Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel John Beatty: July 9, 1861

Moved from the Middle Fork of the Buckhannon river at seven o'clock this morning, and arrived at Roaring creek at four P. M. We came over the hills with all the pomp and circumstance of glorious war; infantry, cavalry, artillery, and hundreds of army wagons; the whole stretching along the mountain road for miles. The tops of the Alleghanies can now be seen plainly. We are at the foot of Rich mountain, encamped where our brothers of the secession order pitched their tents last night. Our advance guard gave them a few shots and they fled precipitately to the mountains, burning the bridge behind them. When our regiment arrived a few shots were heard,

and the bayonets and bright barrels of the enemy's guns could be seen on the hills.

It clouded up shortly after, and before we had pitched our tents, the clouds came over Rich mountain, settling down upon and hiding its summit entirely. Heaven gave us a specimen of its artillery firing, and a heavy shower fell, drenching us all completely. As I write, the sound of a cannon comes booming over the mountain. There it goes again! Whether it is at Phillippi or Laurel Hill, I can not tell. Certain it is that the portion of our army advancing up the Valley river is in battle, somewhere, and not many miles away.

We do not know the strength of our opponents, nor the character and extent of their fortifications. These mountain passes must be ugly things to go through when in possession of an enemy; our boys look forward, however, to a day of battle as one of rare sport. I do not. I do not. I endeavor to picture to myself all its terrors, so that I may not be surprised and dumbfounded when the shock comes. Our army is probably now making one of the most interesting chapters of American history. God grant it may be a chapter our Northern people will not be ashamed to read!

I am not confident of a speedy termination of the war. These people are in the wrong, but have been made to believe they are in the right—that we are the invaders of their hearthstones, come to conquer and destroy. That they will fight with desperation, I have no doubt. Nature has fortified the country for them. He is foolishly oversanguine who predicts an easy victory over such a people, intrenched amidst mountains and hills. I believe the war will run into a war of emancipation, and when it ends African slavery will have ended also. It would not, perhaps, be politic to say so, but if I had the army in my own hands, I would take a short cut to what I am sure will be the end-commence the work of emancipation at once, and leave every foot of soil behind me free.

SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 18-20

William T. Sherman to Thomas Ewing Jr., December 23, 1859

Seminary near Alexandria, December 23, 1859.

Dear Tom: I received last night a Leavenworth paper addressed in your handwriting and I wish you would repeat them. I get the New Orleans papers regularly, but they never say Kansas; indeed I know not if they are admitted south, Kansas being synonimous with abolitionism.

You can readily imagine the delicate position I now hold at the head of a seminary to open January 1 next, for the instruction and training of young men to science and arms, at the same time that John Sherman's name is bandied about as the representative of all that is held here murderous and detestable. Thus far all have had the delicacy to refrain in my presence with but one casual exception, but I would not be surprised if at any time I should be officially catechised on the subject. This I would not stand of course.

I would not if I could abolish or modify slavery. I don't know that I would materially change the actual political relation of master and slave. Negroes in the great numbers that exist here must of necessity be slaves. Theoretical notions of humanity and religion cannot shake the commercial fact that their labor is of great value and cannot be dispensed with. Still of course I wish it never had existed, for it does make mischief. No power on earth can restrain opinions elsewhere, and these opinions expressed beget a vindictive feeling. The mere dread of revolt, sedition or external interference makes men ordinarily calm almost mad. I, of course, do not debate the question and, moderate as my views are, I feel that I am suspected, and if I do not actually join in the praises of slavery I may be denounced as an abolitionist.

I think it would be wise if northern people would confine their attention to the wants and necessities of their own towns and property, leaving the South to manage slavery and receive its reward or doom, let what may come.

I am fully conscious that respectable men here not only talk but think of the combinations to be made in case of a rupture. It may be that they design these military colleges as a part of some ulterior design, but in my case I do not think such to be the case. Indeed it was with great difficulty the Board of Supervisors were prevailed on by an old West Pointer to give the Seminary the military feature, and then it was only assented to because it was represented that southern gentlemen would submit rather to the showy discipline of arms than to the less ostentatious government of a faculty. Yet, I say that it may result that men are preparing for the wreck of the U.S. government and are thinking and preparing for new combinations.

I am willing to aid Louisiana in defending herself against her enemies so long as she remains a state in the general confederacy; but should she or any other state act disunion, I am out. Disunion and Civil War are synonimous terms. The Mississippi, source and mouth, must be controlled by one government, the southeast are cut off by the Alleghany Mountains, but Louisiana occupies the mouth of a river whose heads go far north, and does not admit of a “cut off.” Therefore a peaceable disunion which men here think possible is absurd. It would be war eternal until one or the other were conquered “subject.” In that event of course I would stand by Ohio. I always laughed when I heard disunion talked of, but I now begin to fear it may be attempted.

I have been to New Orleans, purchased all the furniture needed, and now await the coming of January 2 to begin school. We expect from sixty to seventy-five scholars at first. I will not teach, but supervise the discipline, instruction, supplies, etc.

How are your plans, political and financial, progressing? If Congress should organize I suppose we will have the same war over the admission of Kansas.

SOURCES: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 88-90