25th. Arose at 3 A. M., fed, watered and prepared to move. Second Battalion moved at ten A. M. Some rolling country and some level prairie. Passed burnt bridge where guards were stationed.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Saturday, January 25. — Snow thawing into the deepest mud and slush imaginable. Thawed into water; sky cleared off; a drying wind and a pleasant evening. Examined the eighteen prisoners; generally gave me truthful answers; a queer lot of people.
Yesterday had pictures taken — Avery, Sperry, Adjutant Bottsford, Thomas (our colored man), and Gray, the Scotch veteran orderly, at dinner table and fencing. Great news of a victory at Cumberland Gap. I hope it is true.
Saturday, 25th—The report came that we were to be brigaded today—the Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa Regiments are in one brigade. Hurrah for Iowa! The four regiments are to form an Iowa brigade and the organization will date from today.
Satturday Jan’y 25/62
Weather more favorable today, a cool fine air, but plenty of mud in the streets. No news worth mentioning. The news papers are dull for want of some new sensation. Got set of chairs, one bedstead, mattress & Rocker today. Cane seats are the best I can afford for my parlor. Went to market and to Adamss for groceries & staid at home the rest of the evening.
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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.
Jan. 25. The storm is at last over, for to-day at least. It has cleared off warm and pleasant, and is the first bright day since we came here. Business is brisk to-day; all is bustle and hurry. There is quite a change of scene, the boats’ decks are covered with soldiers, shouting and cheering each other; the bands are all out playing, and altogether it is quite a contrast to the miserable life we have been living. Our attention is taken up watching the operations going on in the harbor, among the shipping. Steamers are being towed across the swash into the sound, and steamers and tugs are at work straining every nerve to pull off the boats that are ashore. It makes fun for the boys watching them pull. Five or six steamers and tugs are at work trying to pull off the Eastern Queen, on which are the 4th Rhode Island boys, and when they all pull together it seems as though they would pull her in two. Sometimes she seems to start a little, and then stick again; the boats will give a steady pull for an hour before she will start again. Occasionally a big cable will break, and it is fun to watch the agility of the boys, dodging the recoil of the cable ends.
The big steamer Northerner attempted to cross the sound at flood tide this morning, and stuck in the middle. She carries the 21st Massachusetts, and I think they will have to be taken off before she can get across. A number of boats and tugs are at work, trying to pull her across. If the Northerner sticks, going across at high water, how we are to cross is a problem yet to be solved, as the New York draws six inches more water than the Northerner.
Sick Horses.
The horses do not appear to stand hardships and privations as well as the men. On short feed, condensed sea water, with no exercise, they grow sick and debilitated. A schooner is lying but a short distance from us, with a deck-load of horses, belonging to a Rhode Island battery, and they are jumping them overboard, and swimming them ashore. It is curious to observe the horses as they are led up to the gangway; to see them brace themselves back and shudder to take the fearful leap. But a little encouragement from half a dozen men in their rear pushing them, over they go, and as they come up out of the water, they shake their heads and snort, and put for the nearest land, where they are rubbed dry, blanketed and led off up the island.
Across the Swash.
The Northerner has crossed into the sound, and anchored. As she got off and moved into the sound, cheer after cheer went up from all the fleet, the bands playing and all having a big time generally.
JANUARY 25TH—The French players have been permitted by the Secretary to leave the country. But British subjects are now refused passports.
January 25. — William H. Seward, Secretary of State, issued an order to the Marshal of the District of Columbia, directing him “not to receive into custody any persons claimed to be held to service or labor within the District, or elsewhere, and not charged with any crime or misdemeanor, unless upon arrest or commitment, pursuant to law, as fugitives from such service or labor:” and “not to retain any such fugitives in custody beyond a period of thirty days from their arrest and commitment, unless by special order of competent civil authority.” The order was to be enforced ten days after its publication, and had no relation to arrests made by military authority.—(Doc. 19.)
—The Twentieth regiment of Kentucky Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Sanders D. Bruce, left Camp Wallace, for the seat of war. —Louisville Journal, January 25.
— The Eighth regiment of New-Hampshire Volunteers, under the command of Colonel Fearing, left Manchester for the seat of war.
— Governor Pierpont declared all the civil offices, on the Eastern shore of Virginia, vacant, and the Commanding General of the Federal forces, stationed on the Peninsula, issued a proclamation requesting the people to elect others.— National Intelligencer, January 25.
—The Wisconsin First Battery, Captain J. F. Foster, and the Wisconsin Third Battery, Captain Drury, arrived at Louisville, Ky. The batteries number three hundred men and twelve guns, and are splendidly equipped. The guns are six pounders, and twelve-pounder howitzers. Some of the members were armed with rifled yagers — saber bayonets.—Louisville Journal, Jan. 27.
—The Petersburgh, Express, of this date, contains the following: “An order, signed by John Withers, Assistant Adjutant General, has issued from the Inspector General’s office, at Richmond, Va. The two hundred and fifty Confederate States troops, ten officers, and two hundred and forty non-commissioned officers and privates, who were captured by the United States troops at Hatteras, N. C, subsequently released from Fort Warren, Boston harbor, and released on parole by General Wool, United States Army, are hereby released from said parole, and will immediately report for duty with their respective companies, General Wool having acknowledged, in exchange, the receipt of a like number of United States prisoners, sent to Fortress Monroe, Va., by the Confederate Government.
—The Fifty-fifth regiment of Illinois volunteers, under the command of Colonel M. M. Baine, arrived at Cairo, Ill., en route for the seat of war. — Cincinnati Gazette, January 27.
