Monday, April 11. — Court-martial met and adjourned until Wednesday. I got leave to go to Baltimore for twenty-four hours, and started in the 4 o’clock train. Met John Hayden on his way to Washington, and Colonel Coales, Chief Commissary of the Ninth Corps, on his way to Baltimore. Reached Baltimore about 6.30, and took a room at the Eutaw House. Went down and spent the evening with Hannah. Day pleasant. Called on Egbert and had jolly talk with him.
Friday, April 11, 2014
Monday, April 11th.
Nothing of special interest has occurred since the 4th. We are still camped on the side hill near Stevensburg and the weather continues cold and rainy, while the term “mud” scarcely conveys an idea of the condition of the soil. Two or three rations of whiskey have been issued to the men and, I am bound to say under the circumstances, with beneficial results. Lieut. Gleason has been discharged from the service on a surgeon’s certificate of physical disability, and if he escapes with his life after the experience of the past ten days he will do well. Second Lieut. Clark, who assisted me in recruiting for the Eleventh, is assigned to my company to fill his place. Whenever the weather has permitted, we have endeavored to pick up some knowledge of skirmish drill, however distasteful that is to an artillery soldier. We have also had one or two dress parades in “close column by battalion,” the regimental line being too long for our parade ground in the usual formation. It is rumored about camp that the Artillery Brigade of the Second Corps is to be composed of twelve light batteries, and that our regiment is to support these batteries when in action, and act as guard for their camps and trains, a duty usually performed by infantry. Now that the “powers that be” have got us into the field, it looks to me very much as if they don’t know what to do with us.
April 11th.—Drove with Mrs. Davis and all her infant family; wonderfully clever and precocious children, with unbroken wills. At one time there was a sudden uprising of the nursery contingent. They laughed, fought, and screamed. Bedlam broke loose. Mrs. Davis scolded, laughed, and cried. She asked me if my husband would speak to the President about the plan in South Carolina, which everybody said suited him. “No, Mrs. Davis,” said I. “That is what I told Mr. Davis,” said she. “Colonel Chesnut rides so high a horse. Now Browne is so much more practical. He goes forth to be general of conscripts in Georgia. His wife will stay at the Cobbs’s.”
Mrs. Ould gave me a luncheon on Saturday. I felt that this was my last sad farewell to Richmond and the people there I love so well. Mrs. Davis sent her carriage for me, and we went to the Oulds’ together. Such good things were served—oranges, guava jelly, etc. The Examiner says Mr. Ould, when he goes to Fortress Monroe, replenishes his larder; why not? The Examiner has taken another fling at the President, as, “haughty and austere with his friends, affable, kind, subservient to his enemies.” I wonder if the Yankees would indorse that certificate. Both sides abuse him. He can not please anybody, it seems. No doubt he is right.
My husband is now brigadier-general and is sent to South Carolina to organize and take command of the reserve troops. C. C. Clay and L. Q. C. Lamar are both spoken of to fill the vacancy made among Mr. Davis’s aides by this promotion.
To-day, Captain Smith Lee spent the morning here and gave a review of past Washington gossip. I am having such a busy, happy life, with so many friends, and my friends are so clever, so charming. But the change to that weary, dreary Camden! Mary Preston said: “I do think Mrs. Chesnut deserves to be canonized; she agrees to go back to Camden.” The Prestons gave me a farewell dinner; my twenty-fourth wedding day, and the very pleasantest day I have spent in Richmond.
Maria Lewis was sitting with us on Mrs. Huger’s steps, and Smith Lee was lauding Virginia people as usual. As Lee would say, there “hove in sight” Frank Parker, riding one of the finest of General Bragg’s horses; by his side Buck on Fairfax, the most beautiful horse in Richmond, his brown coat looking like satin, his proud neck arched, moving slowly, gracefully, calmly, no fidgets, aristocratic in his bearing to the tips of his bridle-reins. There sat Buck tall and fair, managing her home with infinite ease, her English riding-habit showing plainly the exquisite proportions of her figure. “Supremely lovely,” said Smith Lee. “Look at them both,” said I proudly; “can you match those two in Virginia?” “Three cheers for South Carolina!” was the answer of Lee, the gallant Virginia sailor.
Monday, 11th—It was rainy all day, but I went to farming this morning for the first time for nearly three years. As the boys are all sick and as it is impossible for father to hire help even for a few days, I made up my mind that it was my duty to help father to get his seeding done. I started in drilling wheat, but after a while I had to stop on account of the rain.
Huntsville, Monday, April 11. Spent the day in the usual way. Two hours’ gun drill in the morning, then game of ball; an hour company drill in the afternoon; a game or two of chess, then parade 4 P. M.; reading, writing, the remainder of the time till retreat at 8 P. M. when I made down my cot. In the quiet of alone I lay down, a few yearning thoughts of home, mother, etc. and all is oblivion till reveille calls me forth from the land of nod. A little after noon we were startled by a terrible explosion near the depot. A caisson of the Illinois Battery had exploded while returning from drill, killing six cannoneers instantly and wounding two. A very sad affair. Bodies torn to shreds.
April 11, Monday. John C. Rives, it is stated, died yesterday. He was a marked character, guileless, shrewd, simple-hearted, and sagacious, without pretension and without fear, generous and sincere, with a warm heart but no exterior graces. I first met him in the winter of 1829 in the office of Duff Green, where he was bookkeeper. In the winter of 1831, I think, we met at Georgetown at the house of Colonel Corcoran. F. P. Blair, whom I met on the same evening for the first time, had been out with Rives to try their rifles. They had first met a few days previous. Rives was then a clerk in the Fourth Auditor’s office, — Amos Kendall. The latter passed the evening with us. Years later Rives and myself became well acquainted. He was first bookkeeper and then partner of Blair and made the fortunes of both.
In the House of Representatives a sharp and unpleasant discussion has been carried on, on a resolution introduced by the Speaker, Colfax, to expel Long, a Representative from Ohio, for some discreditable partisan remarks, made in a speech last Friday. There being an evening session, I went to the Capitol for the first time this session. Heard Orth, Kenyon, Winter Davis, and one or two others. The latter was declamatory, eloquent, but the debate did not please me, nor the subject. Long I despise for his declarations, but Colfax is not judicious in his movement. Long went beyond the line of his party, and Colfax cannot make them responsible for Long’s folly.
April 11.—At Huntsville, Alabama, a caisson of Croswell’s Illinois battery exploded, killing instantly privates Jacob Engelhart, John Olsin, Win. Humphrey, David Roach, Wm. Mattison, and Horace Allen, and wounding George Barnes, and Wm. Regan. Several of the bodies of the killed were blown to atoms, and portions were found five hundred feet distant. The horses attached to the caisson were killed. The railroad depot was badly shattered. One citizen had his thigh broken, and several others were slightly injured.—Last night a gang of guerrillas burned two houses, and stole several horses on the Kentucky side of the river, opposite Cairo, Ill. — The Mexican schooner Juanita, while attempting to evade the blockade, was captured and destroyed by the steamer Virginia, off San Luis Pass, Texas.—The schooner Three Brothers was captured in the Homasassa River, by the National vessel Nita.
by John Beauchamp Jones
APRIL 11TH.—Rained all night, but clear most of the day.
There are rumors of Burnside landing troops on the Peninsula; also of preparations for movements on the Rappahannock—by which side is uncertain. It is said troops are coming from Mississippi, Lieut.-Gen. (Bishop) Polk’s command.
The FAMINE is still advancing, and his gaunt proportions loom up daily, as he approaches with gigantic strides. The rich speculators, however, and the officers of influence stationed here, who have secured the favor of the Express Company, get enough to eat. Potatoes sell at $1 per quart; chickens, $35 per pair; turnip greens, $1 per peck! An ounce of meat, daily, is the allowance to each member of my family, the cat and parrot included. The pigeons of my neighbor have disappeared. Every day we have accounts of robberies, the preceding night, of cows, pigs, bacon, flour—and even the setting hens are taken from their nests!
