SUNDAY 14
A fine cool day. Went to church in the morning with all the children, wife staid at home and went in the afternoon. The excitement in the City increases all the time now the war has begun. But the reports from Charleston are mostly “bogus.” Maj Anderson has probably not surrendered, but there is fighting there. I left Willards about 1/2 past 10 this evening, never saw a more excited crowd. It is said that Martial law will be proclaimed tomorrow morning, and that the Prest has made requisition upon the States for 75,000 men or Volunteers to defend the Government. Think of sending my family out of the City immediately.
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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.
