Fayetteville, Virginia, Thursday, 28. — Thanksgiving at home. Dear boys and wife! I hope they are enjoying a happy dinner at home. Here it is raining and gloomy. We do not yet know where we are to winter; men are growing uneasy and dissatisfied. I hope we shall soon know; and if we are to stay here I think we can soon get into good case again. — Decided that we are to stay here for the winter. Wrote to Uncle and Laura humorous letters — attempts — describing our prospects here. Two small redoubts to be built soon. Quarters to be prepared. Rain, mud, and cold to be conquered; drilling to be done, etc., etc.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Thursday, 28th—The weather is very warm and pleasant. The regiment is becoming quite proficient in battalion drill, Colonel Hare seeming to understand the movements quite well. When the Colonel gives the orders to the different company officers, he usually simply says to Compton, “You know how to move your company.”
28th. C. G. and D. R. returned to camp. Visited, called at Fannie’s. Splendid time. Attended a small charade party at Mrs. Holtslander’s. Thanksgiving meetings.
THURSDAY 28
Rather a warm day with rain this evening. It being “Thanksgiving” I did not go to the office. Did some fixing round the house in the morning and then went to Church with all the family. After church and after dinner went with the three boys to the “Monument” pond after aquatic plants and fish for the Aquarium. On our return met four Regts of NY troops on their way over the River. It is said today that our troops have advanced.
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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.
The Governors of all the loyal states issued in these dark days their annual proclamation of a day of Thanksgiving. Governor Andrews’ of Massachusetts was dated Nov. 21,’61, “the anniversary of the day on which the Pilgrims of Massachusetts on board the Mayflower united themselves in a solemn compact of government:
‘Sing aloud unto God our Strength.’”
The proclamation proposes to “give thanks for the privilege of living unselfishly, and dying nobly in a great and righteous cause.”
These state proclamations came, heartening and sustaining a people sorely in need.
E’s Journal.
‘Sing aloud unto God our Strength.’”
The proclamation proposes to “give thanks for the privilege of living unselfishly, and dying nobly in a great and righteous cause.”
These state proclamations came, heartening and sustaining a people sorely in need.
E’s Journal.
November 28, Thanksgiving.
We have kept the day with J. in camp. He commissioned us to ask Mrs. Franklin to meet the General, unbeknown to him. So we sent the carriage for her by half-past eight, and started a little after nine, hoping to reach camp in time for service with the regiment. The roads were very bad, however, and we were too late. We stopped at the Brigade Hospital on the way, to leave oysters, jelly, oranges, etc., keeping some for the regimental “sick in quarters.” Our camp looked very neat and comfortable, tents all raised three or four feet on logs and clay, and nearly every one with a fire-place or stove. J. had arranged everything nicely for us, and his little fire and General Slocum’s were running races. General Franklin soon arrived, and we all sat round the firesides till dinner time. The dining-room was the Sibley tent, charmingly ornamented with evergreens, and the dinner was a great victory in its way; for out of the little tent-kitchen appeared successively, oyster soup, roast turkey, cranberry sauce, canvas-back ducks, vegetables, and a genuine and delicious plum pudding that would do justice to any New England housekeeper. Cake, pies and ice cream were also among the good things. The whole day was delightful, ending with a visit to General Franklin’s camp and the return to town with outriders.
NOVEMBER 28TH. —Nothing of importance to-day. There will be no such quiet time after this year.
November 28.—A submarine telegraph cable was successfully laid between Forts Moultrie and Sumter, in Charleston (S. C.) harbor, by Messrs. Seville, Denby, and Hobbs. When the burying of the cable was completed a salute was simultaneously fired in honor of the event from the forts, the order having been transmitted from Fort Moultrie. The communication between the forts was perfect, and much to the satisfaction of the skilful operators concerned. —Norfolk Day Book, November 30.
—Two schooners from Baltimore, Md., one laden with coal and one with lumber, were captured by the steamer George Page, as they lay becalmed under the rebel batteries, on the Potomac. The National pickets challenged the Page, which passed in pursuit within a hundred yards of them, but the reply that she was a United States steamer deceived them.
The Fifty-seventh and Sixty-first regiments of New York, the latter commanded by Col. Cone, made a reconnoissance from Springfield, nine miles from Alexandria, Va., and went three miles and a half beyond the Federal pickets, toward Manassas, when, discovering a rebel force numbering eight thousand men, they returned to their starting point, reaching it in good order and without casualties.
—For the first time in the history of Virginia, thanksgiving-day was observed in that State. Governor Pierpont is the first Governor of Virginia who ever proclaimed one. Business was entirely suspended.—(Doc. 202.)
—The Concordia Cavalry, Capt. Benjamin, left their encampment at Concordia, La., on the Magenta, for Bowling Green, Ky. They bear in their midst a large-sized black flag, on which appear, in bold relief, death’s head and bare bones. These Concordians go to expel, not capture, vandal invaders of their homes and firesides, and they will make their mark. — Concordia Intelligencer, November 29.
— This morning the schooner Waterman, Capt. Huron, for Charleston, S. C., was wrecked off Tybee. She fell into the hands of the Yankee blockaders. — Last night the cotton and provisions on Hutchinson, Fenwick, and adjoining islands were destroyed by fire by the proprietors. — Commissary-General Whitaker, of Georgia, seized in that State, one thousand five hundred and forty sacks of salt, for which be paid as directed by Governor Brown. — The colored people of Vicksburg, Miss., advertise in the papers of that city to give a ball for the benefit of the soldiers from that State, in the Confederate service. — General Lee issued an order granting furloughs to these members of the South Carolina Legislature who were serving as soldiers in the Confederate States army, in that State, during the session, which commenced on the 25th ult. — Savannah News.
—Adjutant-Gen. Thomas sent out instructions to Gen. Sherman, in Beaufort, S. C., to take possession of all the crops on the island — cotton, corn, rice, etc.— on military account, and ship the cotton, and such other crops as were not wanted for the army, to New York, to be sold there for account of the United States; also, to use negro slaves to gather and secure the crops of cotton and corn, and to erect his defences at Port Royal and other places on the island. — Washington Republican, Nov. 30.
—A Band of rebels, under the notorious Sy. Gordon, captured Capt. Robb, Capt. White, and Lieutenant Moonlight, three United States officers, from the railroad train, at Weston, Missouri. — The Sixty-third New York regiment (third regiment, Irish Brigade) left New York for Washington.
— Col. Mulligan, the commander of the Irish Brigade at the siege of Lexington, Mo., had a reception at Detroit, Mich., and in response to a speech of welcome made an address, rehearsing some interesting particulars of the siege. — (Doc. 203.)
— The Annual Thanksgiving festival of the Free States was celebrated this day — with more than usual earnestness. Proclamations by various persons in authority called attention to it as a fit occasion to render thanks, especially, that so many loyal men were ready to fight for the honor and glory of the country.
