Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Tuesday, May 9, 1865

Revelie at 3. A. M. At 5 Brigade falls in & starts to the landing. are ordered back to camp to await for more boats, at 8 A. M. ordered to the river again march down & stack arms The Blockade runner Heroine lies here. At 11. Cos G. B. & K ordered on board the Robt Watson a stern wheel craft, balance of Regt go on board the Magnolia, at 12, m. signal gun is fired for the first boat to start, our boat starts at 1. P. M. We left the Rebel fleet at the Bluffs, they yet have their colors flying over a flag of truce, officers of their fleet on shore dressed in new suits, wagon load of contraband come in to go to Mobile, take on most of them & just as we leave another boat comes down the river & begins to load the balance. Was asleep when our boat passed Nonnohubbah Bluffs, meet in the river about ½ way down one monitor & 2 gunboats going up to accept the surrender of the Rebel Gunboats & escort them in. Meet also 2 transports, about 8 miles above town pass the Gertrude sunken to midway of the cabin, land at Mobile at 7.20, having made the run in 6 hours & 20 minutes passing on the way the Jeff Davis & the C. W. D. which was a very slow boat. Men were not allowed to go off the boat, Mr Day of co A. just from Keokuck on his way to Regt tells us that the order is published in the todays paper that the ’62 troops are to be mustered out before June &c. some contrabands unloading a wench dropped her baby in the river & it was lost, the mother didn't seem to care & tis thought the affair was intentional, at 8.30 the rest of Regt coming up we disembarked & by the light of the moon marched out 3 miles to camp arriving at 10 P. M. teams soon arrived with our baggage & we turned in for the night very tired.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 599-600

William Cullen Bryant to John M. Forbes, August 27, 1861

Office Of The Evening Post,

New York, August 27, 1861.

I do not much like the idea of putting Sherman into the Treasury Department. He would make, I think, a better secretary of war. The great objection I have to him in the Treasury Department is that, so far as I understand the matter, he is committed, as the saying is, to that foolish Morrill tariff. Yet I am very certain that it would be considered by the country an immense improvement of the Cabinet to place him in the War Department. The country has a high opinion of his energy and resolution and practical character.

Of Governor Andrew I do not know as much as you do, though I have formed a favorable judgment of his character and capacity — not a very precise one, however. . . .

They talk of H. here as they do with you, but I am persuaded that the disqualification I have mentioned would breed trouble in the end. The dissatisfaction with Cameron seems to grow more and more vehement every day. His presence taints the reputation of the whole Cabinet, and I think he should be ousted at once. I am sorry to say that a good deal of censure is thrown here upon my good friend Welles, of the Navy Department. He is too deliberate for the temper of our commercial men, who cannot bear to see the pirates of the rebel government capturing our merchant ships one after another and defying the whole United States navy. The Sumter and the Jeff Davis seem to have a charmed existence. Yet it seems to me that new vigor has of late been infused into the Navy Department, and perhaps we underrated the difficulties of rescuing the navy from the wretched state in which that miserable creature Toucey left it. There is a committee of our financial men at present at Washington, who have gone on to confer with the President, and it is possible that they may bring back a better report of the Navy Department than they expected to be able to make.

Rumor is unfavorably busy with Mr. Seward, but as a counterpoise it is confidently said that a mutual aversion has sprung up between him and Cameron. This may be so. The “Times,” I see, does not spare Cameron, nor the “Herald.” There is a good deal of talk here about a reconciliation between Weed and Bennett, and a friendly dinner together, and the attacks which the “Herald” is making upon the War and Navy Department, are said to be the result of an understanding between them. Who knows, or who cares much?

I have emptied into this letter substantially all I have to say. There are doubtless men in private life who would fill the War Department as well as any I have mentioned, but the world knows not their merits, and might receive their names with a feeling of disappointment.

P. S. — With regard to visiting Naushon, I should certainly like it, and like to bring my wife. I have another visit to make, however, in another part of Massachusetts; but I shall keep your kind invitation in mind and will write you again.

W. C. B.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 242-4

John M. Forbes to W. P. Lee, July 13, 1861

July 13, 1861.

In a quiet way the Pembroke should hail vessels, and warn them, and get information as to the Jeff Davis. See description of her in my letter book.

If you meet with a pirate, you have a right to take her, provided you are sure, but let us have no swaggering à la C–––. If anybody on board writes bragging letters that get into the papers, I will use my influence to get him on the outside of her. If she can really do something, she will get talked of enough, but talk alone is of no good.

No harm in a little deviation from the straight track. Remember there are many cruisers out after pirates besides yourselves. Try to telegraph us from Fort Monroe, when we may expect you, and look out for telegraph hence via Baltimore.

Don't waste your new shells — twenty-four pounds.

Truly yours,

J. M. Forbes.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 217-8