General McClellan’s pursuit of retreating secessionists in western Virginia was a success, with Federal forces defeating Confederate troops in a quick and decisive confrontation at Carrick’s Ford. Despite suffering a loss of 13 and forty wounded, Union troops killed fifty, including Confederate General Robert Garnett, and captured many more. General Hill will continue to pursue what remains of the Confederates in western Virginia.
Congress continues to work tirelessly to pass legislation on issues relating to war funds, military size, and the seizure of secessionist property. Business is moving so quickly that experts predict that the special session of Congress will likely be able to adjourn by Friday.
Once predicted to be the location for the next large-scale conflict, the situation at Fort Pickens, the Federal installation in Florida, is calm. According to a recent dispatch, the Fort was recently supplied with large armory and “the idea of a fight had been about given up” by the soldiers stationed there.
In a statement to the pro-secessionist citizenry of Missouri, Thomas Reynolds, the fugitive Lieutenant Governor, tells supporters to avoid rash action but urges them to be ready to take up arms when ex-Governor Jackson calls. He writes:
I rejoice to learn from various sources that even amid the present gloom you remain confident of final success. We are draining to the very dregs the bitter cup of Federal usurpation; but the medicine was needed to cure the diseases of our body politic. The military advantages lately obtained by our oppressors are not surprising, for your perilous uprising at the call of our Governor was made without that previous concert with your natural allies which was almost indispensable for success. But the fortune of war is prone to change; be ready to take advantage of it.
In the News:
- The New York Times has many more details about the battle which killed Confederate General Richard Garnett.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer provides a map showing the location of General McClellan’s victories in western Virginia.
- The Detroit Daily Adviser gives a biography of Colonel Franz Siegel, the gallant German commander of Federal troops in Missouri.
- The Philadelphia Press publishes the action-packed Congressional proceedings.
- The Quincy Daily Herald publishes excerpts from Southern newspapers.
- The Philadelphia Press has the latest news from Europe.
Commentary:
- The Philadelphia Inquirer hopes that eastern Virginia will soon be “McClellanized” as well.
- Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens gave a speech in Augusta, Georgia, that addressed how the South can finance the “second war of Independence,” and credited the courageous efforts of both Southern men and women.
- The New York Times condemns “British Ignorance and Arrogance,” and claims that it may be “the most insolent and conceited nation on the face of the earth, the Chinese not excepted.”
- The Richmond Daily Dispatch is confident that both France and Great Britain will recognize the Southern Confederacy.
- Former Lieutenant Governor Thomas Reynolds tries to raise the spirts of secessionist supporters in Missouri.
Arts and Culture:
- The Richmond Daily Dispatch publishes an extract on the role of South Carolinian women – and their “masculine fortitude” – in Carlo Bottas’ History of the American Revolution.
- The New York Times excerpts advice from a Canadian paper on how to cook and eat “fat pork.”
- The Richmond Daily Dispatch celebrates “life-long and unbroken friendship” with a poem from an author memorializing “his noble hearted and gallant friend.”
Obituaries:
- The Richmond Daily Dispatch pays tribute to John Campbell, the Lord High Chancellor of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- The New York Times honors slain Confederate General Robert Garnett, commemorating his “twenty years an officer, nineteen years of which saw him an honorable soldier, serving under his country’s flag. He was brevetted in 1847, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the Mexican war…[he] was a Virginian, and personally, bore a good character.”
Deaths:
- From Utah: “Ammon, half brother to the celebrated Utah Chief Walker, died in his camp…in great pain. He was afflicted with a disease which should be nameless, received through association with the whites. Four or five horses were killed for use in the hunting grounds of the next world.”
- From Mexico: “Don Melchor Ocampo and Gen. Degallado, two of the most illustrious men of Mexico.” Circumstances unknown.
