Showing posts with label Charlottesville VA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charlottesville VA. Show all posts

Friday, May 5, 2023

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, April 19, 1864

Camp near Orange Court House, Va.,
April 19, 1864.

We are still in camp, but yesterday we received an order to send back all surplus baggage and be ready to move at any time. No doubt we shall soon have a very interesting time of it and the papers will then be full of news.

General Longstreet's army is at Charlottesville. He may come here or go to the peninsula. That of course will depend on circumstances. All the news we received yesterday was very encouraging. The capture of Fort Pillow by Forrest was excellent for us. Gold is now 179 in New York, but if we whip Grant we may send it up to 300 for them.

I was glad to hear that old Jim Beauschelle was at our home. My father is decidedly hostile to the preachers who stay at home and preach to the women and old men, but I know he treated Beauschelle like a prince. If you see a certain widow, you might take the liberty of teasing her a little about old Beauschelle. She sent him some nice warm articles of clothing recently.

I have just finished my breakfast. I had corn bread, meat, molasses and coffee. Such a meal is first-rate for soldiers, but if the same were offered me at home I should feel like turning up my nose at it.

SOURCE: Dr. Spencer G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 90-1

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Diary of Brigadier-General Rutherford B. Hayes: Monday, March 6, 1865

Sheridan last Monday with a large cavalry force went towards Staunton, Charlottesville, and Lynchburg to destroy stores and connections with Richmond. Mud and water his chief enemies.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 565

Saturday, January 12, 2019

Diary of Captain Luman Harris Tenney: March 4, 1865

Yesterday moved on to Charlottesville and burned three heavy bridges on Va. Central. Awful roads. Rainy still. Camped at C. Nice place. Burned bridges. Went out on Lynchburg road and tore up track. Clear and pleasant. Worked hard. Went back to old camp. Plenty of forage. Slept well.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 146

Friday, July 24, 2015

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw Lowell, October 15, 1864

Cedar Creek, Oct. 15, 1864.

I've only ten minutes to write to you; I was out all this morning visiting, junketing at the various headquarters, and only came home to dinner at two o'clock. Since that, has come an order to get in light marching order, and be in readiness to move. I conjecture a raid is on foot for our Division, — perhaps to Charlottesville, — if so, you will not hear from me again for a week or even ten days.

I think Sheridan will have to fight one more battle here, probably while we are gone, — I am sorry to miss it, but perhaps we shall be of more use where we are going. You will know that I am safe, at any rate, — so safe do I feel to-night that I shall be riding Berold; I rode him this morning, too, in making my calls. I heard for the first time that poor Colonel Wells of the Thirty-Fourth Massachusetts was killed in the attack the Rebs made on our camps day before yesterday, —  he was considered an excellent officer.1

What a letter this for the last one for ten days, but you know how I am when I have anything on foot, I'm all distracted.
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1 George Duncan Wells, a faithful and gallant Massachusetts soldier. He graduated at Williams College, 1846, and at the Harvard Law School, 1848, and practised law until the outbreak of the war. As Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Massachusetts Infantry, he served at Bull Run and in the Peninsular Campaign. In July, 1862, he was commissioned Colonel of the Thirty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, and served in Western Virginia. In July, 1863, he commanded a brigade with General Naglee, with credit. Next year, in the Shenandoah Campaign, he commanded the First Brigade, in General Crook's First Division, and did good service in many fights in the Valley. He received the personal congratulations of General Sheridan, on the field of battle at Winchester (Opequan). On October 12, 1864, he was mortally wounded, and died next day, in the hands of the enemy. His commission as Brevet Brigadier-General dated from the day of his last fight.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 360-1, 473-4

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Diary of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire: October 3, 1862

University Of Virginia.—Arrived here yesterday, and met with a glowing reception from the friends of my youth, Professor and Mrs. Maupin. My sister, Mrs. C, and daughters, staying next door, at Professor Minor's. In less than five minutes we were all together — the first time for many anxious months. They are refugees, and can only hear from home when our army finds it convenient to clear “The Valley” of invaders. One of her sons, dear R., was ordered last winter, by General Jackson, to command a body of soldiers, whom he sent to break the dam in the Potomac, which at that point supplied the Ohio and Chesapeake Canal with water — (it also worked his mother's mill) — and the breaking of which, if effectually done, would prevent the Yankees from using the canal for transportation. This dangerous project was undertaken most cheerfully, and was most thoroughly effected. It was necessarily done in the night, to elude the vigilance of the Yankees on the Maryland shore. In the dead hour of the winter's night did some of the first gentlemen's sons in the South, who happened to belong to that portion of the army, work up to their waists in water, silently, quietly, until the work was finished; nor were they discovered until day dawned, and revealed them retiring; then shot and shell began to fall among them furiously. One of the brave band fell! Notwithstanding their danger, his companions could not leave him, but lifted him tenderly, and carried him to a place of safety, where he might at least have Christian burial by sympathizing friends. The large old mill, which had for many years sent its hundreds and thousands of barrels of flour to the Baltimore and Georgetown markets, still stood, though its wheels were hushed by the daring act of the night before. It had been used of late by the Yankees for their own purposes. The enemy seemed to have forgotten to destroy it, but the Union men could not allow their old friend and neighbour, though the widow of one whom they had once delighted to honour, to have such valuable property left to her; they immediately communicated to the Yankees that it belonged to the mother of the leader of the party who broke the dam. It was, of course, shelled and burned to the ground, except its old stone walls, which defied their fury; but if it helped the cause, the loss of the property did not weigh a feather with the family. This son has just been promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Second Regiment. His mother expressed her gratification, but added, that he had been so successful as captain of the company which he had raised, drilled, and led out from his own county, that she dreaded a change; besides, in that Second Regiment so many field-officers had fallen, that she had almost a superstitious dread of it. My dear R., his heart is so bound up in the cause, that self-preservation is the last thing that ever occurs to him. Oh! I trust that all evil may be averted from him.

It is sad to see these elegant University buildings, and that beautiful lawn, which I have always seen teeming with life and animation, now almost deserted. Two of the Professors are on the field; the Professors of Medicine and Surgery are surgeons in the neighbouring hospitals, and Dr. B. is Assistant Secretary of War. Others, unfitted by age and other circumstances for the service, are here pursuing their usual avocations with assiduity, but through many difficulties. The students are mere boys, not arrived at military age, or, in a few instances, wounded soldiers unfit for service. The hospitals at Charlottesville are very large, and said to be admirably managed. Every lady at this place, or in town, seems to be actively engaged in making the patients comfortable. The kitchens are presided over by ladies; each lady knows her own day to go to a particular kitchen to see that the food is properly prepared and served to the patients — I mean those who are confined to their beds or wards — the regular “matrons” do every thing else. This rich country supplies milk, butter, fruit, vegetables, fresh meat, etc.; and all kinds of delicacies are prepared by the ladies. Our friends, Dr. and Mrs. M., have sons in the field. The elder, though not of military age at the time, shouldered his musket at the first tap of the drum; he would not be restrained. When I saw him, with his slight figure and boyish look, in his uniform and soldier's trappings, my heart sank within me, as I remembered that ’twas but as yesterday that this child, with his picture beauty, was the pet of the household. Now he is quite a veteran; has fought on many a field; scorns the idea of danger; prides himself on being a good soldier; never unnecessarily asking for furloughs, and always being present at roll-call. The second son, but sixteen, as his father would not allow him to enlist, has gone as an independent in a cavalry company, merely, he said, for the “summer campaign.” Ah! in this “summer campaign,” scarcely equalled in the annals of history, what horrors might have come! But he has passed through safely, and his father has recalled him to his college duties. Their mother bears the separation from them, as women of the South invariably do, calmly and quietly, with a humble trust in God, and an unwavering confidence in the justice and righteousness of our cause.

SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War, p. 161-4

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, March 13, 1865

March 13, 1865

We have a long telegram from Sheridan, dated Columbia (a small place on the James, between Lynchburg and Richmond). His raid has been a complete surprise. After defeating Early utterly at Waynesboro', he met with no further opposition, but entered Charlottesville and destroyed the rail and bridges; then struck south and got to the James, where he destroyed all destructible parts of the Lynchburg canal, and continued the work as he marched down the river. If you will look at the map, you will see how important it is to break these routes, for they leave only the road via Burkeville Junction open to their great base, Lynchburg. The canal was especially important for transportation of supplies, just as the Erie Canal is so essential to bring to market the grain of the West. . . .

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 320-1

Friday, February 13, 2015

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: Tuesday August 6, 1861

The North requires 600,000 men to invade us. Truly we are a formidable power! The Herald says it is useless to move with a man less than that. England has made it all up with them, or rather, she will not break with them. Jerome Napoleon is in Washington and not our friend.

Doctor Gibbes is a bird of ill omen. To-day he tells me eight of our men have died at the Charlottesville Hospital. It seems sickness is more redoubtable in an army than the enemy's guns. There are 1,100 there hors de combat, and typhoid fever is with them. They want money, clothes, and nurses. So, as I am writing, right and left the letters fly, calling for help from the sister societies at home. Good and patriotic women at home are easily stirred to their work.

Mary Hammy has many strings to her bow — a fiancé in the army, and Doctor Berrien in town. To-day she drove out with Major Smith and Colonel Hood. Yesterday, Custis Lee was here. She is a prudent little puss and needs no good advice, if I were one to give it.

Lawrence does all our shopping. All his master's money has been in his hands until now. I thought it injudicious when gold is at such a premium to leave it lying loose in the tray of a trunk. So I have sewed it up in a belt, which I can wear upon an emergency. The cloth is wadded and my diamonds are there, too. It has strong strings, and can be tied under my hoops about my waist if the worst comes to the worst, as the saying is. Lawrence wears the same bronze mask. No sign of anything he may feel or think of my latest fancy. Only, I know he asks for twice as much money now when he goes to buy things.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 100-1

Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, March 13, 1865

Headquarters Army Of The Potomac, March 13, 1865.

I wish you would think favorably of my proposition to take a trip to the army. I think it would arouse you and distract your mind.

You do not do justice quite to the court of inquiry. The finding is a complete vindication of my part in the operation. I enclose a slip from the Army and Navy Journal, which gives in full the “Finding of the Court,” the papers having only published that portion in which individual officers are censured by name.1 On reading this you will see the court states that, had my orders been carried out, success was certain, and that failure was due to the neglect of my orders by Major General Burnside and others. It is true the court might have amplified this much more than it did, and not ignored altogether Burnside's extraordinary course, in the withdrawal of his command, which was the cause of our great loss. The Richmond papers say Hampton has whipped Kilpatrick, and we have a despatch from Sheridan reporting the occupation of Charlottesville and destruction of the James River Canal.
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1 For article mentioned, see Appendix T.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 267

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Diary of Judith W. McGuire: August 1, 1861

This whole neighbourhood is busy to-day, loading a wagon with comforts for the hospital at Fairfax Court-House. They send it down once a week, under the care of a gentleman, who, being too old for the service, does this for the sick and wounded. The hospitals at Centreville and the Court-House are filled with those who are too severely wounded to be taken to Richmond, Charlottesville, and the larger hospitals. They are supplied, to a very great degree, by private contributions. It is beautiful to see the self-denying efforts of these patriotic people. Everybody sends contributions on the appointed day to Millwood, where the wagon is filled to overflowing with garments, brandy, wine, nice bread, biscuit, sponge cake, butter, fresh vegetables, fruit, etc. Being thoroughly packed, it goes off for a journey of fifty miles.

SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War, p. 48-9