Feb. 2. A high wind prevailed this morning and the sea was somewhat rough; the boat had considerable motion, but the boys had their sea legs on, so it caused them very little trouble.
Our company cooks, with commendable enterprise and industry and with an eye to our present well being, furnished us with baked beans and hot coffee for breakfast. This was a great treat, and every man had all he wanted; a vote of thanks was given the cooks. For dinner boiled beef was served, the first we have had since leaving Fortress Monroe.
I hope this kind of fare will hold out, but fear we shall have a relapse of the worst kind. The chaplain held services in the saloon this morning and afternoon. The boys spent most of the day writing letters, reading newspapers and making up their diaries.
Sunday, February 2. — Nothing to do to-day. Sun was out, the first time during 28 days. Dined with Captain Locke.
Sunday, 2d—Nothing of importance. We had preaching in the forenoon and prayer meeting in the afternoon.
To Mrs. Lyon
Feb. 2, 1862.—Large numbers of troops, several regiments of General McClernard’s Brigade, leave here today for Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland river. It is supposed they will go on an expedition up the Cumberland river. We were attached to this brigade, but I now learn we are to be attached to General Paine’s Brigade. He is in command at Bird’s Point, just across the Mississippi river, in Missouri.
Our fear now is that the fight will come off at Bowling Green before we start, and if the rebels are defeated there they may retreat from Columbus without giving us battle. We really want a turn with them at Columbus.
Sunday 2nd
Froze a little last night but has thawed in the sun all day. Went out to church with wife and boys. Chaplin Booth of the 5th Regt Sickels Brigad[e] preached, a pretty smart man. A crazy man in the church made a disturbance by giving an Extra discourse. He was hustled out by one of the Deacons. Ed Dickerson came up and spent an hour or two this evening. The roads are in such an awful condition that a “movement” or an “advance” would seem to be simply impossible. Drills and Dress parades in the Camps are in most cases dispensed with. There is a great deal of sickness in the City, but we hear less about the Small pox than we did a month ago. Our family is in good health.
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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.
Loup Creek Landing, five miles below Landing, February 2. — Sunday morning finds us waiting for a steamboat to get down Kanawha River. General Meigs took us aboard about 12 M. A cold ride — occasional gleams of sunshine — down the Kanawha to Charleston. A picturesque valley, high hills, ruins of salt-works, etc., etc., a fine river, make up the scene. A servant girl of Mrs. Mauser, apparently under the auspices of Thomas (he passed her on the steamer as his wife!), was met by our team yesterday and taken aboard a half mile out of Fayetteville. She must have been there by preconcert with Thomas. The feeling of the soldiers, a sort of indifferent satisfaction, easily roused to active zeal, expressed itself, “Another shade of Mrs. Mauser’s lost.” Not another syllable by way of comment in a circle of six around the camp-fire.
Reached Charleston before dark. Avery and I took quarters at the Kanawha House, a good hotel. Visited General Cox; a good talk; a sound man; excellent sense. I wish he commanded our brigade. . . . Heard the church bells at Charleston — the first for six months; a home sound.
Feb. 2nd. Sunday. Read during the day in “Female Life Among the Indians.” In the evening attended Disciples Church with Brownell.
Beaufort, S.C., February 2, 1862
I was then in the delicious doubt of our first picket detail which I was to command. After all it did n’t come to much and the only danger I had to face arose from the terror of my own horses at the sight of the sabres of my men and at the dulcet sounds of the band at guard mounting. Lord! what a time I had, and for an instant your son proved himself a trooper in profanity at least. But imagine the feelings of a young officer leading the first detail of his regiment ever seen at a public parade on seeing his men and horses go shooting over the field in all directions like squibs on the 4th of July. With stern decision I at once disgraced and sent home two horses and their riders and paraded the rest in style, marching them in review in a way which almost restored our honor. Then I escorted the officer of the day to his post and stationed my details and then visited the outposts.
We are all alone on an island here, and on its shores our pickets stand and gaze placidly at the pickets of the enemy on the shore opposite. About three times a week one party or the other try to cross in boats and get fired at, but no one ever seems to be hurt and so the danger is apparently not alarming. I visited our furthest pickets and found them on Barnwell’s Island at the house of Mr. Trescot, the author of whom we have heard. It is n’t a pleasant picture, this result of war. Here was a new house on a beautiful island and surrounded with magnificent cotton fields, built evidently by a gentleman of refinement and very recently, and there was the garden before it filled with rubbish, and within broken furniture, scraps of books and letters, and all the little tokens of a refined family. Scattered over the floors and piled in the corners were the remains of a fine library of books of many languages, and panels and glasses were broken wherever so doing was thought an easier course than to unlock or open. I wandered round and looked out at the view and wondered why this people had brought all this upon themselves; and yet I could n’t but pity them. For I thought how I should feel to see such sights at Quincy. . . .
FEBRUARY 2D.—The rumor of yesterday originated in the assertion of a Yankee paper that New Orleans would be taken without firing a gun. Some of our people fear it may be so, since Mr. Benjamin’s friend, Gen. Lovell, who came from New York since the battle of Manassas, is charged with the defense of the city. He delivered lectures, it is said, last summer on the defenses of New York—in that city. Have we not Southern men of sufficient genius to make generals of, for the defense of the South, without sending to New York for military commanders?
February 2.—Lieutenant-Colonel White’s cavalry encountered a force of Lincoln’s infantry in Morgan County, Tenn., on the mountain side. The Lincoln force was estimated at from one hundred to three hundred. White charged upon the enemy. Captain Duncan rallied his men twice, when he was shot through the head and killed by J. Roberts, a lad fifteen years old. The Kentucky Unionists were then completely routed and fled in confusion, leaving seven of their dead upon the field.—Norfolk Day Book, February 6.
—The bark Trinity left Boston, Mass., to-day, for Fortress Monroe, Va., with three hundred and eighty-six rank and file, and eleven officers, from Fort Warren, in Boston harbor, to be exchanged for an equal number of National soldiers in the hands of the rebels.— N. Y. Herald, February 3.
