Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Headquarters First Brigade, Second Division,
Army of West Virginia, Summit Point, Virginia,

September 12, 1864.

Dear Uncle: — We have had no severe fighting since the third. The frequent rains have filled the Potomac so it is no longer fordable. I look for no attempt now on the part of the Rebels to get over the river and think there will be very little fighting unless we attack. We are gaining strength daily. Our policy seems to be not to attack unless the chances are greatly in our favor. Military affairs wear a much better look. Our armies are rapidly filling up. I shall not be surprised if Grant should soon find himself able to make important moves.

I like McClellan’s letter. It is an important thing. It is the best evidence to Europe and the South that the people intend to prosecute the war until the Union is re-established. Still, if things continue as favorable as they now are, I think Lincoln will be elected.

I see that Mr. Long is not renominated. I supposed he would be and that my election over him was quite a sure thing. Against Mr. Lord the result will depend on the general drift matters take. I am not a-going to take it to heart if I am beaten. “It’s of no consequence at all,” as Mr. Toots would say. Mr. Lord’s wife and family are particular and intimate friends of my wife and family. His wife is a sister of Stephenson’s wife. Divers friends of his and mine will be in a worry how to vote, I suspect.

I am glad you are out of debt — a good place to be out of in the times a-coming. . . .

Sincerely,

R B Hayes

S. Birchard.

Camp At Summit Point, Virginia, September 9, 1864.

Dearest: — I received today your good letter of the 30th. I think I have got the most, perhaps, all of your back letters.

Speaking of politics: It is quite common for youngsters, adopting their parents’ notions, to get very bitter talk into their innocent little mouths. I was quite willing Webb should hurrah for Vallandigham last summer with the addition, “and a rope to hang him.” But I feel quite different about McClellan. He is on a mean platform and is in bad company, but I do not doubt his personal loyalty and he has been a soldier, and what is more a soldier’s friend. No man ever treated the private soldier better. No commander was ever more loved by his men. I therefore want my boys taught to think and talk well of General McClellan. I think he will make the best President of any Democrat. If on a sound platform, I could support him. Do not be alarmed. I do not think he will be elected. The improved condition of our military affairs injures his chances very materially. He will not get so large [an] army vote as his friends seem to expect. With reasonably good luck in the war, Lincoln will go in.

Have you any picture of Captain Gillis and Brigdon? Captain Austin had his arm amputated at the shoulder and died the night after. There was no saving him. Lieutenant Hubbard, supposed killed at Winchester, escaped from the Rebels and is now with us, well and strong. About half of the Fifth Virginia Volunteers leave us today. Colonel Enochs, Captain Poor, and others remain.

I do not know where the enemy is today. They were still in our front the day before yesterday. . . .

As ever your

R.

Mrs. Hayes.

[Dr. J. T. Webb writing to his nephews, the Hayes boys, from Camp Summit Point, Virginia, September 11, 1864, says:— “Since we left Charleston in April last, the Twenty-third Regiment has had three captains killed and three wounded, two lieutenants killed and three wounded, and about four hundred and fifty privates killed and wounded. We have marched on foot twelve hundred miles, travelled on steamboats and cars five hundred; fought six or eight battles, (worsted in but one — at Winchester), [and] skirmished with the enemy in front or rear sixty days. Since we came into Sheridan’s Army we have had comparatively easy times, as far as marching is concerned. In the way of skirmishing our division has had more than its share. Every few days an order came for us to go out and see where and what the enemy was doing. On one of these expeditions we killed and captured quite a number of the enemy without losing a man. This was fun for me. It was quite a battle, and our friends, back in camp, from the amount of firing, supposed we were having a hard time, and sent out thirty ambulances to carry in our wounded. Imagine their surprise when we returned them all empty. In our other skirmishes we lost more or less each time, but invariably worsted the enemy.”]

Camp of Sheridan’s Army near Berryville, Virginia,

September 6, P. M., 1864.

Dear Uncle: — Saturday evening (September 3) my brigade and two regiments of the other brigade of the Kanawha. Division fought a very fierce battle with a division of South Carolina and Mississippi troops under Kershaw. We whipped them handsomely after the longest fight I was ever in. Toole seventy-five officers and men prisoners and inflicted much severer loss than we suffered. Prisoners say it is the first time their division was ever flogged in fair fight.

My color-bearer was killed and some of the best officers killed or wounded. We have fought nine times since we entered this valley and have been under fire, when men of my command were killed and wounded, probably thirty or forty times since the campaign opened. I doubt if a brigade in Sherman’s army has fought more. None has marched half as much. I started with twenty-four hundred men. I now have less than twelve hundred, and almost none of the loss is stragglers.

I hope they will now get Sherman’s army to Richmond. It will be taken if they do it promptly, otherwise I fear not for some time.

McClellan would get a handsome soldiers’ vote if on a decent platform; as it is, he will get more than any other Democrat could get.

I am glad that you feel as you do about my safety. It is the best philosophy not to borrow trouble of the future. We are still confronted by the enemy. I can’t help thinking that the fall of Atlanta will carry them back to Richmond. What a glorious career Sherman’s army has had! That is the best army in the world. Lee’s army is next. There is just as much difference between armies, divisions, brigades, etc., as between individuals. Crook, I think, has the best and the worst division in this army. Of the one you can always count upon it, that it will do all that can be expected, and of the other that it will behave badly.

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes.

September 8. — Nothing new except that the Rebels have drawn back perhaps ten miles from our front, possibly gone back to Richmond.

S. Birchard.

Camp Near Berryville, September 4, [1864].

Sunday evening.

Dearest: — We had one of the fiercest fights yesterday I was ever in. It was between the South Carolina and Mississippi Divisions under General Kershaw and six regiments of the Kanawha Division. My brigade had the severest fighting, but in loss we none of us suffered as might have been expected. We were under cover except when we charged and then darkness helped. We whipped them, taking about one hundred prisoners and killing and wounding a large number. Captain Gillis was killed, shot near the heart, Captain Austin dangerously wounded through the right shoulder, George Brigdon, my color-bearer, bearing the brigade flag, mortally wounded. Only ten others of [the] Twenty-third hurt. Sixty in the brigade killed or wounded. Captain Gillis was a noble, brave man, a good companion, cheerful and generous — a great loss to us. The Rebel army is again just before us.

It was a pleasant battle to get through, all except the loss of Gillis and Brigdon and Austin. I suppose I was never in so much danger before, but I enjoyed the excitement more than ever before. My men behaved so well. One regiment of another division nearly lost all by running away. The Rebels were sure of victory and run [ran] at us with the wildest yells, but our men turned the tide in an instant. This was the crack division of Longstreet. They say they never ran before.

Darling, I think of you always. My apprehension and feeling is a thousand times more for you than for myself. I think we shall have no great battle. We are again entrenched here. Our generals are cautious and wary. — Love to all. The dear-boys, God bless them.

Affectionately ever, your

R.

Mrs. Hayes.

Camp of Sheridan’s Army, September 1, 1864.

Dearest: — Enclosed find state receipt for seven hundred dollars payable at county treasury of Ross County. You can sign the receipt on the back and send it to the treasurer of Ross County by any friend. I suppose it will get around in about four weeks from this time.

The Rebs are reported all gone. With Sheridan’s fine cavalry and General Crook’s shrewdness they had no business so far from home. We were picking them up in detail. Their loss in the last two weeks was sixteen hundred — mostly prisoners; our loss not over four hundred.

Your two letters in which you speak of Ike Cook [a cousin of Mrs. Hayes] just reached me. I do not see how he can be commissioned as Mr. Hough proposes, but if he can get him commissioned and mustered in any regiment and get him leave to come here, I will get him a good place as aide (aide-de-camp) to myself or somebody else. Of course the regiments in the field need all their promotions. If he is drafted, Mr. Hough can arrange it probably so he can join the Twenty-third or Thirty-sixth. I will then make him an orderly which will give him a horse and very easy duty — nothing harder usually than the care of his horse. If he wishes to volunteer, or go as a substitute, he can get big bounties, and as long as I retain my present position he shall be mounted.

All well. Soldiers so jolly. Birch and Webb would like it here. The men are camped in a wooded ravine, officers’ quarters on the edge of the wood looking out upon fine open fields and mountains. About a dozen men of Company B, Twenty-third, with their hats swinging ran yelling up to the open ground crying, “See the prisoners! Mosby a prisoner.” Of course those next to them ran, the thing took and the whole camp clear to army headquarters a mile off or more, perhaps ten thousand men, followed their example. Officers of course ran, major-generals and all. Then the “sell” was discovered, and such laughing and shouting I never heard before. — A squirrel is started; up the trees go the soldiers and fun alive until he is caught. A mule or a dog gets into camp, and such a time! I am constantly saying, “How the boys would like this.”

Well, good-bye dearest. We feel that this Valley campaign has been a lucky one, though not very eventful. We shall, I think, go up the Valley again to Winchester and beyond. — Love to all.

Ever affectionately, your

R.

McKinley is a captain now on General Crook’s staff.

September 2, A. M. — Your letter of 22nd came last night. You are doing me such a favor in writing often. I now get letters. In [the] September Harper is an article “First Time Under Fire” which is very like my case. — Truthful.
Mrs. Hayes.

Wednesday, August 31, 1864. — McClellan nominated. A happy month in the main. The prospect is much less gloomy than at the beginning of the month. Grant will probably be able to keep his position before Richmond.

Camp beyond Charlestown, August 30, 1864.

Dear Uncle: — We got a big mail today; letters from you, Lucy, Mother, and everybody, all written in July. We have had no general engagement, but a world of small affairs the last week. I think the enemy are giving it up. We are slowly pushing them back up the Valley. General Sheridan’s splendid cavalry do a great share of the work; we look on and rest. This has been a good month for us. We are a happy army.

I see it is likely McClellan will be nominated. If they don’t load him down with too much treasonable peace doctrine, I shall not be surprised at his election. I can see some strong currents which can easily be turned in his favor, provided always that his loyalty is left above suspicion. I have no doubt of his personal convictions and feelings. They are sound enough, but his surroundings are the trouble. We have a paymaster at last.

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes.

S. Birchard.

[Dr. J. T. Webb, in a letter to his mother from “Camp Charlestown, August 30, 1864,” writes: “This is the place the chivalry hung old John Brown some four years since. It has been a beautiful place, many elegant residences, fine stores, printing press, and public halls. Now how changed! Not a store in the place, in fact nothing but the women and children and a few old men live here; a few of the fine residences look as though they were kept up, but everything around is sad and gloomy, and then to add to all, the Sixth Corps (some fifteen or twenty thousand troops) as they passed through the place, had all their bands, some twenty, play ‘Jonn Brown.’

“I met an old man the other day in the street, and said to him, ‘This is the place you hung old John Brown.’ ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘How long since?’ said I. ‘Four years since and,’ added he, ‘never had no peace since.'”]

Camp Sheridan’s Army between Charlestown and
Winchester, August 30, 1864.

Dearest: — A lucky day. A big mail — letters (all of July) from you, Uncle, Mother, soldiers, their wives, fathers, etc., etc., and newspapers (all July) without end. So I must write short replies. . . .

We are slowly (I think) pushing the enemy back up the Valley. We have some fighting, but no general engagement. Sheridan’s splendid cavalry does most of the work. Heretofore, we (the infantry, especially [the] First and Second Brigades) have had to do our own work and that of the cavalry also. Now, if anything, the cavalry does more than its share. It is as if we had six or eight thousand such men as Captain Gilmore’s; only better drilled. A great comfort this. Indeed, this is our best month.

The men are fast getting their Kanawha health and spirits back, now that we are rid of Hunter, hard marching night and day, and nothing to eat.

The paymaster, Major Wallace (he inquires after Mrs. Hayes of course), has found us at last. The color-company of [the] Twenty-third is Twelfth men — a fine company of veterans. The color-sergeant is Charles W. Bendel of Maysville, Kentucky, of the Twelfth. He loves the flag as if he thought it his sweetheart — kisses it, fondles it, and bears it proudly in battle,

I hope things turn out so I can be with you about the time you would like me to be at home. Perhaps they will. Love to all.

Affectionately ever, your

R.

Mrs. Hayes.

Monday, August 29, 1864. — In camp, five miles to south of Charlestown, lazily listening to heavy firing on our right. McClellan probably nominated. I suspect he will be elected. Not so bad a thing if he is. Reading “Harry Lorrequer.”