Saturday, 30th—We cleaned up our camp for inspection. Troops are still landing here for the purpose of going out on the raid.
January 2014
30th. Barracks fitted up as comfortable as possible. “I” and “C” officers together. Wrote a line home and to Fannie. Paroled. Moved.
Huntsville, Saturday, Jan. 30. Little rain to-day. Very fine, like spring. No drill, and rain prevented parade in the evening. Orders to prepare for knapsack inspection to-morrow morning 8 A. M. Lieutenant Simpson at morning roll-call told us he was going to furnish us with brush and blacking, and desired all to appear with polished boots and equal our neighbors of the 12th, but could not obtain a second lot. Dr. Coleman sent for D. J. D. and myself, and presented us with a can of condensed milk for building up his chimney. His name ought to be written in letters of gold as one of a thousand, the friend of the private.
Diary And Memoranda, 1864
Jan. 30th. Had a parade this eveg. in a heavy mist; the guns are looking too well to keep dry!
January 30th, 1864.
There is much speculation in regard to Burnside’s “new expedition,” as it is called. Does it look toward Mexico? It seems to me our Eastern sky is becoming overcast. It may break forth in war with France. It must, sooner or later, unless Napoleon recedes from his present position. Our forces and those of France are in close proximity on the Rio Grande, and are watching each other with jealous eyes.
January 30, Saturday. Called on Secretary of State by appointment, relative to dispatch to Lord Lyons. While there, I mentioned that he continued to send inquiries from Lord Lyons relative to captured British blockade-runners who were retained in custody on his suggestion. He said he wished that course pursued, but the change of policy required time to effect the change. Lord Lyons, he said, could not at once reconcile his government to the measure. He alluded to my having at an early period desired that these persons should be held, but that he had doubted it because they ought not to be permitted to run the blockade more than a second time.
January 30.—This morning a reconnoitring force that had been sent out from Colonel Campbell’s command, returned to headquarters of his department of West-Virginia, after having gone to Romney. There they divided into three columns, one going out on the Winchester road thirty miles, the other down the Grassy Lick road to the vicinity of Wardensville, and the third on the old Moorfield road. None of these columns met with serious opposition on their advance. The information which they gained proved to be of high importance.—A Party of Southern sympathizers were banished from Knoxville, Tenn.
—Major-General Rosecrans, at his headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., issued the following address: “In relieving General Schofield, who, in assuming the arduous duties connected with this command, relinquished high prospects of a brilliant career as commander of Thomas’s old division in the then opening campaign of the army of the Cumberland, I tender him my compliments for the admirable order in which I have found the official business and archives of this department, and my best wishes, as well as hopes, that in this new field of duty he may reap that success which his solid merits, good sense, and honest devotion to his duty and his country so well deserve.
“While commanding here, I sincerely trust I shall receive the honest, firm, and united support of all true National and Union men of this department, without regard to politics, creed, or party, in my endeavors to maintain law and reestablish peace and secure prosperity throughout its limits. The past should be remembered only for the lessons it teaches, while our energies should be directed to the problem of assuring our future, based firmly on the grandeur of our position, and on the true principle of humanity and progress to universal freedom, secured by just laws.”
by John Beauchamp Jones
JANUARY 30TH.—The Senate has passed a new Conscription Act, putting all residents between the ages of eighteen and fifty-five in the military service for the war. Those over forty-five to be detailed by the President as commissary quartermasters, Nitre Bureau agents, provost guards, clerks, etc. This would make up the enormous number of 1,500,000 men! The express companies are to have no detail of men fit for the field, but the President may exempt a certain class for agricultural purposes, which, of course, can be revoked whenever a farmer refuses to sell at schedule prices, or engages in speculation or extortion. Thus the President becomes almost absolute, and the Confederacy a military nation. The House will pass it with some modifications. Already the Examiner denounces it, for it allows only one owner or editor to a paper, and just sufficient printers,—no assistant editors, no reporters, no clerks, etc. This will save us, and hasten a peace.
Mr. G. A. Myers, the little old lawyer, always potential with the successive Secretaries of War, proposes, in a long letter, that the Department allows 30 to 40 foreigners (Jews) to leave the Confederate States, viaMaryland, every week!
Mr. Goodman, President of the Mississippi Railroad, proposes to send cotton to the Yankees in exchange for implements, etc., to repair the road, and Lieut.-Gen. (Bishop) Polk favors the scheme.
Commissary-General Northrop likewise sent in a proposal from an agent of his in Mississippi, to barter cotton with the Yankees for subsistence, and he indorses an approval on it. I trust we shall be independent this summer.
To-day it is cool and cloudy, but Custis has had no use for fire in his school-room of nights for a week—and that in January. The warm weather saved us a dollar per day in coal. Custis’s scholars are paying him $95 the first month.
I shall hope for better times now. We shall have men enough, if the Secretary and conscription officers do not strain the meshes of the seine too much, and the currency will be reduced. The speculators and extortioners, in great measure, will be circumvented, for the new conscription will take them from their occupations, and they will not find transportation for their wares.
The 2000 barrels of corn destroyed by the enemy on the Peninsula, a few days ago, belonged to a relative of Col. Ruffin, Assistant Commissary-General! He would not impress that—and lo! it is gone! Many here are glad of it.
A Change of Commanders.
Jan. 29. Today we were paraded and invited to give our attention to orders. Major Mulcay of the 139th New York volunteers appeared on the ground, and read his orders relieving Capt. Parkhurst of the command. He then assumed command, and had a short drill and dress parade. Of course we put the best side out, to give the major a favorable impression. He complimented us for our good drill and neat appearance. Orders were read for a long and rapid march; of course that is one of our kind and we are expected to go on it. The major tells us we shall stay here a few days and then be assigned to his regiment.
Friday, 29th—Everything is working fine here at present. We can hear nothing about the army in the East. Some of the brigades have moved out to Black river bridge, since there is a better camping ground at that place; they also have good water there and plenty of wood and provisions. But we are still lying in camp with plenty to live on and our duty is very light.
