[1863-01-11]Stopping the Slavery Agitation.
[1863-01-13]Kentucky and Emancipation.
[1863-01-15]EMANCIPATION MEETINGS IN ENGLAND.; THE WORKINGMEN OF MANCHESTER.
[1863-01-20]HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Fairfax Station, Va. [BCF]
Jan. 10,1863Dear Annie,
Your letter of the 5th inst., enclosing the vignette, came last night. At first I thought the latter was not good at all, but now I begin to like it, and am very glad indeed to have it. I have noticed that very often you must get acquainted with a portrait before you like it.
I begin to think, Annie, that there will be enough fighting in the country to give us all plenty of occupation for the rest of our lives, even if they are not shortened by bullet or cannon-ball. If a peace is patched up with the South, I don’t believe it can be a permanent one, and if the war goes on for another eighteen months, other nations are likely to be drawn into it. I hope I may be mistaken, for, though I don’t think the soldiers are so much to be pitied as the fathers, mothers, wives, and sisters, who have to stay at home, there are few who are not heartily sick of the war. The anxiety some people must feel for their relatives in the army, is a great deal worse, I think, than anything we have to bear.
You asked me once if I knew why McClellan lay still after the battle of Antietam. We have never been able to discover why Lee was allowed to withdraw as he did. When we heard that he had gone, the day after the battle, we said it would ruin McClellan. After the Rebels got into Virginia, there were many good reasons given for not pursuing. We were not well supplied with ammunition (at least, I know that to have been the case in our Corps), our force was not so large as theirs, and our men were scattered by thousands from Frederick to Sharpsburg—our troops always get scattered after a fight, and the new ones are much worse than the old. If a hard march precedes the battle, of course that adds to the number of stragglers. It may be true that McClellan is not rapid enough in carrying out his plans, but I wish he were in Halleck’s place.
I have read Cairne’s book and Lecture. It is a pity they have not more such good and clear-headed men in England. I have just read “Gurowski’s Diary.” It is very amusing, if no more, and no doubt there is much truth in it. The book I swear by now, is “Napier’s Peninsular War.” I have not read anything that has given me so much pleasure for a long while.
Did I tell you we were all comfortably hutted now? The men are all in log-shanties with fireplaces — four men in a mess — and the officers occupy palatial residences, seven or eight feet square, usually two in each. We can defy the weather, and if we are “let alone” for a time, we shall pass a comparatively pleasant winter.
I want to go home, I cannot tell you how much, in February, but I do not see any chance of it now. Tell your mother not to trouble herself to answer my letter. I didn’t expect an answer, as I knew she didn’t write much.
Yours affectionately,
R. G. Shaw
p.S.— I wonder if you have received all my letters. Often I can only tell the date of yours by the postage-mark, for you give the day of the week merely.
[1863-01-10]The Massachusetts Legislature.; GOV. ANDREW’S MESSAGE.
Fairfax Station [BCF]
Jan. 8,1863Dearest Mother,
On the outside of my last letter to you I mentioned having received yours enclosing one from Uncle Henry; we have had no letters for some time now; there is a hitch in the mail every little while.
The other day I wrote to George, and spoke of what you wrote me about McClellan, in a way which I thought afterwards might look rude on paper. I didn’t mean it so, and I wish you would tell him. It is astonishing how much the meaning of a sentence may be changed by the manner in which it is said, and consequently how a written sentence may be misunderstood.
We hear that Hooker will probably be made commander-in-chief before long. I believe he will be a failure too. Though he got us so much glory at Antietam, neither he nor his Corps were on the field after 8 1/2 A.M. We were under his command part of the time, or at least received orders from him, and they were thought to be pretty wild ones then. If we do change our commander again, and the new one doesn’t do any better than his predecessors, I should think a crisis in our affairs might be expected. I hope the battle in the West may turn out to be as important as is supposed.
We are all comfortably housed in log-huts, with brick fireplaces, and can laugh at the cold for the present. Harry and I are as cosey as possible in a house seven by six, with a tent for a roof. I feel almost as if I were at home, after the exposure and discomfort of the last three weeks. We may be ordered off at any moment though, so that we don’t indulge in any hopes of escaping the frosts of January.
We have been reading “Bleak House,” and I didn’t remember how many beautiful things there were in it. I am reading “Napier’s Peninsular War” to myself, and it is really a classic work; I never knew before, either, what a man Sir John Moore was, nor was so impressed with Napoleon’s military genius. It is a great book, and a great many things in it apply to the conduct of our war. Speaking of one of Napoleon’s letters to Joseph Bonaparte, he says: “Then followed an observation which may be studied with advantage by those authors who, unacquainted with the simplest rudiments of military science, censure the conduct of generals, and, from some obscure nook, are pleased to point out their errors to the world; authors who, profoundly ignorant of the numbers, situation, and resources of the opposing armies, pretend, nevertheless, to detail with great accuracy the right method of executing the most difficult and delicate operations of war.” The observation he refers to is: “But it is not permitted at the distance of three hundred leagues, without even a statement of the condition of the army, to direct what should be done.” In another place, he says: “A ruinous defeat, the work of chance, often closes the career of the boldest and most sagacious of generals; and to judge of a commander’s conduct by the event alone, is equally unjust and unphilosophical, a refuge for vanity and ignorance.”
Did Father get my letter asking him to forward my coat lined with red flannel? If you have given it away, no matter. I can get along perfectly well without it, and if not, can get another from Baltimore. We have had some very warm woollen jackets issued to us lately, which are almost as good as an overcoat. Out men are all as well housed as the officers, each house having a fireplace in it. Give my love to Susie, and tell her not to nourish the hope that I can get away in February. I don’t think there is any chance of it.
What a great year this is for the negroes and the country! I don’t appreciate it at all times. If we get the Mississippi, it will make a great difference, I should think, in the spreading of the President’s Proclamation. I read Mrs. Stowe’s “Reply” in the January “Atlantic,” and liked it very much.
With love to Father, always your most
Affectionate Son
NYTimes archive links:
First Lieutenant Luis F. Emilio became the Captain of Company E of the 54th Massachusetts on May 27, 1863. He was the only surviving field officer not incapacitated with wounds after the assault on Fort Wagner and became the Regiment’s acting commander. He fought through the entire war, until mustering out in March 1865. He published the first edition of his history of the 54th, A Brave Black Regiment, in 1891.
(From Luis F. Emilio, Brave Black Regiment [BBR, 1-2]):
At the close of the year 1862, the military situation was discouraging to the supporters of the Federal Government. We had been repulsed at Fredericksburg and at Vicksburg, and at tremendous cost had fought the battle of Stone River. Some sixty-five thousand troops would be discharged during the ensuing summer and fall. Volunteering was at a standstill. On the other hand, the Confederates, having filled their ranks, were never better fitted for conflict. Politically, the opposition had grown formidable, while the so-called “peace-faction” was strong, and active for mediation.In consequence of the situation, the arming of negroes, first determined upon in October, 1862, was fully adopted as a military measure; and President Lincoln, on Jan. 1, 1863, issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In September, 1862, General Butler began organizing the Louisiana Native Guards from free negroes. General Saxton, in the Department of the South, formed the First South Carolina from contrabands in October of the same year. Col. James Williams, in the summer of 1862, recruited the First Kansas Colored. After these regiments next came, in order of organization, the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, which was the first raised in the Northern States east of the Mississippi River. Thenceforward the recruiting of colored troops, North and South, was rapidly pushed. As a result of the measure, 167 organizations of all arms, embracing 186,097 enlisted men of African descent, were mustered into the United States service.
By the President of the United States of America:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
“That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.”
Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.
And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
Original of the Emancipation Proclamation
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the first Civil War Union regiment to be composed of enlisted men drawn from the free blacks of the North. Â It as made possible by the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, and was initially the subject of bitter controversy. Â However, the extraordinary performance and bravery of the regiment markedly altered people’s attitudes and perceptions, leading to formations of further regiments, with a wartime total of 186,097 (7,122 officers, 178,975 enlisted) African American enrollments contributing a key component of the Union victory.
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the first Civil War Union regiment to be composed of enlisted men drawn from the free blacks of the North.  It was made possible by the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, and was initially the subject of bitter controversy.  However, the extraordinary performance and bravery of the regiment markedly altered people’s attitudes and perceptions, leading to formations of further regiments, with a wartime total of 186,097 African  American enrollments (7,122 officers, 178,975 enlisted :  9.5% of the union armies), contributing a key component of the Union victory.
This blog presents the year 1863 as seen through the letters and books written by the soldiers and officers of the Massachusetts 54th, together with associated and related writings. Â Each day’s blog posting presents the letters, excerpts, proclamations, etc. which were written or issued on that day, along with links to articles from the New York Times for that day.
The first blog posting — for January 1, 1863 — will appear on Janauary 1, 2010, and thereafter, the posts for each day of 1863  for which there are letters or material will occur on the corresponding day of 2010.  Links for maps and related books will appear in the sidebar, together with a listing of the names of individuals who enrolled in the regiment on that day. These entries link to the individual’s full entry in the regiment’s roster, which is provided.
