Sep 1862–Lincoln’s Cockamamie Idea; Rebels at the Doorstep; the Constitution Takes a Beating

March 22, 2013Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, NSM articles, Uncategorized

By Gary Far­row, Danville VT His­tor­i­cal Society

slaveThe times were very bleak indeed for the North: the Pres­i­dent was flop­ping around on the race ques­tion; a shock­ing­ly swift mil­i­tary rever­sal had just occurred in the east; and the Fed­er­al gov­ern­ment was fight­ing with the judi­cia­ry here in Ver­mont. Mean­while, the Ninth Ver­mont suf­fered a rever­sal of fortune.

North Star–September 6, 1862

The President’s Colonization Scheme

Sen­a­tor S. C. Pomeroy of Kansas by request of the Pres­i­dent con­sent­ed to orga­nize emi­gra­tion par­ties of free col­ored per­sons for set­tle­ment in South Amer­i­ca and has been com­mis­sioned accord­ing­ly. This gentleman’s suc­cess in orga­niz­ing “Emi­grant Aid Expe­di­tions” from Mass­a­chu­setts for the pur­pose of get­ting con­trol of Kansas for the Free Soil­ers is looked upon as an encour­age­ment for the present scheme. The Gov­ern­ment pro­pos­es to send the emi­grants in good steamships and pro­vide them with all the nec­es­sary imple­ments of labor and also sus­te­nance until they gath­er a harvest.

Sen­a­tor Pomeroy’s address pro­pos­es to take with him on the first day of Octo­ber next, 100 col­ored men, as pio­neers in the move­ment with their fam­i­lies to Chirigui in New Grana­da [Nicaragua], if the place on exam­i­na­tion is found sat­is­fac­to­ry and promis­ing. He desires all per­sons of the African race, of sound health, who desire to go, to send him at Wash­ing­ton their names, sex, age, num­bers and post office address… He wants mechan­ics and labor­ers, earnest and sober men, for the inter­ests of a gen­er­a­tion, if may be, are involved in the suc­cess of this exper­i­ment, and with the appro­ba­tion of the Amer­i­can peo­ple and under the bless­ing of God it can­not fail.

July, 1962–Naive Speculation Over Vicksburg; Vermonters Get Roughed Up

August 2, 2012Posted inHistorical events, Historical people, NSM articles
Noth­ing would be easy about the tak­ing of Vicksburg

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

The city of Vicks­burg which lay on the Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er was per­haps the Union’s most impor­tant strate­gic tar­get of the war. Lat­er a Fed­er­al offi­cial would say that it was “worth more than forty Get­tys­burgs’”. Mean­while back East, Ver­mon­ters were engaged in a doomed enter­prise called the Penin­su­lar Campaign.

North Star

July 12, 1862

Capture of Vicksburg

Cairo July 4

…On Thurs­day, Com. Porter’s fleet com­menced to shell the upper bat­ter­ies below the town. This con­tin­ued all day with­out any result. The shelling was renewed on Fri­day, and in the after­noon a fire was direct­ed on the town over which the shells were seen plain­ly to burst. This con­tin­ued until 4 o’clock, when the fir­ing ceased.

Danville’s Captain Addison Preston Reports on the Shenandoah Valley Campaign

August 2, 2012Posted inFrom the archives, Historical events, Historical people, NSM articles
Kurz and Allen illus­tra­tion of the cav­al­ry at the Bat­tle of Cedar Creek. Pho­to from the Library of Congress.

By Gary Far­row, Danville His­tor­i­cal Society

Col. Addi­son Pre­ston was not only a good sol­dier; he was also a good writer and shared his expe­ri­ences with North Star readers.

In the spring of 1862, the Ver­mont Cav­al­ry was part of an over­all Union effort to pre­vent a Con­fed­er­ate move­ment against Wash­ing­ton. The Fed­er­als had set up head­quar­ters in the Shenan­doah Val­ley town of Stras­burg to con­trol the Man­as­sas Gap Rail­road (South­ern) and the Val­ley Pike. How­ev­er the North­ern­ers were forced to evac­u­ate the town by Gen­er­al Stonewall Jackson’s rapid flank­ing movement.

In a let­ter to the edi­tor, Cap­tain Addi­son Pre­ston of Danville offered a stir­ring account of the action seen by Com­pa­ny D of the Cav­al­ry. This unit was per­son­al­ly recruit­ed and com­mand­ed by Pre­ston. Born in Burke, the fam­i­ly soon moved to Danville. At the age of 21, Pre­ston entered Brown Uni­ver­si­ty and became an accom­plished schol­ar; how­ev­er, after a year and a half he had to with­draw because of illness.