Tuesday, December 13. — Fair day. Passed Hatteras about 4 P.M. Could see the lighthouse. Hardly any one sick.
[For some reason or other I stopped keeping a diary regularly after my release. I suppose that I was so glad to be getting nearer home that I did not care about writing any more. Anyway, we were landed at New York, and I went home. I had got leave of absence from Annapolis, so did not have to stay there. I remember getting off at the station in Jamaica Plain, and my father coming to meet me, expecting to find a skeleton. I suppose I was rather thin, but I was pretty well on the whole.
I add, as a sort of supplement, some notes which I made in the autumn of 1885; also a few letters which I wrote home immediately before and after the close of the war.]
December 13th.—Cloudy and cold, but wind southeast.
The sullen sound of cannon heard this morning as usual down the river. I hear of no active operations there, although the ground is sufficiently frozen to bear horses and artillery.
Rumors of successes on the part of Sherman near Savannah are still in circulation.
The rich men are generally indignant at the President and Gov. Smith for proposing to bring a portion of the negroes into the army. They have not yet awakened to a consciousness that there is danger of losing all, and of their being made to fight against us. They do not even remove them beyond the reach of the enemy, and hundreds are daily lost, but still they slumber on. They abuse the government for its impressments, and yet repose in fancied security, holding the President responsible for the defense of the country, without sufficient men and adequate means.
The following dispatch from Gen. Bragg was received to-day at 10 P.M.:
“Augusta, Dec. 12th.
“The telegraph having been cut, we get nothing from Savannah. A dispatch from Wheeler gives a copy of enemy’s order for the line of investment around Savannah. It is about eight miles from the city, and was to have been reached on the 9th.
“B. Bragg.”
I have at length succeeded in getting a suit of clothes; it was made at the government shop for $50, the trimmings having been found (in the house) by my wife. The suit, if bought of a merchant and made by the city tailors, would cost some $1000. A Yankee prisoner (deserter) made the coat at a low price. The government means to employ them, if they desire it, in this manner. I am very thankful for my good fortune.
Tuesday, December 13, 1864. — Snow still on the ground; very cold. Sleigh-ride with Captain McKinley to Winchester Depot. Run against hay team. Hastings improving decidedly. News from Sherman encouraging but meagre. Hood as he was, before Nashville. Early gone.
Fort Gillem, Tuesday, Dec. 13. On guard. The icy frost that encased everything has been wholly removed, and we can now move around without “slipping up”. But it is getting very wet and muddy. Our horses are having a bad time of it. They all grow poor fast without stables. Firing on the picket line is once more heard, at times very briskly. Fort Negley indulged in a few shots this evening. The cavalry have gone into camp inside the line, three divisions of them.
A big mail arrived 4 P. M., the first in five days. I received one from home. It brought commissions to Alba and S. Sweet as second lieutenants in 6th Battery, merited promotion—and ratified by all the boys who will now have two temperate officers at least.
13th. Notice of appointment from Adj. Gen’l of Ohio as captain came. Went over to muster. No success. Several promotions.
Tuesday, 13th—We lay in bivouac all day. Our rations ran out today and no more can be issued until we open up communications with the fleet. To do that we shall have to open a way to the coast. Our men have foraged everything to be found. The only thing that we can get now is rice, of which there is a great deal in stacks, besides thousands of bushels threshed out, but not hulled, and stored away in granaries. The Thirty-second Illinois went with a train from our brigade to forage. Fort McAllister was captured late this afternoon by a detachment of the Fifteenth Corps, General Hazen’s Division. Our cracker line is open once more and there is great cheering in camp over the news.
