Tuesday, 29th.—Left home 11 A. M. Got to Chattanooga, 4 P. M.
(Note: picture is of an unidentified Confederate soldier.)
July 2012
July 29th. Weather delightful, barring the great heat. In the evening from six to eight o’clock the whole division was paraded for review by General French, commanding. The men returned to camp covered with dust, and saturated with perspiration. It is altogether too hot for unnecessary parades, at least so we think, who do most of the work.
July 29.—Major-General Pope, accompanied by his staff, left Washington for the headquarters of his army in the field. Before his departure he ordered that passes to the lines of his forces should not be granted to others than those having official business there.—John Johnson, an alleged rebel officer from New-Orleans, was arrested at Roxbury, Mass., and committed to prison.—The English brig Napier was captured by the United States steamer Mystic, while endeavoring to run the blockade of Wilmington, N. C.
—A skirmish took place at Mount Stirling, Ky., between a number of the citizens of that place and a force of about two hundred and forty rebel guerrillas, resulting in a complete rout of the latter, with a loss of about seventy-five of their number in killed, wounded, and prisoners. —(Doc. 164.)
—A fight occurred near Bollinger’s Mills, Mo., between a force of Union troops, under the command of Captain Whybank, and a body of rebel guerrillas, under Major Tenley, resulting in the defeat of the rebels, with a loss of ten killed and a number wounded. The Unionists also captured a number of guns, horses, etc.—(Doc. 161.)
—General Pope and his staff arrived at Warrenton, Va., at noon, creating great consternation among the secessionists, nearly all of whom had taken the rebel oath of allegiance, and insisted that Gen. Pope dared not carry out the intentions declared in his proclamations.—Col. Lloyd, of the Sixth Ohio cavalry, in pursuance of General Pope’s order, arrested all the male inhabitants of Luray, Va., and lodged them in the court-house preparatory to administering the oath of allegiance.
—The rebel batteries at Genesis Point, on the Ogeechee River, Georgia, were shelled by the National gunboats.—Savannah Republican, July 30.
—Russellville, Ky., was this day captured by a band of rebel guerrillas, under Col. Gano. The town was defended by the home guard, but they were overpowered by superior force. Seval of their number were killed and one wounded. —Large meetings were held at Bath, N. Y., and Rutland, Vt, for the purpose of promoting enlistments into the army, under the call of President Lincoln for three hundred thousand additional troops. At Bath two thousand dollars were raised to aid volunteering.
—A detachment of Union cavalry, under the command of Captain Dollin, attacked a force of rebels, numbering about eighty, near Brownsville, Tenn., and captured forty of them. The rebels were afterwards reenforced, and recaptured twenty-nine men and fourteen horses. The National loss was four killed and six wounded; the rebel loss was about the same.
Hilton Head, S.C.
July 28, 1862
Tins place is not at all the pestilential spot you all seem to suppose, and if you will convince yourself of that, you will all save yourselves a great deal of anxiety. The deaths here of all descriptions, arising from disease, wounds and accidents, are not more than six a week out of some 5000 men, which is about six per cent a year and that in the very heart of the summer. From this you will see that the station, however disagreeable, and General Williams says it’s the most so he ever saw, certainly cannot be considered unhealthy….
We get nothing new here. Col. Williams’ nomination as Brigadier was among the unfinished business of Congress and so falls to the ground; but I shall act on his staff, though I expect very soon to return to the regiment, though not to my old company…. Ben Crowninshield is at home on furlough and at Sharon…. Lawrence Motley is really down sick, as also is Rand. Greely Curtis has also been on his back — all of them four times as sick as ____. Henry Higginson is acting in command of the regiment and more than a third of the officers are away sick or on detached duty. By way of variety our horses have the glanders and we have lost some forty and not yet succeeded in wholly getting rid of it. So we feel the necessity of some change, somehow.
General Hunter is very unpopular — arbitrary and wholly taken up with his negro question. His one regiment is a failure, and becoming more so, and I have no faith in the experiment anyhow. I smiled audibly at your idea of my taking a commission in one of them; after all my assertion of principles to become a “nigger driver” in my old age, for that is what it amounts to, seeing that they don’t run away, or shirk work or fatigue duty. No! Hunter and you are all wrong, and, for once, the War Department was right. The negroes should be organized and officered as soldiers; they should have arms put in their hands and be drilled simply with a view to their moral elevation and the effect on their self-respect, and for the rest they should be used as fatigue parties and on all fatigue duty. As to being made soldiers, they are more harm than good. It will be years before they can be made to stand before their old masters, unless (and the exception means a great deal) some leader of their own, some Toussaint rises, who is one of them and inspires them with confidence. Under our system and with such white officers as we give them, we might make a soldiery equal to the native Hindoo regiments in about five years. It won’t pay and the idea of arming the blacks as soldiers must be abandoned.
To my mind the ultras are doing all the harm they can and it is yet a question whether they will not save slavery out of this war, rather than let Providence work its destruction in ways other than those preconceived by them. I sincerely hope Sumner will be defeated in the fall election. As to the army, so far as I see it, it is completely demoralized on this question by the conduct of these men, and it makes me sick to hear New England men talk on the subject of the negroes here and all who would aid them. Such prejudice and narrow bigotry I never met in Southerners. There is no abolitionism or, I fear, even emancipation in the army here. The ultras in their eagerness have spoilt all. It is all right, you know, and for the best; but is n’t it enough to make an equine laugh to see a man like Sumner, so convinced that he alone sees the clear way, so absolute in his opinions and wholly devoid of charity to others, withal such an utterly blind instrument in the hand of Providence. The plot thickens and I hope this war will spare me, as I don’t want to die, until I see how all this turmoil, confusion and disaster, is, on pure philosophical principles, to result, as we know it will, in the advancement of the human kind. How much and how long must you and I suffer that that advancement may be worked out.
28th.—The report of Hindman’s having captured Curtis untrue; but our army is doing well in the West. Murfreesboro’, in Tennessee, has been captured by Confederates—a brigade, two brigadiers, and other officers, taken. “Jack Morgan” is annoying and capturing the Kentucky Yankees.
The true Southerners there must endure an almost unbearable thraldom!
A long letter from S. S., describing graphically their troubles when in Federal lines. Now they are breathing freely again. A number of servants from W. and S. H, and indeed from the whole Pamunky River, went off with their Northern friends. I am sorry for them, taken from their comfortable homes to go they know not where, and to be treated they know not how. Our man Nat went, to whom I was very partial, because his mother was the maid and humble friend of my youth, and because I had brought him up. He was a comfort to us as a driver and hostler, but now that we have neither home, carriage, nor horses, it makes but little difference with us; but how, with his slow habits, he is to support himself, I can’t imagine. The wish for freedom is natural, and if he prefers it, so far as I am concerned he is welcome to it. I shall be glad to hear that he is doing well. Mothers went off leaving children—in two instances infants. Lord have mercy upon these poor misguided creatures! I am so thankful that the scurf of the earth, of which the Federal army seems to be composed, has been driven away from Hanover. I would that “Clarke” were as free.
JULY 28TH.—The Examining Board of Surgeons, established by the Secretary of War, has been abolished by order of Gen. Lee. It was the only idea of the Secretary yet developed, excepting the “handing over” of the” whole business of passports to Gen. Winder.”
In 1862, a Wisconsin volunteer writes, “The grand old southern homestead of Arlington, with its quaint and curious pictures on the wall, its spectacular apartments, broad halls and stately pillars in front, was an object of especial interest; but, abandoned by its owner, General Robert E. Lee, who was using his great power as a military leader, to destroy the Government he had sworn to defend, it was now a desolation. The military headquarters of McDowell’s division was in the Arlington House, which was open to the public and hundreds tramped at will through its apartments.”
Some, like this man, seemed to consider the changes at Arlington to be Lee’s punishment for his decision to follow Virginia when it seceded from the Union. Such an attitude was not uncommon as many in the Union army viewed Lee as a traitor who had acted dishonorably in resigning his U.S. Army commission at the start of the Civil War. Thus, for these people, the transformations at Arlington were Lee’s just fruits. Subsequent developments on the estate during the War would only contribute to such a feeling, as the Government looked for new ways to use the Arlington estate.
Summary: Photo shows Major-General Irvin McDowell, full-length portrait, facing left, standing on steps with eight officers and one officer holding a horse.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
We had a pleasant passage to New Orleans, where we arrived July 28th, and found the U. S. transport Connecticut awaiting us with a large mail. On this evening we had a heavy shower of rain, accompanied by heavy thunder and sharp lightning, purifying the air to a very pleasant degree. We now proceeded to coal ship preparatory to proceeding on our way. The sailors were here given liberty on shore—about eighty at a time—for twenty-four hours each. I here took a few hours to myself, and set foot on shore for the first time in six months. I had a very limited view of a portion of the city, and came back to the ship after a stay of four hours.
On the night of the 25th intelligence arrived from Baton Rouge that the rebels had made an attack on the latter place and, killing General Williams, had been repulsed. The Hartford was immediately turned up the river for Baton Rouge. On our passage we lost our orderly sergeant of marines, who died of bilious colic; we buried him at the latter place. On arriving we learned that a hard battle had been fought, and that the rebel ram Arkansas had been attacked and destroyed. As the rebels had left the place, and the Arkansas had ceased to trouble us, we turned our ship, and for the last time sailed down the stream. Things went quietly until arriving at Donaldsonville, where we came to, and after bombarding the little village for an hour, sent a few boats ashore and burned the place to the ground. This act was occasioned by guerrilla bands repeatedly firing upon our transports, and after being warned, the Commodore determined to make an example of it. Nothing in the line of eatables was found here, but large quantities of choice wines were discovered, of which our sailors partook freely, notwithstanding their fear of poison.
We arrived at New Orleans on the following day, where we remained several days.
Monday, 28th—We struck our tents and at sunup started on our march for Bolivar, Tennessee. Our guide took us on the wrong road and we countermarched about ten miles, thus not being far from our starting point. The guide was tied and taken back to Corinth.[1] It is very warm and the roads are dusty. Our road being on high ground, we found water very scarce, and what little we got was of poor quality. General Turtle is in command of our division, the Sixth.
To Mrs. Lyon.
Camp Clear Creek, Miss., July 28, 1862.—So you fear my good spirits are assumed. Nary a bit of it. With an appetite that enables me to eat two rations. with physical vigor that keeps me free from an ache or a pain and lets me sleep on the hard earth as soundly and sweetly as I ever did on the softest bed, with a tolerably good looking, middle aged wife and two cute children ‘up North,’ with the consciousness of doing my duty, and an increasing habitual reliance upon the protection of Divine Providence, why shouldn’t I be in good spirits!
Should you hear rumors that the North is whipped, you need not believe it. ‘Tis no such thing. History doesn’t tell of so successful a campaign as ours has been since the first of February. Some reverses were to be expected, but no Government ever conducted a war on so large a scale with so few reverses as has ours. Slavery will be wiped out. The South will be subdued, and any nation on earth that interferes with us will get war until it is tired of it.
