20th. Officer of the Day. Beautiful day. Clear and mild. Went the rounds with Div. Officer of the Day and Sergt. Bail. Pleasant time. Lots of deserters coming in. One batch of 23. News of fall of Columbia, S. C. Glory! Read to troops. God be praised for the prospect. Chet back.
February 2015
February 20th.—Another morning of blue skies and glorious sunshine. Sherman is reported to be marching northward, and to have progressed one-third of the way between Columbia and Charlotte, N. C; where we had “millions of specie” a few days ago.
Some of the lady employees, sent by Mr. Memminger to Columbia last year, have returned to this city, having left and lost their beds, etc.
Grant’s campaign seems developed at last. Sherman and Thomas will concentrate on his left, massing 200,000 men between Lee and his supplies, effectually cutting his communications by flanking with superior numbers. It is probable Charleston, Wilmington, and Richmond will fall without a battle; for how can they be held when the enemy stops supplies? and how could the garrisons escape when once cut off from the interior?
And yet Congress has done nothing, and does nothing, but waste the precious time. I fear it is too late now! It is certainly too late to raise recruits for service in the campaign now in active operation, a fact which our politician leaders seem to be unconscious of. Even our furloughed troops cannot now rejoin their regiments from their distant homes.
Then, if Lee must evacuate Richmond, where can he go? No one knows!
My belief is that the only chance for Lee—and a desperate one —is to beat Grant immediately, before the grand junction can be formed.
Letters are beginning to come in from the South, advocating the abandonment of Richmond, and the march of Lee’s army into East Tennessee and Northern Georgia, and so on down to Montgomery, Ala., etc. etc.; concentrating in the Cotton States. What an ugly programme! How many would then follow the fortunes of this government? How many heads of bureaus, etc. would abandon it? How would it be possible for those with families on their hands to get transportation? A great many other questions might be asked, that few could answer at this time.
Charleston was evacuated on Tuesday last—nearly a week ago —so says the Examiner, and no one doubts it.
Mr. Hunter seems more depressed to-day than I have ever seen him. He walks with his head down, looking neither to the right nor the left.
I shall expect soon to hear of a battle. Beauregard must have nearly 50,000 men—such as they are, poor fellows! The rich have generally bribed themselves out of the service through the complicated machinery of the “Bureau of Conscription.”
Senator Brown, of Mississippi, I am sorry to see, often retards legislation by motions to postpone; and the Senate listens to him, not knowing what to do. Hours now are worth weeks hereafter.
The President has made Wm. M. Browne—one of his aids, an Englishman and a Northern newspaper reporter—a brigadier-general. This does not help the cause. Mr. B. knows no more about war than a cat; while many a scarred colonel, native-born, and participants in a hundred fights, sue in vain for promotion. Governor Clarke (Mississippi) telegraphs the President that nothing keeps the negroes from going to the enemy but the fear of being put in the Federal army; and that if it be attempted to put them in ours, all will run away, etc.
February 20th, 1865.
It has never been so quiet along our lines as the past two weeks, there being strict orders against picket firing. We are eagerly awaiting news from Sherman, and a development of the toils which are being gradually drawn around Lee’s army. Lee has now but one line of communication left open, and that will soon be closed.
General Wilcox is in Michigan on leave of absence. Furloughs are still freely given, which shows no import’ ant move is contemplated here at present. Captain Sudborbugh is Acting Engineer of the division during the temporary absence of the real one. It is his duty to inspect the front line of works every day and report their condition.
Telegraphic dispatches are again in order. Yesterday the troops were drawn up in line, and the glad news of Sherman’s wonderful success was read to them.
A salute was fired today in honor of Washington’s birth. All our batteries were opened, with shot and shell, at precisely 12m., and was briskly returned by the Rebels. The dangerous “practice” was kept up for nearly two hours, and was intensely exciting. Several of our men were killed by bursting shells.
It has rained all day, a mild, warm rain, and still continues. A detail of twenty men from our regiment has been at work the past three weeks to provide a suitable burial place for our dead. All our dead are to be taken up and buried in a proper manner.
Colonel Lyon’s Letters.
Huntsville, Ala., Sun., Feb. 19, 1865.—Colonel Doolittle has been promoted to a Brigadier, and this will probably lead to some change in my duties. If he is assigned to some other command, which is quite probable, I will be apt to stay here, permanent commander of the post. In that case, I think I will try to get the railroad defenses off my hands. All this is on the supposition that our command remains here, which is by no means a settled point yet.
I ride a little brown mare. She is a perfect little beauty. She would suit you, for she is kind and gentle as a lamb.
I frequently see General Stanley, and I hear of his saying complimentary things of me. Do you think that if I leave the service next fall I could make a living for us in Racine? I sometimes have my doubts about it. If the war was over I think I could make a living here, and a good deal more. There is a splendid opening here for a few good Northern lawyers. Now do not think that I am contemplating moving here, for I make no such calculations, at least not yet.
Lieut.-Colonel Kummel writes us that a fragment of the 15th Wisconsin, Colonel Keg’s old regiment, some sixty in number, has been assigned at their own request to the 13th. They have not yet joined us.
It seems almost strange to me to live as I now do week after week and not expect an attack; yet up the railroad my men have fights with the guerillas quite frequently. These are usually small affairs, however.
Sunday, February 19, 1865.
Two boxes of clothing have reached this house and four more are at the ferry, so next week distributing will begin again. I am going to give up my class for a week, and do it up systematically. It can be done now much better than at first, for then it was hard to tell who were needy and who were not, but now we know that all are alike in poverty, or nearly alike. Some have already begun to work, but with all such the rations are to be stopped next week, and while they have themselves to feed at the present low rate of wages and high prices of provisions, they will find it impossible to get clothes. The terrible sickness and mortality among those in this village is much less now that the severe cold weather is over. Government gave each family a blanket or two, but that was bed covering and all in one, so I really think many actually died from cold and others have severe coughs that I do not think they will ever recover from. Nearly all who are ill take the dropsy as they get better, and so go walking about as usual, till their lungs fill, and then they take to the floor and die in a day or so. Nearly all the children are dead, or a very large proportion of them. Our Mary Ann would persist in taking all sorts of things and eating while she had severe diarrhœa, such wholesome cribbings as raw peanuts, cracklings from salt pork, half-raw sweet potatoes, etc., etc. So we asked her cousin — her sole remaining relative — if she did not want the child back. We could not watch her closely enough. The cousin said yes, so we gave Mary Ann two suits of clothing and took her to a comfortable house where her cousin was living, she having lost her child, — a little boy two years old, — and left the hospital. Mary Ann was much better when she left — able to “pick chips,” and to walk about as she liked.
Some changes are taking place here among our friends. Mr. Hunn is going to Edisto, and a Tax Commissioners’ teacher is to be put on Frogmore in Miss Hunn’s school. So the Murrays are going to move to “The Oaks.” Mr. Ruggles has leased that place for four years and has given them the use of his half of the house. The other half goes for school-farm teachers. Fanny declares she will not go to that unhealthy place and is coming to stay with us awhile.
We have grand rumors to-night — that Charleston is evacuated,[1] but we can’t believe it yet. I am astonished at the gammon still prevailing at the North about our Southern brethren, and their softened feelings and longings to come back, etc., etc. They are hungry, and long for loaves and fishes, but a gentleman who has just come from Savannah says they are bitter and spiteful and “cantankerous” as ever, and show extreme contempt for the Northerners while they are accepting their benefactions. This gentleman was the secretary or president of the old pro-slavery Home Mission Society of Presbyterians, and he has always stood up for our erring but darling Southern brothers. If he speaks against them he speaks against himself, for the past twenty years, and yet he does say that Northern sympathy is wasted on them.
Old Pittsburg is doing well, is n’t she? I do not know how many boxes have come to me from there or from their funds. They seem, by their letters, to recognize that I am John Towne’s daughter.
[1] General Sherman entered Charleston without resistance on February 18, 1865.
Sunday, 19th—We marched out on the railroad today and destroyed seven miles of track, then returned to camp, where we had left our knapsacks. We heard the sounds today of heavy explosions down in Columbia, and it is reported that our men have blown up the new State House.[1]
[1] The sound of the explosions in Columbia, which we heard on that day, was due to the destruction by our men of the fixed ammunition found there. General Sherman saved the beautiful new state capitol building, though it bore some of the ear marks of our shot and shell. The burning of Columbia resulted from the Confederates’ setting fire to the bales of cotton in the streets; then at night some of the Union soldiers, getting too much poor whisky and burning with revenge, set fire to some of the vacant houses, and the high wind soon spread it over the whole town.—A. G. D.
Chattanooga, Sunday, Feb. 19. A most beautiful day has passed. It seems as though we have been suddenly transferred from midwinter to beautiful summer. The sun shone in its softest mood, everybody outdoors to bask in its rays, content to enjoy it alone. We are camped opposite the old city cemetery. Many of both sexes have been paying their visit to the dead, some to satisfy idle curiosity, others to view once more the spot where lies some home idol. It is in a shocking state of repair, and bore sad evidence of the ravage of war, fences all gone, graves overrun, marble slabs misplaced and marble monuments broken. The soldiers have even been carrying off the tombstones of the dead to be used in their quarters. Thoughtless sacrilege. We have had a guard on all day to prevent such proceedings by order of the pro [vost] marshal.
The soft twilight was too pleasant to lie still, so D. Evans, who has come to stay with us, Griff, and myself started off for a walk. On our way the peal of the church bell fell on our ears, calling us thither, but we found the house overflowing. Returned to camp. Boys sang sweet home music till taps, and lights put out.
February 19, 1865.
Another block of the city burned to-day. Our regiment was out and stopped the fire from spreading further. Have seen the men work better on other occasions. In destroying some captured ammunition to-day the 63d Illinois, by an explosion, lost three killed and 20 wounded. We captured about 20 cannon here. I noticed one complete battery of fine Blakely guns.
February 19th. This morning we find eighteen inches of snow on the ground. Wading through the deep snow reminds me of a picture that I have often seen, Napoleon Bonaparte before Moscow. Duty must be attended to, no matter what the weather may be. The snow makes camp life very unpleasant. The heavy fall of snow at this time of year is a very great surprise, so the inhabitants report.
19th. Sunday. Battalion inspection in the morning. Had a good bath. Cleaned up grounds. In the evening Capt. Newton came in. Had a good visit. Talked Tenn. experiences. Traver and Barnitz in awhile.
