Friday, 17th—Lieut. Davis and Emmet Trammel came by to-day and took dinner. Learned all about the Regiment from them. Camped at A. To-day was a beautiful day. I did not feel so well as I have for a1 few days before. Fine time for farmers to work.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
April 17—At daylight this morning our company was ordered to go on picket at Shingle Landing, five miles from Bellevue. I asked Colonel Morehead to let me go with them, but he refused, and said I should stay with the colors, but I went without his permission. In a march of five miles we waded through three miles of swamp, knee-deep. We are in a devil of a position. The enemy can cut us off from our command easily, as we cannot return, except through the swamp, which of course would be very slow progress. At 4 this evening we were recalled, and met our regiment on the march and fell in. Colonel Morehead did not miss me from the colors. We marched seven miles and halted for the night.
17th.—On going to the hospital yesterday, I found that young Stansberry had died, surrounded by sympathizing friends, and having a bright hope of a blessed immortality. We are anxious about our armies everywhere, from the Mississippi to the seaboard. Rumours are rife about General Longstreet having thrown his forces between Norfolk and the Yankee army at Suffolk. In the mean time we must possess our souls in patience.
April 17. — General sent me down early in the morning to Hope Landing with an order to Mr. Waterman to send up the train immediately, and also ordered me to direct the train. I reached Hope Landing at about o’clock and started the train by 12. Such a miserable, green, balky, God-forsaken set of horses I never saw before in my life. All the 23 teams utterly refused to draw except one, which went ahead very well. To make matters worse, there was a corduroy road leading up a very steep hill which we had to go over in the first part of our journey. After getting all the teams up the hill, I rode on to Stafford Court House to see Colonel Asmussen, General Howard’s chief of staff. I got a detail of 100 men from him and went back to the wagons with them. On my way to Colonel A.’s I stumbled on General Slocum’s headquarters, and found Charles Horton, Morse, and Motley. I got my wagons as far as Stafford Court House by 8 P.M., having gone some three miles in 8 hours. Colonel Asmussen gave me a bed, a stable for my horse, etc., and treated me very kindly indeed. In the evening I had a guard placed over my wagons, having first telegraphed for permission to park at Stafford Court House for the night, which was granted. I went to General Slocum’s in the evening and passed a pleasant hour with Morse, Horton, and Motley. Day pleasant. Cloudy part of time.
by John Beauchamp Jones
APRIL 17TH.—From the Northern papers we learn that the defeat at Charleston is called by the enemy a RECONNOISSANCE.
This causes us much merriment here; McClellan’s defeat was called a “strategical movement,” and “change of base.”
We have some rumors to-day, to the effect that Gen. Hill is likely to take Washington and Newbern, N. C.; Gen. Longstreet, Suffolk; and Gen. Wise, FortMagruder, and the Peninsula—he has not troops enough.
Gold advanced 7 per cent. in New York when the news of the “reconnoissance” reached that city.
We are planting almost every acre in grain, to the exclusion of cotton and tobacco—resolved never to be starved, nor even feel a scarcity of provisions in future. We shall be cutting wheat in another month in Alabama and other States.
Among the other rumors, it is said Hooker is falling back toward Washington, but these are merely rumors.
The President is in a very feeble and nervous condition, and is really threatened with the loss of sight altogether. But he works on; and few or no visitors are admitted. He remains at his dwelling, and has not been in the executive office these ten days.
Col. Lay was merry again to-day. He ordered in another foreign substitute (in North Carolina).
Pins are so scarce and costly, that it is now a pretty general practice to stoop down and pick up any found in the street. The boarding-houses are breaking up, and rooms, furnished and unfurnished, are rented out to messes. One dollar and fifty cents for beef, leaves no margin for profit, even at $100 per month, which is charged for board, and most of the boarders cannot afford to pay that price. Therefore they take rooms, and buy their own scanty food. I am inclined to think provisions would not be deficient, to an alarming extent, if they were equally distributed. Wood is no scarcer than before the war, and yet $30 per load (less than a cord) is demanded for it, and obtained.
The other day Wilmingtonmight have been taken, for the troops were sent to Beauregard. Their places have since been filled by a brigade from Longstreet. It is a monstrous undertaking to attempt to subjugate so vast a country as this, even [click to continue…]
April 17.—Brigadier-General Daniel A. Donelson, commanding the rebel department of East Tennessee, died near Knoxville. He was the nephew of General Andrew Jackson.—The rebel schooner Alabama, was captured off Mobile, while endeavoring to evade the blockade, by the National steamer Susquehanna. — Com. Hitchcock’s Despatch.
—A large detachment of the Ninety-ninth and One Hundred and Thirtieth New-York regiments had a successful skirmish with the rebels at the South-Quay road, near Suffolk, Va., and succeeded in killing and wounding a considerable number of them. In the encounter the Nationals had two killed and three wounded.
—Colonel H. B. Grierson, in command of a strong force of Union cavalry, left La Grange, Tenn., on a raid through the State of Mississippi. (Doc. 170.)
—A skirmish took place at Bear Creek, Tenn., between a party of Nationals under the command of General Dodge, and the rebels, resulting in the retreat of the latter. Captain Cameron of the Ninth Illinois cavalry was killed.—A detachment of National troops under General Grover, encountered a large force of rebels at Bayou Vermilion, La., and opening upon them with artillery, drove them from their position.—(Doc. 171.)
