7th.—Just returned from the hospital. Several severe cases of typhoid fever require constant attention. Our little Alabamian seems better, but so weak! I left them for a few moments to go to see Bishop Meade; he sent for me to his room. I was glad to see him looking better, and quite cheerful. Bishops Wilmer and Elliott came in, and my visit was very pleasant. I returned to my post by the bedside of the soldiers. Some of them are very fond of hearing the Bible read; and I am yet to see the first soldier who has not received with apparent interest any proposition of being read to from the Bible. To-day, while reading, an elderly man of strong, intelligent face sat on the side of the bed, listening with interest. I read of the wars of the Israelites and Philistines. He presently said, “I know why you read that chapter; it is to encourage us, because the Yankee armies are so much bigger than ours; do you believe that God will help us because we are weak?” “No,” said I, “but I believe that if we pray in faith, as the Israelites did, that God will hear us.” “Yes,” he replied, “but the Philistines didn’t pray, and the Yankees do; and though I can’t bear the Yankees, I believe some of them are Christians, and pray as hard as we do; [“Monstrous few on ’em,” grunted out a man lying near him;] and if we pray for one thing, and they pray for another, I don’t know what to think of our prayers clashing.” “Well, but what do you think of the justice of our cause? don’t you believe that God will hear us for the justice of our cause?” “Our cause,” he exclaimed, “yes, it is just; God knows it is just. I never thought of looking at it that way before, and I was mighty uneasy about the Yankee prayers. I am mightily obleeged to you for telling me.” “Where are you from?” I asked. “From Georgia.” “Are you not over forty-five?” “Oh, yes, I am turned of fifty, but you see I am monstrous strong and well; nobody can beat me with a rifle, and my four boys were a-coming. My wife is dead, and my girls are married; and so I rented out my land, and came too; the country hasn’t got men enough, and we mustn’t stand back on account of age, if we are hearty.” And truly he has the determined countenance, and bone and sinew, which make a dangerous foe on the battle-field. I wish we had 50,000 such men. He reminds me of having met with a very plain-looking woman in a store the other day. She was buying Confederate gray cloth, at what seemed a high price. I asked her why she did not apply to the quartermaster, and get it cheaper. “Well,” she replied, “I knows all about that, for my three sons is in the army; they gets their clothes thar; but you see this is for my old man, and I don’t think it would be fair to get his clothes from thar, because he ain’t never done nothing for the country as yet—he’s just gwine in the army.” “Is he not very old to go into the army?” “Well, he’s fifty-four years old, but he’s well and hearty like, and ought to do something for his country. So he says to me, says he, ‘The country wants men; I wonder if I could stand marching; I’ve a great mind to try.’ Says I, ‘Old man, I don’t think you could, you would break down; but I tell you what you can do—you can drive a wagon in the place of a young man that’s driving, and the young man can fight.’ Says he, ‘So I will—and he’s agwine just as soon as I gits these clothes ready, and that won’t be long.'” “But won’t you be very uneasy about him?” said I. “Yes, indeed; but you know he ought to go—them wretches must be drove away.” “Did you want your sons to go?” “Want ’em to go!” she exclaimed; “yes; if they hadn’t agone, they shouldn’t a-staid whar I was. But they wanted to go, my sons did.” Two days ago, I met her again in a baker’s shop; she was filling her basket with cakes and pies. “Well,” said I, “has your husband gone?” “No, but he’s agwine tomorrow, and I’m getting something for him now.” “Don’t you feel sorry as the time approaches for him to go?” “Oh, yes, I shall miss him mightily; but I ain’t never cried about it; I never shed a tear for the old man, nor for the boys neither, and I ain’t agwine to. Them Yankees must not come a-nigh to Richmond; if they does, I will fight them myself. The women must fight, for they shan’t cross Mayo’s Bridge; they shan’t git to Richmond.” I said to her, “You are a patriot.” “Yes, honey—ain’t you? Ain’t everybody?” I was sorry to leave this heroine in homespun, but she was too busy buying cakes, etc., for the “old man,” to be interrupted any longer.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
March 7 — About three o’clock this afternoon we heard the boom of a cannon in the direction of Bunker’s Hill. Events of a startling character are crowding around the threshold of the near future. Little before sunset we got orders to march out on the Martinsburg road, as the Yankees were advancing on Winchester, and that their advance guard was within five miles of town; but before we proceeded far on the Martinsburg road we learned that Ashby’s Cavalry met and repulsed the enemy’s advance guard and drove it back to Bunker’s Hill. Jackson’s men were out under marching orders, standing in ranks, ready for fight at a moment’s notice. We returned to our camp on the Berryville road after dark. Our tents are folded and on the wagon, consequently we are camping to-night without shelter. The cannon we heard to-day were some of Pendleton’s battery firing at the enemy down on the Martinsburg road.
Friday March 7th 1862
A beautiful clear day but rather cool out, in the office as usual. Nothing new in the city that I hear of tonight. I have been down to Charleys. He has been doing some writing for me, my work in the Land office. Troops are coming into the City and moveing about a good deal. We may expect lively times soon over the River. All seems to be quiet now.
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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.
7th.—Received orders to-day to draw rations for my hospital force for five days. This kind of an order is unusual. The roads are improving. Perhaps the dumb watch is nearly old enough to run.
MARCH 7TH.—Gen. Winder has established a guard with fixed bayonets at the door of the passport office. They let in only a few at a time, and these, when they get their passports, pass out by the rear door, it being impossible for them to return through the crowd.
Friday, 7th—Orders came for us to get ready to leave for St. Louis, and everybody is happy. Drill was discontinued for the day.
7th. Passed through the village and again struck the prairie. Pleasant day, enjoyed the ride very much indeed. Rode by the side of Lieutenant Nettleton, enjoyed visiting with him much.
March 7th. Weighed anchor for the mouth of the Mississippi River; arrived in the evening, where we found the Pensacola and Brooklyn at Pass a l’Outre on the blockade. Our object in coining here was to go up the river, with the subsequent view of capturing New Orleans. Preparations were immediately made to cross the bar, a constantly shifting mud bank at the mouth of each pass of the Mississippi.
March 7th.—Mrs. Middleton was dolorous indeed. General Lee had warned the planters about Combahee, etc., that they must take care of themselves now; he could not do it. Confederate soldiers had committed some outrages on the plantations and officers had punished them promptly. She poured contempt upon Yancey’s letter to Lord Russell.¹ It was the letter of a shopkeeper, not in the style of a statesman at all.
We called to see Mary McDuffie.² She asked Mary Preston what Doctor Boykin had said of her husband as we came along in the train. She heard it was something very complimentary. Mary P. tried to remember, and to repeat it all, to the joy of the other Mary, who liked to hear nice things about her husband.
Mary was amazed to hear of the list of applicants for promotion. One delicate-minded person accompanied his demand for advancement by a request for a written description of the Manassas battle; he had heard Colonel Chesnut give such a brilliant account of it in Governor Cobb’s room.
The Merrimac³ business has come like a gleam of lightning illumining a dark scene. Our sky is black and lowering.
The Judge saw his little daughter at my window and he came up. He was very smooth and kind. It was really a delightful visit; not a disagreeable word was spoken. He abused no one whatever, for he never once spoke of any one but himself, and himself he praised without stint. He did not look at me once, though he spoke very kindly to me.
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¹ Lord Russell was Foreign Secretary under the Palmerston administration of 1859 to 1865.
² Mary McDuffie was the second wife of Wade Hampton.
³ The Merrimac was formerly a 40-gun screw frigate of the United States Navy. In April, 1861, when the Norfolk Navy-yard was abandoned by the United States she was sunk. Her hull was afterward raised by the Confederates and she was reconstructed on new plans, and renamed the Virginia. On March 2, 1862, she destroyed the Congress, a sailing-ship of 50 guns, and the Cumberland, a sailing-ship of 30 guns, at Newport News. On March 7th she attacked the Minnesota, but was met by the Monitor and defeated in a memorable engagement. Many features of modern battle-ships have been derived from the Merrimac and Monitor.
March 7.—The Eighth regiment of Vermont volunteers, under the command of Col. Stephen Thomas, passed through New-York on the way to the seat of war. It is composed of one thousand and sixty men, fully uniformed, armed with Enfield rifles, and equipped. They have been recruited from among the hardy sons of the Green Mountain State, and arc unusually strong and robust, mostly between the ages of twenty and thirty-five years.
Accompanying the regiment are two light batteries of six rifled six-pounders each, the two companies numbering one hundred and seventy-five men each. They are commanded respectively by Capt Geo. W. Duncan and Capt. Sales.
—In the English House of Commons, Mr. Gregory, pursuant to notice, called the attention of the House to the blockade of the Southern ports, and moved for a copy of any correspondence on the subject, subsequent to the papers already before the House. He expressed his strong sympathy for the struggle going forward in the confederate States, and declared that a separation of the South from the North, and a reconstruction of the Union, were the only means by which they could hope to see slavery abolished in America.
—The rebel steamer Sumter still remained at Gibraltar, the United States gunboat Tuscarora watching her.
—A brisk cannonading took place on the Lower Potomac at four o’clock this morning, when the Freeborn, Satellite, Island Belle, and the Resolute opened fire on the line of batteries extending from opposite Liverpool Point to Boyd’s Hole, including three at Aquia Creek. The rebels returned the fire, but without striking any of the National vessels. Proceeding up to Wade’s Bay in the afternoon, in which direction heavy firing had been heard during the day, the Island Belle and the Satellite again opened fire on the railroad depot and some trains of cars filled with rebel troops that were constantly arriving from Fredericksburg. The depot was riddled by the shot and shell. The enemy returned the fire from a battery on the water-line and another on a hill a little back. Their shots fell thickly around the vessels, but not one of them took effect. The troops at Aquia Creek were constantly receiving reinforcements. The batteries at Cockpit Point and Shipping Point opened fire on Professor Lowe’s balloon, when in the air near Budd’s Ferry, but the balloon was not hit on either side. —Gov. Andrew Johnson, with his staff, accompanied by Messrs. Etheridge and Maynard, left Washington this evening for Nashville, to enter upon their charge of the new government of Tennessee.
—The Richmond Examiner, of this date, has the following: “What has become of the enormous number of arms stored in Southern arsenals at the beginning of this war? Into what proportions have the cargoes said to have been brought in from time to time, by rumor, dwindled through official count? They are certainly not in the hands of soldiers now in the field, nor are they still in the arsenals, nor have they been captured by the enemy. Admit that in the hands of prisoners taken by the enemy there were twenty thousand stand, that half as many more have been broken or lost in marches and hospitals, the total that should be subtracted from the original sum is still too small to account for the present scarcity of muskets and of bayonets.
“But a vast quantity have undoubtedly gone with the sixty days’ men, the four months’ men, the six months’ men; a still greater loss is attributable to the many useless and unprofitable assemblages of the militia. It is certain only that the ordnance department has not the arms for the new levies. There are many more soldiers at the government’s command than muskets. It could find employment for five hundred thousand stand of arms that it has not in possession or in prospect. Under these circumstances no wiser measure could have been adopted by the government than the call for the guns in the hands of the citizens as private property. There are a million of guns possessed by the citizens of the South in this manner, and the country has a right to every one of them now. Most shot-guns will carry a ball, and all of them are good for buckshot. They are as effective as any smooth bore, and are much better made than the musket. Troops armed with double-barreled shot-guns need no bayonets; for any line that attempted to charge them would be annihilated by the second load, which will always be retained, and can be delivered at twenty paces. It is hoped that the government will inexorably enforce its regulation; and no sincere patriot will be unwilling to assist its execution to the utmost of his power.”
—John Park, Mayor of Memphis, Tenn., this day issued the following proclamation:
“To The People or Memphis: Much has been said in regard to the burning of our city. I have, as John Park, (not the Mayor,) to say this to our citizens: That I will, under any and all circumstances, protect the city from incendiaries, and he who attempts to fire his neighbor’s house — or even his own, whereby it endangers his neighbor —I will, regardless of judge, jury, or the benefit of clergy, hang him to the first lamp-post, tree, or awning. I have the means under my control to carry out the above individual proclamation.”
—An excitement occurred in the town of Dover, Del., this day. It appears that two companies of Home Guards had been raised in the town, one called the Hazlet Guards, and the other simply denominated Home Guards. The Hazlet Guards were equipped by the State, but the other organization by the Government. The Government called on the Hazlet Guards to give up their arms, which they refused to do. Persisting in this determination, two hundred Government troops were immediately sent to the town from Cambridge, Md., under the command of Col. Wallace. Five of the ringleaders were arrested, but three were afterward released, Capts. Pennington and Wise only remaining in custody. The town numbers about two thousand persons, and the whole place is now under strict martial law.—N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, March 11.
—The rebel chief, Quantrel, with a party of his troops, entered Aubry, Kansas, this day, killing five Unionists, and carrying off fifteen horses.— N.Y. Times, March 11.
—The United States Senate this day confirmed the following as Brigadier-Generals of Volunteers: Major Laurance Graham, of Second cavalry; Eleazer Paine, of Illinois; William A. Richardson, of Illinois; Daniel Butterfield, of New-York; W. T. Ward, of Kentucky; Major George Sykes, of the Thirteenth infantry; Captain David Stanley, of the Tenth cavalry; Thomas A. Davies, of NewYork; Col. Philip St. George Cooke, Second cavalry; Major George Stoneman, Fourth cavalry; Capt. Joseph B. Plummer, First regiment of infantry, for gallant conduct at Springfield and Fredericktown, Mo.
The Senate also confirmed Henry Van Renssalear to be Inspector-General, with the rank of Colonel, and Thomas Hillhouse, of New-York, to be Assistant Adjutant-General of Volunteers, with the rank of Major.
