Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

8th. Men sent to Columbus to help in making out pay-rolls.

Wednesday, 8th—The boys have been gathering persimmons and walnuts today—got lots of them.

Wednesday, January 8. — “New Orleans,” “The Union — it must and shall be preserved,” “Old Hickory forever.” These are the watchwords of today. This is our coldest day — clear, bright, and beautiful. Not over three inches of snow.

Rode with Adjutant Avery and two dragoons to Raleigh, twenty-four miles. A cold but not disagreeable day. The village of Raleigh is about ten to twelve years old; three or four hundred inhabitants may have lived there before the war; now six or eight families. Two churches, two taverns, two stores, etc., etc., in peaceful times. Our troops housed comfortably but too scattered, and too little attention to cleanliness. (Mem.: — Cooking ought never to be allowed in quarters.) I fear proper arrangements for repelling an attack have not been made.

January 8 — We renewed our march this morning, and, like yesterday, made slow progress. We were in rear of the infantry, and it moved very slowly all day. We passed through a very broken, hilly country and marched about eight miles. Camped on Sleepy Creek.

Wednesday, 8th 1862

Aniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, another Battle is expected there soon. No particular news today. Our boys were at Genl McClellans House today with the Lincoln boys. The Genl was out riding, his health is nearly restored. There is a good deal of alarm in the City on account of the prevalence of the Small pox. There are cases of it in almost every Street in the City. There is said to be over 400 cases in private families. The City authorities have as yet taken no notice of it in any official way. We are getting vaccinated again. I have spent the evening at home hearing the boys recite their lessons. The Mercury was down to 14 this morning, but it thawed in the middle of the day and tonight it rains. It is 9 o’clock. The boys have gone to bed. Julia is over to Mr Hartlys. I must go after her soon. Our family room has a good coal Stove and the fire does not go out all night, it is always warm and comfortable. We burn wood in the cooking Stove (oak at $10.00 pr cord), hard coal is but $8.50. Went to Mr Hartlys for Julia. Mr Greenleaf was there. I staid an hour in pleasant conversation.

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The three diary manuscript volumes, Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865, are available online at The Library of Congress.

New Orleans, on the left bank of the Mississippi, about one hundred miles from its mouth, was by far the wealthiest and most important city of the Confederacy. Its population in 1860 was 168,675, while that of Charleston was but 40,500, that of Richmond but 38,000, and that of Mobile but 29,000. Just before the war, New Orleans had the largest export trade of any city in the world; in 1860-’61 it received for shipment ninety two million dollars’ worth of cotton and more than twenty-five million dollars’ worth of sugar. These facts, together with the importance of its position from a military point of view (for possession of the Mississippi by the national forces would cut the Confederacy in two), made it the largest prize at which any single expedition could be aimed.

 

from “The Life of David Glasgow Farragut.”

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The levee of New Orleans before the war.

E’s journal.

January 1862.

. . . Sunday evening James Gillette came up to our room to tell us his story. He is one of the two hundred and forty Union soldiers just released from Richmond prisons in exchange for an equal number of rebel prisoners from Fort Warren. He was with the 71st N. Y., a three months’ regiment, and his time was out before the battle in which he was taken prisoner. These five months of prison life have turned him from a dapper little fellow into a sad-looking, care-worn, sick man. He and his fellows were in Prison No. 2, a tobacco factory, dirty and uncomfortable beyond description—170 men in a room 40 feet by 60. They immediately organized themselves, however, into a little military community under strict discipline. A detail of men was made every day to police the place, and all unnecessary uncleanliness was punished by the court they instituted for the trial of offenders. They had plenty of water but no soap or towels. Their rations were about eleven ounces of bread daily and one ration of beef or pork, and the water in which this was boiled was served at night as soup— “Confederate swill” they called it. They had no clothing given or sent them except what came to the Massachusetts and Rhode Island men, and an occasional little bundle handed in secretly by some sympathizing citizen. . . . The principal suffering was from the ignorance and brutality of the prison guards, who treated them roughly and often shot at them. Several were killed in that way; and yet these same sentinels would let the prisoners stand guard in their places, and go off and get them whiskey; and when they themselves were drunk, our men would pass them and take an airing in the city. The sick suffered and still suffer for want of decent care and medicine. One building is given up to cases of gangrene—a sufficient commentary on the condition of things. As a rule the prisoners kept up their spirits well and used all sorts of means for entertaining themselves; a debating club, a court, menagerie exhibitions, carving in beef-bones, etc. I have a little ring cut from part of their rations. Some men, though, have grown simple, almost idiotic, from the confinement; some have gone insane; and some of good standing at home will now wrangle pitifully over a bit of cracker or meat. About one hundred of our men, he says, have already died in Richmond of sickness, besides those dying from their wounds.

Morgan Co., January 8, 1862.

An opportunity of sending to Winchester enables me to write that I am here in the woods, all hands froze up and waiting for the weather to move. I take it for granted the General will come to the conclusion from this experiment that a winter campaign won’t pay, and will put us into winter quarters. I am quite well and have not suffered much.

JANUARY 8TH.—Dearth of news.

January 8. — This evening, while the First Kansas regiment was on its march from Sedalia to Lexington, Mo., and within a few miles of the latter place, the rear guard was fired upon from ambush, by which a sergeant of a German company, attached to the regiment, was mortally wounded, and two horses shot.—N. Y. Commercial, January 22.

—A. W. Bradford, Governor of Maryland, was inaugurated at noon to-day, at Annapolis. He made a most able and eloquent address, condemning the rebellion in the strongest terms, and expressing the utmost devotion to the Union and Constitution.

—This morning, Captain Latham, Company B, Second Virginia regiment, accompanied by seventeen of his men, fell in with a company of guerrillas, numbering about thirty, on the Dry Fork of Cheat River, in Randolph county, Va., and after a desperate fight of an hour’s duration, completely routed them, killing six and wounding several others, and burning up their quarters and provisions. Though the numbers engaged were small, the firing was so rapid that it was distinctly heard for eight miles. The parties were within thirty steps of each other when the fight commenced, and the rebels, owing to the superiority of their numbers and position, were so confident of success that they fought, for a time, like tigers, but were finally driven entirely off the field. Captain Latham’s loss was six men wounded, as follows: Corporal Wm. Jenkins, slightly, in the arm; privates: Frederick Dopp, mortally, shot through the left breast; James M. Pfrom, severely, a ball in each leg, and one through the left hand; James Whitchair, slight wound in the head, and a ball through the right arm; John W. Leese, ball in the leg; Edward Henderson, shot in the left hand.

In a skirmish, on the night of the 5th inst, between the same parties, private A. Watts was slightly wounded in the arm.— Wheeling Intelligencer, January 17.

—The Ninety-first regiment of New-York Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Jacob Van Zandt, left New-York, on board the steam transport Ericsson, for Key West, Florida.

—A Battle was fought, this day, at Roan’s Tanyard, in Randolph county, Mo. The rebels, one thousand strong, under Colonel Poindexter, were posted in a very strong position, on the Silver Creek, at Roan’s Tanyard, seven miles south of Huntsville, and seven miles west of Renick, near the residence of Joel Smith. The attack was made by Majors Torrence and Hubbard, with four hundred and eighty men, at four o’clock p. M. The rebels made but a feeble resistance, owing to the want of an efficient commander. They were routed completely, after only half an hour’s resistance. In their flight they left everything; most of them losing overcoats, guns, etc. Some of their horses broke away, and others were cut loose, and but for the lateness of the hour the Federals might have secured a largo number of these animals. The Federals burned the rebel camp, consisting of one hundred and five tents, twenty-five wagons, flour, meal, bacon, and an immense number of saddles, bridles, overcoats, carpet-bags, blankets; together with eighty-seven kegs of powder. The rout was most complete. — (Doc. 10.)

—William F. Smithson, a banker in Washington, D. C, was arrested on a charge of holding communications with the rebels. He was sent to Fort Lafayette.— N. Y. World, January 10.