Dr. Seth Rogers to his daughter Dolly, April 2, 1863—Evening

CAMP SAXTON, BEAUFORT, S. C.,

April 2, 1863. Evening.

Such is the management here that my notes no longer date from satisfactory advance posts. Four weeks ago tonight I was saying a last goodbye to our camp ground, and at a late hour went on board the steamer that was forever to take us from South Carolina. The deserted camp by moonlight saddened me, but this inglorious return impresses me more than I can express. It seemed appropriate that we should steam up Beaufort River the night of April 1.¹

It was not too late for me to visit dear old Mr. Saxton. He told me how terribly disappointed the General was at the sudden and unexpected conclusion of General Hunter to order the evacuation of Jacksonville. One night it was agreed that General Saxton should visit us in person, but early in the morning all was reversed and empty steamers were sent for us. General Hunter could not be persuaded to countermand the order.²

Today the long slumbering fleet at Hilton Head has begun to move towards Charleston. A very small force is being left to protect these Islands and you will be glad to know that we are to do picket duty in the absence of other troops. An attack upon us is not the most improbable thing to anticipate. I think our boys would enjoy a fight with almost any number of the enemy and some of our officers are slightly belligerent.

One of our soldiers who was expatiating on the pluck of the chaplain exclaimed, "My God, what for you made him preacher? He is de fightenmost Yankee I eber did see."

Last night about a hundred of the boys bivouacked on the hurricane deck and early this morning they were full of cheerful congratulations. I heard one say, "Well, Jim, how are you?" Bully, tank God." I am constantly amused by their pointed, laconic remarks.

I understand that Gen. Hunter gives as a reason for withdrawing our regiment from Jacksonville that he needed the others and dared not leave us alone. So far as safety is concerned, I would rather be on the mainland of Florida than the islands here.³ My box of supplies from the Soldiers Aid Society of Worcester, opened well today. We brought it up from Fernandina with us. The Gen. Burnside was loaded with stores for us at the moment General Hunter was McClellandized, and everything was dumped off at Fernandina. The box has arrived at the moment we most need it, and, with the exception of the lint, every article will be exceedingly useful. We confiscated a few bales of oakum up the St Mary's and I like it better than any other material for general dressing.

_______________

¹ See report of Colonel John D. Rust, in 1 Records of the Rebellion, XIV.

² He was always the most impulsive of men. - T. W. H.

³ The subsequent battle of Olustee proved that Hunter was right. — T. W. H.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 384-5

Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards: January 1863

Grandmother went to Aunt Mary Carr's to tea to-night, very much to our surprise, for she seldom goes anywhere. Anna said she was going to keep house exactly as Grandmother did, so after supper she took a little hot water in a basin on a tray and got the tea-towels and washed the silver and best china but she let the ivory handles on the knives and forks get wet, so I presume they will all turn black. Grandmother never lets her little nice things go out into the kitchen, so probably that is the reason that everything is forty years old and yet as good as new. She let us have the Young Ladies' Aid Society here to supper because I am President. She came into the parlor and looked at our basket of work, which the older ladies cut out for us to make for the soldiers. She had the supper table set the whole length of the dining room and let us preside at the table. Anna made the girls laugh so, they could hardly eat, although they said everything was splendid. They said they never ate better biscuit, preserves, or fruit cake and the coffee was delicious. After it was over, the “dear little lady” said she hoped we had a good time. After the girls were gone Grandmother wanted to look over the garments and see how much we had accomplished and if we had made them well. Mary Field made a pair of drawers with No. 90 thread. She said she wanted them to look fine and I am sure they did. Most of us wrote notes and put inside the garments for the soldiers in the hospitals.

Sarah Gibson Howell has had an answer to her letter. His name is Foster—a Major. She expects him to come and see her soon.

All the girls wear newspaper bustles to school now and Anna's rattled to-day and Emma Wheeler heard it and said, “What's the news, Anna?” They both laughed out loud and found that “the latest news from the front” was that Miss Morse kept them both after school and they had to copy Dictionary for an hour. War prices are terrible. I paid $3.50 to-day for a hoop skirt.

SOURCE: Caroline Cowles Richards, Village Life in America, 1852-1872, p. 148-9

Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards: January 13, 1863

P. T. Barnum delivered his lecture on" The Art of Money Getting" in Bemis Hall this evening for the benefit of the Ladies' Aid Society, which is working for the soldiers. We girls went and enjoyed it.

SOURCE: Caroline Cowles Richards, Village Life in America, 1852-1872, p. 149

Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards: February 1863

The members of our society sympathized with General McClellan when he was criticised by some and we wrote him the following letter: 

CANANDAIGUA, Feb. 13, 1863.

MAJ. GEN. GEO. MCCLELLAN:

 

Will you pardon any seeming impropriety in our addressing you, and attribute it to the impulsive love and admiration of hearts which see in you, the bravest and noblest defender of our Union. We cannot resist the impulse to tell you, be our words ever so feeble, how our love and trust have followed you from Rich Mountain to Antietam, through all slanderous attacks of traitorous politicians and fanatical defamers—how we have admired, not less than your calm courage on the battlefield, your lofty scorn of those who remained at home in the base endeavor to strip from your brow the hard earned laurels placed there by a grateful country: to tell further, that in your forced retirement from battlefields of the Republic's peril, “you have but changed your country's arms for more,—your country's heart,”—and to assure you that so long as our country remains to us a sacred name and our flag a holy emblem, so long shall we cherish your memory as the defender and protector of both. We are an association whose object it is to aid, in the only way in which woman, alas! can aid our brothers in the field. Our sympathies are with them in the cause for which they have periled all-our hearts are with them in the prayer, that ere long their beloved commander may be restored to them, and that once more as of old he may lead them to victory in the sacred name of the Union and Constitution.

 

With united prayers that the Father of all may have you and yours ever in His holy keeping, we remain your devoted partisans.

 

Signed by a large number.

The following in reply was addressed to the lady whose name was first signed to the above:

New YORK, Feb. 21, 1863.

 

MADAM—I take great pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of the very kind letter of the 13th inst., from yourself and your friends. Will you do me the favor to say to them how much I thank them for it, and that I am at a loss to express my gratitude for the pleasant and cheering terms in which it is couched. Such sentiments on the part of those whose brothers have served with me in the field are more grateful to me than anything else can be. I feel far more than rewarded by them for all I have tried to accomplish. — I am, Madam, with the most sincere respect and friendship, yours very truly,

 

GEO. B. MCCLELLAN.

SOURCE: Caroline Cowles Richards, Village Life in America, 1852-1872, p. 149-51

Dr. Seth Rogers to his daughter Dolly, February 5, 1863

February 5.

Lieut. [James B.] O'Neil informed me today that during the eight years of his military life in Texas, Utah and in the present war, he had never been engaged in anything half so daring as our trip up the St. Mary's River, He is one of our best officers and has seen much service.

I would very much like to go to Alberti's Mills again, with flat-boats enough to bring away lumber etc. and then set fire to what we could not take. There is not enough rebel force in that neighborhood to capture us.

If they should block the passage by felling trees across the river, our boys would have the opportunity to do what they so much crave, meet their old masters in “de clar field.” They besought me over and over, to ask “de Cunnel to let we spill out on de sho' [shore] an’ meet dem fellers in de brush.” There would have been bush whacking of a startling nature and I have no doubt we could have brought off some of those cavalry horses hitched in the rear.

But the Colonel is pretty economical of human life when no great object is at stake.

I have noticed that twenty eight boxes of goods await my order at Hilton Head and that the Flora will bring them up and land them at our camp, if I wish. This looks as if the day of honoring requisitions in this department had arrived. Meanwhile, during my absence, my requisition on the Purveyor in New York was honored, and I found eighteen boxes of the very best material awaiting my return. The Soldiers Relief Association of Norwich, Ct. has shipped a goodly supply of bedding, towels, flannel shirts etc. to us. These things were offered by Miss G. the very efficient agent. Gen. Saxton has given me the upper part of the Smith mansion for another hospital, so we shall have twenty-four beds as comfortably arranged and as well cared for as any in the department.

Robert Sutton has quite recovered from his wounds. He told me that the flesh was healthy, and I have found it so and the bone did not get involved. I never look at Robert Sutton without feeling certain that his father must have been a great Nubian king. I have rarely reverenced a man more than I do him. His manners are exceedingly simple, unaffected and dignified, without the slightest touch of haughtiness.

Voice, low, soft and flooding, as if his thoughts were choking him. He is tall straight and brawny muscled. His face is all of Africa in feeling and in control of expression. By this I do not mean cunning, but manly control. Ile seems to me kingly, and oh! I wish he could read and write. He ought to be a leader, a general, instead of a corporal. I fancy he is like Toussaint l’Ouverture and it would not surprise me if some great occasion should make him a deliverer of his people from bondage. Prince Rivers, — just as black as Robert Sutton, has a peculiar fineness of texture of skin that gives the most cleanly look. He is agile and fleet, like a deer, in his speed and like a panther in his tread. His features are not very African and his eye is so bright that it must “shine at night, when de moon am gone away.”

His manners are not surpassed on this globe. I feel my awkwardness when I meet him. This because an officer ought to be as polite as a soldier.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 356-7

The Southern Mothers . . .

. . . and ladies of the city and country are invited to meet at the room in the north end of the Irving block, to consider the propriety of sending aid to the soldiers in Virginia, in respect to a call from a lady in Richmond.

S. C. LAW, Pres’t S. S. M.

Mary E. Pope, Secretary.

SOURCE: Memphis Daily Appeal, Memphis Tennessee, Thursday, August 1, 1861, p. 3

Southern Mothers

SOUTHERN MOTHERS’ ROOMS, August 10.

MR. M. SIMON—SIR: Accept the thanks of the Southern Mothers in Memphis for the handsome present of fifty dollars, sent us this morning by the hands of Mrs. Doyle.  The benefits the money will confer upon our brave volunteers will be the best thanks your generous and patriotic heart.

Very respectfull[y] yours,

S. C. LAW, President S. M.

MARY E. POPE, Secretary.

SOURCE: Memphis Daily Appeal, Memphis Tennessee, Sunday, August 11, 1861, p. 1

The society of Southern Mothers in Memphis . . .

. . . return their most grateful thanks to the Messrs. Greenlaw for the use of the rooms recently vacated by them, to remove to others more suitable, most kindly and patriotically tendered for the use of the sick soldiers by Messers. Norton & Cook.  The Munificent donation of the Messrs. Greenlaw is the more deeply  appreciated by the Mothers, as that it came in the vary infancy of their enterprise, when the public had yet to see what they would accomplish, and when but for the patriotic generosity of these gentlemen, they might not have been able to accomplish much.

S. C. LAW, President S. S. M.

MARY E. POPE, Secretary.

SOURCE: Memphis Daily Appeal, Memphis Tennessee, Tuesday, August 13, 1861, p. 4

The Southern Mothers . . .

. . . return their most grateful thanks to Professor Winkler and the ladies who so kindly assisted him in the concert for their benefit on Monday last.  That the concert was a brilliant affair, none familiar with the reputation of Professor Winkler and the ladies who performed there can doubt, and many regretted the untimely rain which prevented their being among the appreciative audience that enjoyed the delightful music that night.

S. C. LAW, President, S. S. M.

MARY E. POPE, Secretary.

SOURCE: Memphis Daily Appeal, Memphis Tennessee, Thursday August 15, 1861, p. 4

The Southern Mothers and the Special Policeman.

EDITOR APPEAL:  The petition for a special policeman to perform certain duties for  the Mothers’ Rooms, having given rise to much discussion in the Board of Aldermen, and the matter being evidently from the reports of that discussion greatly misunderstood, will you permit me to correct the false impression created thereby and more particularly by the remarks of Ald. Kortrecht.  In the beginning of the enterprise of the Mothers, the Vigilance Committee ordered the free women of the city to do the washing of the establishment in regular course, and the captain of the police was instructed to have them brought to the Rooms, and see that they returned the articles in due time.  This required only a few hours time every week, and there being a larger number of such women in the city enjoying the protection of the laws, for the vindication of which our boys are in arms, the duty, if properly seen to by the police, cannot fall upon the same person oftener than once in two or three months.  It was to attend to this duty, only, that the Mothers desired a special person detailed.  They have no further need for an officer in their establishment.  I regret having troubled the city in the matter, since it has given rise to a misunderstanding of their position and wants.

In regard to the remarks of Ald. Kortrecht, I wish to state that he has been misinformed.  The Secretary of War has been applied to, to give the appointment of a surgeon in the army to G. W. Currey, M. D., the surgeon of the Rooms, but has not yet acted upon the petition.  Gen. Polk has been ordered the payment of the soldiers’ rations to the Mothers while the soldiers are in the Rooms, but they have not yet been drawn, and when drawn will not support the institution or pay one tenth of the expenses.  It takes charge of no soldiers but those in the service of the Confederate States, and of no persons but the soldiers themselves.  It is not a charitable institution.  These men are periling their health, their lives and the hopes of their families in many instances, for the defense of our homes and dearest rights, and we cannot consent to have it called a charity, in those who stay securely under the protection their valor gives them, to care for them with the tenderness of mothers when they shall be sick or disabled.  The people have taken this view of it, and sent to the Southern Mothers money, furniture, food, etc., that has made their institution a home to the sick and disabled soldier; and the great-hearted southern people will do it still, and never think it a charity.  But upon the contributions of that public to thise cause the Mothers ral[l]y, and have relied to this moment.

S. C. LAW, Pres. S. S. M.

Mary E. Pope, Secretary.

(City papers please copy.)

SOURCE: Memphis Daily Appeal, Memphis Tennessee, Friday, August 23, 1861, p. 4

Southern Mothers

Planters and others wishing to send donations of food, cotton or anything else, to the southern mothers, Memphis, are requested to send them to the care of Sample, Mitchell & Co., who will take them to their destination.

S. C. LAW, Pres’t S. S. M.

MARY E. POPE, Secretary.

SOURCE: Memphis Daily Appeal, Memphis Tennessee, Wednesday, September 4, 1861, p. 4

Farewell Address of Major-General John A. Dix to the Middle Department, June 1, 1862

Head quarters, Middle Department, Baltimore, Md., June 1,1862.

General Orders, No. 14:

The Major-general commanding, having received orders to repair to Fort Monroe and assume the command at that point, and having but two hours to prepare for his departure, takes leave of the troops under his command in the only mode left to him — through the medium of a General Order.

Of the corps composing his command when he first assumed it, more than ten months ago, two regiments — the Third New York Volunteers, under Colonel Alford; the Fourth New York Volunteers, under Colonel Taylor; and the regular garrison of Fort McHenry, under Colonel Morris — are all that remain. The admirable discipline of these deserves the highest commendation; and he returns to all his sincere thanks for their promptitude and fidelity in the performance of their duties.

It is a source of great regret to him that he is compelled to leave without being able to review the regiments of New York Militia — the Seventh, Eighth, Thirteenth, Twenty-second, Thirty-seventh, and Forty-seventh — which, under a second appeal from the Chief Magistrate of the Union, have laid aside their various occupations on the briefest notice, at great personal sacrifice, and, hurrying to the field, are now occupying positions in and around Baltimore. In their patriotism and their devotion to the Government of their country the Union feeling of the city will meet with a cordial sympathy. It is a great alleviation of the regret with which the Major-general commanding parts with them, that he is soon to be succeeded by a distinguished general officer of the regular army from their own State. In the interim the command of the Department devolves on Brigadier-general Montgomery, United States Volunteers.

The Major-general commanding cannot forbear, in taking leave of the citizens of Baltimore, among whom his duties have been discharged, to express the grateful sense he will ever retain of the aid and encouragement he has received from those of them who have been true, under all the vicissitudes of a wicked and unnatural contest, to the cause of the Union. The ladies of the Union Relief Association are entitled to a special acknowledgment of his obligations to them. It is believed that the records of philanthropic devotion do not contain a brighter example of self-sacrificing service than that which is to be found in their own quiet and unobtrusive labors. The military hospitals have, from the commencement of the war, borne unceasing testimony to their untiring zeal and sympathy. The wounded prisoners of the insurgent army have, like our own, been solaced in their dying hours by the ministrations of these devoted ladies: nobly suggesting to the misguided masses who are in arms against the Government that suffering humanity, under whatever circumstances it may present itself, has the same claim on our common nature for sympathy and ministering care. And it is to be hoped that this lesson of magnanimity may not be without its proper influence on those who, under the influence of bad passions, seem to have lost sight of their moral responsibility for indifference and cruelty.

It is a source of great gratification to the Major-general commanding that in the eight months during which the municipal police was under his control no act of disorder disturbed the tranquillity of the city, and that the police returns, compared with those of a corresponding period of the previous year, exhibit a very great reduction, in some months as high as fifty per cent., in the aggregate of misdemeanors and crimes. The police having on the 20th of March last been surrendered to the city authorities, they have since then been responsible for the preservation of the public order. The zeal and promptitude of the Police Commissioners and Marshal of Police on the occurrence of a recent disturbance, provoked by a brutal expression of disloyal feeling, gives earnest of their determination to arrest at the outset all breaches of the public peace, which, by whatever provocation they may seem to be palliated, are sure to degenerate, if unchecked, into discreditable and fatal excesses.

The Major-general commanding, with this imperfect acknowledgment of his obligations to the loyal citizens of Baltimore and their patriotic defenders, tenders to them all, with his best wishes, a friendly and cordial farewell.

By order of Major-general Dix.

Danl. T. Van Buren, Colonel and Aide-de-camp.

SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 47-8

Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sophia Birchard Hayes, November 9, 1861

Camp Ewing, November 9, 1861.

Dear Mother: — It is a rainy disagreeable November day. I have done up all the little chores required, have read the article in November number of the Atlantic Monthly on “Health in Camp,” and hope not to be interrupted until I have finished a few words to you.

I wish you could see how we live. We have clothing and provisions in abundance, if men were all thrifty — food enough and good enough in spite of unthrift. Blankets, stockings, undershirts, drawers, and shoes are always welcome. These articles or substitutes are pretty nearly the only things the soldiers' aid societies need to send. India-rubber or oilcloth capes, or the like, are not quite abundant enough. Our tents are floored with loose boards taken from deserted secession barns and houses. For warmth we have a few stoves, but generally fires in trenches in front of the tents or in little ovens or furnaces in the tents formed by digging a hole a foot deep by a foot and a half wide and leading under the sides of the tent, the smoke passing up through chimneys made of barrels or sticks crossed cob-house fashion, daubed with mud.

There is not much suffering from cold or wet. The sickness is generally camp fever — a typhoid fever not produced, I think, by any defect in food, clothing, or shelter. Officers, who are generally more comfortably provided than the privates, suffer quite as much as the men — indeed, rather more in our regiment. Besides, the people residing here have a similar fever. Exposure in the night and to bad weather in a mountain climate to which men are not accustomed, seems to cause the sickness irrespective of all other circumstances. We have nine hundred and twenty-five men and officers, of whom two hundred and thirty are sick in camp, in hospitals in Virginia and in Ohio. Less than one-fourth of the privates are sick. One-half the captains, and one-half the lieutenants are or lately have been sick. Few are seriously or dangerously sick. Almost all are able to walk about. Only five out of about as many hundred cases have died. Three of them were very excellent men. Overwork and an anxiety not [to] give up had much to do with the fatal nature of their attacks. One was one of our best and hardiest captains, and one a most interesting youngster who somehow always reminded me of Birch — Captain Woodward, of Cleveland, and Bony Seaman, of Logan County.

I never was healthier in my life. I do not by any means consider myself safe from the fever, however, if we remain in our present location — higher up in the mountains than any other regiment. If I should find myself having any of the symptoms, I shall instantly come home. Those who have done so have all recovered within a week or two and been able to return to duty. I do not notice any second attacks, although I suppose they sometimes occur. Other regiments have had more deaths than we have had, but not generally a larger sicklist.

Our men are extremely well-behaved, orderly, obedient, and cheerful. I can think of no instance in which any man has ever been in the slightest degree insolent or sullen in his manner towards me.

During the last week the enemy have made an attempt to dislodge us from our position by firing shot and shell at our camps from the opposite side of New River. For three days there was cannonading during the greater part of daylight of each day. Nothing purporting to be warfare could possibly be more harmless. I knew of two or three being wounded, and have heard that one man was killed. They have given it up as a failure and I do not expect to see it repeated.

Dr. Jim Webb came here a few days ago, on a dispatch from the general, and will aid in taking charge of the sick in some part of the army, not in our regiment. He brought many most acceptable knickknacks and comforts from home. . . .

The newspapers do great mischief by allowing false and exaggerated accounts of suffering here to be published. It checks enlistments. The truth is, it is a rare thing for a good soldier to find much cause of complaint. But I suppose the public are getting to understand this. I would not say anything to stop benevolent people from contributing such articles of clothing and bedding as I have described. These articles are always put to good use. — Love to all.

Affectionately, your son,

R. B. Hayes.

Mrs. Sophia Hayes.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 141-3

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: April 14, 1862

Our Fair is in full blast. We keep a restaurant. Our waitresses are Mary and Buck Preston, Isabella Martin, and Grace Elmore.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 155

John M. Forbes to Reverend Henry W. Bellows, December 22, 1861

Boston, December 22,1861.

I read your message about funds and some other parts of your letter to our committee, and we voted to send on $10,000 at once. Hope to have some more, but it would help us if you would stir up New York a little more, and have a movement going on there at the same time. We have in hand, or promised, $2000 more, especially given to your Ladies' Society. For the two we are good for $15,000 in all probability, and Roxbury $1500 more for their Ladies' Society. A strong effort might, if essential at this time, bring still more, and we are going on with our systematized levy. Possibly something of our system might help you in New York. We got a committee of about twenty business men, lawyers, ministers, and doctors, having as great a variety as possible, and with power to add to their number. I then had a list made of all who could afford to pay $25 and upwards (from tax-book) adding to it out-of-town names of known wealth; then called a meeting of committee, read off the list (alphabetically arranged), asking each member to accept promptly the duty of calling upon such persons as he is willing to — also assigning to absent members a fair proportion. We then fixed upon $200 as the maximum to be asked for, and the first week called upon all who were likely to give $200 and $100, not refusing $50 when offered. We had an address, of which I give you a copy, and provided members with slips printed from the newspapers to hand to our friends, and save talking. The large givers exhausted, we came down to $25, not refusing $10. Now we send a pleasant collector known to ball and theatre goers, to pick up smaller sums. Those who have refused the large sums may give $10 to the collector. I had doubts about asking more than $100 of any one, but it has worked well enough. It has been considerable work, and I sometimes feel as if the money could have been earned almost as easily as begged. Our committee have worked with great spirit, and now we look for the application of our earnings. I hope, whatever you do with other money and things, that you will be rigid as iron in applying ours strictly to the comfort of our soldiers, sick and well. No matter how strong appeals may be made for other good objects. One instance of deviation will check the enthusiasm of hundreds. People feel as if there was some hope of making an impression on the extra needs of the army through your organization, but if you are tempted to try to do anything for other good objects, it will seem like risking a certain good for a doubtful success. The loyal refugees, for instance, do or may form such an enormous object of charity, that if we mean to help them at all it must be done by a separate and very large organization.

Your prospect of success with the medical reform is most cheering; if you can effect it, that one act will be worth all the rest of your results.

I speak without any knowledge of persons, but it is clear that it would be the most wonderful chance ever heard of, if the oldest army doctors proved up to the mark! We are preparing an address to Congress which I think all who are asked will sign, simply because it attacks the system of seniority, and protests against its application to our 650,000 men. I will try to inclose a copy of it. A suitable medical board ought to be second in importance only to the commanding generals. One is great to destroy, the other ought to have power to save. The operations of the generals, so far as life is concerned, cover only one quarter or one fifth of the numbers which the medical board with sufficient powers ought to have an influence over. The generals cause the death of, say one quarter, but even upon this quarter killed and wounded, the skill of the surgeons must have a marked influence. When you add to this the power of preventing or palliating the diseases which carry off the other three quarters, you make a sum which ought to dwindle down to the faintest line any claims of any persons, even for meritorious services to be rewarded! How much smaller the claims of those who ask high places as a reward for longevity, and for keeping their precious bodies out of harm's way so long! The case needs only to be stated, to be decided in your favor; if you will only keep personal quarrels out of it.

N. B. — Of course, you have figured out the importance of the allotment system?^l  500,000 men get per month $6,600,000 wages, of which one half, $3,300,000, is a large allowance for necessary expenses of men well clothed, and fed, and doctored by government? Whether the other half shall go to frolicking or be used to prevent pauperism of the soldiers' families, is a great question! If you have any spare time, I hope you will give some help to the perfecting and passing of the bill for securing the payment of the allotments at the expense and risk of the United States.

All hands, sanitary inspectors, chaplains, surgeons, and all decent army officers, should use their influence with the men to further the allotment.

_______________

¹ The allusion is to a plan for securing from the volunteers “allotments” of their pay for the benefit of their families. A law providing for this was enacted on December 24, 1861. — Ed.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 270-3

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: August 18, 1861

Found it quite exciting to have a spy drinking his tea with us — perhaps because I knew his profession. I did not like his face. He is said to have a scheme by which Washington will fall into our hands like an overripe peach.

Mr. Barnwell urges Mr. Chesnut to remain in the Senate. There are so many generals, or men anxious to be. He says Mr. Chesnut can do his country most good by wise counsels where they are most needed. I do not say to the contrary; I dare not throw my influence on the army side, for if anything happened!

Mr. Miles told us last night that he had another letter from General Beauregard. The General wants to know if Mr. Miles has delivered his message to Colonel Kershaw. Mr. Miles says he has not done so; neither does he mean to do it. They must settle these matters of veracity according to their own military etiquette. He is a civilian once more. It is a foolish wrangle. Colonel Kershaw ought to have reported to his commander-in-chief, and not made an independent report and published it. He meant no harm. He is not yet used to the fine ways of war.

The New York Tribune is so unfair. It began by howling to get rid of us: we were so wicked. Now that we are so willing to leave them to their overrighteous self-consciousness, they cry: “Crush our enemy, or they will subjugate us.”' The idea that we want to invade or subjugate anybody; we would be only too grateful to be left alone. We ask no more of gods or men.

Went to the hospital with a carriage load of peaches and grapes. Made glad the hearts of some men thereby. When my supplies gave out, those who had none looked so wistfully as I passed out that I made a second raid on the market. Those eyes sunk in cavernous depths and following me from bed to bed haunt me.

Wilmot de Saussure, harrowed my soul by an account of a recent death by drowning on the beach at Sullivan's Island. Mr. Porcher, who was trying to save his sister's life, lost his own and his child's. People seem to die out of the army quite as much as in it.

Mrs. Randolph presided in all her beautiful majesty at an aid association. The ladies were old, and all wanted their own way. They were cross-grained and contradictory, and the blood mounted rebelliously into Mrs. Randolph's clear-cut cheeks, but she held her own with dignity and grace. One of the causes of disturbance was that Mrs. Randolph proposed to divide everything sent on equally with the Yankee wounded and sick prisoners. Some were enthusiastic from a Christian point of view; some shrieked in wrath at the bare idea of putting our noble soldiers on a par with Yankees, living, dying, or dead. Fierce dames were some of them, august, severe matrons, who evidently had not been accustomed to hear the other side of any question from anybody, and just old enough to find the last pleasure in life to reside in power — the power to make their claws felt.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 106-8

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: Tuesday August 6, 1861

The North requires 600,000 men to invade us. Truly we are a formidable power! The Herald says it is useless to move with a man less than that. England has made it all up with them, or rather, she will not break with them. Jerome Napoleon is in Washington and not our friend.

Doctor Gibbes is a bird of ill omen. To-day he tells me eight of our men have died at the Charlottesville Hospital. It seems sickness is more redoubtable in an army than the enemy's guns. There are 1,100 there hors de combat, and typhoid fever is with them. They want money, clothes, and nurses. So, as I am writing, right and left the letters fly, calling for help from the sister societies at home. Good and patriotic women at home are easily stirred to their work.

Mary Hammy has many strings to her bow — a fiancé in the army, and Doctor Berrien in town. To-day she drove out with Major Smith and Colonel Hood. Yesterday, Custis Lee was here. She is a prudent little puss and needs no good advice, if I were one to give it.

Lawrence does all our shopping. All his master's money has been in his hands until now. I thought it injudicious when gold is at such a premium to leave it lying loose in the tray of a trunk. So I have sewed it up in a belt, which I can wear upon an emergency. The cloth is wadded and my diamonds are there, too. It has strong strings, and can be tied under my hoops about my waist if the worst comes to the worst, as the saying is. Lawrence wears the same bronze mask. No sign of anything he may feel or think of my latest fancy. Only, I know he asks for twice as much money now when he goes to buy things.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 100-1

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Sturgis Russell*, May 16, 1863

Camp E. Of Capitol, Washington, D. C.

May 16, '63.

Started precisely at 12 M. Tuesday (427 men and officers, 437 horses), reached boat at 5 P. M. (start earlier and feed on pier): boat too small for so many horses, delay in loading, finally started from wharf at ½ A. M. Wednesday — reached Jersey City at 9 A. M. — terrible confusion watering and loading horses, did not leave by train till 5 P. M.: lost ten men here: had to handle all our own baggage here, as also the night before at Stonington. Reached Camden (opposite Philadelphia) at 1 A. M., Thursday; waited two hours while R. R. men handled baggage and transshipped horses, crossed to Philadelphia by ferry, got an excellent breakfast at the Volunteer Relief Rooms;¹ left by train at 6 A. M., arrangements excellent. Reached Baltimore at 3 P. M., horses and baggage dragged through city without transshipment; gave men coffee and dinner at Union Relief Rooms (164 Eutaw St., close to Depot). Left Baltimore at 5 P. M. and, after much delay, arrived in Washington at 2 A. M. Friday — breakfast ready for men at barracks near Depot; immediately-after, commenced unloading horses and traps, and at 9 A. M. had horses fed and watered and on picket lines (saddles, &c, by them and company and Quartermaster property in wagons); at 12 M. started for camp, which I selected, and before 6 P. M. officers and men were all in tents, and horses all at permanent lines, — total loss 11 deserters and 1 dead horse,—gain 6 horses! On the whole I recommend this route highly.

I had a very strong guard detailed (70 men and officers) and kept it on duty for the trip — every door (to cars and yards) was guarded before the command entered.

_______________

* Captain Henry S. Russell, of the Second Massachusetts Infantry, had been detailed to help in preparing for the field the Second Cavalry, of which he was to be second in command. He had been left behind to secure and forward recruits to the regiment. I copy the following from Mr. John M. Forbes's Reminiscences: “Harry had distinguished himself in the Second Infantry, under Gordon, as a good soldier, reaching the rank of captain, and then had suffered himself to be captured at the battle of Cedar Mountain, under Banks, where he stood by his mortally wounded friend James Savage, and passed some months in prison.  . . . He left the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, where he was lieutenant-colonel, to recruit the Fifth (coloured) Cavalry, as colonel. This regiment got its first impetus from a telegram which I received one day, when on a visit to Washington, from Governor Andrew, directing me to see Secretary Stanton, and apply for leave to recruit a regiment of coloured cavalry. It was a time when recruiting was beginning to flag, and, taking the message in my pocket, I soon got access to the Secretary, with whom I was always on good terms, and within five minutes of showing the message leave was given to go ahead; and Harry gave up his easier place of lieutenant-colonel in a splendid white regiment to build up the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry (coloured), which, however, was destined to do most of its work unmounted.” Colonel Russell was wounded, but survived the war. A man of courage and decision, and with a natural dignity and military habit in dealing with men, he was singularly kind and modest. He served the city of Boston to much purpose and with honourable fidelity, first as Commissioner of Police, and later of the Fire Department, for many years.

¹ The bounteous hospitality extended to all regiments and soldiers passing through this city, by the Philadelphia Volunteer Relief Association during the war, is held in grateful remembrance.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 239-40, 416-7

Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood to John Clark, December 16, 1862

Executive Office,

Davenport, Iowa, Dec. 16. 1862.

John Clark, Esq., State Agent,

Springfield, Mo.

Dear Sir: — I have just seen Col. Gifford, who returned night before last. He gives me a deplorable account of the condition of our boys at Springfield. I want you to stay in Missouri as long as you find it necessary. See the Medical Director, Gen. Curtis, Gen. Herron and every one else until you get our boys cared for. You need not be backward or mealy-mouthed in discussing the state of affairs, and in cursing everyone who wont do his duty. Talk right hard, and have our boys cared for. If hay and straw cannot be had, have Gen. Curtis send cots and mattresses, and call on the Sanitary Association of St. Louis for help and supplies.

Very truly,

SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD.

SOURCE: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and Times of Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor, p. 235

Diary of Josephine Shaw Lowell: August 2, 1861

Today I went up to the Cooper Union instead of Susie, as she was not quite well and could not go. Lou Schuyler and Miss Collins were there and I copied lists of donations for the papers, while they unpacked, arranged and repacked articles for soldiers.

SOURCE: William Rhinelander Stewart, The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell, p. 13