This Month in the War: 13th Amendment, South Carolina Secedes, Mason and Slidell Released

From the December 2022 American Battlefield Trust calendar.

DECEMBER 18, 1865

**  The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, becomes a part of the U.S. Constitution.

DECEMBER 20, 1860

**  South Carolina adopts  an Ordinance of Secession.

DECEMBER 22, 1860

**  Major Robert Anderson evacuates Fort Moultrie and goes to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

DECEMBER 26, 1861

**  The U.S. releases Mason and Sliddell, ending the Trent Affair.

DECEMBER 30, 1861

**  Banks in New York suspend specie payments.

DECEMBER 31, 1862

**  The Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro), Tennessee, begins.

--Old Secesh

Civil War Events in January-- Part 2: Mill Springs, Georgia and Louisiana Secede, Monitor Launched, Lee and the 13th Amendment

JANUARY 19, 1862

**  The Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky.

JANUARY 19, 1861

**  Georgia adopts an Ordinance of Secession.

JANUARY 24, 1861

**  Georgia state troops seize  the U.S. Arsenal at Augusta.

JANAUARY 26, 1861

**  Louisiana adopts and Ordinance of Secession.

JANUARY 30, 1862

**  USS Monitor launched at Greenpoint, Long Island, New York.

JANUARY 31, 1865

**  Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Confederate armies.

JANUARY 31, 1865

**  The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery.

--Old Secesh

Civil War Events in January-- Part 1: States are Seceding

From the American Battlefield Trust "This day in the Civil War."

JANUARY 1, 1863

**  President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation.

JANAUARY 2, 1863

**  South Carolina troops seize Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor.

JANUARY  3, 1861

**  Georgia troops seize Fort Pulaski

JANUARY 5, 1861

**  U.S. Senators from seven Southern states meet in Washington, D,C. to discuss secession.

JANUARY 9, 1861

**  Mississippi secedes from the Union, the second state to do so.  South Carolina has already adopted an Ordinance of Secession on December 20, 1860.

JANUARY 15, 1865

**  Fall of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.

--Old Secesh

Civil War Slang-- Part 2: Secesh (Hey That's Me) and Bust Head

6. SECESH

Hey. that's my name!!    Short for secessionist.  Northerners used this as a put down to Confederates and Southerners.

7.  OPEN THE BALL

Starting the Battle.  Let the party begin.

8.  TIGHT

Slang for drunk.  From the old expression "Tight as a Tick."  So full of blood or liquor as it were.

9.  BUST HEAD / POP SKULL

Other names:  Moonshine, Booth  Terms for whiskey.  Well, cheap whiskey to be precise.  The whiskey was so strong that it could pop your skull or bust your head open.  You get what you pay for.

10.  LIGHT OUT

Not turning out the light as we might figure.  In the Civil War light out meant to leave in haste.

Secesh Who?   --Old Secesh

Fort Wool in Chesapeake Bay-- Part 3: An Association With U.S. Presidents

Continued from December 30, 2020.

Fort Wool has a little-known association with U.S. presidents.

President Andrew Jackson, broken-hearted after the death of his wife and in ill-health, came to Fort Wool in the late 1820s and 1830s and, in effect, made the fort into his "White House."  He built a hut on the island and spent time watching ships pass by.

He even made key policy decisions from there.  Ironically, his Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, had become the president's arch rival at this time, by threatening to pull South Carolina out of the Union.  This was a move that Jackson effectively squelched, at least for the time being.

In the mid-1840s, President  John Tyler took sanctuary on the island after the death of his first wife.

President Abraham Lincoln also visited the island.

--Old Secesh

15 Years and 5545 Posts Later, Still Here

Most people will tell you that having one blog is one too many.  Well, I have considerably more than  that.  Unfortunately, I am interested in way too many things.  That is why I have eight blogs.  Having just one blog would be a walk in the park.

My first post in this Civil War blog was November 1, 2007.  This grew out of my Cooter's History Thing blog which covers all things history.  So many of my posts to it were about the Civil War, I figured to spin this one off.  In 2012, I spun my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog off this, again because so many posts were about that aspect of the war.

My main emphasis on the war is navy and Fort Fisher, anyway.

My signoff name of Old Secesh comes from the northern putdown of Confederates, calling them "Secesh" or "Sesh".  The Confederacy seceded from the Union.  I adopted that as my name.

So, 5545 posts as of this one and we still haven't won the war and I believe we are definitely going to lose the Second Civil War going on right now.

I am, however, interested in all aspects of the war, not just Confederate.  Of course, I am interested in all aspects of anything to do with history.

Spending Way Too Much Time on These Doggone Blogs.  --Old Seceh

Nebraska in the Civil War-- Part 1: Anti-Slavery

From Wikipedia.

Nebraska was a territory during the Civil War and did not achieve statehood until March 1, 1867 (157 years ago this month).  Even so, Nebraska did contribute to the war.

Nebraska Territory was largely rural and unsettled, at the edge of the American Frontier.  The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 has established the 40th parallel as the dividing line between Kansas and Nebraska.  It had also repealed the Missouri Compromise which had allowed  settlers in those territories to determine if they wanted slavery or not.

Anti-Secession feelings  ran high in the Nebraska Territory.  Seward County was originally named Greene County, but after Colton Greene pitched his lot in with the Confederacy, the county was renamed after Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward.

--Old Secesh

Fourteen Years Ago and 5,288 Posts, This Blog Was Brought Forth

This new year marks the 14th year this blog, my third one, has been around and now it has 5,288 posts on top of that.

I am so thankful this blog can now concentrate on the actual war, not this second Civil War we now find ourselves in.

This one grew out of my second blog, Down Da Road I Go, which was too be anything else I was interested in besides old roads and trips.  So much of it was becoming the Civil War, which was my very first big interest, that I decided it was time to spin this one off.

Saw the Elephant refers to the term Civil War soldiers, evidently on both sides, used to describe combat.  You first battle?  Then you have seen the elephant.

The sign-off of Old Secesh refers to the fact that I am old and Secesh was a derisive term used by Northerners to put down Southerners who seceded.  I actually like the term, so use it.

Anyway, way too many blogs, now eight altogether, and way too much time spent on them.

Oh, Well.  --Old Secesh

Wisconsin Comes Close to Secession?

The topic of Tuesday's McHenry County Civil War Round Table meeting will be "Hotbed of Secession!!  Wisconsin??" given by Jerry Allen.

The newsletter had this to say about the presentation:

Wisconsin Governor Alexander Randall abhorred slavery and was known as a rabid abolitionist (I like this description).

By 1860, anti-slavery feeling in Wisconsin was running high, with the governor's full encouragement.

In March, a member of the Wisconsin legislature introduced a bill to declare war on the United States unless it abolished slavery.  (That sure takes secession to another level.)  There was a lot of support for this.  Agents were sent out to see which state militia companies would support secession as it was possible that Governor Randall would have to call out the militia.

For the rest of the story, come to the meeting.  Details are on the previous post in this blog.

By the way, Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, where the University of Wisconsin Badgers play football, is a Civil War camp/prison and named after Alexander Randall.

With a Badger Vent.  --Old Secesh

MCCWRT Meeting Oct. 10: Wisconsin the "Hotbed of Secession!"

This Tuesday, October 10, 2017, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table will hold its October meeting at the Woodstock Public Library in Woodstock, Illinois.

Jerry Allen will present "Hotbed of Secession!  Wisconsin?"  I know about South Carolina and the other Southern states seceding, but, Wisconsin?  Should be interesting.

The library is at 414 Judd Street, just a few blocks off the famous 1850s Woodstock Square and where the famous movie "Groundhog Day" was filmed.

The meeting starts at 7.

See You There.  --Old Secesh

Would the Confederacy Have Celebrated the Fourth of July?

From the July 3, 2014, Atlantic.

Back in 1861, a reporter for the New York Times, on the first July 4th since the beginning of the war, described it thus:  "It is like the anniversary of a divorced couple's wedding."  I can definitely agree with that.

In a 2009 paper in the Journal of Southern History, historian Paul Quigley wrote that while some Southerners were conflicted with celebrating the holiday, the acknowledgement of the significance of the day continued.

In Charleston, S.C., in 1861, a committee of five decided the "public procession, solemn oration, and political language ought to be omitted on the present occasion," but offices would be closed.

Even before the war, the meaning of the Fourth of July was changing.  In the North, the abolitionists used the declaration's language of freedom to call for an end to slavery.  In the South, secessionists used the language of willful rebellion to call for a new country, insisting that the North had not lived up to the Declaration of Independence's promise.

I'll Shoot Off the Fireworks Anyway.  Maybe Just Aim Them Northward.  --Old Secesh

The Civil War in Tennessee-- Part 1: A Divided State

From the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.

In 1861, when the nation divided, so did Tennessee.  West Tennesseeans, led by Governor Isham G. Harris, cast their lot with the new Confederacy.  Meanwhile, in East Tennessee, most residents remained loyal to the United States.  In the middle section, it was about equally split. There was a lot of neighbor-versus-neighbor guerrilla warfare.

In February 1861, a referendum was held, and, as expected, the East was against secession, West for it and Central equally divided.  However, the firing on Fort Sumter in April and President Lincoln's call for 75,000 state militiamen to put down the rebellion started a push to secession.

East Tennessee threatened to secede from the state if that happened.  In May, Governor Harris and the legislature made a military alliance with the Confederacy and began raising an army for defense against Union invasion.

--Old Secesh

In Case You're Wondering About "Secesh"

In the last entry, George Hovey Cadman referred to the southerners at the ball he went to as "Secesh."

This is not a common tern anymore.  Back when I was teaching, another teacher came to me with a letter from the Civil War written by one of her relatives on the Northern side during the Civil War.  It mentioned "Secesh" and she wanted to know what it meant.  I told her it referred to Southerners (Confederates, rebels).

The Southern states wanted to secede from the Union.  The act was called secession and the slang word "Secesh" grew out of it.

That is also my sign-off name.

In Case You're Wondering.  --Old Secesh

The Tree Where the Confederacy Took Root

From the January 20, 2013, Chucago Tribune by Mike Conklin.

Well, it's in Bluffton S.C..  I've been there on several occasions, but never knew about it.

Some people say the fiery rhetoric that led to the war "started almost twenty years earlier under the limbs of a giant oak tree that today stands unmarked and most unnoticed."

The Secession tree is to be found in this Low Country (if you ever go there you have to try a Low Country Boil) town.  Here, "on July 31, 1844, a crowd heard U.S. Representative Robert Barnwell Rhett proclaim it was time to consider separation from the Union."  I wonder if he is any relation to Rhett Butler?

The site is regarded as South Carolina's first steps in a movement to secede from the United States.

Maybe we should call it the Old Secesh Tree?

More to Come.  --Old Secesh

Things Heating Up Back in January 1861-- Part 1

South Carolina had seceded and other southern states were following.

Staes were seizing Federal property within their borders.

Jan. 3rd-- Fort Pulaski, Georgia, seized by Georgia troops.
Mount Vernon Arsenal, Alabama, seized

Jan. 4th-- Fort Marion (Castillo de San Marcos) seized in St. Augustine, Florida.

Jan. 5th-- Alabama troops seize Fort Morgan at entrance to Mobile Bay.

Jan. 6th-- Apalachicola Arsenal, Florida, seized.

Hot Time in the Old Fort or Arsenal Tonight. --Old B-R'er

Richard Kidder Meade-- Part 5

For a guy I had never heard of before, this is getting pretty deep.

The ex-US Congressman Meade died April 20, 1862. His son, the Confederate officer died July 31, 1862. So, they died just over three months apart.

A CASTLE PINCKNEY TIMELINE

** December 1860 armament: four 42-pdrs, fourteen 24-pdrs, four 8-inch seacoast howitzers, one 10-inch mortar, and four light artillery pieces.

** December 3, 1860, Lt. J.C. Davis (no relation to future Confederate President Davis) and twenty laborers placed in the fort.

** December 11, 1860, Lt. Meade relieves Lt. Davis of command. The garrison now at 4 mechanics, 30 laborers and an ordnance sergeant and his family.

** December 20, 1860, South Carolina secedes.

And It Continues. --Old B-Runner

That Problem in Charleston Harbor-- Part 3

Part 2 was way back January 12th. Where does time fly?

From the Winter 2010 Hallowed Ground Magazine of the Civil War Preservation Trust.

The last we looked at the situation in Charleston Harbor, Major Anderson had decided Fort Sumter was easier to defend and transferred his garrison from Fort Moultrie out to it. South Carolina troops began building fortifications around the harbor and occupied Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney.

Some works were primarily vested with Fort Sumter and others to command the shipping channels. Fort Johnson, on James Island, was even occupied though it had long been abandoned.

President James Buchanan tried to resupply and reinforce Sumter by sending the civilian steamer Star of the West, but it was turned back from shots from a battery manned by Citadel Military Institute cadets.

That same day, Mississippi seceded and was soon followed by Florida, Alabama. Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. On Feb. 4, 1861, these states met in Montgomery, Alabama, and formed the Confederate States of America.

On March 3rd, the day before Lincoln was to be sworn in as president, Confederate Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard was placed in command at Charleston Harbor.

More to Come. --Old B-Runner

Lincoln's Election Set Civil War in Motion

You can call it that straw that broke the camel's back or the final straw, but when Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election back on November 6, 1860, many of the Southern states felt they had no other recourse but to secede from the Union and start their own country.

Lincoln won primarily because the Democratic votes were split three ways, with John C. Breckinridge taking the South, John Bell the border states and Lincoln the northern states.

SECESSION:

South Carolina Dec. 20, 1860
Mississippi Jan. 9, 1861
Florida Jan. 10, 1861
Alabama Jan. 11, 1861
Georgia Jan. 19, 1861
Louisiana Jan. 26, 1861
Texas Feb. 1, 1861
Virginia April 17, 1861
Arkansas May 6, 1861
North Carolina May 20, 1861
Tennessee June 8, 1861

And So It Started. --Old B-Runner

Lee Has Hard Time Getting Out of Texas

From the Feb. 1, 2011, Texas Tribune.

At the time of Texas's secession, February 1, 1861, US Army Colonel Robert E. Lee was stationed at Fort Mason (in Mason County) as commander of the US Second Cavalry.

With war approaching, he was ordered back to Washington, DC, and departed the fort on Feb. 13th only to be waylaid in nearby San Antonio and practically held a prisoner.

He donned civilian attire and had to continually remind the Texans that he was also a Virginian. He eventually was allowed to continue his journey, despite being provoked by Texans trying to get him to take an oath of allegiance to the South.

War Fever, Indeed. --Old B-Runner

Texas Secedes 150 years Ago

From the Feb. 1st Texas Tribune.

Delegates to the convention in San Antonio signed the paper, but it did not become official until the people of Texas ratified it, thanks to the efforts of Governor Sam Houston, who deeply opposed the move and did everything in his power to derail it.

Sam Houston was not only the governor of the state, but also had been the former president of the Republic of Texas when it stood as its own nation. He had fought for years to blunt the secession movement. Even after the delegate vote, Texas did not officially secede until Feb 23rd when about two-thirds of Texas voters ratified it.

Ever obstinate, Houston refused to sign his oath to the Confederacy and lost his governorship.

Houston died in 1863, one year after his son, Sam, Jr. was wounded and captured at the Battle of Shiloh.

The Confederacy Grows. --Old B-Runner