5th.—Broke camp at 2 in the afternoon; moved four or five miles in a southerly direction, still keeping a few miles to the east of the Blue Ridge. No enemy encountered, and none found to-day by our advanced guard. Troops in fine health and spirits.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Wednesday, 5th.—Raining. . Troops passing down railroad daily.
Wednesday, 5th—It was cold last night to lie in open bivouac. A cold northwest wind was blowing, and although we built fires to sleep by, yet the night was very uncomfortable, for while one was warm on the side next to the fire he was freezing on the other. We lay still all day to rest, but many of the boys slipped out in small squads for forage; they ran all over the country and fetched in fresh pork by the wholesale. I was in a squad of six with our corporal and we came in with our haversacks filled with sweet potatoes. On returning to camp, we passed too close to the colonel’s tent, and he happened to be standing outside taking a sun bath. He called the corporal to his side, asked him where he had been, where he belonged, and taking out his penknife, cut from the corporal’s blouse his chevrons and gave him an order to his captain, reducing him to the ranks.[1] The rest of us passed on to our tents. While we were out foraging, the colonel issued an order directing each orderly sergeant in the regiment to have his company fall in line every thirty minutes for roll call, and every man not answering to his name was either to be put in the guardhouse or on extra duty. I was caught, but being a pretty good friend of the orderly. I got off easy. He ordered me to carry a kettle of water to the company cook, telling me that since this was my first offense, he would let me off with that. None of the boys was punished very hard.
[1] This, it has always seemed to me, was a mean, contemptible thing for the colonel to do.—A. G. D.
Wednesday, 5th. Up at 3 A. M. After breakfast started for Jones’ Mills, with two companies of 6th Kansas. Some 10th Kansas—two howitzers. Pitched tents and made ourselves comfortable.
November 5—There is nothing for me to write. To-day Wortheim and myself went to Petersburg to get a box that was sent from home, and while there we had a very good time.
NOVEMBER 5TH —Major Ruffin, in the Commissary Department, says the army must go on half rations after the 1st of January next.
It is alleged that certain favorites of the government have a monopoly of transportation over the railroads, for purposes of speculation and extortion!
November 5th. Still in camp at New Upperville, doing absolutely nothing, which seems to indicate a good deal of irresolution on the part of somebody. It is generally suspected that we have no plan of campaign and are just sloshing around waiting for something to turn up. Colonel Zook accepted an invitation for himself and staff to dinner at the house of a prominent Southern planter to-day, and we presented ourselves in full uniform. The house was large and stately, with wide halls and lofty ceilings, and the dinner was served in a very noble dining room. The appointments were in keeping with the style of the house, and the dinner proved excellent but very formal. Broom, who is neither formal, nor dignified, soon made himself at home, and at length induced a reasonable amount of sociability. The planter was a member of the Virginia legislature at the time the secession ordinance was passed, and was opposed to it. Finding himself in the minority, he retired to his ancestral domain, and has since endeavored to preserve a masterly inactivity, a difficult thing to do in these times. He gave us many interesting reminiscences of public men in Virginia, apparently knowing every man of note in the State.
November 5.—Lamar, Missouri, was this day captured by a body of rebel guerrillas under Quantrel, after a sharp fight with the garrison, consisting of only eighty State troops, under the command of Major Bruden, and partially destroyed by fire.—Leavenworth Conservative.
—A skirmish took place to-day at Barbee’s Cross-Roads, Virginia, between a force of Union troops, under the command of General Pleasanton, and a detachment of General Stuart’s rebel cavalry, resulting in the retreat of the latter with considerable loss.—(Doc. 29.)
—Salem, Virginia, was occupied by the National cavalry under General Bayard.—Curran Pope, Colonel of the Fifteenth regiment of Kentucky volunteers, died at Danville, Kentucky.— This day, while a battalion of General Shackleford’s cavalry, under the command of Major Holloway, was moving from Henderson to Bowling Green, Kentucky, a party of rebel guerrillas under Johnson attempted to surprise them, on the Greenville road, about seven miles from Madisonville. The attack was promptly met by the National forces, and the rebels were routed with the loss of eight killed and a large number wounded and captured. Colonel Fowler, who commanded the guerrillas, was among the killed. —Indianapolis Journal.
—This day Colonel Wyndham, of Bayard’s cavalry, had a spirited engagement with the rebel cavalry and artillery at New-Baltimore, Virginia, and succeeded in driving them off to their main body, near Warrenton.—General McClellan by direction of the President of the United States, was relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac, and General Burnside was ordered to succeed him.—The monitor Weehawken was launched at Jersey City, New-Jersey.
—A fight took place to-day in the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee, between the Union forces under General Negley, and a numerically much superior rebel force in two divisions, one of which was under the command of General J. H. Morgan, resulting in a repulse of the rebels with considerable loss.—(Doc. 28.)
