Saturday, November 16. — General Benham’s brigade marched back towards Gauley, leaving here with cheers after their inclement night! Colonel Scammon went on reconnaissance towards Raleigh, in command; nothing to do. Present for duty four hundred and nine. No sick; all sick and weakly gave out before we reached here; a number left to guard property, do work at Gauley, etc.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Saturday, November 16. — I have nothing to tell except an account of my expedition to Scull Creek. We started Tuesday, November 12, and came back Wednesday. We went on the steamer Parkersburg, to get corn from Seabrook’s plantation, and any other things which might fall in our way. We had 25 soldiers to help us. We found Seabrook’s plantation did not amount to much in its buildings. May the Lord preserve me from living in any such house! A miserable white-washed concern, set up on piles, which no white man would live in up North. Everything had been plundered by the negroes and soldiers, and not much remained but corn, which we set to work to get as fast as we could. I thought I would walk up to Pope’s plantation about three miles from here. This was the best house I saw, but everything was taken away, or smashed up. I took a piece of a clock as a memento, and went to the negro quarters, where a great many of them were living. I picked a bunch of castor-oil beans here, which I shall take home as a curiosity. I found some very good springs of water on this side of the island, which were quite agreeable to me as I had not had any good water for some days. I saw any number of palmetto trees, and did not think them a very handsome tree. They look like a cabbage stuck on a pole. We returned to the steamer Parkersburg and spent the night on board. The next day we went up Scull Creek in a row-boat to try and dig out a sloop which was on the beach. While we were endeavoring to get her out, a boat came from the Ottawa and took possession of her. I only hope they had a good time digging her out. In the afternoon we went over to Pinckney Island, where we found a bale of cotton which we appropriated and took on board the steamer. This was the first bale to reach New York. I also bought some peanuts of the negroes. I saw a great quantity of meadow larks on this island.
16th. Theodore surprised me in the morning. Took a ride to Woodland Cemetery. Lizzie and Nettie came to camp. Heard Slade, Riddle and several others in the evening.
Nov. 16. Here it is the middle of November, and the weather is most delightful. No frosts, but a warm, mellow atmosphere like our Indian summer in October. It is beautiful, indeed; I am charmed with it. While our farmers in New England are putting up and feeding their cattle in barns, the cattle here are luxuriating in white clover, young, sweet and tender enough to suit the most fastidious taste of any of the cattle on a thousand hills. The farmers about here are harvesting their crops of corn and sweet potatoes, some of which are very fine. Some of the boys brought in some egg plants which grow about here. I never saw any before, but am told they are very good, when properly cooked. I am not disposed to doubt it, never having eaten any of them, but I cannot believe they would make good egg nog.
We begin to see a little something of the peculiar institution, —slavery. There are a great many negroes strolling around the camps, most of them runaways, and as Maryland is supposed to be a loyal state, we have no right to take sides and afford them protection. But we have adopted a kind of English neutrality, although not giving them much protection, we give them whatever information they desire. The masters and hunters are frequently here, looking up their hoys, as they call them, and we generally manage to put them on the wrong track and then run the boys into other camps, and they run them into the woods.
Our regiment was yesterday inspected and reviewed by Brig. Gen. John G. Foster. We put in our best work, and tried to make the best appearance we could. The general seems to be a man who understands his business. At a single glance he takes a man and his equipments all in; looks at his rifle, passes it back and goes for the next one. He complimented Col. Upton on the good drill and appearance of his regiment, and flattered his vanity a little by telling him that with a little more practice his regiment would be as near regulars as it would be possible to bring a volunteer regiment.
Saturday, 16th—Reveille sounded at 2 a. m., and packing our knapsacks, we started at 8 o’clock for the boat down at the levee. Here we stacked our arms and waited until the quartermaster with his detail got the commissariat loaded, putting it upon our boat and the two barges, one on either side. By noon all was ready and we marched on board, some going upon the boat and some upon the barges, and at 2 p. m. left Davenport, bound for St. Louis.
We reached Muscatine about sundown and because there are so many Muscatine people in the regiment, we landed and marched uptown to Main Street. Here we had dress parade for the benefit of the citizens, who turned out in large numbers. Companies A and H are made up of Muscatine boys, while our colonel and quartermaster reside here; besides, Company I is from Louisa county just west of this place. After the parade we marched back to the boats and left at once for Keokuk. Our boat is the “Jennie Whipple,” and Company E is stationed on the hurricane deck.
“Mason & Slidel… were taken from the English Mail Steamer from Cuba to England.”—Horatio Nelson Taft
SATURDAY 16
The coldest day yet but no frost, a cold strong wind. The 11th Maine Regt passed through the City, just arrived. Capt Rogers of the 27th called today, brought letter from Doct Barnes enclosing $50.00. The City was thrown into quite an excitement by the news of the arrest of Mason & Slidel. They were taken from the English Mail Steamer from Cuba to England. I have been at home most of the day, have purchased some wood and shoes for the boys, and attended to their lessons in the forenoon. They take to their studies at home very well.
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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.
November 16th.—A cold, raw day. As I was writing, a small friend of mine, who appears like a stormy petrel in moments of great storm, fluttered into my room, and having chirped out something about a “Jolly row”—”Seizure of Mason and Slidell”—”British flag insulted,” and the like, vanished. Somewhat later, going down 17th Street, I met the French Minister, M. Mercier, wrapped in his cloak, coming from the British Legation. “Vous avez entendu quelque chose de nouveau?” “Mais non, excellence.” And then, indeed, I learned there was no doubt about the fact that Captain Wilkes, of the U. S. steamer San Jacinto, had forcibly boarded the Trent, British mail steamer, off the Bahamas, and had taken Messrs. Mason, Slidell, Eustis, and McClernand from on board by armed force, in defiance of the protests of the captain and naval officer in charge of the mails. This was indeed grave intelligence, and the French Minister considered the act a flagrant outrage, which could not for a moment be justified.
I went to the Legation, and found the young diplomatists in the “Chancellerie” as demure and innocent as if nothing had happened, though perhaps they were a trifle more lively than usual. An hour later, and the whole affair was published in full in the evening papers. Extraordinary exultation prevailed in the hotels and bar-rooms. The State Department has made of course no communication respecting the matter.
All the English are satisfied that Mason and his friends must be put on board an English mail packet from the San Jacinto under a salute.
An officer of the United States navy—whose name I shall not mention here—came in to see the buccaneers, as the knot of English bachelors of Washington are termed, and talk over the matter. “Of course,” he said, “we shall apologise and give up poor Wilkes to vengeance by dismissing him, but under no circumstances shall we ever give up Mason and Slidell. No, sir; not a man dare propose such a humiliation to our flag.” He says that Wilkes acted on his own responsibilty, and that the San Jacinto was coming home from the African station when she encountered the Trent. Wilkes knew the rebel emissaries were on board, and thought he would cut a dash and get up a little sensation, being a bold and daring sort of a fellow with a quarrelsome disposition and a great love of notoriety, but an excellent officer.
NOVEMBER 16TH. —It is sickening to behold the corruption of the commercial men, which so much wounds our afflicted country. There are large merchants here who come over from Baltimore breathing vengeance against the Northern “despots,” and to make a show of patriotism they subscribed liberally to equip some volunteer companies in the city; but now they are sending their agents North and importing large amounts of merchandise, which they sell to the government and the people at most fabulous prices. I am informed that some of them realize $50,000 per mouth profit! And this after paying officials on both sides bonuses to wink at their operations.
After the order of Mr. Benjamin for applicants for passports to leave the country to be arrested, some of these men applied to me, and I reported the facts to Gen. Winder; but they were not molested. Indeed, they came to me subsequently and exhibited pass-ports they had obtained from the Secretary himself.
November 16.—The Fifty-first Ohio regiment, Col. Stanley Mathews, and the Nineteenth Ohio regiment, Col. Beatty arrived at Cincinnati from Camp Dennison, and left for Louisville. The Fifty-first took passage on the mammoth steamer Strader, and the Nineteenth Ohio on the Monarch and Hastings. Both regiments were in fine condition, and fully equipped.—Ohio Statesman, November 19.
—An expedition left Paducah, Ky., to-night, in the direction of Columbus. It was composed of the Fortieth and Forty-first Illinois regiments, a section of Buell’s artillery—three guns, and two companies of cavalry, under command of General Paine. Information had been received that fifteen or eighteen hundred secesh, commanded by H. Clay King, were at Lovettsville, sixteen miles distant, on the road to Columbus. There is a large flouring mill there, and it was the design of General Paine to rout the rebels and take possession of the mill. No enemy was found, however, and General Paine confiscated the flour, and took some of the machinery of the mill to prevent its being of any use to the rebels, and returned to Paducah.—Louisville Journal, November 23.
—Flour, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, is held at twenty dollars per barrel. The Vicksburg Sun hopes it will be “taken,” its owners paid a “fair market valuation for it, and receive a strong hint to leave the country.”—(Doc. 167.)
—Salutes were fired at various places in the loyal States, in commemoration of the victory at Port Royal, South Carolina.
—This morning a foraging party, consisting of fifty-seven of the Thirtieth N. V. Volunteers, attached to Gen. Keyes’ Brigade in the army of the Potomac, went out to Doolin and Brush’s Farm, three miles and a half west of Upton’s Hill, Va., to draw away the forage which they had collected and left a day or two before. They took with them five four-horse wagons, and after loading up, Doolin, one of the owners of the farm, invited the men in to dinner. The soldiers foolishly accepted, and more foolishly stacked their arms outside the house, and went in, leaving eight men acting as pickets in the neighborhood. The moment the men sat down to dinner Doolin despatched a servant to the house of Brush, a mile distant, with a message that he should inform the rebels of the presence of the soldiers. This being done, rebel cavalry, numbering about two hundred, suddenly appeared, overpowered the pickets before they could give alarm, and surrounded the festive fools at Doolin’s table. A number of men made their escape, but the following, together with the wagons and horses, were captured by the rebels: Captain W. L. Lanning, Second Lieutenant James W. Andrews; corporals, M. White, P. Cooney, and G. H. Vanderzer; privates, P. Frazier, George McWharton, L. Hardigen, Harris Stafford, John Sleight, D. G. B. Morris, A. Holtzer, N. W. Rowland, Coles Stanton, C. B. Elms, William Peck, A. W. Porter, Thomas Porter, Walter Merrick, Louis Marto, H. C. Smith, Robert Whelan, William McCormick, Stephen Stickles, Freeman Clapper, James Morrison, Daniel Connor, and Ned Riley. Doolin and Brush, who previous to this time were supposed to be good Union men, were arrested on the charge of having betrayed the troops.—N. Y. Tribune, November 18.
—Gen. C. P. Buckingham, Adjutant-General of Ohio, issued a stirring appeal to the men of that State, calling upon them to swell the number of soldiers already provided by Ohio, by contributing at least thirty-five thousand more. He urged upon them the duty of opening the Mississippi to the Ocean, which was the work of the great Northwest.—(Doc. 168.)
—Near Pleasant Hill, Cass Co., Mo., fifty wagons and five hundred Oxen, on their way to Sedalia, were captured by the rebels. When the wagon-master escaped, the yokes of the oxen were being burned, and preparations were also being made to burn the wagons. The teamsters were all taken prisoners.—N. Y. Times, November 17.
—The D’Epineuil Zouaves, under command of Col. D’Epineuil, and the Sixty-sixth regiment N. Y. S. V., under command of Colonel Pinckney, left New York for the seat of war.
—Sixty-eight prisoners arrived at Tallahassee, Florida, in charge of a detachment of Captain Sheffield’s company, the whole under Colonel M. Whit Smith. They are composed of Spaniards, Yankees, and Floridians, and were captured while engaged in fishing around the Florida coast in the vicinity of Egmont Key for the Federals at Key West. Colonel Smith says they are the crews of twelve fishing smacks, and that the craft captured are worth, in the aggregate, from thirty-five thousand dollars to forty thousand dollars.— Tallahassee Sentinel, Nov. 17.
—Gen. Patterson, at an entertainment given by the Philadelphia City Troop, made a statement in relation to his conduct while in command on the Upper Potomac, which appears to relieve him from the odium of failure to participate in the movement which resulted in the defeat at Bull Run.—(Doc. 169.)
