Sunday, 21st—The weather is fine for marching. After a night’s rest, we started early this morning and reaching Decatur, went into bivouac. The provision trains aim now to keep one day’s march in advance of the army.
Friday, February 21, 2014
21st. Attended Plymouth Church in the morning. In the P. M. went over to Uncle Jones’. In the evening heard Fred Douglass. Much interested.
Huntsville, Sunday, Feb. 21. Weather a little milder. Milton Hungerford and I attended the Methodist church .in the forenoon. Service in the Battery in the afternoon by agent of Christian Commission. Mail arrived. Received a long looked for letter from Hannah. Twenty-one days on the road.
[Diary] February 21.
Mr. French came up and preached. He told the people to hold on to their preempted lands and all might come out right yet, and when they wanted to plant crop, to take what they needed and defend it with their hoe handles. He said that Mr. Philbrick and Mr. Thorpe were honest, but were getting rich by the labor of the blacks, and while they were lining their pockets, their laborers were no richer at the end of the year than they were at the beginning. He urged them to plant for themselves rather than for others. Mr. Barrows qualified. After church Mr. French stayed a long time talking in the church with Ellen and me upon the land question. We condemned parts of his speech. He was patient and willing to heed our warnings.
Sunday, 21st.—Reported Cleaborn’s Division going to Mobile. Six train-loads in Dalton now. Good many rumors afloat.
by John Beauchamp Jones
FEBRUARY 21ST.—Cold, clear, and calm, but moderating.
Mr. Benjamin sent over, this morning, extracts from dispatches received from his commercial agent in London, dated December 26th and January 16th, recommending, what had already been suggested by Mr. McRae, in Paris, a government monopoly in the export of cotton, and in the importation of necessaries, etc.
This measure has already been adopted by Congress, which clearly shows that the President can have any measure passed he pleases; and this is a good one.
So complete is the Executive master of the “situation,” that, in advance of the action of Congress on the Currency bill, the Secretary of the Treasury had prepared plates, etc. for the new issue of notes before the bill passed calling in the old.
Some forty of the members of the Congress just ended failed to be re-elected, and of these a large proportion are already seeking office or exemption.
The fear is now, that, from a plethora of paper money, we shall soon be without a sufficiency for a circulating medium. There are $750,000,000 in circulation; and the tax bills, etc. will call in, it is estimated, $800,000,000! Well, I am willing to abide the result. Speculators have had their day; and it will be hoped we shall have a season of low prices, if scarcity of money always reduces prices. There are grave lessons for our edification daily arising in such times as these.
I know my ribs stick out, being covered by skin only, for the want of sufficient food; and this is the case with many thousands of non-producers, while there is enough for all, if it were equally distributed.
The Secretary of War has nothing new from Gen. Polk; and Sherman is supposed to be still at Meridian.
There is war between Gen. Winder and Mr. Ould, agent for exchange of prisoners, about the custody and distribution to prisoners, Federal and Confederate. It appears that parents, etc. writing to our prisoners in the enemy’s country, for want of three cent stamps, are in the habit of inclosing five or ten cent pieces, and the perquisites of the office amounts to several hundred dollars per month—and the struggle is really between the clerks in the two offices. A Mr. Higgens, from Maryland, is in Winder’s office, and has got the general to propose to the Secretary that he shall have the exclusive handling of the letters; but Mr. Ould, it appears, detected a letter, of an alleged treasonable character, on its way to the enemy’s country, written by this Higgens, and reported it to the Secretary. But as the Secretary was much absorbed, and as Winder will indorse Higgens, it is doubtful how the contest for the perquisites will terminate.
The Secretary was aroused yesterday. The cold weather burst the water-pipe in his office, or over it, and drove him off to the Spottswood Hotel.
February 21st, 1864.—Yesterday a terrible battle was fought at Ocean Pond, or Olustee, both names are used in the news sent to us of the fierce struggle between the Yankees and our troops. Many are dead on both sides and our loss would have been heavier if the Yankees had been better shots. Our soldiers are, the most of them, wounded in the head and the ground was fairly covered with small branches cut from the pines above. Those same pine trees were a great item for our men, they fought behind the trees like the Indians and like General Washington did, in his fights with the French long ago. The dispatch said “Lieut. Holland killed,” so Mr. Robinson went down today with a casket to bring his body home. His wife wants him buried in Tallahassee, where she expects to make her home with her sister. The Holland family are grieving deeply, for he was the only son and brother.
February 21.—A plot to escape, set on foot by the rebel prisoners confined at Columbus, Ohio, was discovered and frustrated.
