Knoxville, Tenn., October 2d, 1863.
We are shut out from all intercourse with the rest of the world. Even Dame Rumor has retired behind the scenes, exhausted, doubtless, by the herculean efforts she has put forth the last few days. By the last and only mail we have had since we came here, we received a bundle of Detroit Tribunes, dated September 15th. Since then the silence of isolation has enveloped us. There is a tiny sheet published daily at Knoxville. It is silent on all except local subjects, and nearly so on them. I notice, in yesterday’s edition, a convention has been held by the people of this county to nominate delegates to a state convention, to be held at Nashville, for the purpose of nominating a state ticket. The delegates pledge themselvs to support no candidate who is not truly loyal. Thus, while politicians and demagogues are wrangling over “reconstruction and territorial admission,” the people are solving the most difficult problem by the most simple process.
Friday, 2d—The weather is quite cool for this time of year in the “Sunny South.” There is no news of any importance. Things are very quiet.
Camp White, West Virginia, October 2, 1863.
My Dear Son: — I received a letter today from Uncle Birchard. He says you appear to be very happy learning to chop and work, and that you are helping Allen. Your mother tells me, too, that you have learned the names of a good many trees, and that you know them when you see them. I am very glad to hear so much good of you. It is an excellent thing to know how to work — to ride and drive and how to feed and hitch up a team. I expect you will know more about trees than I do. I did not learn about them when I was a little boy and so do not now know much about such things. There are a great many things that are learned very easily when we are young, but which it is hard to learn after we are grown. I want you to learn as many of such things now as you can, and when you are a man you will be able to enjoy and use your knowledge in many ways.
Your mother took a ride on Lieutenant McKinley’s horse this morning, and enjoyed herself very much.
Uncle Joe has a big owl, such a one as Lucy saw at Uncle Birchard’s. A corporal in Company E shot its wing off, so it couldn’t escape. It snaps its beak very fiercely when we poke sticks at it. The band boys have a ‘possum and there is a pet bear and deer.
I think Uncle Birchard will find a way to stop his chimney from smoking. If he doesn’t, you must tell him to build campfires in front of his house as we do here. We find them very pleasant.
I am sure you will be a good boy and I hope you will be very happy.
Your affectionate father,
R. B. Hayes.
Birchard A. Hayes,
Fremont, Ohio.
October 2d. What a dismal day it has been. It commenced raining last night and has poured down in torrents ever since. No drills in this camp, nor reviews so far. It seemed very strange to me when I first joined this staff to have so little to do with the troops; the higher one goes the less he has to do with the men.
by John Beauchamp Jones
OCTOBER 2D.—Our 5000 prisoners taken at the battle of Chickamauga have arrived in this city, and it is ascertained that more are on the way hither. Gen. Bragg said he had 5000 besides the wounded, and as none of the wounded have arrived, more must have been taken since his dispatch. Every effort is being made on our part to capture the army of Rosecrans—and everything possible is done by the enemy to extricate him, and to reinforce him to such an extent that he may resume offensive operations. Without this be done, the campaign must close disastrously in the West, and then the peace party of the North will have a new inspiration of vitality.
It is now said that Gen. Lee, despairing of being attacked in his chosen position, has resolved to attack Meade, or at least to advance somewhere. It is possible (if Meade has really sent two corps of his army to the West) that he will cross the Potomac again—at least on a foraging expedition. If he meets with only conscripts and militia he may penetrate as far as Harrisburg, and then let Europe perpend! The Union will be as difficult of reconstruction, as would have been the celebrated Campo Formio vase shivered by Napoleon. It is much easier to destroy than to construct. The emancipation and confiscation measures rendered reconstruction impracticable—unless, indeed, at a future day, the Abolitionists of the United States should be annihilated and Abolitionism abolished.
To-day I got an excellent pair of winter shoes from a quartermaster here for $13—the retail price for as good an article, in the stores, is $75; fine boots have risen to $200!
The enemy’s batteries on MorrisIsland are firing away again at Sumter’s ruins, and at Moultrie—but they have not yet opened on the city.
The newspapers continue to give accounts of the Chickamauga battle.
October 2—Relieved to-day. Very wet and disagreeable weather. Nothing new up to the 9th.
