An odd occurrence along the river

[Mark F. Jenkins]

From the U.S. Navy's Civil War Naval Chronology, for November 7, 1864:

Upon learning that Confederate officers were quartered in a house on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River near Island 68, Acting Lieutenant Frederic S. Hill led an expedition from USS Tyler to capture them. However, they had departed. The mother of one of them boldly showed Hill her permit to transport cotton up the Mississippi and a request, officially endorsed by Major General Cadwallader C. Washburn, USA; for gunboat protection. Hill reluctantly complied with the request, remarking to Rear Admiral Lee: ". . . in the face of all these documents, as I was upon the spot and a steamer then at hand ready to take the cotton, I considered it proper to give her the required protection, although with a very bad grace. Permit me, admiral, respectfully to call your attention to the anomaly of using every exertion to capture rebel officers at 2 a.m., whose cotton I am called upon to protect in its shipment to a market at 10 a.m. of the same day, thus affording them the means of supplying themselves with every comfort money can procure ere they return to their brother rebels in arms with Hood."​

 

[diane]

Do you think Washburn was...ummm...a little shady?

 

[dlofting]

From the Vicksburg NMP website:

"Businessman, politician and Union army officer, Cadwallader Colden Washburn studied law at Rock Island, Illinois, before moving to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, where he established a legal practice in 1842. During this time, Washburn also speculated in real estate, founded the Mineral Point Bank, and obtained financial interests in lumber, water, railroading, and flour-milling.

In 1854, Washburn was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican, and served three terms (one brother, Israel, was a founding member of the Republican Party, another brother, Elihu, was a nine-term congressman from Illinois). He served as a delegate to the 1861 Washington Peace Conference, a final effort by the states to prevent war. When the Civil War started, Washburn was appointed colonel of the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry. He rose to the rank of brigadier general in July 1862, then major general on November 29, 1862. Washburn led a cavalry division during the early stages of Grant's VicksburgCcampaign, and commanded three divisions from XVI Corps during siege operations at Vicksburg. During the fall of 1863, he led a division of XIII Corps in support of Union Gen. Banks' coastal campaign against Texas. In August 1864, Washburn narrowly escaped capture during a nighttime raid on his Memphis headquarters by Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forest. He served out the war in an administrative role, resigning his commission in May 1865.

After the war, Washburn returned to Wisconsin and resumed his business and political careers. He was elected again to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving two terms. In the fall of 1871, Washburn successfully ran for governor of Wisconsin and served from 1872 to 1874. Failing to capture a U.S. Senate seat in 1875, he retired from politics. Washburn founded Washburn, Crosby & Company, which eventually became the General Mills Corporation."