Colonel Theophilus T. Garrard to Brigadier-General George H. Thomas, October 2, 1861

CAMP WILDCAT, October 2, 1861.

General GEORGE H. THOMAS:

Since General Carter arrived we have been over considerable country. The general thinks when the work is completed we will be secure against almost any force. With strangers they could not find passways, but persons acquainted with the country could get into our camp really ways. Still, they could not do so if we had a small force at each point. The distance from Little Rockcastle River to Big Rockcastle is some 3½ miles. A considerable portion of this distance is defended by natural cliffs, so that it relieves us from performing much labor at those places. Ten miles of the road south of our camp is almost a dense thicket on each side of the road, and could be defended, or at least we could annoy the enemy with infantry the entire distance, whilst we would be comparatively secure, provided we acted cautiously. General Carter can explain more explicitly.

Colonel Brown desires me to say to you that he can supply his command of twelve-months' men with beef and bread, but will be dependent on you or General Crittenden for sugar, coffee, soap, candles, and such other articles as are furnished. He has no tents or camp equipage. Many of his men are bare of shoes, clothing, and blankets.

Colonel Brown desires to know whether or not he must open a correspondence with General Crittenden or must he address you on all matters connected with his military affairs? He desires such instructions as you may from time to time think proper to give.

Colonel Brown has now enrolled and in camp some 250 twelve-months' soldiers. He has muskets, but no cartridge-boxes, caps, pouches, nor bayonet scabbards. He desires to hear from you as soon as convenient. Mount Vernon is the post-office, if sent by mail.

I have not heard anything of the rebels since they reached Barboursville. The last account is that some 100 or upwards were in Barboursville. I have heard, but do not say that it is reliable, that there is a robbing party going through Knox County, plundering every person (almost) they come across, and that it is headed by men by the name of Arthur, citizens of Knox County, Kentucky.

I have got Colonel Brown to move all of his men to the river except one company, and they are outside our camp in a rock house. We have been much annoyed by them, as well as visitors and others who were driven before the rebels. Some of them returned this evening part of the way home, but heard of the rebels below London, and they returned to camp. The report, I am satisfied, is false.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

T. T. GARRARD,        

Colonel Third Regiment Volunteers.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 289-90

General Robert E. Lee to General Braxton Bragg, May 4, 1864

ORANGE COURT-HOUSE, May 4, 1864.

General BRAXTON BRAGG:

Reports from our lookouts seem to indicate that the enemy is in motion. The present direction of his column is to our right. General Imboden reports enemy advancing from Winchester up the valley with wagons, beef-cattle, &c.

R. E. LEE.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 36, Part 2 (Serial No. 68), p. 950

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 4, 1864

Bright, beautiful, and warmer; but fire in the morning.

The following dispatch from Gen. Lee was received by Gen. Bragg to-day and sent to the Secretary.

ORANGE C. H., May 4th, 1864.

Reports from our lookouts seem to indicate that the enemy is in motion. The present direction of his column is to our right.

Gen. Imboden reports the enemy advancing from Winchester, up the Valley, with wagons, beef cattle, etc.

R. E. LEE.

There is a rumor of fighting at Chancellorville, and this is the anniversary, I believe, of the battle there. May we be as successful this time! But the report is not authentic. Firing is heard now in the direction of York River.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 198

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Friday, May 16, 1862

This morning the Seventh boys obtain some northern papers, which they relish very much. In the afternoon we again have division drill. We shall never forget these exercises on the cotton fields of Mississippi. This evening the Seventh boys conclude to have some fresh beef, hence they capture and kill a steer, a genuine work ox, used in drawing siege guns from Pittsburg Landing, but he is none the worse by that. The boys feast sumptuously to-night.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 71-2

1st Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer to Lieutenant-Colonel Lorenzo Thomas, March 18,1861

FORT PICKENS, FLA., March 18, 1861.

Lieut. Col. L. THOMAS, Assistant Adjutant-General, U. S. Army:

SIR: I have the honor to report that since my last report nothing has happened to disturb the peaceable relations existing between the United States forces and those opposing us. I have placed the fort in condition for defense as well as the means in my power would permit. The contractor has refused to furnish fresh beef, alleging that he is without funds for purchasing cattle. The United States is indebted to him for three months' supply.

If the intention of the Department is to place re-enforcements in the fort, I would recommend that subsistence stores be sent immediately.

On the morning of the 12th instant four negroes (runaways) came to the fort, entertaining the idea that we were placed here to protect them and grant them their freedom. I did what I could to teach them the contrary. In the afternoon I took them to Pensacola and delivered them to the city marshal, to be returned to their owners. That same night four more made their appearance. They were also turned over to the authorities next morning.

On the evening of the 12th I received this communication:

• Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg to Adam J. Slemmer, March 13, 1861

As I was absent at Pensacola delivering up the negroes, I did not see Captain Wood. I made the following answer, accompanying it with copies of the agreement entered into by Colonel Chase and the War Department, with copies of such other papers as would enable the general to understand our positions:

• 1st Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer to Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg, March 13, 1861

To which I received the following reply:

• Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg to 1st Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, March 13, 1861

The battery which the general mentions has no reality, and I so requested his aid, Lieutenant Gaines, to inform him.

On the 15th I made the following answer:

• 1st Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer to Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg, March 15, 1861

I sent yesterday by mail (via New Orleans) my monthly returns and muster rolls for February. I hope they will arrive safely. I was then not aware that Commander Adams would send a special messenger.

I would most respectfully call the attention of the commanding general to the fact that there is mention of a notification being given as to the termination of the agreement on either side.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

ADAM J. SLEMMER,    

First Lieutenant, First Artillery, Commanding.

SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 1 (Serial No. 1), p. 361-3; Don Carlos Seitz, Braxton Bragg, General of the Confederacy, p. 32

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: April 1, 1862

WE LOSE OUR MAJOR.

I learn that Major McCafferty has resigned and is going to leave us. I am sorry to learn that his ambition for fame is so soon gratified. I think a good deal of the major and shall miss him very much. He is a man of great good nature and a good deal of a humorist, and at times he makes considerable sport for the boys. The major's resignation creates a vacancy which, according to military rules will be filled by the ranking captain which is Capt. Pickett of company A. This will change the formation of the line, bringing company B on the left, and ranking second in the line. So, step by step, we ascend the ladder of fame.

LIVING HIGH.

. . . . . . . We are now living in clover, having little else to do but to keep ourselves, clothes, arms and equipments clean and in good order. We do a little guard duty and the rest of the time is spent in reading, writing, card-playing and walking about town, seeing the fun and enjoying ourselves. Our rations are of good quality and variety. We now have our fresh beef three times a week, with all the soft bread we want. With our government rations, and what we can buy, such as oysters, fresh fish, chickens, eggs, sweet potatoes, etc., we are running at a high rate of speed. We often contrast this with our life at the inlet.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 52

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: February 2, 1862

A high wind prevailed this morning and the sea was somewhat rough; the boat had considerable motion, but the boys had their sea legs on, so it caused them very little trouble.

HIGH LIVING.

Our company cooks, with commendable enterprise and industry and with an eye to our present well being, furnished us with baked beans and hot coffee for breakfast. This was a great treat, and every man had all he wanted; a vote of thanks was given the cooks. For dinner boiled beef was served, the first we have had since leaving Fortress Monroe.

I hope this kind of fare will hold out, but fear we shall have a relapse of the worst kind. The chaplain held services in the saloon this morning and afternoon. The boys spent most of the day writing letters, reading newspapers and making up their diaries.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 31

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler: General Orders, No. 25, May 9, 1862

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 25.}

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF             

New Orleans, May 9, 1862.

The deplorable state of destitution and hunger of the mechanics and working classes in this city has been brought to the knowledge of the commanding general.

He has yielded to every suggestion made by the city government, and ordered every method of furnishing food to the people of New Orleans that government desired. No relief by those officials has yet been afforded. This hunger does not pinch the wealthy and influential leaders of the rebellion, who have gotten up this war and are now endeavoring to prosecute it without regard to the starving poor, the working man, his wife and child. Unmindful of their suffering fellow-citizens at home, they have caused or suffered provisions to be carried out of the city for Confederate service since the occupation by the United States forces.

Lafayette Square, their home of affluence, was made the depot of stores and munitions of war for the rebel armies, and not of provisions for their poor neighbors. Striking hands with the vile, the gambler, the idler, and the ruffian, they have destroyed the sugar and cotton, which might have been exchanged for food for the industrious and good, and regrated the price of that which is left by discrediting the very currency they had furnished, while they eloped with the specie, as well that stolen from the United States as the banks, the property of the good people of New Orleans, thus leaving them to ruin and starvation.

Fugitives from justice many of them, and others their associates staying because too puerile and insignificant to be objects of punishment by the clement Government of the United States.

They have betrayed their country; they have been false to every trust; they have shown themselves incapable of defending the State they had seized upon, although they have forced every poor man's child into their service as soldiers for that purpose, while they made their sons and nephews officers.

They cannot protect those whom they have ruined, but have left them to the mercies and assassinations of a chronic mob.

They will not feed those whom they are starving.

Mostly without property themselves, they have plundered, stolen, and destroyed the means of those who had property, leaving children penniless and old age hopeless.

Men of Louisiana, workmen, property-holders, merchants, and citizens of the United States, of whatever nation you have had birth, how long will you uphold these flagrant wrongs and by inaction suffer yourselves to be made the serfs of these leaders?

The United States have sent land and naval forces here to fight and subdue rebellious armies in array against her authority. We find substantially only fugitive masses, runaway property-burners, a whisky-drinking mob, and starving citizens, with their wives and children. It is our duty to call back the first, to punish the second, root out the third, feed and protect the last.

Ready only for war, we had not prepared ourselves to feed the hungry and relieve the distressed with provisions. But to the extent possible within the power of the commanding general it shall be done.

He has captured a quantity of beef and sugar intended for the rebels in the field. A thousand barrels of these stores will be distributed among the deserving poor of this city, from whom the rebels had plundered it, even although some of the food will go to supply the craving wants of the wives and children of those now herding at Camp Moore and elsewhere in arms against the United States.

Capt. John Clark, acting chief commissary of subsistence, will be charged with the execution of this order, and will give public notice of the place and manner of distribution, which will be arranged, as far as possible so that the unworthy and dissolute will not share its benefits.

By command of Major-General Butler:

GEO. C. STRONG,               

Assistant Adjutant-General, Chief of Staff.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 15 (Serial No. 21), p. 425-6

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 6, 1864

Yesterday Mr. Moffitt, Lieut.-Col. Ruffin's agent (commissary), was in the market buying beef for Gen. Lee's army! And this same Moffitt was in September selling beef to the same butchers (as they say) at from 40 to 50 cts. gross, the impressing price in the country being 20 cts.

On the 2d inst. Gen. Lee wrote the President that he had just heard of two droves of cattle from the West, destined for his army, being ordered to Richmond. [He does not say by whom, or for what purpose. He knew not.] He says he has but one day's meat rations, and he fears he will not be able to retain the army in the field. The President sent a copy of this to the Commissary-General, with a few mild remarks, suggesting that he shall get such orders from the Secretary of War as are necessary in such an emergency. In response to this the Commissary-General makes a chronological list of his letters to Gen. Lee and others, pretending that if certain things were not done, the army, some day, would come to want, and taking great credit for his foresight, etc. This table of contents he ran first to the department with, but not finding the Secretary, he carried it to the President, who returned it without comment to Col. N. yesterday, and to-day the Secretary got it, not having seen it before. Well, if Col. N. had contracted with Capt. Montgomery for the 1,000,000 pounds of salt beef, it would have been delivered ere this. But the Secretary never saw Capt. M.'s offer at all!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 124-5

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 7, 1864

Gen. J. E. Johnston dispatches from the West that the meat is so indifferent, the soldiers must have an additional quantity of rice.

Beef sells to-day at $1.25 per pound by the quarter. And yet an Englishman at the best hotel yesterday remarked that he never lived so cheaply in any country, his board being only three shillings (in specie) per diem, or about $20 Confederate States notes.

A dozen china cups and saucers sold at auction to-day for $160. Col. Preston, Conscription Bureau, several members of the cabinet, etc. feasted at a cost of $2000! It is said that the Jack was turned up and Jeff turned down in a witticism, and smiled at nem. con. But I don't believe that.

We have a light snow, the first time the earth has been white this winter.

I am reminded daily of the privations I used to read of in the Revolutionary War. Then thorns were used, now we use pins, for buttons. My waistbands of pantaloons and drawers are pinned instead of buttoned.

Gen. Jno. H. Morgan arrived this evening, and enjoyed a fine reception, as a multitude of admirers were at the depot.

About the same hour the President rode past my house alone, to indulge his thoughts in solitude in the suburbs of the city.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 125

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 9, 1864

Cold and clear. Gen. Longstreet has preferred charges against Major-Gen. McLaws and another general of his command, and also asks to be relieved, unless he has an independent command, as Gen. Johnston's headquarters are too far off, etc. The Secretary is willing to relieve him, but the President intimates that a successor ought to be designated first.

Beef was held at $2.50 per pound in market to-day—and I got none; but I bought 25 pounds of rice at 40 cts., which, with the meal and potatoes, will keep us alive a month at least. The rich rogues and rascals, however, in the city, are living sumptuously, and spending Confederate States notes as if they supposed they would soon be valueless.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 126

Captain Charles Wright Wills: October 7, 1864

The Rebels have left the railroad after being whipped by General Corse at Allatoona Pass. The 14th Corps drove them out to Lost Mountain yesterday. No hard fighting. They tore up not more than eight miles of railroad, which will be rebuilt in a very few days.

Deserters report the whole Rebel Army here, but that the ten days' rations they started with have run out. Other deserters say that their army has started for Nashville, Huntsville, or hell; that they are satisfied they can't make either of the first named places, and would rather go to Sherman than the last named. It is wonderful what confidence this army has in Sherman. Every man seems to think the idea of these Rebels being able to do us any permanent harm is perfectly preposterous, and all are in the best of spirits. I can't help thinking that the Rebels must have all cleared out of this vicinity, or else we'd be going for them. Our stock is in too bad condition to follow them far over the, at present, horrible roads. A man rode along on a poor old bone-rack of a horse a while ago. Some wag commenced, “caw,” “caw,” “caw.” The whole camp took it up and for five minutes you would have thought that 10,000 crows were holding a jubilee. Let some one start a squirrel or rabbit and 500 men will be after it in a minute. Old soldiers are just a lot of men with school-boy spirits.

Officers don't draw meat like the men. I have just had two meals of beef (and no other meat) in the last ten days. All our officers are the same way. It is mostly our own fault.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 306-7

Captain Charles Wright Wills: October 6, 1864 – 12 m.

Rained all last night, and has just suspended for a few minutes, I expect. Kept dry, thanks to our rubber blankets. Drew five days' rations this morning, full of everything except beans; plenty of beef, though. We only drew one-quarter of a pound per man for the whole five days. Part of our railroad bridge across the Chattahoochie washed away a few days ago. It will be finished again today. There was some fighting up near Allatoona Pass yesterday, in which, rumor says, our folks were worsted. The Rebels are moving up the road in that direction. They will have to leave there or wait and fight us. I hear that Kilpatrick burned 200 or 300 of their wagons yesterday. We'll warm those fellows if they will only wait for us somewhere. We are under orders to start at a moment's notice. Mud is not over a foot deep and everything else is lovely in proportion. I was confoundedly sick all day yesterday, could not eat any supper, but about 9 p. m. the boys brought some beans about half cooked, and the notion taking me I ate a couple of quarts thereof. Have felt splendidly ever since. Our pickets that we left at Eastpoint have just got in. The division field officer of the day who had charge of them misunderstood his instructions and marched to the river at Sandtown, 15 miles below where we crossed. The Rebels fired into them and I suppose captured half a dozen stragglers.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 306

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: December 20, 1861

We are having cold weather; freezing quite hard at night, and making our lodgings in these little rag houses anything but comfortable. I have been with a detail of men down to the wharf unloading and storing army supplies. Annapolis is a depot of supplies, and immense quantities are landed here and sent by rail to Washington. A person never having given the subject of army preparation and supplies much thought, would be astonished at the immense quantities he would see here, and would begin to calculate how long it would be before Uncle Sam would be bankrupt. Large warehouses are filled and breaking down under the weight of flour, beef, pork, bread, sugar, coffee, clothing, ammunition, etc., while the wharves and adjacent grounds are filled with hay, oats, lumber, coal, guns, mortars, gun-carriages, pontoons and other appendages of an army. I presume the cost of feeding and clothing an army of half a million of-men is not really so much as the same number of men would cost at home, but the army being consumers, instead of producers, the balance will eventually be found on the debit page of the ledger.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 15

Captain Charles Wright Wills: July 7, 1864

July 7, 1864.

The shooting still continues in our front, but hear no Rebel artillery. The water here is excellent, and everybody seems to get a few blackberries. We also stew grapes and green apples, and everything that ever was eaten by anti-cannibals. There is so much confounded fighting to be attended to that we can't forage any, and though fresh beef is furnished to the men regularly there is some scurvy. I have seen several black-mouthed, loose-toothed fellows, hankering after pickles. Teamsters and hangers-on who stay in the rear get potatoes, etc., quite regularly. I do not believe the Johnnies intend fighting again very strongly this side of the river. Our scouts say that between the river and Atlanta the works run line after line as thickly as they can be put in. Per contra, two women who came from Atlanta on the 6th say that after we get across the river we will have no fighting, that Johnston is sending his troops to Savannah, Charleston, Mobile and Richmond, except enough to fight us at different river crossings. Our scouts also say that the Rebels are deserting almost by thousands, and going around our flanks to their homes in Tennessee, Kentucky, etc. I have not been in a house in Georgia, but several citizens I have met in camp said they had heard many soldiers say they would never cross the river with Johnston since the charge of the 27th.

Harrow has kept our brigade in reserve, and I think he will continue to do so unless a general battle is fought. We have suffered more heavily than any other two brigades in the army, and when we started we were one of the smallest. I am willing to see some of the others go in a while, though I want to help if Johnston will stand a fair fight in open ground. The chigres are becoming terrific. They are as large as the blunt end of a No. 12 and as red as blood. They will crawl through any cloth and bite worse than a flea, and poison the flesh very badly. They affect some more than others. I get along with them comparatively well, that is, I don't scratch more than half the time. Many of the boys anoint their bodies with bacon rinds, which the chigres can't go. Salt-water bathing also bars chigres, but salt is too scarce to use on human meat. Some of the boys bathing now in a little creek in front of me; look like what I expect “Sut Lovegood's” father did after plowing through that hornet's nest. All done by chigres. I believe I pick off my neck and clothes 30 varieties of measuring worm every day. Our brigade quartermaster yesterday found, under his saddle in his tent, a rattlesnake, with six rattles and a button.

This is the 68th day of the campaign. We hope to end it by August 1st, though if we can end the war by continuing this until January 1st, '65, I am in. Reinforcements are coming in every day, and I don't suppose we are any weaker than when we left Chattanooga. The Rebels undoubtedly are, besides the natural demoralization due to falling back so much must be awful. My health is excellent. Remember me to all the wounded boys of the 103d you see.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 274-6

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 6, 1863

The President was to have returned to-day, but did not.

Various conjectures are made as to the object of his month's tour of speech-making. Some deem the cause very desperate, others that the President's condition is desperate. If the first, they say his purpose was to reanimate the people by his presence, and to cultivate a renewal of lost friendships, and hence he lingered longest at Charleston, in social intercourse with Gens. Beauregard and Wise, who had become estranged. The latter is the oldest brigadier-general in the service, and still they have failed to promote him. The President's power is felt in the army, and his patronage being almost unlimited, it was natural, they say, that he should be received with cheers. From a lieutenant up to a general, all are dependent on his favor for promotion. At all events, his austerity and inflexibility have been relaxed, and he has made popular speeches wherever he has gone. I hope good fruits will ensue. But he returns to find the people here almost in a state of starvation in the midst of plenty, brought on by the knavery or incompetency of government agents.

What is remarkable is the estimate of $50,000,000 by the Commissary-General for the purchase of sugar, exclusively for the sick and wounded in hospitals, the soldiers in the field being refused any more. One-fourth of the whole estimates ($210,000,000) for sugar, and not an ounce to go to the army! And this, too, when it is understood nearly all the sugar in the Confederacy has been impressed by his agents at from 50 cts. to $1 per pound. It is worth $2.50 now, and it is apprehended that a large proportion of the fifty millions asked for will go into the pockets of commissaries. No account whatever is taken of the tithe in the Commissary-General's estimates.

Flour sold at $125 per barrel to-day. There must be an explosion of some sort soon. Certainly Confederate notes have fallen very low indeed.

Another solution of the President's tour, by the uncharitable or suspicious, is a preparatory or a preliminary move to assuming all power in his own hands. They say the people are reduced by distress to such an extremity that, if he will only order rations to be served them, they will not quarrel with him if he assumes dictatorial powers. Legislation has failed to furnish remedies for the evils afflicting the community; and, really, if the evils themselves were not imputed to the government, and the President were ambitious — and is he not? — he might now, perhaps, play a successful Cromwellian role. But can he control the State governments? The government of this State seems like potter's clay in his hands, the Legislature being as subservient as the Congresses have hitherto been. It is observed — independence first — then let Cromwells or Washingtons come.

My wife, to-day, presented me with an excellent under-shirt, made of one of her dilapidated petticoats. A new shirt would cost $30. Common brown cotton (and in a cotton country!) sells for $3 per yard. I saw common cotton shirts sell at auction today for $40 per pair. Beef is $1.50 per pound, and pork $2. But these prices are paid in Confederate Treasury notes, and they mark the rapid depreciation of paper money.

The enemy, however, in spreading over the Southern territory, are not completing the work of subjugation. It would require a million of bayonets to keep this people in subjection, and the indications are that the United States will have difficulty in keeping their great armies up. It is a question of endurance.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 89-91

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 4, 1863

Mr. M——, Major Ruffin’s commissary agent, denies selling government beef to the butchers; of course it was his own. But he has been ordered not to sell any more, while buying for the government.

Mr. Rouss, of Winchester, merchant, has succeeded in getting some brown cotton from the manufacturer, in Georgia, at cost, which he sells for cost and carriage to refugees. My wife got 20 yards to-day for $20. It is brown seven-eighth cotton, and brings in other stores $3 per yard. This is a saving of $40. And I bought 24 pounds of bacon of Capt. Warner, Commissary, at $1 per pound. The retail price is $2.50 — and this is a saving of $36. Without such “short cuts” as these, occasionally, it would be impossible to maintain my family on the salaries my son Custis and myself get from the government, $3000.

How often have I and thousands in our youth expressed the wish to have lived during the first Revolution, or rather to have partaken of the excitements of war! Such is the romance or “enchantment” which “distance lends” “to the view.” Now we see and feel the horrors of war, and we are unanimous in the wish, if we survive to behold again the balmy sunshine of peace, that neither we nor our posterity may ever more be spectators of or participants in another war. And yet we know not how soon we might plunge into it, if an adequate necessity should arise. Henceforth, in all probability, we shall be a military people. But I shall seek the peaceful haunts of quiet seclusion, for which I sigh with great earnestness. O for a garden, a vine and fig-tree, and my library!

Among the strange events of this war, not the least is the position on slavery (approving it) maintained by the Bishop of Vermont.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 88

George S. Denison to Salmon P. Chase, November 28, 1862

(Private)

New Orleans, November 28th, 1862.

Dear Sir: I have frequently conversed with Gen'l. Butler about an expedition to Texas, and since it was known here that Gen. Banks was to command the expedition, I have had two or three conversations with him. The General evidently expected that this expedition would be under his command, and now thinks that Gen. Banks should report to him and act under his orders — for the following reasons.

1st. Because Ship Island is an inconvenient and, for shipping, a dangerous rendezvous. Most of the Steam vessels from New York would be unable to enter the Texas harbors. Gen. Butler would put the troops on board his own light draught steamers, and wait just in the mouth of the river until fair weather permitted him to run to Galveston in 48 hours. The troops from the sailing vessels could be landed here and the vessels return home, thus saving expense, while a few trips of the General's steamers would convey all the troops to the Texas coast.

2nd. Gen. Butler's troops are acclimated — well disciplined — have all been under fire, and the weak and sickly have all been weeded out. Gen. Banks troops will be new and undisciplined, etc. Gen. Butler would retain the new troops here and send to Texas an equal number of his veterans, who would form a far more effective force than new troops and not liable to be weakened by sickness.

3rd. A large army could be accommodated in the City with greater ease and comfort than upon Ship Island.

4th. This point is the most convenient depot for supplying Quartermaster and Commissary's stores to Gen. Banks in Texas, and beef and other supplies to be obtained in Texas are most needed here.

5th. When the rebel army retreats from Vicksburg and Port Hudson, they may go west to Texas and crush Gen. Banks' force. This can be prevented by cooperating from this point and cutting them off by taking Shreveport (on Red River)—and this co operation can be efficient only by unity of counsel and command.

6th. The General has prepared four or five iron-clad gunboats, — the only strong boats on the Gulf coast, capable of operating advantageously in the shallow bays and bayous of Texas.

Such are the reasons I have collected why Gen. Butler should have command, or rather, why Gen. Banks should report to him. These reasons come from Gen. Butler himself. Perhaps others could be given, and perhaps these already stated are not weighty. I thought it proper, at any rate, to state them to you. Gen. Butler says the above plan would advance the expedition thirty days. Of course, I am ignorant of Gen. Banks' plan of operations. Intelligent Texans now here, think the capture of the town of Houston should be the first object. This is the center of railroads and (they say) the controlling position (in military sense) of the state. The slave population is large in that part of the state, and if properly employed, would prove a source of great weakness to the Rebels.

P. S. I do not know whether Gen. Butler or Gen. Banks is the ranking officer. I have written this letter only that you might be informed of Gen. Butler's opinions. He will soon send troops to Galveston.

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 332-3

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: December 19, 1864

We are now less than half a mile from Mr. Kimball's. After dark last night we went to Mrs. Dickinson's house and partook of a splendid supper. I wrote a paper directed to the officer commanding the first Yankee troops that should arrive here telling what she had done for us runaway Yankees. She talked a great deal, and I thought was careless leaving the front door open. Three or four times I got up and shut that door. We had taken off our blankets and other wraps and left them in a sort of a kitchen, and were talking in the best room. I heard the gate click, and on looking out saw two rebel officers coming to the house and not six rods off. We jumped into the other room and out of the back door and behind a corn house, bare headed. The officers were asked into the front room by the daughter. They asked who the parties were who ran out of the back way. She said she reckoned no one. They kept at her and jokingly intimated that some of her skulking lovers had been to see her. See kept talking back and finally said: “Mother, did any one just go away?” And the old lady said: “Why, yes, brother Sam and his ‘boy’ just went off home.” Them confounded rebels had come to see the girl and spend the evening, and we shivering out in the cold. Joked her for an hour and a half about her lovers and we hearing every word. Finally they got up and bid her good night, saying they would send back some men to guard the house and keep her lovers away. Just as soon as they were down the road a ways, the daughter came out very frightened and said for us to hurry off, as they would send back troops to look for us. Hurried into the house, got our things and some dried beef, and started off toward Mr. Kimball's house. Reached here just before daylight and lay down back of the house about eighty rods, in the corner of the fence, to sleep a little before morning. Just at break of day heard some one calling hogs. David got up and went toward an old man whom we knew was our friend Kimball. Came to us, and was glad to shake hands with genuine Yankees. Said one of his neighbors was coming over early to go with him to hunt some hogs, and for us to go farther off and stay until night, and he would think up during the day what to do with us. Did not want anything to eat. Came to this place where we now are, and feeling that our journey was most ended. Mr. Kimball said that Sherman was not over fifty miles off, and coming right along twenty miles per day, and our plan was to hide and await coming events. Mr. Kimball is an old man, probably sixty years old, white haired and stoop shouldered. He had five sons, all drafted into the rebel army. All refused to serve: Two have been shot by the rebels, one is in some prison for his Union proclivities, and two are refugees. The old man has been imprisoned time and again, his stock confiscated, property destroyed, and all together had a hard time of it. Still he is true blue, a Union man to the back bone. Really think our troubles coming to an end. Kimball said: “Glory to God, the old Stars and Stripes shall float over my house in less than a week!” It's a noble man who will stand out through all that he has, for his principles, when his interests are all here. Is not only willing, but glad to help us, and says anything he has is ours, if it will help us toward our escape. Later. — Have been laying all day watching Kimball's house. Along in the morning the neighbor spoken of came to Kimball's, and they both went off on horseback to shoot hogs. The swine here roam over a large territory and become most wild, and when they want fresh pork they have to go after it with a gun. You may be sure the hunters did not come near us with Mr. Kimball for a guide. A negro boy went with them with a light wagon and mule attached. Near noon they returned with some killed hogs in the wagon. At three or four o'clock the old man came down where we were “to look after his boys,” he said. Is in the best of spirits. says we are to hide to-night where he tells us, and stay until our troops reach us. That is jolly good news for me, as I hate to travel. Said come to the house after dark and he would have a supper prepared for us, and has just left us. Later. — Have just eaten a splendid supper at Kimball's and getting ready to travel three miles to a safe hiding place.

SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p. 146-8

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 22, 1863

Gen. Wheeler has taken 700 of the enemy's cavalry in East Tennessee, 6 cannon, 50 wagons, commissary stores, etc. Per contra, the steamer Venus, with bacon, from Nassau, got aground trying to enter the port of Wilmington, and ship and cargo were lost. There is a rumor that Gen. Taylor, trans-Mississippi, has captured Gen. Banks, his staff, and sixteen regiments. This, I fear, is not well authenticated.

A poor woman yesterday applied to a merchant in Carey Street to purchase a barrel of flour. The price he demanded was $70. “My God!” exclaimed she, “how can I pay such prices? I have seven children; what shall I do?”

“I don't know, madam,” said he, coolly, “unless you eat your children.”

Such is the power of cupidity — it transforms men into demons. And if this spirit prevails throughout the country, a just God will bring calamities upon the land, which will reach these cormorants, but which, it may be feared, will involve all classes in a common ruin.

Beef, to-day, sold in market at $1.50 per pound. There is no bacon for sale, or corn-meal. But we shall not starve, if we have faith in a beneficent Providence. Our daughter Anne, teaching in Appomattox County, writes that she will send us a barrel of potatoes, some persimmons, etc. next Wednesday. And we had a good dinner to-day: a piece of fat shoulder Capt. Warner let me have at $1 per pound — it is selling for $2.50 — and cabbage from my garden, which my neighbor's cow overlooked when she broke through the gate last Sunday. Although we scarcely know what we shall have to-morrow, we are merry and patriotic to-day.

Last night I went to hear Rev. Dr. Hobson, Reformed Baptist, or Campbellite, preach. He is certainly an orator (from Kentucky) and a man of great energy and fertility of mind. There is a revival in his congregation too, as well as among the Methodists, but he was very severe in his condemnation of the emotional or sensational practices of the latter. He said, what was never before known by me, that the word pardon is not in the New Testament, but remission was. His point against the Methodists was their fallacy of believing that conversion was sudden and miraculous, and accompanied by a happy feeling. Happy feeling, he said, would naturally follow a consciousness of remission of sins, but was no evidence of conversion, for it might be produced by other things. It was the efficacy of the Word, of the promise of God, which obliterated the sins of all who believed, repented, and were baptized. He had no spasmodic extravagances over his converts; but, simply taking them by the hand, asked if they believed, repented, and would be baptized. If the answers were in the affirmalive, they resumed their seats, and were soon after immersed in a pool made for the purpose in the church.

I pray sincerely that this general revival in the churches will soften the hearts of the extortioners, for this class is specifically denounced in the Scriptures. There is abundance in the land, but “man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” I hope the extortioners may all go to heaven, first ceasing to be extortioners.

The Legislature has broken up the gambling establishments, for the time being, and the furniture of their gorgeous saloons is being sold at auction. Some idea of the number of these establishments may be formed from an estimate (in the Examiner) of the cost of the entertainment prepared for visitors being not less than $10,000 daily. Their agents bought the best articles offered for sale in the markets, and never hesitated to pay the most exorbitant prices. I hope now the absence of such customers may have a good effect. But I fear the currency, so redundant, is past remedy.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 78-9