Huntsville, Wednesday, March 16. A very cold and blustering day. All feel pinched as in January. Tommy Hungerford continues quite ill. Fever has left him, but he suffers from inflamation of the lungs. Confined to his bed all the time, and kept drowsy all the time by noxious drugs. Byron Babcock taken to the post hospital last night and M. Murphy today. He is very bad with measles. Hauled wood in the afternoon with D. Wallace and Milton Hungerford, ash-wood from the hill which is needed to keep warm. Bought Atlantic Monthly of J. Lester. Good reading.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
16th. Melissa wrote a letter to F. I enclosed a note speaking of my burning the letters and asking F. to do the same way with mine and also my pictures. Melissa took my letters around to Minnie’s. Thede and I walked around before supper.
16th. Melissa wrote a letter to F. I enclosed a note speaking of my burning the letters and asking F. to do the same way with mine and also my pictures. Melissa took my letters around to Minnie’s. Thede and I walked around before supper.
Thursday, 16th.—Corps drill and sham battle of Hood’s Corps to-day. Made some gallant charges.
Wednesday, 16th—This is a beautiful day. I left for home on my thirty-day furlough. I embarked with the Fifteenth Iowa and the Thirty-second Illinois, on board the “Olive Branch.” We left for Cairo, Illinois, at 3 p. m. We say adieu to thee, Vicksburg, the Gibraltar of the West! We leave thee with some pleasant memories, notwithstanding the many hardships we had to endure while with thee! Before we left Vicksburg the railroad station caught fire and was completely consumed with two thousand bushels of oats stored there.
March 16, Wednesday. I have matters arranged for young Mr. Wilson to go to New York and attend to the subjects that are undergoing investigation. Gave him cautionary advice both yesterday and again to-day. Want vigilance and firmness but not harshness or oppression:
March 16.—A party of guerrillas belonging to Roddy’s command made an attack upon the Chattanooga Railroad, at a point between Tullahoma and Estelle Springs, and, after robbing the passengers and committing other outrages, fled on the approach of another train loaded with soldiers. Among other atrocious acts was the following: There were four colored boys on the train acting in the capacity of brakemen, and two black men who were officers’ servants. These six poor creatures were placed in a row, and a squad of about forty of the robbers, under a Captain Scott, of Tennessee, discharged their revolvers at them, actually shooting the poor fellows all to pieces.—An engagement took place at a point two miles east of Fort Pillow, Tenn., between a body of Nationals and about one thousand rebels, who were routed with a loss of fifty killed and wounded.
—Captains Sawyer and Flynn, who had been held at Libby Prison, under sentence of death, in retaliation for the execution of two rebel spies, hung in Kentucky by General Burnside, were released. They were exchanged for General W. F. Lee and Captain Winder, who were held by the United States as personal hostages for their safety.
—The advance of General A. J. Smith’s forces, cooperating with General Banks’s, and under the command of Brigadier-General John A. Mower, reached Alexandria, La., accompanied by Admiral David D. Porter and his fleet of gunboats. —(Doc. 131.)
by John Beauchamp Jones
MARCH 16TH.—There was ice last night. Cold all day. Gen. Maury writes that no immediate attack on Mobile need be apprehended now. He goes next to Savannah to look after the defenses of that city.
The Examiner to-day publishes Gen. Jos. E. Johnston’s report of his operations in Mississippi last summer. He says the disaster at Vicksburg was owing to Gen. Pemberton’s disobedience of orders. He was ordered to concentrate his army and give battle before the place was invested, and under no circumstances to allow himself to be besieged, which must of course result in disaster. He says, also, that he was about to manœuvre in such manner as would have probably resulted in the saving a large proportion of his men, when, to his astonishment, he learned that Gen. P. had capitulated.
Willoughby Newton reports that the enemy are building a number of light boats, to be worked with muffled oars, at Point Lookout, Md., and suggests that they may be designed to pass the obstructions in the James River, in another attempt to capture Richmond.
It is said Lieut.-Gen. E. Kirby Smith, trans-Mississippi, has been made a full general, and that Major-Gen. Sterling Price relieves Lieut.-Gen. Holmes, who is to report at Richmond. If this be so, it is very good policy.
Gen. Lee is still here, but will leave very soon.
Gen. Bragg has taken measures to insure the transportation of meat and grain from the South. Much food for Lee’s army has arrived during the last two days.
