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

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his father

Boston, February 7, 1865

Reconstruction is looming rapidly up here and public opinion in New England stands in great need of guidance. The old Puritan vindictiveness is beginning to stick out strongly. Among Sumner’s friends I should expect this, but I find it among those not his friends. Dana, Hoar and many others profess doctrines which, if they are carried out, will make an aggravated Vendee, Hungary or Poland of the South and will ruin us as sure as shooting. I find myself and my doctrines, of yielding any terms involving simply property and life but not principle, for the sake of good feeling after Peace, in a sad minority. I know that the mass of the people are neither vindictive nor lawyers and I am sure that they will go with me; but they’ve got to sweep over all the talent and standing of Massachusetts. On that point will Charles Sumner meet shipwreck, and it will be well if many better men do not go with him. However, people seem to me as ugly and vindictive as possible. They really don’t want peace, unless with it comes the hangman. They will insist upon it that this mighty revolution was, after all, only a murderous riot and that the police court and the constable are just about what it needs to quiet it. To this I can’t assent, but public opinion is floating round very loose. I wish you were here to influence. Seward, I think, can be depended upon to be moderate, but the New England influences are all against him. He needs you in Massachusetts more than in London, and I think he can hardly fail to see that himself. If this be so, the time of your return is not far distant.

The only item since my last has been the episode of the Peace Commissioners, an episode which has met with no favor in these parts, in fact it seems to have met with universal condemnation. To this I cannot agree. I regard it as a step forward, an indispensable first step which had to be taken. As for dignity, I do not look to President Lincoln for that. I do look to him for honesty and shrewdness and I see no evidence that in this matter he has been wanting in these respects. . . .

Tuesday, 7th—We had another all day, cold, drizzling rain. We left our bivouac at 7 o’clock and after marching fourteen miles stopped for the night. With every mile the road got better as we moved upon higher ground, and the forage also became more plentiful. Just after we had stacked arms to go into bivouac, our regiment was ordered to fall in again. We marched out on the Augusta and Charleston railroad to burn the bridge over the Edisto river, but the pickets, on hearing our approach, for it was too dark to see anything, all hastened across the bridge and set fire to it themselves. This saved us the trouble and we went back, reaching our bivouac about midnight, after marching in all about ten miles.

Nashville, Tuesday, Feb. 7. The ground is covered with two inches of snow and everything frozen hard, very cold. Feel very well except a severe cold that has been on me for a week. Our boys are doing guard duty with muskets in town, that they drew the day I left. Twelve men go to town every day. They do it with ill grace. Half of them return to camp ere their tour is half out.

7th. Great snow storm. Six or eight inches. Read in Atlantic. Letter from home. No school.

Bamber’s Station, A. & C. R. R.

February 7, 1865.

Our regiment led the corps to-day. The 17th Corps strikes the railroad at Midway, three miles to our right, and the 20th to the left five miles. We are 14 miles northwest of Branchville. The enemy are on the opposite bank of the Edisto, two miles from us. There is a great “peace” excitement among the citizens here. This day’s work cuts off all railroad communication between Georgia and the eastern part of the Confederacy. I saw another new thing (to me) in the destruction of railroads. After the iron has been heated by the burning ties, by a simple contrivance, four men twist each rail twice around. They put a clamp on each end of the rail, and put a lever in the clamp perpendicularly, and two men at each end of the lever, will put the neatest twist imaginable in the heated part of the rail. I never saw so much destruction of property before. Orders are as strict as ever, but our men understand they are in South Carolina and are making good their old threats. Very few houses escape burning, as almost everybody has run away from before us, you may imagine there is not much left in our track. Where a family remains at home they save their house, but lose their stock, and eatables. Wheeler’s Cavalry is about all we have yet found in our front and they keep afar off. The citizens fear them fully as much as they do us. A lady said to-day that she would as lief have us come as Wheeler’s men; she could see no difference. Wheeler’s men say, “Go in, South Carolina!” and the Yankees say the same thing. We got 50 bales of cotton here, which I suppose will be burned. Struck the railroad at 9:30 a.m.

February 7th.—A snow four inches in depth on the ground, and snowing. Last night Governor Smith, President Davis, Senator Oldham (Texas), Rev. Mr. Duncan, Methodist preacher, and a Yankee Baptist preacher, named Doggell, or Burroughs, I believe, addressed a large meeting in the African Church, on the subject of the Peace Mission, and the ultimatum of the United States authorities. The speakers were very patriotic and much applauded. President Davis (whose health is so feeble he should have remained away) denounced President Lincoln as ” His Majesty Abraham the First”—in the language of the press—and said before the campaign was over he and Seward might find “they had been speaking to their masters,” when demanding unconditional submission. He promised the people great successes, after our destined reverses had run out, provided they kept from despondency and speculation, and filled the ranks of the army. He denounced the speculators, and intimated that they might yet be called upon to “disgorge their earnings.”

A grand assemblage is called for next Thursday, to meet in the Capitol Square.

Congress will soon be likely to vote a negro army, and their emancipation after the war—as Lee favors it.

There was some fighting near Petersburg yesterday and the day before; but the press is reticent—a bad sign.

There is a rumor that Charleston has been evacuated!

Gen. Lee again writes that desertions occur to an alarming extent, for want of sufficient food. And he says there is enough subsistence in the country, but that the Commissary Department is inefficiently administered.

Gen. Breckinridge is in his office to-day.

A scramble is going on by the young politicians for the position of Assistant Secretary of War, and Mr. Kean is supposed to be ahead in the race. When a ship is thought to be sinking, even the cook may be appointed captain! Anything, now, to keep out of the field—such is the word among the mere politicians.

It is rumored that Gen. Pegram (since confirmed) was killed in the enemy’s attack on our right near Petersburg, and that seven brigades were engaged and repulsed the enemy. Still, there is no official confirmation—and the silence of Gen. Lee is interpreted adversely.

Senator Haynes, of Tennessee, and Senator Wigfall, of Texas, denounced the President yesterday as mediocre and malicious— and that his blunders had caused all our disasters.

Our commissioners were not permitted to land at Fortress Monroe, but Lincoln and Seward came on board.

Judge Campbell is still acting as Assistant Secretary; but he looks very despondent. If Beauregard gains a victory ——.

Camp before Petersburg, February 7th.

For three days we have held ourselves in readiness to march at a minute’s notice. It seems the Rebels, alarmed at our advance on Dansville, by way of Weldon, have concentrated their forces to oppose this advance. Well may they be alarmed, for, Dansville in our possession, all communication by railroad is cut off, and Lee’s army is shut out of the Confederacy and is thrown back on Virginia for supplies. The whole movement, on our part, consists in being ready to repel attack. We have heard nothing from our left today, except the roar of artillery, which, at times, is terrific. The weather is most uncomfortable for those having no shelter. It began to rain at 5 o’clock this morning, and has continued through the day, freezing as it falls. God pity the wounded who may be exposed tonight.

Through the smoke of battle we are eagerly looking for the “bow of peace.” The Rebels are now fighting for terms, and they cannot long maintain the unequal contest.