24th. Sunday. Stayed in camp. D. R. H. and C. G. F. went up town. Read some and wrote home.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Bird’s Point, Mo., November 24, 1861.
Sabbath morning, 10 o’clock.
I’m in clover. I’ve got a great big “comfort,” weighs a ton, that has been sent to my partner and myself from a young lady in Bloomington. We’ve tramped so much since I received that pair of blankets from you, and we never know when we start whether we’re coming back here again or no, that being unable to carry them I sold them. We have had considerable cold weather. Lots of frost, and for the last two days it has been freezing all the time. We have always slept perfectly warm and getting used to it by degrees.
I never hear anyone complain. Yesterday we made a furnace in our tent that works admirably and now I wouldn’t give a snap for any other winter quarters. This furnace is a grand thing. It keeps our tent dry and healthy and is as comfortable to me now as ever our house was. Don’t trouble yourself in the least about our underclothing. We all have more than we want and can get any quantity at any time. Other clothing the same. We commenced building log houses for winter quarters this morning. Theo Thornton and Clem Wallace of our mess are up the river now cutting logs for them. We never drill Sundays, but for anything else we have no Sunday. We have no chaplain in our regiment. Our captain is religious but he is out now doing as much work as any of the men. We can enjoy ourselves very well here this winter, but of course we are very much disappointed in not getting into active service. I think that when our gunboats get here we will at least be allowed a trial on Columbus, but you know, and I know, that I don’t know anything about it. We have had two awful rains within a week as the ponds covered with ice on our parade ground will testify. The first one caught six of our boys fifteen miles up the river cutting logs for our huts. It wet them beautifully. In camp for some reason they had doubled the pickets, strengthened the camp guard and ordered us to sleep on our arms. I think they were troubled with the old scare again. About 10:30 while the storm was at its height heavy firing commenced all at once right in the middle of the camp. What a time there was. Colonel Oglesby got his signals ready, regiments formed in the rain and the devil was to pay generally. It turned out that it was a green Iowa regiment that had just returned from another unsuccessful chase after Jeff. ‘Twas an awful trick and only the greenest troops would have done it.
Sunday, 24th—We had our first regular company inspection this morning at to o’clock, and at 2 p.m. we had general review, then at 5 o’clock we were on dress parade, but as it is Sunday there was no regular drilling.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1861.
This has been rather a cool Sunday with the first Snow of the season this evening. We have seen no ice yet, and no very hard frost. Wife and all the Children were out to church this morning. Myself and Julia went this afternoon. Chas & Sallie called and spent an hour or two this evening. The boys went to bed at 8 o’clock. Wife is writing to her Aunt Reeves. We occupy the Parlor evenings with airtight Stove.
______
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.
Sunday, 24. — Rode in rain and snow, chiefly snow, down to Gauley over Kanawha and back to Fayetteville; a hard ride in such a day and alone, too. How I enjoy these rides, this scenery, and all! Saw a teamster with a spike team (three horses) stalled; got on to his leader and tried to help through; gave it up; took a pair of his socks — he had a load.
NOVEMBER 24TH. —Gen. Floyd has retreated from Cotton Hill, and the enemy threatens our western communications. Gen. Lee has been sent to Western Virginia, but it is not an adequate field for him. He should have command of the largest army in the service, for his is one of the most capacious minds we have.
Winchester, November 24, 1861.
I have read over again this morning your two last letters, and whilst they inspire a feeling of happiness that there is a dear wife at home whose love I prize and cherish more than anything else on earth, yet they make me feel sad that she is unhappy. I think, Love, I take a very calm and just view of my duty and of the future. I think I should remain in the war so long as my services may be needed, although it be at the sacrifice of personal comfort and pecuniary interest, and compels a separation from the loved wife with whom the happiest recollections of the past and the fondest hopes of the future are inseparably connected. It will cost me all this, and perhaps my life. If so, I will but share the fate of thousands who must fall in the contest, doing that which their own judgment and the common sentiment of the country decide to be their duty. If I survive the end of the war, I shall then quit the service, I trust, with the good opinion of my comrades and with my own approval of the fidelity and efficiency with which my duty has been discharged. Poverty and want may then mark my path through life, but I do not expect it, and I do not fear it. I have a strong faith in my capacity to earn a livelihood anywhere,—industry meets its reward,—and to secure every comfort which may be necessary for the happiness of the wife and little ones who bless my home with their presence. Here I ‘ll change the subject to say that while writing our postman has arrived with your letter of 20th inst. I really think, Love, you are doing finely, and your providence in procuring salt in advance of the rise in the market exhibits qualities to fill the place of a soldier’s wife which need only a little necessity for developing them. I am glad, too, to hear you say you are too busy to be lonesome; that is a step in the right direction. That is the reason why I was sorry to give up the place of road overseer at Manassas. It gave me abundant employment for mind and body, made me sleep well and eat well. Now I have a job as member of a court martial which requires me to go to Winchester every day, where the court is in session from 9 A.m. to 3 P.M.
November 24.—This evening a skirmish took place at Lancaster, Schuyler County, Mo., between a body of troops, under Col. Moore, and four hundred and twenty rebels under Lieutenant-Colonel Blanton. In the morning Col. Moore, with his command of four hundred and fifty men, left Memphis, Scotland County, Mo., for Lancaster, where he had learned that Colonel Woodwards, with a detachment of about one hundred men, was surrounded and in need of early assistance.
Lancaster is, by the nearest road, some eighteen miles from Memphis, but by a forced march, Colonel Moore arrived there in the evening. The enemy was concealed in the brush and corn, about a mile west of the town, where an engagement took place, lasting half an hour, or until it was too dark to tell friend from foe.
The rebels were completely routed. Thirteen were killed, several more wounded, and many taken prisoners. Among the rebels killed were Captain McCulloch and son, somewhat noted in that section. The Union loss was one killed, Joseph Garrison, one man named Adams mortally wounded, and another, named Gallupe, slightly wounded. Colonel Moore took possession of Lancaster to-night.—St. Louis Republican, November 30.
—At night Capt. Moreau’s Cavalry, accompanied by Gen. McCook’s body guard, went to the traitor Buckner’s farm, situated on Green River, a few miles above Munfordsville, Kentucky, and took possession of the stock, a large amount of grain, wheat, corn, &c.—N. Y. Times, November 80.
—William H. Carroll, Brig.-Gen. of Confederate forces at Camp Lookout, East Tennessee, annulled the proclamation of martial law made by his predecessor.—(Doc. 188.)
—United States gunboats Flag, Augusta, Pocahontas, and Seneca went from Port Royal in S. C., to Tybee Island at the month of the Savannah River, and threw in a few shells which drew no response from the rebel works; a body of marines was then landed, and the fortifications found to be deserted. Formal possession was then taken of the island.— (Doc. 189.)
