NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
March and April 1864
From The Missouri Democrat, Wednesday, March 9, 1864.
THE LATEST NEWS.
BY TELEGRAPH.
FROM WASHINGTON.
U. S. GRANT AT THE CAPITAL.
He Receives an Impromptu Ovation.
THE QUESTION OF THE WESTERN NAVY YARD.
A Committee to Visit the West to Select the Site.
[Special dispatch to the Missouri Democrat.]
WASHINGTON, March 8. – It is entirely safe, I think, to presume that, in view of the recent action of the Union members of the Ohio delegation, Mr. Chase’s friends will not make any division that will tend to mar the harmony of the party in the approaching Presidential election. Mr. Chase himself will, it is believed, assist in accepting the action of the Union members of the Legislature as final in the case.
General Grant arrived here on the five o’clock train, and went at once to his room at the hotel. His arrival was still almost entirely unknown, when, a few minutes later, accompanied by his son only, he quietly walked into the long dining room of Willard’s Hotel and took his seat for dinner. None of his staff accompanied him, and nobody knew who the quiet and rather rusty-looking major-general was. He had nearly half finished his dinner before some Western acquaintance happened to be asked who that major-general was. The moment he glanced at him he replied, “Why, that is Lieutenant-General Grant.”
In a moment or to the news was buzzed about among the adjacent tables, and the General began to find himself the focus of an uncommonly sharp fire from ladies’ eyes, and therefore it seemed a good deal more embarrassing to him than some other kinds of artillery. Finally Representative Morehead, of Pittsburg, who sat at the next table, rose and announced that the hero of Vicksburg was among them and proposed his health, when the whole assemblage of guests sprang to their feet and united in half a dozen rousing cheers. Grant bowed in an embarrassed way and took his seat again, but a rush instantly began from all parts of the hall and everybody pressed forward to be introduced to him. The General’s dinner was very cold before he got an opportunity to give his attention to it again.
The debate between Blair and Rollins on the one hand, and Blow on the other, yesterday evening on Missouri affairs, continues to attract attention. It is generally conceded that Blair and Rollins are worsted, their assertions being in direct conflict with the notorious political history of those times is fully given in the debate.
Rollins’s desire to serve his friend, Frank Blair, led him into reckless assertions that are hard to reconcile with a character for veracity.
Wilson’s bill reorganizing the quartermaster’s department establishes divisions respectively charged with the care of the following subjects: Horses, clothing, vessels for transportation, Western transportation and telegraphs, forage, hospitals and barracks, wagons and ambulances, reports and [illegible]tion, correspondence and records. The bill stipulates the mode of purchasing supplies, and provides guards and penalties against frauds.
Congressman Blow appeared before the Naval Committee today, and made a strong statement in favor of the establishment of a Western navy yard at St. Louis. His representations had great weight with the committee. There is talk of a visit West by the committee, to see the rival points for themselves.
SECOND DISPATCH.
Western Navy Hopes – The Advantages of Various Points as Locations – Report of the Late Admiral Foote.
WASHINGTON, March 3. – A communication from the Secretary of War, in answer to the House resolution, endorses the report made last winter by the late Rear Admiral Foote relative to the proper location for a Western Navy depot. It says the advantages of Carondelet, near St. Louis, are that it has a good location, and no overflow in any stage of the river, and is in convenient proximity to a large city, and is of a sufficient depth of water for seven-foot gunboats or nine months in the year. Cairo has the advantages of being easily defended, its railroad facilities, its central position, and a sufficient depth of water, but it has an alluvial soil and is very subject to overflow, so that shells can only be stored on shipboard. Mound City, on the Ohio, nine miles above Cairo, also has a branch of the Illinois Central railroad, ways for hauling up steamers for repair, and a sufficient depth of water, is far more elevated than Carondelet, has a similar soil, and some liabilities to overflow. If Carondelet to selected as a naval depot, Cairo is recommended as an auxiliary.
[To the Associated Press.]
WASHINGTON, March 8 – The Republican of this evening has the following: In our first edition yesterday we doubted the statement that Colonel Dahlgren reached our lines in safety. We did so because we knew at the time that the Richmond Sentinel of Saturday morning, a copy of which reached General Meade’s headquarters, announced that Colonel Dahlgren was killed in the skirmish in King’s and Queen’s Court House. This fact was telegraphed to the President late on Sunday night, eight or nine hours after General Butler’s dispatch of Sunday was received announcing the safety of Colonel Dahlgren.
The news of the death of the Colonel was not made known to his father, Admiral Dahlgren, until this morning, because there was a lingering hope that there might be some mistake about it in the Sentinel.
Late last night General Butler telegraphed that he had received information confirming the announcement in the Sentinel that Colonel Dahlgren was killed at King’s and Queen’s Court House. The President being satisfied that there was no longer any good reason to doubt his death, deemed it his duty this morning to communicate the fact to Admiral Dahlgren, which was done.
The President having signed the whiskey bill, it is now law.
WASHINGTON, March 8. – It appears from report of the late Admiral Foote just made public, that after an examination of several sites in the West, he recommends Carondelet for a naval depot, with an auxiliary depot at Cairo. The subject is now before Congress.
The Senate to-day confirmed the following nominees as deputy postmasters: S. J. Bowen, Washington, District of Columbia; Annie M. Smith, Rockford, Illinois; J. Nelson Brockway, Belvidere, Illinois; T. A. Marshall, Vicksburg, Mississippi; W. W. Waters, St. Anthony’s Falls, Minnesota; John S. Simonds, Lawrence, Kansas; Eliza S. Smith, Georgetown, California; D. L. Turner, Columbia, Cal.; H. L. Street, Sonora, Cal.; A. D. Joslyn, Elgin, Ill.; James C. Stor, Cairo; Edward Russell, Davenport, Iowa; Elijah Steele, of California, was confirmed as Indian Superintendent for Northern California.
The Senate confirmed more than one hundred nominations to be Assistant Adjutant Generals with the rank of captain and major.
The statement that General Sickles has preferred charges against General Meade, before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, is erroneous.
WASHINGTON, March 8. – Lieutenant-General Grant, accompanied by his son, and General Rollins and Colonel Comstock of his staff, arrived here this evening.
While quietly taking his dinner at his hotel a gentlemen rose and announced to the four or five hundred guests who were at the tables that they had among them the hero of Vicksburg, whereupon the diners rose to their feet and enthusiastically welcomed the hero with shouts and waving of handkerchiefs.