Saturday, 14th.— In the saddle early, we again took up the line of march eastward. Passing through Wartburg, we soon arrived at Camp Schuyler, where we found the other two companies, A and D. They had been sent to this camp from Huntsville, the 25th of August. These two companies, having been previously notified to be ready to move, now fell in, and the whole battalion continued moving eastward.
We camped for the night in Anderson County, within twenty-two miles of Knoxville.
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SATURDAY 14
Weather fine & bright but a little too hot. M. 82. Have been at the Pat office part of the day. Had an interview with the Comr and a long talk with him, and a pretty plain talk. But of all the mean business in the world, the most humiliating to a proud and independant man is dancing attendance upon and asking favors from those in power. Dr David got in this evening from the other side of the River. I was at the National an hour or so, also called at Willards. City quiet.
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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.
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London, September 14, 1861
Your last letter containing principally suggestions on the cotton matter, reached me this week. Also a bundle of newspapers. At present I am busy in another direction, so that I can’t yet take up the subject you recommend, but when my immediate bubbles have burst, or have expanded brilliantly, I mean to see what I can do here. Yet I confess I do not promise myself much from the effort. The main principles which you aim at demonstrating, that the American monopoly of cotton is in fact a curse both to America and to Great Britain, and its destruction might be made the cause of infinite blessings to the whole range of countries under the torrid zone, this principle is and has always been an axiom here. It needs no proof, for the cotton-merchants themselves are the most earnest in asserting it. The real difficulty with regard to cotton does not lie there. It is never the hope of a future good, however great, that actuates people, when they have immediate evils such as this want of cotton will produce right before their eyes. Nor should I answer any real question by proving that in two years the world will be infinitely benefitted by our war, when what they alone ask is whether meanwhile England will not be ruined. My own belief is that she will be ruined. This next winter will, I fear, be a dreadful one in this country in any case, nor will it be bettered if they make war on us. It is not as if the cotton manufacture alone suffered, but the tariff and the war have between them cut off the whole American trade, export and import, and the consequence has been a very bad season, with a prospect of frightful pressure in the winter. Whole counties will have to be supported by subscription.
This is my idea of the real cotton problem in this country. I have no doubt that the suffering interests will make a violent push to solve it by urging the Government to attack our blockade. But that is merely the last struggle of a drowning man. The Government will not do it, I think, and most Englishmen speak of the idea as preposterous. If they did, it would only complicate matters still more and I doubt whether even then they got their cotton. The winter over, the new era will dawn on us; that cursed monopoly will be broken and with it the whole power of the South; the slave-trade will then be ended and slavery with it, for the negro will be of no use; and we may expect sunnier days and renewed prosperity. This is the only view that I could advocate, and this, a generally acknowledged truth, is at best but small comfort to a starving people.
Meanwhile we are getting on in these parts. Lord Russell has just answered the Chief’s Note, by refusing to dismiss Bunch; acknowledging that he acted under instructions; justifying the step as one which implied nothing and in which even pirates might be admitted to join (i.e. the neutral flag matter); accepting the responsibility for its acts and the consequences; but at the same time declaring that the Ministry has no present intention of recognizing the Southerners, or of leaving their old position.
Of course Seward will revoke Bunch’s exequatur, but that need make no trouble. But it is by no means so clear what also may result from this. By a pure accident it was discovered that the British Government were secretly entering into connections with the insurgents, and they are now compelled to acknowledge that they have really been acting behind our backs. This is no pleasant acknowledgment to make, for evidently secrecy was their object, and the implication is direct against their good faith. They feel that they have been found out, and this for an Englishman is anything but pleasant. The affair will hardly end here.
I have been lately hunting up the newspapers. The other day I called on the editors of the Spectator and had a long talk with them. I mean to call on or write to Hughes, the Tom Brown man, who has vigorously taken our side. The Star too we are in with. Miss Martineau writes for the News and she is an invalid, not to be seen. I may very likely myself turn up some of these days in the lists. . . .
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SEPTEMBER 14TH.—Some of Mr. Walker’s clerks must know that he intends giving up the seals of office soon, for they are engaged day and night, and all night, copying the entire letter-book, which is itself but a copy of the letters I and others have written, with Mr. Walker’s name appended to them. Long may they be a monument of his epistolary administrative ability, and profound statesmanship!
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Birch River, Between Summersville and
Sutton, Virginia, September 14, 1861.
Dear Uncle : — I have no time to write letters. We are getting on finely. Our battle on the 10th at Gauley River, you have no doubt heard all about. Nothing but night prevented our getting Floyd and his whole army. As it was, we entirely demoralized them; got all their camp equipage even to their swords, flag, and trunks (one of the best of which the general gave me). I had an important and laborious part assigned me. An independent command of four companies to be the extreme left of our attacking column. We worked down and up a steep rocky mountain covered with a laurel thicket. I got close enough just at dark to get two men wounded and four others struck in their garments.
This is not a dangerous business; after tremendous firing of cannon and musketry, we lost only thirteen killed, about fifteen badly wounded and fifty or sixty slightly wounded. The enemy are no match for us in fair fighting. They feel it and so do our men. We marched rapidly seventeen miles, reaching their vicinity at 2:30 or 3 P. M. We immediately were formed and went at them. They were evidently appalled. I think not many were killed. Governor Floyd was wounded slightly.
On yesterday morning I was sent on a circuitous march to head off parties hastening to join Wise or Floyd. Four companies of my regiment, two companies of Colonel Ewing’s, and a squadron of Chicago cavalry are under my command. We marched up Gauley River to Hughes Ferry. There we were fired on by a lot of guerrillas concealed in rocks. It was more dangerous than the battle. Three of us who were mounted and in advance were decidedly objects of attention, but fortunately none were hit. We chased them off, getting only one.
I am now here relieving a small party of our folks who are entrenched and who have been in constant dread of an attack. We are without tents and expect to return to the battle-ground in six days.
In the battle only one commissioned officer was killed, Colonel Lowe. One acquaintance of yours, Stephen McGroarty, an Irish Democratic orator, formerly of Toledo, now of Cincinnati (a captain), was shot through the body, but kept on his feet until the fight was stopped by the darkness. He will recover. One of my comforts is that my horse has come out in better plight than ever. I think he never looked so well and spirited as he did today as we marched over Birch Mountain.
If no disaster overtakes us at Washington, we shall soon see signs of yielding by the South. The letters, diaries, etc., etc., found in Floyd’s trunks and desks, show that their situation is desperate. Thousands are in their army who are heartily sick of the whole business.
We retook a large part of the plunder taken from Colonel Tyler as well as prisoners. The prisoners had been well treated, very. The young men in Floyd’s army of the upper class are kind-hearted, good-natured fellows, who are [as] unfit as possible for the business they are in. They have courage but no endurance, enterprise, or energy. The lower class are cowardly, cunning, and lazy. The height of their ambition is to shoot a Yankee from some place of safety.
My regards to all. Send this to Mother and Lucy.
Sincerely,
R. B. Hayes.
P. S. — The enclosed picture of a lieutenant in the army we routed is for Laura.
S. Birchard.
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September 14.—Last night an expedition from the United States steam frigate Colorado, under the command of Lieutenant John H. Russell, cut out the rebel privateer Judah, from under the guns of the forts at Pensacola Navy Yard, and totally destroyed her by fire. The National loss was three killed and fifteen wounded.— (Doc. 49.)
—The Philadelphia Inquirer, of this morning says: “It is understood that the property of Robert Tyler, a traitor, was seized yesterday at Bristol, Pa., by order of the Government of the United States. This property includes real estate and household goods. Robert Tyler first appeared before the public of Pennsylvania about twenty years ago, in the character of a lawyer without clients, and with no very good references as to his past career, he married the daughter of Thomas Cooper, the celebrated actor, having become acquainted with her at Bristol, the residence of her father. He took up his abode at that place during the summer months, and became an active orator in behalf of the Irish cause, in the excitement which preceded the riots of 1844. He won many friends by his oratorical powers. He was afterward appointed Clerk of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, a position worth ten or twelve thousand dollars per annum. While thus in the service of the Government, he lost no opportunity, during the early stages of this rebellion, to uphold the South and denounce the North. His denunciations became so violent, that immediately after the fall of Sumter he was obliged to leave the city, and now holds a subordinate position in the Treasury Department of the so-called Confederate Government at Richmond. His treason has availed him but little.”
—Considerable excitement was created at Kansas City, Mo., to-day, by the appearance of rebel scouts. A company of twenty mounted men was sent over from Kansas City in the morning, who discovered a rebel camp of from two hundred to three hundred men, some six miles distant from the Missouri River. An additional force was detailed in the afternoon, who killed seven of the rebels and took six prisoners, with the same number of horses, and destroyed their barracks. Only one of the Union men was wounded.—N. Y. Herald, September 21.
—A Detachment of Col. Young’s Cavalry, under Captain White, arrested three spies, today, near Port Tobacco, Maryland, and brought them to Washington, D. C. On their persons was found topographic and other information designed for transmission to the enemy.—N. Y. Times, September 18.
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September 12th.—The day passed quietly, in spite of rumours of another battle; the band played in the President’s garden, and citizens and citizenesses strolled about the grounds as if Secession had been annihilated. The President made a fitful appearance, in a grey shooting suit, with a number of despatches in his hand, and walked off towards the State Department quite unnoticed by the crowd. I am sure not half a dozen persons saluted him—not one of the men I saw even touched his hat. General Bell went round the works with McClellan, and expressed his opinion that it would be impossible to fight a great battle in the country which lay between the two armies—in fact, as he said, “a general could no more handle his troops among the woods, than he could regulate the movements of rabbits in a cover. You ought just to make a proposition to Beauregard to come out on some plain and fight the battle fairly out where you can see each other.”
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posted on the 13th as there were two entries dated the 11th, with the second one posted on the 12th.
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Friday, 13th—We made the entire trip of thirty miles from Davenport last night and reached home by daylight. I went up to Tipton this afternoon and was sworn into the State service, my service dating back to August 10th. Our former captain, Mr. McLoney, and some of the other Inland boys are here, besides four of the Le Claire boys. We are trying to form a new company and everything looks good for a new company in a short time, quite a number of the boys having already enrolled. We are boarding at the hotel.
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1861.
I have been much of the day at the Treasury Dept waiting to see the Sec’y on business. While there saw Prof (now) Genl Michel, the Astronomer, who is now in the Army. Also saw and conversed with Genl Burnside of R.I. Genl Pomeroy of Kansas notoriety I saw also. It is reported that our pickets on the other side of the River have been driven in. There seemed to be signal lights there on the hills this evening, one very large fire. Called with wife on Chas & Sallie. Mr Kendig of Phila was there. Walked up to Franklin Square.
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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.
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SEPTEMBER 13TH.—The Secretary, after writing and tendering his resignation, appointed my young friend Jaques a special clerk with $2000 salary. This was allowed by a recent act.
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