Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Post image for They wish to know before they re-enlist whether I am going to remain in the regiment.

They wish to know before they re-enlist whether I am going to remain in the regiment.

January 16, 2014

Adams Family Civil War letters; US Minister to the UK and his sons.

Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his father

Camp of 1st Mass. Cav’y
January 16, 1864

As I wrote in my last my company has re-enlisted. It is the only one in the regiment which has done so, and it did it in a way inexpressibly gratifying to me. Under these circumstances I am privileged to take it to Massachusetts for thirty-five days and I expect to receive my orders every day. They can hardly fail to come by tomorrow, in which case I should leave here on Monday and push right through to Boston. In case my leave does not arrive by the time I am forced to start, I shall at once, on getting my Company home, turn round and come back here and put my leave through myself. At any rate rest assured I mean to be with you in February and I shall allow no trifling obstacle to turn me from my purpose. Getting my leave through will be child’s play compared with the difficulty of getting my Company home and I succeeded in tiding over the many shoal places which perplexed me through that operation. . . .

Meanwhile the re-enlistment question has destroyed all discipline and nearly broken our hearts. It has reduced our regiment to a Caucus and finally three quarters did not re-enlist. My Company alone has kept up to the mark. I told them that I expected myself to go to Europe for sixty days and that I would therefore have nothing to do with individual re-enlistments, but that if the whole Company would re-enlist I would remain here and see them home, if I had to remain here all winter. The result was highly satisfactory and more than three-quarters of my men have been mustered into the service for three years from the first of this month. I cannot express how gratified and yet how pained I am at this, as well as almost innumerable little evidences lately of the great confidence in, rather than attachment to me, of the men of my Company. They seem to think that I am a devil of a fellow. They come to me to decide their bets and to settle questions in discussion; they wish to know before they re-enlist whether I am going to remain in the regiment; and finally they came to the conclusion that it would be safe to recruit if I promised not to go away until I saw them home for their furloughs. To be egotistical, I think I see the old family traits cropping out in myself. These men don’t care for me personally. They think me cold, reserved and formal. They feel no affection for me, but they do believe in me, they have faith in my power of accomplishing results and in my integrity. . . .

Post image for A Diary From Dixie.

A Diary From Dixie.

January 16, 2014

A Diary From Dixie by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut.

January 16th.—A visit from the President’s handsome and accomplished secretary, Burton Harrison. I lent him Country Clergyman in Town and Elective Affinities. He is to bring me Mrs. Norton’s Lost and Saved.

At Mrs. Randolph’s, my husband complimented one of the ladies, who had amply earned his praise by her splendid acting. She pointed to a young man, saying, “You see that wretch; he has not said one word to me!” My husband asked innocently, “Why should he? And why is he a wretch?” “Oh, you know!” Going home I explained this riddle to him; he is always a year behindhand in gossip. “They said those two were engaged last winter, and now there seems to be a screw loose; but that sort of thing always comes right.” The Carys prefer James Chesnut to his wife. I don’t mind. Indeed, I like it. I do, too.

Every Sunday Mr. Minnegerode cried aloud in anguish his litany, “from pestilence and famine, battle, murder, and sudden death,” and we wailed on our knees, “Good Lord deliver us,” and on Monday, and all the week long, we go on as before, hearing of nothing but battle, murder, and sudden death, which are daily events. Now I have a new book; that is the unlooked-for thing, a pleasing incident in this life of monotonous misery. We live in a huge barrack. We are shut in, guarded from light without.

At breakfast to-day came a card, and without an instant’s interlude, perhaps the neatest, most fastidious man in South Carolina walked in. I was uncombed, unkempt, tattered, and torn, in my most comfortable, worst worn, wadded green silk dressing-gown, with a white woolen shawl over my head to keep off draughts. He has not been in the war yet, and now he wants to be captain of an engineer corps. I wish he may get it! He has always been my friend; so he shall lack no aid that I can give. If he can stand the shock of my appearance to-day, we may reasonably expect to continue friends until death. Of all men, the fastidious Barny Heywood to come in. He faced the situation gallantly.

Post image for Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

January 16, 2014

Diary of Alexander G. Downing; Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry

Saturday, 16th—The weather has been warm and pleasant for a week. We have our regular daily drills and dress parade. It came my turn to go on the picket line again. The Thirteenth Iowa received their muster rolls, and when they are filled out, the regiment will be sworn into the United States service as a veteran regiment.

Post image for Reminiscences of the Civil War by William and Adelia Lyon.

Reminiscences of the Civil War by William and Adelia Lyon.

January 16, 2014

Reminiscences of the Civil War, William and Adelia Lyon

Mrs. Lyon’s Diary.

Jan. 16, 1864.—A large party of us went in ambulances to visit the penitentiary.

Post image for Leverett Bradley: A Soldier-Boy’s Letters

Leverett Bradley: A Soldier-Boy’s Letters

January 16, 2014

Leverett Bradley: A Soldier-Boy's Letters (1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery.)

Diary And Memoranda, 1864

Jan. 16th. Were inspected by Major It. today. Any amount of growling, mud knee deep. Expect to be inspected again tomorrow. Vets are beginning to resign to their fate. Some thoughts of re-enlisting.

Post image for An Artilleryman’s Diary–Jenkin Lloyd Jones

An Artilleryman’s Diary–Jenkin Lloyd Jones

January 16, 2014

An Artilleryman's Diary–Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 6th Battery, Wisconsin Artillery.

Huntsville, Saturday, Jan. 16. Warm and pleasant day. D. J. Davis and myself ordered to report to Dr. Coleman at 9 A. M. He set us to work building a chimney. Finished it by supper time. Camp and men inspected at 10 A M. by Captain Budlong, A. I. G. and Captain Dillon, chief of artillery, giving orders that after reveille all tents to be swept out and blankets doubled. A ball was announced to be held to-night in town and many of the boys attended, but found to their chagrin that it was a nigger dance. Some returned crestfallen, others enjoyed the joke by “tripping” with the “colored sisters”.

Post image for Diary of Gideon Welles.

Diary of Gideon Welles.

January 16, 2014

Diary of Gideon Welles

January 16, Saturday. Had a call from General Frank Blair. He is bitter against Chase and the management of the Treasury Department, — its favorites and permits. Not unlikely he exaggerates without intending it, but I apprehend there are reasons for some of his arraignments. We had some talk on the subject of opening the whole country west of the Mississippi to trade above New Orleans. He concurs with me.

Post image for Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier by Louis Léon

Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier by Louis Léon

January 16, 2014

Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier By Louis Léon [53d North Carolina Regiment, infantry]

January 16—Nothing more until to-day. W. R. Berryhill has got the smallpox. Quite a number of us were in the same quarters with him, but none of us caught the disease. I was detailed to work at the mills, and therefore I am learning a new trade. Live and learn.

Post image for A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary

A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary

January 16, 2014

A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, By John Beauchamp Jones

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JANUARY 16TH.—General good spirits prevail since Northern arrivals show that the House of Representatives at Washington has passed a resolution that 1,000,000 men, including members of Congress under 50, volunteer to deliver the prisoners of war out of our hands. This produces a general smile, as indicative of the exhaustion of the available military force of the United States—and all believe it to be the merest bravado and unmitigated humbug. Every preparation will be made by the Confederate States Government for the most stupendous campaign of the war.

            There are indications of disorganization (political) in North Carolina—but it is too late. The Confederate States Executive is too strong, so long as Congress remains obedient, for any formidable demonstration of that character to occur in any of the States. We shall probably have martial law everywhere.

            I bought some garden seeds to-day, fresh from New York! This people are too improvident, even to sow their own seeds.

Post image for A Diary of American Events.

A Diary of American Events.

January 16, 2014

The American Civil War,The Rebellion Record—A Diary of American Events; by Frank Moore

January 16. — General Sturgis’s cavalry, in pursuit of General Longstreet, reached Dandridge, Tenn., thirty miles east of Knoxville, and drove the rebel videttes out of the town.

—President Lincoln, in a note to the proprietors of the North-American Review, said:

“The number for this month and year was duly received, and for which please accept my thanks. Of course, I am not the most impartial judge; yet, with due allowance for this, I venture to hope that the article, entitled ‘The President’s Policy,’ will be of value to the country. I fear, I am not quite worthy of all which is therein kindly said of me personally.

“The sentence of twelve lines, commencing at the top of page 252, I could wish to be not exactly as it is. In what is there expressed, the writer has not correctly understood me. I have never had a theory that secession could absolve States or people from their obligations. Precisely the contrary is asserted in the inaugural address; and it was because of my belief in the continuance of these obligations, that I was puzzled for a time as to denying the legal rights of those citizens who remained individually innocent of treason or rebellion. But I mean no more now than to merely call attention to this point” [1]

[1] The sentence referred to by Mr. Lincoln is as follows: “Even so long ago as when Mr. Lincoln, not yet convinced of the danger and magnitude of the crisis, was endeavoring to persuade himself of Union majorities at the South, and to carry on a war that was half peace, in the hope of a peace that would have been all war—while he was still enforcing the fugitive slave law, under some theory that secession, however it might absolve States from their obligations, could not escheat them of their claims under the Constitution, and that slaveholders in rebellion had alone, among mortals, the privilege of having their cake and eating it at the same time—the enemies of free government were striving to persuade the people that the war was an abolition crusade. To rebel without reason was proclaimed as one of the rights of man, while it was carefully kept out of sight that to suppress rebellion is the first duty of government.”