Camp White, February 7, 1864.
Dear Uncle: — The capture of General Scammon and two of his staff, will postpone my coming a few days, only a few days, I hope. I must be cautious what I say, but to you I can write that his capture is the greatest joke of the war. It was sheer carelessness, bad luck, and accident. It took a good many chances, all lost, to bring it about. Everybody laughs when he is alone, and very intimate friends laugh in concert when together. General Scammon’s great point was his caution. He bored us all terribly with his extreme vigilance. The greatest military crime in his eyes was a surprise. Here he is caught in the greenest and most inexcusable way.
We shall come, I think, in a week or so via Cleveland.
Sincerely yours,
R. B. Hayes.
S. Birchard.
January 26, 1864. — Another large squad of veterans and the most of the remaining officers left for Ohio yesterday. Recruiting seems to be active in Ohio. I think we shall get our share.[1]
Plan of spring campaign from Kanawha Valley. — Ten or fifteen thousand men can move from the head of navigation on the Kanawha River (Loup Creek) via Fayette, Raleigh, Flat Top, and Princeton to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad between New River and Wytheville, a distance of one hundred and thirty-nine miles, in a week or ten days; spend a week on the railroad destroying New River Bridge and the track for twenty-five miles; return to Loup Creek in one week more and be carried in steamers into the Ohio, and thence East or South for other operations. One week is time enough to convey such a force to Loup Creek from the Potomac or the West. The roads and weather will ordinarily allow such a column to move April 20. Supplies and transportation should be provided at Fayette during February and March. The utmost secrecy should be observed so that the first information the Rebels would have would be the approach of the force. Such a destruction of the railroad would effectually cut the communications of Longstreet and Jones in east Tennessee and compel him [the enemy] to abandon that country. The Rebels could not reconstruct the railroad during the next campaign. It would perhaps compel the evacuation of Richmond.
[1] A Columbus dispatch of February 14, in the Cincinnati Gazette, had this paragraph: — “It has been ascertained at the muster-in office, that the Twenty-third Ohio, Colonel R. B. Hayes, Department of West Virginia, was the first regiment from this State to enlist as veterans. Several regiments have claimed that honor.”
Camp White, January 24, 1864.
Dear Uncle: — The extension of the bounties and postponement of the draft will postpone my visit home a week or two. I shall not leave here probably before the second week in February.
We are all very well. It is very lonesome here now. All the Twenty-third company officers but four or five are at home, half of the men, besides a good many of all other organizations hereabouts. Recruiting seems to be progressing favorably. I trust we shall have stronger and more efficient armies in the field this spring than ever before. I think it likely that the Rebels with their unsparing conscription of young and old will for a time outnumber us again. But a few weeks’ campaigning will send to the rear the old men and boys in vast numbers.
I am growing anxious to see Birch and his mother talks of him constantly.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
S. Birchard.
Monday, [January] 18. P. M. — Raining the first time this month. New Year’s Eve change came about midnight. January 1 cold and windy, “very, very indeed”; snow about [the] 3rd. Two weeks of unusual cold weather. Kanawha frozen; navigation suspended about a week; a week’s good sleighing. Now a thaw for a few days; snow going off.
Captain Gilmore out after Rebel Colonel Ferguson, Sixteenth Virginia Cavalry; fourth day out.
Camp White, January 17, 1864.
Dear Mother: — We are all very well and have enjoyed the cold snap. We had good sleighing about ten days. The river was closed, cutting us off completely from the civilized world. Provisions were pretty plenty, however, and we felt independent of the weather.
It is not quite certain yet when I can get off. I hope to do so by the last of this month. Lucy will come with me. We shall go first to Cleveland where some of our veterans are recruiting; from there to Fremont, thence to Delaware and Columbus, and return by the way of Cincinnati. . . .
Affectionately, your son,
R.
Mrs. Sophia Hayes.
January 5, 1864. — Last day of bounties. Got about three hundred veterans. The Twenty-third may now be counted as a veteran regiment. Very absurd in Congress repealing bounties.
Camp White, January 1, 1864.
Dear Uncle: — . . . This is New Year’s day. Bright but very cold and windy. My regiment has re-enlisted and a majority of the men and part of the officers have gone home. I expect to go to Ohio towards the last of this month.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
S. Birchard.
December 30, [1863]. — Eleven years ago married. Lucy and I talked of it and lived it over on this eleventh anniversary. A happy day.
[In the] evening, spoke to the men again about re-enlisting as veterans. I want three-fourths of the present. We have two hundred and fifty-five. Our present total five hundred; of these we deduct officers twenty-five, invalids fifteen, recruits having more than one year to serve seventy-five — total one hundred and fifteen, [leaving] three hundred and eighty-five. Three-fourths [would be] two hundred and eighty-eight.
[December 18, 1863]. — December 8. Started P. M. for Gauley (a campaign to Lewisburg). Avery, Mather, McKinley, Dr. Webb; one hundred men under Captain Warren of Twenty-third, whole of Fifth Virginia under Colonel Tomlinson, Ninety-first and Twelfth of Colonel White’s brigade, General Duffie’s Cavalry, General Scammon and staff, to co-operate with General Averell in an attack on the railroad at Salem. Stopped at Clark Wyeth’s, five miles above Piatt, evening of 9th [8th]. 9th to Gauley Bridge at Mrs. Hale’s, Warren and Twenty-third — twenty-six and one-half miles, 10th , nineteen miles to Lookout (Mrs. Jones’s), 11th, twenty-two miles to Hickman’s. 12th, twenty-three miles to Lewisburg, to Mrs. Bell’s. 13th, return thirteen miles to Jesse Thompson’s, where my pistol was stolen by young ladies; got it back by threat of sending father and mother to Camp Chase. 14th, three miles to Meadow Bluff. Stopped with Sharp. 15th, at Meadow Bluff. 16th, returned twenty-seven miles to Mrs. Jones’. 17th, to Gauley, Loup Creek, and steamer Viola to Charleston. — A good trip for the season. What of Averell?
Camp White, December 4, 1863.
Dear Uncle: — Lucy and I have considered your bulletin announcing your determination to hold Birch. I now write to give you fair warning that the Twenty-third has re-enlisted for the war. We are entitled therefore under a late order to be furloughed in a body. One company has gone to Ohio already, and more are preparing to go as soon as the situation here will allow. Now, if you want war we can give it to you. I can take companies enough of veteran volunteers to recapture our boy. So be on your guard.
We are threatened with a Rebel invasion again. If they don’t come after us it looks now as if we should go after them. When this is over our men will generally go home, and I am pretty likely to go also. About the last of this month or early in January if matters go well I shall probably visit you. All well here.
Let Birch write to his Grandma Hayes as often as he is disposed to write at all. She is very much pleased with his letters. — Good-bye.
R. B. Hayes.
S. BIRCHARD.
