Diary of Private John J. Wyeth, September 20, 1862

We have had another pleasure curtailed. It has been the practice for the boys to go to the pond by the railroad, and dive off the bank which slopes here very abruptly, enjoying the swimming very much, but some of the soldiers must be very sensitive (as no one else lives within shooting distance of the pond), and orders have come from head-quarters to stop all bathing. This order must have come from higher authority than our regiment, and we are obliged to go up the track a half mile or so, where we had considerable fun, one day in particular; the place was the scene of much sport. While a squad under Corporal Cartwright were bathing, the question arose, whether we could throw any one across the creek. Cartwright volunteered to be the subject, and having partly dressed, was thrown head first; of course he did no go half way across, and had the pleasure of going to camp wet.

Some of the members of the Mercantile Library Association, friends of Capt. Richardson, have presented him with a fine sword, sash, &c.

The guard have mysteriously lost some of their rifles, we cannot imagine where, but suppose the officers know If any of "E" have suffered, they do not tell any "tales out of school."

SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 9

Diary of Private John J. Wyeth, September 24, 1862

Our rifles have been delivered, and to-day we were in line two hours or more on the main street of the camp, ready to receive, with military honors, Col. Stevenson, of the 24th Regiment, but he did not come. The boys say he purposely delayed his visit, so as to avoid that ceremony. Many of our company drilled under him in the battalion and liked him very much.

We are mad with the Sutler. We think he charges too much for things which our friends would gladly bring us, so, many will not trade with him, and many things are still smuggled through the lines. If we could only get up our spunk to clean him out. Some one with malicious intent and forethought, did break into his domicile and start things, but were frightened, or, probably belonging to some other regiment, did not know how our account stood.

SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 9-10

Governor John A. Andrew to Simon Cameron, April 25, 1861

April 25.

. . . I desire . . . to say that we can send to you four thousand more troops from Massachusetts within a very short time after the receipt of a requisition for them.

Do you wish us to send men as we may be able to get them ready, without awaiting requisitions? And can we send by sea up the Potomac? Cannot the river be kept open and safe to Washington? What shall we do, or what do you wish us to do, about provisioning our men? Is Fort Monroe supplied with provisions?

Will you authorize the enlistment here and mustering into the U. S. service of Irish, Germans and other tough men, to be drilled and prepared here for service? We have men of such description, eager to be employed, sufficient to make three regiments.

Finally, will you direct some general instructions and suggestions to be sent to me as to anything — no matter what or how much — which you may wish from Massachusetts, and procure General Scott also to do so, and we will try to meet, so far as may be, every wish of the Government up to the very limit of our resources and our power.

Will you put the 6000 rifles, now at the U. S. Arsenal at Watertown at our disposal for our men, and send immediately orders for that purpose?

SOURCE: Henry Greenleaf Pearson, The Life of John A. Andrew: Governor of Massachusetts, 1861-1865, Volume 1, p. 205-6

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 29, 1863

Gen. Lee writes (a few days since), from Brandy Station, that Meade seems determined to advance again; that troops are going up the Potomac to Washington, and that volunteers from New York have been ordered thither. He asks the Secretary to ascertain if there be really any Federal force in the York River; for if the report be correct of hostile troops being there, it may be the enemy's intention to make another raid on the railroad. The general says we have troops enough in Southwestern Virginia; but they are not skillfully commanded.

After all, I fear we shall not get the iron from the Aquia Creek Railroad. In the summer the government was too slow, and now it is probably too slow again, as the enemy are said to be landing there. It might have been removed long ago, if we had had a faster Secretary.

Major S. Hart, San Antonio, Texas, writes that the 10,000 (the number altered again) superior rifles captured by the French off the Rio Grande last summer, were about to fall into the hands of United States cruisers; and he has sent for them, hoping the French will turn them over to us.

Gen. Winder writes the Secretary that the Commissary-General will let him have no meat for the 13,000 prisoners; and he will not be answerable for their safe keeping without it. The Quartermaster-General writes that the duty of providing for them is in dispute between the two bureaus, and he wants the Secretary to decide between them. If the Secretary should be very slow, the prisoners will suffer.

Yesterday a set (six) of cups and saucers, white, and not china, sold at auction for $50.

Mr. Henry, Senator from Tennessee, writes the Secretary that if Ewell were sent into East Tennessee with a corps, and Gen. Johnston were to penetrate into Middle Tennessee, forming a junction north of Chattanooga, it would end the war in three months.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 83-4

George L. Stearns, April 15, 1857

Boston, April 15, 1857.

At a meeting of the executive committee of the State Kansas Aid Committee of Massachusetts, held in Boston, April 11, 1857, it was

Voted, That Captain John Brown be authorized to dispose of one hundred rifles, belonging to this committee, to such Free-State inhabitants of Kansas as he thinks to be reliable, at a price not less than fifteen dollars; and that he account for the same agreeably to his instructions, for the relief of Kansas.

At the same meeting it was

Voted, That Captain John Brown be authorized to draw on P. T. Jackson, treasurer, for five hundred dollars, if on his arrival in Kansas he is satisfied that such sum is necessary for the relief of persons in Kansas.

George L. Stearns,

Chairman Massachusetts State Kansas Committee.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 385

Diary of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle: Saturday, June 20, 1863

Armed with letters of introduction from the Secretary-at-War for Generals Lee and Longstreet, I left Richmond at 6 A.M., to join the Virginian army. I was accompanied by a sergeant of the Signal Corps, sent by my kind friend Major Norris, for the purpose of assisting me in getting on. We took the train as far as Culpepper, and arrived there at 5.30 P.M., after having changed cars at Gordonsville, near which place I observed an enormous pile of excellent rifles rotting in the open air. These had been captured at Chancellorsville; but the Confederates have already such a superabundant stock of rifles that apparently they can afford to let them spoil. The weather was quite cool after the rain of last night. The country through which we passed had been in the enemy's hands last year, and was evacuated by them after the battles before Richmond; but at that time it was not their custom to burn, destroy, and devastate — everything looked green and beautiful, and did not in the least give one the idea of a hot country.

In his late daring raid, the Federal General Stoneman crossed this railroad, and destroyed a small portion of it, burned a few buildings, and penetrated to within three miles of Richmond; but he and his men were in such a hurry that they had not time to do much serious harm.

Culpepper was, until five days ago, the headquarters of Generals Lee and Longstreet; but since Ewell's recapture of Winchester, the whole army had advanced with rapidity, and it was my object to catch it up as quickly as possible. On arriving at Culpepper, my sergeant handed me over to another myrmidon of Major Norris, with orders from that officer to supply me with a horse, and take me himself to join Mr Lawley, who had passed through for the same purpose as myself three days before.

Sergeant Norris, my new chaperon, is cousin to Major Norris, and is a capital fellow. Before the war he was a gentleman of good means in Maryland, and was accustomed to a life of luxury; he now lives the life of a private soldier with perfect contentment, and is utterly indifferent to civilisation and comfort. Although he was unwell when I arrived, and it was pouring with rain, he proposed that we should start at once — 6 P.M. I agreed, and we did so. Our horses had both sore backs, were both unfed, except on grass, and mine was deficient of a shoe. They nevertheless travelled well, and we reached a hamlet called Woodville, fifteen miles distant, at 9.30. We had great difficulty in procuring shelter; but at length we overcame the inhospitality of a native, who gave us a feed of corn for our horses, and a blanket on the floor for ourselves.

SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 224