Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, December 31, 1862

Camp, December 31, 1862.

Dearest: — This is New Year's eve. Dancing and merriment seem to prevail. Many men and a few officers are expecting to go home soon. Sergeant-Major Sweet will take you this, and the McCook and Andrews spurs. We have had a great change this week. Colonel Ewing — I mean General Ewing — has gone South, taking with him the Thirtieth, Thirty-seventh, and Forty-seventh Ohio and Fourth Virginia. The Eighty-ninth goes into the fine camp left by the Thirtieth, ten miles below here; a great gain to the Eighty-ninth. The Ninety-second goes to Tompkins Farm, the camp left by the Forty-seventh, and are great losers by the change; mad about it, too. We get rid of divers old troubles, but remain in our log-cabin camp, and are content, or rather pleased, upon the whole.

Now good night. Happy New Years to all. If no further changes occur, and Uncle Joe would like to bring you up here with one or two boys, I suspect you would like to come. Think of it, and I will try to see you part of the way home, or all of the way. Let him start about the middle of the month, so as to reach here by the 20th. It will probably rain and be muddy enough, but it will be funny and novel.

Good night. If Grandma wants to come, she will be welcome, she knows, but I mistrust the peculiar climate we have. Our weather this month has been much better than in Ohio.

Affectionately,

R.

Mrs. Hayes.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 382-3

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Thursday, December 4, 1862

A clear fine day. In the morning I walked, or climbed rather, to the top of the hill near the camp, just east of us. On the top I could see east of me the camp of the Forty-seventh [Ohio] at Tompkins farm, the camp of the Fourth Virginia, and other camps on the west side of Kanawha to the west, and the road to Fayette south. A hard scramble but I stood it well. My arm is still weak and easily hurt. Queer feeling, to think I can reach up to grasp a limb of a tree, and find it impossible to raise my hand above my head. In the afternoon I walked with Captain Haven up to Gauley Bridge. He explained to me the dwarf and giant laurel and the beautiful holly. The dwarf laurel grows from three to five feet high, is usually in thickets, and has an oval leaf. The giant laurel grows fifteen or twenty feet high and has a long leaf. The holly grows as high as apple trees and has a prickly leaf.

I give Colonel Comly drill and discipline, Major McIlrath, supplies of all sorts, and I attend to general interests of the regiment. I have sinks dug, look to camp drainage, and the like. The exercise agrees with me.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 370

Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, May 25, 1862

Camp Flat Top Mountain, May 25, 1862.

Dearest: — Dr. Joe has a letter from McCabe in which he speaks of your anxiety on my account. I hope that it has not been increased by my dispatch. You will always hear the precise truth from me. You may rely on it that you hear exactly the state of things. It would be idle to say that we have been in no danger, or that we are not likely to be in peril hereafter. But this is certain, that there is not half the danger for officers in a regiment that can be trusted to behave well, as there would be in a regiment of raw troops; besides, the danger on this line is much diminished by a victory which one of our brigades under Colonel Crook gained day before yesterday at Lewisburg. He routed the army under General Heth, which drove me out of Giles Court-house, captured their cannon, etc., etc. Now the drift is again all in our favor.

This is a lovely Sunday morning, after a cold storm of about thirty hours. It brings great relief to men bivouacking on the ground without tents, to have the sun shining out bright and warm. The weather, except two days, has been good this whole month. This is the department to spend the summer in — healthier and pleasanter than any other.

I received Uncle's letter written when he was with you. I am rather gratified to hear that you are not going to Fremont this summer. It pleases me that Uncle likes the boys so well. Dear little fellows, they must be so interesting. I think of them often.

We expect to move from here southward in a few days. Our army is under General Cox, and consists of the First Brigade, Twelfth, Twenty-third, and Thirtieth under Colonel Scammon; Second Brigade, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-seventh, and Thirty-fourth under Colonel Moor; Third Brigade, Eleventh, Thirty-sixth, Forty-fourth, and Forty-seventh under Colonel Crook, besides a due proportion of cavalry and artillery. It is a good army, but too small for the magnificent distances we have to operate over. We expect to be able to unite with Fremont's larger body in about three or four weeks. In the meantime, good luck at Richmond and Corinth may pretty nearly take away our occupation.

P. M. — Recent news indicate [indicates] that we shall see no enemy for some time. I believe I told you my Commercial has stopped again. Try to start it so it will hold out. It comes to subscribers here pretty regularly and promptly.

Tomorrow a couple of men leave here for Camp Chase with a prisoner. I shall send a Mississippi rifle with them. This is the most formidable weapon used against us in this region by the Rebels; they will leave it either with you or at Platt's in Columbus.

I enclose for Uncle a fifty-dollar bill. It was worth fifty dollars when I got it. I could buy a pretty fair horse with it.

Love to all the boys and kisses all round. Ever so much affection for your own dear self.

R.

Mrs. Hayes.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 278-9

47th Ohio Infantry

Organized at Camp Dennison, Ohio, and mustered in August 13, 1861. Ordered to Clarksburg, W. Va., August 27; thence moved to Weston August 29. Attached to McCook's Brigade, Kanawha District, West Virginia, to October, 1861. 1st Brigade, Kanawha Division, West Virginia, to March, 1862. 2nd Brigade, Kanawha Division, West Virginia, to May, 1862. 3rd Brigade, Kanawha Division, West Virginia, to August, 1862. District of the Kanawha, West Virginia, Dept. of the Ohio, to December, 1862. Ewing's Brigade, Kanawha Division, West Virginia, to January, 1863. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 15th Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee, to October, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 15th Army Corps, to June, 1865. Dept. of Arkansas to August, 1865.

SERVICE. – Battle of Carnifex Ferry, W. Va., September 10, 1861. Advance to Camp Lookout and Big Sewell Mountain September 24-26. Retreat to Camp Anderson October 6-9. Operations in the Kanawha Valley and New River Region October 19-November 16. Moved to Gauley Bridge December 6, and duty there till April 23, 1862. Expedition to Lewisburg April 23-May 10. Moved to Meadow Bluff May 29. Expedition to Salt Sulphur Springs June 22-25. Duty there till August. Moved to Gauley Bridge, thence to Summerville September 3. Campaign in the Kanawha Valley September 6-16. Retreat to Gauley Bridge September 10. Cotton Hill, Loop Creek and Armstrong's Creek September 11. Charleston September 12. Duty at Point Pleasant and in the Kanawha Valley till December. Ordered to Louisville, Ky., December 30; thence to Memphis, Tenn., and to Young's Point, La., January 21, 1863. Expedition to Rolling Fork via Muddy, Steele's and Black Bayous and Deer Creek March 14-27. Demonstrations on Haines and Drumgould's Bluffs April 29-May 2. Moved to Join army in rear of Vicksburg, Miss., May 2-14 via Richmond and Grand Gulf. Siege of Vicksburg May 18-July 4. Assaults on Vicksburg May 19 and 22. Advance on Jackson, Miss., July 4-10. Siege of Jackson, Miss., July 10-17. At Camp Sherman, Big Black, till September 26. Moved to Memphis, Tenn., thence march to Chattanooga September 26-November 21. Operations on Memphis & Charleston Railroad in Alabama October 20-29. Bear Creek, Tuscumbia, October 27. Chattanooga-Ringgold Campaign November 23-27. Tunnel Hill November 23-24. Mission Ridge November 25. Pursuit to Graysville November 26-27. March to relief of Knoxville November 28-December 8. Return to Bellefonte, Ala., thence moved to Larkins' Landing, Ala. Reconnoissance to Rome January 25-February 5, 1864. Reenlisted March 8. Veterans on furlough March 18-May 3. Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign May to September. Demonstrations on Resaca May 8-13. Near Resaca May 13. Battle of Resaca May 14-15. Advance on Dallas May 18-25. Operations on line of Pumpkin Vine Creek and battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills May 25-June 5. Operations about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain June 10-July 2. Assault on Kenesaw June 27. Nickajack Creek July 2-5. Ruff's Mills July 3-4. Chattahoochie River July 5-17. Battle of Atlanta July 22. Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25. Flank movement on Jonesboro August 25-30. Battle of Jonesboro August 31-September 1. Lovejoy Station September 2-6. Operations against Hood in North Georgia and North Alabama September 29-November 3. Turkeytown and Gadsden Road October 25. March to the sea November 15-December 10. Siege of Savannah December 10-21. Fort McAllister December 13. Campaign of the Carolinas January to April, 1865. Cannon's Bridge, South Edisto River, S. C., February 8. North Edisto River February 12-13. Columbia February 15-17. Battle of Bentonville, N. C., March 20-21. Occupation of Goldsboro March 24. Advance on Raleigh April 10-14. Bennett's House April 26. Surrender of Johnston and his army. March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Va., April 29-May 30. Grand Review May 24. Moved to Louisville, Ky., June; thence to Little Rock, Ark., and duty there till August. Mustered out August 11, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 2 Officers and 80 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer and 136 Enlisted men by disease. Total 219.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1518-9

Joseph Dafer

Private, 47th Ohio Infantry

Died April 30, 1865, Athens, Alabama

Stones River National Cemetery

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Gen. Fremont and the Democratic Press

If certain Republican papers are prohibited from circulating in General McClellan’s army, it is true that a great many Democratic papers ought to be prohibited from entering General Fremont’s army. The most severe strictures on General McClellan indulged in by any journals, are only criticisms on his course as commander of the army of the Potomac; but all, of every shade of opinion, heartily wish him success, and that he may crush out the rebellion in Virginia. How different has been the course of the Opposition newspapers toward Gen. Fremont! Hardly was he appointed to the command of the Mountain Department before they opened their billingsgate on him, and published and rehashed all manner of falsehoods against him. One of their boldest and most reckless misrepresentations was that some of the officers of that department had resigned immediately on hearing of Gen. Fremont’s appointment, believing him to be incompetent! This story is very handsomely refuted by the officers themselves. Gen. Rosecrans, one of the officers named, has written an indignant letter denying the charge thus insinuated against his patriotism; while Col. Poschner of the 47th Ohio, says, in a letter to the Cincinnati Commercial, that the intimation in the Inquirer of that city, that he intends to resign, is utterly unfounded and adds, “In consequence of ill health, I have been granted a short furlough from active duty, but trust in a short time to rejoin my command and serve under Gen. Fremont, whom I admire and look upon as entirely competent.”

Now, if there is anything better calculated that such lying reports, as those we have just shown to be false, to create disturbance and mutiny in an army, we are ignorant of its existence. Such falsehoods are started with no good object in view; utterly groundless in their inception, dastardly in their character, and villainous in their purpose; they are calculated and intended to do mischief, and that only.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, April 23, 1862, p. 2