Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Post image for War Diary and Letters of Stephen Minot Weld.

War Diary and Letters of Stephen Minot Weld.

April 10, 2014

War diary and letters of Stephen Minot Weld

Annapolis, Md., April 10, 1864.

Dear Mother, — . . . The court-martial that I am on meets for the first time to-morrow morning. After calling the roll, they will adjourn until Wednesday, as the Judge Advocate has just got out of a small-pox hospital, and of course has had to burn all his clothes. He is going to Baltimore to buy new clothes, and hence the necessity of an adjournment.

General Burnside dropped down on us for about thirty seconds yesterday. He went off again immediately and started for New York. To-day we have had two visitors, one was John Hayden and the other Mr. Peabody from Boston, brother of Oliver Peabody. . . .

The regiment is in very good condition and the men behave very well indeed. They will soon be ready to go into a fight, or rather be fitted for it, for I don’t think that there is much of that foolish “longing for a fight” extant nowadays.

I am perfectly well, etc. I had a slight cold the other day, which alarmed me a little, but falsely, I am glad to say.

I see very little of Annapolis, as I don’t leave camp much, and as I don’t care about going there. It is a very old-fashioned town, decidedly Secesh in its proclivities, and full of stragglers and drunkards, —not altogether a desirable place to visit. One can see officers drinking with their men, etc., there, which is enough to disgust me with the place. There are some very fine old-fashioned houses there, which seem the very picture of comfort. I wish I could transport one of them to Jamaica Plain, to live in it after the war is over. . . .

Post image for War Diary and Letters of Stephen Minot Weld.

War Diary and Letters of Stephen Minot Weld.

April 10, 2014

War diary and letters of Stephen Minot Weld

Sunday, April 10. — John Hayden came over to see us and stayed until evening. We also had Mr. Peabody from Boston here. We had the usually weekly inspection, which was fair. Saw Colonel DeLand this morning. The court meets to-morrow. Day pleasant.

Post image for Reminiscences of the Civil War by William and Adelia Lyon.

Reminiscences of the Civil War by William and Adelia Lyon.

April 10, 2014

Reminiscences of the Civil War, William and Adelia Lyon

Colonel Lyon’s Letters.

 

Edgefield, Tenn., Sun., April 10, 1864.—I have sent Lieut. Wemple’s detail to General Thomas for approval, but have not yet heard from it. In addition to picket duty we have been put on tram-guard duty on the railroad between here and Louisville. This takes the whole regiment. I have sent the right wing across the river on the picket line beyond the city, under command of Colonel Chapman, to do that duty. All the men in the left wing are on the railroad, and I do not think I have fifty men in camp today. Rather lonesome. Jerry sends his best love to Minerva. He gets homesick sometimes. Somebody cut through his tent and stole his watch a few nights since.

Post image for Army letters of Oliver Willcox Norton.

Army letters of Oliver Willcox Norton.

April 10, 2014

Army letters of Oliver Willcox Norton (Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers)

Jacksonville, Florida,

Sunday, April 10, 1864.

Dear Sister L.:—

It is a beautiful Sunday morning, gloriously fresh after yesterday’s rain. The sun is not high enough yet to be uncomfortably warm. The weather is very much like northern June. Such a delicious freshness about the morning air, and as the sun mounts up, a glow that makes a cool shade appreciated.

The “Sunday Morning Inspection” is going on now. Being on “special duty” myself I am excused from that, and while the captain and Lieutenant Thompson are examining guns and knapsacks, I am sitting in the tent writing to you.

The band of sable performers is discoursing “Hail Columbia” and “America,” and they play well, too, very well for the length of time they have been practicing.

Since I wrote to you we have moved our camp. We had the most beautiful spot in the vicinity. A high point of land overlooking the river and fringed with magnificent live oaks, and dotted here and there with orange trees and magnolias. It did not look very well when we first went there, but then we soon fixed it up.

When we got well fortified, Colonel Hawley concluded we were not strong enough to hold the place, and ordered us to change camps with the Seventh Connecticut, his own regiment. Our present camp is on a perfectly level plain of sand regularly laid out, and the streets are lined with pine trees which the men have set out, giving it a very pretty appearance. We have one wall tent for the officers of each company. We have the fly of ours stretched in front of the tent. It makes a very nice place to sit in the heat of the day. We are to have it paved with brick, which are plenty hereabouts, but we have not got it done yet. Behind the tent is our mess-room roofed with shelter tents, where at stated hours Dickson serves up the staff of life and ham and potatoes. Also the dwelling of Dickson himself and his brick cooking-range. Around the whole is a double row of pines. Can you see by that little description our surroundings? Inside we have our bed, our table and bookcase. On the table are books and writing materials, my flute and chess, the last Atlantic and the papers, read till they actually get thin.

The court still continues to meet every day from 10 till 4 o’clock and I do little but attend that.

I met Almon in the street the other day. He was looking well. Spoke of a projected raid across the river in which he was to take part. A raid after the enemy’s fresh beef, to be converted of course to the benefit of the Yankee invaders.

Post image for Kate Cumming: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

Kate Cumming: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

April 10, 2014

Kate Cumming: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

Sunday, April 10.—A real April day, cloud and sunshine. This morning Dr. A. preached a very interesting sermon. His text was, “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” I think it is a pity that he is not a chaplain instead of a surgeon. I told him so, but he says his health will not permit it.

There is a religious revival here in which the citizens take very little interest, but the soldiers a great deal.

Dr. McFerrin, a Methodist preacher, is holding it. He is a chaplain, and his very soul seems to be in the work. He is one of the most earnest preachers I ever heard.

The people are very gay. Nearly every night a party is given. The gentlemen who attend them are the attachees of the hospital and the officers of the post.

Post image for Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Alexander G. Downing.

April 10, 2014

Diary of Alexander G. Downing; Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry

Sunday, 10th—It is still raining; there appears to be nothing but rain, rain! I went to meeting again this morning, and accompanied Mr. Sparks home for dinner. Jason Sparks is going to enlist and return with us to the front. In the afternoon we all went to attend meeting at the Inland schoolhouse, but the preacher didn’t come, and so I spent the balance of the day with the family of Mr. Willey, and remained there till late in the evening.

Post image for An Artilleryman’s Diary–Jenkin Lloyd Jones

An Artilleryman’s Diary–Jenkin Lloyd Jones

April 10, 2014

An Artilleryman's Diary–Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 6th Battery, Wisconsin Artillery.

Huntsville, Sunday, April 10. Beautiful weather. A “big scare” up this morning, expecting the Rebs in from the other side of the river. Orderlies said to be running all night. Early this morning Captain Dillon reported to headquarters for further intelligence, leaving orders to allow nobody to leave camp. Teams from Whitesburg returned after rations. The boys then were kept at their posts all night. Foraging trains came in early half loaded. The roads very bad. Went to town in the afternoon but there was no church. Returned and read Bartlett’s Sermon in Covenant, which was much better.

Post image for A Diary of American Events.

A Diary of American Events.

April 10, 2014

The American Civil War,The Rebellion Record—A Diary of American Events; by Frank Moore

April 10.—The transport steamer, General Hunter, was destroyed by torpedoes in St. John’s River, twelve miles above Jacksonville, Florida. The quartermaster of the steamer was killed. All others on board were saved.

—”We can hope no good results from trivial and light conduct on the part of our women,” says the Mobile News of this date. “Instead of adorning their persons for seductive purposes, and tempting our officers to a course alike disgraceful and unworthy of women, whose husbands and brothers are in our armies, they had better exhort them to well-doing, than act as instruments of destruction to both parties. The demoralization among our women is becoming fearful. Before the war, no woman dared to demean herself lightly; but now a refined and pure woman can scarcely travel without seeing some of our officers with fine-looking ladies as companions. You are forced to sit at the tables with them; you meet them wherever you go. Is it that we, too, are as wild as our enemies, scoffing at God and at all rules of social morality? For heaven’s sake, let us frown down this growing evil, unless all mothers and fathers would have their daughters grow up in a pestilential atmosphere, which but to breathe is death. Is not the hand of the enemy enough to send destruction to our homes, or must we have disgrace added to death? The evil can only be remedied by banishing the frail sisters from society, and putting no man in position who is not moral. Are not the bright and shining examples of Lee, Jackson, Johnston, Wheeler, Maury, and many others, enough to teach aspirants for office, that pure and moral men can make generals? that it is not necessary to play lackey to fast women to gain their country’s applause? Nor need they think they are not known. By their deeds we know them. Our President is a pure and moral man; were it not well for him to set an example, by discountenancing and refusing promotion to this set of moths? We have no laws to reach such a class but public opinion; then let that be used without mercy.”—The battle at Prairie D’Ann, Arkansas, took place this day.—(Doc. 130.)

Post image for A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary

A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary

April 10, 2014

A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, By John Beauchamp Jones

by John Beauchamp Jones

            APRIL 10TH.—Rained all night. Cloudy to-day; wind south-west.

            The Secretary of War must feel his subordination to Gen. Bragg. Gen. Fitz Lee recommended strongly a Prussian officer for appointment in the cavalry, and Mr. Seddon referred it to Gen. B., suggesting that he might be appointed in the cavalry corps to be stationed near this city. Gen. B. returns the paper, saying the President intends to have an organized brigade of cavalry from the Army of Northern Virginia on duty here, and there will be no vacancy in it. From this it seems that the Secretary is not only not to be gratified by the appointment, but is really kept in ignorance of army movements in contemplation!

            Major Griswold has resigned, at last. He did not find his position a bed of roses. I believe he abandons the Confederate States service altogether, and will attend to the collection of claims, and the defense of prisoners, probably arrested by Major Carrington, his successor in office.

            To-day I saw two conscripts from Western Virginia conducted to the cars (going to Lee’s army), in chains. It made a chill shoot through my breast. I doubt its policy, though they may be peculiar offenders.

            The benevolent Capt. Warner, being persecuted by the Commissary-General for telling the truth in regard to the rations, etc., is settling his accounts as rapidly as possible, and will resign his office. He says he will resume his old business, publishing books, etc.