Camp Green Meadows. — Rained last night and drizzled
all this morning. . . . I feel dourish today; inaction is taking the soul out
of us.
I am really jolly over the Rebel Morgan's raid into the
bluegrass region of Kentucky. If it turns out a mere raid, as I suppose it
will, the thing will do great good. The twitter into which it throws Cincinnati
and Ohio will aid us in getting volunteers. The burning and destroying the
property of the old-fashioned, conservative Kentuckians will wake them up, will
stiffen their sinews, give them backbone, and make grittier Union men of them.
If they should burn Garrett Davis’ house, he will be sounder on confiscation
and the like. In short, if it does not amount to an uprising, it will be a
godsend to the Union cause. It has done good in Cincinnati already. It has
committed numbers who were sliding into Secesh to the true side. Good for
Morgan, as I understand the facts at this writing!
Had a good drill. The exercise and excitement drove away the
blues. After drill a fine concert of the glee club of Company A. As they sang “That
Good Old Word, Good-bye,” I thought of the pleasant circle that used to sing it
on Gulf Prairie, Brazoria County, Texas. And now so broken! And my classmate
and friend, Guy M. Bryan — where is he? In the Rebel army! As honorable and
true as ever, but a Rebel! What strange and sad things this war produces! But
he is true and patriotic wherever he is. Success to him personally!
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 306
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