Builders of a New South: Merchants, Capital, and the Remaking of Natchez, 1865–1914

CHAPTER 1. Old Ways and New Realities

11 i j chapter 1 Old Ways and New Realities rebel gunfire from the natchez river landing and the bluffs above bracketed the sloped sides of the ironclad gunboat USS Essex, while its engines strained and threw spray against the strong Mississippi River current as Commodore “Dirty” Bill Porter positioned his ship into firing position midcurrent. Natchez had technically been surrendered to Union forces since mid-May 1862 and had been left unoccupied and largely unmolested. But General Ulysses Grant’s push on Vicksburg and the presence of strong Union fleets ascending the Mississippi from New Orleans and descending from Memphis had left Natchez “hemmed in” and its populace in a panic.1 These tensions exploded on September 2 as Porter sent a shore party to the landing in search of aid for his sick and wounded, and Porter’s later report describes his assessment of the actions of his boat and crew that afternoon: I had received intimation that the Rebel gunboat Webb was at Natchez, to which city she had convoyed supplies transports with supplies from Red River. I followed to that city, but found they had sought protection of the Vicksburg guns. . . . At Natchez a boat crew was merely sent ashore to procure ice for my sick, when they were wantonly attacked by over two hundred armed citizens, wounding the officer in command and killing one and wounding five seamen. I immediately backed off and opened fire on the lower town and set an number of houses (from whence they were shooting at us) on fire. After the bombarding the place for an hour, the Mayor unconditionally surrendered.2 12  Old Ways and New Realities The point of view on the Natchez side was quite different from Commodore Porter’s matter-of-fact account, however. Yankee shells holed and set fire to mercantile houses and warehouses at the “under-the-hill” landing , sending merchants, boatmen, black workers, and a host of townspeople running for what cover they could find. The Yankees also targeted the town proper on the bluff above but were limited by the elevation capabilities of their cannons, instead sending shells indiscriminately to burst overhead and randomly hit homes and businesses. The widow of wealthy cotton merchant and planter Frederick Stanton found a ball lodged in the Corinthian portico of her grand mansion, Stanton Hall, while longtime merchant-planter Thomas Henderson found another had pierced the kitchen of his manse, Magnolia Hall.3 The Natchez citizens held later that the bombardment lasted far longer than Union claims, and the Natchez Weekly Courier echoed the rage Natchezians felt about perceived Yankee cowardice when it defiantly announced the next day that a collision of our inveterate foe with a small portion of our people, at the Natchez landing, afforded the Essex gunboat an opportunity to open on the city yesterday. The mysterious 9 and 10-inch holes all over the city . . . attest their industry in attempting the lives of women and children, without any notice of their bloody intentions. Should this short notice reach the commander of the Essex, he is informed that his shelling of Natchez murdered one child; and that the further casualties intended by his malice, were withheld us by an overruling Providence.4 Regardless of the difference between Union and Confederate accounts, it is clear that during the melee of that September afternoon in 1862, there were indeed grave casualties suffered in Natchez, both immediately human and overwhelmingly social and economic in nature. The only direct individual casualty on the Natchez side that day was seven-year-old Rosalie Beekman, the daughter of a small but respected German Jewish merchant , Aaron Beekman. As the shelling began, Beekman and his young family fled his modest dry goods, grocery, and plantation supply house under-the-hill and made their way up Silver Street toward the relative safety of the town on the bluff. But as they ran, Rosalie’s older sister, Sarah, heard Rosalie fall and called out. Sarah later related that “Papa called out to her to get up, but she answered, ‘I can’t, I’m killed.’ I remember how 13  Old Ways and New Realities he picked her up and his dreadful cries as he carried her in his arms, the blood streaming from her wound. She had been struck.” Indeed, Rosalie had been hit by a shell fragment and died the next...