The Holly Springs Raid Delayed Grant's General Order No. 11 That Expelled Jews from His Department

From Wikipedia.

Van Dorn's raid nearly coincided with U.S. Grant's General Orders No. 11 issued on December 17, 1862.  Thus expelled the Jews as a class from his military district within 24 houirs.  (Van Dorn's raid occurred on December 20.)

Grant believed that Jewish traders violated U.S. Treasury Department cotton trade regulations  which was the reason for the General Order.

Van Dorn's raid disrupted Union communications for weeks.  Additionally, Nathan Bedford Forrest's West Tennessee Raids, starting December 10, destroyed communications along 50 miles of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad behind Grant's front line.

The raid delayed implementation of Grant's orders, saving many Jews from possible expulsion.  It took 11 days for the orders to reach Paducah, Kentucky.  After which, many Jewish leaders appealed to President Lincoln.

At Lincoln's insistence, General-in-Chief of Union armies Henry Halleck ordered Grant to revoke General Order 11.  When Grant ran for president in 1868, this order  proved such an embarrassment that he disavowed it.

--Old Secesh

The Rebellion: Its Authors and Causes-- Part 3: Who Had Stakes in a War?

**  What was the British stake in the Civil War?

Get back for the War of 1812

Need for Southern cotton

British banks had investments in both the North and South

**  Who wanted there to be a war?

Radical Republicans

Britain

Irish

Southern Conservatives

**  The French wanted war

They had an interest in taking over Mexico and with a war in the United States this would take away a major problem for them.

--Old Secesh

The Leeds Iron Foundry in New Orleans-- Part 1: Those Steel Cotton Bale Presses

From Waymarking  "Leeds Iron Foundry - New Orleans.

The Leeds Foundry produced arms for the Confederacy, manufactured two ships for the Confederate Navy, and continued as headquarters and producer of arms for ant-Federal forces after the war.  Charles Leeds, the owner, was elected mayor in 1874.

**********************

The Leeds Foundry was the second largest foundry in the South and besides being the  world's largest maker of steel cotton bale presses.

(A cotton bale press is a building or machinery in which cotton bales are compressed into smaller bulk for shipment.  A press for baling cotton bales.  This is a very important process when it comes to shipping cotton.)

Up to 400 employees were employed in casting, forging and finishing for the manufacturing of ornamental cast iron and sugar and cotton equipment.

--Old Secesh

MCCWRT: Sherman's March-- Part 2: Joseph Wheeler's Cavalry and the Howell Cobb Plantation

**  Macon, Georgia, was a major manufacturing center for the Confederacy.

**  Sherman did not burn Savannah.  He got cotton as tribute.

**  The cavalry of Joseph Wheeler were the only real resistance Sherman faced on his way to Savannah.

**  Confederates had placed torpedoes (artillery shells) on the roads into Savannah rigged to blow up is stepped upon.  Confederate prisoners were sent ahead of Union troops to explode them one way or another.

**  Sherman burned the Howell Cobb plantation near Milledgeville, Georgia.  On the night of November 22, 1864,  on his March to the Sea, Gen. Sherman camped there.  Upon learning it was owned by Howell Cobb, former U.S. cabinet member, Congressman and now an important man in the Confederacy, he ordered its total destruction except for the slave quarters.

**  Runaway slaves following Sherman's army were often used as pioneers in road construction.

**  There is a double-barreled cannon in Athens, Georgia.

--Old Secesh

More Comments on 'Beast Butler'-- Part 4: Hatteras Inlet, Cotton and Lincoln's Secret Visits

The ship Greyhound was owned by Benjamin Butler.  It was a captured blockade runner and very fast.  However, it was blown up in a mysterious explosion believed to be from a coat torpedo in an attempt to assassinate Butler.

**  Union Admiral David D. Porter and Benjamin Butler had worked together earlier in the war at Hatteras Inlet.  A hurricane had made Confederate gunpowder wet and ineffective.  

After the victory, Butler rushed to Washington, D.C. with the glorious news of victory and then went on to New York City to spread the news and take credit there as well.

**  Butler was definitely into getting as much cotton as he could, either legally or under questionable practice.

**  The Red River Campaign in 1864 was all about cotton acquisition for the Union.

**  While he was at Fortress Monroe, Butler reported to no one but Lincoln.  Not even the head of the Union Army, Winfield Scott.

**  Lincoln visited Fortress Monroe and Butler 12 times.  Butler kept those visits secret.

More.  --Old Secesh

MCCWRT Discussion Group on Benjamin Butler-- Part 3: About W.B. Mumford and Butler's Illicit Cotton Deals

**  W.B. Mumford of New Orleans tore down the U.S. flag after the city's surrender and was hanged by order of Benjamin Butler (BB).  However, BB took care of Mumford's family after the war.

**  The Confederates offered a $10,000 reward for anyone shooting and killing Butler.

**  BB and Confederate spy Belle Boyd.  Grilled her at Fortress Monroe but let her go.  Forced her to leave New York City and go to England.

**  Lincoln would repurpose generals like in the case of Gen. John Pope who he sent to Minnesota to clear out the Indians to clear land for soldiers.

**  Butler was very wealthy.

**  BB was very well known in New Orleans before the war.

**  Andrew Jackson Butler, BB's brother, made the deals for them.  BB's textile factories needed cotton and BB certainly got a lot of cotton in areas he had military command.  Lincoln knew about this illicit cotton trade, but didn't do anything.

--Old Secesh

My 20 Most Significant Events Affecting the Civil War-- Part 2: Army-Navy Cooperation

6.  Union Army-Navy Cooperation

7.  The Emancipation Proclamation  It didn't really free any slaves, but went a big way to keeping England and France out of the war.

8.  Egyptian/Indian (India) cotton replaced Southern cotton.

9.  Collapse of Confederate money and finances

10.  Loss of the Mississippi River

--Old Secesh

Red River Campaign Conclusion

From Wikipedia.

Strength and casualties:

Union--   30,000 with 5,500 casualties
Confederate--  6,000-15,000 with 4,300 casualties.

**  A Union failure and the campaign did not have a major impact on the war.

**  It might have prolonged the war, though because it diverted the Union effort to capture the much more important Mobile, Alabama.

**  It effectively ended Union General Nathaniel Banks' military career.

**  The presence of cotton speculators and use of military boats to remove the cotton plagued his political career in later years.

**  Admiral Porter and the Navy seized a whole lot of cotton and made a lot of money.

**  The Confederacy lost two very able generals in Green and Mouton.

**  The Confederacy suffered casualties it could afford to lose.

**  It really wasn't a pressing military objective because with the fall of Vicksburg and Union control of the Mississippi River, the area was already cut off.

--Old Secesh

The Red River Campaign's Objectives

From Wikipedia.

1.  Destroy Richard Taylor's Confederate Army.

2.  Capture Shreveport, Louisiana, Confederate headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Department.

3.  Control of the Red River.

4.  The occupation of East Texas.

5.  Confiscate as many as 100,000 bales of cotton from plantations and warehouses along the Red River.

6.  Organize a pro-Union government in the region.

There are some historians who also believe the presence of 25,000 French troops in Mexico and Emperor Maximillian also had something to do with it.

--Old Secesh

Nov. MCCWRT Meeting-- Part 5: Red River Campaign, CSA-USN and Low Water

Cotton was a major factor in the drive to Shreveport.  The U.S. Navy got to Alexandria, Louisiana, first and immediately set about "procuring" as much cotton as they could get their hands on.  This was cotton money that would go to the Navy, not the Army..

They even went so far as to stamp CSA on the cotton to make it o.k. to take.  The Army had a put-down joke concerning such bales as this that they came across, stamped with both CSA and USN.  The letters, they said, stood for Cotton Stealing Association of the United States Navy.

A major problem, other than the rivalry to get the cotton, but one more of a threat to mission success was the low level of the Red River.  The expedition was planned during the spring to take advantage of high water, but 1864, the spring flooding that might be expected did not come.  There were some major shallows at Alexandria that proved to be time-consuming and hard work to get over.

The largest Union warship, the USS Eastport really got stuck and took an extreme lot of effort to get it refloated and past the shallows.  After more effort, the Navy managed to get 13 gunboats over it.

--Old Secesh

November MCCWRT Meeting-- Part 2: The Red River Campaign

Pat McCormick was this evening's keynote speaker and talked about the Union's ill-fated Red River Campaign, summing it up as a textbook example of how not to conduct a campaign and one that was really not necessary.

Overall, it took place because of Texas, even though it took place in Louisiana.    It was hoped that it would get the cotton-raising non-slave-owning Germans there as well as many pro-Unionists to break away from the Confederacy.

And, another big reason was for cotton and cotton speculation..  Politicians in New England were putting pressure on Lincoln to get Texas because of the cotton needed for their textile factories.

Another reason to worry about Texas was because of the increasing French presence in Mexico as well as Confederate supplies coming across the Rio Grande River between Matamoras and Brownsville, Texas.

An earlier attempt to invade Texas had been stopped by Dick Dowling and his force at Fort Griffin at the Battle of Sabine Pass.

--Old Secesh

Lincoln and Seward-- Part 4: A Question of Aristocracy, Cotton and Slavery

Mason Slidell was a strong advocate of slavery and an author of the Fugitive Slave Law.  England was anti-slavery at the time.

However, England viewed the Confederacy as an aristocracy since the rich plantation owners ran most of it.  Pl;us, the U.S. was fast becoming a serious threat to British power and a challenge in democracy.  British commoners generally, however, supported the North.

The Confederacy considered cotton as a vital aspect of getting England's recognition and even put an embargo on it to force its hand.  However, cotton was found from other sources and England textile mills continued operating.

Slavery was the main reason England never recognized the Confederacy.  It had been abolished in the country in 1772 and in the Empire it became illegal in 1833.

--Old Secesh

On the Subject of Slavery

From the April 15th Globe and Mail.

According to Professor James McPherson, cotton yields in the South doubled every decade from 1800 to 1860 and accounted for 60% of US exports. (Since the South didn't have much shipping, most cotton went overseas on northern ships.)

Southerners considered their slavery morally superior to the "wage slavery" in e North's factories.

Actually, slavery was not only immoral, but highly inefficient. Adam Smith wrote that a slave "can have no interest but to eat as much and labour as little as possible.

The promise of upward mobility fuelled hard work in the North. The slave had no such promise in their system.

A Sad Part of US History. --Old B-Runner