May 8, 1863 - Friday - 160 years ago today

Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Crittenden's Corps - Wood's Division - Wagner's Brigade 

The biggest news of this time comes not from the front, but from Ohio.  

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CINCINNATI, OHIO, May 7, 1863,

Maj. Gen. H, W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief:

    On Tuesday morning last I caused the arrest of the Hon. C. L. Vallandigham.  He is now in this city, undergoing trial before a military commission for uttering sedition.  Some trouble was caused in Dayton on account of his arrest, but all is now quiet.  I hope to maintain perfect order in other portions of this department.  There is necessarily much excitement among his friends.  We are all hoping to hear of the glorious and final success of General Hooker.

A. E. BURNSIDE.

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 Clement Vallandigham was known as a leader of the Copperhead  movement in the North.  He had been a representative in Congress from Ohio until early 1863, and had opposed the war and all its measures; he accused Lincoln of despotism  He then called for an armistice and de-mobilization of the armies of both sides.

Defeated for Congress in the election of 1862, he gave what Burnside viewed as an incendiary speech on May 1st, leading to his arrest.  Lincoln had previously suspended the right of habeas corpus for disloyal speech.  See General Order Number 38.  His arrest by Burnside was approved at the time by Secretary of War Stanton; however, it remains controversial to this day.  Vallandigham was convicted of treason after a two-day military trial, and initially sentenced to confinement for the duration of the war.

More Information:

• Link: War Operations, see Volume XXIII, Chapter XXXV, Part II, Correspondence,  pp. 313-319.
• The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. pp. 106-107.
• The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1I, Fredericksburg to Meridian, Shelby Foote, pp. 166-175. 
• This Terrible Sound, The Battle of Chickamauga,  Peter Cozzens, pp. 1-22.
  

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