Sunday, 6th—I remained all day at Mr. Moore’s. Mr. Moore[1] is a Mexican War veteran.
[1] Mr. Moore was an uncle of my friend and schoolmate, John Moore. —A. G. D.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Sunday, October 6, 1861. — While I was spending Sunday at home, I learned that Uncle Oliver Eldridge[1] was going to sail in command of the steamer Atlantic on General Sherman’s secret expedition to some southern port. I immediately asked Father to let me go with him as captain’s clerk, or in some other capacity. He was unwilling, but finally consented to ask Uncle Oliver if he could take me. Father said that there was no room for me, and I therefore gave up all idea of going, to my great disappointment.
In the afternoon Horace Howland[2] came out to our house and wanted me to go in town and dine with him. We dined at Parker’s and then went to the Lothrops’ to take tea. We left there in time to take the nine o’clock bus for Cambridge. When we reached Cambridge, I found a letter for me from Father, saying that I might go with Uncle Oliver, and that I must start at eight o’clock the next morning. I packed my trunk in a few minutes, and went into Boston and spent the night at Parker’s. I took the 8.30 train for New York in the morning, and reached New York at 5. I went directly to the Astor House, and found that Uncle O. had not started, much to my relief, as I was afraid he might have gone. I saw him in the evening, and he introduced me to Captain Hascall, U. S. Q. M., who said he would give me a place as one of his clerks. I went down to Collins’s wharf the next morning, and was there introduced to Saxton and Marsh, both Captain Hascall’s clerks.
(I spent a week here, at times quite busy, loading ship, etc. I called on the Rowlands and also went to Horace’s apartments, which he has with Ned Wetmore[3] and Fowler. I enjoyed myself very much, being reminded of old college times. While in New York I saw Wilson’s regiment[4] pass through, and felt proud of Massachusetts when I heard the cheers and praises so bountifully be- stowed upon them. I saw Tom Sherwin[5] and Charley Griswold[6] with the regiment. )
[1] Married to my step-mother’s sister, Miss Almira Hallett; he was a
sea-captain, and a fine man.
[3] Edmund Wetmore, my classmate.
[4] The 22d Mass., Col. Henry Wilson, United States Senator.
SUNDAY 6
Still very hot with some wind and much dust. Been to Church all day. Young Mr Hopkins from Wmstown Mass preached this afternoon. He is a son of Doct Hopkins, President of Wms College. He is a very promising young man. I spoke to him after meeting, being introduced by Doct Smith. Our Willie has been ill for some days, threatened with inflamation of the lungs. Very hot and feverish nights, better during the day.
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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.
Oct. 6.
After dinner yesterday we drove out to the camp of the Rhode Island 2nd, to see the friend of our infancy and of hay-loft and cow-stall memory—Col. Frank Wheaton, son of Dr. Wheaton of Pomfret, Connecticut, to whose farm-house Mother took us all to board, the summer after Father’s death. It is about twenty years (!) since we all played together. You know it was for him that Mary got that ugly scar across her nose, in her anxiety to reach him through a glass window, and they two at the age of about seven were married in state and went to housekeeping in the cow-stall on apples and flagroot. He says he remembers it all most distinctly and still claims Mary as “his wife by right” though he has had one, and is engaged to a second.
He was very much pleased to find that he had met you too, for he was mustering-in officer at Albany when you were there, and swore in, part of the 16th. He and the others were “delighted with Adjutant Howland, who used to come to their office nearly every day and always had his muster rolls right.”
I was sorry to hear that the mare “Lady Jane” was so sick and I send George Carr out to camp to see if he can do anything for her. As he has known her from early youth he may understand her insides better than others do. You may be surprised at my being able to get a pass for George, but not more than I was! A mere statement of the case dissolved all the adamantine walls round the Provost Marshal, and is only another proof of our being “noble-hearted women of luck.”
How funny it is that you should have met the Wheatons again. It is one of the queer ways in which people turn up. I wonder if they remember the little school which Mother held for us every day in the porch of their father’s house in Pomfret, and the yellow hymn book, and the tunes of
Our Father in Heaven
We hallow Thy name,”
and
“God is in Heaven, would He hear
If I should tell a lie?”
—and then how at times we used to see who could eat the most ears of corn! And the skeleton in his father’s office, what a corner of horrors that was!
OCTOBER 6TH.—Nothing of importance.
Camp near Fairfax C. H., October 6, 1861.
Your letter of October 1st was received on yesterday, and I am very much gratified at the cheerful feeling which it manifests. It shows, too, that you are giving a very commendable attention to the business under your charge, and give promise, if the war lasts, of your being a first rate business woman. You have your mind set in the right direction, for it seems as if the war would be interminable, and the sooner you learn how to take care of yourself the better it will be. Times are very dull with us here. Our troops are but a mile or so distant from the enemy,—so near that our pickets, it is said, occasionally meet and converse with theirs, swap newspapers, tobacco, whisky, etc. Judging from the newspapers, one would think we were on the eve of a battle every day, but here there seems little apprehension of it. We may have a battle, but then again we may not. On the whole, the soldiers would just as lief fight as not. We are going to have a sermon this evening, and I will bid you good-bye to listen to it. Kiss our dear little boys for me, and remind them of me. I should regard their forgetting me as the saddest loss sustained by my absence from home. Think of me often, Love. My fondest hope, the dearest wish of my heart, is to be with you again. Remember me to the servants, and to Fitz and his wife, to Annie, Rachel and my friends.
October 6th.—A day of wandering around, and visiting, and listening to rumours all unfounded. I have applied for permission to accompany the Burnside expedition, but I am advised not to leave Washington, as McClellan will certainly advance as soon as the diversion has been made down South.
October 6.—The schooner Alert was captured off Charleston, S.C., by the United States steamer Flag. When first discovered, the schooner had the Palmetto flag flying, but upon being chased, and satisfied of her fate, she hoisted the English flag, union down, as a signal of distress. Upon the vessel were found concealed a Confederate and a Palmetto flag, and the cook stated that just before the capture the captain burned up the ship’s papers. These found aboard, purporting to be English, were new, and evidently got up for the occasion.— N. Y. Tribune, October 18.
—The Tenth regiment of Maine Volunteers, under the command of Colonel George L. Beal, left Portland for the seat of war.
—Rochester, N. Y., has sent eighteen companies to the Union army. Another has been recruited in the country, making nineteen in all from Monroe Co.—Col. Rankin, M. P., who was engaged in recruiting a regiment of Lancers at Detroit for the Federal Government, was arrested at Toronto, Canada, for violation of the enlistment act.—N. Y. Commercial, October 9.
