Civil War Today

There are several interesting points to take note of in James Anthony’s account of the struggle for Mobile, one if the most interesting is his report of black troops massacring rebels trying to surrender in retaliation for the slaughter of black soldiers and their families at Fort Pillow. James seems to take the view that what goes around comes around. Also, his thought that the assassination of Abraham Lincoln cemented his place in history, so soon after the fact, is surprising indeed.

Camp of the 20^th Iowa Infantry near Blakely Alabama April 5^th 1865

Plate 346-348

…On the fourteenth day after leaving Pensacola we appeared before this place and immediately prepared to go into action if it should be necessary but after reconnoitering it was decided to throw out skirmishers and approach them by means of rifle pits  Last night we finished our third line of trenches I have worked some in each of them  Last night on our way out to the front a shell burst not far from us and a round of shot passed just over our heads  Thus far I believe no one has been hurt in our regiment though the rebels shell us freely more or less every day and occasionally put in some at night  Their force here is supposed to be about twelve thousand and to be well fortified  They have also one or two gun boats at assist them in the river Kenesaw  We have been reinforced since we have been here  General Granger having sent us up the First Division  He opened on the Spanish Fort last night at five oclock with one hundred guns and mortars  We can hear them quite plainly  They are about ten miles below here  On our route here from Pensacola we took between two and three hundred prisoners  I forgot to mention that we had two Batteries with us and the 2^nd New York and the 2^nd Maine the 2^nd Illinois and the 1^st Florida Cavalry with us  Our Brigade is composed of the 20^th and the 34^th Iowa the 83^rd and the 114^th Ohio and the 37^th Illinois Infantry  We started on our march with six days rations in our haversacks and for eight days we only had half rations  We had to crossway the roads frequently in order to get the batteries and wagon train over them at all

Mobile in the distance seen from Fort Blakely

Near Blakely Alabama April 9^th 1865

Plate 349-355

Dear Wife  We have been a week now in front of the enemy and under his fire and with one exception not a man has been hurt in our regiment though to judge from the noise and number of shots fires at us one would hardly think we could have escaped annihilation  A private in company H was wounded in the neck yesterday morning while on his way with the regiment to the front  He is not supposed to be seriously hurt  It seems the enemy is fortified all along the river from the Spanish Fort to about a mile above this place  Last night about five oclock General Granger opened on the Spanish Fort most furiously  It was one continuous roar of artillery and volleys of musketry and whistling  of shells for more than two hours  We hear this morning that he has captured a portion of their works and some prisoners  I was in one of our advance rifle pits on picket guard when the bombardment commenced  The firing soon ceased all along the line and all was still  listening to the thunder of the conflict  On our return to camp after dark we learned that we are under orders to

march with five days rations  Of course our place will be occupied by other troops  It is rumored the 2^nd Division is going to join Thomas  One thing is certain  We have performed our share of the work since we have been here and have faced our part of the danger  Our rifle pits are not behind any others and I think we can say the hardest part of the work is already done  Our batteries are in position and playing on the rebel works and if we are successful below this place must soon surrender…The weather is cool uncomfortably so yesterday in the rifle pits  The news has just come that the Spanish Fort has surrendered with three thousand prisoners if so our gun boats will soon be up here and this place must fall also…April tenth  Last night at five oclock our troops charged on the rebel works and carried them by storm  Their defences consisted of three Forts with the customary outer works  Our brigade charged on the center Fort  We had to cross an open space of al least half a mile covered with fallen timber and torpedoes before reaching the Fort being directly under their fire  We went in with a rush and a yell each man striving to get there as soon as possible…In tha charge yesterday it was reduced almost to a certainty that some of us must fall and yet the 20^th Iowa Infantry passed through that death storm of lead and iron unscathed not a man being wounded…We are now under marching orders to be ready at a minutes notice so you see I must be brief  We expect we are going to escort a provision train for Thomas who is supposed to be in Selma or its vicinity  On our return to camp last night a Torpedo exploded near our own works and soon after our regiment passed it killing four men of the 114^th Ohio  It is reported that we have captured about three thousand prisoners  Those I saw were stout hearty looking men and had plenty of provisions  Before this reaches you you will get the full returns in the papers  It is supposed the capture of the works on this river virtually seals the fate of Mobile…It is just reported that our Corps lost five hundred men killed in the fight yesterday  The colored troops captured the Fort on our right  They are said to have fought the rebels hand to hand on top of the intrenchments and to have fired three volleys into them after they had surrendered  They have probably suffered as much or more than any of us…Last night we moved camp down to this place  The last of the rebel works between this place and the bay was evacuated last nigh and taken possession of by the Union Forces and the steam boat R J Lockwood carrying the American Flag came up this forenoon and is now landing  The probability is that Mobile is now in our hands  I think our enemies will give us no further trouble in this quarter  I have just learned that General Thomas’s cavalry was already in Mobile when our men who went from here reached that place…I was conversing with one of the colored men engaged in the late action  He said when the rebels raised the white flag they told them it was of no use with them it was no quarter that they yelled Remember Fort Pillow and would not be stopped before they had killed about two hundred of them after they had surrendered  The rebels fear falling into their hands worse than they do the Devils

The Union works, 3rd trench, position of the 83rd Ohio

Confederate works redoubt #4

The Occupation of Mobile

Mobile Alabama April 16^th 1865

Plate 355-368

…It is claimed that there are quite a large number of Union folks in this city I saw a woman yesterday who was about to meet some Union soldiers leave the side walk taking the street and passing around them it would seem to show her dislike to us  While on the other hand a Union woman on the day before soon after we arrived here came into our camp and said she felt like shaking hands with all of us

Mobile Alabama April 24^th 1865

Plate 368-

Dear Wife  The last arrivals from the North brings us cheering news thay also come freighted with the startling melancholy and unprecedented intelligence that Abraham Lincoln is dead and his Chief Secretary dangerously if not mortally wounded both having been struck down by the Assassin one by the pistol the other by the knife  If the President had lived to have seen the extinction of this Rebillion he could hardly have added to his laurels while dying in the way he did crowns him as the foremost of that numberless Army of Martyrs who have fallen in the same cause…If Booths object was to secure a name in history I think he has attained it Admitting this he still may have been the dupe of designing men I regret that Lincoln should have received his death wound in a Theater

Mobile Alabama May 15^th 1865

Plate 366-367

Dear Wife  We are once again under marching orders to leave at three oclock this afternoon  It is uncertain where we are going the majority have it that we are destined for Texas On the strength of it I have packed up my overcoat vest your letters some papers part of a book part of a magazine containing the battle of the Nile a belt and cap box which I took out of the rebel intrenchments at Blakely a brass tube which I picked up in the rear of the rebel works it was formerly screwed into the forward end of a conical shell inclosing the fuse which igniting on the discharge of the gun explodes the shell sooner or later according to the length of the fuse  It was thrown there I presume by one of our guns and the shell to which it belonged may have killed some rebels a screw driver which I took out of a rebel cartridge box when I got the belt ----(?)