Diary of 2nd Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Tuesday, February 7, 1865

Day cool. A. M. making Inspection reports. P. M. rec my commission as 2d Lt of co G. aggregate too low to muster. The Negro Brigade from Ft Smith is doing most of the Picket duty

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 573

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant George G. Smith: September 25, 1863

Received provisional commission from Major General Banks as Second Lieutenant Company C First Louisiana Volunteer Infantry (white) Date of Commission September 8, 1863, Number of Commission 544.

SOURCE: Abstracted from George G. Smith, Leaves from a Soldier's Diary, p. 90

Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas’ General Orders No. 71, September 5, 1861

General Orders No. 71

WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, September 5, 1861.

I. All persons having received authority to raise volunteer regiments, batteries, or companies, in the State of New York, will immediately report to His Excellency Governor Morgan, at Albany, the present state of their respective organizations. They and their commands are placed under the orders of Governor Morgan, who will reorganize them and prepare them for service in the manner he may judge most advantageous for the interests of the General Government.

II. All commissioned officers of regiments, batteries, or companies, now in service, raised in the State of New York independent of the State authorities, can receive commissions from the Governor of that State by reporting to the adjutant general thereof and filing in his office a duplicate of the muster-in rolls of their respective organizations.

By order:

 L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 1 (Serial No. 122), p. 483-4

Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett to Colonel Francis W. Palfrey, July 1, 1864

Washington, D. C., July 1,1864.

Here it is July, Frank, and I am not out of this miserable place yet. I expect now to go down to the front the first of next week. I am assigned to the Ninth Corps, and shall keep the same brigade that I was in before. It was very strong,—five regiments Massachusetts and two United States. Since I came away, the Regulars have been transferred to the Fifth Corps. I shall probably have no permanent staff at present. As soon as we have a respite and reorganize a little, I shall try to get together a congenial and efficient one. Ben has been waiting for my promotion, to go on the staff. I have written him that it is a bad time to join just now, — heat, dirt, reduced commands, etc., — and it may discourage him. Of course it will be pleasant for me to have him for a companion. Herbert is here now. Goes back to-night. He would like to go with me if he could ride. He gets very impatient and blue at times. If he could only ride!

Yes, Frank, I have got my commission at last, signed by Abe and Stanton. Gotten up in great style, in a brown tin case, with my name, rank, etc., in large letters of gold on the outside. The appointment was made early in June, but the Senate had no executive session till the 20th. You were right, Frank, in addressing my letter as you did, although the confirmation was made when I got it. I was very much annoyed by receiving letters of congratulation, etc., before the confirmation. Meant in all kindness, of course; but I was sorry that anything was known about it until it was confirmed. I saw it, the appointment, in the paper (Boston paper at that) first, just after I wrote you last. I must say I hardly expected it.

The weather here has been fearfully hot. Almost unbearable. I gave a small dinner night before last at Buhler's; Majors Cutting and Raymond, of Augur's Staff, Caspar and Herb., with one or two others, made a very pleasant little party. Buhler quite surpassed my expectations. It is the best place in Washington, I think, although I heard that it had fallen off.

Yesterday, Herb. and I drove out to Fall's Church, to Caspar's Camp. I have found myself many times this last week wishing that you were here; but you were enjoying the cool breezes which I could not have procured for you here, and were better off.

I have too much in my mind that I want to say to you to begin to put it on paper.

The “gobbling” of the old brigade that the Twentieth was in was an unlucky termination to a long and brave career. I am glad the Twentieth escaped.

I am getting quite thin. My stump gets smaller every day. I have two thicknesses of leather, and two or three wads of paper round my stump, to fill up the socket. If it continues to wilt, I shall have to get another new socket made, which will delay me.

Ever yours,

Frank.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 107-8

Diary of Colonel William F. Bartlett: June 21, 1864

I was waked this morning by James, coming in and reading to me that the Senate last night confirmed W. F. B. to be Brigadier-general Volunteers. Thank God! Went to Baltimore, evening.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 106

Diary of Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett: June 28, 1864

Received my commission as Brigadier-general, date June 20. Go to Ninth Corps.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 106

Edward Everett Hale to Charles Hale, July 31, 1862

July 31, 1862.

Our recruiting goes on very well, except in Boston where it has been badly botched, and drags terribly. I suppose we none of us knew last year how much the recruiting was stimulated by the zeal of officers to fill their companies and earn their commissions. Now we make few or no new officers, filling the vacancies from the ranks, and exhorting people to go into the old regiments. It is therefore nobody's business in particular to go round hunting up the men. In the country where everybody attends to what is nobody's business this makes no difference and every day the selectmen of any number of towns appear with their full quotas of men taking them to the camps. But public meetings and all that sort of thing do not do this work for us in Boston. They say today that the Maine quota is full. I dare say, that with the absurd bounty we are paying for men which has done more to check recruiting than to help it, we shall draw men from Maine to fill up our gaps. People are getting into better spirit and the tone of the public is absolutely firm, ‘They have just found out that this is not a picnic,’ as I heard some one say in the cars today.

SOURCE: Edward Everett Hale Jr., The Life and Letters of Edward Everett Hale, Volume 1, p. 329-30

Captain William Thompson Lusk to Elizabeth Adams Lusk, January 19, 1862

Headquarters 2d Brigade S. C.

Beaufort, S. C. Jan. 19th, 1862.

My dear Mother:

I am so accustomed to commence all documents in an official form, that even in a letter to you I find myself employing the customary heading. I regret very much that this letter will not reach you by the “Atlantic,” but it is too late — the steamer sailed a day sooner than at first reported. But I trust Walter has told you I am well, that Uncle Phelps has reported my purchase of a new horse, and that Capt. Wm. Elliott, who has returned home with your address in his pocket, will relieve your mind of all anxiety as regards the effect of my late illness. But tell Walter that all my fretting and fuming on two points was in vain. After writing as I did about the sword, I went to the express office to make a last inquiry. The office was closed, so I despatched my letter. On going to dinner a few hours later, one of the officers spoke up: “By the way, there's a package for you at the express office, about three feet long and four or five inches deep.” My sword after a long delay at Fortress Monroe, at last had come. I am charmed at Walter's forethought, and I promise to wear it with double pleasure, for the great love we bear each other.

Then the matter of the 79th officers sent out with commissions from Gov. Morgan, although not having a pretext of a claim for recognition — well, my efforts, somewhat Quixotic, and decidedly mutinous in character, were of no avail. I had set my heart on seeing Wm. Elliott in a position which every man who knows him, acknowledges to be his due. The Lieut.-Colonelcy was vacant, the Colonelcy too; one of these offices the General declared he should have, but the Governor of New York had to attend to his friends and so William lost his promotion. I was indignant, outraged. I tried to get all the officers to resign, sooner than submit to imposition. Luckily for me, the men I sought to influence were “Canny Scotch” — the promotion of Elliott had no material interest to them. They could say that it was a shame, but losing the liberal pay the U. S. Government allows, was too much of a stretch upon their sense of justice, so I was saved a deal of foolishness which must have ended disastrously. Necessarily in the army a great amount of temporary injustice is done, but in the long run merit will rise. And so I satisfy myself that Wm. Elliott will yet be a Colonel or something more, but he must bide his time. I meant to have written ever so much more, but just hearing the “Baltic” sails directly, I halt abruptly, hoping this may catch her.

Love to all.

Affectionately,

Will.

SOURCE: William Chittenden Lusk, Editor, War Letters of William Thompson Lusk, p. 116-7

Diary of Luman Harris Tenney: Friday, August 1, 1862

In camp on Cow Creek, 40 miles south of Fort Scott. Two men were killed here by Standwaite some time ago. Poor water. The big twenty-five miles prairie just beyond. Rode with the Sergeant Major. Fooled with him considerably. Good time. Capt. Smith played fool, infringing on the Second Battalion. Major Purington gave him a blowing. The mail came this evening. Letters from Fannie and home. They did me good. I long for the furlough time to come. Barnitz received a commission as Second Lieutenant. Pleased all. Wrote a short letter to Fannie. Purington thinks of going on tomorrow.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 23

Major Charles Fessenden Morse: June 22, 1863

Near Leesburg, June 22, 1863.

I wrote a short note yesterday to let you know my whereabouts and relieve any anxiety you might feel for me; to-day I'll try to give you a few particulars of our movements.*

Friday, the 12th, I left headquarters, ease and luxury. The regiment was still away with the cavalry. However, the camp was standing and about sixty men and two or three officers were there who had been left behind for various reasons, so I had a small command.

That night, orders came to march at daylight. We moved back about three miles towards Acquia Creek, stayed there through the day, and at night started forward again and marched till eight the following morning, halting this side of Dumfries. Sunday, we rested all day while the train of our corps and the Sixth passed by. Monday, we started at three in the morning and marched twenty-three miles under a burning sun to Fairfax C. H., getting into camp about ten P. M. This was a really terrible march; the day was very hot and a great part of the time we were marching side by side with a column of wagons, which raised a dust that was almost choking. Next morning, Tuesday, about eight, the Second Massachusetts and Third Wisconsin made their appearance from their cavalry excursion; they marched into camp covered with dust and dirt, but looking soldierly as ever. All the regiments of the corps that were near by turned out to have a look at them and give them very hearty greetings, for the two old regiments are now pretty well known in the corps.

I had a very pleasant time hearing the accounts of the fight at Beverly Ford; all seemed to think that if they had to fight cavalry only till the end of the war, they would have a very jolly time. Whenever our infantry skirmishers made their appearance, the cavalry left in a hurry, showing a great respect for our Enfields.

A company of the Second and one of the Third Wisconsin, made an attack on about two hundred of the enemy's cavalry who were dismounted and lying behind a stone wall firing their carbines; our men, not numbering more than forty in all, fired one volley, then made a rush, capturing over twenty and finding, at least, as many killed by their shots. Wednesday morning, we marched again to near Drainsville. Thursday, we marched again, reaching Leesburg towards night. All of the corps, except our regiment and the Third Wisconsin with a battery of artillery, remained east of the town; we kept on a mile farther and occupied a fort and strong position on one of the Katoctin Hills.

We are still in this same position, how long to remain, no one here knows. Our army lies stretched away for a number of miles towards Thoroughfare Gap, the Eleventh Corps occupying an important position on our right, its flank touching the Potomac.

We can only surmise whether Lee will attack us here or not; he is moving somewhere in our front but not very near. We have at last had a severe rain storm and the weather is more comfortable. It hailed for about an hour very severely; the hailstones were, at least, as large as rifle bullets; I was riding at the time and could hardly force my horse against the storm; he would rear and kick, and didn't seem to understand at all what was going on.

The battle that I spoke of yesterday proves to have been quite a success for us; we drove the rebels three miles and captured three guns and some prisoners. Our wagon camp is on the field where Ball’s Bluff was fought. I am in command of the regiment now, Major Mudge being on Court Martial. I don’t see anything of my commission yet.

_______________

* The writer had been promoted to be Major of his regiment but had not yet received his commission.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 139-41

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 17, 1862

A Mr. O. Hendricks, very lately of the U. S. Coast Survey, has returned from a tour of the coast of North Carolina, and has been commissioned a lieutenant by the Secretary of War. He says Burnside will take Roanoke Island, and that Wise and all his men will be captured. It is a man-trap.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 105

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: August 12, 1861

There is trouble with Mr. Tochman, who was authorized to raise a regiment or so of foreigners in Louisiana. These troops were called (by whom ?) the Polish Brigade, though, perhaps, not one hundred Polanders were on the muster-rolls; Major Tochman being styled General Tochman by “everybody,” he has intimated to the President his expectation of being commissioned a brigadier. The President, on his part, has promptly and emphatically, as is sometimes his wont, declared his purpose to give him no such commission. He never, for a moment, thought of making him more than a colonel. To this the major demurs, and furnishes a voluminous correspondence to prove that his claims for the position of brigadier-general had been recognized by the Secretary of War.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 72

1st Lieutenant Charles Fessenden Morse, September 18, 1861

September 18, 1861.

I had the pleasantest time, yesterday, that I have had this long while. General Lander's Brigade, including the Twentieth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, was on the march from Washington to Poolsville; they were to pass within about two miles of our camp, so Captain Curtis and I got permission to go off and see them. It was the first time I had left camp except for picket or other duty, since I left Camp Andrew; it seemed very much of a holiday. We met the Twentieth after about three-quarters of an hour's march. I tell you we were glad to see so many good fellows; at least a dozen of them were intimate friends; Charley Pierson, the Adjutant, Bill Bartlett, Caspar Crowninshield, John Putnam, Harry Tremlett, and lots of others. They were all looking well, dusty and sunburnt. Captain Schmidt seemed very glad to see me; he was very unchanged. After walking a mile or two with them, we returned to camp well pleased with our visit. Poolsville, where they are now encamped, is seven miles from us.

I have just made me a delicious cup of black coffee; it will keep me awake the rest of the night, I think, as it is now near one. I have been on court-martial for the last two or three days; Rufus Choate was Judge Advocate. The way we put cases through would have astonished a police court.

Captain Curtis went on to Washington, to-night, to rectify an error in the date of pay roll; he will be back some time to-morrow or next day. General McClellan is going to review General Banks' division Tuesday. It will be a great sight, if they can find a good place for it; fifteen thousand troops marching company front. Ellis has been made brigade commissary, a regular staff appointment. Sedgwick has received an appointment on some staff with the rank of major. Lieutenant Howard and Tom Robeson have been made signal officers, and are detached. Copeland has gone on to Banks' staff, and there is some talk of making Charley Horton or Steve Perkins ordnance officers of this division, so you see our roster of officers is quite reduced. If anybody is wanted for any purpose in this division, our regiment is sure to be called on to supply him; it is complimentary to us, to be sure, but it makes it rather hard for the rest. You asked me, in a letter some time ago, if I was trying to get a commission in the regular army. Not a bit of it! I shall try for one some of these days, likely, but not till I have seen some service. I should not care for anything less than a captaincy in the regular army, and it will be a good while before I can expect that. I suppose you notice by my talk that I don't think we have a short war before us; the more I think of it, the more I think it will be a long one. I saw a list of Tom Stevenson's officers, the other day. There are several very good companies, Bob Clark's, Bob Steve's and some others.

Captain Robert Williams, General Banks' Assistant Adjutant-General, has got a furlough from the regular army, and is going to take command of the cavalry regiment now raising in Massachusetts; rather singular that he, a Virginian, should be the Colonel of a regiment raised to fight his own State. He is a very fine officer, and I should think would be much liked; his present rank is that of captain.

You will hardly believe it when I tell you that the men of our regiment look better now as regards their rifles, accoutrements and dress, than they did at Camp Andrew. At dress parades and inspections, we insist on every man having his shoes and belts shining bright with blacking, also on every button and bit of brass about their firelock being polished, and, if on drawing the rammer from the barrel, there is enough rust or dirt on it to soil a white glove, the man who owns it is obliged to clean it (the rifle), immediately after parade, to the satisfaction of his officer. Their clothes are considerably worn, but the general effect is far better than ever before. We have earned the name of the “stuck up” Massachusetts Regiment, which amuses us considerably. Others think we cannot get along well with our men, as they never see them sitting around in our tents smoking and joking with us and enjoying themselves generally, as they are allowed to do in some regiments. We let them think so.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 22-4

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: July 13, 1861

The Secretary made peace yesterday between the general and the colonel, or a duel might have transpired.

To-day the colonel carried into the Secretary a number of applications for commissions as surgeons. Among the applicants were some of the colonel's friends. He returned soon after in a rage, slamming the door after him, and then throwing down the papers violently on the floor. He picked them up the next moment, however, and sitting down beside me, became instantaneously as gentle as a dove. He said the men of science were thrust aside to give way to quacks; but, laughing, he remarked that the quacks would do well enough for the wounded. Our men would have too much sense to submit to their malpractice.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 62

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: July 8, 1861

There is a stout gray-haired old man here from Maryland applying to be made a general. It is Major J. H. Winder, a graduate of West Point, I believe; and I think he will be successful. He is the son, I believe, of the Gen. Winder whose command in the last war with England-unfortunately permitted the City of Washington to fall into the hands of the enemy. I have almost a superstitious faith in lucky generals, and a corresponding prejudice against unlucky ones, and their progeny. But I cannot suppose the President will order this general into the field. He may take the prisoners into his custody — and do other jobs as a sort of head of military police; and this is what I learn he proposes. And the French Prince, Polignac, has been made a colonel; and a great nephew of Koscinsko has been commissioned a lieutenant in the regular army. Well, Washington had his Lafayette — and I like the nativity of these officers better than that of the Northern men, still applying for commissions.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 59-60

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: March 17, 1862

Back to the Congaree House to await my husband, who has made a rapid visit to the Wateree region. As we drove up Mr. Chesnut said: '”Did you see the stare of respectful admiration E. R. bestowed upon you, so curiously prolonged? I could hardly keep my countenance.” “Yes, my dear child, I feel the honor of it, though my individual self goes for nothing in it. I am the wife of the man who has the appointing power just now, with so many commissions to be filled. I am nearly forty, and they do my understanding the credit to suppose I can be made to believe they admire my mature charms. They think they fool me into thinking that they believe me charming. There is hardly any farce in the world more laughable.'”

Last night a house was set on fire; last week two houses. “The red cock crows in the barn!” Our troubles thicken, indeed, when treachery comes from that dark quarter.

When the President first offered Johnston Pettigrew a brigadier-generalship, his answer was: “Not yet. Too many men are ahead of me who have earned their promotion in the field. I will come after them, not before. So far I have done nothing to merit reward,” etc. He would not take rank when he could get it. I fancy he may cool his heels now waiting for it. He was too high and mighty. There was another conscientious man — Burnet, of Kentucky. He gave up his regiment to his lieutenant-colonel when he found the lieutenant-colonel could command the regiment and Burnet could not maneuver it in the field. He went into the fight simply as an aide to Floyd. Modest merit just now is at a premium.

William Gilmore Simms is here; read us his last poetry; have forgotten already what it was about. It was not tiresome, however, and that is a great thing when people will persist in reading their own rhymes.

I did not hear what Mr. Preston was saying. “The last piece of Richmond news,'” Mr. Chesnut said as he went away, and he looked so fagged out I asked no questions. I knew it was bad.

At daylight there was a loud knocking at my door. I hurried on a dressing-gown and flew to open the door. “Mrs. Chesnut, Mrs. M. says please don't forget her son. Mr. Chesnut, she hears, has come back. Please get her son a commission. He must have an office.” I shut the door in the servant's face. If I had the influence these foolish people attribute to me why should I not help my own? I have a brother, two brothers-in-law, and no end of kin, all gentlemen privates, and privates they would stay to the end of time before they said a word to me about commissions. After a long talk we were finally disgusted and the men went off to the bulletin-board. Whatever else it shows, good or bad, there is always woe for some house in the killed and wounded. We have need of stout hearts. I feel a sinking of mine as we drive near the board.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 144-6

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: March 14, 1862

Thank God for a ship! It has run the blockade with arms and ammunition.

There are no negro sexual relations half so shocking as Mormonism. And yet the-United States Government makes no bones of receiving Mormons into its sacred heart. Mr. Venable said England held her hand over “the malignant and the turbaned Turk” to save and protect him, slaves, seraglio, and all. But she rolls up the whites of her eyes at us when slavery, bad as it is, is stepping out into freedom every moment through Christian civilization. They do not grudge the Turk even his bag and Bosphorus privileges. To a recalcitrant wife it is, “Here yawns the sack; there rolls the sea,” etc. And France, the bold, the brave, the ever free, she has not been so tender-footed in Algiers. But then the “you are another” argument is a shabby one. “You see,” says Mary Preston sagaciously, “we are white Christian descendants of Huguenots and Cavaliers, and they expect of us different conduct.”

Went in Mrs. Preston's landau to bring my boarding-school girls here to dine. At my door met J. F., who wanted me then and there to promise to help him with his commission or put him in the way of one. At the carriage steps I was handed in by Gus Smith, who wants his brother made commissary. The beauty of it all is they think I have some influence, and I have not a particle. The subject of Mr. Chesnut's military affairs, promotions, etc., is never mentioned by me.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 143

John Lothrop Motley to Mary Benjamin Motley, July 11, 1861

Nahant, July 11, 1861.

My Dearest Mary: I write you this line only to tell you of a most dreadful and heartrending calamity which has thrown this community into mourning. Mrs. Longfellow was burned to death the day before yesterday. She was making seals for the amusement of her younger children in her house at Cambridge, when the upper part of her thin muslin dress caught fire, and in an instant she was all in flames. Longfellow was in the next room. Hearing the shrieks of the children, he flew to her assistance, and seizing a rug, held it around her, and although she broke away from him, attempting to run from the danger, — as persons in such cases seem invariably to do, — he succeeded at last in extinguishing the fire, but not until she was fatally injured. She lingered through the night, attended by several physicians, and expired yesterday forenoon about half-past ten, July 10. I understand that, through the influence of ether, her sufferings were not very intense after the immediate catastrophe, and that she was unconscious for a good while before she died. Longfellow was severely burned in the hands, but not dangerously; but he, too, has been kept under the effects of ether, and is spoken of as in almost a raving condition.

I have not had the heart to make any inquiries, but think that on Saturday I will try to see Mrs. Appleton. It is not more than five or six days since I was calling upon Mr. Appleton, who has so long been dying by inches, and who will look less like death than he does now when he shall have breathed his last. F— was there, and greeted me most affectionately, making the kindest inquiries after you; she never looked more beautiful, or seemed happier, and Longfellow was, as he always is, genial and kind and gentle. I should have stayed with them probably during commencement week at Cambridge, and was looking forward with great pleasure to being with them for a little while. There is something almost too terrible to reflect upon in this utterly trivial way in which this noble, magnificent woman has been put to a hideous death. When you hear of a shipwreck, or a stroke of lightning, or even a railway accident, the mind does not shrink appalled from the contemplation of the tragedy so utterly as it now does, from finding all this misery resulting from such an almost invisible cause — a drop of sealing-wax on a muslin dress. Deaths in battle are telegraphed to us hourly, and hosts of our young men are marching forth to mortal combat day by day, but these are in the natural course of events. Fate, acting on its large scale, has decreed that a great war shall rage, and we are prepared for tragedies, and we know that those who fall have been discharging the highest of duties. But what compensation or consolation is there for such a calamity as this?

I was with Holmes at the Parker House when the news was brought to us. We had gone to see the Greenes (William), with whom we were speaking in the hall. Holmes wanted a commission in Greene's regiment for his son Wendell in case he finds Lee's list completed. We both burst into tears, and did nothing more that morning about military matters; Holmes is, however, going out to see Lee to-morrow morning at his camp at Readville, and will doubtless obtain a lieutenancy under him for his son. Wendell is a very fine fellow, graduating this commencement, but he can't be kept in college any longer. He will get his degree, and is one of the first scholars in his class, but, like nearly all the young men, he has been drilling for months long in one of the various preparatory home battalions, and is quite competent for the post he wishes; but there are so many applicants for these commissions that even such a conspicuous youth as he is not sure of getting one immediately.

God bless you, dearest Mary, and my dear children. In great haste,

Affectionately yours,

J. L. M.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume 2, p. 172-4

Diary of Josephine Shaw Lowell: May 20, 1862

Yesterday we had a beautiful and touching proclamation from Lincoln, rendering General Hunter's order freeing the slaves of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia null and void. One of the most extraordinary things that has happened for a long time was the calmness with which that order was received. We have certainly advanced twenty years. The confidence in the President was shown by the entire acquiescence in everything he does. We feel that he is earnest and means to do right. A unique man. Rob's attempt to get a commission is fruitless. Mr. Sumner told him it is impossible.

SOURCE: William Rhinelander Stewart, The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell, p. 26-7

Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood to Samuel Kirkwood Clark, January 1, 1862

Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 1, 1862.

Dear Kirk: — A happy New Year to you. I send you a New Year's gift, in the shape of your commission, so that you are a lieutenant and eighteen years old on the same day.

Be a "good boy" and do your duty manfully, and you will always be sure of the affection of your uncle

KIRKWOOD.

SOURCE: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and Times of Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor, p. 285