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

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Post image for Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes.

January 24, 2012

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Friday, [January] 24, 1862. — A cold morning, ground frozen; promises to be a fine day. Snowed all the afternoon. A busy day. Had a good confidential talk with Colonel Scammon. He gains by a close and intimate acquaintance.

Alfred Beckley, Jr., left with a pledge to return if he failed to get exchanged for young Henderson, Company H, Twenty-third, the captured scout.

Two women wanted me to compel a neighbor to pay for tobacco and hogs he had stolen from them. One had a husband in the Secesh army and the other in the Union army.

An old man who had been saved by our soldiers because he was a Mason, so he thought, wanted pay for rails, sheep, and hogs; another, for hogs; another would give security for his good behavior, having been discharged, on condition he would do so, from Columbus, Ohio.

Sixteen Rebels captured in Raleigh County by Captain Haven sent in. Thirteen of our men found thirteen of them in a house armed to the teeth. They surrendered without firing a shot!! A mail-carrier caught with letters of the 17th. Many from soldiers of the Twenty-second Virginia to their friends in Boone County.

Dr. Joe in a stew and much laughed at by Dr. Jim and myself because he left his trunk, etc., on the river in a big skiff in charge of a blacksmith he had never seen before.

Post image for War Diary of Luman Harris Tenney.

War Diary of Luman Harris Tenney.

January 24, 2012

War Diary of Luman Harris Tenney.

24th. Had quite a cold, so kept close to quarters.

Post image for Diary of David L. Day.

Diary of David L. Day.

January 24, 2012

David L Day–My diary of rambles with the 25th Mass

Jan. 24. The storm has subsided somewhat, but is still rough enough for all practical purposes. Mr. Mulligan says fair weather has been known here, and taking that as a precedent, we may naturally conclude it perhaps may be again. This is certainly the longest storm I ever remember of, and never read of but one that exceeded it. That was the one Old Noah got caught out in, but he had the advantage of us, as his was the only craft afloat, and had plenty of sea room; besides his style of navigation was ahead of ours, as he let her drift around where she pleased and trusted to luck for a landing. That kind of navigation might have answered for those times, but would never do for Hatteras. And now another trouble has happened, the theatre has collapsed, and I am at a loss to understand the reason for it. It certainly could not have been from any lack of talent, music or patronage. It seemed to be perfect in all its appointments, and I can account for its sudden closing in no other way than that there must have been some little indiscretion on the part of the management; but perhaps, Rasper Brothers may have had something to do about it. I am sorry it has closed, as I could spend an evening up there very pleasantly. But in the loss of the theatre we must console ourselves with the thought that the drama has always had its difficulties.

Post image for “…it would seem as if people would like to take a hand in the quarrel in America.”–Adams Family Letters, Charles Francis Adams, U.S. Minister to the U.K., to his son, Charles.

“…it would seem as if people would like to take a hand in the quarrel in America.”–Adams Family Letters, Charles Francis Adams, U.S. Minister to the U.K., to his son, Charles.

January 24, 2012

Adams Family Civil War letters; US Minister to the UK and his sons.,The American Civil War

London, January 24, 1862

The Trent case has not blown hard enough to carry me away from my post of duty here. But it is not quite calm for all that. The rebel emissaries and their sympathisers are continually at work puffing up grievances and straining out falsehoods, and they find multitudes of not unwilling ears. One day it is the barbarism of savage blockade by filling up harbors; the next, it is the wretched pretence of paper blockade, respected by nobody. All this shows the eagerness to clutch at some pretext for interference. The expedition to Mexico is taking extraordinary proportions just now, which may not be without its significance under possible contingencies. Political matters being a little dull on this side, it would seem as if people would like to take a hand in the quarrel in America. I do not wish harm to any body, but if the Austrians and the Italians should fall to belaboring each other a bit just at this moment, so as to turn the public attention from our continent, I do not know that I should regard it as wholly a misfortune. . . .

Post image for Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft

Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft

January 24, 2012

Diary of US patent clerk Horatio Nelson Taft.

Friday Jan’y 24th 1862

Colder today but still freezes but little. Tonight the wind blows from the north bringing rain and sleet. It is a terrible bad night out, and I cannot but think of the hundreds of poor sentries on duty who have to stand and take it. No particular news today in the City. Genl McClellan is either going to advance soon or intends to make the rebels believe that he is. I am inclined to think that it is his policy to hold Still at present. By so doing he holds the bulk of the rebel force at Mannasses, who are daily geting more and more in a desperate case, and at the same time is giving them hard blows in every direction and cuting off their communications with the West and south. The roads are in such a condition now that a “Movement” is simply impossible.

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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.

Post image for Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

January 24, 2012

Diary of Alexander G. Downing; Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry

Friday, 24th—It snowed a very little today. Soldiers are marching past here for St. Louis. The roads are in a fearful condition. Our company would like to leave this place for more active service. Our picket and patrol duty is very light, though it is all-night duty. None of the men on the scouting expeditions have been hurt or wounded.

Post image for Unionist Dora Richards finds herself married and leaving New Orleans with her new husband on a steamboat headed up the Mississippi.

Unionist Dora Richards finds herself married and leaving New Orleans with her new husband on a steamboat headed up the Mississippi.

January 24, 2012

The American Civil War,War Diary of a Union Woman in the South by Dora Richards Miller

Friday, Jan. 24, 1862. (On steamboat W., Mississippi River.)—With a changed name I open you once more, my journal. It was a sad time to wed, when one knew not how long the expected conscription would spare the bridegroom. The women-folk knew how to sympathize with a girl expected to prepare for her wedding in three days, in a blockaded city, and about to go far from any base of supplies. They all rallied round me with tokens of love and consideration, and sewed, shopped, mended, and packed, as if sewing soldier clothes. They decked the whole house and the church with flowers. Music breathed, wine sparkled, friends came and went. It seemed a dream, and comes up now and again out of the afternoon sunshine where I sit on deck. The steamboat slowly plows its way through lumps of floating ice,—a novel sight to me,—and I look forward wondering whether the new people I shall meet will be as fierce about the war as those in New Orleans. That past is to be all forgiven and forgotten; I understood thus the kindly acts that sought to brighten the threshold of a new life.

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Note: To protect Mrs. Miller’s job as a teacher in New Orleans, the diary was published anonymously, edited by G. W. Cable, names were changed and initials were often used instead of full names — and even the initials differed from the real person’s initials.
Post image for J. B. Jones records that Beauregard has been ordered West.

J. B. Jones records that Beauregard has been ordered West.

January 24, 2012

A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, By John Beauchamp Jones,The American Civil War

JANUARY 24TH.-Beauregard has been ordered to the West. I knew the doom was upon him! But he will make his mark even at Columbus, though the place seems to me to be altogether untenable and of no practicable importance, since the enemy may attack both in front and rear. It would seem that some of the jealous functionaries would submit to any misfortune which would destroy Beauregard’s popularity. But these are exceptions: they are few and far between, thank Heaven!

Post image for A Diary of American Events.

A Diary of American Events.

January 24, 2012

The American Civil War,The Rebellion Record—A Diary of American Events; by Frank Moore

January 24.—A large meeting was held at the St. Charles’ Hotel, in New Orleans, La., for the purpose of expressing regret at the death of General Zollicoffer. Colonel Andrew Erwin was called to the chair, and Mr. H. L. Goodrich requested to act as Secretary. On motion, the Chairman appointed the following Committee, to draft resolutions: Colonel J. G. Pickett, Major-General Lovell, Brigadier-General Ruggles, Commodore Hollins, W. A. Johnson, A. L. Davis, W. J. Barry, Alexander Fall, D. M. Hildreth, M. Hilcher, and J. C. Goodrich; which reported the following resolutions:

Resolved, That we have received the intelligence of the death of General Felix K. Zollicoffer, with feelings of the profoundest sorrow, and lament his untimely end as an irreparable loss to the cause for which he heroically gave his life. In private life, or in discharging public duties, we always found him an incorruptible patriot. Cool and collected amidst troubles, he was unfaltering in the execution of his purposes. No man, since General Andrew Jackson, enjoyed, so completely, the confidence and undivided esteem of the people of Tennessee.

Resolved, That we mourn his death as a great public loss, which is only relieved by the recollection that he fell fighting bravely at the head of his column, against the invaders of his country.

—The Second Maryland regiment, under the command of Colonel John Sommer, who have been encamped some time at Pikesville, Baltimore county, arrived at Annapolis, about four o’clock yesterday afternoon, in the steamer Columbia, and marched immediately to the Naval School, where they took up their quarters. The regiment presented quite a fine appearance as they marched through the streets, and looked as if they were glad of the prospect of more active duties. — The Forty-seventh Pennsylvania regiment, Colonel T. C. Goode, also arrived about ten o’clock last evening, from Washington, in a special train, and took quarters in the Naval School.

—The Union light-boat, stationed near the Middle Ground, at the mouth of the Chesapeake, went ashore at the Pleasure House beach, near Cape Henry, and, with its crew, consisting of seven men, was captured by the rebels.

—Two rebel vessels, with valuable cargoes of cotton, attempted to run the blockade, off Pass à l’Outre, at the mouth of the Mississippi, this morning, but having got aground, were set on fire, and burned to the water’s edge.