Tuesday, June 4, 1861

Trekking twenty miles in darkness from Grafton to Philippi in western Virginia, on tenuous mountain roads and through torrential rain, two columns of Federal troops – the First Virginia Volunteers, led by Colonel Kelly, and the Indiana Volunteers, under Colonel Crittenden – surprised 2,000 sleeping secessionist soldiers, killing 15 before forcing the rest to flee. The Union troops were able to acquire guns, ammunition, horses, food and other camp supplies that the secessionists left behind in a hurry. The rout was not entirely joyful for Federal troops, however; Colonel Kelly was injured and later died form his wounds, making him the only Federal casualty in the attack.

Virginia state troops have left Alexandria alone since abandoning the town last week, allowing the Federal occupiers to rebuild the railroad in order to create a continuous military rail line connecting all Federal possessions within the state. Furthermore, Union troops in Alexandria recently seized $4,000 worth of muskets and tools found at the Orange and Alexandria Railroad.

Yesterday’s Stock Market was “unusually tame on the Railway shares.”

Stephen Douglas Dead at Forty-Eight

Stephen Douglas, former Representative, Senator, and presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, died just after 9 a.m. yesterday morning in Chicago, Illinois. Local government and businesses around the state were closed upon receiving the news, and flags across the city – and in many other towns across the country – now fly at half mast as people mourn one of the nation’s most dedicated public servants.

Born in Vermont, Stephen Douglas moved to Illinois as a young man and fell in love with the western state. He would go on to faithfully serve his countrymen as the State’s Attorney, Associate Justice of the State Supreme Court, Secretary of State, and also in the Illinois state legislature. In 1842, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served two terms before being elected to the Senate. He famously defeated his Senate challenger Abraham Lincoln in 1858 after the pair engaged in a series of debates around the state. In Congress he worked passionately to preserve the Union and was instrumental in securing the passage of the compromise measures of 1850. His intelligence, dedication and political authority helped him win the Northern Democratic presidential nomination in 1860 after unsuccessful bids in 1852 and 1856. Although he was defeated last November, it is a testament to his patriotism and integrity that Senator Douglas wasted no time in throwing his full support behind the new President and his Administration’s position towards the seceding states. Douglas fervently believed the county could not be torn apart, and before taking ill, he was prepared to devote himself even further to this belief by accepting a position as Major General in the Army.

In Washington, news of Douglas’s passing “caused a profound sensation,” and politicians of every stripe were saddened by the loss of such a dedicated statesman. In a letter read to Union regiments, Secretary of War Cameron lamented that Stephen Douglas’s death “cannot be regarded otherwise than as a national calamity.” He described the statesman as “a man who nobly discharged party for county; a Senator who forgot all prejudices in an earnest desire to serve the public.” President Lincoln is also said to be distraught and will presumably make a statement about his one time rival, turned invaluable ally, very soon.

The news spread quickly in the North, and many newspapers published eloquent editorials to the “Little Giant.” The Philadelphia Press laments, “Of all the great men whom our country has produced, none had acquired a deeper hold upon the confidence and affection of a large body of the American people, and few have rendered them more important service.” Serving the scene in Chicago, the Quincy Daily Herald reports, “all seemed to feel that the country had suffered a loss that, in the present exigency of the times, can not be repaired – that there is no living man to fill his place.” While the Philadelphia Inquirer admits, “no mere newspaper sketch can do justice to so striking a character,” they write that Douglas had “the instincts of a patriot, and with the sagacity of a statesman, espoused the cause of the Government with all the fervor and energy of his nature. Just at this juncture, when his boldness and courage and dauntless resolution is most needed by his country, he is lost to her service through the inscrutable providence of God.”

In the News:

• The New York Times has details on the surprise attack in Philippi and information about Federal troops in Grafton.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer has news from Maryland, including a recent seizure of arms in Baltimore.
• The New York Times has a letter from the Kansas and Missouri border about the potential for a clash and why Missouri will not secede.
• A correspondent for the Richmond Daily Dispatch reports from Fort Pickens.
• The Philadelphia Press has dispatches from Alexandria, Virginia.
• The New York Times prints Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney’s decision on the Merryman case.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer publishes the latest news from Europe.

Special Coverage: Senator Douglas’s Death

• The Philadelphia Press pays tribute to Stephen Douglas and excerpts passages from an obituary by Colonel John Forney scheduled to run in Washington’s Sunday Morning Chronicle.
• The Quincy Herald memorializes Senator Douglas and prints Mayor Woodruff’s address to the town.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer publishes a tribute to the senator.
• The New York Times takes a look at Douglas’s political and private life.
• The Philadelphia Press prints the New American Cycloypedia‘s entry on Stephen Douglas. (Part one. Part two. Part three.)

Arts and Culture:

• The Cincinnati Enquirer has a tragic tale of “seduction and suicide,” in which a poor young woman “was the victim of a heartless scoundrel, who, after he had seduced and lured her from her home, basely deserted her.”
• The Farmer’s Corner at the Quincy Whig and Republican examines left-hand plows.

Runaways:

• “Sam Davis, brown colored, short, heavy built. He is probably lurking about this city somewhere.”
• Two young runaway girls from Jersey City have been found and returned to their parents. The father of one of the girls has “locked his daughter up, and intends to keep her in durance until her romantic ideas have vanished.”

Deaths:

• “The wife of Henry A. Bills, of Walstead, Connecticut, died at the Hartford Insane Retreat a few days ago — the result of an attack of insanity produced by the execrations and threats attired against her husband in the community where he lived, because of his sympathy with the Southern rebellion.”