Camp Hayes, Raleigh, Virginia, April 4, 1862. Friday. — Very warm, windy. Mud drying up rapidly. Dr. Webb has returned. Dr. Hayes was at the bottom of the affair. Colonel Scammon telegraphed that Dr. Webb couldn’t be spared and ordered him to return here. I suspect that Dr. Hayes made such representations to Colonel Scammon as induced him to report Dr. Webb for examination. On reflection Colonel Scammon no doubt felt that he had yielded too much and will now, I presume, put a stop to further proceedings.
About 4 or 5 P. M. yesterday I received an order requiring Lieutenant Stevens and a corporal and six men to arrest General Beckley and take him to Wheeling. The arrest was made. General Beckley’s wife and family felt badly enough. The general said he recognized the propriety of it and did not complain.
A thunder-storm last night. Will it clear off or give us “falling weather”? The natives with their queer garments and queerer speech and looks continue to come in.
Raleigh, Virginia, Thursday, April 3. — The rain last night was merely an April shower. It has cleared off bright and warm. The grass looks fresh and green. I have one hundred and fifty dollars in treasury notes. Last night Lieutenant Hastings with Company I started for the Marshes of Cool to protect the election and if possible catch the Trumps….
Election day for West Virginia. One hundred and eight votes polled here, all for the new Constitution. I doubt its success. Congress will be slow to admit another slave State into the Union. The West Virginians are blind to interest as well as duty, or they would abolish slavery instantly. They would make freedom the distinguishing feature of West Virginia. With slavery abolished the State would rapidly fill up with an industrious, enterprising population. As a slave State, slaveholders will not come into it and antislavery and free-labor people will keep away.
Camp Hayes, Raleigh, Virginia, April 2, 1862.
Dear Mother: — I received your letter yesterday, just one day after it was written. Very glad you are so well and happy. You do not seem to me so near seventy years old. I think of you as no older than you always were. I hope you may see other happy birthdays.
Our men stationed here, nine companies, were paid for the third time yesterday. They send home about thirty thousand dollars. Many families will be made glad by it. A small proportion of our men have families of their own. The money goes chiefly to parents and other relatives. . . .
I send you two letters showing the business [we] are in. General Beckley is the nabob of this county; commanded a regiment of Rebels until we came and scattered [it]. He is now on his parole at home. The other is from an old lady, the wife of the Baptist preacher here. Her husband preached Secession and on our coming fled South.
We are all in the best of health. Love to Sophia and Mrs. Wasson. Your affectionate son,
Rutherford.
P. S. — The total amount sent home from our regiment figures up thirty-five thousand dollars.
Mrs. Sophia Hayes.
April 2. Wednesday. — A windy day; roads drying rapidly. Rode out with Avery. Saw the companies drill skirmish drill. The militia called out to be enrolled in this county on the Union side. About a hundred queer-looking, hollow-chested, gaunt, awkward fellows in their tattered butternut garments turned out. A queer customer calls our scouts “drives,” another calls it “drags.” A fellow a little sick here calls it “trifling.” He says, “Yes, I feel ‘trifling,'” meaning unwell.
Sent Captain Zimmerman with Company E and Lieutenant Bottsford, Company C, the scout Abbott, and two or three citizens out towards Wyoming. Will be gone two or three days.
Tuesday, April 1. — Cloudy and threatening this morning. . . . All Fools’ day. Soldiers sent companies to get pay out of time; bogus dispatches and the like.
I hear that Dr. Joe is in his trouble by consent of Scammon. Was he induced to ask for his examination? If so, how foolish! I can hardly be angry, and yet [I am] vexed outrageously. He [Scammon] has been operated on, used. Surely he wouldn’t do such a thing if he was wide-awake.
Monday, 31.— A lovely day; a glorious inspection! How finely the men looked! Dr. Webb left us today. I hope so much that he will return. We are being paid off today. Mr. Walker, clerk of Major Cowan, attends to it. I send home by Dr. Webb three hundred and fifty dollars for my wife. . . .
Took advantage of the fine day to march off to a field half a mile or more and drill “charge bayonet, with a yell.” Good — very; first-rate! Will do it more. Saw the moon accidentally and honestly over the right shoulder!
Raleigh, March 30, 1862. Sunday night.
Dearest : — I received your good letters tonight. I will recollect Will De Charmes and do what I can properly, and more too. I wish you and the boys and Grandma were here tonight to enjoy the sacred music of our band. They are now full (eighteen) and better than ever. The regiment is also strong and looks big and effective. Eight companies on dress parade looked bigger than the regiment has ever seemed since we left Camp Chase. The service performed the last ten days, breaking up bushwhackers and Governor Letcher’s militia musters, is prodigious. They have marched in snow four to six inches deep on the mountains sixty-five miles in three days, and look all the better for it. — Much love to Grandma and the dear boys. Ever so lovingly yours,
R.
I hear of Lippett’s arrest and Whitcomb’s death; both sad for families, but Lippett better have gone into the army and been killed.
Mrs. Hayes.
Saturday, March 29. — Raining like fun again, Two fine days in ten. I dispatched Dr. Clendenin that Dr. Webb had been ordered to Wheeling for examination and asked him if they were aware he had already been examined. He replied: “Yes, and I have remonstrated; rather than submit, he ought to resign.” The doctor will leave me his resignation, go to Wheeling, and if he finds the examination insisted on, will resign by telegraphing me to that effect.
Camp Hayes, Raleigh, Virginia, March 28, 1862. Friday.— . . . Dr. Webb received an order from the medical director on General Rosecrans’ staff to report for examination before a medical board at Wheeling. If he is singled out, it is an indignity and I do not blame him for resigning rather than submit. I have written to see what it means. I hope we are not to lose him.
Captain Sperry returned with thirteen prisoners and a few horses. Several of the prisoners wished to come in but feared to [do] so. The Rebels are vindictive in punishing all who yield. Abram Bragg and Wm. C. Richmond with other Union men never sleep at home; they hide up on the hills during the night. This they have done for two months past. . . .
Thursday, March 27. — A wintry morning — snow two or three inches deep, ground frozen; the ninth day since this equinoctial set in. P. M. The sun came out bright and warm about 9 A. M.; the snow melted away, and before night the ground became [began] to dry off so that by night we had a very fair battalion drill.
News of a battle near Winchester in which General Shields was wounded. Union victories. I am gradually drifting to the opinion that this Rebellion can only be crushed finally by either the execution of all the traitors or the abolition of slavery. Crushed, I mean, so as to remove all danger of its breaking out again in the future. Let the border States, in which there is Union sentiment enough to sustain loyal State Governments, dispose of slavery in their own way; abolish it in the premanently disloyal States, in the cotton States — that is, set free the slaves of Rebels. This will come, I hope, if it is found that a stubborn and prolonged resistance is likely to be made in the cotton States. President Lincoln’s message recommending the passage of a resolution pledging the aid of the general Government to States which shall adopt schemes of gradual emancipation, seems to me to indicate that the result I look for is anticipated by the Administration. I hope it is so.
