to their employer, between daylight and dark, ten hours in summer, and nine hours in winter, of respectful, honest, faithful labor, and receive therefor, in addition to just treatment, healthy rations, comfortable clothing, quarters, fuel, medical attendance, and instruction for children, wages per month as follows, payment of one half of which, at least, shall be reserved until the end of the year:

For first class hands $8 00 per month.

For second class hands 6 00     "

For third class hands 6 00 11

For fourth class hands 3 00"

Engineers and foremen, when faithful in the discharge of their duties, will be paid $2 per month extra. This schedule of wages may be commuted, by consent of both parties, at the rate of one fourteenth part of the net proceeds of the crop, to be determined and paid at the end of the year. Wages will be deducted in case of sickness, ana rations, also, when sickness is feigned. Indolence, insolence, disobedience of orders, and crime, will be suppressed by forfeiture of pay, and such punishments as are provided for similar offences by army regulations. Sunday work will be avoided, when practicable, but when necessary, will be considered as extra labor, and paid at the rates specified herein.

XIII. Laborers will be permitted to choose their employers, but when the agreement is made, they will be held to their engagement for the year, under the protection of the Government. In cases of attempted imposition, by feigning sickness, or stubborn refusal of duly, they will be turned over to the provost marshal of tbc parish, for labor upon the public work, without pay.

XIV. Laborers will be permitted to cultivate land on private account, as herein specified, as follows:

1st and 2d class hands, with families, one acre each.

1st and 2d class hands, without families, one half acre each.

2d and 3d class hands, with families, one half acre each.

2d and 3d class hands, without families, one quarter acre each.

To be increased for good conduct at the discretion of the employer. The encouragement of independent industry will strengthen all the advantages which capital derives from labor, and enable the laborer to take care of himself and prepare for the time when he can render so much labor for so much money, which is the great end to be attained. No exemption will be made in this apportionment, except upon imperative reasons, and it is desirable that for good conduct the quantity be increased until faithful hands can be allowed to cultivate extensive tracts, returning to the owner an equivalent of product for rent of soil.

XV. To protect the laborer from possible imposition, no commutation of his supplies will be allowed, except in clothing, which may be commuted at the rate of $3 per month for first class hands, and in similar proportion for other classes. The crops will stand pledged, wherever found, for the wages of labor.

XVI. It is advised as far as practicable, that employers provide for the current wants of their hands, by perquisites for extra labor, or by appropriation of land for share cultivation; to discourage monthly payments so far as it can be done without discontent, and to reserve till the full harvest the yearly wages. > XVII. A Free Labor Bank will be established for the safe deposit of all accumulations of wages and other savings; and in order to avoid a possible wrong to depositors, by official defalcation, authority will be asked to connect the Bank with the Treasury of the United States in this Department

XVIII. The transportation of negro families to other countries will not be approved. All propositions for this privilege have been declined, and applications have been made to other departments for surplus negro families for service in this department.

XIX. The last year's experience shows that the planter and the negro comprehend the revolution. The overseer, having little interest in the capital, and less sympathy with labor, dislikes the trouble of thinking and discredits the notion that anything new has occurred. He is a relic of the past, and adheres to its customs. His stubborn refusal to comprehend the condition of things occasioned most of the embarrassments of the past year. Where such incomprehension is chronic, reduced wages, diminished rations, and the mild punishments imposed by the army and navy, will do good.

XX. These regulations are based upon the assumption that labor is a public duty, and idleness and vagrancy a crime. No civil or military officer of the Government is exempt from the operation of this universal rule. Every enlightened community has enforced it upon all classes of people by the severest penalties. It is especially necessary in agricultural pursuits. That portion of the people identified with the cultivation of the soil, however changed in condition, by the revolution through which we are passing, is not relieved from the necessity of toil, which is the condition of existence with all the children of God. The revolution has altered its tenure, but not its law. This universal law of labor will be enforced upon just terms, by the Government, under whose protection the laborer rests secure in his rights. Indolence, disorder and crime, will be suppressed. Having exercised the highest right in the choice and place of employment, be must be held to the fulfilment of his engagements until released therefrom by the Government. The several provost marshals are hereby invested with plenary powers upon all matters connected with labor, subject to the approval of the provost marshal general, and the commanding officer of the department. The most faithful and discreet officers will be selected for this duty, and the largest force consistent with the public service detailed for their assistance.

XXI. Employers, and especially overseers, are notified that undue influence used to more the marshal from his just balance between the parties representing labor and capital, will result in an immediate change of officers, and thus defeat that regular and stable system upon which the interests of all parties depend.

XXII. Successful industry is especially necessary at the present time, when large public debts and Onerous taxes are imposed to maintain and protect the liberties of the people and the integrity of the Union. All officers, civil or military, and all classes of citizens who assist in extending the profits of labor, and increasing the product of the soil, upon which, in the end, all national prosperity and power depend, will render to the Government a service as great as that derived from the terrible sacrifices of battle. It is upon such consideration only that the planter is entitled to favor. The Government has accorded to him, in a period of anarchy, a release from the disorders resulting mainly from insensate and mad resistance to sensible reforms which can never be rejected without revolution, and the criminal surrender of his interests and Page 596 who thought by metaphysical abstractions to circumvent the laws of God. It has restored to him, in improved rather than impaired condition, his due privileges, at a moment when, by his own acts, the very soil was washed from beneath his feet

XXIII. A more majestic and wise clemency human history does not exhibit. The liberal and just conditions that attend it, cannot be disregarded. It protects labor by enforcing the performance of its duty, and it will assist capital by compelling just contributions to the demands of the Government. Those who profess allegiance to other governments, will be required, as the condition of residence in this State, to acquiesce, without reservation, in the demands presented by Government as a basis of permanent peace. The non-cultivation of the soil without just reason, will be followed by temporary forfeiture to those who will secure its improvement. Those who have exercised, or are entitled to the rights of citizens of the United States, will be required to participate in the measures necessary for the reestablishment of civil government. War can never cease except as civil governments crush out contest, and secure the supremacy of moral over physical power. The yellow harvest must wave over the crimson field of blood, and the representatives of the people displace the agents of purely military power.

XXIV. It is therefore a solemn duty resting upon all persons, to assist in the earliest possible restoration of civil government. Let them participate in the measures suggested for this purpose. Opinion is free and candidates are numerous. Open hostility cannot be permitted. Indifference will be treated as crime, and faction as treason. Men who refuse to defend their country with the ballot box or cartridge box, have no just claim to the benefits of liberty regulated by law. All people not exempt by the law of nations, who seek the protection of the Government, are called upon to take the oath of allegiance in such form as may be prescribed, sacrificing to the public good, and the restoration of public peace, whatever scruples may be suggested by incidental considerations. The oath of allegiance, administered and received in good faith, is the test of unconditional fealty to the Government, and all its measures, and cannot be materially strengthened or impaired by the language in which it is clothed.

XXV. The amnesty offered for the past, is conditioned upon an unreserved loyalty for the future, and this condition will be enforced with an iron hand. Whoever is indifferent or hostile, must choose between the liberty which foreign lands afford, the poverty of the rebel States, and the innumerable and inappreciable blessings which our Government confers upon its people.

May God preserve the Union of the States !

By order of Major-General BANKS.

Geo. B. Drake, A. A. General.

For the military operations in Louisiana, see Arm Operations. For the regulations as to trade, tee Commercial Regulations.

MISSISSIPPI. The desolation wrought in this State daring the year, in consequence of the war, is almost indescribable. When General Grant's army advanced as far south as Oxford and the Yallabusha at the close of 1862, the inhabitants had an opportunity to purchase a few of the most indispensable articles of clothing and household economy, but in the part of the State between Jackson and Granada there has not been even the most meagre stock of goods taken for three years. The destitution of the poor there reduced them almost to a state of barbarism. Of the fifty plantations on the road from Lagrange, Tennessee, to Holly Springs, Mississippi, only five were occupied. The rest were abandoned, and in a majority of instances, the buildings were burned. On the 26th of May, an expedition consisting of the 10:h Missouri, 7th Kansas and 15th Illinois cavalry and 9th Illinois mounted infantry, left Corinth for the purpose of a raid through a portion of country which had escaped the ravages of war. The expedition passed to Florence, Ala., and Savannah, Tenn., and returned to Corinth on the 31st, being absent five days and nights. What it accomplished in so short a space of time is thus described:

We burned seven cotton factories, costing an average of $200,000 each. The Southern Confederacy had offered for the largest $1,000,000, containing three hundred looms. They employed on an average one hundred men and the same number of women and children each. But their contents were more valuable than the buildings and machinery, having a large amount of stock and manufactured goods on hand. A large amount of steam flouring and saw mills were likewise burned. A number of blacksmiths' and wagonmaker's shops were destroyed, they being employed on Government work, and containing large numbers of wagons, arms of all kinds, &c, &c. A ton of powder, a large number of arms of English manufacture, 600,000 rounds of fixed ammunition, each cartridge having the crown of England stamped upon it, and several boxes containing Shell were destroyed. A number of dwelling bouses were accidentally burned by our shells. The splendid bridge near Florence was burned. All along the route, both going and returning, our command marched in line through the waving wheat, just ripe, utterly destroying it. An immense (" immense" is not the word—language cannot describe the scene—the smoke arising from burning corn cribs in every direction, and for miles each side of our path) amount of forage was destroyed; some was passed by on account of the close proximity of dwelling houses. Large quantities of meat, &c , were used, but more wasted and destroyed. The people appear to think that starvation is staring them in the face; but let their Government protect them, and they will no doubt fare very well. We captured two majors, two captains, four or five lieutenants, and about one hundred men. A large rebel flag was also captured. An immense amount of stock—horses, mules, oxen, cows, carriages, &c, &c.—was taken and turned over to the Government. About twenty men, who have escaped conscription by lying in the bush and other places of concealment, accompanied us into camp, and are joining some one of our regiments here. We brought about one thousand contrabands—men, women, ana children —about two hundred and fifty of them joining the negro brigade. And all with a loss of less than thirty wounded and missing.

About the same time an expedition consisting of six brigades, and numbering about ten thousand men, moved up between the Big Black and Yazoo rivers. The object was to destroy the resources of the country, to prevent the enemy from subsisting their armies, and to drive out any force that might be in that region. The results of the expedition are thus described:

We have marched over a hundred miles in a week during the hottest kind of weather. We destroyed all the forage and supplies and cotton, and drove off all the cattle, horses, and mules between the two lines for a distance of fifty miles. We met no considerable body of the enemy, and had only one or two slight skirmishes; but we ascertained where the enemy was concentrating, and gained much valuable' information which may be of use hereafter. It was made our painful but imperative duty to destroy everything— com, cotton, meat, mills, and. cotton gins—that we could find, sparing only dwellings and a small supply of provisions for each family. The command will rest here for a day or so, and then return to Vicksburg, which cannot hold out very long against our forces.

The destruction in the region of Jackson is described on page 66 of this volume.

The number of locomotives and cars destroyed on the railroads of Mississippi during the year is stated to have been seventy-seven of the former, and about six hundred of the latter. Owing to the destruction of bridges it was impossible to remove a large portion of the former after they were captured.

At an election for State officers under the Confederacy, Charles Clark was chosen Governor, C. A. Brougher, Secretary of State, A. J. Gillespie, Auditor, and M. D. Hughes, Treasurer. In a message to the Legislature he described the encroachments upon the State by the Federal army; urged the construction of a temporary penitentiary and the reestablishment of the deaf and dumb and blind asylums destroyed at Jackson, and advised the removal of negroes from the exposed districts.

On the 1st of August General Grant issued the following order recommending that in the region subject to his arms the freedom of the negroes should be acknowledged, and instead of compulsory labor, contracts upon fair terms should be made between master and servants.

Headquarters Dep't. of the Tennessee,

Vicksburg, Miss., August lst, 1863.

1. All regular organized bodies of the enemy having been driven from those parts of Kentucky and Tennessee west of the Tennessee river, and from all Mississippi west of the Mississippi Central Railroad, and it being to the interest of those districts not to invite the presence of armed bodies of men amongst them, it is announced that the most rigorous penalties will hereafter be inflicted upon the following class of prisoners, to wit: All irregular bodies of cavalry not mustered and paid by the Confederate authorities; all persons engaged in conscription, or in apprehending deserters, whether regular or irregular; all citizens encouraging or aiding the same; and all persons detected in hiding upon unarmed transports. It is not contemplated that this order shall affect the treatment due to prisoners of war, captured within the districts named, when they are members of legally organized companies, and when their acts arc in accordance with the usages of civilized warfare.

2. The citizens of Mississippi within the limits above described are called upon to pursue their peaceful avocations, in obedience to the laws of the United States. Whilst doing so in good faith, all United States forces are prohibited from molesting them in any way. It is earnestly recommended that the freedom of negroes be acknowledged, and that instead of compulsory labor contracts upon fair terms be entered into between the former master and servants, or between the latter and such other persons as may be willing to give them employment. Such a system as this, honestly followed, will result in substantial advantages to all parties.

All private property will be respected except when the use of it is necessary for the Government, in which case it must be taken under the direction of a corps commander, and by a proper detail under charge of a commissioned officer, with specific instructions to seize certain property and no other. A staff officer of the quartermaster or subsistence department will in each instance be designated to receipt for such property may be seized, the property lo be paid for at the of the war on proof of loyalty, or on proper adjustment of the claim, under such regulations or laws as may hereafter be established. Alt property seized under this order must be taken up on returns by the officer giving receipts and disposed of in accordance with existing regulations.

3. Persons having cotton or other produce not required by the army will be allowed to bring the same to any military post within the State of Mississippi, and abandon it to the agent of the Treasury Department at said post, to be disposed of in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may establish. At posts where there is no such agent the quartermaster will receive all such property, and, at the option of the owner, hold it until the arrival of the agent, or send it to Memphis, directed to Capt. A. R. Eddy, assistant quartermaster, who will turn it over to the proper authorized agent at that place.

4. Within the county of Warren, laid waste by the long presence of contending armies, the following rules to prevent suffering will be observed: Major-General Sherman, commanding the fifteenth army corps, and Major-General McPherson, commanding the seventeenth army corps, will each designate a commissary of subsistence, who will issue articles of prime necessity to all destitute families calling for them, under such restrictions for the protection of the Government as they deem necessary. Families who are able to pay for the provisions drawn will, in all cases, be required to do so.

5. Conduct disgraceful to the American name has been frequently reported to the major-general commanding, particularly on the part of portions of the cavalry. Hereafter, if the guilty parties cannot be reached, the commanders of regiments and detachments will be held responsible, and those who prove themselves unequal to the task of preserving discipline in their commands will be promptly reported to the War Department for "mustering out. Summary punishment must be inflicted upon all officers and soldiers apprehended in acts of violence or lawlessness.

By order of Major-General U. S. GRANT:

                         T. S. Bowers, A. A.-G.

On the 10th another order was issued providing for the employment of liberated slaves within his department, and on the 23d, another regulating their conduct in and near his camps.

On the march of General Sherman from Eastport, Miss., where his army abandoned the Memphis and Charleston railroad, to reenforce General Grant at Chattanooga, his force was subsisted on the route.

A very limited amount of supplies was brought by wagons, but the whole country for miles on either flank was stripped of every article of food and every pound of forage. The citizens were sorely pressed for the necessities of life, hut the safety and sustenance of armies were balanced against this fact, and decided in favor of the latter.

All animals capable of carrying a soldier, his gun and blanket, were pressed into the service, and almost die whole command consequently arrived mounted.

NORTH CAROLINA. Much dissatisfaction existed in North Carolina throughout 1863. But it does not appear to have resulted in any advantage to the Union cause. Any efforts to withdraw from the Confederacy, or to unite with the Union, if undertaken, would have been promptly suppressed. The promises held out by the secessionists had failed; the Confederate Government was drawing from the State all its military resources, while many believed that it was so administered as to destroy the rights of the States and the liberties of the citizen. The following is a statement of the causes of this dissatisfaction:

The conscription and the tithing law leave nothing to the States, but the Central Government takes our fighting men with one hand and the tenth of our substance with the other. If the first was really necessary the States themselves could have enforced it, and each State could have kept its quota of men in the field in brigades, duly officered; and if provisions were needed, and could not be purchased, the States could have furnished them by a system of purchase of their own, and taken in exchange for them the currency of the Government.

Seizures of persons and property have become as common as they are in France and Russia. Personal liberty has been made dependent on the mere will of army officers appointed by the President. Hundreds have been arrested for opinion's sake, immured in dungeons, denied trials before the civil tribunals, and released only when the military power chose to do it. Our courts, when they have interposed to protect these unfortunates and to uphold the law, have been disregarded in many instances, and their integrity reflected on in gross terms by the War Department at Richmond. The Confederate currency which is the lifeblood of the system and the emanation of plighted public faith, has been to some extent repudiated as a matter of convenience; and a portion of it in one instance has been refused by u Cabinet officer, on the same ground, in open violation of a law of Congress. Our patient, uncomplaining, heroic soldiers have been placed in the van of every battle, and in the rear of almost every retreat; and when they have fought with an ardor and steadiness which would have reflected credit on the old guard of Bonaparte itself, just praise has been denied them by journals supposed to speak for the administration, and their fathers and brothers at home who are conservatives have been held up as disloyal and unfriendly to the cause. Brigadier and major-generals from other States have been placed over them in many instances, and when such officers have been appointed from our State they have been almost invariably of the same politics with the administration. Proscription has thus been practised over Page 692 the very bones and blood of oar people. Superadded to all this has been the appointment of surgeons, enrolling officers, and the like from other States over our regiments and over our people at home, until the crowning outrage was reached by the appointment of Major Bradford, of Virginia, to collect the tithes. This led to the first public meeting held in this State; and but for this and other meetings, and the earnest remonstrances of Governor Vance, Major Bradford would still be tithing man for this State. Such are some of the causes that hare roused the people of this State to a sense of their rights, and led to the meetings so much deprecated by the " Observer."

The meetings thus mentioned were held in Orange, Yadkin, Guilford, Randolph, Moore, "Wake, Buncombe, and other counties. The resolutions adopted asked for peace, by negotiation, and by a suspension of hostilities. No one referred to a restoration of the Union.

Amid this state of affairs troops were sent from Richmond to arrest deserters and enforce conscription; the governor issued a proclamation to the people, and the press denounced all such persons as traitors. These proceedings led to some disturbances, which resulted in the destruction of two newspaper establishments in Raleigh. (See page 217.)

The number of troops which the State had at this time furnished to the army was 74,000 volunteers and 14,000 conscripts.

Popular disturbances took place during the year at Raleigh and Charlottesville. (See Riots.)

An election was held for members of the Congress at Richmond. Eight of the ten persons chosen were reported to be in favor of peace. The following were elected:

1st District, W. H. N. Smith; 2d District, R. R. Bridgers; 3d District, Dr. J. T. Leach; 4th District, Lieut. Thomas C. Fuller; 5th District, Captain Josiah Turner; 6th District, J. A. Gilmer; 7th District, S. H. Christian; 8th District, Dr. J. G. Ramsay; 9th District, B. S. Gaither; 10th District, General G. W. Logan. The provisional governor, Stanley, appointed by President Lincoln, resigned during the year and retired.

The military operations in the State were less important than in 1862. Early in the year a considerable force was withdrawn from the department and sent to Port Royal, to cooperate with the troops there against Charleston. The enemy were advised of these movements, and made preparations for an attack on the Union positions. On March 14th a sudden attack was made on Newbern, which was repulsed with slight loss. It was intended as a feint, while the real effort was made for the capture of Washington, about thirty-six miles further north. On March 30th a force of the enemy under Gens. Hill and Pettigrew marched suddenly on that place. The Federal skirmishers sent out on their first appearance were driven back with considerable loss. As soon as the position of the enemy could be ascertained, the gunboat Cora. Hull opened fire upon them, and drove them off. During the night they intrenched themselves as follows: those north of the town took position on Red Hill, an elevation about two and a half miles distant, commanding the Federal fortifications. Those on the south of the town occupied Hill's Point, about six miles below, on which was a deserted earthwork, and placed eight field pieces in position to command the barricades in the stream, and the channel, which approaches close to the shore at this point. They were thus enabled to deliver a plunging fire on any vessel attempting to pass. Further np the river Rodman's Point was fortified, and on the same bend of the stream a second battery was placed, thus entirely commanding the channel, which from that place to the town is very narrow and crooked. General Foster, then on a visit to Washington, believed himself strong enough to keep the enemy in check. This he succeeded in doing until the 15th, when he left for Newbern to hasten forward reinforcements and supplies. The passage down the river was exceedingly hazardous. When the boat, the steamer Escort, arrived within the range of the upper battery on Rodman's Point the enemy opened upon her with artillery, and, as she approached the shore, with volley upon volley of musketry, which was continued without intermission.

The channel of the river, for about four miles, between Hill's Point and Rodman's runs close in shore, where the batteries were placed, and the danger was most imminent. As soon as the upper battery on Rodman's Point had been passed the second one took up the fire, and the third, and continued it until the Escort had reached a point within range of the works at Hill's Point. Then the cannonading and musketry were terrible. Not less than eighteen solid shot and shells struck and passed through the steamer, completely riddling her upper works and partially disabling her machinery, while the bullets of the enemy's sharpshooters perforated her joiner work like a sieve.

When opposite the lower battery, on Rodman's Point, the pilot, Mr. Pederick, a native of the State, was killed at his post by one of the rebel sharpshooters. Immediately upon the fall of Pederick, Captain Wall sent for a negro who knew the channel, and compelled him to point out the course of the steamer past the blockade. The boat went on down the stream at a rapid rate, and reached and passed the lower fort and blockade without further loss of life. At Newbern some portion of the force which had been sent to Hilton Head were then arriving on their return. These were sent forward with gunboats, and the enemy compelled to raise the siege.

At Tarboro' the steamboats and one large ironclad in process of construction, a sawmill, a train of cars, one hundred bales of cotton, and large quantities of subsistence and ordnance stores were destroyed. (See Army Operations, page 135).

On October 28th General Foster was relieved from the command of the department, and Gen, Butler assigned to it.

SOUTH CAROLINA. A special session of the Legislature of South Carolina was held in April. Governor Bonham, in his message, made a number of recommendations of which the following are the most important: To prohibit the planting of over a half, or at most one acre with cotton, to the " full hand " (able-bodied slave), and that the hands to be enumerated should only be such as " work in the crop;1 also, to adopt some legislation to arrest the purchase and monopoly of articles of prime necessity, even when it is not intended to export them beyond the limits of the State; also, to prevent the undue distillation of spirits from the cereals and molasses, for which the enormous profits on whiskey offered a great temptation. The governor declares that the act to supply negro labor for the coast defences cannot be made effectual for the accomplishment of its objects.

Early in June, Colonel Montgomery, with five companies of his negro regiment, and a section of company G, 3d Rhode Island artillery, left Beaufort with three steamers on an expedition up the Combahee river. They carried eight guns, a portion of them 10-lb. Parrotts, and the rest 12 and 24-lb. howitzers. The party landed at Field's Point, about twenty miles up the river, and there found two deserted forts and numerous rifle pits. A rebel force appeared in the distance, but hastily retired. Leaving a few men in the forts and rifle pits, Colonel Montgomery threw out the balance of his command as skirmishers, making the enemy believe that he had a large force in reserve. Upon the withdrawal of the rebels, the gangs of slaves who were just going to work on the plantations broke away from their overseers, and came rushing down to the landing place in droves of hundreds and thousands. They were sent on board the steamers, till all the spare room was token up. Meanwhile companies of negro soldiers were sent in various directions to burn buildings and secure horses, provisions, and other property. Several rice-mills, store houses filled with rice and cotton, and every house, barn, or other building belonging to any known rebel were burned, and all the portable property of value brought away. One store house that was fired contained two years' crops of rice; and another $10,000 worth of cotton. The locks by which the plantations are irrigated were destroyed, flooding the fields of rice and destroying the young crop. One company alone burned twenty-five buildings, many of them containing immense quantities of rice. All this work of devastation was done in a few hours, when Colonel Montgomery thought it prudent to withdraw, and did so without loss, arriving at Beaufort within twenty-nine hours of the time of his departure. The trophies of the expedition were over eight hundred slaves, men, women, and children, several hundred bags of hominy, a fine lot of horses, and a large quantity of household furniture.

About the same time that the above raid v« made, Colonel Barton, with a large picked force, made on expedition on three steamers Page 825 to the village of Bluffton. The village was captured, with but little opposition, and burned to the ground, only one building, a church, being spared.

On the 12th of June, General Hunter was relieved from his command by order of the President, and General Q. A. Gillmore was appointed his successor.

General Gillmore's operations against Charleston caused a feeling of anxiety among the people of that city such as they never felt before. The newspapers were filled with appeals to the courage and local pride of the citizens. They were called upon to welcome " destruction and extermination " sooner than succumb to " Yankee dominion and all its nameless enormities." Governor Bonham repeated the same sentiments in his proclamation ordering non-combatants to leave the city. The commission who had been elected in 1862, to remove women, children, and other non-combatants from the city, whenever, in their opinion, it should become necessary, now proceeded to act. Free transportation and board, and lodging, at safe places out of the city, were given to all persons who were unable |o pay. It is probable that the city was (with bit few exceptions) cleared of all women and children before Gillmore commenced throwing his shells into it.

The disposition of the Federal negro troops captured by the rebels on Morris and James Islands, was a mystery which the rebel authorities did not take the trouble to clear up. It was generally supposed that they had been hung or sold into slavery. General Beauregard authorized a statement, on the 12th of August in the "Charleston Mercury," to the effect that the Secretary of War had ordered the negro prisoners to be turned over to the State authorities by virtue of the joint resolution of Congress. Governor Bonham had therefore been notified that the negroes were held subject to his orders. The governor had requested General Beauregard to retain them in military custody until he could make arrangements to dispose of them. That was their situation on the date above given, and of their fate nothing further is definitely known.

The proceedings of the Legislature during the latter part of the year were chiefly confined to the increase, equipment, and maintenance of the military forces of the State; and were devoid of special interest.

TEXAS. Governor Lubbock of Texas, in his message to the Legislature on the 3d of February said that the State had contributed 08,500 men to the Confederate armies, or 4,778 in excess of her highest popular vote. He then estimated the number of men remaining in the State between the ages of 16 and 60, at only 27,000. In his message in November following, he states that the number of soldiers furnished by Texas had at that time reached the aggregate of 90,000. According to this estimate only 5,600 men were left between the ages of 16 and 60. In the latter message the governor discussed the situation of the Confederacy the State at great length. With regard to the loss of Vicksburg and Port Hudson he roads the novel observation that those places cost the North a great deal more, than they were word), and thinks that the Confederacy could afford to fortify and lose several other place? on the same terms. He denounced the system of exemptions and substitutes, and maintained tilt every man in the State, including aliens, show be forced into the army. He reported tie revenues for the year to August 81st, at $3, 468,061 including a balance of $36,866. The expenditures were the same, with a balance of $15,819. Up to the same date the public works at the Texas Penitentiary had turned out 2,258,660 yards of cotton goods and 293,298 yards of woollens, of which the larger part had been distributed among the army. The State foundry had not been successful in the manufacture of cannon. Large quantities of percussion caps had, however, been made in the State. The governor recommended the appropriation of at least $1,030,000 (to be bused on cotton bonds, or that cotton be purchased and paid for in bonds, to supply the State with arms and munitions of war. He declared himself opposed to any peace which did not recognize the . independence of the Confederate States. He "regards reconstruction" as intolerable on any terms, and would admit no State into the Confederacy whose laws did not recognize and protect slavery. 

The tyrannical conduct of the rebel authorities in impressing men and seizing provisions produced great dissatisfaction throughout the State, alike among the soldiers and the people. Two serious riots occurred at Galveston. In one case, the troops, being short of rations, turned their guns on the town and compelled the commandant to give them what they wanted. In the other instance, the troops paraded the streets in a body, took the poor rations that had been issued in the morning and burned them in the public square, and demanded fresh and better ones, which were accordingly furnished. Desertions were numerous—sometimes as many as 50 or 60 a day. About 2,000 deserters had fortified themselves near the Red River, and defied the Confederacy. At last accounts they had been established at that rendezvous for eight months, and were constantly receiving accessions of discontented rebels and desperadoes.

The following were reported to bo the prices of some articles in the State, in rebel money: corn meal, $10 a bushel; flour, $2 per lb.; coffee, $20 per lb.; sugar, $1 per lb.; butter, $3 per lb.; eggs, $4 a dozen; calf boots, from $150 to $175 per pair.

Blockade running via Nassau was brisk during the year. It was principally done by schooners, to and from the Brazos river, taking out cotton and bringing back materials of war, provisions and selected goods. Ten schooners with cotton were counted at one time in the Brazos river waiting a chance to get out. The enemy established a signal corps all along the Texas coast, in expectation of the arrival of a fleet of iron or steel-clad blockade runners from Europe; but they did not come. The Anglo-rebel steamer, Sir Win. Peel, with over 900 li dos of cotton was captured by the sloop of war Seminole, as she was running out. She had taken to Matamoras a cargo of arms and ammunition contributed by the Southern Association in Europe: and it was believed that after landing her cotton at Nassau or Havana, she was to be converted "into a privateer. Her crew consisted of 50 men, some of whom belonged to the British navy.

The Legislature generally sustained the rebel cause during the year, but refused to pass a resolution recommending Congress to declare the Confederate notes a legal tender.

At the fall election Pendleton Murray was chosen governor. He is a native of Alabama, a lawyer by profession, and said to bo intensely devoted to the Confederate cause.

VIRGINIA. That portion of the State which recognizes the Confederate Government, has been so completely occupied by the armies and by that Government, that the details of the army operations and of the Confederate States engross nearly all subjects of interest. The entire military force of the State was absorbed by the Confederate conscription. The State bank circulation entirely disappeared, and the State treasury notes were funded. The debt of the State is $34,399,660. This sum includes interest on the debt which has been uncalled for. and is due to the United States and her citizens, viz., $2,730,921; also the sun borrowed to aid in the war, and which is by agreement to be returned by the Confederate Government, viz., $8,500,000. Deducting the debt due to the literary fund, and the balance is $20,506,097. To offset this, the State holding bank and other stocks, from which can be realized sufficient to provide for all excepting $943,947. An election for governor took place during the year. William Smith was chosen.


Source: The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, 1861-1865, vols. 1-5. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868.