Tuesday, 17th. Went through with the regular routine of camp life until five. Went over to Uncle’s and took tea. Wrote home and to Fannie Andrews.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., To Henry Adams
Boston, Tuesday, September 17, 1861
As I hear nothing more of your coming home I hope you have forgotten that folly. The few of your friends in the army here, like Billy Milton and Howard Dwight, opened their eyes wide with astonishment at the suggestion. Just now I certainly hope that you have n’t left, as I send you by this mail a couple of copies of yesterday’s and today’s Courier, in which you will find two leaders headed “English Views,” written by me and which, if you have any opening yet in the English press you may turn to advantage as extracts from the American. The letter of the Times correspondent of 30th August printed in last Saturday’s Times (N.Y.) seemed to intimate that the wind now lay in this quarter and American views to the point might, I thought, be of use. These articles were written, however, before I saw that letter, or the Times (London) editorials in the same direction. I offered these articles to Charles Hale who declined to publish them editorially, and so I sent them to the Courier; but Hale remembered my line of thought and reproduced it in his leader of last Monday, which I also send you. So, for once, the Courier and the Advertiser were brought close together on the same day.
Here we feel immeasurably better and not only are things outwardly more encouraging, but I am informed from private correspondents of military men in Washington that the appearance is not deceptive, an immense improvement has taken place and military men are most sanguine of the future.
I wait anxiously to hear from you. By the way, in case you think favorably of my suggestion of an English article on the American press, did you notice a few days ago an article in the N.Y. Times about the Herald, in which Bennett was called “the old liar,” “a skunk,” a “stink-pot,” etc., etc. How would the two read if the editorial of the celebrated Potts in the Eatanswill Gazette about the “buff-ball in a buff neighborhood” and that were put side by side? Which would be the caricature? . . .
Tuesday, 17th—Several new men enrolled today and things look more encouraging. I boarded at the tavern today.
TUESDAY 17
This has been a nice cool day until near night when there was a violent rain for an hour or two, flooding the streets. I saw the Comr of patents today. I shall go back into the office again in a short time. There is no particular news. Some people are expecting an attack upon the City. The Rebels have a large army within thirty miles of the City, probably near 200,000 men. They must do something soon. I was at the Pt off two or three hours. I think that Mr Scheopf will go into the army soon. Mr Holt backs him.
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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.
Note: This letter—a document written in 1861—includes terms and topics that may be offensive to many today. No attempt will be made to censor or edit 19th century material to today’s standards.
September 17, 1861.
Well, I’ve slept half of this day and feel sleepy yet. I had a tough time on picket last night. We were divided into four squads and owing to the small number of men we had out (only 50) the corporals had to stand guard as privates; so I had all the stationing of reliefs to do myself and did not get a minute’s sleep all night. We were not troubled any by the enemy but the mosquitoes and fleas gave us the devil.
A coon came sliding down the tree Sam Nutt was stationed under, and he thought he was taken sure. The people here say that there are lots of bears and tiger cats killed here every winter. Sam has been to Cairo to-day and says that Keef, Fred Norcott and Cooper are all much better. There is a rumor now that our right is going to Virginia, but I don’t believe it. It is too good to be true. Our cook has been sick for several days and we have been just about half living on account of our being too lazy to cook. I don’t mean to be disrespectful when I say I was about as glad to see him cooking again this morning, as I would be to see you. He is a splendid nigger, seems to think the world of us boys. He buys a great many little things for us with his own money, which as we are all out, is a good institution. We are to get our pay next week the officers say. My pay is some $18 or $20 a month now. I am entitled to a straight sword now, but as I have to carry a musket also, I’ll trade it off for gingerbread if they’ll let me, and if they won’t I’ll lose it sure for I have enough to carry without it. I can hear the tattoo now before the colonel’s quarters at the other end of the camp and our boys are singing, “Home Again” as they lie around me in our tent. I thank goodness that none of them get homesick like some do that I know in our right. I do despise these whiners. I expect (I have just this instant heard that they have been fighting in Washington for the last 24 hours. Now I’ll finish the sentence I had commenced) to be with those I love in eight months if the expected battle in Washington results favorably for our country, if not, do not look for me for three years. If they whip us again there I want to fight the rest of my life if necessary, and die before we recognize them as anything but Rebels and traitors who must be humbled. I don’t believe yet awhile the news but I kind o’ feel it all through me that there is a battle more to be recorded and that we are the victors. All that we have heard is that they are fighting. Colonel Turchin’s 19th left Cairo last night for the east somewhere. We are rapidly learning to appropriate and confiscate. On our last scout one of our boys rode a stray horse back and another came in with a female jackass and her child. Chickens are very scarce here now and the natives complain that sweet potato hills have turned into holes since we have been here. Our mess have this p.m. confiscated the roof of a man’s barn to cover our cook house with.
September 17.—A fight took place at Mariatown, Mo., between six hundred Federals under Colonels Montgomery and Johnson and four hundred rebels, in which the latter were completely routed with a loss of seven killed, and one hundred horses and all their tents and supplies captured. The Nationals lost two privates killed and six wounded. Col. Johnson, while riding at the head of his command, was pierced by nine balls and instantly killed. Three bullets took effect in his head, two buck-shot in the neck, one bullet in the left shoulder, one in the left thigh, one in the right hand, and one in the left. He died, urging his men to fight for the Stars and Stripes.—Buffalo Courier, September 23.
—The Legislature of Maryland was prevented from organizing at Frederick by the arrest of its clerk and several of the members. During the evening the Union members of the House and Senate met in caucus and resolved that, the action of the Senators present in not assembling having virtually brought the Legislature to an end, they would return to their homes and not attempt again to assemble.
—This evening a train on the Ohio and Mississippi road, containing a portion of Colonel Torchin’s Nineteenth Illinois regiment, while passing over a bridge near Huron, Ind., one hundred and forty-three miles west of Cincinnati, fell through, killing and wounding over one hundred soldiers.—Louisville Courier, September 10.
—A large concourse of citizens from all parts of the State assembled at Hartford, Conn., today, to listen to Hon. D. S. Dickinson and others. General James T. Pratt presided. All the political parties of the State were represented, and places of business were closed during the meeting. Mr. Dickinson’s speech was one of his best efforts, and had a powerful effect. Senator Latham, of California, sent a letter of apology for his absence, full of patriotic spirit. Thomas Francis Meagher sent a despatch as follows: ” I cannot go to Hartford to-day. I go to the war. Talking is over. Fight is the word.” —National Intelligencer, September 20.
—Two fights occurred at Blue Mills Landing, Mo., to-day. The first was between five hundred of the Third Iowa regiment, with one piece of artillery, under Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, and about four thousand rebels. After a desperate struggle of an hour’s duration, in which Scott lost one hundred and twenty killed and wounded and all his horses, he retreated slowly half a mile, dragging his cannon by hand. He subsequently took a position with his howitzer on an eminence, and waited for the enemy to renew the attack. But he was not pursued. Not long afterward Colonel Smith’s command, with four pieces of cannon, approached Blue Mills by another road and engaged and routed the rebels as they were about crossing the Missouri River.—(Doc. 53.)
—The Fifteenth regiment (Elmira Engineers) N. Y. S. V., under the command of Colonel C. B. Stuart of Geneva, left Elmira for the seat of war.—N. Y. Herald, Sept. 22.
—Clement Smyth, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Dubuque, Iowa, in a letter to the Adjutant-General of that State, held the following language: “I ever avoid all matters of a political nature as foreign to my sacred duties, yet in this present hour of trial, when the honer and the happiness of our nation are at stake; when some prejudiced mind may construe my silence into a disrespect for you, whose friendship I highly prize, or into a criminal opposition to our National Government— the Government of the United States, the only one to which I owe fealty—it may not be departing too far from my usual course to say that my feelings and sentiments are for the Union, and though peace is now the darling object of my ambition, yet I would not consent to purchase peace at the sacrifice of principle.”
—At Washington the following order was issued to-day from the War Department:
The commanding officer at Hatteras Inlet, N. C., is hereby authorized to accept the services of such loyal North Carolinians—not to exceed one regiment—as in his neighborhood may volunteer to take up arms for the United States, and to designate regular officers to muster them into the service. The recruits will be organized in the first instance into a battalion or regiment according to numbers. The mustering officer will make timely requisition for arms and other necessary supplies. The commanding officer will, on the recommendation of the volunteers, propose such persons as officers as he may deem suitable, to officer the companies that may, if approved, be commissioned by the President.
L. Thomas, Adj.-Gen.
—The anniversary of Washington’s Farewell Address was celebrated by Cassius M. Clay’s Washington Guards. Professor Amasa McCoy, Secretary of the Guards, delivered an Oration on “The London Times on the Rebellion and the war against the National Constitution.”
—The Continental Guard, Forty-eighth regiment N. Y. S. V., under the command of Colonel James H. Perry, left Fort Hamilton this morning for the seat of war. The regiment numbers about one thousand men, well equipped and armed with Enfield rifles. The uniform is the United States regulation. A considerable number of the men were formerly members of the Seventy-first. About sixty recruits, not yet uniformed, were left in charge of the camp, near Fort Hamilton, under Lieutenant Wallace. Colonel Perry, the commandant of the regiment is well-known as a West Point graduate. N. Y. Evening Post, Sept 17.
