Monday, 24th—Nothing of importance. Our company now has a company cook. He cooks the beans and salt beef for all, but each man draws his rations every five days, makes his own coffee and cooks his salt bacon to suit himself.
February 2012
February 24 — This morning we renewed our march. The weather was calm, warm, and bright, with not a speck of cloud staining the sky, but we had not proceeded very far on our way before dark and threatening thunder clouds came rolling from the west, and soon broke over us in a drenching rain storm, with thunder and lightning in a regular midsummer style. But as our movement was not urgently important, the benignant humanity of our captain allowed us to stop, until the storm passed over and the rain ceased, and shelter ourselves in an old deserted house on the roadside.
We reached the Winchester and Pughtown road before night and quartered in a vacant house on the Pughtown road about six miles from Winchester, and near a little winding stream wearing the euphonious appellation of Hog Creek. The weather is beginning to grow warm, mild, and sunny. The boys are in good spirits and lively, and seem to be utterly unmindful of the hardships and dangers, deadly encounters and bloody conflicts, that are the attending concomitants of an active and vigorous campaign, which from all ominous appearances is ripe and nearly ready to open, for the breezes that sweep from the north already bear on their bosom the sounding echoes of the approaching footsteps and measured tread of a formidable and determined invading foe. Soon, ah, too soon, the demons of war will be brandishing their glittering blades and fiendishly slashing for human blood, and the dead and dying be scattered over the fields that are now ready to don the blooming livery of spring.
But hie away, ye gloomy reveries, distracting thoughts, and perplexing fears, and let the soothing touch of hope revive my drooping spirits. The war cloud may burst with all its fury and the red fiery eye of battle may glow in all its fiercest wrath, yet I may withstand all its destructive ravages, pass through all its fiery ordeals unscathed and untouched, and live to see the last fragment of war cloud drift away and dissolve in the radiant glow of freedom’s peaceful light.
February 24th.— Congress and the newspapers render one desperate, ready to cut one’s own throat. They represent everything in our country as deplorable. Then comes some one back from our gay and gallant army at the front. The spirit of our army keeps us up after all. Letters from the army revive one. They come as welcome as the flowers in May. Hopeful and bright, utterly unconscious of our weak despondency.
February 24.—A slight skirmish took place at Mason’s Neck, in the neighborhood of Occoquan, Va., between a body of Texan rangers and a party of National troops. The rangers fired from a house in which they took refuge. Two of the Nationals, belonging to the New-York Thirty-seventh regiment, were killed, and another man was wounded. The loss of the rebels was not ascertained.—-N. Y. Herald, February 26.
—The Twelfth regiment of Connecticut volunteers, under the command of Colonel Henry C. Deming, left New-Haven for the seat of war at Ship Island, Gulf of Mexico.
—Cols. Wood, of the Fourteenth New-York, Lee, of the Twentieth Massachusetts, and Cogswell, of the Tammany regiment, (N. Y. S. V.,) arrived at Baltimore from Fortress Monroe, having been released by the rebels. Colonel Wood, who was present at the inauguration of Jeff. Davis, states that there was no enthusiasm manifested on the occasion.
—Bishop Thomas F. Davis, of the Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Church of South Carolina, now in session at Charleston, has pronounced an address, in which he states that prior Conventions of the Church in the Confederate States had declared that “we were no longer, as a Church, in administrative union with the Church in the United States.”—N. Y. Times, February 23.
—An expedition, composed of four iron-clad gunboats and two mortar-boats, with the Twenty-seventh Illinois and a battalion of the Eighth Wisconsin Regiments, made a reconnoisance from Cairo, Illinois, down the Mississippi river this morning, and discovered that the rebels had seized all the flatboats and skiffs as far up as they dared to come; also that there had been a movement among the troops at Columbus. The gunboats and mortar-boats getting into position on the Missouri side of the river when a rebel steamer, with a white flag, made its appearance, some rebel officers came on board the Cincinnati, and a consultation took place.—Cincinnati Gazette.
— Harper’s Ferry, Va., was occupied by the National forces, under the command of General Banks. The troops were unopposed, and found all the necessaries for a permanent occupation.
—Lieut. A. C. Rhind, U. S. N., went, with Lieut. Prentiss and three men, on an expedition to Bear Bluff, opposite White Point, on North-Edisto River, S. C, where the rebels were erecting a battery. Two men were found, as picket guards, in the magazine of the unfinished battery, asleep. In attempting to secure them, one was shot by the accidental discharge of a pistol in the hands of Lieutenant Rhind. The other was captured.— (Doc. 62.)
History.
Feb. 23. The boys are amusing themselves making pipes from briar roots and fixing long stems of cane to them. Some of them are carved very handsomely and show much artistic skill. Washington’s birthday was celebrated by salutes from the forts and a holiday in the camp. There is some very interesting history connected with this island, but not having books to refer to, I can give but a very indifferent account of it. Sometime in the latter part of the 16th century, Sir Walter Raleigh, an English nobleman, sent out an American exploring expedition. They visited the Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, discovering this island. After trading with the Indians, and learning what they could of the country, they returned to England. They gave such glowing accounts of the country and what they had seen that Raleigh, the next year, sent out a colony under one Lane. They occupied this island, but after about a year, during which time they suffered many hardships, returned to England. A year or two later, another expedition was sent out. They also settled here, but after a while the leader of it returned to England for supplies. After an absence of a year or two, he again returned here, but on landing, not a trace of it could be found, and it was never after heard from. A later historian, however, says the Indians who lived on the island claimed that some of their ancestors were white people and could talk out of a book.
Sunday, February 23. — Day cloudy and misty as usual. This morning I found that my horse had the scratches. I am sorry for it, as I shall not be able to use him for some days. Captain Allen and Lieutenant Phillips 1 were here this evening to visit me. I bet a box of cigars with Martindale that we should not leave here within a week from to-day.
February 23 — This morning we left Martinsburg with all our household and camping utensils, and from all noticeable indications we have said our last farewell to winter quarters for this season, and who can tell where we shall dwell to be merry another winter?
This evening we are quartered in a church at White Hall in Frederick County, about seven miles north of Winchester.
Sunday 23d —
This has been a misty damp day. I have not been to church. Young Field came up from his quarters and went with my wife & the boys. Prof Sparks called in the evening and staid an hour. I went down to the National and called upon Mr [S Seelye?] of NY. Called upon Chas on my return. Home at 9 o’clock.
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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.
Sunday, 23d—We attended church today at the different churches in town, some of the boys going to the Catholic church. We had prayer meeting in camp in the evening.
23rd. Sunday. Felt half sick all day, sore throat, hard cough. Lay still and did nothing all day.
