Tuesday, 26th—Our drills now are, company drill at 10 a. m., battalion drill at 2 p. m. and dress parade at 5 p. m. We commenced battalion drill today.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
26th. Made arrangements to go home but couldn’t.
Quincy, November 26, 1861
I don’t know whether you will be surprised or disgusted or annoyed or distressed by the information that I have gone into the army, but such is the fact. Before this reaches you I shall be an officer of the 1st Mass. Cavalry and probably in Carlisle Barracks. You know it now and I am glad of it! You ask what has impelled me to this unadvised and sudden step. Many reasons, I answer; a few of which I will now give you. But in the first place let me say that I have not felt sure of my appointment until within the last five days and that I would have notified you of it before had not former false alarms made me timid of present ones. Now I feel reasonably sure and will give you the reasons of my actions. You will say, of course, that the arguments which were decisive against my going two months ago are decisive now in no less degree; but this is not so. I have all along felt that it was my place to represent our family in the army in this struggle, but a higher sense of public duty kept me at home while I was useful to you; and when that usefulness was gone, the argument which had justified my staying at home became one for my going away. I can be of little future use to you here. . . .
For going I have many reasons. I do not think myself a soldier by nature. I am not sure I am doing that which is best for myself; but I feel that, if I go, I shall be better satisfied with myself, and, as I said to you before, I do not think it right that our family, so prominent in this matter while it is a contest of words, should be wholly unrepresented when it has grown to be a conflict of blows. You say there is neither glory nor honor to be won in civil strife. I answer, that it cannot be otherwise than right for me to fight to maintain that which my ancestors passed their whole lives in establishing. These however are general arguments which I have advanced to you before, but there are others nearer home. I have completely failed in my profession and I long to cut myself clear of it. I have indeed derived an income this summer from my office, but not from the law, and that I have made up my mind to give up. This mortifies me and the army must cover my defeat. My future must be business and literature, and I do not see why the army should not educate me for both, for its routine is that of business and it will go hard if my pen is idle while history is to be written or events are to be described. Thus my decision not only closes one career in which I have failed, but it opens others in which experience teaches me I can succeed if at all. . . .
TUESDAY 26
In the office all day, weather rather cold and unpleasant. Wife and the two elder boys went to the Review of the Regulars, a little East of the Capitol, by Genl McClellan. News today comes through Norfolk of a Battle at Pensecola. Nothing definite known. I went down and spent an hour with Chas & Sallie. Came home and then went after Julia at Mr Hartleys.
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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.
Nov. 26, 1861.—The lingering summer is passing into those misty autumn days I love so well, when there is gold and fire above and around us. But the glory of the natural and the gloom of the moral world agree not well together. This morning Mrs. F. came to my room in dire distress. “You see,” she said, “cold weather is coming on fast, and our poor fellows are lying out at night with nothing to cover them. There is a wail for blankets, but there is not a blanket in town. I have gathered up all the spare bed-clothing, and now want every available rug or table-cover in the house. Can’t I have yours, G.? We must make these small sacrifices of comfort and elegance, you know, to secure independence and freedom.”
“Very well,” I said, denuding the table. “This may do for a drummer boy.”
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Note: To protect Mrs. Miller’s job as a teacher in New Orleans, the diary was published anonymously, edited by G. W. Cable, names were changed and initials were often used instead of full names — and even the initials differed from the real person’s initials.
NOVEMBER 26TH.—The enemy occupy Tybee Island, and threaten Savannah. Vice-President Stephens was in my office to-day, and he too deprecates the passage of so many people to the North, who, from the admission of the journals there, give them information of the condition of our defenses. He thinks our affairs are not now in a prosperous condition, and has serious apprehensions for the fate of Savannah.
November 26.—A. J. Clemens passed through Louisville, Ky., on Tuesday, on his way to Washington, to take his seat in Congress as the representative from the Fourth District of Tennessee. Mr. Clemens was compelled to leave his State on the 11th of August to avoid arrest, and since then he has been acting as an Assistant Surgeon in Col. Glider’s regiment.—Baltimore American, December 2.
—A Party of scouts, numbering five hundred men, under command of Col. Looney, returned to Chattanooga, East Tennessee, to-day, from a successful expedition, bringing in their spoils. They captured fourteen horses, and took one hundred Lincoln men prisoners. Some of these miscreants were found concealed in the dens and caves of the mountains. Holloway, the ruffian who killed Col. Anderson, managed to make his escape by clothing himself in female attire. None of the scouts received any injury. —Memphis Appeal.
—The Grand Review of all the Regular Military Forces on the north side of the Potomac took place, in accordance with previous arrangements, about one o’clock to-day, at Washington, D. C.
The several regiments of infantry were commanded by Brigadier-General Sykes, the cavalry by Lieutenant-Colonel Emory, and the batteries of artillery by Colonel H. J. Hunt, the entire body being in command of Brigadier-General Andrew Porter.
Thousands of citizens and sojourners availed themselves of the opportunity to witness the parade. The appearance of the troops, their fine discipline, and general movements, elicited from the vast assemblage a universal expression of praise.—National Intelligencer, Not. 27.
—Gen. Fremont and family, accompanied by Capt. Tracy, of the regular army, and two Secretaries, left St. Louis, Mo., to-day for Washington. He was accompanied to the depot by a large number of citizens, chiefly Germans, and on the east side of the river made a brief speech, regretting his departure, etc.— Chicago Evening Journal, Nov. 26.
—Seven companies of the First regiment Pennsylvania Cavalry, under command of Col. Bayard, made a reconnoissance to-night from Langley to Drainesville, eight miles up the Potomac. They captured a few rebel pickets, and on their return were attacked by a force of the enemy in ambush. A skirmish ensued, in which several of the rebels were killed, wounded, and taken prisoners, and a few of the Federal soldiers wounded. Col. Bayard narrowly escaped death, his horse being shot under him, and two balls passing through his clothes.—(Doc. 193.)
—Commodore Tatnall, with three small steamers and one gunboat, attacked the Federal fleet in Cockspur Roads, Ga. From forty to fifty shots were exchanged. No person was injured. Failing to draw the National fleet under the guns of Fort Pulaski, Commodore Tatnall withdrew.—Richmond. Dispatch, Nov. 28.
—A letter from the Upper Potomac, received in Washington, stated that G. W. Smith, formerly Street Commissioner in the City of New York, was in command of the rebel forces at Leesburg, Va., and in that vicinity.
—Jefferson Davis sent in to the Confederate Congress a Message concerning the secession of Missouri. It was accompanied by a letter from Governor Jackson, and also by an act dissolving the Union with the United States, and an act ratifying the Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States; also, the convention between the Commissioners of Missouri and the Commissioners of the Confederate States. Congress unanimously ratified the convention entered into between the Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, for the rebel Government, and the Commissioners for Missouri.—Richmond Dispatch.
—A banquet was given to Capt. Wilkes and the officers of the San Jacinto, at the Revere House, in Boston, Mass. Capt, Wilkes made a brief speech, recounting the incidents of the cruise after the rebel Commissioners, and he was followed by Gov. Andrew, Lieut. Fairfax, Chief-Justice Bigelow, and others.
—The Nashville (Tenn.) Courier of this date lays: “We learn that a squad of twelve men were sent to Franklin yesterday, to arrest some Lincolnites who were said to be committing depredations in that neighborhood. They had collected to the number of twelve or fifteen at the house of one of their number, one Bell; and defying, the party fired at them, killing one man, said to be Lee, of Louisville, and wounding one or two more. Our men then charged the house, and set fire to it, burning it and all of the men in it, it is believed, but two, who escaped. A detachment of twenty-five cavalry, under Capt. Morgan, arrived at Franklin to arrest the parties implicated.”
—A reconnoissance was made by a squadron of the Third Pennsylvania regiment, commanded by Captain Bell, in the neighborhood of Vienna, Va. From Vienna they took the right hand road toward Hunter’s Mill, and had gone about a mile and a half when they found themselves hemmed in on three sides by not only a superior force of cavalry, but also of infantry. The discharges of the rebel musketry placed the horses of the National cavalry beyond the control of their riders, the animals having been but recently brought into service, and therefore unaccustomed to such alarms. The officers, after several ineffectual attempts to got their men in line for the purpose of making a charge, ordered a retreat, which was effected in as good order as the peculiar circumstances permitted. The skirmish was brisk, though of short duration, the rebel cavalry firing buckshot from their carbines. The number of rebels killed and wounded is not known. John Beatty, private in Company H, killed a rebel cavalry officer, and captured his horse. The mark on the nddle was D. S. Davis, Ridgeway, North Carolina. Twenty-nine men were reported missing from the Union force.
—The Convention to form a new State out of Western Virginia met in Wheeling. The attendance was unexpectedly full for the opening, thirty-seven counties being represented. John Hale, of Mason, was elected permanent President. There was no business done beyond organizing and administering the oath to the members.— Wheeling Intelligencer, Not. 27.
—In the Louisiana State Senate a joint resolution was introduced, approving of the Government recommendation to the banks to suspend specie payments, and to issue the Confederate States Treasury notes in the place of their bank notes. The resolution also provided for the submission of the question to the popular vote of the people of Louisiana.
A resolution was offered to inquire into the expediency of the assumption by the State of the collection and payment of the Confederate war tax.—The Governor’s Message was sent into both Houses of the Legislature.—Richmond Dispatch, Nov. 28.
—Gen. Halleck issued orders at St. Lewis, Mo., in reference to the wants of the soldiers in his department, directing the appointment of officers to superintend any delinquencies and apply a remedy; also that prisoners sent to head-quarters at St. Louis must be accompanied with a written statement of the charges against them, and the evidence on which the arrests were made.—(Doc. 194.)
—Col. Jennison issued a proclamation to-day to the people in arms against the United States Government in Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, and Pettis counties, Mo., stating that all who would deliver up their arms, and perform their duties as loyal citizens, would not be held responsible for past acts, and would secure the protection of their lives and property. All, however, who should disregard these propositions, would be treated as traitors, neither their persons nor property being spared.—(Doc. 195.)
