Jan. 15th. Arrangements to move at 9 A. M. for Cincinnati— marched mounted by country road. Went on ahead with Robinson, overtook Abbey and Wood. Rode on my horse about the city. P. M. took cars for St. Louis—1,300 strong.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
ANUARY 15TH.—I forgot to mention the fact that some weeks ago I received a work in manuscript from London, sent thither before the war, and brought by a bearer of dispatches from our Commissioner, Hon. Ambrose Dudley Mann, to whom I had written on the subject. I owe him a debt of gratitude for this kindness. When peace is restored, I shall have in readiness some contributions to the literature of the South, and my family, if I should not survive, may derive pecuniary benefit from them. I look for a long war, unless a Napoleon springs up among us, a thing not at all probable, for I believe there are those who are constantly on the watch for such dangerous characters, and they may possess the power to nip all embryo emperors in the bud.
Some of our functionaries are not justly entitled to the great positions they occupy. They attained them by a species of snap-judgment, from which there may be an appeal hereafter. It is very certain that many of our best men have no adequate positions, and revolutions are mutable things.
Jan. 15. Rough weather still continues, and we are out of rations, subsisting entirely on hardtack and a short ration of that. Unless it calms down so a tug can get alongside, we shall be entirely out in a day or two more. Three more boats dragged their anchors and went ashore this morning, and other boats, with their flags union down, are calling for help. In fact, things are beginning to look gloomy, but amidst all the trouble and discouragements, Gen. Burnside is everywhere to be seen, flying about among the boats and vessels, encouraging his men and looking as cheerful as though everything was going to suit him. Today a rebel boat came down the sound to take a look at us. One of our boats went out to meet her, but the rebel, not caring for an interview, hauled off. The colonel, surgeon and one other man of the 9th New Jersey regiment were drowned today, by the upsetting of a small boat they were in. And so we go, trouble and dangers by sea, and I suppose there will be more by land, if we ever get there.
January 15 — Wet and dreary, rained and sleeted all day. Renewed our march early this morning, forded Back Creek near Shanghai, crossed the North Mountain, and at noon we arrived at Martinsburg, wet, but glad to get into comfortable winter quarters once more. I never saw it sleet faster than it did to-day when we were ascending the North Mountain. The Bath trip is over. We were gone just fifteen days, and never fired a single shot.
Wednesday, 15th—Nothing of importance. Got some more pies and doughnuts from a man and his wife who come in three times a week with them, to sell to the boys. We usually lay in a good supply.
Wednesday Jan’y 15th
Nothing new in the City or from the army. More Cabinet changes talked of, and I think necessary. Julia had letter from Mrs Dr Barnes of the 27th Regt. She has been staying in Camp for the last ten weeks living in a tent. She also had a letter from Miss Mirrick of Lyons. It has been a cold unpleasant day, freezing until near night with a misty sleet falling all day. The ground is covered with snow, tonight it thaws and the snow & water on the ground render “rubbers” an absolute necessity. What the poor soldiers do it is hard to tell [in] this kind of weather. There is an immense amount of sickness in the City now among citizens. Small pox & Typhoid fever are both prevailing to a great extent. The mortality in the Military Hospitals is very great, forty or fifty pr day are carried off to their long homes. Bad management I fear there.
______
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.
Eliza to Joe Howland.
Washington, ‘62.
We have made an engagement with Rev. Mr. Kennard, a young Baptist clergyman here, to visit the jail with him, where the poor contrabands are imprisoned on suspicion of being runaway slaves, or for debt. We have the Marshal’s permit, secured through a friend. . . . We made our visit; it is a wretched place, but the contrabands are better off than the convicts, though many of the poor creatures are almost naked. There are twenty men and boys and a few women, all runaway slaves. We gave them socks, shirts, drawers, etc. and shall go again. The women were very glad to get the sewing we had arranged for them.
January 15. Wednesday. — A swashing rain is falling on top of the snow. What floods and what roads we shall have! No more movements in this quarter. Yesterday a party from Camp Hayes went out after forage to the home of a man named Shumate who had escaped from the guardhouse in Raleigh a few days ago. They stopped at his house. As one of the men were [was] leaving, he said he would take a chunk along to build a fire. Mrs. Shumate said, “You’ll find it warm enough before you get away.” The party were fired on by about thirty bushwhackers; two horses badly wounded. Four men had narrow escapes, several balls through clothing.
Two more contrabands yesterday. These runaways are bright fellows. As a body they are superior to the average of the uneducated white population of this State. More intelligent, I feel confident. What a good-for-nothing people the mass of these western Virginians are! Unenterprising, lazy, narrow, listless, and ignorant. Careless of consequences to the country if their own lives and property are safe. Slavery leaves one class, the wealthy, with leisure for cultivation. They are usually intelligent, well-bred, brave, and high-spirited. The rest are serfs.
Rained all day; snow gone. I discharged three suspicious persons heretofore arrested; all took the oath. Two I thought too old to do mischief, Thurman and Max; one I thought possibly honest and gave him the benefit of the possibility. He was from Logan County. Knew Laban T. Moore and my old friend John Bromley. John, he says, is “suspect” of Secesh.
January 15.—This day, the steamers blockading the Rappahannock River, observed a schooner coming out of Thompson’s Creek, about a mile and a half from the mouth of the river, and standing up the river, as if to make away from the gunboats, keeping close to the shore. The Mystic was ordered to give chase, and succeeded in beaching the schooner, when the crew of the latter vessel deserted her, and made the shore in safety.
Two boats were lowered from the Mystic, and the tars took possession of the schooner, when they were fired on by a party of rebels, some five hundred yards distant, with canister, apparently from a howitzer. The balls passed over them, and no one was injured. The Mystic then opened fire, and shelled the surrounding woods, covering the retreat of the boats.
The gunboat Dawn then moved up to assist the Mystic, and fired four shells at different points, without any reply being made by the rebels. The Dawn then proceeded higher up the river, and closer into shore, when she was fired on from a rifled piece, placed some distance up the beach. No damage was done, however, and it was discovered that the rebels had a howitzer and a rifled cannon, which they were moving up or down as necessary, and that no battery was to be found.
The schooner was burned, and the gunboats returned to their station at the mouth of the river.
—A correspondence has passed between Price, commanding the rebels in Southern Missouri, and General Halleck, in command of the Department of the Missouri, in reference to the disposal of bridge-burners, and other rebels, captured by the Federal forces. Price states that he has information that certain citizens, soldiers, and bridge-burners, have been shot, which statement he can not believe. Nevertheless, he propounds certain questions to General Halleck, the first of which is, whether his men are to be treated as rebels or belligerents. General Halleck replies, that the bridge-burners have been court-martialed, and that “no order of yours (Price’s) can save from punishment spies, marauders, robbers, incendiaries, guerrilla bands, etc., who violate the laws of war.” But if any of Price’s men are captured in the garb of soldiers, they shall be treated as prisoners of war. He promises further communication with Price, when he shall receive instructions from his Government.
—Edwin M. Stanton’s nomination, as Secretary of War, was confirmed. Mr. Lincoln’s nomination of Mr. Stanton was received with great favor by the loyal Democratic press. They regarded it as an indication of a more cordial union of parties, in the great work of sustaining the Government
— The Second regiment of Ohio Cavalry, (Ben. Wade Brigade,) under the command of Colonel Doubleday, passed through Cincinnati, on their way to Leavenworth, Kansas. The regiment numbers one thousand two hundred and forty men, with one thousand one hundred and eighty-four horses. — Cincinnati Gazette, January 16.
—The following notice was published in Barren County, Ky., this day:
“All free white males of Barren County, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, who will not volunteer in the Confederate service, who have a gun or guns, are required to deliver said gun or guns, within twenty days, in Glasgow, Ky., at the office of the undersigned, Inspector of Arms for Barren County. All persons, within the ages above named, who have taxable property to the value of five hundred dollars, and upwards, who have no gun, will attend at the office aforesaid, at the time aforesaid, and make oath to the same, and pay twenty dollars. For which amount, and all guns that are delivered, the said inspector will receipt; which receipt will be evidence of debt against said Confederate Government. All persons, failing to comply with this requisition, will subject themselves to a fine of fifty dollars, and imprisonment until said fine is paid. The undersigned is authorized to receive, accept and qualify, volunteers for the Confederate service, for the term of twelve months.
Z. McDaniel,
Inspector of Arms, Barren County.
