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

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

 

Friday, January 17, 1862. — Froze last night to harden mud; cold and clear this morning; warm and bright all day. We feel rather lonely — so many gone. One regiment departed.

We hear of the resignation of Cameron and Welles. What does this mean? I think we must gain by it. I hope such men as Holt and Stanton will take their places. If so, the Nation will not lose by the change.

Read Nat Turner’s insurrection of 1831. I suspect there will be few such movements while the war continues. The negroes expect the North to set them free, and see no need of risking their lives to gain what will be given them by others. When they discover their mistake and despair of other aid, then troubles may come.

17th. Reached the eastern bank of the Mississippi, unable to cross on account of ice.

Hall’s Hill, Fairfax County, I’a.,

Friday eve., Jan. 17, 1862.

Dear Sister L.:—

“The long and weary months pass by” and still we camp in old Camp Porter, or, as it was called before our new tents were up, Camp Leslie.

For several days the weather has been so stormy that we have had but little drill. We have had some two inches of snow and then rain and sleet, making everything so slippery that it stopped all military operations.

You will ask what we have busied ourselves about. In the daytime we sit round the tents, reading, telling stories, grumbling about the rations, discussing the prospects of marching, cursing the English about the Mason and Slidell affair, expressing a willingness to devote our lives to humbling that proud nation, and talking of this, that and the other. Those whose tastes incline them that way are playing with the “spotted papers,” but you will be glad to know that not one game of cards has been played in our tent since I lived in it or in the old one, either, and more than that, I have not played a game since I’ve been in the U. S. service. I don’t know as I am principled against it so much, but I don’t know how to play and don’t care to learn. I spend much time in writing. The boys laugh at me for writing so many letters, but I think it is as good a way of spending time as many others.

I have thought I would send you a present. Nothing less than my French comb. It is a singular thing, according to our notions, but I have no doubt it is a good one. Its value is nothing, however, except that which attaches to it as a soldier’s comb and all the way from France. I don’t know but some young ladies might consider it an insult for a young man to send them a fine comb. You can feel just as you please about it.

The individual, if there be any one in the army more thought of than any other, the one so long waited for by the boys with emaciated portemonnaies, has arrived. We were called to sign the pay-roll about 4 p. m. yesterday, and by midnight seven companies were paid and the rest of us by 9 o’clock this morning. That is rather quick work I call it.

I little thought when I crossed the Long Bridge last September that I would be so long here with no chance of meeting the enemy. But so it is. It seems to us very slow business, this crushing out the rebellion. I do not know but our leaders know best, but it seems to us very dull business, waiting for the rebels to be conquered by kindness. Our President is altogether too tender-hearted, too much afraid of touching the rebels in their tender spot— their niggers. General Sherman, whom he has sent to South Carolina, is such another bugaboo. He has done nothing except to land there. If Jim Lane had been sent there with permission to whip them the best he could, he would have had South Carolina used up by this time, Charleston and Savannah in our possession and a good foothold for our forces. But no, it would not do to go to work so. This is not a war against slavery, but for the Union. We must preserve the Union, but not touch slavery. Away with such nonsense, I say, and the soldiers all say so. Give us a haul-in-sweep of their niggers, their houses, towns, and everything, only conquer them quickly.

Friday, 17th—Warm and pleasant. Nothing of importance. Some of the boys are quite sick from the effects of vaccination, though on some of them it did not work. Mine worked fine, and some of the boys took virus from my arm and vaccinated themselves. The surgeon vaccinated a few of the boys as many as four or five times before it took.

Friday 17th

Nothing new today. Soft moderate weather, the crossings all slush. Very muddy everywhere off the sidewalk. No particular war news. The financial affairs of the Nation look better. The 150,000,000 Tax Bill has passed both Houses of Congress which is a basis upon which loans can be made as it makes the interest sure. G. D. Prentice was writing in our room an hour or two today, he is quite a sober looking man. I went on to 7th St with “Bud” and got him a pair [of] Rubbers. Ha[ve] spent the evening at home. “Holly” has a bad cold, the rest of us in pretty good health but all fearing the small pox. Julia has been re-vaccinated, the rest of us will be.

______

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.

“Empire City,” Off Port Royal
Friday, January, 1862

We are just making harbor on the fifth day out, after a decidedly rough and long passage. We ought to have got in yesterday, but missed the harbor and for the last twenty-four hours have been cruising up and down the coast, in a northeaster, between Tybee island and Charleston light, and will barely get in today. The voyage has been very severe on our horses which look most decidedly used up, and a fair average of men have been down and could fully describe the pleasures of seasickness — as also could most of the officers, including myself, who passed the second day out on my back, but since then have picked up sufficiently to be on my feed, drink, and smoke, and round while my bed is made. We have left the winter fairly behind us and now in a couple of days we shall settle down at Beaufort, but what to do, the Lord only knows. . . .

You set up for a philosopher. You write letters à la Horace Walpole; you talk of loafing round Europe; you pretend to have seen life. Such twaddle makes me feel like a giant Warrington talking to an infant Pendennis. You “tired of this life”! You more and more “callous and indifferent about your own fortunes!” Pray how old are you and what has been your career? You graduate and pass two years in Europe, and witness by good luck a revolution. You come home and fall upon great historic events and have better chances than any young man to witness and become acquainted with them. You go abroad while great questions are agitated in a position to know all about them. Fortune has done nothing but favor you and yet you are “tired of this life.” You are beaten back everywhere before you are twenty-four, and finally writing philosophical letters you grumble at the strange madness of the times and have n’t even faith in God and the spirit of your age. What do you mean by thinking, much less writing such stuff? “No longer any chance left of settled lives and Christian careers!” Do you suppose the world is coming to an end now? Had n’t you better thank God that your lot is cast in great times? How am I throwing myself away? Is n’t a century’s work of my ancestors worth a struggle to preserve? Am I likely to do so much that it won’t do for me to risk my precious life in this great struggle? Come — no more of this. Don’t get into this vein again, or if you do, keep it to yourself. . . . We shall come out all right and if we don’t, the world will. Excuse me if I have been rough, but it will do you good. . . .

We are just taking a pilot on board off Hilton Head and in a few hours we shall sully the soil of Carolina. Ah, would n’t I like to ride into Charleston! I don’t know when you will hear from me again, but perhaps my letters will come as regularly as ever. We shall be very busy and hard at work for some time and may soon see service. I well know how eagerly the news from Port Royal will be wished for in the breakfast room of the Legation at London. Meanwhile I am very well and in very good spirits and look forward to having a very pleasant time, though very monotonous and so keep the parents easy. . . .

We have just arrived at Hilton Head and come to anchor. We are going up to Beaufort tomorrow. Weather delicious and all well….

Jan. 17. The great storm has at last subsided and the sun once more shines out. All the bands are out playing, everything is putting on a more cheerful appearance, and we can now look around and see the result of the storm. Boats and vessels are ashore all around us, in a partially wrecked or damaged condition. The upper works of our boat are little better than a wreck, from the bowsprits of schooners and catheads of other craft that have fouled with us. Our accommodations are rather limited as is also the fare, but by practicing forbearance and great good nature, the harmony is as perfect as could be expected. A tug is alongside with rations, so at last the long fast is broken. I think the boys will not be over nice about their dinners when they get them. I have sometimes thought I could relish a dinner from that soup I saw at the park barracks. Our dinner today was served about 1 p. m.; bill of fare, pea soup and coffee. I have always persuaded myself that I didn’t like pea soup and wouldn’t eat it, but today I changed my mind and thought I never ate anything that tasted quite so good as pea soup. I voted it a great luxury.

JANUARY 17TH.—A Mr. O. Hendricks, very lately of the U. S. Coast Survey, has returned from a tour of the coast of North Carolina, and has been commissioned a lieutenant by the Secretary of War. He says Burnside will take Roanoke Island, and that Wise and all his men will be captured. It is a man-trap.

January 17.—One hundred and fifty prisoners, released from the rebel government at Richmond, Va., arrived at Fortress Monroe. All of them were convalescents from the hospital. About twenty had crutches, and a dozen had to be carried on board, some on cots. All of them had been wounded. Dr. Higginbotham accompanied them, and the men were loud in commendation of his uniform kindness to them, and after cordially grasping his hand in taking leave of him, they gave him three enthusiastic cheers. They then saluted the old Stars and Stripes with a burst of enthusiasm that brought tears to the eyes, many waving their crutches above their heads. On the way back the wharves and embankments at Newport News were thronged with soldiers who greeted the released prisoners with tremendous cheers. The Cumberland and Congress, lying in the Roads, were also manned and gave a most enthusiastic greeting to the prisoners.

—This night, at Lynchburgh, Va., the Confederate flag, which had been flying from the yard of John O. L. Goggin, was forcibly torn down by some traitorous scoundrel, the flagstaff broken in two, and the cord by which the flag was hoisted cut up into small fragments. The flag itself was torn into tatters, and from its appearance, when found, would seem to indicate that the guilty party desired particularly to strip the stars from it, as not a vestige of any of them was left The act was a mean and despicable one, and proves conclusively that there is at least one Lincolnite in our midst, for no one, we feel sure, with one speck of Southern spirit could have been guilty of such an act—Lynchburgh Republican, January 18.

—The Burnside Expedition, which left Fortress Monroe on the 11th and 12th, arrived at Hatteras, N. C, having met with a severe storm and adverse winds.

—This day about four o’clock the steamer Connecticut spoke a small steamer off Juniper Inlet, on the Florida coast She promptly displayed a suspiciously new British ensign, which told the whole story—she had no name on her stern. She proved to be the Emma, (or, as some of the crew call her, the Onward, that being the name they shipped under,) that ran the blockade at Apalachicola in November last. She had been to Havana and taken a cargo of cotton and other stores, in value, according to the invoice found on board, twelve thousand dollars. The captain denied all knowledge of the intentions of the owners. He and the crew, he said, were shipped for St. John’s, N. B. Some correspondence was found, sufficient to condemn her; one paper was a telegraphic despatch stating the “blockade was open and the coast clear” at Apalachicola. This was at the time she slipped out. The Connecticut took possession of her as a prize.

—The Fortification Bill passed the United States House of Representatives to-day, appropriating an aggregate of five millions nine hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Among the appropriations were one hundred thousand dollars for Fort Knox, on Penobscot River; one hundred thousand dollars for fort on Hog Island, Port; land harbor; seventy-five thousand dollars for Fort Warren, and fifty thousand dollars for Fort Winthrop, Boston harbor; one hundred thousand dollars for the fort in New-Bedford harbor. The appropriation also included the following for the year 1862: fifty thousand dollars for Fort Knox; fifty thousand dollars for Hog Island Fort; fifty thousand dollars for Fort Winthrop and exterior batteries; fifty thousand dollars for fort at New-Bedford; fifty thousand dollars for Fort Adams, Newport.

—The Seventy – sixth Regiment New – York State Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Green, and two artillery companies, commanded by Captains von Puttakamer and Ellis, left Albany for the seat of war. They were reviewed in the Park by Governor Morgan, and addressed by Governor Pierce, of Ulstor, before their departure. They are a fine body of men, and number one thousand and three hundred strong.

—Navigation of the Mississippi River was entirely suspended at St. Louis in consequence of the gorging of the ice twenty miles below the city, extending to a point some distance from there, the ferry-boats not being able to run, and the ice not being sufficiently strong to bear heavy weights.

—A Flag of truce from Fortress Monroe to the rebels took to-day the following released prisoners: Colonel Pegram, Captain Sutton, Lieutenant A. C. Bell, Captain Tansill, Lieutenant John W. Pool, Lieutenant J. C. Lassell, Dr. R. W. Jeffreys and Captain L. J. Johnson.