Following the American Civil War Sesquicentennial with day by day writings of the time, currently 1863.

Post image for A Diary of American Events.–August 16, 1861

A Diary of American Events.–August 16, 1861

August 16, 2011

The American Civil War,The Rebellion Record—A Diary of American Events; by Frank Moore

August 16.—Colonel Hecker, with his regiment, surprised a body of rebels-, four hundred strong, near Fredericktown, Mo., early this morning. He captured all their camp equipage, and his men ate the breakfast which had just been prepared by the rebels. Twelve prisoners were also taken.—General Prentiss took command of all the forces at Ironton, Mo.—N. Y. World, August 20.

—A New battery, erected by the rebels at a point a mile or two below Aquia Creek, Va., opened fire on the steamer Pocahontas, but inflicted no damage. This is the fourth battery which has been erected at that point. Officers report that, unless the Government takes immediate action to expel the rebels from these positions on the bank of the river, navigation will be completely closed. The enemy’s batteries already command a large part of the Potomac.—Louisville Journal, August 19.

—In the United States Circuit Court, sitting in the city of New York, the Grand Jury brought in a presentment against the Journal of Commerce, Daily News, Day Book, Freeman’s Journal, and Brooklyn Eagle, as aiders and abettors of treason, and recommended that the Court, in its judicial capacity, take cognizance of them. The Judge said he would turn over the presentment to Judge Wilson, at the October term.—(Doc. 189.)

—A Serious affray occurred at Saybrook, Conn., this afternoon. A number of prominent secessionists of the State had called a “peace meeting,” to commence at three o’clock, when a peace, or secession flag was to be raised, and several speeches were to be made. Among the speakers who were announced, and on hand, was W. W. Eaton, of Hartford. The fact becoming known in New Haven, about ninety residents of that city came up on the train this morning. On reaching Saybrook the New Haven boys marched in procession to the flag-staff, upon which it was rumored that a secession flag was to be raised, surrounded it, and immediately proceeded to hoist the Stars and Stripes, when Judge Colyer of Hartford, and a noted secessionist of Saybrook, with others, undertook to prevent the Stars and Stripes from being raised, and cut the halyards, and it is said also made an attempt to use the knife upon some of the New Haven boys, when a desperate affray commenced between the secessionists and Unionists, which resulted in Judge Colyer having one of his cheeks dreadfully cut, and the great peace advocate of Saybrook faring little better. Mr. Eaton was deterred from making his prepared speech; and quiet being restored, Capt. Joseph R. Hawley, of the returned First Regiment, whoso bravery at Bull Run has been frequently alluded to, made a capital Union speech, which was enthusiastically received by the assemblage. About forty of the New Haven boys returned home this evening, while fifty remained to watch movements for the night, and probably take care of the flag-staff so that no secession flag should be raised upon it. The flag which the secessionists intended to hoist was a white one with the word “Peace” inscribed thereon.— N. Y. World, August 17.

—The President declared by proclamation that, as their rebellious populations had failed to disperse and return to their duty as bidden in his proclamation of Feb. 28, the States of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas were in a state of insurrection, and that all commercial intercourse with them “is unlawful, and will remain unlawful until such insurrection shall cease, or has been suppressed.”—(Doc. 190.)

—Fifty-eight Thousand Dollars were seized by U. S. troops at Genevieve, Missouri, and taken to St. Louis.—N. Y. Herald, August 18.

—All safe-conducts, passes, etc., hitherto granted to enter or go beyond the U. S. army lines in Virginia, were revoked by general order.—Army Order, No. 4.

Post image for Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Sergeant Alexander G. Downing.

Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Sergeant Alexander G. Downing.

August 15, 2011

Diary of Alexander G. Downing; Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry

Thursday, 15th—We capped our grain stacks against rain and windstorms, and then commenced mowing wild grass for hay. This is my birthday; am nineteen years old.

Unanticipated Kindness of Baltimoreans.–Journal of Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman.

August 15, 2011

Journal of Surgeon Alfred L Castleman.,The American Civil War

Post image for Unanticipated Kindness of Baltimoreans.–Journal of Surgeon Alfred L. Castleman.

15th.—I wish to record, what I have omitted, an acknowledgment to many of the people of Baltimore during our stay here, for such kindness as I never expected to meet with amongst strangers. On the morning of our arrival, at the depot, in this city, I was detained some time in looking after the sick who were brought forward, and in getting them into conveyances to the depot where we were to re-embark. The regiment marched forward and left me, so that I must pass through the city alone. I armed myself well, expecting to be insulted at every corner, and, perhaps, to meet with personal violence. My dress showed me to be a member of the regiment which had just passed. Scarcely a rod did I walk without being accosted with kind greetings and “Godspeeds;” scarcely a corner did I pass without being stopped by gentlemen, inviting me to their houses to partake of their hospitality, in the shape of a cup of coffee, a breakfast, a little rest. Ladies, as I passed, would come to the door, or send out their servants to know if they could do anything for the comfort of myself or regiment.

Since I have been left here with the sick of the regiment, their kindness and attention have, if possible, been even more marked. The house which I use for both hospital and headquarters, is constantly crowded by ladies, gentlemen, children, pressing in to see what they can do for the relief of the sufferers. The tables groan under the delicacies brought in, and citizens beg for permission to take my sick and care for them at their houses. Nor is this done from the novelty of seeing a regiment pass through. There are always from ten to twenty thousand volunteer troops here, and from one to twenty new regiments pass through daily.

I confess to myself that this is a discouraging feature in the war. This is a Southern city, and this is a type of Southern character. They become interested, and their whole heart is wrapped up in the subject. It is a representation of the character of the people against whom we fight, and on this earnestness for what they believe to be right, is based much of their opinion that the Southerner will prove himself so far superior to the Northern man in battle. I fear there is more truth in it than we of the North are willing to admit. Whatever may be the result of the struggle now going on, to the people of Baltimore I shall ever remember that I am under deep obligations for their kindness to me personally, as well as to the sufferers under my care, and for their interest in the cause which I believe to be not only right, but sacred. I leave Baltimore with much regret, and beg its kind citizens to remember that at least one soldier, a recipient of their kindness, will ever treasure in his heart a grateful remembrance of them.

Post image for “All military movements are now kept as secret as possible by Genl McClellan.”—Horatio Nelson Taft

“All military movements are now kept as secret as possible by Genl McClellan.”—Horatio Nelson Taft

August 15, 2011

Diary of US patent clerk Horatio Nelson Taft.

THURSDAY 15

The 3rd Regt of Regulars are cleaning up the Camp on F[ranklin] Square, “Camp Anderson,” for occupation. I was in the Pat office awhile today but staid at Home most of the day. The weather is quite cool and a fire in the dining room is comfortable in the morning. Doct Barnes was over from Alexandria and took dinner with us. No particular news afloat. All military movements are now kept as secret as possible by Genl McClellan.

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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.

Post image for “More rumors of attacks by guerrillas, or “bushwhackers” as they are here called, on our couriers and trains.”—Rutherford B. Hayes

“More rumors of attacks by guerrillas, or “bushwhackers” as they are here called, on our couriers and trains.”—Rutherford B. Hayes

August 15, 2011

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes,The American Civil War

August 15. Thursday.—A bright, lovely day and the prettiest evening of the month. The bright moonlight exhibits the landscape enough to show its loveliness and the lights and shadows. The hills and woods are very picturesque. It makes me long for wife and boys and friends behind. How Lute would enjoy roaming with me through camp tonight.

More rumors of attacks by guerrillas, or “bushwhackers” as they are here called, on our couriers and trains. A courier and captain and some wagoners are reported killed or taken below Sutton.

My box containing pistols and sash, etc., by mistake sent from Clarksburg to Buckhannon. Made arrangements to send Lieutenant Richardson and two men with ambulance after it.

WESTON, VIRGINIA, August 15, 1861.

Thursday Morning.

DEAREST L—:—We had four days of rain ending yesterday morning—such rain as this country of hills and mountains can afford. It was gloomy and uncomfortable but no harm was done. It cleared off beautifully yesterday morning and the weather has been most delicious since. This is a healthful region. Nobody seriously sick and almost everybody outrageously healthy. I never was better. It is a luxury to breathe. Dr. Joe—but don’t he go into the corn? He has it three times a day, reminding me of Northampton a year ago and your order for supper on our return from Mount Holyoke.

Our regiment has had divers duties which keep up excitement enough to prevent us from stagnating. Colonel Matthews and right wing is fifty miles south. Captain Drake and Captain Woodward, with their companies, spent the four rainy days scouring the steepest hills and deepest gullies for the rascals who waylay our couriers and wagon trains. They captured three or four of the underlings, but the leaders and main party dodged them. Captain Zimmerman and his company have gone west forty miles to escort provisions to Colonel Moor (Second German Regiment of Cincinnati in which Markbreit is Lieutenant) and to clean out an infected neighborhood between here and there. A sergeant and six men are at Clarksburg escorting a prisoner destined for Columbus. Lieutenant Rice and twenty men are escorting cattle for Colonel Tyler’s command south of here. A part of our cavalry are gone west to escort a captain and the surgeon of the Tenth to Glenville, thirty-seven miles west. On Saturday I go with Captain Drake’s company to meet Captain Zimmerman’s company returning from the west, and with the two companies, to go into the hills to the south to hunt for a guerrilla band who are annoying Union men in that vicinity. I shall be gone almost a week so you will not hear from me for some time. The telegraph is now extended south to a station near where I am going to operate, so that we are in reach of humanity by telegraph but not by mail.

Dr. Joe has got the hospital in good condition. A church (Methodist South) in place of the court-house for the merely comfortable, and a private house for the very sick. None of our regiment are seriously ill. The sick are devolved upon us from other regiments—chiefly lung complaints developed by marching, measles, or exposure. Very few, if any, taken here. Divers humane old ladies furnish knickknacks to the hospital and make glad the poor fellows with such comforts as women can best provide.

We find plenty of good Union men, and most of our expeditions are aided by them. They show a good spirit in our behalf. A large part of our friends in the mountains are the well-to-do people of their neighborhoods and usually are Methodists or other orderly citizens.

Good-bye, dearest. I love you very much. Kiss the boys and love to all. Tell Webby that during the rain the other night, dark as pitch, my horse, Webb, fell down the hill back of the camp into the river. Swam over to the opposite shore, and at daylight we saw him frisking about in great excitement trying to get back to his companion Birch. When we got him he was not hurt or scratched even. He stumbles a little, which doesn’t do for a riding horse, so I have taken a government horse which looks very much like him; same color and size but not quite so pretty, and given Webb to Uncle Joe for an ambulance horse. I shall call my new horse Webb, so there are to be two Webbys in the regiment. My next horse I shall call Ruddy. Love to Grandma.

Affectionately,

R.

MRS. HAYES.

Post image for Rebel War Clerk

Rebel War Clerk

August 15, 2011

A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, By John Beauchamp Jones

AUGUST 15TH.—No clew yet to the spies in office who furnish the Northern press with information. The matter will pass uninvestigated. Such is our indifference to everything but desperate fighting. The enemy will make good use of this species of information.

Post image for Mary Chesnut’s diary.—”The discrepancies in all these private memories amuse him, but he (Mr. Chesnut) smiles pleasantly and lets every man tell the tale in his own way.”

Mary Chesnut’s diary.—”The discrepancies in all these private memories amuse him, but he (Mr. Chesnut) smiles pleasantly and lets every man tell the tale in his own way.”

August 15, 2011

A Diary From Dixie by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut.,The American Civil War

August 15th.—Mrs. Randolph came. With her were the Freelands, Rose and Maria. The men rave over Mrs. Randolph’s beauty; called her a magnificent specimen of the finest type of dark-eyed, rich, and glowing Southern woman-kind. Clear brunette she is, with the reddest lips, the whitest teeth, and glorious eyes; there is no other word for them. Having given Mrs. Randolph the prize among Southern beauties, Mr. Clayton said Prentiss was the finest Southern orator. Mr. Marshall and Mr. Barnwell dissented ; they preferred William C. Preston. Mr. Chesnut had found Colquitt the best or most effective stump orator.

Saw Henry Deas Nott. He is just from Paris, via New York. Says New York is ablaze with martial fire. At no time during the Crimean war was there ever in Paris the show of soldiers preparing for the war such as he saw at New York. The face of the earth seemed covered with marching regiments.

Not more than 500 effective men are in Hampton’s Legion, but they kept the whole Yankee army at bay until half-past two. Then just as Hampton was wounded and half his colonels shot, Cash and Kershaw (from Mrs. Smith Lee audibly, ”How about Kirby Smith?”) dashed in and not only turned the tide, but would have driven the fugitives into Washington, but Beauregard recalled them. Mr. Chesnut finds all this very amusing, as he posted many of the regiments and all the time was carrying orders over the field. The discrepancies in all these private memories amuse him, but he smiles pleasantly and lets every man tell the tale in his own way.

Post image for A Diary of American Events.–August 15, 1861

A Diary of American Events.–August 15, 1861

August 15, 2011

The American Civil War,The Rebellion Record—A Diary of American Events; by Frank Moore

August 15.—At Arlington, Va., sixty noncommissioned officers and privates of the Second Maine Regiment of Volunteers, having formally and positively, in the presence of the regiment, refused to do any further duty whatever, alleging that they were not legally in the service of the United States, were, with the approval of the General-in-Chief, transferred, in arrest, from the regiment, as no longer worthy to serve with it, to be sent to the Dry Tortugas, in the Gulf of Mexico, there to perform such fatigue service as the officers commanding might assign them, until they should by their future conduct show themselves worthy to bear arms.—Army Orders.

—The Twenty-third Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, under the command of Col. Sanderson, left the camp near New Albany, for Indianapolis, and thence for the seat of war in Missouri.—Louisville Journal, August 16.

—Govenor Buckingham, of Connecticut, calls upon “the loyal and patriotic citizens of that State to organize in companies for four regiments of infantry.”—(Doc. 187.)

—Upon the refusal of Colonel Burke, the officer in command at Fort Lafayette in New York harbor, to produce his prisoners in court in response to a writ of habeas corpus, Judge Garrison of Kings Co., N. Y., who issued the writ, made formal application to General Duryea of the militia in Brooklyn to ascertain what force could be obtained by the county to execute the writ. General Duryea informed the sheriff that about fourteen hundred men could be raised, but that the county was in possession of no artillery sufficiently powerful to make an impression on the works, and that it would require between five and ten thousand men to take them.—N. Y. Evening Post, August 15.

—This afternoon the steamer Resolute was ordered from Aquia Creek to Matthias Point, Va., for the purpose of reconnoitring. Seeing a bateau filled with barrels on shore just below the point, a boat was sent from the Resolute with six men, to bring off the bateau. No sooner had the boat touched the beach than a volley of musket balls was opened upon them from a secession force concealed in the woods, killing three of the men instantly, namely—John James Fuller, of Brooklyn, master’s mate, who, it was subsequently ascertained, was pierced by two balls; George Seymour, captain of the gun, of New York, by seven, and Thomas Tully, of Boston, by two balls. Earnest Walter, a native of England, was wounded in the head. Another volley was fired by the enemy as they moved their position, or as soon as they had time to reload. The Resolute was about seven hundred yards from the shore, and fired in the midst of the rebels one shot of canister and nine of shrapnell. The scene on board the small boat is described as heart-sickening—the dead lying outstretched in it, covered with their own blood. The boat was towed a short distance from the shore by one of the crew named Sanderson, who quietly slipped into the water for that purpose, and thus concealed himself from the enemy. The other uninjured man lay in the boat, horrified by the scene through which he had just passed, while the wounded man helped Sanderson to row the boat toward the Reliance, from which assistance was immediately rendered.—(Doc. 188.)

Reminiscent Introductory Note.– Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Sergeant Alexander G. Downing.

Post image for Reminiscent Introductory Note.– Downing’s Civil War Diary.–Sergeant Alexander G. Downing.

August 14, 2011

Diary of Alexander G. Downing; Company E, Eleventh Iowa Infantry

During the months of July and August, 1861, the country was greatly aroused over the prospects of war. Excitement rose high when the news of the battle of Bull Run, July 21st, was flashed over the wires. I was then almost 19 and living at home on a farm near Inland, Cedar county, Iowa. Naturally I was deeply stirred over the question of war. Some of our neighbors and friends had earlier opposed the use of force in preventing secession, but I distinctly remember that my father and many neighbors and friends entertained no doubt as to the righteousness of such a course.

During these days we were at work in the harvest field. We had finished cutting our wheat and oats and during the first two weeks of August were engaged in stacking the grain. Everyone had some part in the work. Father did the stacking, while John was on the stack with him, placing the sheaves at his right hand. Albert and George drove the teams to and from the fields, while Paul and Andrew attended to watering the stock during the day.[1] Tom Toly, a strong Irishman, who had worked for us three or four summers, pitched the sheaves to father from the wagon, and Dave Cole pitched the sheaves from the shocks in the field to me on the wagon, while I arranged them on the load.

There had been some talk of raising a company of troops at Inland, but nothing had come of it. At Tipton, the county seat, a company of one hundred men was raised when the first call for volunteers was made. But as they were not then needed, they went out under the call of July 23, 1861, and became Company A of the Fifth Iowa Infantry.

I had been pondering in my mind the matter of going to join the army. On the evening of Saturday, August 10th, news came of the battle of Wilson’s Creek, and that General Lyon had been killed. The First Iowa Infantry was in that battle and made glorious history for itself and for Iowa. That fact, with the excitement over the battle itself, stirred us boys in the neighborhood, and I practically reached a decision as to what I should do.

The next day was Sunday, and everybody was talking about the battle of Wilson’s Creek. Ministers spoke of it in their sermons and prayers. It was the all-important topic of the day, and for the next three days—the 12th, 13th and 14th of August, it was the topic of conversation while we were finishing our work in the harvest field. On the next day, my birthday, I began my diary and shall now let it speak.

[1] The five boys, John, Albert, George, Paul and Andrew, are Mr. Downing’s half-brothers. They are all living at this time (March, 1916) and all reside in Iowa—Ed.

Post image for “Witnessed this evening the quelling of a mutiny among the 79th Regt.”—Horatio Nelson Taft

“Witnessed this evening the quelling of a mutiny among the 79th Regt.”—Horatio Nelson Taft

August 14, 2011

Diary of US patent clerk Horatio Nelson Taft.,The American Civil War

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1861.

Got up this morning and went to market. Doct Barnes and Lieut Gould to Breakfast. Doct Vanslyck to dinner. The “27th” left this morning for V.A. I was at the Pat office awhile & on the Ave. Witnessed this evening the quelling of a mutiny among the 79th Regt. A strong force of Infantry and Cavalry and four pieces of Artillery were brought to bear upon them when they “fell in” and were paraded on 14th St, the ring leaders picked out, 36 in number who will be punished, some of them probably shot. Gov Stevens is now their Col.

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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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