Diary of 1st Lieutenant Joseph Stockton, November 1, 1862

On the afternoon of October 23rd we left Columbus by boat on an expedition, destination unknown until we reached New Madrid, Missouri. The force consisted of Companies A, C, I and H. under my command and two sections of Captain Rodgers' Battery, 2d Ill. Artillery. At New Madrid we were joined by Captain Moore's Company of Cavalry (2d Ill.), the whole being under command of Captain Rodgers. We arrived at New Madrid in the morning, disembarked and at once proceeded on our march toward a place called Clarkson where there was a lot of rebels encamped. It was a beautiful day, the sun shone warm and pleasant. We marched about eighteen miles and it being the first march for most of the men, they had blistered feet, but they kept up well. We reached the beginning of the plank road that leads through cypress swamps and through sunken lands which were caused by a great earthquake years before. Although the day had been so pleasant yet it commenced raining at night, and as we had to go without fires it got to be very cold; toward morning it commenced snowing. We started at 2 o'clock a. m. To prevent any noise they left the artillery horses behind and the infantry pulled the guns with ropes while the cavalry led their horses alongside the road. Captain Moore had sent some men forward who had captured the rebel picket, and who, not dreaming of an enemy being so near, had gone into an old log house to keep warm. To me it was a romantic scene; although a bright night the snow was falling lightly, the bright barrels of the guns of the men shining; the quietness of the scene only broken by the tread of the men, the rumbling of the artillery wheels, the cracking of the broken wood caused by the cavalry horses tramping on it; and the danger ahead, made it all most interesting. We reached the town about daybreak and found the rebels asleep. The artillery was posted on the hill commanding the town, while the infantry and cavalry were dispersed so as to surround it. All at once the artillery opened on the barracks and soon the most astonished set of Rebs you ever saw came tumbling out not knowing which way to run. They mounted their horses without any bridles, nothing but the halter, and soon came rushing toward the lane where I had my men posted. We gave them a volley which brought them to a halt and surrender. The fun was soon over and we commenced to gather up our prisoners, our Surgeon Powell doing what he could for the wounded, and the men catching horses, we were soon on our retreat. The artillery horses had been brought up and were hitched to the artillery. I never saw such a cavalcade before—the artillery going ahead, one of the cannons in a wagon, it having been dismounted by its carriage being broken. A company of infantry mounted on horses and mules, then the prisoners surrounded by a guard, then more mounted infantry and lastly, the cavalry. Several houses had been set on fire and women were screaming and crying because their husbands, brothers or sons were being taken away. We camped about ten miles from Clarkson that night, reached New Madrid the next night and Columbus the following day. An incident occurred at Clarkson that may not be to my discredit to relate. In firing into the barracks of the rebels a number of houses were struck by shells which frightened the women and children almost to death. I saw a number of them running out of a house, the children in their bare feet. I ordered my men to keep quiet and went to the women and told them I would help them with their children and lifted a couple in my arms; the poor things were frightened but I told them I would not hurt them; while doing this the shell from our artillery was falling thick around us, but I could not see women and children suffer without helping them.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 3-4

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: August 19, 1864

Up to this morning nothing has transpired to disturb the quiet of our camp near Rome; but this afternoon a little excitement is created in camp by the attacking of a foraging party sent out in the morning under the command of acting-Lieutenant Billington of Company C, which resulted in the killing by the guerrillas of acting Lieutenant Billington of Company C, and the wounding of privates William Ross and Frits of company D, and Dr. Felty of the hospital department, and the loss of all the mules belonging to the teams. Companies H and K are despatched at once to the scene of death and robbery, but no guerrillas are to be found, all having fled in great haste. The fray happened at a noted rebel's house, to which we apply the torch, and return to camp.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 248-9

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 21, 1864

Raining; rained all night.

The following dispatch was received this morning:

"WILMINGTON, December 20th, 1864, 10 A.M.—The head of the enemy's fleet arrived off this port during last night. Over thirty steamers are now assembling, and more are following.—BRAXTON BRAGG."

It may be hoped that Gen. Bragg will do something more than chronicle the successes of the enemy this time. He is nearer to him than when he remained at Augusta; and yet the press could be made reticent on arrivals, etc.

Lieut. Col. Sims, Assistant Quartermaster General, has contracted with the Southern Express Company to transport all the funds of the Quartermaster's Department—hundreds of millions!

Mr. Hunter was with the Secretary this morning, when I laid before the latter Bragg's dispatch. I doubt not it failed to contribute to a mollification of their painful forebodings.

By Northern papers I see President Lincoln disapproves Gen. Dix's order to troops to cross the Canada line in pursuit of raiders. Gold is $45 for one to-day.

The army has no meat this day, the commissaries, etc. have it all, and are speculating with it—it is said. So many high officials are interested, there is no remedy. We are at the mercy of the quartermasters, commissaries, railroad companies, and the Southern Express Company. The President and Secretary either cannot or will not break our shackles.

An official account states the number of houses burnt by the enemy in Atlanta to be 5000!

There is a rumor of another and a formidable raid on Gordonsville. The railroad is now exclusively occupied with the transportation of troops—perhaps for Wilmington. The raid may be a ruse to prevent reinforcements being sent thither.

The Andersonville Report belongs to the Adjutant-General's Office, and therefore has not come back to me.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 360-1

Dr. Seth Rogers to his daughter Dolly, March 25, 1863—2:30 p.m.

March 25, 2.30, P. M.

Three quarters of an hour ago I was dreaming pleasantly of a prayer meeting, when a rebel bombshell burst somewhere in the immediate vicinity of the town. Presently another and another, then the reply of our guns and then the "long call." It seemed as if we were at last fairly in for it. Dr. Minor came up to ask if we were to trust Providence to care for our hospital. I advised him to go back and assure them all that the Lord was on the side of our big guns. Meanwhile I crawled on to the top of our observatory and watched the firing until the secesh sent a shell, which burst in the air and sent a fragment whistling above my head with a note so shrill that I began to think of Gabriel's trumpet and crawled down again. Presently the cannonading ceased. I do not think it was chivalric for the rebels to wake us so early, but, I remember, we are not now in South Carolina. The cocks are crowing unconcernedly and I'll to bed again.

Evening.

Several shells came into town before our guns gave the quietus. A section of one struck within a few feet of the Colonel and Major, in front of Headquarters. The hospital of the 8th Maine was perforated by a piece of one, and two dwelling houses were terribly bored. One went through two occupied chambers. A husband and wife lost, respectively, a coat and a skirt, which were hanging on a rocking chair, and, collectively, a portion of the mosquito bar over the bed. Shells make very ugly looking holes through houses. It seems remarkable that no one was injured, although to me not much more so than that so few are injured in thunder storms, of which this scene forcibly reminded me.

This morning we made a reconnoissance in force. One of our S. C. V. companies took charge of the rifled ten pounder on the platform car, while the Colonel and Major advanced on the line of the railroad with four other companies of our regiment together with six of the 8th Maine and 6th Conn. Our Colonel in command. Our boys skirmished on the left of the road and the others on the right. The rebel pickets galloped off to camp, which has been moved back ten or twelve miles. When we had advanced about four miles through the open pine barrens and occasional thick woods, the smoke of a rebel engine was seen in the distance. Meantime I had hurried through my morning duties, and at about 12.30 P. M. had overtaken the force. I had not been there more than twenty minutes before the 64 pound shells began to come down upon us from their gun on a platform car. Our force had already begun a slow retreat [having already passed the limit fixed by orders], with repeated halts, when the conical portion of the first shell (which had exploded above our heads) struck four of the 8^th Maine soldiers, killing two and wounding two, one slightly and one so that the amputation of the foot is necessary. The firing was very accurate; first on one side of the road, then on the other a shell would come singing over and many of them exploded over our heads. Gen. Saxton believes a special Providence watches over our regiment, and that not a man was seriously injured today would seem to justify this belief. I saw a whole shell that did not explode, plough into the sand under the feet of a soldier not six rods from me, knock his gun out of his hands and his cap off his head, but before I could get to him he had gathered himself up and was off uninjured.

Dr. Mitchell, of the 8th Maine, and I, were the only mounted officers out, till the Colonel's horse was sent to meet him on the return. My "rebel" pranced well and behaved beautifully. We burned several houses and, as I had not before had the satisfaction, I chose a very new, good one, and kindled my fire in a costly mahogany sideboard. A portion of the R. R. track was destroyed, but whether enough to hinder them long in repairs I am not certain.

After our return, Sergeant McIntyre of Co. G came up to headquarters to intercede for his friend Thomas Long, a private in the same company, who had conceived the idea of going alone a dozen miles to destroy by fire a long trestle work, built through a swamp, over which the cars run. Thomas Long is a thin, spiritual-looking, unassuming black man, who trusts God. He has gone on his errand, an errand requiring more real courage and heroism than has before been manifested in our regiment. Of course he goes disguised, but he carries with him such evidence of his intention that death would surely follow his capture. My expectation of seeing him again is very small.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 379-80

Dr. Seth Rogers to his daughter Dolly, March 14, 1863—Evening

March 14, Evening.

A curious incident occurred this morning which gave me a full hundred (from both regiments) sick and wounded to examine and prescribe for and fill out my prescriptions. The John Adams started for a secret raid up the river at daylight, without notifying Dr. Minor, the steward and hospital nurse, who were all sleeping on the boat. It was a good enough joke, but for me not so practical as to make me crave a repetition. Tonight our sick and wounded are in the hospital. Colonel Montgomery thought the Lord had grown these handsome shade trees especially for barricades, and I have never a doubt that the Washington Hotel, with its sixteen chambers, and a fire-place in each, was especially intended for a military hospital. Possibly it is because it seems too good to last that I deem it hazardous to bring our sick ashore, but the two Colonels assure me it is perfectly safe to do so.

Our belligerent Chaplain¹ is armed with a revolver on each side and a Ballard rifle on his back. He keeps so persistently on the advanced picket line that I could scarcely persuade him to conduct the funeral service of a poor fellow who was shot the other day. Today he got on the track of some cavalry and infantry, and was certain of surrounding and capturing them, if he could only get permission from the Colonel. His hatred of slavery is so intense that his prayers are of a nature to keep his powder dry.

We have burned a good many houses within a mile of town, to get rid of screens for the enemy between us and the woods, where rather formidable trees are being felled to complete our water barricade. The houses are often occupied by women and children whose husbands and fathers are in the Confederate service. The Chaplain, being a man of fire, has much to do with this matter. Today, I questioned him as to his usual mode of proceeding. I found he gave them the choice of the two governments, but with the explicit statement that their friends in arms were to be killed soon unless they came in and surrendered. His division of the effects of these families seems rather scriptural. "What seems to belong to the woman, I yield to her, but what seems to belong to the man, I have brought into camp."

Some of these cases are very pitiful and call out my deepest commiseration. Today I visited a poor widow who has a son in the rebel service. Her house was burned and she, with her children, was brought into town. She has not been able to walk a step during the last five months. On examination I found that her prostration was due entirely to privations and hardships resulting from war. For more than a year her food has been "dry hominy" with now and then a little fish. She was born in Alabama of "poor white" parents. As I talked to her it seemed to me it must be difficult for her to understand the justice of our coming here to invade the homes of those who had always earned their bread by the sweat of their brows.

Yesterday I conversed with a lady who lives in a pleasant cottage, with her beautiful little children and her aged mother. Her husband is a captain outside our barricades and when the Colonel granted her permission to go wherever she chose, she said so many had gone from the river and coast towns to the interior that one could scarcely find a barn to stay in or food to subsist on. She remains here for the present. Her husband was a music teacher and was taken into the army by conscription. From what I can learn of him through Union men, I have no doubt he would gladly return to loyalty. What are we to do with such families? "Things are a little mixed" here in the South, but we must all suffer the results of our great national sin, some one way, some another.

I have given out word that the Surgeon of our regiment will cheerfully and gladly attend to the medical needs of all civilians here. To be the means of relieving suffering is sufficient compensation, but in this case there is the additional good of being able to make anti-slavery statements in a satisfactory way.

I never supposed I could be so much gratified by comparatively level scenery. The river is very beautiful, – quite clear and of a deep amber color. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy my evening bath. Dr. Minor usually goes with me. Once, while in the water, the companies were hurriedly ordered to "fall in," but it seemed so unnatural that one's bathing should be interfered with that we were not startled by the alarm.

We find the rebel women here exceedingly desirous to prove that our soldiers are guilty of all the outrages they might expect from a long-injured people now in power. Many of our soldiers are natives of this place and meet their old mistresses here. On the day of our landing I was over and over implored, by those who knew their deserts, to protect them from the "niggers." It was an awful turning of the tables. I quite enjoyed saying "These are United States troops and they will not dishonor the flag."

Several charges have been preferred against the soldiers, but thus far, when sifted down, have proved quite as much against those who complained as against our men. The Adjutant told me of a lady of easy manners, who had been very much insulted by a soldier. Close investigation proved that he actually sat on her front door-step.

That our soldiers do some outrageous things, I have little doubt. When women taunt them with language most unbecoming, as they sometimes do, I should be very sorry if they did not return a silencer. Thus far they have behaved better than any white regiment has done under such temptations. They "confiscate" pigs and chickens because their captains connive at it and the Provost Marshal cannot do everything alone.

Today the John Adams and the Burnside are off on some speculation up the river. I was too busy to go with them this morning, or should have asked the privilege. Colonel Montgomery has gone with his men. They declare he is a "perfect devil to fight, he don't care nuttin 'bout de revels." His bravery is apparently rashness but in reality far from it. He evidently thinks the true mode of self-defense is to attack the enemy on his own ground.

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¹ Rev. James H. Fowler, of Cambridge, Mass.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 373-5

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Tuesday,October 4, 1864

My birthday—forty-two. Wrote to mother. Lieutenant Meigs killed last night by guerrillas, three miles south of camp. Houses on the road for five miles burned by order of General Sheridan. Not according to my views or feelings.*

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* The order was mitigated. Only a few houses near the scene of the murder were burned.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 522