Saturday, 31st.—Companies B, C and E very gladly bid Huntsville adieu, and, moving westward, bivouacked on the Jamestown road.
August 31st.—A month during which I have been exposed to more calumny, falsehood, not to speak of danger, than I ever passed through, has been brought to a close. I have all the pains and penalties attached to the digito monstrari et dicier hie est, in the most hostile sense. On going into Willard’s the other day, I said to the clerk behind the bar, “Why I heard, Mr. So-and-so, you were gone?” “Well, sir, I’m not. If I was, you would have lost the last man who is ready to say a word for you in this house, I can tell you.” Scowling faces on every side—women turning up their pretty little noses—people turning round in the streets, or stopping to stare in front of me—the proprietors of the shops where I am known pointing me out to others; the words uttered, in various tones, ” So, that’s Bull-Run Russell!”—for, oddly enough, the Americans seem to think that a disgrace to their arms becomes diminished by fixing the name of the scene as a sobriquet on one who described it—these, with caricatures, endless falsehoods, rumours of duels, and the like, form some of the little désagrémens of one who was so unfortunate as to assist at the retreat, the first he had ever seen, of an army which it would in all respects have suited him much better to have seen victorious.
I dined with Lieutenant Wise, and met Captain Dahlgren, Captain Davis, U.S.N., Captain Foote, U.N.S., and Colonel Fletcher Webster (since killed in action), son of the great American statesman, now commanding a regiment of volunteers. The latter has a fine head and face; a full, deep eye; is quaint and dry in his conversation, and a poet, I should think, in heart and soul, if outward and visible signs may be relied on. The naval captains were excellent specimens of the accomplished and able men who belong to the United States Navy. Foote, who is designated to the command of the flotilla which is to clear the Mississippi downwards, will, I am certain, do good service—a calm, energetic, skilful officer. Dahlgren, who, like all men with a system, very properly watches everything which bears upon it, took occasion to call for Captain Foote’s testimony to the fact, that he battered down a six-foot granite wall in China with Dahlgren shells. It will run hard against the Confederates when they get such men at work on the rivers and coasts, for they seem to understand their business thoroughly, and all they are not quite sure of is the readiness of the land forces to co-operate with their expeditionary movements. Incidentally I learned from the conversation—and it is a curious illustration of the power of the President—that it was he who ordered the attack on Charleston harbour, or, to speak with more accuracy, the movement of the armed squadron to relieve Sumter by force, if necessary; and that he came to the conclusion it was feasible principally from reading the account of the attack on Kinburn by the allied fleets. There was certainly an immense disproportion between the relative means of attack and defence in the two cases; but, at all events, the action of the Confederates prevented the attempt.
Saturday, [August] 31,—Mustered today. I called the roll of our five companies and of McMullen’s Battery.
AUGUST 31ST. —We have bad news to-day. My wife and children are the bearers of it. They returned to the city with the tidings that all the women and children were ordered to leave Newbern. The enemy have attacked and taken Fort Hatteras, making many prisoners, and threaten Newbern next. This is the second time my family have been compelled to fly. But they are well.
August 31.—At Manch Chunk, Pa., some persons entered the Carbon Democrat office, and destroyed the type, upset the stands, &c. The press was not disturbed.—N. Y. World, September 2.
—At Indianapolis (Ind.) a convention of sympathizers with the “Peace party” assembled at the Court House. Hon. Robert L. Walpole was made chairman, and while addressing the audience, denouncing the Administration and the war, was interrupted several times, and finally withdrew from the stand amidst great confusion. A man named McLean then attempted to harangue the crowd, at the same time drawing a pistol, whereupon the crowd rushed in, and he was rather roughly handled in the melee. A number of fights occurred, but with no serious results. Considerable excitement was manifested all the afternoon, and in the evening the crowd visited the residence of Mr. Walpole, and several other political men, whose loyalty was questioned, and forced them to take the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. This was done without farther disturbance. Among these who took the oath was the editor of the Sentinel.—N. Y. Times, September 3.
—William Buckingham, Governor of Connecticut, issued a proclamation calling upon the citizens of the State to uphold the authority and dignity of the Government, and to abstain from any act which can tend to encourage and strengthen conspiracy. He also calls upon the officers of the law to be active in arresting and instituting legal proceedings for the punishment of these guilty of sedition and treason, and these engaged in combinations to obstruct the execution of the laws.—(Doc. 19.)
—The Sixth regiment of Michigan Volunteers, under the command of Colonel F. W. Curtenius, passed through Cleveland, Ohio, on their way to the seat of war, in Virginia.— Ohio Statesman, September 3.
—This afternoon, while two companies of National troops—one from Massachusetts and the other from Pennsylvania—were scouting in the direction of Bailey’s Cross Roads, Va., they came within sight of a battalion of the enemy of about the same number, accompanied by a very distinguished-looking mounted officer. One of our men, armed with a Springfield rifle, asked and obtained leave to fire at him, though the distance was thought to be too great for an effective shot. Contrary to the general expectation, he tumbled him off his horse at the first shot. Beth bodies of troops then retired, the enemy bearing their fallen officer away in their arms. In an hour afterward their flags on Munson’s Hill and at Fall’s Church were at half-mast.—Philadelphia Inquirer, September 4.
—The Fifty-fifth regiment N. Y. S. V., under the command of colonel R. de Trobriand, consisting of five hundred and fifty men, took leave of their encampment at New Dorp, and embarked shortly after three P. M., direct for Ambey, thence to Washington.—N. Y. Times, September 1.
—A Mass Meeting of the citizens of Ohio and Switzerland counties, Indiana, was held at Enterprise, for the purpose of having a fair and candid expression of the people in regard to the difficulties of the nation. Patriotic speeches were made, and resolutions sustaining the National Government and the legally constituted authorities were unanimously adopted.— (Doc. 20.)
—A brisk skirmish took place this morning between Companies I and K, of the Third regiment, and the rebel pickets near Munson’s Hill, Va., in which Corporal Hand, Company I, and private Rannes, of Company K, were killed. Privates Cole and Lawson, Company I, were badly wounded, the first in the leg, and the last in the head. First Lieutenant A. S. Taylor had his cap dislodged from his head by a ball. The rebels were in greater numbers than was supposed.—N. Y. Tribune, September 4.
—The Holly Springs (Miss.) Cotton States, of to-day, has the following: “Since our last issue upward of two thousand soldiers have passed our depot, bound for Virginia and other points. Most of them were from Louisiana, and, like all the troops sent to the field from that gallant State, they were noble specimens of soldiers— true Southern soldiers. Well and nobly has Louisiana done her part in this war, and still her brave sons are flocking to the standard of their country, to aid in driving back the Northern foe. She can boast of some of the best soldiers in the field, and she has furnished a Beauregard to lead them on to victory. Well done, Louisiana!
Friday, 30th—No news of importance. There are still some companies arriving in camp for the Eighth Iowa, and they are still adding new recruits to the Second Iowa Cavalry, which is in camp at the Fair Grounds.
Thursday, 27th.—The writer and a few others were sent to a gap in the mountain, about twelve miles north of Huntsville and within three miles of the Kentucky line, to watch for a Federal paymaster whom Madame Rumor had said would pass through that section. We had only been stationed a few hours, however, when Colonel McNairy, having received orders to move to Jamestown the next day, sent for us to return to camp immediately, though, on account of rain and high water, we remained at Huntsville three days longer.
Scott was rather a poor county, and as the people were mostly “Union,” they were not willing to divide rations with “Rebs”; therefore we suffered more for want of rations while at Huntsville than anywhere else during the war, while in camp.
FRIDAY 30
Excitement is again on tiptoe as a general battle is expected now day by day on the other side of the River. The entrenchments of the rebels can be seen from the top of the Capitol dome with a good Spyglass. Skirmishing among the sentries occurs daily. The Newspapers here say nothing. I was at the Pat office awhile today, came home and made a small model of Door fastener. Went down to Willards with Doct Everitt, saw Maj Chase. Called for Julia at Chas rooms at 10.
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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.
30th.—It is now between two and three months since our regiment went into camp. We have had nearly three hundred cases of measles, with about as many of diarrhœa, dysentery and fever. Not one quarter of the regiment but has been sick in some way, and yet last night every man who left home with the regiment slept in camp—not one death by sickness or accident, none left behind, not one lost by desertion ! May we not challenge the armies of the world for a parallel? We are sleeping on our arms every night, in anticipation of an attack on Washington, and it seems to be the general belief that we shall be attacked here. I am no military man, and my opinion here is of no account to the world, but to me, for whose especial benefit it is written, it is worth as much as would be the opinion of a Napoleon. That opinion is, that we shall have no fight here—that the enemy is out-generaling us by feints to induce us to concentrate our forces here, whilst he makes a strike and overpowers us elsewhere.
AUGUST 30TH.—Gen. Floyd has had a fight in the West, and defeated an Ohio regiment. I trust they were of the Puritan stock, and not the descendants of Virginians.
