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

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Post image for Woolsey Family during the War.

Woolsey Family during the War.

May 22, 2012

Woolsey family letters during the War for the Union

Eliza Woolsey Howland to her husband, Joe.

Floating Hospital, Spaulding,

Off White House, May 22.

We are to go on shore presently to see what we can do for the large field hospital there. Two of our doctors, Ware and Draper of New York, spent the day yesterday trying to organize it and make the men tolerably comfortable. They furnished from the Commission nearly a thousand mattresses, secured them fresh water in hogsheads (which they were entirely without) and saw that all who needed medicine got it. System and food seem to be the great wants, and to-day we ladies will attend to the latter, take them supplies and show the hospital cooks how to prepare them. There are 1,200 or more sick men there, and until the Commission took hold they were in a most wretched plight, lying on the damp ground without beds, without food or water, and with little or no care. … I hope you take all necessary precautions in this wretched climate. Don’t give up your quinine. . . .

Later. — Directly after I wrote you this morning Georgy and I went to the shore to breakfast the men we had dinnered and teaed yesterday, and there we had a little house nearby, which Dr. Ware had found, nicely cleaned out for a hospital or resting-place for the sick when the other overflows. The floor of one of the rooms up stairs is six inches deep in beans. That makes a good bed for them. . . . Meantime Mrs. Griffin and the others got this boat in order for sick, and this afternoon fifty odd have been brought on board. To-morrow it will fill up and leave for New York.

Post image for A Diary of American Events.

A Diary of American Events.

May 22, 2012

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

May 22.—An enthusiastic meeting was held at Portsmouth, Va., at which resolutions were adopted expressive of devotion to the cause of the Union, and condemnatory of the heresy of secession. Johannes Watson was elected President and R. S. Staples, Secretary.—(Doc. 101.)

—This morning while the Seventy-sixth New York regiment was marching through the city of Washington a number of civil officers provided with judicial papers, seized two negroes and soon placed them beyond the possibility of rescue.

An effort was made to arrest six or eight other alleged fugitive slaves, when many of the soldiers interposed, pointing their muskets at the police and warning them of the danger of persistence. They therefore retired — the negroes departing under the protection of their military friends.

—The foreign consuls at Galveston, Texas, in view of an expected attack upon that place by the United States forces, communicated with Captain Eagle of the Santee, with a purpose of fixing upon some point that might be respected in the bombardment, as a point of refuge for foreign subjects; when Captain Eagle replied:

“Let me assure you, gentlemen, that no person can deplore more than myself the misery that would result from the bombardment of the town of Galveston, and its fortifications, yet it is a duty that will become necessary to enforce its surrender. It is not in my power to give you any assurance of security during the bombardment, for it is impossible to tell what direction the shot and shell will take.”—Houston Telegraph, May 23.

—General Prentiss’s troops, captured at the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn., were paroled by the rebels at Montgomery, Alabama.—Mobile Register, May 27.

—This day company I, of the Seventeenth Massachusetts, left Newbern, N. C., on a scouting party to seize a quantity of cotton which the rebels were reported to have stored near Pollocksville, for the purpose of burning or carrying off as opportunity favored them. The party had proceeded but a few miles beyond the Union outposts, when, at the fork of the roads leading to Trenton and Pollocksville, they were suddenly met with a brisk discharge of musketry from every side. The woods all round suddenly became brilliant with the flashing of the pieces, and the party, deeming it probable that the rebels were too numerous and strongly posted to hazard any thing like a determined resistance, withdrew after firing a few rounds. The loss of the Nationals was three killed and eight wounded.— N. Y. Herald, May 30.

—The Court of Impeachment for the purpose of trying West H. Humphreys, late District Judge of the United States for the second district of Tennessee, on charges of treason presented by the House of Representatives, was organized in the Senate Chamber at Washington, D. C., this day.

—Six rebel pickets were captured near Battery Island, on the Stono River, S. C., by a small reconnoitring party from the United States coast survey steamer Bibb.

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