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

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

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

Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes.

March 13, 2012

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Camp Hayes, Raleigh, Virginia, Thursday, [March] 13.— Spent the day arranging quarters, guards, etc., etc. I room with Avery. Messed three meals with Colonel Burgess. Hash — such hash! Colonel Burgess was a venomous Secesh but is now mollified and so strong a Union man that with a body of our troops he attacked a gang of his old Secesh friends at Jumping Branch and killed one of them! Before noon it began to rain. Cleared a little in time for evening parade.

Read confirmation of good news of yesterday. Five, only think, five!! Secesh prisoners captured! Negligence in the Potomac army. A new division and assignment of commands gives great satisfaction to us all. General McClellan no longer acts as Commander-in-Chief. Three great divisions created. General McClellan commands the Potomac, General Halleck the Mississippi, and General Fremont the Mountains (supposed to be our case). General Fremont has a strong hold on the hearts of the people and of the soldiers. We all feel enthusiasm and admiration for him.

Diary of a Southern Refugee, Judith White McGuire.

March 13, 2012

Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War by Judith White McGuire

13th.—Our hearts are overwhelmed to-day with our private grief. Our connection, Gen. James McIntosh, has fallen in battle. It was at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on the 7th, while making a dashing cavalry charge. He had made one in which he was entirely successful, but seeing the enemy reforming, he exclaimed, “We must charge again. My men, who will follow me?” He then dashed off, followed by his whole brigade. The charge succeeded, but the leader fell, shot through the heart. The soldiers returned, bearing his body! My dear J. and her little Bessie are in Louisiana. I groan in heart when I think of her. Oh that I were near her, or that she could come to us! These are the things which are so unbearable in this war. That noble young man, educated at West Point, was Captain in the army, and resigned when his native Georgia seceded. He soon rose to the rank of Brigadier, but has fallen amid the flush of victory, honoured, admired and beloved by men and officers. He has been buried at Fort Smith. The Lord have mercy upon his wife and child! I am thankful that he had no mother to add to the heart-broken mothers of this land. The gallant Texas Ranger, General Ben McCulloch, fell on the same day; he will be sadly missed by the country. In my selfishness I had almost forgotten him, though he doubtless has many to weep in heart-sickness for their loved and lost.

 

Bishop Meade is desperately ill to-day—his life despaired of.

Post image for Evacuating for some time, but, at the last, left in a sort of panic…

Evacuating for some time, but, at the last, left in a sort of panic…

March 13, 2012

Woolsey family letters during the War for the Union

Georgeanna’s Journal.

March 13

While we were cooking some arrowroot in our parlor for a Vermont private, sick in this hotel, Joe came in, back from Fairfax for a ride. The officers had been all over the old battlefield at Bull Run, McDowell crying, and all of them serious enough. The rebel works at Centreville, Joe says, are splendid, as formidable as any of ours about Washington. Their winter quarters were capital log houses, enough to accommodate 100,000 men. The burial ground was near at hand, and not far away a field of hundreds of dead horses. The works at Manassas were very slight, mounted in the most conspicuous places with logs of wood painted black. The rebels had been evacuating for some time, but, at the last, left in a sort of panic, leaving dead bodies lying beside coffins, and quantities of food, clothing and baggage of all kinds, some of it fired.

Post image for Back to Manassas.–Diary of Josiah Marshall Favill.

Back to Manassas.–Diary of Josiah Marshall Favill.

March 13, 2012

Diary of a Young Officer–Josiah Marshall Favill (57th New York Infantry)

(March 13, 1862)

On the eighth of March the camp was filled with rumors of the withdrawal of the enemy from Centreville and Manassas, and everything was in a state of excitement. The next morning the rumors were confirmed, and we received orders to prepare at once to march. Three days’ cooked rations, sixty rounds of amunition, with blankets rolled, knapsacks, and all superflous clothing to be left behind, in charge of a sergeant and guard detailed for the purpose; these were the instructions transmitted to every regimental commander, and the camps were in a confused state of preparation all day long. Very early on the morning of the tenth the regiments of the brigade formed on their color lines, and after a good deal of delay, filed out on the main road, and headed in the direction of the enemy, the general leading the way in fine shape. We marched all day, arriving near Fairfax court house towards evening, and bivouacked for the night. The following morning the march was continued by Sangster Station to Union Mills, where we learned definitely that the rebel army had fallen back on Gordonsville, abandoning their winter quarters and works of Manassas. There was some hesitation about the future movements of the army for a while, but finally our division was ordered forward, and on the 13th we marched to within two miles of Manassas Junction, and occupied the rebel huts on the extensive plains. During the evening General Stoneman, in command of a brigade of cavalry, came on the field, and announced to the general his intention of making a reconnoisance early in the morning, to find out exactly what had become of the rebel army. He asked the general to detail a regiment of infantry to support his command, and the Fifty-seventh, Colonel Zook, was at once ordered to report to him for that purpose. It commenced raining shortly after we left Camp California and continued, almost without interruption, to this time.

From the number of log houses, field reports, newspapers, and private papers found in them, we are satisfied the enemy’s strength has been greatly overestimated. These plains, so called, are an immense area of perfectly level fields, without a single tree or sign of any living thing about them. The station is in ruins, hospitals and houses all leveled to the ground. A few giant chimneys stand black and gaunt alone, as monuments of the ruin about us. Most of the piles of debris were still smoking, and the desolate, bleak surroundings reminded me of the picture of Smolensk, on the retreat of the Great Napoleon. The deluge of rain, added to the sombreness of the situation, induced many melancholy reflections.

French is in command with two batteries of artillery and a regiment of cavalry added to our regular brigade, the remainder of the army being somewhere in the rear.

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Note: This part of the “diary” is more of a recollection than a day by day diary.  I am splitting it up for posting on Daily Observations from the Civil War at what appear to be appropriate points; these may differ somewhat from actual historical records.
Post image for A Diary From Dixie

A Diary From Dixie

March 13, 2012

A Diary From Dixie by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut.

March 13th.—Mr. Chesnut fretting and fuming. From the poor old blind bishop downward everybody is besetting him to let off students, theological and other, from going into the army. One comfort is that the boys will go. Mr. Chesnut answers: “Wait until you have saved your country before you make preachers and scholars. When you have a country, there will be no lack of divines, students, scholars- to adorn and purify it.” He says he is a one-idea man. That idea is to get every possible man into the ranks.

Professor Le Conte¹ is an able auxiliary. He has undertaken to supervise and carry on the powder-making enterprise—the very first attempted in the Confederacy, and Mr. Chesnut is proud of it. It is a brilliant success, thanks to Le Conte.

Mr. Chesnut receives anonymous letters urging him to arrest the Judge as seditious. They say he is a dangerous and disaffected person. His abuse of Jeff Davis and the Council is rabid. Mr. Chesnut laughs and throws the letters into the fire. “Disaffected to Jeff Davis,” says he;  “disaffected to the Council, that don’t count. He knows what he is about; he would not injure his country for the world.”

Read Uncle Tom’s Cabin again. These negro women have a chance here that women have nowhere else. They can redeem themselves—the “impropers” can. They can marry decently, and nothing is remembered against these colored ladies. It is not a nice topic, but Mrs. Stowe revels in it. How delightfully Pharisaic a feeling it must be to rise superior and fancy we are so degraded as to defend and like to live with such degraded creatures around us— such men as Legree and his women.

The best way to take negroes to your heart is to get as far away from them as possible. As far as I can see, Southern women do all that missionaries could do to prevent and alleviate evils. The social evil has not been suppressed in old England or in New England, in London or in Boston. People in those places expect more virtue from a plantation African than they can insure in practise among themselves with all their own high moral surroundings— light, education, training, and support. Lady Mary Montagu says, “Only men and women at last.” “Male and female, created he them,” says the Bible. There are cruel, graceful, beautiful mothers of angelic Evas North as well as South, I dare say. The Northern men and women who came here were always hardest, for they expected an African to work and behave as a white man. We do not.

I have often thought from observation truly that perfect beauty hardens the heart, and as to grace, what so graceful as a cat, a tigress, or a panther. Much love, admiration, worship hardens an idol’s heart. It becomes utterly callous and selfish. It expects to receive all and to give nothing. It even likes the excitement of seeing people suffer. I speak now of what I have watched with horror and amazement.

Topsys I have known, but none that were beaten or ill used. Evas are mostly in the heaven of Mrs. Stowe’s imagination. People can’t love things dirty, ugly, and repulsive, simply because they ought to do so, but they can be good to them at a distance; that’s easy. You see, I can not rise very high; I can only judge by what I see.

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¹ Joseph Le Conte, who afterward arose to much distinction as a geologist and writer of text-books on geology. He died in 1901, while he was connected with the University of California. His work at Columbia was to manufacture, on a large scale, medicines for the Confederate Army, his laboratory being the main source of supply. In Professor Le Conte’s autobiography published in 1903, are several chapters devoted to his life in the South.

Post image for Through Some Eventful Years

Through Some Eventful Years

March 13, 2012

Through Some Eventful Years by Susan Bradford Eppes

March 13th, 1862.—Brother Amos left this morning and our hearts ache for both of them. The women of the South have much to bear. Father takes me with him every other day to search for certain medicinal plants and roots, from which supplies for hospital use can be made. Medicines of all kinds are scarce in the Confederacy. Occasionally a vessel will run the blockade but not often; the Yankees have succeeded in making us very uncomfortable, to say the least of it.

Last week we sent to the hospital in Richmond a case of iron tonic for convalescents. We are now making a decoction of Boneset for chills and fever; this having been tried at home with good results was considered good enough for our dear soldiers. We make a salve too, from the leaves of what the negroes call “Jimson Weed.” It is healing and soothing and the small quantity of spirits of turpentine, we add to it, makes it more effective. Another salve is made from the root of the elder, grated and stewed in lard. With this salve goes a decoction of elder flowers, these used in conjunction are a preventive of gangrene and will sometimes cure it. Oh, if our poor soldiers could only have half the medicines they need; it is so hard to see them suffer for simple things that all the world besides can have. I think this blockade is devilish.

Post image for A Diary of American Events.

A Diary of American Events.

March 13, 2012

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

March 13.—About nine o’clock this morning six companies of the Seventh regiment New-York Volunteers, encamped at Newport News, Va., started on a reconnoissance on the Williamsport road, running parallel with the James River. Col. Van Schak was in command. At about ten miles distant from camp they came across three hundred and fifty rebel cavalry pickets stationed at the junction of the Williamsport and Great Bethel roads. When the enemy were discovered, the troops were deployed into line and charged upon them. The latter, after firing a few shots at the Union skirmishers, and setting fire to the houses they had lately occupied, turned and fled. Some provisions, etc., were found, which were distributed among the troops.—N. Y. World, March 17.

—This afternoon, while twenty-six of the Union cavalry were foraging on the Strasburg road, three miles from Winchester, Va., they came upon a large barn, bearing evidence of having recently been occupied by Ashby’s men. While the teams were loading with hay, about two hundred of the latter came near, and threw out two companies as skirmishers. The Union men covered the departure of their teams, and prepared to resist an attack, which was finally commenced. At length six Wisconsin pickets came up with rifles, and killed two of the enemy. One of the cavalry dashed upon the rebels, amid a shower of bullets, and killed one of them with his pistol. The enemy made no effort at a charge, but gradually advanced as the Nationals fell back in good order and unharmed.

—Bishop Whittingham, of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Maryland and the District of Columbia, transmitted to all the clergymen of that church in parochial charge in the District, a prayer of thanksgiving for the late Federal victories, to be used on all occasions of public worship within eight days following the Sunday after its receipt—Baltimore American, March 15.

—Gen. Banks, at Winchester, Va., issued an order to the troops under his command, forbidding depredations of any kind whatsoever, and deeply regretting “that officers, in some cases, from mistaken views, either tolerate or encourage” such a course.

—The War Department of the United States, this day ordered, that Joseph Holt and Robert Dale Owen be, and they are hereby appointed a special committee to audit and adjust all contracts, orders, and claims on the War Department, in respect to ordnance, arms and ammunition, their determination to be final and conclusive, as respects this department, on all questions touching the validity, execution and sum due, or to become due upon such contract, and upon all other questions arising between contractors and the Government upon said contracts.

—Gen. Halleck, at St. Louis, Mo., issued an order assuming the command of the Department of the Mississippi, which includes the present Department of Kansas and Missouri, and the Department of Ohio and country west of a north and south line drawn through Knoxville, Tenn., and east of the western boundaries of the States of Missouri and Arkansas.. The headquarters of the Department of the Mississippi will remain until further orders at St Louis.

—Daniel Tyler, of Connecticut, was this day confirmed by the United States Senate, a Brigadier-General of Volunteers in the National army.

—In the House of Representatives of the United States, a resolution was passed tendering the thanks of Congress to Gen. Curtis, and the officers and men under his command, for the brilliant victory at Pea Ridge, in Arkansas.

—The bridge of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, at a point twenty miles from Jackson, Tenn., was totally destroyed by the third battalion of the Fifth Ohio cavalry, in command of Major Charles S. Hayes. The cavalry landed five miles above Savannah, and made a forced march of thirty miles into the rebel country. Just as the destruction of the bridge was completed, a party of rebel cavalry was discovered and pursued, and two of the party captured.—Cincinnati Commercial.

—Lieut. -Col. Bennet, of the Fifty-first Pennsylvania regiment, Lieutenant Riley of the Forty-seventh New-York, and S. H. Wills, Union Government Agent and Cotton Broker, were captured by the rebel pickets, on Edisto Island, and carried to Charleston, S. C, as prisoners of war.

—Brig.-Gen. Gatlin, of the department of North-Carolina, issued an order, by direction of the rebel Secretary of War, requiring that all cotton, tobacco and naval stores, within that department, shall be removed west of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad; or, if distant from any railroad or navigable stream, put in such places of security that they cannot be reached by the enemy. Such of the above-mentioned products as are in exposed positions, must be removed at once, and those less exposed, removed or secured by the twenty-fifth instant, otherwise they will be destroyed by the military authorities. The General expresses a hope that the owners themselves will apply the torch rather than see the enemy gain possession of the much-coveted products. —Norfolk Day-Book, March 19.

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