February 6.—Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, was taken by the squadron of gunboats, commanded by Flag-Officer A. H. Foote.

In consequence of the efforts of the enemy to reenforce the garrison, information of which had been received by General Grant, that officer determined, last night, to attack the fort to-day, although his troops had not then come up, and he issued orders accordingly.

The First division, under General McClernand, was ordered to move at eleven o’clock this morning, and occupy the roads leading to Dover and Donelson, for the purpose of cutting off the retreat of the garrison, as well as to prevent the enemy from throwing reinforcements into the fort. The First and Second brigades of the Second division were ordered to take and occupy the high grounds on the west bank of the river, which commanded the works. The Third brigade of the Second division was ordered to advance up the eastern bank of the river, as rapidly as possible, and to hold itself in readiness to act as circumstances might require, either in assaulting the works or in supporting the First division.

In the mean time, the gunboats were prepared for action, and at half-past twelve o’clock this morning, Flag-Officer Foote opened a fire on the enemy’s works, at seventeen hundred yards distance, from the iron-clad gunboats Cincinnati, (flag-ship,) Commander Stembel; Essex, Commander Porter; Carondelet, Commander Walke; and St. Louis, Lieut. Commanding Paulding. The old gunboats Conestoga, Lieut. Commanding Phelps; Tyler, Lieut. Commanding Gwin; and Lexington, Lieut. Commanding Shirk, forming a second division, also accompanied the assailing squadron, taking position astern and in-shore of it The First division, composed of the iron-clad gunboats, approached the fort in a parallel line, the Second division following at a short distance, and, as they slowly steamed up the river, the fire on both sides was warmly and skilfully conducted.

At about half-past one the Essex received a shot in her boiler, which resulted in the wounding and scalding of twenty-nine officers and men, including Commander Porter; when she necessarily dropped astern, out of the line, and took no further part in the action.

The firing continued with unabated rapidity and effect, as the three forward vessels approached the works, until a quarter before two o’clock, when the enemy ceased his fire, lowered his colors, and surrendered to the naval officers, to which arm of the service alone — the land forces not having participated in the action — the honor belonged.

The works were very finely situated; and twenty pieces of artillery, mostly of heavy calibre, were mounted for their defence. These, together with barracks and tents capable of accommodating fifteen thousand men, a hospital-ship, containing sixty invalids; General Tilghman and some sixty or seventy men, and quantities of stores, etc., fell into the hands of the victors. The main body of the garrison escaped before the works were occupied by the victors.

General Grant arrived at the fort within an hour after it had been surrendered, when Flag-Officer Foote gave up the fort and his prisoners, into the hands of the land forces, and, after having despatched Lieutenant Phelps, with the Conestoga, Tyler, and Lexington up the river, in pursuit of the enemy’s gunboats, the Flag-Officer, with the Cincinnati, Essex, and St. Louis, returned to Cairo.

The Cincinnati received, during the action, thirty-one shots, and lost one man killed and nine wounded; the Essex received fifteen shots, and lost one man, exclusive of these injured by the escape of steam; the St. Louis received seven shots, and the Carondelet six, neither of them sustaining any loss of men.—(Doc. 28.)

—President Lincoln approved the bill authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to strike from the pension rolls the names of all such persons as have, or may hereafter, take up arms against the Government of the United States, or who have, in any manner, encouraged the rebels or manifested a sympathy with their cause.

—In the United States House of Representatives, the Treasury Demand Note Bill, with the “legal tender” clause included, was passed by a vote of ninety-three to fifty-four, substantially in the form in which it came from the hands of the Committee. The bill provides for the issue, by the Secretary of the Treasury, of demand notes to the amount of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, which notes are to be received as a legal tender for all purposes.

Feb. 5. The clink of the windlass is heard on all the boats, hoisting up their anchors, so here we go for a trip up the sound, probably for Roanoke island. This island holds the Albemarle sound and all that part of North Carolina lying on it, and also Southeast Virginia. It is quite an important point, and we learn is strongly fortified. Our fleet consists of about seventy sail of all kinds and makes an imposing appearance. The gunboats, under command of Commodore Goldsborough, take the advance, the transports and other craft following. After a few hours’ sail, the low, pine-covered shore of the old North state presented itself to view. We were in sight of the shore all day and not a house was to be seen or any visible signs of life, excepting huge columns of smoke rising above the tree-tops. These were probably signal fires, as they could be seen along the shore as far as the eye could reach. We sailed today to within ten miles of the light-house at the western end of the Pamlico sound, the entrance to Croatan sound, in which is situated the coveted island. Here we dropped anchor for the night, the gunboats forming a picket guard, and extending themselves nearly to the light-house. The island can be seen through a glass, and tomorrow I expect we shall get a nearer view.

Hall’s Hill, Feb. 5, 1862.

Dear Father, — I have now got my tent all fixed except the floor, which will be put down as soon as I can get the lumber. The mud inside having mostly dried up, I have placed pine twigs on the ground and am getting on quite comfortably. I have just bought me a camp-stove, my former one being a borrowed article, and have fixed me a table, hat-tree (so-called at home), and a place to put my saddle. Of course these articles of furniture are somewhat rudely constructed and would not bear comparison with any of your tenant’s manufacture, but still they answer my purpose as well as any mahogany articles would. My hat-tree is a young savin tree, with the branches cut off short, and the tree fastened to one of my tent-poles. The table is made of the top of my saddlebox placed upon three sticks driven into the ground and crossed so as to form an inverted tripod. It is somewhat shaky as the top is not yet fastened on, it being convenient at times to remove it to make more room. It is wonderful how many conveniences one can always find about him, if he only has to do so. I find no difficulty in keeping my tent warm, except at night, when it gets somewhat chilly after the fire has gone out.

I suppose it will interest you to learn how I spend my time. We are quite fashionable in our hours. Breakfast is upon the table about 9 o’clock. There is nothing to be done before that time. Then on a pleasant day there is some brigade drill, which begins at 10 and lasts till about one. After that I ride round to the different camps and see my friends. Then we dine at 4.30, having only two meals a day. For breakfast we have some kind of meat and bread, coffee and tea. For dinner, meat, at times soup, and at times pudding, and always coffee. To-day General Martindale had a brigade drill, and I went with him to learn my duties as far as possible. They consist in carrying orders to the different colonels. The day was a splendid one overhead and pretty fair under foot, as the ground was frozen last night. The drill was quite a success as far as the infantry and artillery were concerned, but I cannot say as much for the cavalry, though the squadron we had was quite an inferior one. The infantry were all in line, with pieces of artillery (Martin’s) between the regiments. The cavalry were ordered to charge down the line, and such a sight I never saw before. No two men were in line, and the ridiculous appearance these small bands of stragglers made excited every one’s laughter. I was within twenty feet of the cannon when they were fired, and was surprised to find that my horse did not move an inch. The musketry fire did not seem to disturb him either, and so far I am entirely pleased with him, except that he interferes behind. I have him shod differently, and hope it will remedy the trouble. If it does not, I shall have to get him an interfering strap. This drill is the first I have been to, and when General Porter returns I suppose he will assign me some other duties beside attending drills.

My time has been well taken up fixing my tent, and will be for a day or two. In the evening I write letters or read the newspapers which we receive every morning. I get a New York paper here the morning after it is published. They are brought here by boys from Washington who have regular passes allowing them to come. . . .

General Porter will not be here till to-morrow morning. . . .

I find camp life agrees with me and I with it. I like it very much indeed. . . .

Wednesday 5th

This has been a bright and pleasant day, the first in a long time. M. this morning stood at 20. The snow has mostly thawed off in the streets. G W Prentice went home yesterday. Mr Bright was Expelled from the U.S. Senate today by a vote of 32 to14, a deserved disgrace for disloyalty. No news today, but hourly expect from the “Burnside Expedition” and also from the West.

______

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.

Wednesday, 5th—Nothing of importance; the regular routine of camp life. Our company has this locality pretty well disciplined as to the people’s duty toward the Government.

Wednesday, February 5. — I tried my hand at aide-decamp duty for the first time, to-day. General Martindale[1] had a brigade drill, at which I was present as aide to the general. The day was a glorious one, and the ground, having been frozen during the night, was in pretty fair condition. As it was the first time I had tried my horse, I felt somewhat nervous about riding, expecting to be thrown from him. I got along very well, however, although the horse seemed inclined to shy at anything he saw. He stood the firing very well, not moving an inch. The troops went through the various evolutions very well, and as it was the first time I had ever seen a brigade drill, I was very much interested in it. The drill lasted about two hours, beginning at 11. I met Charles J. Mills[2] on the parade ground, much to my astonishment. He came from Washington. We drove over to see Tom Sherwin, and from there went to the 18th Massachusetts, my regiment. Charles dined with me, and started for Washington as soon as dinner was over. I really enjoyed his visit very much, it is so pleasant to see an old familiar face out here. I have not yet had any feelings of homesickness, and find camp life quite pleasant. I spoke to the brigade quartermaster to-day about getting me some flooring, etc.

[1] General John H. Martindale.

[2] Afterwards adjutant in my regiment; my classmate, and one of my dearest friends.

Headquarters Berdan’s U. S. Sharpshooters,
February……..

Dear Mrs. Brigadier: For why should we not say so, when we know it will be so? Why this timidity of expression in time of war? . . . What is age, time, aeons, space, blood, prejudice, quite-another-arrangement-made-by-your-mother, or any other triviality? . . .

I love wedding cake. . . .

P. S. The night caps. Doctor Snelling had just come up from the hospital tent, after making his evening rounds, anxious and disturbed because of the want of just such! On account of the gale, the fires couldn’t be well kept up; but the patients could keep warm in bed as to bodies. Heads, however, were unprotected; and the Doctor had instructed the nurses to capitate the men with their stockings, in want of night caps. Just then I entered the tent with your caps. All was gladness. You quieted minds, warmed heads, perhaps saved lives! I say there is a singular patness, appositeness in your composition. . . . Even the woman to whom my affections are irrevocably pledged might learn a thing or two from you. What more can I say?

This from a tent and with coldest fingers. I don’t repine. Yesterday half the tents were blown down, but the cherub left mine standing. . . . Having immediate use for blankets for sick men, I send down Burr of my Company for the three or four which you said last evening I could have. Our surgeon says that the colored women nurses will be welcome. You say you will “send them out.” If you can’t, please inform bearer to that effect. When they come let them report to Dr. Marshall, Surgeon of the 1st Regiment Sharpshooters. Trusting you are blithe, I am, etc.

P. S. I address the envelope to you by your maiden name

FEBRUARY 5TH. —I am sorry to hear that Gen. Wise is quite ill. But, on his back, as on his feet, he will direct operations, and the enemy will be punished whenever he comes in reach of him.

Richmond, February 5.—For two weeks my diary has been a closed book. After another week at W., we went to the Presbyterian Parsonage, to join the refugee family who had gathered within its walls. They had made themselves comfortable, and it had quite a home-like appearance.

After remaining there a day or two, Mr. _____ received a letter, announcing his appointment to a clerkship in the Post-Office Department. The pleasure and gratitude with which it is received is only commensurate with the necessity which made him apply for it. It seems a strange state of things which induces a man, who has ministered and served the altar for thirty-six years, to accept joyfully a situation purely secular, for the sole purpose of making his living; but no chaplaincy could be obtained except on the field, which would neither suit his health, his age, nor his circumstances. His salary will pay his board and mine in Richmond, and the girls will stay in the country until they or I can obtain writing from Government—note-signing from Mr. Memminger, or something else. We are spending a few days with our niece, Mrs. H. A. C, until we can find board. Mr. _____has entered upon the duties of his office, which he finds confining, but not very arduous. To-morrow I shall go in pursuit of quarters.

The city is overrun with members of Congress, Government officers, office-seekers, and strangers generally. Main Street is as crowded as Broadway, New York; it is said that every boarding-house is full.

February 5.—Brigadier-General T. F. Meagher, accompanied by General Shields and a brilliant staff, formally took command of the Irish Brigade, in the army of the Potomac, amidst great enthusiasm and much rejoicing from officers and men. General Shields addressed the troops in most effective terms on the occasion, —Jesse D. Bright was this day expelled from the Senate of the United States.—(Doc. 27.)

—The British schooner Mars, laden with salt, was captured to-day off Fernandina, Fla., by the United States steamer Keystone State. Her charter party indicated her intention of running the blockade. A small sum of money was found on board, among which were bank-bills and certificates of deposit in South-Carolina and Georgia banks.—Baltimore American, February 14.

— The Fourteenth battery of Ohio artillery, under the command of Captain Burrows, consisting of one hundred and forty-five men, one hundred and twenty-three horses, six pieces of cannon, six caissons, and one forge, left Cincinnati for St. Louis on the steamer J. W. Cheesman.

—Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, received to-day the following telegram from the Governor of California:

“Sacramento, January 31. “I am instructed by a resolution of the Legislature of California to inform you that this State will assume and pay into the Treasury of the United States the direct tax of $254,538 apportioned to this State by act of Congress.

“Leland Stanford, Governor of California.” —Boston Advertiser, February 5.

—A monster meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Mass., this evening, in behalf of Colonel Corcoran, confined at Richmond, Va. Mayor Wightman presided and made one of a number of speeches. Letters from several distinguished men were read, and strong resolutions were adopted.—N. Y. Tribune, February 6.

—The funeral of Adjutant George F. Hodges, of the Eighteenth regiment Massachusetts volunteers, who died of fever at Hall’s Hill, Va., on the thirtieth of January, took place this afternoon at Roxbury, Mass.—Boston Traveller, February 5.

—The Fourteenth regiment, Maine volunteers, under command of Colonel Wickerson, arrived at Boston, Mass., to-night from Augusta, Me., and were quartered in Faneuil Hall. They were attached to General Butler’s expedition.—N. Y. Times, February 6.

—Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, this day removed the prohibitions “subsisting under her majesty’s royal proclamations of the thirtieth day of November, and the fourth day of December, 1861, on the exportation out of the United Kingdom, or carrying coastwise, of gunpowder, saltpetre, nitrate of soda, brimstone, arms, ammunition, and military stores, (including percussion-caps and tubes,) and lead.”

Steamboat Dunleith, Ohio River, Tuesday, February 4, 1862. — A bright cold winter day; a good sail down the Ohio. Banks full. Beautiful river.

Reached home as the clock finished striking 12 midnight. A light burning in front room. Wife, boys, Grandma, all well. “Perfectly splendid.”

[The entries in the Diary for the next few days are very brief. Tuesday, February 11, Hayes went to Columbus to visit his brother-in-law, W. A. Platt, and family; two days later to Delaware where he remained two days with his mother. The week-end he spent "happily at Fremont with Uncle. All the talk is of battles — the late victories at Roanoke Island, Fort Henry, and the pending struggle at Donelson." Monday, the 17th, returning to Cincinnati, he hears "of the decisive victory at Fort Donelson as we reached Crestline and Galion. Joy and excitement, cannon, flags, crowds of happy people everywhere." The following days at home in Cincinnati "getting ready to return to his regiment."]

Tuesday, February 4. — I have been busy all day fixing my tent, and am quite comfortable now. Went to ride over the country, and caught 7 men stealing fences. Tom Sherwin[1] was with me. Had quite a pleasant time.

[1] My college classmate and chum; afterward general.

Tuesday, 4th—A squad of the boys went out on a scouting expedition, but did not accomplish much in the way of getting supplies for the company.

Tuesday 4th

Colder, but not much frost. M. stands 26 tonight. Chas got letter from Frank, he is now on a RRoad. I got a letter from Brother C R. Mat[ty] Hartly has been spending the day here. Less excitement in the City now about the small pox. I suppose people have got used to it. I have been revaccinated but without any effect. Cloudy and damp today. Nothing new in the papers today. Indications in the U.S. Senate that Mr Bright will be Expelled.

______

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.

4th. In the evening called at Mr. Courtell’s. Treated us with cream and peaches, pie and nuts—seemed very hospitable.

FEBRUARY 4TH.—Burnside has entered the Sound at Hatteras with his fleet of gun-boats and transports. The work will soon begin.

February 4.

Mother and all of us went down to Alexandria to visit the hospitals,—Charley provided with camp bed, blankets, etc. to go out and make Joe a visit. Joe met us in Alexandria with the General, and a spare horse for Charley. . . . Saturday afternoon Joe came in from camp riding “Lady Jane,” but, poor creature, she took cold again on the boat, was dangerously ill all Sunday and died early Monday morning, kneeling on her fore-knees “as though saying her prayers,” George Carr said. He and J. and the doctor were with her all Sunday, but could not save her. Joe had brought her from her comfortable stable at home to carry him through the war.

February 4.—The Richmond Examiner, of this date, has the following on the situation of affairs at the South: “We have a thousand proofs that the Southern people are not sufficiently alive to the necessity of exertion in the struggle they are involved in. Our very victories have brought injury upon the cause by teaching us to despise the public adversary. The immense magnitude of his preparations for our subjugation has excited no apprehension, and had little effect in rousing us to exertion. We repose quietly in the lap of security, when every faculty of our natures should be roused to action.

“The evidences of the prevailing sentiment are manifold. They are proved by the set of men who are elected to responsible positions. Men of palliatives, expedients and partial measures, control in our public councils. Men who could not perceive the coming storm that is now upon us, and who continued to cry peace, peace, when peace had ceased to be possible, are these who receive the largest support for controlling stations. The government is almost turned over already to these passive characters, who look upon confiscation as barbarous, aggression as impolitic, and vigorous war as a policy to be avoided, because tending to incense the enemy against us.

“The men who descried the cloud of war when it was no bigger than a man’s hand, and who can now see no peace but as the result of vigorous measures, and renewed and repeated victories, are relegated to subordinate positions, and their views being a burning rebuke to the statesmen, in position, they are laboring under the weight of implied censure. To win a fight by an aggressive movement is to incur a sort of obloquy; and to lose a battle in a brave push upon the foe is to provoke a chuckle of satisfaction, and the taunt, ‘I told you so.’

“Better to fight even at the risk of losing battles, than remain inactive to fill up inglorious graves. Better that government and people should be roused to duty by defeat, than that the army should go to sleep, the government doze and the people grow drowsy, in the very jaws of destruction. To fill our public councils with men of passive measures, who would administer war on Homoeopathic principles, who would whip the enemy by cowardice and sloth, is to paralyze the government and to enervate the people. The people are alive to the demands of the crisis, but if Congress frowns upon them, they grow tame and crouching.

“In the midst of revolution, no greater calamity can befall a people, than for their affairs to pass into the control of men who could not understand it in the beginning, and are incapable of appreciating the demands of the crisis as they arise. The French, in their revolution, had an easy way of getting rid of such characters—they chopped off their heads. They felt it necessary, as all subsequent opinion has acknowledged, to push their revolution through to a climax, at any cost, and, though often with tears and sorrow, they guillotined the public men who leaned back against the harness. The revolution succeeded, and owed its success solely to their excesses. They passed to the promised land through a red sea of blood. Old institutions, abuses and enormities were swept away, with every relic of opinion that upheld them. France became a tabula rasa, upon which a new destiny was to be written.

“All Europe moved against her more formidably than the Northern hordes are beleaguering our own country; but such was the fiery earnestness of her leaders and her people, that the gathering hosts of invasion were scattered to the four winds. At last, it must be confessed, that the subjugation of a nation is not to be defeated so much by armies and guns, as by the fierce resolution of its rulers and people. An unconquerable will and fierce combative purpose, are more effective than invincible arms. Docs such a fiery purpose blaze in our government, imparting its hot flame to the hearts of our people?

“There are two things needful for the early extinction of this war. We must first banish from the country every stranger in it who cannot give a satisfactory account of his purposes and objects here. This riddance of spies is a measure of importance, but comparatively of minor importance. The next thing requisite is for the whole community to throw themselves heart and soul into the war, and practise all the self-denial that the crisis demands. Why should the country be taxed with the support of the hundreds of hack teams employed in Richmond, when, if each gentleman would consent to walk a few squares, horses enough for a dozen or two batteries, well broken and well conditioned, with a complement of teamsters, could be thus secured to the army? This is but a single instance to show what might be accomplished by a general spirit of patriotic self-denial. What a vast system of expenditure, now exhausted upon mere luxuries, might be turned to advantage in the war, if the pampered classes of society would but consent to a temporary sacrifice of useless pleasures! He who will take the pains to run through the whole catalogue of items which could thus be turned to valuable account in the war, will be astonished at the extent and value of latent resources which the country affords. The most efficient class to bring out the men and resources of the country in this war have been its women. In the great struggles of nations, like that in which we are engaged, they should have queens for their rulers; for it is woman alone who is proof against the persuasions of time-servers and the sin of backsliding. There has been but one Lot’s wife in all the tide of time.”

—The steamship Constitution, with the Bay State regiment, of Massachusetts, the Twelfth regiment Maine volunteers, and other troops, sailed from Fortress Monroe, Va., for Ship Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, this forenoon.—N. Y. Evening Post, February 5.

—At Richmond, Va., J. P. Benjamin, rebel Secretary of War, issued the following order:

Bands of speculators have combined to monopolize all the saltpetre to be found in the country, and thus force from the government exorbitant prices for an article indispensable to the national defence.

The department has hitherto paid prices equal to four times the usual peace rates in order to avoid recourse to impressment, if possible. This policy has only served to embolden the speculators to fresh exactions.

It is now ordered, that all military commanders in the Confederate States, impress all saltpetre now or hereafter to be found within their districts, except such as is in the hands of the original manufacturers, or of government agents and contractors, paying therefor forty cents per pound, and no more. The price fixed is the lightest rate at which contracts have been made, and leaves very large profits to the manufacturers.

—Henry M. Naglee was confirmed to-day as Brigadier-General of volunteers, by a unanimous vote of the United States Senate. Mr. Naglee is a native of Philadelphia, Pa., and has been for some time a resident of California. He is an experienced and capable officer, having graduated at the West-Point Military Academy. — Philadelphia Press, February 5.

—In the Virginia House of Delegates the following debate took place on the subject of enrolling free negroes for the rebel army.

The bill amending the Convention Act for the enrolment of free negroes was, on motion of Mr. Prince, taken up. Among the amendments in this bill, Mr. Prince called attention to the one allowing ten cents for each negro so enrolled to the sheriff or officer so enrolling them. He proposed to strike out this amendment, and insert in lieu of the proposed compensation that, if the said officers fail to comply with the requisition of this law, they be subjected to a penalty of not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars. As these officers were exempt from military duty, he said it was about as little as they could do to perform the service of enrolling the free negroes of their respective counties, as a part of their official duties. His amendment was adopted.

Mr. Rives proposed that the amendment in the hill respecting the term of the enlistment of negroes, be amended to make the term ninety days, instead of a hundred and eighty. His reason for this was the fact that the families of many of the free negroes so enlisted, having no other means of support, would—as had been the case in his own county—suffer very much from want.

Mr. Prince agreed to compromise with the gentleman on one hundred and twenty days.

Mr. Anderson, of Botetourt, hoped that the amendment would not pass. One hundred and eighty days were only six months; and if white men could be drafted for two years, he saw no reason why free negroes should be entitled to such charitable discrimination.

Mr. Rives replied, that he made the proposition from no particular friendship to free negroes; if it were in his power, he would convert them all into slaves to-morrow. But it was simply to call the attention of the House to the fact that, in his own county, many severe cases of suffering had occurred among the families of free negroes from this cause, and he thought that possibly some alleviation might be brought about by the amendment proposed.

The amendment was rejected, and the bill was then ordered to its engrossment.—Richmond Examiner.

—This afternoon a skirmish occurred near the banks of the Occoquan, on the Potomac, Va. It was reported in the morning that a body of rebels was at Pohick Church. Captain Lowing, of the Third Michigan regiment, then on picket-duty in front of General Heintzelman’s Division, took thirty-four men, under command of Lieutenant Brennan, from Company F, and forty-four under Lieutenant Bryan, from Company H, and went to meet them. Arriving at Pohick Church, no rebels were seen. The party, however, proceeded to the banks of the Occoquan, opposite the town of that name. Arriving there early in the afternoon, a few unarmed men were observed drilling. They gave the alarm, when a number of rebels came from the houses and fired on the National soldiers. A brisk skirmish took place. Four of the rebels were seen to fall, and were carried off by their comrades. No injury was sustained by the National party, except by one man, who was slightly bruised by a spent ball.—Baltimore American, February 6.

Feb. 3. The winds have ceased, and the sea is as calm as an honest man’s conscience. Companies are parading the decks of the steamers, a dozen bands are out playing, everybody is feeling good, and altogether, we are having quite an enlivening scene. Business is brisk today; all the boats are in the sound, and schooners are alongside of them, supplying them with coal, water and rations, preparatory to a trip up the sound. Everything now seems to be nearly ready, and I expect that some fine morning we will make a call on our southern friends. No doubt they will be delighted to see us, and as they say, to welcome us with bloody hands to hospitable graves; but perhaps it has never occurred to them that in a reception of that kind, they, perchance, may fill some of the aforesaid graves. I had much rather they would welcome us to a good dinner of fishballs than cannon balls; but I suppose they will have their own choice of reception and we must reciprocate the best we can.

Merchandise brings a right smart price in this market, and a man needs a heavy purse to purchase very extensively. I paid $1 for the same quantity of tobacco I bought at home for forty cents.

Camp of the 83rd P. V.,

Hall’s Hill, Va., Feb. 3. 1862.

Dear Friend P—s.:—

It is just such a morning as would make a misanthrope happy. Byron’s bitterest and most sarcastic strains were, I believe, written in just such weather. It snowed last night and rains this morning and now two or three inches of slush cover unfathomable mud. Great black clouds roll up heavily from the west and slowly drizzle down discomfort in the camps. The evergreens that made our camp look so bright and homelike about the holidays are giving way under the abuse heaped upon them and now they stand leaning at every angle but that of 90 degrees, covered with ice and weeping great pearly tears of grief at their cruel treatment. The smoke curls slowly from the myriad pipes of the camp and makes a desperate effort to rise above the tents, then sinks despairingly to the ground. The cooks stir up their sputtering fires in vain efforts to make their kettles boil, and, as the rain drips off their ponchos, they look as if they would cook one more meal and die. I have been lounging on my bunk since breakfast, drawing the Spanish out of my cigar and working off the fatigue of yesterday’s guard duty, and now I have taken up my pen to answer your letter of the 24th of January. What I shall write, I can’t tell. There is no news beyond what you have in the papers. “All is quiet along the Potomac.” Our marching orders are “played out.” The boys are getting so that they won’t believe anything now. They sit around the fire and while away these dull days the best they can. How time does pass away, though! Here it is the 3rd of February. Seems to me I never knew a winter to pass so quickly.