Monday, July 20, 2015

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Wednesday, January 8, 1862

“New Orleans,” “The Union — it must and shall be preserved,” “Old Hickory forever.” These are the watchwords of today. This is our coldest day — clear, bright, and beautiful. Not over three inches of snow.

Rode with Adjutant Avery and two dragoons to Raleigh, twenty-four miles. A cold but not disagreeable day. The village of Raleigh is about ten to twelve years old; three or four hundred inhabitants may have lived there before the war; now six or eight families. Two churches, two taverns, two stores, etc., etc., in peaceful times. Our troops housed comfortably but too scattered, and too little attention to cleanliness. (Mem.: — Cooking ought never to be allowed in quarters.) I fear proper arrangements for repelling an attack have not been made.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 182

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