Tuesday, 25th—We took up our march at 4 o’clock this morning and journeyed seventeen miles, when we stopped for the night. Our brigade took the rear, the Eleventh Regiment acting as rear guard. The day’s march was through swamps and bayous and land heavily timbered. Now and then we noticed a field with a little log hut in it, occupied by a poor white family, whose head was away with the rebel army, or with a cavalry squad in this section.
August 2013
August 25.—Early this morning, Deputy Marshal Taylor of Coshocton County, Ohio, with a squad of five men, went to a house near Chili, in Crawford Township, to arrest two men, Wens and J. Lour, Germans, who were drafted last fall, but had, up to that time, evaded the authorities. Not finding them at the house, they approached the barn to search it, when Wens and Lour came out of it, armed, and fired. Taylor and his men closed upon them to secure them, when a hand-to-hand fight occurred. Stafford, one of the Marshal’s men, fell dead, pierced with nine balls. One other of the Marshal’s men was severely wounded, and Wens and Lour, the two drafted men, both killed.—Cincinnati Gazette.
—The advance-guard of General Steele’s army, under General Davidson, consisting of five thousand men, arrived in front of Brownsville, Arkansas, and immediately opened fire upon the town. A sharp fight was kept up for about fifteen minutes, when the rebels commenced a retreat, evacuating the town and leaving, in the hands of the Nationals, General Burbridge and a number of privates.
Camp White, August 25, 1863.
Dear Uncle:—. . . I keep my cavalry moving as much as possible. The infantry has little to do. The prisoners taken and deserters coming in all talk in a way that indicates great despondency in Dixie. If the movements of Rosecrans on Chattanooga, Burnside towards Cumberland Gap, and Gilmore at Charleston are reasonably successful, the Rebellion will be nearer its end by the middle of October than I have anticipated. A great contrast between the situation now and a year ago, when Lee was beating Pope out of the Valley and threatening Washington. Beat the peace men in your elections and the restoration of the Union is sure to come in good time.
. . . There will be no need of your going to Delaware or Columbus merely to get Lucy. If she goes to Fremont she will be able to travel without other escort than the boys. — Love to Mother. I enjoy her letters.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
S. Birchard.
August 25th. Received a telegram through army headquarters from Charleston, announcing a great victory there; we hope its utter destruction draws very near.
Unidentified young soldier in Union and Balmoral hat.
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Ninth-plate tintype, hand-colored ; 7.6 x 6.5 cm (case)
Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs; Ambrotype/Tintype photograph filing series; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Record page for image is here.
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Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
- fade correction,
- color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
- selected spot and/or scratch removal
- cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
- straighten image
Civil War Portrait 069
by John Beauchamp Jones
AUGUST 25TH.—Hon. A. R. Boteler, after consultation with Gen. Stuart and Capt. Moseby, suggests that the Secretary of War send up some of Gen. Rains’s subterra torpedoes, to place under the track of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, in possession of the enemy. Gen. Stuart suggested that a man familiar with their use be sent along with them, as they are dangerous weapons.
We have a report, to-day, that our expedition from this city has succeeded in boarding and capturing two of the enemy’s gun-boats in the Rappahannock.
August 24—Was on guard this morning, but Sergeant Hugh Reid sent for me, and detailed me, with some men out of every regiment in our brigade, to hunt deserters. Si Wolf and myself, out of our company. We left camp at 3 this evening, marched two miles up the railroad, and took the cars to Gordonsville. Got there at 4. It is a small place, but one of importance, as all our supplies for the army from Richmond come from this station.
August 24, Monday. Our advices from Charleston show progress, though slow. The monitors perform well their part. Few casualties have occurred. We hear of a sad one to-day however, in the death of George Rodger [1] one of the noblest spirits in the service. It is sad that among so many he, who has perhaps no superior in the best qualities of the man, the sailor, and the officer, should have been the victim. The President called on me in some anxiety this morning, and was relieved when he learned it was not John Rodgers of Atlantic fame. But without disparagement to bold John, no braver, purer spirit than gallant, generous, Christian George could have been sacrificed, andI so said to the President.
Am annoyed and vexed by a letter from Seward in relation to theMont Blanc. As usual, he has been meddlesome and has inconsiderately, I ought to say heedlessly and unwittingly, done a silly thing. Finding himself in difficulty, he tries to shift his errors on to the Navy Department. He assumes to talk wise without knowledge and to exercise authority without power.
The history of this case exemplifies the management of Mr. Seward. Collins in the Octorara captured the Mont Blanc on her way toPort Royal. The capture took place near Sand Key, a shoal or spit of land over which the English claim jurisdiction. I question their right to assume that these shoals, or Cays, belong toEngland, and that her jurisdiction extends a marine league from each, most of them being uninhabited, barren spots lying off our coast and used to annoy and injure us. I suggested the propriety of denying, or refusing to recognize, the British claim or title to the uninhabited spots; that the opportunity should not pass unimproved to bring the subject to an issue. But Mr. Seward flinched before Lord Lyons, and alarmed the President by representing that I raised new issues, and without investigating the merits of the case of the Mont Blanc, which was in the courts, he hastened to concede to the English not only jurisdiction, but an apology and damages. It was one of those cases alluded to by Sir Vernon Harcourt, when he admonished his government that “the fear was not that Americans would yield too little, but thatEnglandwould take too much.” Seward yielded everything, — so much as to embarrass Lord Lyons, who anticipated no such humiliation and concession on our part, and therefore asked time. The subject hung along without being disposed of. Seward, being occasionally pushed by Lord Lyons, would come to me. I therefore wrote him on the 31st of July a letter which drew from him a singular communication of the 4th inst., to which I have prepared a reply that will be likely to remain unanswered. [The correspondence follows.]
Eliza Woolsey Howland to Mother.
Fishkill., August 24.
We ought soon to hear from Charley, and if Mr. Hopkins’ rumor is true we may feel at ease about him for the present, for Meade won’t attempt a movement without the conscripts. Do you see that Charley himself is one, although in the service already? Let us know how he got down to camp after his furlough with all his traps, and send us all his letters. . . .
Charles Francis Adams to his son
London, August 24, 1863
I am sure I heartily join you in the wish that this fearful conflict was over. No more wanton and wicked struggle was ever initiated by profligate and desperate men than this against a government which had only been too lenient and generous to them. A terrible retribution has fallen upon them, it is true; but the mischief is that it has brought with it much of calamity to those who had no share of the responsibility for bringing it on. I cannot now see how the war can be safely ended until the motive which led to its commencement is made to vanish. I am made an abolitionist as earnest for immediate action as any one. The President can really effect the thing under the war power, as a condition of pacification in the ultimate resort. He can bring on that resort by a general arming of all the blacks. He has the power in his hands. There is no time to be lost, for he may be anticipated by a combination of the repentant class of slave owners with their old democratic allies of the north to attempt to re-establish the Union as it was. This is the last avenue of escape from the natural consequences of the war. I fancy these men will not have the shrewdness to avail themselves of it in season. Not that I doubt the fact that in any event slavery is doomed. The only difference will be that in dying it may cause us another sharp convulsion, which we might avoid by finishing it now. . . .
