The Rebels captured a train of cars on the Philadelphia and
Baltimore Road, and have burnt the bridges over Gunpowder and Bush Rivers. It
is said there were 1500 of these raiders.
Governor Bradford's house, a short distance out of
Baltimore, was burnt by a small party. General demoralization seems to have
taken place among the troops, and there is as little intelligence among them as
at the War Office in regard to the Rebels. General Wallace and his force were
defeated, and panic and folly have prevailed.
Admiral Goldsborough and some of our naval officers tendered
their services, if required. It seemed to me unneccessary, for I do not believe
the Rebels have a large concentrated force in this vicinity, or that they
design to make an attack on the city, but for the Navy to hold back when all
are being called out would appear bad. I therefore requested Fox to see General
Halleck, who much wanted aid, and Goldsborough and the men were therefore
ordered and have gone to Fort Lincoln. It would be much better to keep them at
work.
We have no mails, and the telegraph lines have been cut; so
that we are without news or information from the outer world.
Went to the President's at 12, being day of regular
Cabinet-meeting. Messrs. Bates and Usher were there. The President was signing
a batch of commissions. Fessenden is absent in New York. Blair informs me he
had been early at the council chamber and the President told him no matters
were to be brought forward. The condition of affairs connected with the Rebels
on the outskirts was discussed. The President said he and Seward had visited
several of the fortifications. I asked where the Rebels were in force. He said
he did not know with certainty, but he thought the main body at Silver Spring.
I expressed a doubt whether there was any large force at any
one point, but that they were in squads of from 500 to perhaps 1500 scattered
along from the Gunpowder to the falls of the Potomac, who kept up an alarm on
the outer rim while the marauders were driving off horses and cattle. The
President did not respond farther than to again remark he thought there must be
a pretty large force in the neighborhood of Silver Spring.
I am sorry there should be so little accurate knowledge of
the Rebels, sorry that at such a time there is not a full Cabinet, and especially
sorry that the Secretary of War is not present. In the interviews which I have
had with him, I can obtain no facts, no opinions. He seems dull and stupefied.
Others tell me the same.
It was said yesterday that the mansions of the Blairs were
burned, but it is to-day contradicted.
Rode out this P.M. to Fort Stevens. Went up to the summit of
the road on the right of the fort. There were many collected. Looking out over
the valley below, where the continual popping of the pickets was still going
on, though less brisk than yesterday, I saw a line of our men lying close near
the bottom of the valley. Senator Wade came up beside me. Our views
corresponded that the Rebels were few in front, and that our men greatly
exceeded them in numbers. We went together into the fort, where we found the
President, who was sitting in the shade, his back against the parapet towards
the enemy.
Generals Wright and McCook informed us they were about to
open battery and shell the Rebel pickets, and after three discharges an assault
was to be made by two regiments who were lying in wait in the valley.
The firing from the battery was accurate. The shells that
were sent into a fine mansion occupied by the Rebel sharpshooters soon set it
on fire. As the firing from the fort ceased, our men ran to the charge and the
Rebels fled. We could see them running across the fields, seeking the woods on
the brow of the opposite hills. It was an interesting and exciting spectacle.
But below we could see here and there some of our own men bearing away their
wounded comrades. I should judge the distance to be something over three
hundred yards. Occasionally a bullet from some long-range rifle passed above
our heads. One man had been shot in the fort a few minutes before we entered.
As we came out of the fort, four or five of the wounded men
were carried by on stretchers. It was nearly dark as we left. Driving in, as
was the case when driving out, we passed fields as well as roads full of
soldiers, horses, teams, mules. Camp-fires lighted up the woods, which seemed
to be more eagerly sought than the open fields.
The day has been exceedingly warm, and the stragglers by the
wayside were many. Some were doubtless sick, some were drunk, some weary and
exhausted. Then men on horseback, on mules, in wagons as well as on foot,
batteries of artillery, caissons, an innumerable throng. It was exciting and
wild. Much of life and much of sadness. Strange that in this age and country
there is this strife and struggle, under one of the most beneficent governments
which ever blessed mankind and all in sight of the Capitol.
In times gone by I had passed over these roads little anticipating
scenes like this, and a few years hence they will scarcely be believed to have
occurred.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the
Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866,
p. 73-6
