Arthur Fremantle - On To Richmond

On To Richmond

Increasingly, Lieutenant Colonel Fremantle became possessed of a desire to get to the Confederate capital, Richmond, and from there attempt to locate the Army of Northern Virginia, with whom he intended to journey for a while. From Tennessee, he travelled through Augusta and Atlanta, before arriving in Charleston, South Carolina, the birthplace of the war, on 8 June. The English tourist was keen to inspect the defences of the city, and remained there until 15 June, inspecting Fort Sumter and visiting Morris Island in the company of General Roswell S. Ripley, commander of South Carolina's First Military District. During this stay, Fremantle also met General PGT Beauregard, and a member of Captain Raphael Semmes' crew from the CSS Sumter, whom Fremantle had first met in Gibraltar in 1862.

En route to Richmond, Fremantle passed through Wilmington, North Carolina and Petersburg, Virginia, before arriving in the Confederate capital two days after leaving Charleston. On the day of his arrival, he was granted a meeting with Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin. During the audience, Benjamin assured Fremantle that British diplomatic recognition of the C.S.A. would terminate the war without more bloodshed, though the British officer was concerned about a possible Union invasion of Canada. Benjamin also complained to his guest about revelations about his gambling habits made by the former correspondent of The Times, William Howard Russell. Benjamin then took Fremantle to see President Jefferson Davis, with whom he spoke for an hour. From Fremantle's account, it is possible to conclude that the Confederate leaders may have been trying to impress their British visitor on the matter of diplomatic intervention, without real consideration of his lack of power to do so.

Intent on finding Lee's army at the earliest opportunity, Fremantle visited the Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon on 18 June, where he was furnished with letters of introduction to Generals Lee and Longstreet. Leaving Richmond two days later, Fremantle came upon the division of General William Dorsey Pender on 21 June, and reached Lee's headquarters at Berryville a day later.

Here, Fremantle met the individuals who would be his companions for the next two weeks. Among them were Francis Lawley, the Times correspondent who had replaced Russell, Captain Fitzgerald Ross, an Austrian cavalry officer, and Captain Justus Scheibert, a Prussian army engineer who had been sent to inspect Confederate fortifications by his government. The accounts of these four men present the most enlightening accounts written by foreigners of the Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg.