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CAMP COURT AND SIEGE
A Narrative of Personal Adventure and Observation During Two Wars
1861-1865 1870-1871
by
WICKHAM HOFFMAN
Assistant Adj.-Gen. U. S. Vols. and Secretary U. S. Legation at Paris
London
Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington
Crown Buildings, 188 Fleet Street.
1877
Dedication.
TO
THE HON. E. B. WASHBURNE,
MINISTER OF THE U. S. AT PARIS,
THESE PAGES ARE CORDIALLY DEDICATED,
IN ADMIRATION OF THE STERLING QUALITIES OF MANHOOD
DISPLAYED BY HIM DURING THE DARK DAYS OF THE SIEGE
AND COMMUNE, AND IN RECOLLECTION OF MANY
PLEASANT HOURS PASSED TOGETHER DURING
AN OFFICIAL CONNECTION OF
NEARLY SIX YEARS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Hatteras.--"Black Drink."--Fortress Monroe.--General Butler.
--Small-pox.--"L'Isle des Chats."--Lightning.--Farragut.--Troops
land.--Surrender of Forts Page 11
CHAPTER II.
New Orleans.--Custom-house.--Union Prisoners.--The Calaboose.
--"Them Lincolnites."--The St. Charles.--"Grape-vine Telegraph."
--New Orleans Shop-keepers.--Butler and Soulé.--The Fourth
Wisconsin.--A New Orleans Mob.--Yellow Fever 23
CHAPTER III.
Vicksburg.--River on Fire.--Baton Rouge.--Start again for Vicksburg.
--The _Hartford_.--The Canal.--Farragut.--Captain Craven.--The
_Arkansas_.--Major Boardman.--The _Arkansas_ runs the
Gauntlet--Malaria 35
CHAPTER IV.
Sickness.--Battle of Baton Rouge.--Death of Williams.--"Fix
Bayonets!"--Thomas Williams.--His Body.--General T. W. Sherman.
--Butler relieved.--General Orders, No. 10.--Mr. Adams and Lord
Palmerston.--Butler's Style 47
CHAPTER V.
T. W. Sherman.--Contrabands.--Defenses of New Orleans.--Exchange
of Prisoners.--Amenities in War.--Port Hudson.--Reconnoissance
in Force.--The Fleet.--Our Left.--Assault of May 27th.--Sherman
wounded.--Port Hudson surrenders 59
CHAPTER VI.
Major-general Franklin.--Sabine Pass.--Collision at Sea.--March
through Louisiana.--Rebel Correspondence.--"The Gypsy's Wassail."
--Rebel Women.--Rebel Poetry.--A Skirmish.--Salt Island.--Winter
Climate.--Banks's Capua.--Major Joseph Bailey 74
CHAPTER VII.
Mistakes.--Affair at Mansfield.--Peach Hill.--Freaks of the
Imagination.--After Peach Hill.--General William Dwight.--Retreat to
Pleasant Hill.--Pleasant Hill.--General Dick Taylor.--Taylor and
the King of Denmark.--An Incident 87
CHAPTER VIII.
Low Water.--The Fleet in Danger.--We fall back upon Alexandria.
--Things look Gloomy.--Bailey builds a Dam in ten Days.--Saves
the Fleet.--A Skirmish.--Smith defeats Polignac.--Unpopularity
of Foreign Officers.--A Novel Bridge.--Leave of Absence.--A
Year in Virginia.--Am ordered again to New Orleans 98
CHAPTER IX.
Visit to Grant's Head-quarters.--His Anecdotes of Army Life.--Banks
relieved.--Canby in Command.--Bailey at Mobile.--Death of
Bailey.--Canby as a Civil Governor.--Confiscated Property.--Proposes
to rebuild Levees.--Is stopped by Sheridan.--Canby appeals.--Is
sustained, but too late.--Levees destroyed by Floods.--Conflict
of Jurisdiction.--Action of President Johnson.--Sheridan abolishes
Canby's Provost Marshal's Department.--Canby asks to be recalled.--Is
ordered to Washington.--To Galveston.--To Richmond.--To
Charleston.--Is murdered by the Modocs.--His Character 105
CHAPTER X.
The Writer appointed Assistant Secretary of Legation to Paris.
--Presented to the Emperor.--Court Balls.--Diplomatic Dress.--Opening
of Corps Législatif.--Opening of Parliament.--King of the Belgians.
--Emperor of Austria.--King of Prussia.--Queen Augusta.--Emperor
Alexander.--Attempt to assassinate him.--Ball at Russian
Embassy.--Resignation of General Dix 119
CHAPTER XI.
Washburne appointed Minister.--Declaration of War.--Thiers opposes
it.--The United States asked to protect Germans in France.--Fish's
Instructions.--Assent of French Government given.--Paris
in War-paint.--The Emperor opposed to War.--Not a Free
Agent.--His _Entourage_.--Marshal Le Bœuf 134
CHAPTER XII.
Germans forbidden to leave Paris.--Afterward expelled.--Large
Number in Paris.--Americans in Europe.--Emperor's Staff an Incumbrance.
--French Generals.--Their Rivalries.--False News from the Front.
--Effect in Paris.--Reaction.--Expulsion of Germans.--Sad
Scenes.--Washburne's Action.--Diplomatic Service.--Battle of
Sedan.--Sheridan at Sedan 145
CHAPTER XIII.
Revolution of September 4th, 1870.--Paris _en Fête_.--Flight of the
Empress.--Saved by Foreigners.--Escapes in an English Yacht.
--Government of National Defense.--Trochu at its Head.--Jules Simon.
--United States recognizes Republic.--Washburne's Address.--Favre's
Answer.--Efforts for Peace.--John L. O'Sullivan 159
CHAPTER XIV.
Belleville Demonstrates.--Radical Clubs.--Their Blasphemy and Violence.
--Unreasonable Suspicion.--Outrages.--Diplomatic Corps.--Some of them
leave Paris.--Meeting of the Corps.--Votes not to Leave.--Embassadors
and Ministers.--Right of Correspondence in a Besieged Place.
--Commencement of Siege, September 19th.--Besiegers and Besieged.
--Advantages of Besieged 170
CHAPTER XV.
Balloons.--Large Number dispatched.--Small Number lost.--Worth.
--Carrier-pigeons.--Their Failure.--Their Instincts.--_Times_
"Agony Column."--Correspondence.--Letters to Besieged.--Count Solms.
--Our Dispatch-bag.--Moltke complains that it is abused.--Washburne's
Answer.--Bismarck's Reply 182
CHAPTER XVI.
Burnside's Peace Mission.--Sent in by Bismarck.--Interview with
Trochu.--The Sympathetic Tear.--Question of Revictualment.--Failure
of Negotiations.--Point of Vanity.--Flags of Truce.--French
accused of Violation of Parole.--Question of the Francs-Tireurs.
--Foreigners refused Permission to leave Paris.--Washburne
insists.--Permission granted.--Departure of Americans.--Scenes
at Créteil 196
CHAPTER XVII.
Mob seize Hôtel de Ville.--"Thanksgiving" in Paris.--Prices of
Food.--Paris Rats.--Menagerie Meat.--Horse-meat.--Eatable only
as Mince.--Government Interference.--Sorties.--Are Failures.--Le
Bourget taken by French.--Retaken by Prussians.--French
Naval Officers.--Belleville National Guard.--Their Poetry.
--Blundering.--Sheridan's Opinion of German Army 207
CHAPTER XVIII.
The National Guard.--Its Composition.--The American Ambulance.--Its
Organization.--Its Success.--Dr. Swinburne, Chief Surgeon.--The
Tent System.--Small Mortality.--Poor Germans in Paris.--Bombardment
by Germans.--Wantonness of Artillery-men.--Bad News from the Loire.
--"Le Plan Trochu."--St. Genevieve to appear.--Vinoy takes Command.
--Paris surrenders.--Bourbaki defeated.--Attempts Suicide 221
CHAPTER XIX.
Election in France.--Terms of Peace.--Germans enter Paris.--Their
Martial Appearance.--American Apartments occupied.--Washburne
remonstrates.--Attitude of Parisians.--The Germans evacuate
Paris.--Victualing the City.--Aid from England and the
United States.--Its Distribution.--Sisters of Charity 234
CHAPTER XX.
The Commune.--Murder of French Generals.--The National Guard of
Order.--It disbands.--The Reasons.--Flight of the Government to
Versailles.--Thiers.--Attempts to reorganize National Guard.--An
American arrested by Commune.--Legation intervenes.--His Discharge.
--His Treatment.--Reign of King Mob.--"_Démonstrations Pacifiques._"
--Absurd Decrees of the Commune.--Destruction of the Vendôme
Column 243
CHAPTER XXI.
Diplomatic Corps moves to Versailles.--Journey there and back.--Life
at Versailles.--German Princes.--Battle at Clamart.--Unburied
Insurgents.--Bitterness of Class Hatred.--Its Probable Causes.--United
States Post-office at Versailles.--The Archbishop of Paris.--Attempts
to save his Life.--Washburne's Kindness to him.--Blanqui.--Archbishop
murdered.--Ultramontanism.--Bombardment by Government.--My Apartment
struck.--Capricious Effects of Shells.--Injury to Arch of Triumph.
--Bas-reliefs of Peace and War 256
CHAPTER XXII.
Reign of Terror.--Family Quarrels.--The Alsacians, etc., claim
German Nationality.--They leave Paris on our Passes.--Prisoners of
Commune.--Priests and Nuns.--Fragments of Shells.--"Articles
de Paris."--Fearful Bombardment of "Point du Jour."--Arrest of
Cluseret.--Commune Proclamations.--Capture of Paris.--Troops
enter by Undefended Gate.--Their Slow Advance.--Fight at the
Tuileries Gardens.--Communist Women.--Capture of Barricades.
--Cruelties of the Troops.--"Pétroleuses."--Absurd Stories about
them.--Public Buildings fired.--Destruction of Tuileries, etc., etc.
--Narrow Escape of Louvre.--Treatment of Communist Prisoners.
--Presents from Emperor of Germany 271
CAMP, COURT, AND SIEGE.
CHAPTER I.
Hatteras.--"Black Drink."--Fortress Monroe.--General Butler.
--Small-pox.--"L'Isle des Chats."--Lightning.--Farragut.--Troops
land.--Surrender of Forts.
In February, 1862, the writer of the following pages, an officer on
the staff of Brigadier-general Thomas Williams, was stationed at
Hatteras. Of all forlorn stations to which the folly and wickedness
of the Rebellion condemned our officers, Hatteras was the most
forlorn. It blows a gale of wind half the time. The tide runs through
the inlet at the rate of five miles an hour. It was impossible to
unload the stores for Burnside's expedition during more than three
days of the week. After an easterly blow--and there are enough of
them--the waters are so piled up in the shallow sounds between
Hatteras and the Main, that the tide ebbs without intermission for
twenty-four hours.
The history of Hatteras is curious. There can be little doubt that
English navigators penetrated into those waters long before the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. But the colony was not a success. Of the
colonists some returned to England; others died of want. The present
inhabitants of the island are a sickly, puny race, the descendants of
English convicts. When Great Britain broke up her penal settlement
at the Bermudas, she transported the most hardened convicts to
Van Diemens Land; those who had been convicted of minor offenses,
she turned loose upon our coast. Here they intermarried; for the
inhabitants of the Main look down upon them as an inferior race,
and will have no social intercourse with them. The effect of these
intermarriages is seen in the degeneracy of the race.
Until within a few years their principal occupation was wrecking.
Hatteras lies on the direct route of vessels bound from the West
Indies to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. The plan adopted
by these guileless natives to aid the storm in insuring a wreck
was simple, but effective. There is a half-wild pony bred upon the
island called "marsh pony." One of these animals was caught, a leg
tied up Rarey fashion, a lantern slung to his neck, and the animal
driven along the beach on a stormy night. The effect was that of a
vessel riding at anchor. Other vessels approached, and were soon
unpleasantly aware of the difference between a ship and a marsh pony.
The dwellings bear witness to the occupation of their owners.
The fences are constructed of ships' knees and planks. In their
parlors you may see on one side a rough board door, on the other an
exquisitely finished rose-wood or mahogany cabin door, with silver or
porcelain knobs. Contrast reigns everywhere.
But the place is not without its attractions to the botanist. A wild
vine, of uncommon strength and toughness, grows abundantly, and is
used in the place of rope. The iron-tree, hard enough to turn the
edge of the axe, and heavy as the metal from which it takes its
name, is found in abundance, and the tea-tree, from whose leaves the
inhabitants draw their tea when the season has been a bad one for
wrecks. This tea-tree furnishes the "black drink," which the Florida
Indians drank to make themselves invulnerable. They drank it with due
religious ceremonies till it nauseated them, when it was supposed
to have produced the desired effect. What a pity that we can not
associate some such charming superstition with the _maladie de mer_!
It would so comfort us in our affliction!
But we were not to stay long on this enchanted isle. Butler had
organized his expedition against New Orleans, and it was now ready
to sail. He had applied for Thomas Williams, who had been strongly
recommended to him by Weitzel, Kenzel, and other regular officers
of his staff. Early in March we received orders to report to Butler
at Fortress Monroe. We took one of those rolling tubs they call
"propellers," which did the service between the fortress and Hatteras
for the Quartermaster's Department; and, after nearly rolling over
two or three times, we reached Old Point. Here we found the immense
steamer the _Constitution_, loaded with three regiments, ready to
sail. Williams had hoped to have two or three days to run North and
see his wife and children, whom he had not seen for months. But with
him considerations of duty were before all others. He thought that
three regiments should be commanded by a brigadier, and he determined
to sail at once. It was a disappointment to us all. To him the loss
was irreparable. He never saw his family again.
It has always appeared to me that General Butler has not received
the credit to which he is entitled for the capture of New Orleans.
Without him New Orleans would not have been taken in 1862, and
a blow inflicted upon the Confederacy, which the London _Times_
characterized as the heaviest it had yet received--"almost decisive."
The writer has no sympathy with General Butler's extreme views, and
no admiration for his _protégés_; but he was cognizant of the New
Orleans expedition from its inception, he accompanied it on the day
it set sail, he landed with it in New Orleans, he remained in that
city or its neighborhood during the whole of Butler's command; and
a sense of justice compels him to say that Butler originated the
expedition, that he carried it through, under great and unexpected
difficulties, that he brought it to a successful termination, and
that his government of the city at that time, and under the peculiar
circumstances, was simply admirable.
It is not perhaps generally known that it was Butler who urged
this enterprise upon the President. He was answered that no troops
could be spared; M'Clellan wanted them all for his advance upon
Richmond. Butler thereupon offered to raise the troops himself,
provided the Government would give him three old regiments. The
President consented. The troops were raised in New England, and
three old regiments--the Fourth Wisconsin, the Sixth Michigan, and
the Twenty-first Indiana--designated to accompany them. At the
last moment M'Clellan opposed the departure of the Western troops,
and even applied for the "New England Division." It was with some
difficulty that, appealing to the President, and reminding him of his
promise, Butler was able to carry out the design for which the troops
had been raised.
We sailed from Old Point on the 6th of March with the three regiments
I have named. We numbered three thousand souls in all on board.
If any thing were wanting at this day to prove the efficacy of
vaccination, our experience on board that ship is sufficient. We took
from the hospital a man who had been ill with the small-pox. He was
supposed to be cured. Two days out, his disease broke out again. The
men among whom he lay were packed as close as herring in a barrel,
yet but one took the disease. They had all been vaccinated within
sixty days. I commend this fact to the attention of those parish
authorities in England who still obstinately refuse to enforce the
Vaccination Act.
Five days brought us, in perfect health, to Ship Island. Here was
another Hatteras, with a milder climate, and no "black drink;" a
low, sandy island in the Gulf, off Mobile. This part of the Gulf of
Mexico was discovered and settled by the French. They landed on Ship
Island, and called it "L'Isle des Chats," from the large number of
raccoons they found there. Not being personally acquainted with that
typical American, they took him for a species of cat, and named the
island accordingly. From Ship Island and the adjacent coast, which
they settled, the French entered Lake Borgne and Lake Pontchartrain,
and so up the Amite River in their boats. They dragged their boats
across the short distance which separates the upper waters of the
Amite from the Mississippi, embarked upon the "Father of Waters,"
and sailed down the stream. Here they played a trick upon John Bull;
for, meeting an English fleet coming up, the first vessels that ever
entered the mouths of the Mississippi, they boarded them, claimed
to be prior discoverers, and averred that they had left their ships
above. There existed in those days an understanding among maritime
nations that one should not interfere with the prior discoveries of
another. The English thereupon turned, and the spot, a short distance
below New Orleans, is to this day called "English Turn."
We remained at the "Isle of Cats" about six weeks--the life
monotonous enough. The beach offered a great variety of shell-fish,
devil-fish, horse-shoes, and sea-horses. An odd thing was the
abundance of fresh, pure water. Dig a hole two feet deep anywhere in
the sand on that low island, rising scarcely five feet above the sea,
and in two hours it was filled with fresh water. After using it a
week, it became brackish; when all it was necessary to do was to dig
another hole.
When on Ship Island, I witnessed a curious freak of lightning. One
night we had a terrible thunderstorm, such as one sees only in those
southern latitudes. In a large circular tent, used as a guard-tent,
eight prisoners were lying asleep, side by side. The sentry stood
leaning against the tent-pole, the butt of the musket on the ground,
the bayonet against his shoulder. The lightning struck the tent-pole,
leaped to the bayonet, followed down the barrel, tearing the stock to
splinters, but only slightly stunning the sentry. Thence it passed
along the ground, struck the first prisoner, killing him; passed
through the six inside men without injury to them; and off by the
eighth man, killing him.
Finally, the expedition was complete. Stores, guns, horses, all
had arrived. Butler became impatient for the action of the navy.
He went to the South-west Pass, where Farragut's fleet was lying,
and urged his advance. Farragut replied that he had no coal. Butler
answered that he would give him what he wanted, and sent him fifteen
hundred tons. He had had the foresight to ballast his sailing ships
with coal, and so had an ample supply. A week passed, and still the
ships did not ascend the river. Again Butler went to the Pass, and
again Farragut said that he had not coal enough--that once past
the forts, he might be detained on the river, and that it would be
madness to make the attempt unless every ship were filled up with
coal. Once again Butler came to his aid, and gave him three thousand
tons. We were naturally surprised that so vital an expedition should
be neglected by the Navy Department. The opinion was pretty general
among us that the expedition was not a favorite with the Department,
and that they did not anticipate any great success from it. They
were quite as surprised as the rest of the world when Farragut
accomplished his great feat.
At length all was ready. The troops were embarked, and lay off the
mouth of the river, waiting for the action of the fleet. Farragut,
after an idle bombardment of three days by the mortar-boats, which
he told us he had no confidence in, but which he submitted to in
deference to the opinions of the Department and of Porter (the firing
ceased, by-the-way, when it had set fire to the wooden barracks in
Fort Jackson, and might have done some good if continued), burst
through the defenses, silenced the forts, and ascended the river.
It is not my province to describe this remarkable exploit. Its
effect was magical. An exaggerated idea prevailed at that time of
the immense superiority of land batteries over ships. One gun on
shore, it was said, was equal to a whole ship's battery. The very
small results obtained by the united English and French fleets during
the Crimean war were quoted in proof. Those magnificent squadrons
effected scarcely any thing, for the capture of Bomarsund was child's
play to them. The English naval officers, proud of their service and
its glorious history, were delighted to find that, when daringly
led, ships could still do something against land batteries, and all
England rang with Farragut's exploit.
The part played by the army in this affair was minor, but still
important. Our engineer officers, who had assisted in building forts
St. Philip and Jackson, knew the ground well. Under their guidance we
embarked, first in light-draught gun-boats, then in barges, and made
our way through the shallow waters of the Gulf, and up the bayou,
till we landed at Quarantine, between Fort St. Philip and the city,
cutting off all communication between them. As, in the stillness of
an April evening, we made our slow way up the bayou amidst a tropical
vegetation, festoons of moss hanging from the trees and drooping
into the water, with the chance of being fired on at any moment from
the dark swamp on either side, the effect upon the imagination was
striking, and the scene one not easily forgotten.
Farragut had passed up the river, but the forts still held out,
and the great body of the troops was below them. When, however,
they found themselves cut off from any chance of succor, the men
in Fort St. Philip mutinied, tied their officers to the guns, and
surrendered. Fort Jackson followed the example. No doubt our turning
movement had hastened their surrender by some days. I once suggested
to Butler that we had hastened it by a week. "A month, a month, sir,"
he replied.
It was here they told us that the United States flag had been hauled
down from the Mint by a mob headed by that scoundrel Mumford, and
dragged through the mud. I heard Butler swear by all that was sacred,
that if he caught Mumford, and did not hang him, might he be hanged
himself. He caught him, and he kept his oath. There never was a wiser
act. It quieted New Orleans like a charm. The mob, who had assembled
at the gallows fully expecting to hear a pardon read at the last
moment, and prepared to create a riot if he were pardoned, slunk home
like whipped curs.