Diary of 2nd Lieutenant George G. Smith: December 22, 1864

Arrived at Port Hudson. Went ashore; but the place did not look much as it did during the siege — the works were narrowed up. I recognized the spot where the mortar battery stood, and where the gallant First Platoon of Co. E, First Louisiana, charged up the bluff of Thompson's creek, and drove the rebels behind their breast-works, half an hour in advance of the rest of the line of skirmishers, on May 27, 1863. I saw the terrible Lady Davis that used to salute us every evening with her mighty shells that never exploded or hit anybody. It was a 10-inch gun, mounted en barbette in a bastion, on a pivot, so it commanded the entire horizon. The soldiers got wonderful ideas of that gun. They said it was mounted on a platform car, and they had a track so as to run it down to the breast-works every night and fire it. We could distinguish the point where we charged on June 14th, when we got so horribly cut up. I wanted to go to these spots, but there was not time. Arrived at Donaldsonville at 9 p. m., and encamped on the old drill ground.

SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 142-3

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant George G. Smith: October 11, 1864

Marching orders again, and at 4 p. m. we were steaming up the river. We had the First Louisiana Infantry, 161st New York Infantry, 23d Wisconsin, a squadron of First Louisiana Cavalry, and six pieces of artillery on board the transports Charlton and Illinois.

SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 133

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant George G. Smith: October 4, 1864

Relieved at daylight. First Louisiana, two pieces of artillery, and a squadron of cavalry, took the Woodville road. Halted for dinner at a plantation owned by a Dr. Watkins. There were some pigs running at large about the place. As soon as the order, “break ranks” was given, it was as good as a circus to see the boys go for the pigs. Each pig would have four or five soldiers after him. One soldier would get up close enough to the pig to get his hands on him, when the animal would slip away, and the soldier would go down and those behind go over him and the chase continue, but the pigs would be tired out in a short time and disappear. The Doctor and his family had run away. We marched about ten miles that day and encamped for the night.

SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 130-1

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Tuesday, April 4, 1865

Mail was to leave the camp at 12 today; sat down to write a letter before I was ½ through was detailed to take charge of a squad of 30 men with spades for fatigue & report with them at Div Hd. qtrs. I reported with the detail at 11. A. M. some mistake had been made with reference to the detail as the A. A. G. expicted my detail to have axes. waited with the men until he rode to Brig. Hd. qtrs to ascertain how the mistake had occurred, he returned at 12, M. & ordered me to report at a two gun battery. on the left & near Spanish fort. I found the battery & put the men to work to finish it. The 1st Ind heavy Artilery mount 2 30 lb Parrots here while we are at work. These guns are intended to play on the Rebel water battery which annoys us more than all their other guns, while we were at work a staff officer rode around giving orders for all the batteries around the whole line to open out at 5 P. M. & fire 40 ronds to each gun, with intervals of 3 mins. finished the battery a little before 4. but had to hold the detail to tear down a breastwork in front of it which was to come down just before time to open out, at 20 mins before 5 Capt of Battery ordered the work down, men all worked lively as there was danger of the Rebs firing on the party, two men having been wounded here yesterday. Just 3 mins before 5 finished that job & falling the men in started for camp about ¾ mile distant & if the Rebs replied to our batteries in point blank range, had not advanced from the battery more than 200 yds until the whole part of our line was ablaze, walked fast to camp. Rebs did not reply & no accidents occurred. after arrived in camp the Jonnies lifted a few shot over, they tried to sharpshoot our gunners from their fort & sent the balls uncomfortably close. The 33d Mo. & 35th Iowa & 12th Iowa moved in this evening again to our camp our Brig is ordered to the left to fill the places of these Regts. At 8. P. M. fall in & move in the darkness with a little sprinkle of rain 1 mile to the left of our camp, find very poor quarters, lie down almost anywhere for the night.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 583-4

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Friday, March 31, 1865

Rested tolerably last night, At 8. A M. The batteries open on the Forts & keep up a vigorous shelling for 3 hours. P. M. the felled timber front of the forts where our skirmish line is gets on fire. Rebs open on them with shell & small arms. Could not see how the skirmishers could stand the heat & firing but they did it nobly, firing became so heavy at 6. P. M. the men were ordered to arms Co G. was ordered to the forward rifle pits to reinforce Co. B as a support to the skirmishers, Capt Ledyard was on duty as Brig off of the day, which left me in comd of the co. I took them down on the double quick although almost too week to stand. The bullets whistled thick arond but no one was struck. At 11. P. M. the heavy firing ceased & I reed orders to keep my co in the pits all night. I hear of several men being killed but none from our Regt, hear a report that on our right Smith with some of the heavy Parrots disables one of the Enemy's gunboat & drives another off 2 miles, one battery of heavy guns on our left is silenced by the fire save the main Fort. It is rumored that Thomas has made connection with Steele. The Gunboats advance slowly taking out the torpedos, advanced about 100 yds and that Genl Maury commands at Mobile & Genl Gibson at Spanish Fort. We rec mail today one from cous John who is with Thomas & says under date of 10th Feb that the comd was preparing for an expedition against Mobile.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 582

Diary of Luman Harris Tenney: Friday, October 24, 1862

Got the morning reports and combined them. Helped pitch the tent and clean up. Turned very chilly — appearance of cold weather. News of a fight, Black and Cooper, few particulars. 200 prisoners and 4 cannon. During the night three or four inches of snow fell.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 39

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 28, 1862

We have no news to-day from the West. If the great battle has been fought at Vicksburg, we ought to know it to-day or to-morrow; and if the enemy be beaten, it should be decisive of the war. It would be worse than madness to continue the contest for the Union.

Several fine brass batteries were brought down from Fredericksburg last night, an indication that the campaign is over for the winter in that direction.

If we should have disasters in the West, and on the Southern seaboard, the next session of Congress, to begin a fortnight hence, will be a stormy one.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 225-6

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Thursday, May 15, 1862

Same Camp. — Cloudy and threatening rain. Several warm showers during the day. Firing between pickets constantly going on two or three miles down the river. We send out two or three companies and a howitzer or six-pounder to bang away, wasting ammunition. If the enemy is enterprising he will capture some of these parties and perhaps a cannon.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 270

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Tuesday, June 7, 1864

It has been very quiet along the lines all day; both sides seem to be tired of sharpshooting. Another flag of truce was sent out to-day, I think to get permission to bury our dead between the lines of which there are many plainly to be seen and they are commencing to smell bad; am told Major Crandall of the Sixth Vermont, just to the right of us, was shot to-day by a sharpshooter. He was a popular student once at Barre Academy, Vermont. Captain Edwin Dillingham reported for duty to-day; has been prisoner of war at Richmond since the battle of Locust Grove, Va. last fall; never saw him looking better; is a handsome man, anyway, and a gentleman. Our army seems to be lying idle now, except the heavy artillery which is building forts in our rear; occasionally hear the report of siege guns to our left —  or we suppose them to be siege guns.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 77-8

John M. Forbes to Governor John A. Andrew, May 20, 1863

London, May 20, 1863.

My Dear Governor, — I have your long and interesting letter of Tuesday, May 5, with hopeful views of Hooker's battle. God grant they may have been realized, though his situation seemed critical at last accounts. I have just had Mr. Bright to breakfast, and have since seen Cobden. I tell them both that either a great success or a great disaster will stir up our people, and if they hear to-morrow that Hooker is driven back, it will only mean that it will bring out our people. Like the pine-tree, it may be said of the North: —

“The firmer it roots him,

The harder it blows.”

I only wish I were at home to do my share there, if the news is black; but my work here is but half done, and I can only give you my good wishes and my children.

How you would like John Bright! He is a man after your own pattern, — genial, warm-hearted, frank. I am busy just now trying to see the Quakers, and to bring them up to the mark of doing something for peace, by petitioning for the suppression of ironclads and other Confederate pirates. Cobden is confident the ironclads will not be allowed to go out, and they have certainly checked up the work upon them. I think the case looks better, but still the calm seems to me too uncertain to trust to. I would avail of it to prepare for the possible storm. I note what you say of guns. I hope you observe in the prices sent you the very extravagant ones are for all steel, which are deemed unnecessary. The Russians take iron spindles and steel jackets. I fear our army and navy are a little too much governed by those most excellent riders of their hobbies, — Rodman and Dahlgren, for whom I have the greatest possible respect; but you must not forget that to pierce an ironclad you need velocity of shot, which cannot be had with your cast-iron guns; they will not stand the powder. Sumter drove off our ironclads with Blakely guns and round steel shot. Benzon and I, as I wrote you before, have gone in for two ten-and-three-quarter, and one nine-inch gun, cast-iron spindle, steel jacket, which will cost £1000, £1000, and £750, more or less. If you decide not to have them, I hope you will say so, and we shall try to resell them here with as little loss as possible. If only as patterns, it seems to me you ought to have them.

Yours truly,

J. M. Forbes.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 2, p. 15-6

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: May 10, 1862 – 4 p.m.

Adair's, ten and one-half miles from Parisburg [Pearisburg]. — We were attacked at 4 o'clock this morning. I got up at the first faint streak of light and walked out to see the pickets in the direction of the enemy. As I was walking alone I heard six shots. “No mistake this time,” I thought. I hurried back, ordered up my own and the adjutant's horse, called up the men and officers, [and] ordered the cavalry to the front. [I ordered] Captains Drake and Sperry to skirmish before the enemy and keep them back; the rest of the regiment to form in their rear. Led the whole to the front beyond the town; saw the enemy approaching — four regiments or battalions, several pieces of artillery in line of battle approaching. The artillery soon opened on us. The shell shrieked and burst over [our] heads, the small arms rattled, and the battle was begun. It was soon obvious that we would be outflanked. We retreated to the next ridge and stood again. The men of the Twenty-third behaved gloriously, the men of Gilmore's Cavalry, ditto; the men of Colonel Paxton's Cavalry, not so well. I was scratched and torn on the knee by a shell or something, doing no serious injury. I felt well all the time. The men behaved so gallantly! And so we fought our way through town, the people rejoicing at our defeat, and on for six hours until we reached the Narrows, five and one-half miles distant. The time seemed short. I was cheered by Gilmore's Cavalry at a point about three and one-half miles from Giles Court-house, and we were all in good humor. We had three men killed, a number wounded, none severely, and lost a few prisoners.

In the Narrows we easily checked the pursuit of the enemy and held him back until he got artillery on to the opposite side of New River and shelled us out. Reached here about I P. M. safely. A well-ordered retreat which I think was creditable.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 262-3

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 11, 1862

Gen. Lee dispatched this morning early that the enemy were constructing three pontoon bridges, and that firing had commenced on both sides. At nine o'clock A.M. the firing increased, and Gen Lee dispatched for ammunition, looking to the contingency of a prolonged battle.

At three P.M., Gen. Lee says, the enemy had been repulsed in two of their attempts to throw bridges over the river; but the third attempt would probably succeed, as it was under cover of batteries which commanded the river, and where his sharpshooters could not reach the workmen. But, he says, his batteries command the plain where the enemy must debouch. We may speedily hear of a most sanguinary conflict.

Burnside must have greatly superior numbers, or else he is a great fool to precipitate his men into a plain, where every Southern soldier is prepared to die, in the event of failure to conquer! There is no trepidation here; on the contrary, a settled calm on the faces of the people, which might be mistaken for indifference. They are confident of the success of Lee, and really seem apprehensive that Burnside will not come over and fight him in a decisive battle. We shall soon see, now, of what stuff Burnside and his army are made. I feel some anxiety; because the destruction of our little army on the Rappahannock might be the fall of Richmond.

It is rumored that the President started two days ago for the West — Tennessee and Mississippi. No papers have been sent in by him since Tuesday, and it may be true. If so, he means to return speedily. I think we shall soon have news from the lower James River.

A letter from the Governor of Alabama calls urgently for heavy guns, and a reserve force, for the defense of Mobile.

Major Hause, the government's agent in Europe, has purchased, up to this time, 157,000 stand of arms, besides many cannon, much ammunition, quartermaster's stores, etc. A portion was lost in transitu, however, but not a large amount. Besides the large sums he has expended, he has obtained credit to the extent of $6,000,000!

They are calling for a guard at Petersburg against incendiaries. A factory was burned the other night. This is bad.

Scully and Lewis, condemned to die as spies, have been pardoned by the President, and are to be sent North.

Another dispatch from Gen. Lee, dated 3½ P.M., says the enemy has nearly completed his bridge, and will probably commence crossing this evening or in the morning. The bulletin boards in the city purport to give intelligence of the passage having been effected in part; but I do not see how the editors could have obtained their information.

At 6 P.M., passengers by the Fredericksburg train (which left, at 1 P.M.) report the shelling of the town, and a great battle in progress on this side of the river. I doubt both; and I saw but one excited man (a Jew) who said he was in Fredericksburg when the shelling began. I do not believe it. The cars were not within four miles of the town, and perhaps merely conjectured the cannonading they heard to be directed at the town. There were no ladies or children in the cars. But doubtless the enemy will cross the river, and there will be a battle, which must result in a great mortality.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 209-11

Diary of John Hay: April 25, 1861

At the request of the Tycoon, who imagined he had seen something significant steaming up the river, I went down to the Navy Yard. Saw Dahlgren, who at once impressed me as a man of great coolness and power. The boat was the Mt. Vernon, who reported everything right in the river.

About noon the Seventh Regiment came. I went to the Depot and saw Lefferts, who communicated the intelligence of their peaceful passage, with which I straightway gladdened the heart; of the Ancient. Cale Smith was with him as I returned. He was just reading a letter from Hamlin advising the immediate manufacture of rifled cannon from the Chicopee Works. Lincoln seemed to be in a pleasant, hopeful mood, and, in the course of the conversation, partially foreshadowed his present plan. He said: “I intend, at present, always leaving an opportunity for change of mind, to fill Fortress Monroe with men and stores; blockade the ports effectually; provide for the entire safety of the Capital; keep them quietly employed in this way, and then go down to Charleston and pay her the little debt we are owing her.”

. . . . General Butler has sent an imploring request to the President to be allowed to bag the whole nest of traitorous Maryland legislators and bring them in triumph here. This the Tycoon, wishing to observe every comity even with a recusant State, forbade.

To-day we got a few letters and papers and felt not quite so forlorn. . . .

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 24-5

Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Colonel Eliakim P. Scammon, May 8, 1862 – 7 p.m.

Camp Number 6, Giles Court-house,

May 8, 1862. 7 P. M.

Sir: — We are getting on very prosperously gathering up forage, etc. We have in town six hundred bushels corn in addition to amount heretofore reported. Our stores of all sorts exceed anything this side of Fayette. We are in much need of shoes. We have got a lot of Secesh which though inferior will help until our quartermaster gets a supply. It is ascertained that the enemy is fortifying beyond Walker's Creek in a gap of Cloyd's Mountain, twelve or thirteen miles from here; that they have the Forty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, and probably the Twenty-second Virginia, also a small number of cavalry and three to six pieces of cannon. They advanced to within four miles of us last night, but learning of our reinforcements they retreated. Their advance guard was seen by my patrols and promptly reported, but on scouting for them, they were found to have turned back. Today I sent Captain Gilmore with half of his men and a company of the Second Virginia cavalry to make a reconnaissance. They drove in the enemy's pickets, crossed Walker's Creek, and went within a mile of the enemy's position. The whole force of the enemy was marched out and formed in order of battle. The apparent commander with a sort of body-guard of twenty or so rode up to Lieutenant Fordyce drawing a revolver when he was shot from his horse by Colonel Burgess. He was certainly an important officer. No one on our side hurt. The cavalry quietly fell back when the enemy burned the bridge over Walker's Creek after our cavalry had turned back.

This indicates to my mind that as yet the enemy is disposed to act on the defensive, but it is certain we ought to be promptly and heavily reinforced. I do not doubt you have men on the way. We shall not be attacked, I think, in advance of their coming; if so we shall be ready, but the stores and position are too valuable to be left in any degree exposed. With a large force we can get much more property. Today while our scouting party of cavalry was in front, about twenty of the enemy under an officer with a large glass was seen by Sergeant Abbott and a scout, examining the village from a very high mountain whose summit, two miles distant, overlooks the whole town.

8:30 P. M. — Couriers have arrived bringing messages for the cavalry, but none for me. No words of any reinforcements either. In any event, the want of force will prevent us gathering all the provisions and forage our position here entitles us to have. Major Comly says a conversation with the family he boards in, satisfies him that the enemy has three regiments at Walker's Creek. We shall be vigilant tonight, and shall be astonished tomorrow if we do not hear of the battery, at least, moving to us before another of these clear moonlight nights has to be watched through.

Respectfully,

R. B. Hayes,

Lieutenant-colonel 23D Regiment O. V. I.,

Commanding.

[colonel E. P. Scammon.]

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 258-60

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 8, 1862

A letter from Gen. Lee, received to-day, states that, in the recent campaigns, he has experienced the effects of having inferior artillery and fixed ammunition. But this discrepancy is rapidly disappearing, from captures of the enemy's batteries, etc He recommends that our 12-pounder howitzers and 6-pounder smooth bores be recast into 12-pounder Napoleons, 10-pounder Parrott guns, and 3-inch rifle cannon. He wants four 12-pounder Napoleons sent him immediately, for a special purpose. His next battle will be principally with artillery.

Gov. Vance sends a letter, referring to an order of the government that all cotton not removed west of the Weldon and Williamsburg Railroad, by the 16th instant, is to be destroyed. He says his State is purchasing 15,000 to 20,000 bales, to establish a credit in Europe, and asks that the Confederate Government authorities will respect the cotton designed for this purpose. He says he will destroy it himself, when the enemy approaches. He says, moreover, that the order will have an unhappy effect; that many of the people have already lost their slaves, grain, etc. from the inroads of the enemy, and have nothing to live on but their cotton. If it remains where it is, how can they subsist on it without selling it to the enemy? And that would be treason, pretty nearly. But why does the government issue such an order in North Carolina, when the government itself is selling, not destroying, the cotton of Mississippi?

The President of the Central Railroad says that Messrs. Haxhall, Crenshaw & Co., who have the gigantic contract with the government to furnish flour, and who have a preference of transportation by the contract, are blocking up their depots, and fail to remove the grain. They keep whole trains waiting for days to be unladen; and thus hundreds of thousands of bushels, intended for other mills and the people are delayed, and the price kept up to the detriment of the community. Thus it is that the government contractors are aiding and abetting the extortioners. And for this reason large amounts of grain may fall into the hands of the enemy.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 207-8

Diary of Sergeant George G. Smith: June 8, 1863

Guns all in position — one 10-inch mortar, three 8-inch mortars, one a 32 pound Parrot rifle, and two brass field pieces. These guns occupied about half a mile in the line. Other guns were interspersed along the line, but of these I know but little. The mortar firing was grand in the extreme, notably the 10-inch one. The gun is fixed permanently with an elevation of 45 degrees. The shell is seen as soon as it leaves the gun on account of the burning fuze. It mounts, and mounts, until it seems to be among the stars, it then ranges along like a meteor until it begins to describe the other half of the parabola. It then descends to the ground, burying itself many feet in the earth and explodes with a deep muffled roar, sending dirt and stones many feet in the air.

SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 68

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Saturday, May 3, 1862

Camp 5, Princeton. — The Forty-fifth Regiment had marched twenty miles through the rain to reach here, were very tired and straggled badly. They were regularly stampeded, panic-stricken, and routed. They report three killed in one party of stragglers. They had a cannon drawn by six horses, but our men “yelled so” and “fired so fast” that it was no place for cannon; so they wheeled it about and fled with it All queer! Company C killed eleven, Colonel Jenifer burned Rocky Gap (four houses) and continued his flight towards Wytheville. The Rebels report us two thousand cavalry and eight thousand infantry!! Got our tents today; got into a good camp overlooking the town.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 247-8

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Friday, May 13, 1864

My prayer for Lee's withdrawal last night was granted. Our Division moved to the “Bloody Angle” this morning; it virtually joined our regiment's left last night. The enemy abandoned the angle during the night after three days' desperate fighting. No pen can fully describe the appearance of the battlefield — and yet our wounded and dead have been cared for, and some of the enemy's, by us and such are mostly out of view. The sight of the enemy's dead is something dreadful. There are three dead lines of battle a half mile more or less in length — men killed in every conceivable manner. The wounded are fairly bound in by the dead. Lee abandoned his works leaving most of his wounded, and all his dead in our hands unburied. Several pieces of artillery were taken. Prisoners say that General Lee fought in person as it meant the loss of his army if his line was broken here, as well as Richmond.

No wonder from its present appearance this place has been christened the “Bloody Angle” and the “Slaughter Pen.” For several hundred yards — fully a half mile or more — in the edge of the heavy oak forest of immense trees skirting an open field, the enemy's works are faultlessly strong of large oak logs and dirt shoulder high with traverses fifty feet back every sixty feet or so. This breastwork is filled with dead and wounded where they fell, several deep nearly to the top in front, extending for forty feet more or less back gradually sloping from front to rear, to one deep before the ground can be seen. The dead as a whole as they lie in their works are like an immense wedge with its head towards the works. Think of such a mass of dead! hundreds and hundreds piled top of each other! At the usual distance in rear of these breastworks — about ninety feet — are two more complete dead lines of battle about one hundred feet apart the dead bodies lying where the men fell in line of battle shot dead in their tracks. The lines are perfectly defined by dead men so close they touch each other. Many of the bodies have turned black, the stench is terrible, and the sight shocking beyond description. I saw several wounded men in the breastworks buried under their dead, just move a hand a little as it stuck up through the interstices above the dead bodies that buried the live ones otherwise completely from sight. Imagine such a sight if one can! It is indescribable! It was sickening, distressing and shocking to look upon! But, above all, think if one can of the feelings of the brave men who, regiment after regiment, were marched up in line of battle time and again for several days to fight with such a sight confronting them! Could anything in Hades be any worse? Only the misery I imagine, of an uneasy conscience at some great wrong done an innocent person could exceed it. It seems like a horrible nightmare! Such intrepidity is worthy of a better cause. Was there ever before such a shocking battlefield? Will the historian ever correctly record it? No pen can do it. The sight of such a horror only can fully portray it.

The First and Second Divisions of the Sixth Corps and Hancock's men have done most of the fighting today at the “Bloody Angle.” The Sixth Corps has lost eight hundred and forty wounded and two hundred and fifty killed. The loss of our army at Spottsylvania Court House has been five thousand two hundred and thirty-three of which number nine hundred have been killed. Our Division has lost in this fight to-day twenty-three killed and one hundred and twenty-three wounded. I examined this forenoon an oak tree fully eighteen inches in diameter felled by being cut off by minie bullets at the apex of the “Bloody Angle” occupied by the enemy. I could hardly believe my eyes, but there stood the stump and the felled tree with the wood for two feet or more all eaten away by bullets.*

_______________

*The stump of this tree is on exhibition at the War Department in Washington, D. C, or was a few years since — L. A. A.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 57

EDITOR'S NOTE: The "Spotsylvania Stump" is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, Behring Center, in Washington, D.C.: Catalog #: 4435    Accession #: 20209

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 21, 1862

It rained all night, which may extinguish Buniside's ardent fire. He cannot drag his wagons and artillery through the melting snow, and when it dries we may look for another rain.

The new Secretary is not yet in his seat. It is generally supposed he will accept.

President Davis hesitates to retaliate life for life in regard to the Missouri military executions.

Common shirting cotton, and Yankee calico, that used to sell at 12 cts. per yard, is now $1.75! What a temptation for the Northern manufacturers! What a rush of trade there would be if peace should occur suddenly! And what a party there would be in the South for peace (and unity with Northern Democrats) if the war were waged somewhat differently. The excesses of the Republicans compel our people to be almost a unit. This is all the better for us. Still, we are in quite a bad way now, God knows!

The passengers by the cars from Fredericksburg this morning report that Gen. Patrick (Federal) came over under a flag of truce, demanding the surrender of the town, which was refused by Gen. Lee, in compliance with the unanimous sentiments of the people. Gen. Patrick, it is stated, said if it were not surrendered by 9 A.M. to-day, it would be shelled.

Mr. Dargan, M. C, writes to the President from Mobile that the inhabitants of that city are in an awful condition. Meal is selling for $3.50 per bushel, and wood at $15 per cord, and that the people are afraid to bring supplies, apprehending that the government agents will seize them. The President (thanks to him!) has ordered that interference with domestic trade must not be permitted.

Mr. Seddon has taken his seat. He has, at least, a manly appearance — his predecessor was said to look like a m——y.

The President has ordered our generals in Missouri, if the Yankee accounts of the executions of our people be true, to execute the next ten Federal officers taken in that State.

The Enquirer, to-day, publishes Col. Baylor's order to execute the Indians in Arizona, coupled with Mr. Randolph's condemnation of the act. Who furnished this for publication?

It is rumored that Fredericksburg is in flames, shelled by the enemy. We will know how true this is before night.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 194-5

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Tuesday, May 10, 1864

Warm and sultry. The stench from the dead between the lines is terrible. There has been hard fighting on our right all day. As for the Tenth Vermont it has been supporting a battery most of the time. According to rumor we have captured a large number of prisoners and several pieces of artillery. About 6 o'clock p. m. our batteries opened a tremendous fire on the enemy's works, and kept it up for two hours, but with what result I do not know, except that the guns in our front were silenced. It was a fine artillery duel and the roar appalling even to a practiced ear. We are getting the best of Lee in this battle but it's stubborn fighting on both sides.

The accuracy with which our gunners fire is wonderful. I have seen one piece of the enemy's artillery opposite me turned completely over backwards carriage and all, by a solid shot from one of our guns in front of our regiment; it evidently hit the enemy's cannon square in the muzzle. It is awe-inspiring to see the regularity, the determined set look and precision with which our begrimed artillerymen stick to their work; shot and shell screeching close by don't seem to disturb them. I was spellbound and speechless with awe and admiration for their splendid pluck and nerve for some time, at first. No words can picture such a scene. I'd rather be a “doughboy”* though — anything but an artilleryman, for I hate shells and solid shot. I think I can face anything in a charge without flinching after this splendid exhibition of nerve.

Our regiment relieved the One Hundred and Fifty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry on the skirmish line to-night. I am on lookout in a grave-like hole about the length of a man some two feet deep on top of a hillock with cut bushes stuck all about as a mask in the soft dirt thrown from the hole. The cheerfully suggestive grave-like hole is wide enough for two, and I have Corporal Shedd with me. Even such a place is fine under the circumstances for there is a constant whizzing of bullets and shrieking shells over my abode. We are not more than fifty yards from our main line so close are the two armies at this point. We have to relieve each other at night stealthily under the cover of darkness.

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* An infantryman.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 52-3