Diary of Musician David Lane, December 9, 1862

Camp near Fredericksburg, Dec. 9th, 1862.

It has been a long time—fully five weeks since I made the last entry in this journal. The forced marches, exposure, and insufficient food of the week preceding our arrival at this place had been too much even for me. It had rained or snowed almost continuously; we were out of reach of our supply train for seven days. Food gave out, but on we pressed. When we halted on the evening of our arrival, too utterly worn out to pitch a tent, I spread my blanket on the ground, threw myself upon it and slept the sleep of exhaustion. It rained during the night, and when I awoke I found myself lying in a pool of water that half covered me. My recollection of what occurred for several successive days is very vague; I knew I was being cared for by somebody, somewhere; I had no cares, no anxious doubts or perplexing fears. If in pain, I had not sense to realize it. One morning after, I do not know how many days, I awoke to consciousness; I heard a well-remembered step tripping across the floor and stop at my bedside, a soft, cool hand was pressed upon my brow; a sweet, familiar voice whispered in my ear: "You are better, dear; you will get well now." Nay, do not smile, thou unbelieving cynic, for from that hour—yes, from that instant—I began to mend. I learned afterward that I had been very low with some form of fever; that I was not taken to the hospital because my kind friend and comrade, Orville Collier, had begged the privilege of nursing me in his own tent. I can now sit up, can walk about a little, and hope soon to be well.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 22

Diary of Private Louis Leon: July 28, 1864

We were treated very good on the road, and especially at Goshen, N. Y. The ladies gave us eatables and the men gave us tobacco.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 67

Diary of Private John J. Wyeth, August 30, 1862

Our first morning in camp. We were rudely awakened and dragged from our bunks at six o’clock, very few being used to such early hours, except perhaps on 4th of July, and were expected to be on the parade ground before our eyes were fairly open.

My advice is if you ever enlist again, start with buckle or congress boots, or none at all, don’t wear laced ones. Why Thereby hangs a tale. One man who wore laced boots was late, consequently had to fall in at the foot of the column. In a minute or two, around came the adjutant and some other officer, who wanted a man for guard. The man who was late at roll-call, was detailed of course. He went without a word was posted on the edge of a pond his orders being “Keep this water from being defiled, allow no privates to bathe here, let only the officers bathe and the cooks draw water to cook with.” The orders were fulfilled, but the poor guard was forgotten, and paced up and mostly down (as it was a pleasant grassy sward,) till eleven o clock. That was his first experience of guard duty, and he always owed a grudge to the sergeant of that guard and his laced boots.

Meanwhile, the company, left standing in the street, with their towels, combs, &c., proceeded to the water, where the pride of many a family got down on his knees, and went through the farce of a toilet, and then back to breakfast.

To-day we have been busy cleaning up and getting ready for our friends from home. It has been as novel a day as last night was new, it is a great change, but we will conquer this, and probably worse.

Our friends began to arrive about three o clock, and by supper-time the barracks were well filled, many remaining to supper so shawls and blankets were spread upon the ground, and we gave them a sample of our food. The coffee was good but so hot, and having no saucer with which to cool the beverage, we had to leave it till the last course. Our plates were plated with tin, but very shallow, and as bean soup was our principal course we had some little trouble in engineering it from the cook s quarters to our tables. We must not forget the bread, it was made by the State, and by the looks, had been owned by the State since the Mexican war. We had never seen the like, and begged to be excused from enduring much of it at a time. (We afterwards found no occasion to grumble at our food, for as you may remember, we were looked after well during our whole service. We had as good rations as any one could wish, but here, within ten miles of home, we felt that this was rough on the boys.)

For a week, little was done but feed and drill us, to toughen us for the dim future, and the furloughs were granted very freely. We were soon astonished to find that we had for a surgeon, a man who meant business. Among other things, he thought government clothes were all that we needed, so spring and fall overcoats and fancy dry goods had to be bundled up and sent home. All our good things were cleaned out, everything was contraband excepting what the government

allowed. We had always thought it a free country, but this broke in on our individual ideas of personal freedom, and we began to think we were fast losing all trace of civil rights, and becoming soldiers pure and simple. Nothing could be brought into camp by our friends unless we could eat it before the next morning but goodies would come, and as we had to eat them, of course we were sick.

SOURCE: John Jasper Wyeth, Leaves from a Diary Written While Serving in Co. E, 44 Mass. Dep’t of North Carolina from September 1862 to June 1863, p. 6-7

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, August 10, 1863

Camp near Orange Court House, Va.,

August 10, 1863.

All is quiet here now. When two armies have a great battle both sides are so crippled up that neither is anxious to fight soon again. The enemy must be somewhere about, or we would not be here. I do think there will not be another fight soon, for the Yankees dread us too much. It seems that Meade will not attack us, and that whenever we fight we must make the attack. I believe it will be a long time before we have another battle, if we have to wait for the enemy to advance on us.

Our long trip lately was very fatiguing, and we all became very thin and lean, although our health remained fine. Your brother tells me the Pioneer Corps had a very hard time of it on the way back from Pennsylvania. He took a more direct route to Culpeper Court House than we did, in order to assist some of Ewell's men in crossing the Shenandoah River.

Wilcox of Alabama is the major-general appointed over us, but he cannot surpass General Pender, who commanded us at Gettysburg. Pender was an officer evidently superior even to Hill. He was as brave as a lion and seemed to love danger. I observed his gallantry on the opening of the battle. He was mortally wounded on the first day as the fight was closing.

I have seen letters from some of our wounded who were left at Gettysburg. They are now in New York, and all say they are treated well. I had a chance to remain with our wounded, and, had I preferred to do so, I might have had a very interesting experience. Our chaplain, Beauschelle, was captured and is somewhere in Yankeedom, and I suppose is in prison, as chaplains are now held as prisoners, but he is apt to be released soon.

Our army is in splendid health and spirits, and is being increased rapidly every day by conscription and by men returning from the hospitals. Last year when a soldier was sent to a hospital he was expected to die, but all who come from the hospitals in Richmond now are highly pleased with the treatment they received. The hospital sections set aside for officers are admirably kept.

We get plenty to eat now and I am beginning to get as fat as ever again. Beef, bacon and flour, and sometimes sugar and potatoes, are issued to us. Dr. Tyler and I have obtained twenty pounds of sugar, a fine ham and one-half bushel of potatoes, and we hope to get some apples and make pies, as we have so much sugar. Vegetables are abundant in the country around here, and I succeeded in getting so much blackberry pie to eat recently that it made me sick.

Our regiment is on picket duty to-day. It went on last night. The weather is intensely hot, as hot as I ever experienced in South Carolina, but we are encamped in a fine grove and do not suffer from the heat as we would if marching.

The first chance I have I will send you two hundred dollars. You must buy everything you need, even if calico does cost three dollars a yard and thread one dollar a spool.

I am extremely gratified to hear that you and George are both in such excellent health, and I am glad you had him baptized.

SOURCE: Dr. Spencer G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 73-5

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, October 8, 1862

Berkeley County, Va.,        

October 8, 1862.

When I left Charlestown yesterday morning the weather was delightful and I felt so buoyant and fresh that it caused me to walk too fast, and to-day I am very sore and stiff. I found four letters from you, and they were a treat, for I had had no intelligence from you since July. I never get homesick in camp when I hear that you and George are well.

Our army has been here for three weeks. We are fourteen miles from Charlestown and ten miles northeast of Winchester. There is smallpox in Winchester, and General Lee has ordered the entire army vaccinated.

The weather is dry and pleasant and the men are in better health than I have ever seen them. This rich valley is full of provisions and the army is well fed. It is said that vast quantities of provisions of every kind are being sent from this valley into the interior to prevent the Yankees from getting them, and that when we have eaten out everything in this region we shall retire toward the interior. We have at present no prospect whatever of a fight. If our victory at Sharpsburg had been complete, doubtless we should now be in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Chapman got sick at Richmond, and we have heard nothing from him since. He had become so disagreeable that we had enough of him.

I have tried to be very faithful to my duty since I have been in the army, and I get along finely with the other doctors.

I will close this letter, so good-by, my dear wife and little boy.

SOURCE: Dr. Spenser G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 33-5

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, December 28, 1862

Camp on Rappahannock River,                

Spottsylvania County, Va.,        

December 28, 1862.

The weather during Christmas has been as warm and pleasant as I ever saw it at the same season in South Carolina, but this morning it was quite clear and cold. I like the cold weather here, for we have such fine health. It is seldom that we have a man to die now. Our army was in better fighting trim at the battle of Fredericksburg than at any time since the war began, and it is still in the same condition. It does not seem possible to defeat this army now with General Lee at its head.

The Yankees are certainly very tired of this war. All the prisoners I have talked with express themselves as completely worn out and disgusted with it. Our regiment was on picket at the river a few days ago and the Yankee pickets were on the opposite bank. There is no firing between pickets now. It is forbidden in both armies. The men do not even have their guns loaded. The two sides talk familiarly with each other, and the Yankees say they are very anxious to have peace and get home.

Edwin and James Allen dined with me yesterday and said it was the best meal they had partaken of since they left home. We had fried tripe, chicken and dumplings, shortened biscuits, tea which was sweetened, and peach pie. Ed slept with me and took breakfast with me this morning. He thought my quarters very good for camp.

I have a pocketful of money now, and while there is a dollar of it left you can have all you wish. I would certainly like so very much to be with you, but it will never do for our country to be sacrificed in order that our selfish desires for comfort and ease may be gratified. It is everyone's duty to lend a helping hand to his country and never abandon his post of duty because a few who have no patriotism do so.

While I write I hear Chaplain Beauschelle preaching at a tremendous rate. He seems to think everyone is very deaf. I should prefer to hear some ludicrous old negro preacher, for that would afford me some amusement.

To save my life I cannot think of anything more to write, so good-by, my dear wife. Take good care of George.

SOURCE: Dr. Spenser G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 39-41

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, March 5, 1863

Camp near Rappahannock River, Va.,

March 5, 1863.

Edwin, Jim Allen and Ben Strother took dinner with me yesterday, and I think I gave them a pretty good dinner for camp. We had biscuit, excellent ham, fried potatoes, rice, light bread, butter, stewed fruit and sugar. They ate heartily, as soldiers always do. Edwin is not suffering from his wound, but on account of it he is privileged to have his baggage hauled.

A man was shot near our regiment last Sunday for desertion. It was a very solemn scene. The condemned man was seated on his coffin with his hands tied across his breast. A file of twelve soldiers was brought up to within six feet of him, and at the command a volley was fired right into his breast. He was hit by but one ball, because eleven of the guns were loaded with powder only. This was done so that no man can be certain that he killed him. If he was, the thought of it might always be painful to him. I have seen men marched through the camps under guard with boards on their backs which were labeled, "I am a coward," or "I am a thief," or "I am a shirker from battle," and I saw one man tied hand and foot astride the neck of a cannon and exposed to view for sixteen hours. These severe punishments seem necessary to preserve discipline.

We have no prospect of a fight now whatever, but if the weather continues dry and pleasant it may come soon. We are too well entrenched for them to attack us here, but it is hard to tell what these crazy, fanatical Yankees intend to do.

Our troops are all in fine health. We seldom send a man to the hospital now, but when we were on the Chickahominy River near Richmond we sent from five to twelve each day. I trust we will be exposed to no greater danger in the future than the bullets, for they do not compare in destructiveness with disease. Captain Hunt's company has lost seven men from bullets and twenty-five from disease, and in most of the companies the difference is greater than this.

The weather for the last three or four days has been very windy and blustering and characteristic of March. It was intensely cold last night, but to-day the sun broke out and it is pleasant.

I am anxious to see George. I know he is a charming little fellow.

SOURCE: Dr. Spenser G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 44-6

Diary of Private Louis Leon: June 23, 1863

Here all day. Tom Tiotter and myself went out to buy something to eat, but when we came to a house, they would close their doors in our faces, or let us knock and not open. We got the ear of one or two ladies, and after proving to them that we were not wild animals nor thieves, they gave us what we wanted, but would not take pay for anything.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 32

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 11, 1864

Showery.

No war news, though important events are looked for speedily. It is time. If our coat-tails were off, we should, in nine cases out of ten, be voted a nation of sans cullottes. We are already meager and emaciated. Yet I believe there is abundance of clothing and food, held by the extortioners. The government should wage war upon the speculators—enemies as mischievous as the Yankees.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 280

Diary of Private Louis Leon: February 6, 1863

Nothing to eat yet. Wortheim, W. Eagle and myself went out foraging, to buy something to eat. We got to one house and there was no one at home, but in the yard there were two chickens, which we captured, for we were afraid they would bite us.

We went to the next house and ate our breakfast. One of the ladies asked us where we got those chickens. I told her that we bought them at the house before we got there. She told us she lived there and that there was nobody at home. I then told her the truth, paid her for them and left. The next house we got to we bought a ham, a peck of meal, a peck of sweet potatoes and some turnips. We took dinner in this house. We then returned to camp. We had a good reception from our mess, as they had still nothing to eat.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 16

Major-General Ulysses S. Grant to Surgeon John Moore, July 14, 1863

Head Quarters, Dept, of the Ten,        

Vicksburg Miss. July 14th 1863

Surgeon J. Moore

        Medical Director,

Sir:

Gen. Smith,' C, S, A. complains that the prisoners in hospitals, in many cases have not received proper supplies of either medicine or food. In some cases the sick have only had hard bread and pork although requisitions have been sent to the Medical Purveyor for articles required.

I wish you would have this matter inquired into as soon as possible and have every thing necessary for the health and comfort of those confined in hospital supplied. Let me know the facts about these supplies being furnished as soon as you can.

Very Respectfully

U. S. Grant        

Maj. Gen. Com

SOURCE: John Y. Simon, Editor, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 9, p. 49-50

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: June 5, 1864

Raining.

The sudden booming of artillery, shelling our department boys, intrenching at Bottom's Bridge, was heard until bedtime. I have heard no results of yesterday's operations.

All is quiet to-day, up to 9 A. M.

Received a letter from Custis. I have not heard whether he received the food and blanket sent him yesterday; the latter, he says, was wanted badly the night before. He charges Fanny, as usual, to be regular in feeding and watering Polly, his parrot; and never to leave the door of his cage open, for fear he may fly away.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 226

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Birchard Austin Hayes, November 4, 1864

CAMP CEDAR CREEK, VIRGINIA, November 4, 1864.

MY DEAR SON;— This is your birthday — eleven years old today — almost a man. In less than eleven years more, everybody will call you a man, you will have a man's work to do and will be expected to know as much as men know. But you are a good student and an industrious boy, and I have no fears of your being an ignorant or a lazy man.

I wish I could be with you today. I would buy you something that don't cost much, for I mustn't spend much now or I shan't have anything left for that new little brother of yours. Besides, I would tell you about the battles. Uncle Joe has all the good stories now. He says up in Winchester the people work for the soldiers to make a living — they wash and mend and bake. The soldiers say they bake two kinds of pies, “pegged” and "sewed"! The difference is the "pegged” have no sugar in them.

One boy in the Twenty-third was shot in the face. The ball entered near his nose and passed over or through the cheekbone up towards the outer corner of his eye. The surgeon thought it was a small bullet and fearing it would injure his eye to probe for it, let it alone. He got along very well for three weeks, when they cut it out near his temple. They were astonished to find that it was an iron grape-shot over an inch in diameter — as large as one of your India-rubber balls! He is well and never did suffer much!

There have been a good many changes in the Twenty-third and the First Brigade since you saw them last at Loup Creek. Captain McKinley is on General Crook's staff. He has not been wounded, but every one admires him as one of the bravest and finest young officers in the army. He has had two or three horses shot under him. General Crook said his mess was starving for want of a good cook, so we let him have Frank. Frank is doing well there. Billy Crump has been so faithful that a short time ago he was given a furlough, and is now with his wife. He is coming back soon. Lieutenant Mather is on my staff as provost marshal. He is the only one you are acquainted with.

The band is full; all of them safe and well. I hear them now playing for guard-mounting. We have many fine bands in this army, but none better than ours.

I have lost three horses killed or disabled since I saw you in July. I am now riding a "calico" horse lent to me by Captain Craig. My John horse is with me still, but he will never get fit to use again.

My orderly in the place of Carrington is Underhill of [the] Twenty-third, an excellent young man; you would like him better than Carrington.

Did I write your mother that I found my opera-glass again? It was lost at the battle of Fisher's Hill. I got it about three weeks afterwards from a Thirty-fourth soldier who found it near the first cannon we captured.

It is getting very cold. We build a sort of fireplace in our tents and manage to be pretty comfortable. You and Webb would enjoy being in this camp. There is a great deal to see and always something going on.

You must learn to write me letters now. My love to all the family, "Puds" and all.

Affectionately, your father,

R. B. HAYES.

MASTER S. B. [BIRCHARD A.] HAYES,
Chillicothe, Ohio.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 533-5

Diary of Sergeant David L. Day: September 20, 1863

FURLOUGH.

Our last furloughed men have returned, and I have the promise of one next week, and am congratulating myself on the prospect of once more seeing home. I am anticipating a great deal when I get home; among other things the pleasure of once more sitting down to a clean, well-spread table, with a good square dinner before me. In anticipation of such an event, I send by this mail a small bill of fare of such dishes as I think I shall relish, and have ordered them to be ready and smoking hot on my arrival:

Roast—Sirloin of beef, spare rib of pork, breast of veal, turkey with cranberry sauce, chicken.

Baked—Bluefish, oyster dressing. Chicken pie.

Boiled—Halibut. Fried—Pouts.

Chicken salad. Lobster salad.

Oysters—Stewed, fried, escalloped. Clam chowder.

27 dozen Providence river oysters on the half shell.

Mashed potatoes, boiled onions, beets, turnips, squash, sweet corn, string beans, succotash, stewed tomatoes, tomatoes sliced with vinegar or sugar, apple dumplings with sugar sauce; mince, apple, berry, lemon, cream and custard pie.

Also one moderately sized pumpkin pie, say about thirty-six inches across and not less than eight inches deep; that is as small a pumpkin pie as I care to bother with.

Oranges, apples, pears, grapes, chestnuts, walnuts, cider.

N. B. No boiled salt pork, beef soup or rice and molasses. I don't hanker for that.

With that bill of fare, and such other things as my folks will naturally think of, I reckon I can make a tolerable dinner.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 102

Diary of 5th Sergeant Osborn H. Oldroyd: June 22, 1863

Johnston is getting lively again, and beginning to kick up a dust in the rear; so we have orders to move tonight, with three days' cooked rations. One regiment from each brigade in Logan's division constitute our expedition, which, I think, will find him, and if we get sight of his army, somebody will be likely to get hurt.

It is now just a month since we made the charge on the enemy's line which proved to us so disastrous, and our cannon now are too close to act on Fort Hill, so a wooden gun has been made, which, charged with a small amount of powder, throws the shell inside the fort—a new device, but working well, for it can drop its missile where the cannon cannot.

We have eaten pretty well in camp to-day, and cooked everything we had on hand, since we may not get so good an opportunity again upon the march. When hard tack was first issued there was but one way to eat it, and that was dry, just as it reached us. Practice, however, taught us to prepare a variety of dishes from it. The most palatable way to dispose of hard tack, to my taste, is to pulverize, then soak over night, and fry for breakfast as batter-cakes. Another good way is to soak whole, and then fry; and still another is to soak a little, then lay it by the fire and let grease drop on it from toasted meat, held to the fire on a pointed stick. This latter is the most common way on a march. Sometimes the tack is very hard indeed by the time it reaches us, and it requires some knack to break it. I have frequently seen boys break it over their knees. Just raise your foot up so as to bring the bent knee handy, and then fetch your hard tack down on it with your right hand, with all the force you can spare, and, if not too tough, you may break it in two. But one poor fellow I saw was completely exhausted trying to break a hard tack, and after resorting to all the devices he could think of, finally accomplished it by dropping on it a 12-pound shell. The objection to that plan was, however, that the follow could hardly find his hard tack afterward.

At midnight we crept out of camp unobserved—everything being quiet except now and then a shot on picket line.

SOURCE: Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd, A Soldier's Story of the Siege of Vicksburg, p. 63

Diary of Private Louis Leon: August 26, 1862

Up to date did not get half enough to eat.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 10

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Edwin M. Stanton, May 16, 1862

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,      

New Orleans, May 16, 1862.

Hon. E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

SIR: Since my dispatch of May 8* I received information that a large amount of specie was concealed in the liquor store of one Am Couturee, who claims to be consul for the Netherlands.†

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

The necessity having now passed which led me to allow the temporary use of Confederate notes, I have ordered them suppressed in ten days from to-day. Please see General Orders, No. 29, to that effect. I beg leave to call your attention to the subject of opening the port of New Orleans. No measure could tend more to change the entire feelings and relations of the people here than this. If not opened to foreign ships and ports, why not with the Northern ports? Have we not a right as against aliens to carry our own products from one part of our own country to the other?

Nothing has tended so much to the quiet acquiescence of the well-disposed people here to the rule of the United States as the opening, which I have done, of postal facilities North and with Europe, under proper restrictions. It was a measure which seemed to me so essential and so relieved the mercantile portion of the community that I have allowed it, and shall so do until further orders from the Department.

Upon the same ground I have the honor to urge the opening of the port of New Orleans at least to the limited extent above mentioned. As a question of the supply of food it is vital. A different state of things exists here from every other point taken before during the war, with the exception of Baltimore. Here is a community, large and wealthy, living and substantially quietly submitting to, if they all do not relish, our Government.

We need their products; they need ours. If we wish to bind them to us more strongly than can be done by the bayonet, let them again feel the beneficence of the United States Government as they have seen and are now feeling its power. Specially will this affect favorably the numerous and honestly conducting foreign residents residing here. How does this city now differ from Baltimore in June last, save that it is occupied by a smaller force and is more orderly? In the matter of trade, importation and exportation, I cannot distinguish the two.

It was found absolutely necessary to take some measures in addition to those taken by the city government to relieve the immediate sufferings of the poor people from hunger. I accordingly took the action set forth in General Orders, No. 25. Its effect has been to diminish much suffering and aid in bringing back the citizens to a sense of duty.

I forward also copies of General Orders, 27, 28, 29, which will explain themselves. No. 28 became an absolute necessity from the outrageous conduct of the secession women here, who took every means of insulting my soldiers and inflaming the mob.

Here I am happy to add that within the city of New Orleans the first instance of wrong or injury done by any soldier to any man or woman or any instance of plunder above a petty theft yet remains to be reported to me. There is an instance of gross outrage and plunder on the part of some of the Wisconsin regiment at Kenner, some 12 miles above here, while on the march to possess ourselves of the Jackson Railroad, who when they return will be most exemplarily punished. I must send home some of my transport ships in ballast by the terms of their charter. In accordance with the terms of my order No. 22 I have caused to be bought a very considerable quantity of sugar, but as yet very little cotton. This has gone very far to reassure the planters and factors. They are sending their agents everywhere into the interior to endeavor to stop the burning of the crops.

Nobody can be better aware than myself that I have no right to buy this property with the money of the United States, even if I had any of it, which I have not. But I have bought it with my own money and upon my individual credit. The articles are sugar, rosin, and turpentine. I have sent these as ballast in the several transport ships, which otherwise would have to be sent to Ship Island for sand. These articles will be worth more in New York and Boston than I paid for them here through my agents. If the Government choose to take them and reimburse me for them I am content. If not, I am quite content to keep them and pay the Government a reasonable freight. Whatever may be done the Government will save by the transaction. I only desire that neither motives nor action shall be misunderstood.

I have sent General Williams, with two regiments and a light battery, to accompany the flag-officer up the river to occupy or land and aid in taking any point where resistance may be offered. Baton Rouge has already surrendered and the flag is raised over it. The machines from the Arsenal for making arms are removed to a distance, but where they cannot be at present used. The naval forces with General Williams have gone above Natchez, and the gunboats are proceeding to Vicksburg, which the rebels are endeavoring to fortify, but I do not believe, from all I learn, with any success. The flag-officer is aground just below Natchez in the Hartford, and I have dispatched two boats to light him off.

I should have sent more troops with General Williams, but it was impossible to get transportation for them. The rebels had burned and disabled every boat that they did not hide, and then their machinists refused to work on their repair.

By dint of the most urgent measures I have compelled repairs, so that I am now getting some transportation, and have sent a boat to Fort Pickens for General Arnold, of which I understand him to be in the utmost need. I have sent into the various bayous and have succeeded in digging out of the bushes several steamers; one or two very good ones.

Colonel McMillan, of the Twenty-first Indiana Regiment, on Monday last, in a little creek leading out of Berwick Bay, some 80 miles from here, succeeded with an ox-cart in cutting out the rebel steamer Fox, loaded with 15 tons of powder and a large quantity of quicksilver, medicines, and stores. The steamer was formerly the G. W. Whitman, of New York, and has succeeded in running the blockade four times.

Colonel McMillan is now engaged in scouring the bayous and lagoons through which the rebels have been supplied with ammunition, causing large quantities to be destroyed and capturing some where the pursuit is quick enough. In no other way can the same amount of distress be brought upon the rebel army, as they are much in want of ammunition, and we are intercepting all supplies. A very large amount of ordnance and ordnance stores have been captured here and are now being cared for and inventoried.

Large numbers of Union men—Americans, Germans, and French—have desired to enlist in our service. I have directed the regiments to fill themselves up with these recruits. I can enlist a regiment or more here, if the Department think it desirable, of true and loyal men. I do not think, however, that Governor Moore would commission the officers. Such a corps being desirable, would it not be possible to have an independent organization, with commissions from the President. These troops would be very useful in manning the forts at Pontchartrain and down the river, which are fearfully unhealthy. They might have a company or two of Northern soldiers for instructors and for fear of possible accident.

I shall have the transportation ready for a movement on Mobile as soon as the flag-officer returns from up the river. I am engaged in arranging for it. I will get the transportation, so as to go across the lake by the inside route.

I have endeavored in several ways to get communication with General Buell, so as to co-operate with him, but as yet have failed. Although I am not by the terms of my instructions enjoined to penetrate the interior, yet I shall do so at once, if the public service can be aided.

General Lovell, when he retreated from this city, took with him to Camp Moore between 8,000 and 9,000 men. He is 80 miles away, and such is the height of the water that it is nearly impossible to march, he having gone on the railroad and taken all his rolling stock with him. More than one-half of that army has left him, and perhaps one-third has returned to this city, put on citizens' clothes, and are quiet. I think General Lovell is doing as well as he can for the present. A defeat could hardly disorganize his forces more rapidly.

I trust my requisitions will be promptly forwarded, especially for food and mosquito-nets, which are a prime necessity.

The city council have endeavored to excite the French population here and to act by resolution upon the arrival of the French war steamer Catina as to induce the belief that there was some understanding between themselves and the French Government.

I append copy of letter to the council upon that subject, marked L; also copy of letter to the French consul as to spoliations at Kenner, marked M.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJ. F. BUTLER,              

Major-General, Commanding.

_______________

* Series 1, Vol. VI, p. 506.

† For portion of the letter here omitted and which relates to seizures of the specie referred to and complications with other consuls, see inclosures to letter from the Secretary of state to Hon. Reverdy Johnson, June 10, 1862, Series III, Vol. 2.

_______________

[Inclosures.]

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

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler: General Orders, No. 27, May 13, 1862

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler: General Orders, No. 28, May 15, 1862

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler: General Orders, No. 29, May 16, 1862

[Inclosure L.]

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to the Mayor and Gentlemen of the City Council of New Orleans, May 16, 1862

[Inclosure M.]

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler to Count Mejan, May 16, 1862

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. 422-4. For inclosures see p. 425-7.

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: December 24, 1863

Another interposition of Providence in behalf of my family. The bookseller who purchased the edition of the first volume of my “Wild Western Scenes—new series,” since Mr. Malsby's departure from the country, paid me $300 to-day, copyright, and promises more very soon. I immediately bought a load of coal, $31.50, and a half cord of wood for $19. I must now secure some food for next month.

Among the papers sent in by the President, to-day, was one from Gen. Whiting, who, from information received by him, believes there will be an attack on Wilmington before long, and asks reinforcements.

One from Gen. Beauregard, intimating that he cannot spare any of his troops for the West, or for North Carolina. The President notes on this, however, that the troops may be sent where they may seem to be actually needed.

Also an application to permit one of Gen. Sterling Price's sons to visit the Confederate States, which the President is not disposed to grant.

The lower house of Congress yesterday passed a bill putting into the army all who have hitherto kept out of it by employing substitutes. I think the Senate will also pass it. There is great consternation among the speculators.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 118-9

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Wednesday, May 11, 1864

Blacksburg, nine miles, through a finely cultivated country; constant pursuit of mounted videttes. We caught Colonel Linkus, formerly of [the] Thirty-sixth [Virginia], as he was leaving town. Camped about 2 P. M. on a fine slope in a fierce rain-storm. No comfort.

I protect all the property in my vicinity. I take food and forage and burn rails, but all pillaging and plundering my brigade is clear from. I can't say as much for the Pennsylvania regiments, Third and Fourth, etc. Their conduct is most disgraceful. An officer may be excused for an occasional outrage by some villain in his command, but this infamous and universal plundering ought to dispose of shoulder-straps. Camped on Amos' farm — engaged in the Rebellion.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 457