January 3.—Entered on the duties of my office on the 30th of December. So far I like it well. “The Major” is very kind, and considerate of our comfort; the duties of the office are not very onerous, but rather confining for one who left school thirty-four years ago, and has had no restraint of the kind during the interim. The ladies, thirty-five in number, are of all ages, and representing various parts of Virginia, also Maryland and Louisiana. Many of them are refugees. It is melancholy to see how many wear mourning for brothers or other relatives, the victims of war. One sad young girl sits near me, whose two brothers have fallen on the field, but she is too poor to buy mourning. I found many acquaintances, and when I learned the history of others, it was often that of fallen fortunes and destroyed homes. One young lady, of high-sounding Maryland name, was banished from Baltimore, because of her zeal in going to the assistance of our Gettysburg wounded. The society is pleasant, and we hope to get along very agreeably. I am now obliged to visit the hospital in the afternoon, and I give it two evenings in the week. It is a cross to me not to be able to give it more time; but we have very few patients just now, so that it makes very little difference.
Friday, January 3, 2014
January 3d. Sunday. All quiet last night. Ordered to our camp early this morning. Weather a little more mild. Cleaned up. Attended church in town. All is quiet at this time. Enemy reported well up the valley. Plenty of snow on the ground.
Sunday, 3d—It cleared off this morning and it got quite cool. I was at my post this morning, standing in water a foot deep. When our relief came they had to go back almost to town before they could cross the swollen creek to reach our post. The “Veteran” excitement was raging when we got back to camp. This afternoon we had a meeting of our regiment, when Major Foster made a speech on the subject of re-enlisting, and I re-enlisted. A large number in our brigade and throughout the Seventeenth Army Corps have re-enlisted. Abraham Brown of our company died yesterday, here in the Vicksburg hospital. He was a good man.
Nashville, Tuesday, Jan. 3. A quiet day. Weather much warmer. Probabilities of going to Sherman lessening. General Thomas has protested against our leaving. Put up harness racks this afternoon. Big mail bringing me several papers, reading matter for the evening. Our new lieutenants mustered. Corporals Goodwin and Proctor made sergeants to fill their vacancies. T. C. Jackson and W. B. Jacobs, veterans, made corporals. All worthy appointments.
3rd. Ordered to fall back to McCook at daylight in anticipation of a fight. Went to Dr. Peck’s. Sent up beef and meal. Went to New Market in P. M. Got receipts and invoices. Let Spike go at 2:40 on a trot. Good chat with the boys around the fire.
Diary And Memoranda, 1864
Jan. 3rd. Attended divine service in the bomb proof this afternoon. Sermon discourse from James 4th, 14th verse. Had singing by the audience, and music from the band (America).
Larkinsville, Sunday, Jan. 3. Little warmer to-day. Stormed a little. It is hoped by many that a sufficient number will enlist so as to return to the state and reorganize. Forty-eight on the rolls now, ninety-eight required. Y—— returned to the Battery, having been under guard at headquarters ever since we left Gilbertsboro. Court-martialed and punishment read at evening roll call, the loss of two months’ pay for offering violence to superior officers and slandering. Dillon received orders, it is said, to allow Battery to stay where they are if they are comfortably quartered.
Sunday, January 3.—Part of our hospital was destroyed by fire last night. It originated in the officers’ quarters of the Buckner Hospital, through the negligence of a negro servant. I have been told that some of the officers who were wounded nearly lost their lives. We lost two buildings; they had few patients in them, and no one was hurt. But a short time since they were filled with badly wounded, who, fortunately, had been removed.
We had stores and every thing else moved from our rooms. Among them were two barrels of whisky, a box of coffee, the latter just received from Wilmington, and many other valuables. We lost nothing except a quantity of hospital clothing.
Mr. Sparks is injured. He was not near the fire, but became very much alarmed, and is now suffering very much.
We have no fire-engines, and all did their part in arresting the flames. Dr. Hughes is an old gentleman, but worked harder than any one.
A number of parties have been given here lately. Miss W. cried out: “O, if the people would only keep from dancing, we would not have this trouble.” I believe I echoed her sentiments.
Mrs. J. visited the wards with me this afternoon. The men, with the exception of one or two, are doing well.
Mrs. W. always spends Sunday in the wards, and benefits the men much by talking to them.
After we had left Chattanooga, on a visit there, I met one of the nurses who was with us in the Newsom Hospital, and he was very low with typhoid fever. He inquired anxiously after Mrs. W., and said that, since lying on his sick-bed, he had often thought of her, and all he had heard her say to the patients, and wished he had profited more by her counsels. He was removed from Chattanooga to Ringgold. Mrs. W. went to see him, and he told her he had resolved to lead a new life, and that her teaching had been the means of converting him. This is not an isolated case, by any means.
I am often afraid that Mrs. W. will injure herself with work. She never sees a man with ragged clothes but she mends them for him, and many a night 12 o’clock does not find her in bed.
I often think of how much good the ladies of this place could accomplish in this respect. Many a man goes back to the front as ragged as he came from it. I had determined to let this subject drop, but somehow I always get back to it. I can not help losing my temper when I see so many idle women unwilling to do any little thing for these heroes, who have suffered so much.
I hinted to some of the ladies about having tobacco bags made, as the tobacco gets scattered all over the beds, but none offered to make them; some were kind enough to give me the pieces to have them made. After the labors of the day are past, Miss W. and myself make as many as we can.
by John Beauchamp Jones
JANUARY 3D.—Yesterday was the coldest day of the winter, and last night was a bitter one. This morning it is bright and clear, and moderating. We have had no snow yet.
There is much talk everywhere on the subject of a dictator, and many think a strong government is required to abate the evils we suffer. The President has temporarily lost some popularity.
The speculators and extortioners who hired substitutes are in consternation—some flying the country since the passage of the bill putting them in the army, and the army is delighted with the measure. The petition from so many generals in the field intimidated Congress, and it was believed that the Western army would have melted away in thirty days, if no response had been accorded to its demands by government. Herculean preparations will now be made for the next campaign, which is, as usual, looked forward to as the final one.
January 3.—A large force of rebels, under General Sam Jones, made a descent upon a small body of Union troops stationed near Jonesville, Virginia, belonging to an Illinois regiment, commanded by Major Beers, and eighteen men of Neill’s Ohio battery. A desperate resistance was made, continuing from seven A.M. to three P.M., when the Nationals surrendered. The rebels numbered four thousand men. They lost four killed and twelve wounded.—Admiral Lee, in the United States gunboat Fah Kee, entered Lockwood’s, Folly Inlet, about ten miles to the south of Wilmington, North-Carolina, hoisted out his boats, and examined the blockade-running steamer Bendigo, which was run ashore by the captain a week previous, to prevent her being captured by the blockaders. While making these examinations, the enemy’s sharpshooters appeared and opened fire upon the boats’ crews, which was returned by the Fah Kee’s guns, when a rebel battery opened fire and the boats returned to the ship.
The Fah Kee continued her fire until the Bendigo was well-riddled, but her battery was light, and in consequence of her draft of water and the shoals inside, had to be at long-range, and consequently not as destructive as was desired. Night coming on, the Admiral returned to the fleet.— Official Report.
—The British ship Silvanus, while attempting to run the blockade at Doboy Sound, Georgia, was chased ashore by the National gunboat Huron.—Twenty shells loaded with Greek fire, were thrown into the city of Charleston, South-Carolina, causing a considerable conflagration.
