April 8. — Received letter from Hannah. Day pleasant. Felt much better and took hot bath in the evening, to drive away the cold. Guard-house finished to-day and the scaffold taken down.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., to his father
Inspector General’s Department
Washington, April 8, 1864
I arrived in New York and got through the Custom House at about eight o’clock Wednesday evening (6th inst.) and took the midnight train to Washington. On the passage I neither saw nor heard anything of Mr. Yeatman. He may have been on board, perhaps as a second cabin passenger; or I may have met him under an assumed character; but he certainly did not approach me, and, of course, beyond carefully examining the list of passengers I made no effort to discover him. There was one Confederate lady on board, but I could not discover that any gentleman in particular seemed to have acquaintance with her.
I got to Washington at noon and delivered your letter to Mr. Seward in person an hour later. He read it attentively and as he did so I carefully observed him, in hopes of being able to catch some expression. I might as well have watched the walls of the Treasury building. He finished it and I told him that I was cognizant of its contents; that I had not seen anything of Mr. Yeatman on the passage and accordingly had nothing to report on that head, and offered to give him any further information in my power. He asked if a Mr. Lumkin had come over with me. I said I thought not. He then remarked generally, that he had but little faith in the matter, that he had made some inquiries about Mr. Yeatman and the result was that he found that Yeatman had borne in Washington the reputation of a flighty, visionary character, and his impression was that, though doubtless well enough intentioned himself, he was being made a tool of by the Confederate agents abroad. “However,” said he, “I last night got a telegram from some one calling himself a Mr. Lumkin, and I never knew any one of that name who did n’t come from Georgia, stating that he had arrived in Baltimore and asking me to send down an appointment for him at the Department to the National Hotel, and this may be Yeatman’s other agent referred to in this letter.” I then told him that the agent who was to call on Judge Catron was named Ellitson. He then remarked that everything in this matter must come from the rebels and that he should neither pay money nor make any advances. As he talked he walked up and down the room with his hands in his pockets, and I could not tell at all how far he expressed his real sentiments, or how far he meant to give me impressions.
He certainly seemed in excellent spirits and to talk with great confidence. I thought too that he looked less old, thin and anxious than when I last saw him. He finally said : “Well, come and dine with me at six o’clock and we will discuss this matter. I don’t now think of anything which I want to ask you.” He made no reference to Mr. Scott Russell, nor did I speak of him; but as I was leaving he asked if the Ministry was going out, and I told him what you said on the subject, in regard to a crisis being egged on by the Emperor which was not likely to be followed by a change of policy, but that the party coming into power would probably contain a large element disposed in our matters to follow the lead of the Emperor. Of the national course as regards France he then spoke with great confidence, saying that if the Emperor desired it we were now as ready for a war as we ever should be, although, he added, that he was doing his best to restrain, the feeling in Congress. I then left. Mr. George Thompson dined with him as well as myself, and nothing further passed on the subject of your letter, except that he stated that he had read it again, and believed there was nothing about which he desired to question me. This ends my connection with this business.
The impression left on my mind is that Mr. Seward, influenced by what he had heard of Yeatman, by no means gives to this matter the weight which we hoped belonged to it. Still he is so very wary in his policy that I do not pretend to detect it. Meanwhile he waits for advances on this side, evidently ready himself to meet any one. He tells me that Judge Catron is dying, so that Ellitson will find himself afloat. Judge Wayne he intimated was unexceptionable as a medium. I can only say that you have clearly now opened a way for discussion, if there is anything in this, a way to which no exception can be taken. Now, on this side, where the matter now rests I am only clear on one point, and that is that Seward neither means to be tricked or to take a low tone with his opponents. He clearly means to make them act on the square or he will refuse to act at all. Thus the bona fides of this discussion on their part is the next matter to be tested. Clearly, though your part is done, we have not heard the last of this matter yet. . . .
I find unexampled military confidence prevailing in Washington, under an impression that Grant means to be, in fact as well as name, the head of the Army. I like much the deliberation and amazing secrecy of his contemplated movements, so far as I can get glimpses of them.
London, April 8, 1864
We go on much as ever. I never worked harder at my despatches than I have done this week. At my table for nearly seven hours and a half yesterday with little intermission. Then out to dinner only once this week, with the customary receptions at Mrs. Gladstone’s and Lady Waldegrave’s. You know both places and can well comprehend our feelings.
The Ministry still hold on. The great campaign planned prior to Easter has failed even more lamentably then General Sherman’s. The object of attack, Mr. Stansfeld, very prudently resigned his post. Lord Palmerston was nobly heroic in his eulogy and equally philosophical in pocketing the advantage of the sacrifice. So the opposition must try again. As yet no programme has been substituted. But chance may favor them when strategy fails. The majority is ready. All that is needed is an occasion.
Meanwhile great efforts have been making to induce the Queen to come out of her solitude, and take her accustomed part at the head of society. The only effect has been to induce her to hold what one calls two “Courts,” at which she will receive first, the principal members of the Corps Diplomatique, and next, the chief of the nobility. This is a novelty indeed. Nobody knows what to make of it. The first of the two was fixed for Wednesday at three P.M. But late on Tuesday night I got a card from the Chamberlain announcing that a slight indisposition of Her Majesty had made a postponement necessary until tomorrow at the same hour. We are then to go — i.e., your mother and I. The Queen is to go round and speak to each of us, which will be a good deal more than she has ever been called to do before. Yet she thinks this easier than to hold Drawing rooms! Apropos to this a very curious article appeared in the Times on Wednesday, evidently from headquarters, announcing that the sooner the idea was dispelled that she should return to that sort of work, the better would it be for all parties. The conclusion is inevitable, that society is to do as well as it can without her. The field will be open for the Prince and Princess of Wales. . . .
Annapolis, Md., April 8th, 1864.
There have been rumors in camp ever since we came here, and long before, for that matter, all tending homeward. The fond illusion is, at last, dispelled. Colonel Luce returned last night. He says Governor Blair and himself did all in their power to get the regiment home on furlough. They wrote the War Department, and were refused on the ground that we had not been out long enough to entitle us to one. I did not expect one from the regiment. All my hope was in the hospital. Only a bare possibility now remains. How fondly I had hoped to see my loved family before active operations were resumed was not fully realized until now. I try to bow submissively. I cannot forget that I still owe my best services to my country.
I have been blest with health such as I had not enjoyed for years while engaged in the peaceful and, to me, congenial, avocations of life. Mail facilities are good, and I will try and catch the few rays of sunshine it affords.
Friday, 8th—Another wet day and I stayed at home all day. It is so lonesome that I almost wish I was back in the army; although if I did not have to go back, I could enjoy myself a great deal better. May God hasten the day when this cruel war will be fought to a close, so that the soldiers may return to their homes and friends. What a cruel thing this war is! Think of the thousands of our brave men suffering in the hospitals and in the camps, and many being killed on the battlefield. And yet, think of the everlasting Copperheads in the North, how they sympathize with the South! Such men as they are not fit to be compared with the negroes of the South! I would like to see such men as they are be made to go down there and fight for the South, and be compelled to live on mule beef at that!
Huntsville, Friday, April 8. A fine day. Drill as usual. Played ball spare time in the morning. Wrote to brother Thomas in the afternoon. Pleasant task when my mind is tranquil. 48th and detachment of 59th Indiana went out at 4 P. M. to reinforce Whitesburg, it is supposed. Deserters say that the enemy is reinforcing heavily and making preparations to throw a pontoon bridge across the river some dark night. Rumor says John Morgan was in town lately with a load of wood. If so, I don’t think our sixteen pieces on Russell Hill looked very encouraging to him. Come on, John, we are ready.
April 8, Friday. Answered a letter from J. P. Hale, Chairman of Naval Committee, on the question of increasing the Marine Corps. In answering the inquiries of Mr. Hale, it is important to so word my communication as to leave the honorable gentleman some discretion, for he makes it a rule to oppose any measure which the Department strongly recommends. Mr. Rice, Chairman of the Naval Committee of the House, informs me of a conversation he had with Hale a few days since, when he lectured Hale severely for his course. Told him that, while professing to be a friend of the Administration, he exerted himself to see if he could not in some way find fault with it, as though he could gain popularity to himself personally while denouncing the Administration and especially that branch of it with which he was more particularly identified. Hale replied that he had the most implicit confidence in the integrity and fidelity of Gideon Welles, but that he had no confidence in Mr. Fox or Admiral Smith, etc., etc.
But little at the Cabinet. Neither Chase nor Blair attended. Seward says our friends in the British Ministry are to be defeated. Told him I regretted it, but that it was not an unmitigated evil. I had not the apprehensions from it which he seemed to entertain. I certainly felt disinclined to make concessions to retain them.
Called this evening on Admiral Dahlgren, who is inconsolable for the loss of his son. Advised him to get abroad and mingle in the world, and not yield to a blow that was irremediable.
Wise, who is Chief ad interim of the Ordnance Bureau, is almost insane for the appointment of Chief, and, like too many, supposes the way to promotion is by denouncing those who stand in his way, or whom he supposes stand in his way. Mr. Everett writes to old Mr. Blair against Dahlgren. Admiral Stringham and Worden called on me yesterday in behalf of Wise and both opposed D. They were sent by Wise.
April 8.—Last night, a scouting-party of one hundred men of the Second Missouri volunteers, from New-Madrid, was surprised in camp and in bed by guerrillas, at a point sixteen miles northwest of Osceola, in Arkansas. A member of the attacked band gives the following detailed account of the expedition and surprise. He says: “The rebels demanded a surrender, firing on our men in their beds, before they could get up, and as they sprang up, the assailants fired a dreadful volley from double-barreled shot-guns. Lieutenant Phillips, springing up, and calling to his men to rally, discharged one shot with revolver, and was struck in the left temple by a ball, and killed instantly. Major Rabb called to the men to rally, but they were so tightly pressed for the moment, that they fell back to a house at which was company K. The combatants were so close, that it was dangerous to our own men for those at the house to fire. The firing on our part was thus much curtailed for the moment. But all was soon over; the rebels have fallen back, and taken covering in the darkness of the night. But they were not all as fortunate as they might have wished; for at the close of the fray, some of them were heard to call out: ‘Don’t leave us, for we are wounded.’ The fact of finding some arms on the ground, twenty or thirty feet off, where Lieutenant Phillips lay, proved that some of them had got their rights, (Federal lead.) In a few minutes after the fray, Sergeant Reese was ordered to take eight men and carry the wounded to the house, which was done immediately. Here is the list of the unfortunate—Lieutenant Phillips, killed: Lieutenant Orr, severely wounded; Sergeant Handy, killed; Sergeant Millhouse, severely wounded; Sergeant Claypool, slightly, in arm; William Julian, slightly ; Thomas Jump, slightly, in leg; Joseph W. Davis, slightly; Milton R. Hardie, mortally, (has since died 😉 Able Benny, slightly, in leg; William Chasteen, mortally, (has since died in hospital.) Total—four killed, seven wounded, all of company I, Second Missouri.”
The dead were necessarily left, and after burying them, the party conveyed the wounded the long distance to the river, and taking the steamer Darling, returned to quarters at New-Madrid tonight.
—By a general order, issued this day from the headquarters of the army of the Potomac, all civilians, sutlers, and their employés, were ordered to the rear by the sixteenth. Members of the Sanitary or Christian Commissions, and registered news correspondents only, were allowed to remain. All property for which there was no transportation, also was ordered to the rear, and the authority of corps commanders to grant furloughs was revoked, and none to be granted save in extreme cases, or in case of reenlisted veterans.
—A party of guerrillas entered Shelbyville, Ky., at one o’clock A.M., this day, stole seven horses, and broke open the Branch Bank of Ashland; but before they could rifle it of its contents, they became alarmed at the proximity of the Twelfth Ohio cavalry, and decamped. The rest of them were arrested, and confined in Taylorsville jail.—This evening, the National cavalry, under the command of General Grierson, made a descent upon a bridge over Wolf River, Tenn., which had just been completed by the rebel General Forrest, and succeeded in capturing and destroying it, with a loss of eight killed and wounded, and the capture of two rebel prisoners.
—The battle of Sabine Cross-Roads, La., took place this day. A participant in the fight gives the following account of it: “On the morning of the eighth of April, the regiment broke up camp at Pleasant Hill, and with the Twenty-fourth Iowa, Fifty-sixth Ohio, Forty-sixth Indiana, and Twenty-ninth Wisconsin, which composed the Third division, moved in the direction of Mansfield. After marching ten miles, the division halted and went into camp, as was supposed, for the night At half-past two o’clock P.m., we (the Twenty-eighth Iowa) were ordered into line, and forward with the division, to support General Lee’s cavalry and the Fourth division of the Thirteenth army corps, then engaging the enemy. A rapid march of an hour brought us to the scene of action. The Twenty-eighth Iowa was formed on the extreme left, supported by four companies of the Twenty-fourth Iowa, and advanced into an open field to meet the enemy. Here the regiment (the Twenty-eighth) halted, and was ordered to fire. After a spirited contest of about fifteen minutes, being exposed to a terrible fire of grape, shell, and shrapnel from the enemy’s batteries, causing sad havoc in our ranks, we were ordered to fall back a short distance to secure a better position. This was accomplished in the best possible manner. Our second position was taken behind a fence, near a small ravine, and held two hours, receiving the constant fire of the enemy’s infantry, and being exposed to their artillery. At this time the enemy had gained our left flank and rear, and were pouring a deadly fire upon us. Our ammunition being, in a great measure, exhausted, and having no support whatever, we were obliged to retreat with the rest of the division. After a running fight of three miles, in which we harassed the advance of the enemy, we were met by the Nineteenth army corps, and, with their assistance, succeeded in checking them. Night soon caused a cessation of hostilities.”—(Doc. 131.)
—Colonel Howell, of the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania volunteers, continued his reconnoissances toward the rebel outposts, in the neighborhood of Hilton Head, S. C. To-day, he advanced up the May River, in the patrol-boats Foulk and Croton, guarded by the gunboat Chippewa. Detachments from the Seventy-sixth and Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania volunteers accompanied the expedition. Landing on Hunting Island, the forces drove in the rebel pickets, and skirmished with the force in their rear. Captain Phillips, with some men of the Eighty-fifth, drove away the pickets in another locality, and regained the main body without casualty. Meanwhile, the Chippewa shelled the woods on and about the neighboring shores. Reembarking, the force proceeded toward Bluffton, shelling that place and its vicinity.
—Major-general John J. Peck, in official orders, issued the following from his headquarters at Newbern, N. C: “The Commanding General has the satisfaction of announcing another expedition against the enemy, in which both the military and naval forces of North-Carolina took part, sharing the honors equally.
“On the twenty-fifth of March, Colonel J. Jourdan, commander of the sub-district of Beaufort, with two hundred men of the One Hundred and Fifty-eighth New-York volunteer infantry, embarked on board the United States gunboat Britannia, Lieutenant Huse commanding, and steamed for Bogue and Bear Inlets, for the purpose of capturing two of the enemy’s vessels en gaged in contraband trade, and also a body of cavalry reported to be at Swansboro. Nearing the inlets, a portion of the command was transferred to small boats, and an effort made to effect a landing and move on Swansboro. All night long, in the breakers and storm, these little boats, with their patient crows, were tossed about. Several craft, in the violence of the gale, were dashed to pieces; but, through the energetic exertions of Colonel Jourdan and others, no lives were lost, although one officer (Captain David, of the One Hundred and Fifty-eighth New-York volunteers) was seriously injured.
“In the morning the storm abated, and another attempt was made. As the boats moved up, instead of seeing the expected cavalry, they were saluted by heavy volleys of musketry from the river-banks. The enemy proving too strong, the party was obliged to return to the vessel.
“At the same time, Lieutenant King, of Colonel Jourdan’s staff, with a body of men in boats, moved up Bear Inlet: he found and burned one of the vessels sought, together with its cargo of salt and leather. He returned to the gunboat, bringing with him forty-three negro refugees. The whole expedition arrived at Beaufort on the morning of the twenty-sixth ultimo, without the loss of a man.
“Great credit is due Colonel Jourdan and the officers and men of his command, together with the officers and men of the navy, for the efficient service performed. The Commanding General tenders his thanks especially to Colonel Jourdan, Captain Cuff, and Lieutenant King, of the army, and to Commander Dove and Lieutenants Huso and Cowie, of the navy.”
April 8th, 1864.—I am at home again and father and mother say they have missed me. The hospital patients are better and High Private Watson is begging to go back to his uncle. Father has written to him and described the child’s condition, asking if he might send him to his relatives in Macon? No answer has come and the little fellow is too feeble to be allowed to go to camp, so Father is going to send him to Macon with Mr. Higgins, (who was wounded in the shoulder and is about well now). He has a short furlough to visit his home in Griffin and will take charge of him.
There are a number of soldiers sick with some kind of fever, which will fill the places these two leave vacant.
Brother Junius writes that he liked his knit undershirts and drawers so well that he wants me to knit him some of cotton. I will get to work on them right away. He writes that the army is almost constantly on the move and the soldiers have hopes of defeating Grant, in this Spring campaign and ending the war. I have taken care of all the letters he has written me; he writes alternately to Mattie and to me. Father says his letters would make a good history of the army of Northern Virginia. Last winter he wrote such entertaining accounts of the “night school” the soldiers had, not the primary grades either, but a classical school with oratorical efforts interspersed.
I have little time now for study, I still keep on with some studies and recite to Father, when he has time to hear me, or we talk it over when we are out in the woods collecting medicinal herbs. What I am most interested in at present is Upham’s Mental Philosophy. I do not teach Frances now, she was so bad that Mother sent her to stay at the Horse-shoe with Aunt Pendar. She does not work in the field but takes lessons in sewing from Mrs. Manning.
by John Beauchamp Jones
APRIL 8TH.—Bright and warm—really a fine spring day. It is the day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, and all the offices are closed. May God put it into the hearts of the extortioners to relent, and abolish, for a season, the insatiable greed for gain! I paid $25 for a half cord of wood to-day, new currency. I fear a nation of extortioners are unworthy of independence, and that we must be chastened and purified before success will be vouchsafed us.
What enormous appetites we have now, and how little illness, since food has become so high in price! I cannot afford to have more than an ounce of meat daily for each member of my family of six; and to day Custis’s parrot, which has accompanied the family in all their flights, and, it seems, will never die, stole the cook’s ounce of fat meat and gobbled it up before it could be taken from him. He is permitted to set at one corner of the table, and has lately acquired fondness for meat. The old cat goes staggering about from debility, although Fannie often gives him her share. We see neither rats nor mice about the premises now. This is famine. Even the pigeons watch the crusts in the hands of the children, and follow them in the yard. And, still, there are no beggars.
The plum-tree in my neighbor’s garden is in blossom to-day, and I see a few blossoms on our cherry-trees. I have set out some 130 early York cabbage-plants—very small; and to-day planted lima and snap beans. I hope we shall have no more cold weather, for garden seed, if those planted failed to come up, would cost more than the crops in ordinary times.
