SATURDAY 16
A cool pleasant day. Brother C R went to Mt Vernon this morning with Maj [Bulkley?] & others. Retd about 4 o’ck. I wrote to the Sec’y of Interior in reference to Promotion. It is now understood that Mr Holloway of Indiana is appointed Comr of Patents. E G Allen of Boston in the office today. He is a singular man. I should almost think him half insane. Did not go down town after dinner. Charley and Miss Woodward spent the evening, took tea with us. She appears very much accomplished and is a very beautiful girl. Bro went to market with me, bed at 12 o’clock.
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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.
BALTIMORE, MD., March 16, 1861.
General BEAUREGARD, C. S. A., Charleston, S.C.:
MY DEAR SIR: By the authority of the Secretary of War, I have established a recruiting station here, and I am induced to believe that it will meet with decided success. By the time an officer can reach here there will probably be one hundred recruits to examine. The moneyed arrangements are all made. I have concluded that it would be better not to send the men to Charleston until they were examined. We will then avoid the danger of having to pay the passage money for men not fit for service. I was merely requested and authorized to recruit here for the Army of the Confederate States. I have made arrangements for sending them to you, supposing that you would have use for them, or, if not, that you could have them enlisted and drilled till they were ordered elsewhere. Be pleased to confer with the Secretary of War on the subject if you have no orders. The recruiting will go on rapidly, and as I determined this morning not to send men before they were examined, I telegraphed you for an experienced officer. The men will be kept together until he comes. If this shall reach you before you have sent an officer, be pleased to refer him to William T. Walters, of the house of Walters & Co., 68 Exchange Place, with whom I have made the financial arrangements.
Very respectfully,
LOUIS T. WIGFALL.
