Saturday, June 13, 2015

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Monday, December 23, 1861

Wet, cold, windy; sleet last night. Five companies of the Thirtieth came up last night. Little or no preparations to shelter them — all their field officers gone. A sorry plight.

At dinner today with Captain Sperry and Lieutenant Kennedy, I was handed the following dispatch:


Cincinnati, December 23, 1861.

Lieutenant-Colonel R. B. Hayes, Twenty-third Regiment.

Wife and boy doing well. Stranger arrived Saturday evening, nine o'clock P. M.

J. T. Webb


Good! Very! I preferred a daughter, but in these times when women suffer so much, I am not sure but we ought to rejoice that our girls are boys. What shall I call him? What will Birt say, and Webb, and Babes? “Babes” no longer. He is supplanted by the little stranger. Cold wind and snow-storm, outside. Dear Lucy! I hope she will keep up good heart. I replied by telegraph: “Congratulations and much love to mother and son. All well.”

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 165

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