Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Post image for Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes.

March 11, 2012

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Tuesday 11. — A warm bright day. Dined at the hospital with our excellent assistant surgeon, Dr. McCurdy. Sent Company E to Raleigh. The last of the Twenty-third quartered in Fayette is gone. Camp Hayes, Raleigh, headquarters henceforth.

Heard of the evacuation of Manassas by the Rebels. If so, it is evidence of a breaking away that almost decides the contest. But how did they do it undisturbed? What was McClellan doing? A great victory over the combined forces of Van Doren, Price, McCulloch, and McIntosh reported to have occurred in Arkansas.

How it was in Arkansas.

March 11, 2012

War Diary of a Union Woman in the South by Dora Richards Miller

March 11, 1862.—The serpent has entered our Eden. The rancor and excitement of New Orleans have invaded this place. If an incautious word betrays any want of sympathy with popular plans, one is “traitorous,” “ungrateful,” “crazy.” If one remains silent, and controlled, then one is “phlegmatic,” “cool-blooded,” “unpatriotic.” Cool-blooded! Heavens! if they only knew. It is very painful to see lovable and intelligent women rave till the blood mounts to face and brain. The immediate cause of this access of war fever has been the battle of Pea Ridge. They scout the idea that Price and Van Dorn have been completely worsted. Those who brought the news were speedily told what they ought to say. “No, it is only a serious check; they must have more men sent forward at once. This country must do its duty.” So the women say another company must be raised.

We were guests at a dinner-party yesterday. Mrs. A. was very talkative. “Now, ladies, you must all join in with a vim and help equip another company.”

“Mrs. L.,” she said, turning to me, “are you not going to send your husband? Now use a young bride’s influence and persuade him; he would be elected one of the officers.” “Mrs. A.,” I replied, longing to spring up and throttle her, “the Bible says, ‘When a man hath married a new wife, he shall not go to war for one year, but remain at home and cheer up his wife.’” …

“Well, H.,” I questioned, as we walked home after crossing the lake, “can you stand the pressure, or shall you be forced into volunteering?” “Indeed,” he replied, “I will not be bullied into enlisting by women, or by men. I will sooner take my chance of conscription and feel honest about it. You know my attachments, my interests are here; these are my people. I could never fight against them; but my judgment disapproves their course, and the result will inevitably be against us.”

This morning the only Irishman left in the village presented himself to H. He has been our woodsawyer, gardener, and factotum, but having joined the new company, his time recently has been taken up with drilling. H. and Mr. R. feel that an extensive vegetable garden must be prepared while he is here to assist or we shall be short of food, and they sent for him yesterday.

“So, Mike, you are really going to be a soldier?”

“Yes, sor; but faith, Mr. L., I don’t see the use of me going to shtop a bullet when sure an’ I’m willin’ for it to go where it plazes.”

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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.
Post image for So the great move was made.

So the great move was made.

March 11, 2012

Woolsey family letters during the War for the Union

Georgeanna’s Journal.

March 11.

So the great move was made, the thing we had been looking forward to for so many months. The entire army was in motion, troops on the other side the river advancing, troops on this side taking their place. All day Monday and far into the night regiments marched over the bridges into Virginia,—50,000 over the Long bridge, they say, and to-day we drove up to the Chain bridge, and they told us 15,000 crossed there yesterday. We walked down towards the Long bridge to-day; crowds of people were collected on 14th street to see the move. As we crossed the canal, mother, Charley and I, swinging along with the rest, three large army wagons brought up the rear, marked T. E., carrying the telegraphic apparatus for the Engineers, and the wires must have been laid last night, for this morning General Williams had the announcement from McClellan (who slept at Fairfax Court House), that our troops are in possession at Manassas.

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A Diary From Dixie

March 11, 2012

A Diary From Dixie by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut.

March 11th.—A freshman came quite eager to be instructed in all the wiles of society. He wanted to try his hand at a flirtation, and requested minute instructions, as he knew nothing whatever: he was so very fresh. “Dance with her,” he was told, “and talk with her; walk with her and flatter her; dance until she is warm and tired; then propose to walk in a cool, shady piazza. It must be a somewhat dark piazza. Begin your promenade slowly; warm up to your work; draw her arm closer and closer; then, break her wing.”

“Heavens, what is that—break her wing?” “Why, you do not know even that? Put your arm round her waist and kiss her. After that, it is all plain sailing. She comes down when you call like the coon to Captain Scott: ‘You need not fire, Captain,’ etc.”

The aspirant for fame as a flirt followed these lucid directions literally, but when he seized the poor girl and kissed her, she uplifted her voice in terror, and screamed as if the house was on fire. So quick, sharp, and shrill were her yells for help that the bold flirt sprang over the banister, upon which grew a strong climbing rose. This he struggled through, and ran toward the college, taking a bee line. He was so mangled by the thorns that he had to go home and have them picked out by his family. The girl’s brother challenged him. There was no mortal combat, however, for the gay young fellow who had led the freshman’s ignorance astray stepped forward and put things straight. An explanation and an apology at every turn hushed it all up.

Now, we all laughed at this foolish story most heartily. But Mr. Venable remained grave and preoccupied, and was asked: “Why are you so unmoved? It is funny.” “I like more probable fun; I have been in college and I have kissed many a girl, but never a one scrome yet.”

Last Saturday was the bloodiest we have had in proportion to numbers.¹ The enemy lost 1,500. The handful left at home are rushing to arms at last. Bragg has gone to join Beauregard at Columbus, Miss. Old Abe truly took the field in that Scotch cap of his.

Mrs. McCord,² the eldest daughter of Langdon Cheves, got up a company for her son, raising it at her own expense. She has the brains and energy of a man. To-day she repeated a remark of a low-country gentleman, who is dissatisfied: “This Government (Confederate) protects neither person nor property.” Fancy the scornful turn of her lip! Some one asked for Langdon Cheves, her brother. “Oh, Langdon!” she replied coolly, “he is a pure patriot; he has no ambition. While I was there, he was letting Confederate soldiers ditch through his garden and ruin him at their leisure.”

Cotton is five cents a pound and labor of no value at all; it commands no price whatever. People gladly hire out their negroes to have them fed and clothed, which latter can not be done. Cotton osnaburg at 37½ cents a yard, leaves no chance to clothe them. Langdon was for martial law and making the bloodsuckers disgorge their ill-gotten gains. We, poor fools, who are patriotically ruining ourselves will see our children in the gutter while treacherous dogs of millionaires go rolling by in their coaches—coaches that were acquired by taking advantage of our necessities.

This terrible battle of the ships—Monitor, Merrimac, etc. All hands on board the Cumberland went down. She fought gallantly and fired a round as she sank. The Congress ran up a white flag. She fired on our boats as they went up to take off her wounded. She was burned. The worst of it is that all this will arouse them to more furious exertions to destroy us. They hated us so before, but how now?

In Columbia I do not know a half-dozen men who would not gaily step into Jeff Davis’s shoes with a firm conviction that they would do better in every respect than he does. The monstrous conceit, the fatuous ignorance of these critics! It is pleasant to hear Mrs. McCord on this subject, when they begin to shake their heads and tell us what Jeff Davis ought to do.

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¹ On March 7 and 8, 1862, occurred the battle of Pea Ridge in Western Arkansas, where the Confederates were defeated, and on March 8th and 9th, occurred the conflict in Hampton Roads between the warships Merrimac, Cumberland, Congress, and Monitor.

² Louisa Susanna McCord, whose husband was David J. McCord, a lawyer of Columbia, who died in 1855. She was educated in Philadelphia, and was the author of several books of verse, including Caius Ciracchus, a tragedy; she was also a brilliant pamphleteer.

Post image for A Diary of American Events.

A Diary of American Events.

March 11, 2012

The American Civil War,The Rebellion Record—A Diary of American Events; by Frank Moore

March 11.—Manassas, Va., being evacuated by the rebel troops, this day the National forces took peaceable possession. Previous to their retreat the rebels attempted to destroy such of their stores as they could not carry with them. Bridges were burnt, the railroad tracks were broken up, and a large amount of commissary stores and other property was destroyed by fire. They left behind them, however, eighty army wagons, six caissons in good order, a large quantity of army clothing, good supplies of medical stores, besides many other useful articles. The forts were all dismantled, but the huts, sufficient to accommodate twenty-five or thirty thousand men, and built in a substantial manner, were left unharmed.—(Doc. 85.)

—This day Jeff. Davis sent a message to the rebel Congress, stating that he had suspended Gens. Floyd and Pillow from their commands until they could give more satisfactory accounts of their action at Fort Donelson. He is dissatisfied with their reports. The message states that neither of them say that reinforcements were asked for, nor do they show that the position could not have been evacuated and a whole army saved as well as a part of it. It is also not shown by what authority two senior generals abandoned their responsibility by transferring the command to a junior officer. —(Doc. 46.)

— This afternoon Assistant Surg. A. C. Rhoads, of the Pocahontas, by permission of his commanding officer, landed with a boat’s crew near Brunswick, Ga., for the purpose of procuring some fresh beef, for the ships. Having accomplished his object, the boat was returning to the Pocahontas, but had scarcely gone twenty yards from the beach, when they were suddenly fired upon by a body of rebels concealed in a thicket, and two men, John Wilson and John Shuter, were instantly killed, and seven wounded, one, William Delaney, mortally, and two severely, namely, William Smith, second, (first-class fireman,) and Edward Bonsall, (coxswain.)

After the rebels had fired their first volley they called out, in most offensive language, to surrender; but this demand was refused by Dr. Rhoads, who, with the assistance of Acting Paymaster Kitchen and his wounded boat’s crew, pulled as rapidly as they could toward the Pocahontas, the enemy continuing their fire.

In a few minutes a shell from one of the eleven guns of the Mohican dropped among them, and quite near to another company of about sixty men, who were advancing rapidly. The rebels scattered and fled in all direction. Several shells were also fired at a locomotive and train observed in the distance, and it is supposed with effect —Flag-Officer Du Pont’s Report.

—In the rebel Congress at Richmond, Va., a vote of thanks was passed to Capt Buchanan, his officers and crew, for their gallantry in the action in Hampton Roads, Va.

—Gen. Grant was this day presented with a sword by the officers of his command, at Fort Henry. The sword is of most exquisite workmanship, and manufactured at great expense. The handle is ivory, mounted with gold, and the blade of the finest texture and steel. There are two scabbards — one of fire-gilt and the other of gilt, mounted at the band. Accompanying the sword is a beautiful sash and belt, all inclosed in a fine rosewood case. The inscription on the sword was simply as follows: “Presented to Gen. U. S. Grant by G. W. Graham, C. R. Lagou, C. C. Marsh, and John Cook, 1861.”—Gen. C. F. Smith has taken command of the army in the field, Gen. Grant remaining at Fort Henry. The latter has applied to Gen. Halleck to be relieved of his command altogether.

—Col. Geary, Acting Brigadier-General of troops at Leesburg, Va., made a personal reconnoissance yesterday as far as Carter’s Mills. The trail of the retreating enemy was blackened with the ruins of granaries, ashes of hay and grain-stacks, fences, etc. He found the bridge over Goose Creek had been burned. The rebels have completely fallen back. The command continues to make captures of rank secessionists. The loyal feeling is growing, and many persons come forward to take the oath of allegiance daily.

Col. Geary, with some of his officers and a detachment of the First Michigan cavalry, rode to Ball’s Bluff to-day and buried the whitened bones of the brave Union soldiers who fell upon that field in October last. Impressive remarks preceded this humane act, and a monument of gross rebel neglect was hidden from human sight— N. Y. Times, March 12.

—The occupation of Manassas, Va., by the National troops, was celebrated throughout the loyal States in every manifestation of joy and patriotism.

—President Lincoln assumed the active duties of Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States. His first order, issued January twenty-second, but only now made public, directs a general movement of the land and naval forces against the rebels on the twenty-second day of February. The army and naval forces designated for this movement are especially directed to be ready, and the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, the General-in-Chief, McClellan, and all other commanders and subordinates are notified that they will be held to a strict and full accountability for the prompt execution of the order. The second order directs the organization of the Army of the Potomac into five corps, and designates the commanders of each. The third order states that Gen. McClellan, having personally taken the field, he is relieved of the command of all other military departments except that of the Department of the Potomac. The two departments of Generals Halleck and Hunter, with a portion of that now under Gen. Buell, are consolidated and designated as the Department of the Mississippi, and placed under the command of General Halleck. The country west of the Department of the Potomac, and east of the Department of the Mississippi, is designated the Mountain Department, and placed under command of General Fremont This department will include Western Virginia and East-Tennessee north of Knoxville. Commanders of departments are notified to report directly to the Secretary of War, and that prompt, full and frequent reports will be expected of them.—(Doc. 86.)

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