SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1861.
It is cooler tonight and freezes some. The news from Missouri is rcd with great Satisfaction. It now looks as though the Rebels would receive but little else than hard knocks everywhere our troops have got up to the “fighting pitch” and have become too wary to be caught in any more traps. The mail bag which was seized the other night on the River contained letters from many people here, implicating some of them in Treasonable practices. Some have been arrested, and more of the writers will be. I have been at home all the evening with the boys. Wife & Holly went to Market. It is a place which I abominate and this living from “hand to mouth” is no way to live independantly.
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The three diary manuscript volumes, Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865, are available online at The Library of Congress.
