Huntsville, Tuesday, March 8. Rainy. Appearance of bad weather. Henry Robson taken to smallpox camp, having been sick in camp for nearly a week with varioloid. On duty, hauling wood for the cooks both morning and afternoon. Recruits were drilled by Sergeant Sweet. Reports of several court-martials read at dress parade, of artillery men. —— of our Battery, ten days hard labor after twenty in confinement in guard house. News reached us of a terrible calamity having befallen the homeward bound veterans of the 4th Minnesota. Cars running off the track, killing eighteen soldiers, five or six wounded. Having braved many battles, thus to die on the way to see those whom they loved.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
8th. Came home on morning train. An hour too early at the depot. Chester called and played three games of chess. Victor. Minnie at home in evening. Played authors. Saw her home. Am quite uneasy yet as to the result of F’s decision. Anyway I will try to be happy myself and to make others happy, be good and do good. God help me.
Wednesday, 8th.—Had good dinner to-day; sent to Company F from the ladies of Crawford County, Ga. Plenty of bread, butter and ham.
March 8th.—Mrs. Preston’s story. As we walked home, she told me she had just been to see a lady she had known more than twenty years before. She had met her in this wise: One of the chambermaids of the St. Charles Hotel (New Orleans) told Mrs. Preston’s nurse—it was when Mary Preston was a baby—that up among the servants in the garret there was a sick lady and her children. The maid was sure she was a lady, and thought she was hiding from somebody. Mrs. Preston went up, knew the lady, had her brought down into comfortable rooms, and nursed her until she recovered from her delirium and fever. She had run away, indeed, and was hiding herself and her children from a worthless husband. Now, she has one son in a Yankee prison, one mortally wounded, and the last of them dying there under her eyes of consumption. This last had married here in Richmond, not wisely, and too soon, for he was a mere boy; his pay as a private was eleven dollars a month, and his wife’s family charged him three hundred dollars a month for her board; so he had to work double tides, do odd jobs by night and by day, and it killed him by exposure to cold in this bitter climate to which his constitution was unadapted.
They had been in Vicksburg during the siege, and during the bombardment sought refuge in a cave. The roar of the cannon ceasing, they came out gladly for a breath of fresh air. At the moment when they emerged, a bomb burst there, among them, so to speak, struck the son already wounded, and smashed off the arm of a beautiful little grandchild not three years old. There was this poor little girl with her touchingly lovely face, and her arm gone. This mutilated little martyr, Mrs. Preston said, was really to her the crowning touch of the woman’s affliction. Mrs. Preston put up her hand, “Her baby face haunts me.”
March 8, Tuesday. Received a telegram from Admiral Lee this P.M., confirming a rumor that was whispered yesterday of the death of young Dahlgren. He was surrounded, it seems, by superior forces near King and Queen Court-House, and fell attempting to cut his way through. Most of his command was captured. A few escaped and got on board of the gunboat which had been sent for their relief.
A more gallant and brave-hearted fellow was not to be found in the service. His death will be a terrible blow to his father, who doted upon him and not without reason. I apprehend this raid was not a wise and well-planned scheme. Tested by results, it was not. Whether the War Department advised it I do not know. I heard it spoken of indefinitely and vaguely, but with no certainty till the expedition had started.
Fox is full of zeal to get hold of the fraudulent contractors and all that belongs to them, and the whole subject is committed to him. I exceedingly dislike these irregular proceedings. There should be proper law officers to whom these matters should be committed, and not impose them upon the heads of Departments. I must try to have Congress take the matter in hand, and pass the necessary laws, or devise some proper action. I do not like matters as they now are.
Tuesday, 8th—I was detailed with six men from the Eleventh under me, as special guard at the roundhouse. We were detailed about midnight to relieve the Ninety-fifth Illinois, which will accompany a part of the Sixteenth Army Corps down the river, and then on an expedition up the Red river. The Seventeenth Army Corps is going home on veterans’ furlough.
by John Beauchamp Jones
MARCH 8TH.—An application of Capt. C. B. Duffield, for a lieutenant-colonelcy, recommended by Col. Preston, came back from the President to-day. It was favorably indorsed by the Secretary, but Gen. Cooper marked it adversely, saying the Assistant Adjutant-General should not execute the Conscription act, and finally, the President simply said, “The whole organization requires revision.—J. D.” I hope it will be revised, and nine-tenths of its officers put in the army as conscripts.
Raining this morning, and alternate clouds and sunshine during the day.
One of the clerks who was in the engagement, Tuesday night, March 1st, informed me that the enemy’s cavalry approached slowly up the hill, on the crest of which the battalion was lying. At the word, the boys rose and fired on their knees. He says the enemy delivered a volley before they retreated, killing two of our men and wounding several.
Reports from the Eastern Shore of Virginia indicate that Gen. Butler’s rule there has been even worse than Lockwood’s. It is said that the subordinate officers on that quiet peninsula are merely his agents, to tax and fine and plunder the unoffending people,—never in arms, and who have, with few exceptions, “taken the oath” repeatedly. One family, however (four sisters, the Misses P.), relatives of my wife, have not yielded. They allege that their father and oldest sister were persecuted to death by the orders of the general, and they could not swear allegiance to any government sanctioning such outrages in its agents. They were repeatedly arrested, and torn from their paternal roof at all hours of the day and night, but only uttered defiance. They are ladies of the first standing, highly accomplished, and of ample fortune, but are ready to suffer death rather than submit to the behests of a petty tyrant. Butler abandoned the attempt, but the soldiery never lose an opportunity of annoying the family.
March 8.—Four Yankee negro soldiers, captured in James City County, were brought to this city yesterday and delivered at the Libby, where they were distributed, as far as they would go, into the solitary cells of the Yankee officers captured during the recent raid. This is a taste of negro equality, we fancy, the said Yankee officers will not fancy overmuch. The negroes represent themselves as James W. Cord, company C, Fifth United States volunteers; P. F. Lewis, company I, Fifth United States volunteers; R. P. Armistead, company H, Sixth United States volunteers; John Thomas, ditto.— Richmond Whig.
—The rebel steamer Sumter was captured on Lake George, Florida, by the National steamer Columbine, under the command of Acting Master J. C. Champion.—Forty-eight Union officers and over six hundred prisoners arrived at Fortress Monroe from Richmond, Va., for exchange.— The steam-tug Titan, which was captured near Cherry Stone Point, Va., was burned at Freeport on the Piankatank River.
March 8th. A cold, wet, disagreeable night for picket duty. We are about as miserable as we can be. When off duty we find shelter in an old barn, until the arrival of our tents. Maryland mud is fully as bad as Virginia. Trying to make the best of our condition, hoping for sunshine and warmer weather. All is quiet along the picket line. Once in a while the boys take chances and shoot at the turkey buzzards, sailing through the air.
