December 7, 1863 Monday
In Washington the first session of the Thirty-eighth Congress convened, and in Richmond the fourth session of the First Congress. President Davis in his message to Congress wrote of the “grave reverses” of the past summer, but stated the progress of the enemy “has been checked.” There had been no improvement in foreign relations; finances demanded attention; no effort must be spared to augment the Army; it was regrettable that the enemy had refused to exchange prisoners of war; the Trans-Mississippi, virtually cut off from the rest of the Confederacy, had special problems. President Davis concluded by condemning the “savage ferocity” of the Federals, and added, “Nor has less relenting warfare been waged by these pretended friends of human rights and liberties against the unfortunate negroes…. The hope last year entertained of an early termination of the war has not been realized,… [but] The patriotism of the people has proved equal to every sacrifice demanded by their country’s need.”
Fighting was confined to Rutledge and Eagleville, Tennessee and Independence, Mississippi. A four-day Federal scout operated in Hampshire, Hardy, Frederick, and Shenandoah counties of West Virginia.
In his third annual report to the President, Secretary Welles wrote: "A blockade commencing at Alexandria, in Virginia, and terminating at the Rio Grande, has been effectively maintained. The extent of this blockade . . . covers a distance of three thousand five hundred and forty-nine statute miles, with one hundred and eighty-nine harbor or pier openings or indentations, and much of the coast presents a double shore to be guarded . . . a naval force of more than one hundred vessels has been employed in patrolling the rivers, cutting off rebel supplies, and cooperating with the armies . . . The distance thus traversed and patrolled by the gunboats on the Mississippi and its tributaries is 3,615 miles, and the sounds, bayous, rivers and inlets of the States upon the Atlantic and the Gulf, covering an extent of about 2,000 miles, have also been . . . watched with unceasing vigilance." Welles reported a naval strength of 34,000 seamen and 588 ships displacing 467,967 tons, mounting 4,443 guns. More than 1,000 ships had been captured by alert blockaders, as the results of weakness at sea were driven home to the beleaguered South. The North's mighty force afloat had severed the Confederacy along the Mississippi and pierced ever deeper into her interior; amphibious assaults from the sea had driven her still further from her coasts; and the vise of the blockade clamped down more tightly on an already withering economy and military capability.
Steamer Chesapeake of the New York and Portland Line, en route to Portland, Maine, was seized off Cape Cod by a group of 17 Confederate sympathizers led by John C. Braine. The bizarre undertaking had been planned at St. John, New Brunswick, by Captain John Parker (whose real name seems to have been Vernon G. Locke), former commander of the Confederate privateer Retribution. Parker ordered Braine and his men to New York where they purchased side arms and boarded Chesapeake as passengers. At the appropriate moment they threw aside their disguises, and, after a brief exchange of gunfire in which the second engineer was killed, took possession of the steamer. They intended to make for Wilmington after coaling in Nova Scotia. Captain Parker came on board in the Bay of Fundy and took charge (
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundat ... teamer.htm ).
News of the capture elicited a quick response in the Navy Department. Ships from Philadelphia northward were ordered out in pursuit. On 17 December U.S.S. Ella and Annie, commanded by Acting Lieutenant J. Frederick Nickels, recaptured Chesapeake in Sambro Harbor, Nova Scotia. She was taken to Halifax where the Vice Admiralty Court ultimately restored the steamer to her original American owners. Most of the Confederates escaped and John Braine would again cause the Union much concern before the war ended.