Seven hundred vessels were employed in blockading our coast and guarding our rivers.
During the year 1862-63 there were 533 steamers, barges, and coal boats belonging to the United States on the Mississippi river and its tributaries; and at the same time the United States Quartermaster's Department chartered 1,750 steamers and vessels to aid Gen. Grant in his operations against Vicksburg. In short, there were 2,283 vessels, exclusive of iron-clad mortar boats, operating to capture Vicksburg. The actual siege commenced May 18, and ended July 4, 1863, embracing a period of forty-seven days.
Names, Rank, and Positions of Officers on My Staff.
- Abercrombie, Wiley, Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.
- Anderson, Archer, Major, Aid-de-Camp.
- Archer, C., Lieutenant, Ord. Officer.
- Baker, J. A., Captain, Aid-de-Camp.
- Baldwin, John M., Captain, Acting Ord. Officer.
- Cain, W. H., Captain, Commissary.
- Danner, Albert, Captain, Quartermaster.
- Daves, Graham, Major, A. A. General.
- Drane, N. M., Captain, Quartermaster.
- Freeman, E. T., Lieutenant, A. A. I. General.
- Haile, Calhoun, Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.
- Harrison, William B., Major, Chief Surgeon.
- Morey, John B., Major, Chief Quartermaster.
- Myers, C. D., Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.
- Overton, M., Captain, Ord. Officer.
- Reynolds, F. A., Captain, A. A. General.
- Robertson, N. H., Lieutenant, Artillery.
- Rogers, H. J., Captain, Engineer.
- Sanders, D. W., Major, Adj. General.
- Shingleur, James A., Lieutenant, Maj. and A. A. G.
- Shumaker, S. M., Major, Chief Artillery.
- Storrs, George S., Lieutenant, Maj. and Chief Art.
- Venet, John B., Captain, Engineer.
- Yerger, James R., Lieutenant, Aid-de-Camp.
- Thomas, Grigsby E., Sergeant, Ordnance.
Government in Louisiana, 1875-76.
The forces that were developed during the last two years of the war found a wide field for operation as the Union troops marched through the South, and induced the troops to plunder, because there was money in it, and when the war ended this force entered the wide area of reconstruction, and produced those cursed scenes witnessed all over the South, because there was money in it, and yet when the States were admitted into the Union it was natural to suppose that its power for evil was spent. Not at all; it rallied, and entered the field of politics; debased by all the license of war, which exempted them from punishment for all crimes, they sold themselves for a price, and the dual governments commenced: the one established by the property owners and respectable people, the other by the carpetbaggers, scalawags, and negroes. Here were offices by election and by appointment affording almost unlimited opportunity to plunder. They had no conscience when they could put money in their pockets.
To illustrate, I will, as briefly as I can, take the State of Louisiana. In 1875 this State had two rival courts, two opposing Legislatures. One was the radical carpetbaggers, and the other conservative. There were three governors; also United States Senators, black and white, and Gen. P. H. Sheridan was military director; and over and above all the United States intermeddling in her affairs. The rival courts were occupied in reversing the decisions of each other, the Legislatures in passing bills that were not valid for the want of a quorum, or obtaining the signature of the right governor, whether of Kellogg, Warmouth, or McEnery (the three governors).
As this threefold government presaged the probability of the radical party not receiving the electoral vote of the State in the coming election for President, something had to be done to accomplish it. Accordingly the President directed the Secretary of War to issue an order directly and secretly to Gen. P. H. Sheridan, who was in Chicago, to proceed to New Orleans, and it was suggested that he should make the journey appear as one undertaken for recreation. So he and some of his staff, and a party of ladies on pleasure bent, sailed down the turbulent Mississippi river to New Orleans, and established headquarters in the St. Charles Hotel.