29th.—To-day received the anxiously expected furlough, and now for my dear, dear home, from which I have been absent for nearly a year and a half. Now for a visit to my dear wife and children! I have ridden since night to Hagerstown, where I shall stop till morning, then hie me onward. My hand is very painful and much swollen, but I anticipate no results from it more serious than severe pain.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
September 29 — Early this morning we renewed our march toward Leesburg. We arrived at the Shenandoah River about nine o’clock and remained there until noon, then forded the river and marched very fast all the remainder of the day until after dark. We crossed the Blue Ridge at Snickersville, a little village nestling close to the eastern base of the Blue Ridge in Loudoun County. We passed through Purcellville and Hamilton, small villages on the Leesburg and Winchester grade. To-night we are camped in Leesburg.
September 29, Monday. Seward brought me to-day a long dispatch from Dudley, consul at Liverpool. Although his fears were somewhat simulated, I saw he was really excited and alarmed. He is easily frightened. I therefore talked on general subjects, but he turned away, said there were terrible combinations in Europe to break the blockade, that there was evidence of it in the documents he brought and wished me to read. They were getting eight or ten steamers ready to break the blockade. I told him I had no apprehensions from any general concerted attack, such as he dreaded, but that I was annoyed by the sneaking method which the Englishmen practiced of stealing into Charleston in the darkness of the night. On reading the principal dispatch, I assured him there was no evidence in that document of any purpose to break the blockade, that there was no mention of an armed vessel by Consul Dudley, that there was activity among the merchant adventurers of Great Britain, stimulated by the Bull Run tidings, which they had just previously received. I did not doubt that British merchants were actively preparing to try to run the blockade, but we would be active in trying to catch them.
He seemed relieved yet not perfectly satisfied. We had some conversation in relation to letters of marque, which he favors. Wishes me to purchase the Baltic and give Comstock the command. Told him I trusted our naval cruisers, though some were not as fast as I wished, would perform the service, and that were we to buy and arm the Baltic, a naval officer must command her.
This scheme for Comstock and the Baltic is a key to the affected alarm. It has been concocted by Thurlow Weed, who has a job in view for himself or friends, perhaps both. Though Seward was somewhat frightened, his fears may have been greater in appearance than reality. He did not alarm me. It is shameful that an old profligate party-debaucher like Weed should have such influence, and Seward is mistaken in supposing I could be deceived by this connivance. His own fears of breaking the blockade were in a degree simulated. Weed is the prompter in this Comstock and Baltic intrigue. It is a job. Wrote Seward a letter of some length on the subject of cruising to suppress the slave trade under the treaty which he, without consulting the Cabinet, had recently negotiated with Great Britain. The letter is in answer to one addressed to him by Mr. Stuart, the British Charge d’Affaires. The treaty looks to me like a trap, and as if the Secretary of State had unwittingly “put his foot in it.” He thinks it would be popular to make a demonstration against slavery and the slave trade,—would conciliate the Abolitionists, who distrust him, and be a feather in his administration of the State Department. But he has been inconsiderate or duped, perhaps both. I declined to furnish cruisers as requested, for it would weaken our position, and I cannot consent to cripple our naval strength at this time, but prefer to retain, and to act under, the belligerent right of search, to that of restricted right conferred by the treaty.
Monday, 29th—We were relieved from picket this morning, and for the first time in several days we rested in camp all day. The weather is hot and sultry, with quite cool nights. The rebel cavalry seem to be all around us, but for fear of getting hurt they keep their distance.
Monday, 29th. Spent some time mending up my old clothes. After watering my horses had a visit with Trotter, taken prisoner at Fort Gibson—some interesting facts. 3,000 of the enemy, poor arms and worse clothes, frightened to death for fear of attack. Went out in P. M. for forage, 4 miles—corn. Saw a pretty, modest maiden weave, barefooted, blushed. Went off the road a mile and got peaches, the man a prisoner at Springfield. Wrote home. Order for detail of 25 men and officers for scout. I go. Success and fun ahead I hope. Boys start for Fort Scott.
Sharpsburg Ferry, Md.,
Monday, Sept. 29, 1862.
Dear Sister L.:—
Dennison T. has got home discharged. I wish I could have seen his mother’s greeting. I warrant you it was a joyful meeting. But Mrs. B. writes her sorrow. She cannot forget that though he went from home with a companion, he returned alone. Henry, I am afraid, will never return to receive such a greeting. They have never heard a word from him since the news of his arrival in Richmond severely wounded. I think he must be dead. Still they have no direct intelligence of his death, nothing but dreadful uncertainty.
If I should come home and call to see you I don’t believe you would be very sleepy for one hour or two, but I have no such expectations for the present at least. I have often told you that I was in for the war, and I never suffer myself to think for a moment of any going home till I go home honorably discharged, either unfit for service or at the close of the war. That day may be a good way off, but still I do not get homesick in the least. I know I never could feel easy to remain at home in full health while the war continued. No one would be more happy to see the war come to a close, the troubles settled, and the Union restored, than I, but few perhaps think less of military life than I, or would be more glad to leave it than I, if the cause were removed, but principle is at stake. I have cast my lot here from choice, and I’m not the one to back out because it’s hard.
I don’t just know about Almon’s garrison duty at Fortress Monroe. I rather guess they have garrison enough there. He may go to Yorktown or some of the other places in the vicinity, but I miss my guess if he stays long in the Fortress. I hope he will not be homesick, for of all the forlorn objects I ever saw a homesick soldier is the most pitiable. If he gets along the first month or so he will stand it afterwards.
So Uncle Joseph’s folks are down on McClellan, are they? Well, you know they are strong abolitionists and get most of their ideas on national affairs from Greeley and Beecher. Now McClellan is a more moderate man and deals with things as he finds them. He is no pro-slavery man, no more than Beecher, but I think he is a more practical man. He will do his duty just as well, now the “proclamation” is out, as he would before Greeley said the war would end in thirty days after the issue of the proclamation. It was done September 22d, so I suppose the war will end by October 22d, and some time in November I shall be home. Pleasant prospect, but I “don’t see it.” I approve of the proclamation, but I don’t think it is going to scare the South into submission. I think it will result in the total overthrow of slavery, but next winter will witness scenes so bloody that the horrors of the French Revolution will be peace in comparison to it. If the South will have it so, the blood be on her own head. Seward was right—the “irrepressible conflict” will continue till freedom or slavery rules the nation. I can’t see through the mist that clouds the future, but I’ll hope.
So you will allow me to laugh at you for thinking the smoke of battle reached old Chautauqua. Well, you are good humored about it to say the least, especially as you are not in a situation to help yourself very well. I do not say it didn’t come there, but did you see any repetition of the performance after the battle of Antietam on the 17th? There was more smoke there than I have seen at any other battle. It was a hundred miles or so nearer, too.
SEPTEMBER 29TH.—We have Lincoln’s proclamation, freeing all the slaves from and after the 1st January next. And another, declaring martial law throughout the United States! Let the Yankees ruminate on that! Now for a fresh gathering of our clans for another harvest of blood.
On Saturday the following resolutions were reported by Mr. Semmes, from the Committee of the Judiciary, in the Senate:
“1st. That no officer of the Confederate Government is by law empowered to vest Provost Marshals with any authority whatever over citizens of the Confederate States not belonging to the land and naval forces thereof, or with general police powers and duties for the preservation of the peace and good order of any city, town, or municipal district in any State of this Confederacy, and any such exercise of authority is illegal and void.
“2d. That no officer of the Confederate Government has constitutional or other lawful authority to limit or restrict, or in any manner to control, the exercise of the jurisdiction of the civil judicial tribunals of the States of this Confederacy, vested in them by the Constitution and laws of the States respectively ; and all orders of any such officer tending to restrict or control or interfere with the full and normal exercise of the jurisdiction of such civil judicial tribunals are illegal and void.”
We shall see what further action will follow. This is in marked contrast to the despotic rule in the Yankee nation. Nevertheless, the Provost Marshal here keeps his establishment in full blast. He was appointed by Gen. Winder, of Maryland, who has been temporarily subordinated by Major-Gen. Smith, of New York.
Since Gen. Smith has been in command, the enemy has made raids to Leesburg, Manassas, and even Warrenton, capturing and paroling our sick and wounded men. Who is responsible?
Accounts from Nashville state that our cavalry is beleaguering that city, and that both the United States forces there, and the inhabitants of the town, are reduced nearly to starvation.
Buell, it is said, has reached Louisville. We hope to hear soon of active operations in Kentucky. Bragg, and Smith, and Price, and Marshall are there with abundant forces to be striking heavy blows.
Beauregard is assigned to the defense of South Carolina and Georgia.
Harper’s Ferry is again occupied by the enemy—but we have removed everything captured there. The Northern papers now admit that the sanguinary battle of Sharpsburg was without result.
I sent my wife money to-day, and urged her to return to Richmond as soon as possible, as the enemy may cut the communications—being within forty miles of the railroad. How I should like to think they were cut to pieces! Then they would let us alone.
Hitherto 100,000 sick and wounded patients have been admitted into the army hospitals of this city. Of these, about 10,000 have been furloughed, 3000 discharged from the service, and only 7600 have died. At present there are 10,000 in the hospitals. There is not so much sickness this year as there was last, nor is it near so fatal.
Many of the Northern papers seem to dissent from the policy of Lincoln’s proclamation, and hope that evil consequences may not grow out of it. But how can it be possible for the people of the North to submit to martial law? The government which directs and enforces so obnoxious a tyranny cannot be sure of its stability. And when the next army of invasion marches southward, it will be likely to have enemies in its rear as well as in its front. The Tribune exclaims “God bless Abraham Lincoln.” Others, even in the North, will pray for “God to _____ him!”
September 29.—General Jefferson C. Davis shot General William Nelson at the Gait House, in Louisville, Ky., killing him almost instantly.
— A. W. Bradford, Governor of Maryland, issued an order rendering the thanks of Maryland to General McClellan and the officers and men under his command, and to Governor Curtin and the militia of Pennsylvania, for the prompt expulsion of the rebel army from Maryland; also thanking the Maryland troops engaged in the battles.
— A Brigade of cavalry, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Karge, made a successful reconnoissance from Centreville, Va;, to Warrenton, capturing and paroling sixteen hundred rebels, a portion of whom were on duty, and the remainder in hospital On their return, Lieutenant York, when between Manassas and Bull Run, took a captain and twenty men of the Seventeenth South Carolina regiment prisoners, and paroled them.
— In the rebel House of Representatives, at Richmond, Va., Mr. Semmes, of Louisiana, submitted a joint resolution declaring President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to be “a gross violation of the usages of civilized warfare,” as well as “an invitation to an atrocious civil war,” and therefore should be counteracted by such severe retaliatory measures as, in the judgment of Jeff Davis, “may be best calculated to secure its withdrawal or arrest its execution.” A general debate thereupon ensued, in which the opinion was freely expressed that the “black flag” should be raised, and no quarter given during the remainder of the war. The resolution was then referred to the Judiciary Committee.—The Governor of Maryland ordered the draft in that State to be postponed until the fifteenth day of October.
— Brigadier-general Rodman died in a house not far from Hagerstown, Md., of the wound he received at the battle of Antietam.
— Major-General Halleck issued a circular to the Governors of the several States, urging them to fill up the vacancies of commissioned officers who had fallen in battles in such large numbers, by appointing deserving non-commissioned officers and privates who distinguished themselves in battle, and had evinced a capacity to command, to the vacant places.
—S. B. Buckner, Major-General of the rebel army, issued a proclamation at Bardstown, Ky., calling upon the people of the State to arise for the defence of the rights of the Confederacy, and no “longer to submit to make themselves instruments in the hands of New-England to make war upon our own interests, and upon the interests of our brothers of the South.”
—To-day a force of Union troops consisting of Farnsworth’s brigade of cavalry, accompanied by Gibson’s and Tidball’s batteries, crossed the Potomac from Maryland into Virginia below Shepherdstown. They reconnoitred the country for a distance of five or six miles, and discovered that the rebels still held their position in the vicinity of Winchester.
—The Twenty-second regiment of New-Jersey volunteers, nine months’ men, left Trenton for the seat of war. The regiment was fully equipped, and composed principally of young men from the farming districts.—Brig.-Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore, having been assigned by General Wright to the command of the district of Western Virginia, entered upon his duties to-day, establishing his headquarters at Point Pleasant—A spirited cavalry skirmish took place near Sharpsburgh, Md., in which the rebels were dispersed, and a squad of them captured.—Baltimore American, September 30.
—Three hundred and sixty-three disloyal citizens of Carroll County, Mo., were assessed eleven thousand dollars by the Board of Commissioners appointed under General Order No. Three, for killing and wounding loyal soldiers and citizens, and for taking property belonging to said persons. The sums levied ranged from two to one thousand dollars on each person.
