Sunday, 15th—This morning I went to church and Sunday School once more.
Sunday, 15th.— The battalion1 passed on through Knoxville and encamped about one mile and a half east of town, at Camp Cummings.
On the above date General Albert Sidney Johnston assumed command of this department (No. 2), which embraced the States of Tennessee and Arkansas and that part of Mississippi west of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern and Central Railroad; also the military operations in Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and the Indian country immediately west of Missouri and Arkansas, by issuing the following order from department headquarters, at Nashville, Tennessee:
By virtue of special orders, No. 149, of September 10, 1861, from the Adjutant and Inspector General’s office at Richmond, the undersigned assumes command of the military department thereby created.
A. S. Johnston, General
Brigadier-General F. K. Zollicoffer had been in command of the District of East Tennessee since about the first of August, with headquarters at Knoxville.
His brigade was now composed of nine regiments of infantry and four battalions of cavalry….
Churchwell’s Regiment, as well as other portions of Zollicoffer’s Brigade, was totally unarmed. Only a part of his brigade was now at Knoxville, for on the 16th instant Zollicoffer writes thus to A. S. Johnston;
There are probably by this time four regiments at Cumberland Ford [Kentucky] and a fifth at the gap fifteen miles this side. A sixth will probably be moved up by the 21st or 22d.
________
1 As J. J. Odom and I were on the puny list, we stopped to rest and take dinner with a Frenchman, within four miles of Knoxville. The family were great “Rebs,” so it seemed to be with pleasure that they did all they could to make us comfortable.
It so happened that our host was a preacher. Some other French families who lived in the neighborhood had collected there to hear him preach. As some of them did not understand English, he preached in French. I “heard but did not understand ” a single word of that sermon. We had a splendid dinner, and we had now been soldiering long enough to appreciate a good dinner. Among other nice things, a glass of wine of their own make was served to each.
Odom and I went to camp late that afternoon.
SUNDAY 15
A hot day. M. 86. Went to ch[urch] in the morning with Julia & one of the boys and heard Dr Smith, church well filled. Wife went in the afternoon. Chas & Sallie were up to dine with us. Walked with Dr D. & Chas up to Camp Cameron to see the “Anderson Zouaves.” Saw Capt Lafata of the Co of the French Zouaves. He is an Italian. Came down to tea and went over to Camp Anderson to hear the music of the “Regulars” Band, it was fine.
______
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.
Abby Howland Woolsey
Lenox, Sept. 15, 1861.
Charley talks of going down to-morrow to be inspected and mustered into State service with the regiment—the Home-Guard. He thinks his fine for non-attendance will about equal his railroad fare down and up. He is to stay over night and will see Mary at Astoria.
Birch River, Eighteen Miles North
of Summersville, Sunday, September 15, 1861.
Dearest: — We are as happy and care-for-nothing [a] set of fellows here today as you could find anywhere. I have now for a while an independent command of four companies, Twenty-third, Captain Moore, Captain Lovejoy, Woodward, and Drake, two companies of the Thirtieth and a squadron of the Chicago Dragoons. We are now about thirty miles from the battlefield, heading off (if there are any, which I doubt), reinforcements for the enemy. The men are jolly, the anxieties of the battle all forgotten. We seem to be in most prosperous circumstances. I shall rejoin the main army in three or four days.
You have heard about the fight. It was a very noisy but not dangerous affair. . . . Where I was a few balls whistled forty or fifty feet over our heads. The next day, however, with Captain Drake’s company I got into a little skirmish with an outpost and could see that the captain and myself were actually aimed at, the balls flying near enough but hurting nobody. The battle scared and routed the enemy prodigiously. . . .
I hardly think we will [shall] have another serious fight. Possibly, Wise and Floyd and Lee may unite and stiffen up the Rebel back in this quarter. If so we shall fight them. But if not encouraged by some success near Washington, they are pretty well flattened out in this region. We shall be busy with them for a few weeks, but as I remarked, unless we meet with some serious disaster near Washington, they will not, I think, have heart enough to make a stiff battle.
My “Webby,” tell the boys, pricked up his ears and pranced when he heard the cannon and volleys of musketry. He is in excellent condition.
Dr. Joe and McCurdy were very busy with the sick and wounded during and after the battle. Our troops who were taken from Colonel Tyler and retaken by us say they were very well treated by the enemy. McCurdy is now with me. Colonel Scammon couldn’t spare Joe.
The last week has been the most stirring we have had during the war. If in all quarters things go on as well as here we shall end the war sometime. The captured letters show that Governor Floyd’s army were getting tired of the business.
Did I tell you General Benham gave me an awful bowie knife and General Rosecrans a trunk out of the enemy’s spoil? The last much needed.
Well, dearest, this is one of the bright days in this work. I am prepared for all sorts of days. There will be dark ones of course, but I suspect there is a gradual improvement which will continue with occasional drawbacks until we are finally successful. Love and kisses for all. Good-bye, darling.
Affectionately,
R. B. Hayes
P. S. — Captain McMullen who was wounded is well enough for another battle. Since writing in comes a mail carrier out on this road and your letter of the 5th and postage stamps is in his budget. So I put a stamp on it and if I had another envelope would direct it again.
Tell Webb that my pretty horse is the original Camp Chase “Webby,” the finest horse in the regiment. I tried one or two others, but Webb plucked up and beats them all.
Glad, very, you are at home and happy. We are here happy, too. This is all Cincinnati nearly — this army. Yes, Joe, is a great favorite with the colonel and with all. The colonel leans upon [him] entirely. He is really surgeon of the brigade and should Colonel Scammon be a brigadier, Dr. Joe will become his brigade surgeon permanently. All glad to get letters. I love you so much. Good-bye.
Affectionately,
R.
Mrs. Hayes.
15th.—I am alone to-night, and tired enough to lie and sleep for twenty-four hours, did not the scenes around call up associations which banish repose, and yet invite it. In the deep, deep woods, in a deep, deeper valley, with a mountain rising high on either side of me, and the semi-roaring babble of a large mountain brook, leaping over stones and precipices just in front of my lonely tent; the night speaks of the wildness of nature, and carries back my imagination to the times when the red man revelled here in the luxury of his mountain hunt. The song of the catydid talks to me of the rural home of my childhood, while the scream of the screech-owl right over my head awakens mingled feelings of aboriginal wildness, and of the ruins of civilization. The night is still, and over the mountain comes the strain of vocal music, with the accompaniment of a martial band, from more than a mile away, where with a regiment of Vermonters our chaplain is holding religious exercises, and “Dundee’s sacred strain,” mellowed by the distance, is in harmony with all around me. These are my nearest settled neighbors to-night, and so far away that I am outside of all their guards, yet near enough to hear the “Halt! who comes there?” of the picket, as he hails the rock, loosened from above, as it comes rushing down the mountain side. The tattoo of the night drums, too, as it comes rumbling over the mountains, and calls the soldier to his hard, but welcomed bed, awakens in the reflecting mind sad stories of the passions of men; of happy homes, deserted; of families, once united, now separated, perhaps forever; of the once freeman, to whom the dungeon now denies all hope of liberty again; of a country, once a unit, which held the world at bay, now an object of the ridicule or pity of nations which but a few short months before trembled at her power; of reflections which, I fear, must convince that “war is the normal condition of man.” There were threats of an attack on us yesterday and to-day. My hospital was in an exposed position, and my sick must be moved. At dark I commenced moving to a more secure place; selected this beautiful ravine ; got my tents here, but not deeming it best to disturb the sick by moving them in the night, am here alone to take care of my tents and stores. And how beautifully the moon sheds its reflections over this quiet little valley, and brightens, as with myriads of diamonds, the ripplings of the little mountain streams! How deliciously sweet the fresh odor of the clean grass, untainted by the stench of the camp. But hark! I hear at this moment, from Fort Corcoran, “the three guns,” a signal of approaching danger, and in another moment the “long roll” may summon us to scenes of trouble. I am still stubborn in the belief that the enemy is only making a feint, and that we shall have no fight here. The long roll does not call me. The “three guns” must have made a false alarm, and so I will retire and “bid the world good-night.”
SEPTEMBER 15TH.—And, just as I expected, Mr. Benjamin is to be Mr. Walker’s successor. Col. Bledsoe is back again ; and it devolved on me to inform Major Tyler that the old chief of the bureau was now the new chief. Of course he resigned the seals of office with the grace and courtesy of which he is so capable. And then he informed me (in confidence) that the Secretary had resigned, and would be appointed a brigadier-general in the army of the Southwest; and that he would accompany him as his adjutant-general.
September 15th, 1861.—All the troops are not sent to Virginia, the Dixie Yeomen have been incorporated into the Fifth Florida Regiment and they have gone to Palatka to be drilled. So far the troops, which have been sent had been drilling for some time and were considered fit for service but these fresh companies have to learn.
Brother Junius went to Palatka, and we miss him very much but it is not like he was going away off. Palatka is so much nearer than Virginia, and then, too, they are fighting in Virginia. I must tell you my Diary what happened to Buddy. (I forgot, Mother says I must call him Cousin William.) But this is what happened. He has been practising medicine in this county for twelve years and everybody loves and trusts him. When the men composing the Dixie Yeomen came forward to be sworn into the Confederate service, first one man and then another, until nearly all had spoken, said he could not take the oath nor sign the Roster unless Doctor William Bradford would consent to resign and stay at home. Some of these men grew quite eloquent about it. They said they could not leave their wives and children unless the doctor would stay with them. “I should be obliged to desert,” said one man, “if Doctor Bill was not in call, when my home folks got sick.” So after much discussion he consented to resign. I know his mother rejoices in this for she has consumption and is never well. His young wife and baby need him, too, but then so many wives and babies have to suffer. This is a great compliment to our doctor and Father and Mother are delighted. He is their adopted son, you know. They love him as if he was their very own and no brother could be dearer to me.
September 15.—The British brig Mystery, of St. Johns, N. B., was seized by the Surveyor of the port of New York, to-day, under suspicion of having run the blockade at Georgetown, S. C. Letters of instruction and the charter party, found on board, clearly show that there was a plan to land a cargo of ice at that rebel port, but the Consular certificate at Havana proves that the Mystery entered the latter port on the 7th of August, with the identical cargo of ice, and two days afterward cleared for Matanzas, where she received a cargo of sugar, and then sailed for the North, coming into the port of New York.—N. Y. Times, September 17.
—The Second regiment, of Kansas Volunteers, arrived at Leavenworth, from Holla, Mo. —Ohio Statesman, September 21.
—Col. F. P. Blair, Jr., was ordered by the Provost-marshal, at St. Louis, Mo., to report himself under arrest on the general charge of using disrespectful language when alluding to superior officers.—Louisville Journal, Sept. 17.
—About three o’clock this afternoon a force of five hundred rebels attacked a portion of the troops under Col. Geary, stationed about three miles above Harper’s Ferry, on the Potomac. Col. Geary commanded in person, and the fight lasted about three hours. The enemy were driven from every house and breastwork, and no less than seventy-five of them are reported, as killed and wounded. The National loss is one killed and a few slightly wounded. The troops behaved like veterans. Companies B, D, and I, of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania regiment, and two companies of the Thirteenth Massachusetts, were engaged in the conflict. During the fight a rebel was seen taking aim at Col. Geary, when the colonel grasped a rifle from a soldier and shot him on the spot.—(Doc. 50.)
—The Thirty-ninth Ohio, Colonel Groesbeck; Third Iowa, Lieutenant-Colonel Scott; Sixteenth Illinois, Colonel Smith, with a force of the Missouri State Militia and Iowa State troops, under Colonels Craynon and Edwards; three hundred regulars and irregular cavalry and six pieces of artillery, under Captain Madison, left St. Joseph and Chillicothe, Mo., in two columns for Lexington, to-day, on their way to reinforce Colonel Mulligan.—N. Y. Herald, September 20.
—This morning the Abbé McMaster, proprietor and editor of the Freeman’s Appeal, a peace organ of New York city, was arrested by the United States Marshal, Mr. Murray, and sent to Fort Lafayette, on a charge of treasonable matter contained in his paper.—N. Y. Herald, September 17.
Saturday, 14th—We had company drill this morning, and some five or six new men enrolled. I went home in the afternoon.
