Memphis, Monday, Feb. 9. Hitched up the team and got a load of bricks and boards from a burned building one and one quarter miles from camp. Weather very sultry, warm, indications of rain. Signed the pay roll for September and October.
February 2013
Abby Howland Woolsey to her sister, Georgeanna.
NEW YORK, Feb. 9th, 1863.
Charley sends his ” regrets ” from Headquarters for the Bond wedding. We get his letters with wonderful despatch. A letter written Saturday night delivered here by twelve on Monday! General Williams had reached Falmouth again and will be very busy. The four grand divisions being abolished, the eight corps commanders report directly to Hooker, which doubles the work of his A. A. G. Charley is to have an office tent and one branch of the business to be assigned specially to him. General Williams will employ several such aides or clerks. . . .
I have ordered for you ten copies of the Independent for three months, ten of the Methodist and ten of the Advocate. . . .
Washington Monday Feb’y 9th 1863
Another delightful bright warm day and there does not seem to be any particular excitement about anything just now. It is a fact (altho the “papers” say nothing about it) that the “Army of the Potomac” is on the move. One whole grand Division has gone on board Transports and down the River from Aquia Creek. Their destination is presumed to be North Carolina. In Tennessee and the S. West matters remain pretty quiet. Some skirmishing in which the Rebels usualy get the worst of it. At Vicksburgh an immense number of men are now at work on the Canal or “Cutoff” opposite the City which is designed to leave the City inland four or five miles. This may be a cheaper way of opening the Miss River than taking the City as it is said to be very strongly fortified and defended by 60,000 men. There was a great crowd on “the Ave” this afternoon. I was in Taylors Book Store an hour reading “Ruttan.” Was also in “Ascension Hospital” to see the soldiers. Met Mr Green from Lyons in the Pat office today. Sent Hon Jas C Smith Catalogue & Circular from the Agricultural Dept. Got a pat office Report for myself. I am told that my name was proposed and I was unanimously voted in as a member of the “Union League,” a secret society in this City. I think I will go and be initiated. The “Lodge” meets on Thursday nights. It is composed of the first Gentlemen in Washington.
Aquia Creek Landing, Va. Personnel in front of Quartermaster’s Office; photograph is by Alexander Gardner. The image above is cropped from the following larger photo. (Click on either image to view larger version.)
Library of Congress image.
FEBRUARY 9TH.—Gen. Lee requests that all dispatches passing between his headquarters and the War Department be in cipher. He says everything of importance communicated, he has observed, soon becomes the topic of public conversation; and thence is soon made known to the enemy.
The iron-clad gun-boat, which got past Vicksburg, has been up the Red River spreading devastation. It has taken three of our steamers, forty officers on one, and captured large amounts of stores and cotton.
Gen. Wise made a dash into Williamsburg last night, and captured the place, taking some prisoners.
Custis (my son) received a letter to-day from Miss G., Newbern, via underground railroad, inclosing another for her sweet-heart in the army. She says they are getting on tolerably well in the hands of the enemy, though the slaves have been emancipated. She says a Yankee preacher (whom she calls a white-washed negro) made a speculation. He read the Lincoln Proclamation to the negroes: and then announced that none of them had been legally married, and might be liable to prosecution. To obviate this, he proposed to marry them over, charging only a dollar for each couple. He realized several thousand dollars, and then returned to the North. This was a legitimate Yankee speculation; and no doubt the preacher will continue to be an enthusiastic advocate of a war of subjugation. As long as the Yankees can make money by it, and escape killing, the war will continue.
February 9. — A cavalry skirmish occurred near Summerville, Va., between a detachment of Union cavalry belonging to Major Knox’s command, and a scouting-party of rebels, in which the latter were compelled to retreat, with the loss of several of their number killed and wounded. The National party were uninjured.—Philadelphia Inquirer.
—It having been frequently reported to General Rosecrans, that rebel soldiers approached his lines, near Murfreesboro, Tenn., dressed in the uniform of the National troops, and that they had even carried the colors of the United States, like savages to deceive his men, he ordered that none so dressed should receive, when captured, the rights of prisoners of war, and that in battle, no quarter should be given them.—General Order No. 16.
Saturday, 7th—Sunday, 8th—Came up to Columbia pike, ten miles from town. Once more in pretty country. Camped in woodland blue grass pasture.
Camp Reynolds, February 8, 1863.
Dear Uncle: — Your tracts came yesterday and were distributed. They will do instead of sermons today. Lucy and the boys are enjoying it much. They add much to our happiness this bad weather.
I shall go with [the] Twenty-third to Charleston in a few weeks. We are pretty well thinned out — only three old regiments left. Lucy says she thinks the Rebels can’t get her. I am not so sure. She rode outside of the lines four or five miles yesterday.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
Stoneman Station, Va.,
Sunday, Feb. 8, 1863.
Dear Sister L.:—
I send you a Harper’s, thinking you do not often see them. It is one of the choicest numbers I have ever seen. “The Picket” is a gem for a wood cut. It is lifelike and true. The officer’s uniform is an exact copy. Don’t it strike your fancy there is a bit of romance in the midnight—
“Who goes there?” There is, and much matter of fact, too. You see a good portrait of our “Little Dan” (General Butterfield), too. If I ever get home I’ll show you the bugle he took out of my hand to “sound the charge” at Bull Run. I’m proud to see him now Chief of Hooker’s Staff.
“The army stuck in the mud” is just as good as illustrated papers can make it. The road that looks like a river is mud, not water. In front of the barn you see a “caisson,” or ammunition wagon. The officers .on the jaded horses, the coffee pots and pails on the muskets, in fact the tout ensemble of the picture is first rate. The literary part of the paper I don’t think so much of, but the pictures are good. Keep it to show me when I come home. “Ould Graaly” is a decided hit.
February 8—Wortheim and myself went uptown to get something to eat. We got corn bread and bacon. On our road back to camp we bought four more dodgers of corn bread and gave it to our mess companions who did not go uptown. Our regiment moved on the other side of town in an old pine thicket.
