Diary of Sergeant David L. Day: February 27, 1864

GUARD DUTY.

Our guard duty is just outside the town. There are three stations: one on the south side next the asylum, one at the college on the west side, and one on the north side on the Palace Green. This last station is the one I usually take charge of. At each station the guard is divided into three reliefs, and the duty is simply to keep a lookout for the approach of the enemy and turn out the guard in honor of the officer of the day and to Col. West, the post commander. Our quarters at this station are in a small house which was formerly negroes' quarters. In the yard stands a large, unoccupied house owned by a Mr. Saunders, now a resident of New York. He is said to be a loyal man and a lawyer by profession. When McClellan passed through here, Mr. Saunders availed himself of the opportunity, and taking his family, went to New York. When I first took command of this station several mornings ago, the instructions given me to keep a sharp lookout for the approach of the enemy. I had not been engaged in this business a great while, when the approach of Col. West was announced. I turned out the guard with a great dash, extending all the honors due his exalted rank. He inquired my instructions. I informed him of those I had received. He then inquired if I had not received instructions in regard to this house in the yard. I said I had not. “Then I will give you some; I shall expect you to look after this house and see that no one goes in there or in any way disturbs anything around it, and shall hold you responsible for its safe keeping while you are on duty.” I promised to faithfully attend to that important duty. He then dismissed the guard and rode over to call on a lady friend of his.

A FRIGHTENED DARKY.

I now had a very important trust imposed on me, and I naturally felt a sort of womanly curiosity to explore that sacred realm. Soon after daylight the next morning, I took three of the boys and went around to the back side of the house and effected an entrance, but it was evident we were not the first explorers. We found nothing but a few articles of heavy furniture until we went into the southwest corner room next to the veranda. Here was a rich find, a large library. This room was about 15 feet square, and on all sides were books from the floor to the ceiling. Here was history, biography, travels, fiction, religion, law and miscellaneous works, magazines of all kinds, public documents, reports on all manner of subjects, and a large quantity of letters and private papers.

We tarried here over an hour, and on coming out met a darky on the veranda. He put on one of his ugliest looks and said:

“Wot doin' in dar? Mus keep out dar!"

“What's that to you, you black cuss?”

“You fine out, you go in dar. Colonel West tole me look out for dis yer property an' tole him wot I sees goin' on yere.”

“And do you tell Colonel West what you see done here?”

“O, yas sah, yas salı, Ize tole him ebery ting Ize sees.”

“Look here, boy, do you want to live to be old?”

 “O, yas sah, yas sah."

“Well then, if you are cherishing any such desire, you must be a little careful what you say to West, for if he ever comes to any stories from you, we will take you out here into the woods and leave you for the buzzards to eat.”

“O, lorra goliy mity, boss, Ize neber ses nosin' bout de sogers, it's on’y dese yere citizens roun yere Ise looks arter, fore ile Lord, boss, Ise done sa nosin bout de sogers."

“That's right, boy; you stick to that and keep it right on your mind when you see West, unless you want buzzards to your funeral.”

That darky came down from boiling heat to zero in a short space of time, and as we have heard nothing from him he probably keeps the buzzards on his mind.

SALUTING THE POST COMMANDER.

A few mornings ago it was warm, sunshiny and spring-like. It was my turn on guard, and I was in command of the whole party marching through town. On the way I saw Col. West coming, and gave the order: “Shoulder arms; close up!” Just then we were passing a house on the right side of the street. On the veranda were several ladies taking their morning airing. I gave the order: “Eyes right!” West heard the order, and caught the idea; laughing, he touched his cap as he rode past us.

I reckon he was pleased with my style of soldiering as he called on me at the station a few hours afterwards. I turned out the guard and extended the customary honors. After looking us over he said: "Sergeant, suppose you should see a force of the enemy file out of the woods over yonder, what would you do ?”

“Well, sir, that would depend altogether on the size of the force."

“Well, say one or two regiments of infantry.”

“In that case I should deploy my men among the buildings here, and skirmish with them until reinforcements arrived.”'

“Very well. Suppose a brigade of cavalry should dash out, what then?"

“In that case we would empty our rifles on them once twice, and out and run like hell for Fort Magruder.”

“You'll do, dismiss your guard;” and wheeling his horse he rode off laughing.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 128-30

Diary of Sergeant David L. Day: January 25, 1864

WILLIAMSBURG, VA.

Leaving Newport News on the afternoon of the 21st, we made a march of about ten miles, reaching Little Bethel just before dark, when we halted and put up in an old church building for the night. Little Bethel contains beside the church an old grist and saw mill, a blacksmith shop and three small houses, all in a rather dilapidated condition. There was no enemy within 100 miles of us, but Capt. Parkhurst, either as a matter of form or through force of habit, put out a few pickets. The old church had long ago been stripped of its seats and pulpit, if it ever had any, leaving the whole floor unobstructed. After supper and getting a little rested, a dance was proposed. A gallery extended across one end, and on the front of this the candles were thickly set, lighting up the old church in fine style. One of our German comrades of Company G had a violin and furnished the music. Sets were formed and the fun commenced. The pickets outside, hearing the sounds of revelry within, left their posts and came in, and standing their rifles in a corner threw off their equipments and joined in the dance. The captain remonstrated at such unlawful proceedings, but the cry was “Never mind the pickets! on with the dance! let fun be unrestrained.” The dance was kept up until the candles burned low, when we spread our blankets and laid down for rest.

In the morning we found outside five men with their horses and carts, waiting to sell us oysters. Fortunately we were the possessors of a few scraps of paper bearing the signature of Uncle Samuel. With a portion of this paper we bought the men's oysters, and after breakfast we chartered them to carry our knapsacks to Yorktown, thereby nullifying the order of the great Mogul at Fortress Monroe, and I have not the slightest doubt that if he knew of it he would hang every one of those men for giving aid and comfort to the incorrigible.

Leaving Little Bethel we marched over McClellan's famous corduroy road through white oak swamp, coming out at Warwick court house. This is a county seat, containing a small court house situated in a pretty grove of trees, a jail, church, half a dozen houses and a blacksmith shop. We arrived at the forks of the roads, a mile below and in full view of historic old Yorktown, about the middle of the afternoon.

Here we were met by an officer and commanded to halt till further orders. I thought this was as near as they dared have us come the first day for fear the malaria would strike us too suddenly.

From here the dim outlines of Washington's old intrenchments could be traced and near by was what appeared to be an angle in the line on which guns were probably mounted and which commanded the whole open plain between here and town. Now it did not require a great stretch of the imagination to go back to those days and see those brave men toiling and suffering behind those works, to build up for themselves and their posterity a country and a name. I could see in my mind the haughty Cornwallis march out upon this plain, surrendering his army and his sword to Washington, in the last grand act in the drama of the American revolution. But how is it today? Yonder rebel fort tells in thunder tones how well their degenerate sons appreciate the legacy.

About dusk an orderly rode up, bringing an order for us to proceed to Williamsburg, some fifteen miles further up the country. We tried to get the captain to stop here till morning and go through the next day, but it was of no use; he had got his orders to march and was going through tonight. I could not see that it was a military necessity to force the march, and after we had gone three or four miles my knapsack began to grow heavy and I grew tired. I halted by the roadside and said I was going to put up for the night and if any one would like to keep me company I should be pleased to have them. About twenty rallied to my standard. After the column bad passed we stepped through a low hedge of bushes into a small open space, surrounded by high bushes which served as a shelter from the winds. There we spread our blankets and laid ourselves down to forget in our slumbers the weight of our knapsacks. The stars looked down on us and the watchful eye of the Almighty was the only sentinel.

When we awoke in the morning the rising sun's bright ray was peeping through the bushes. The first object which met our gaze was a lean, lank, sundy-complexioned, long-haired native, who stood peering over the bushes at us. The first salutation that greeted his ears was, “Who are you and what do you want?" He replied, “I seed you was down yere, and thought I would come down and see if I could get some 'baccer?” Looking up we saw a house out in the field some distance off, and asked him if he resided there. He said he did. We gave him some tobacco and inquired about the roads and distince to Williamsburg. We inquired if there were any bush whackers about here? He said “There mought be once in a while one found." Then we put on a ferocious look and said they had better not be found by us unless they wished to join the antediluvian society and have their bones scattered in every graveyard from here to Jerusalem. The old chap's eyes stuck out and he began to edge off, thinking perhaps we had got on a thick coat of war paint. We made our coffee and started on our journey, and by easy stages came up with the boys in the afternoon. They had pitched the camp and got it all fixed up and named Camp, Hancock.

I thought the captain was as glad to see us as anyone, but he put on a stern look and inquired where we had been and why we fell out. We told him we were tired and lay down by the side of the road to rest and take a nap. He lectured us on the enormity of such proceedings, telling us we had committed a very flagrant breach of good order and military despotism. We assented to all the captain said, but kept thinking all the time that as we were a sort of outcasts, did not belong anywhere and were under no particular command, there wouldn't much come of it.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 111-3

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 23, 1864

Fair and warm, with pleasant breezes.

Gen. Johnston, without a defeat, has fallen back to Calhoun, Ga.

Gen. Lee, without a defeat, has fallen back to Hanover Junction, his headquarters at Ashland. Grant is said to be worming his way eastward to the Peninsula, the field occupied by McClellan in 1862. Why, he might have attained that position without the loss of a man at the outset!

On Saturday night Gen. Butler made the following exploit:

“On Saturday night the enemy renewed his assault, assailing that portion of our line held principally by Wise's brigade. In some manner our men had become apprised of the intention of the enemy to make a night attack, and were fully prepared for it. The enemy were allowed to advance, our men deliberately reserving their fire until they were within 20 or 30 yards of them, when they poured into their ranks a most terrific volley, driving them back with great slaughter. The repulse is said to have been a most decided success; the enemy were thrown into great confusion and retreated rapidly.

“The enemy's loss is said to have been very severe, and is estimated at hardly less than four or five hundred in killed alone, while we are said to have lost none in killed, and some thirty or forty wounded.”

There was an immense mail to-day, and yet with my sore eyes I had no aid from my son, still at the intrenchments. I hinted my desire to have him, but young Mr. Kean opposed it.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 217-8

Major Charles Wright Wills: May 14, 1865

Near Hanover, C. H., Va., May 14, 1865.

Only made nine miles to-day on account of the Pamunky river here being bad. We camp to-night in the Hanover "slashes," one mile east of the birthplace of Henry Clay, and about two miles from the residence of Patrick Henry. The court house is where the latter delivered his famous speech against the clergy. Henry's house is built of brick, imported, and was built in 1776. We passed the place where McClellan's famous seven days' fight commenced. The whole country is waste. I hear a country legend here that Clay was the illegitimate son of Patrick Henry. The court house was built in 1735.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 381

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Wednesday, November 9, 1864

Marched eleven miles to camp south of Kernstown. Whole army glad to move towards winter quarters. — Result of election in this division: Lincoln, 575; McClellan, 98.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 535

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, December 20, 1864

Only three of us at the Cabinet meeting. Speed is attending the Court. The others absent, as usual, without cause, and the course pursued sustains them in this neglect. Seward is at the President's every day when there is no Cabinet-meeting and at a different hour on Cabinet days. As Stanton does not go to the President, the President goes to Stanton. Not unfrequently he hurries at the close to go to the War Department. Fessenden frets because there are no Cabinet consultations and yet stays away himself.

Old Tom Ewing of Ohio was hanging around the door of the Executive Mansion as I went in. I stopped for a moment to exchange civilities. Usher, who followed me, informed the President that the old man was waiting for an interview and thought of leaving, but U. advised him to remain now that he had got there. The President expressed his regret at Usher's advice and, turning to me, said, “You know his object?” I said it was probably Wilkes' case. The President said it was, and, notwithstanding Wilkes had abused both him and me, he was inclined to remit his sentence, looking inquiringly at me as he spoke. I told him that I should not advise it; that at the proper time and in the proper way something might be done, perhaps, without injury, though Wilkes had no claim, and this hiring old Mr. Ewing, who is selling his personal influence, is all bad. Usher took strong and emphatic ground against any favor to Wilkes, who is heartless and insubordinate.

It is a misfortune that the President gives his ear to a class of old party hacks like Ewing and Tom Corwin, men of ability and power in their day, for whom he has high regard but who are paid to come here and persuade the President to do wrong. Ewing would not, of himself, do or advise another to do what he beseeches of the President, except for money. All this the President has the sagacity to see, but hardly the will to resist. I shall not be surprised if he yields, as he intimated he was ready to do before any remark from me.

The Senate and House to-day passed an act in conformity with my recommendation, indorsed by the President, creating the office of Vice-Admiral, to correspond with the army grade of Lieutenant-General.

Mr. Usher relates a conversation he had with General Heintzelman at Steubenville in regard to General McClellan, in which General H. says he has been reading and reviewing the events and incidents of the Peninsular Campaign, and he is fully convinced that McClellan intended to betray the army. General H. tells how he was left and the guard at a bridge over which it was necessary he should pass was withdrawn, without notice to him, although he had sent three times to McClellan for instructions and received none. Other singular and unaccounted-for facts are mentioned.

I have heard these intimations from others who had similar suspicions and convictions, but I have never yet been willing to believe he was a traitor, though men of standing call him such. His conduct was strange and difficult to be reconciled with an intelligent and patriotic discharge of the duties of his position. I long ago, and early indeed, was satisfied his heart was not earnest in the cause. He wanted to be victorious in any conflict as he would in a game of chess. Massachusetts and South Carolina were equally at fault in his estimation, and he so declared to me at Cumberland on the Pamunkey in May, 1862.¹ The disasters before Richmond followed soon after, and these were succeeded by his inexcusable conduct and that of his subordinate generals in failing to reinforce and sustain Pope and our army at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

But while I have never had time to review the acts of that period, I still incline to the opinion that his conduct was the result of cool and selfish indifference rather than of treachery and positive guilt. General Heintzelman and others are not only prejudiced against him but positively inimical.

_______________

¹ See vol. i, p. 107.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 203-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, September 21, 1864

The victory of Sheridan has a party-political influence. It is not gratifying to the opponents of the Administration. Some who want to rejoice in it feel it difficult to do so, because they are conscious that it strengthens the Administration, to which they are opposed. The partisan feeling begins to show itself strongly among men of whom it was not expected. In New York there has been more of this than elsewhere. Robert C. Winthrop, once potent and powerful in Massachusetts, a man of position and of talent, not a great man, but a scholar of taste and pretension, a gentleman and statesman, made his appearance in New York, with Fernando and Ben Wood, Rynders,¹ and others, whom in other days he detested. Winthrop is a disappointed man. He had high aspirations and high expectations, and not without reason. Had he pursued a faithful, conscientious course, he would have won high official distinction and influence. But, confident of his strong position in New England and with the Whigs, he courted their enemies, repelled the Republicans and fell. As he swerved from the track, Sumner and others, who did not, perhaps, regret his error, stepped forward, and poor Winthrop in a very short time found that instead of gaining new friends he had lost old ones. For several years he felt very uncomfortable, and has now committed another great mistake. The National Intelligencer, which has endeavored to hold a position of dignified neutrality during this Administration, has finally given way and become strongly partisan. This I regret, for the editor has ability, and has made his paper respectable. His discussions of current and important questions have been highly creditable and often instructive, and I cannot but think it unfortunate that he should take an attitude which will injure him and his paper and do good to no one.

Some attempt is made by the Richmond papers to help the cause of McClellan by an affectation of dread of his superior military attainments and abilities and his greater zeal for the Union. The effort is so bald, so manifestly intended for their sympathizing friends, that no one can be deceived by it. There was a time when such stuff had a market in the North, but that time has gone by.

_______________

¹ Isaiah Rynders, a local politician of New York.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 153-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, September 3, 1864

New York City is shouting for McClellan, and there is a forced effort elsewhere to get a favorable response to the almost traitorous proceeding at Chicago. As usual, some timid Union men are alarmed, and there are some, like Raymond, Chairman of the National Committee, who have no fixed and reliable principles to inspire confidence, who falter, and another set, like Greeley, who have an uneasy, lingering hope that they can yet have an opportunity to make a new candidate. But this will soon be over. The Chicago platform is unpatriotic, almost treasonable to the Union. The issue is made up. It is whether a war shall be made against Lincoln to get peace with Jeff Davis. Those who met at Chicago prefer hostility to Lincoln rather than to Davis. Such is extreme partisanism.

We have to-day word that Atlanta is in our possession, but we have yet no particulars. It has been a hard, long struggle, continued through weary months. This intelligence will not be gratifying to the zealous partisans who have just committed the mistake of sending out a peace platform, and declared the war a failure. It is a melancholy and sorrowful reflection that there are among us so many who so give way to party as not to rejoice in the success of the Union arms. They feel a conscious guilt, and affect not to be dejected, but discomfort is in their countenances, deportment, and tone. While the true Unionists are cheerful and joyous, greeting all whom they meet over the recent news, the Rebel sympathizers shun company and are dolorous. This is the demon of party, — the days of its worst form, - a terrible spirit, which in its excess leads men to rejoice in the calamities of their country and to mourn its triumphs. Strange, and wayward, and unaccountable are men. While the facts are as I have stated, I cannot think these men are destitute of love of country; but they permit party prejudices and party antagonisms to absorb their better natures. The leaders want power. All men crave it. Few, comparatively, expect to attain high position, but each hopes to be benefited within a certain circle which limits, perhaps, his present ambition. There is fatuity in nominating a general and warrior in time of war on a peace platform.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 135-6

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, September 9, 1864

At the Cabinet council Fessenden introduced some trade regulations prepared with the intention of carrying out the last enactment of Congress, and designed to supersede all former regulations. This last law is, so far as he could make it so, a creation of Mr. Chase, and I am surprised that Senators Morrill and Morgan should have yielded to him. The regulations of Mr. Fessenden are tainted with Chase's schemes and errors, and belong to the same school of monopoly permits and favoritism. They met with little favor, however. The President objected at the threshold to that part of the plan which threw upon him the odium, and labor, and responsibility of selecting the agents who were to proceed within the Rebel lines. Both he and Mr. Fessenden, however, started with the assumption, and as a settled fact, that the cotton within the Rebel lines must be sought for and brought out, trading on the part of the government with the enemy. The only difference between them was whether it should be by a few selected agents specially permitted, or whether it should be open to all who wished to trade with the Rebels. Mr. Fessenden's plan was the first, the President's was the last. All gave a preference to the President's plan, or view of opening the traffic to all if to any. Mr. Stanton stated some of the objections to traffic beyond our lines, and thought, if it were to be done, it should be in concurrence with the generals in the Departments.

Mr. Blair questioned the whole policy of trading with the enemy, or having dealings with them while in a state of war. The principles of absolute non-intercourse with those in arms which I have always maintained no one undertook now to controvert when suggested by Mr. Blair. The President explained his views were that extensive regions lay open where neither army was in possession, where there was an abundance of cotton which the parties or owners (non-belligerents) would bring forward, but the moment the cotton appeared, approaching a market, it was immediately seized and appropriated by our own soldiers and others. It was plunder. He desired to correct this, and wished Mr. Fessenden to so modify and so shape his regulations as to effect it.

The position of Mr. Blair I deem eminently correct as between people of different nations. But this is not our case; ours is not an ordinary war, and our great primary fundamental purpose is a restoration of the Union. Commercial intercourse is not one of the means of attaining that end. A large portion of the people in the Rebel region are not enemies of the Union; they sincerely desire its restoration and the benefits that would flow from it. Give them, whenever amicable, the opportunity. Promote friendly intercourse. Let the people in such portions of the country as are not strictly in military occupation come forward with their cotton and begin to feel that they are of us and we of them. Tennessee and Kentucky, northern Georgia and Alabama, the entire country bordering on the Mississippi, etc., etc., can thus, under skillful and right treatment be soon reclaimed. We want no frontiers.

The success of Sherman at Atlanta, following on that of Farragut at Mobile, has very much discomposed the opposition. They had planned for a great and onward demonstration for their candidate and platform, but our naval and army successes have embarrassed them exceedingly. General McClellan, in his letter of acceptance, has sent out a different and much more creditable and patriotic set of principles than the convention which nominated him; but the two are wholly irreconcilable. It will be impossible for Vallandigham, Wood, Tom Seymour, Long, Brooks, and men of that stripe to support McClellan without an utter abandonment of all pretensions to consistency or principle. Yet some of that class will be likely to adhere to him, while those who are sincere will not. But the letter will be likely to secure him more friends than he will lose by it.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 138-40

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, September 10, 1864

Seward made a speech at Auburn, intended by him, I have no doubt, as the keynote of the campaign. For a man of not very compact thought, and who, plausible and serious, is often loose in his expressions, the speech is very well. In one or two respects it is not judicious and will likely be assailed.

Chase, who has been expressing his discontent, not in public speeches but in social intercourse down East, is beginning to realize that the issue is made up, — no new leaders are to be brought forward, — and he will now support Lincoln in order to defeat McClellan. So with others. After doing what they could to weaken the President and impair confidence in him, they now turn in and feel the necessity of counteracting their own unwise and mistaken policy.

Mr. Fessenden assures me that the payment of Navy requisitions commences forthwith, and will be prosecuted earnestly. It certainly is time. There are over thirteen millions of suspended requisitions in the Treasury, every dollar of which is due the parties. Many of them should have been paid three and four months ago. Chase commenced this system of deferring payments for value received. I have explained matters to Mr. Fessenden, who, however, does not yet, I apprehend, fully realize the consequences and the great wrong. The credit of the Department and of the government is seriously impaired, and the Navy Department is by these delays compelled to pay an extra price for everything it purchases, because the Treasury does not promptly pay the requisitions drawn on it. My administration of the Department is injured by these delays, and made to appear extravagant in its expenditures, when it is in fact the only one, except the Post-Office, that struggles for economy.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 140-1

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, September 13, 1864

CAMP NEAR SUMMIT POINT, VIRGINIA, September 13, 1864.

DEAREST: - We have had heavy fall rains and are now having windy, cold fall weather. We are, however, very comfortably camped, clad, and fed.

No fighting of importance since the third. The enemy was still in our front yesterday morning. A division is now out feeling of their lines — the cannonading indicates that they have not all gone.

McClellan, I see, has written a pretty good war letter. I suspect it will make him trouble among the genuine copperheads. Mr. Lord declines running in the Second District and Mr. Butler is put in his place! I think both of them are good war men and that they do not differ much from me. A funny mix it is.

We have had two votes in this camp. The Thirteenth Virginia, Colonel Brown, gave three hundred and seventy-five for Lincoln, fifteen for McClellan. The Ninth Virginia two hundred and seventy for Lincoln, none (!) for McClellan. The platform and Pendleton destroys his chances in the army.

I dreamed about you and the boys last night. I hope you are as well as I thought you looked.

Love to all 

Affectionately ever 

R. 

MRS. HAYES.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 507

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, September 17, 1864

CAMP NEAR SUMMIT Point, VIRGINIA, September 17, 1864.

DEAREST: - Did Carrington leave a revolver (pistol) with you when he left [the] little sorrel? I have forgotten about it.

General McClellan has written a pretty good Union and war letter, which I see is bringing the Democratic party over to our side on the war question. If he should be elected, — an event not now seeming probable, - I have no doubt that the war will go right on. The chief difference between us is on slavery, and I have no doubt that when the burden and responsibility of the war is on the Democracy, they will rapidly "get religion," as Sam Cary would say, "on that subject."

General Grant is now here in consultation with General Sheridan. The recruits and convalescents will soon fill up his ranks and I look for an active fall campaign.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 507

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, August 31, 1864

The complaints in regard to recruiting are severe and prolonged. They come in numbers. It seems to be taken for granted that we can open a rendezvous in every county. I have no doubt that the rendezvous are overcrowded and that abuses are practiced in consequence. The impending draft for the army indirectly benefits the Navy, or induces persons to enter it. Their doing so relieves them and their localities from the draft. Hence the crowd and competition. Then come in the enormous bounties from the State and municipal authorities over which naval officers have no control, and which lead to bounty-jumping and corruption.

Admiral Porter came by order. Says he prefers remaining in his present command. In a long interview our interchange of opinion concerning men and naval matters was on the whole satisfactory.

General McClellan was to-day nominated as the candidate of the so-called Democratic party. It has for some days been evident that it was a foregone conclusion and the best and only nomination the opposition could make. The preliminary arrangements have been made with tact and skill, and there will probably be liberality, judgment, and sense exhibited in launching and supporting the nominee, which it would become the Union men to imitate. That factious, narrow, faultfinding illiberality of radicals in Congress which has disgraced the press ostensibly of the Administration party, particularly the press of New York City, has given strength to their opponents. McClellan will be supported by War Democrats and Peace Democrats, by men of every shade and opinion; all discordant elements will be made to harmonize, and all differences will be suppressed. Whether certain Republican leaders in Congress, who have been assailing and deceiving the Administration, and the faultfinding journals of New York have, or will, become conscious of their folly, we shall soon know. They have done all that was in their power to destroy confidence in the President and injure those with whom they were associated. If, therefore, the reëlection of Mr. Lincoln is not defeated, it will not be owing to them.

In some respects I think the President, though usually shrewd and sensible, has mismanaged. His mistakes, I think, are attributable to Mr. Seward almost exclusively. It has been a misfortune to retain Stanton and Halleck. He might have brought McClellan into the place of the latter, and Blair had once effected the arrangement, but Seward defeated it. As I have not been in the close confidence of the President in his party personal selections and movements, I am left to judge of many things, as are all the Cabinet except Mr. Seward and to some extent Mr. Stanton, who is in the Seward interest. It has seemed to me a great misfortune that the President should have been so much under the influence of these men, but New York State is a power and Seward makes the most of it. I have regretted that the President should have yielded so much to Greeley in many things and treated him with so much consideration. Chase and Wade, though not in accord, have by their ambition and disappointments done harm, and, in less degree, the same may be said of Mr. Sumner. Others of less note might be named. Most of them will now cease grumbling, go to work to retrieve their folly so far as they can. Possibly the New York editors may be perverse a few weeks longer, sufficiently so to give that city overwhelmingly to the opposition, and perhaps lose the State.

Seward will, unintentionally, help them by over-refined intrigues and assumptions and blunders. It has sometimes seemed to me that he was almost in complicity with his enemies, and that they were using him. I am not certain that the latter is not true.

It is an infirmity of the President that he permits the little newsmongers to come around him and be intimate, and in this he is encouraged by Seward, who does the same, and even courts the corrupt and the vicious, which the President does not. He has great inquisitiveness. Likes to hear all the political gossip as much as Seward. But the President is honest, sincere, and confiding, — traits which are not so prominent in some by whom he is surrounded.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 129-31

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Wednesday, August 31, 1864

McClellan nominated. A happy month in the main. The prospect is much less gloomy than at the beginning of the month. Grant will probably be able to keep his position before Richmond.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 501

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, September 6, 1864

CAMP OF SHERIDAN'S ARMY NEAR BERRYVILLE, VIRGINIA, 

September 6, P. M., 1864. 

DEAR UNCLE: — Saturday evening (September 3) my brigade and two regiments of the other brigade of the Kanawha Division fought a very fierce battle with a division of South Carolina and Mississippi troops under Kershaw. We whipped them handsomely after the longest fight I was ever in. Took seventy-five officers and men prisoners and inflicted much severer loss than we suffered. Prisoners say it is the first time their division was ever flogged in fair fight. 

My color-bearer was killed and some of the best officers killed or wounded. We have fought nine times since we entered this valley and have been under fire, when men of my command were killed and wounded, probably thirty or forty times since the campaign opened. I doubt if a brigade in Sherman's army has fought more. None has marched half as much. I started with twenty-four hundred men. I now have less than twelve hundred, and almost none of the loss is stragglers. 

I hope they will now get Sherman's army to Richmond. It will be taken if they do it promptly, otherwise I fear not for some time. 

McClellan would get a handsome soldiers' vote if on a decent platform; as it is, he will get more than any other Democrat could get. 

I am glad that you feel as you do about my safety. It is the best philosophy not to borrow trouble of the future. We are still confronted by the enemy. I can't help thinking that the fall of Atlanta will carry them back to Richmond. What a glorious career Sherman's army has had! That is the best army in the world. Lee's army is next. There is just as much difference between armies, divisions, brigades, etc., as between individuals. Crook, I think, has the best and the worst division in this army. Of the one you can always count upon it, that it will do all that can be expected, and of the other that it will behave badly. 

Sincerely, 

R. B. HAYES 

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 503-4

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, September 9, 1864

CAMP AT SUMMIT POINT, VIRGINIA, September 9, 1864.

DEAREST: — I received today your good letter of the 30th. I think I have got the most, perhaps, all of your back letters.

Speaking of politics: It is quite common for youngsters, adopting their parents' notions, to get very bitter talk into their innocent little mouths. I was quite willing Webb should hurrah for Vallandigham last summer with the addition, “and a rope to hang him.” But I feel quite different about McClellan. He is on a mean platform and is in bad company, but I do not doubt his personal loyalty and he has been a soldier, and what is more a soldier's friend. No man ever treated the private soldier better. No commander was ever more loved by his men. I therefore want my boys taught to think and talk well of General McClellan. I think he will make the best President of any Democrat. If on a sound platform, I could support him. Do not be alarmed. I do not think he will be elected. The improved condition of our military affairs injures his chances very materially. He will not get so large [an] army vote as his friends seem to expect. With reasonably good luck in the war, Lincoln will go in.

Have you any picture of Captain Gillis and Brigdon? Captain Austin had his arm amputated at the shoulder and died the night after. There was no saving him. Lieutenant Hubbard, supposed killed at Winchester, escaped from the Rebels and is now with us, well and strong. About half of the Fifth Virginia Volunteers leave us today. Colonel Enochs, Captain Poor, and others remain.

I do not know where the enemy is today. They were still in our front the day before yesterday.

As ever your 

R.

MRS. HAYES.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 504-5

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, September 12, 1864

HEADQUARTERS FIRST BRIGADE, SECOND DIVISION,

ARMY OF WEST VIRGINIA, SUMMIT Point, VIRGINIA, 

September 12, 1864. 

Dear Uncle:— We have had no severe fighting since the third. The frequent rains have filled the Potomac so it is no longer fordable. I look for no attempt now on the part of the Rebels to get over the river and think there will be very little fighting unless we attack. We are gaining strength daily. Our policy seems to be not to attack unless the chances are greatly in our favor. Military affairs wear a much better look. Our armies are rapidly filling up. I shall not be surprised if Grant should soon find himself able to make important moves.

I like McClellan's letter. It is an important thing. It is the best evidence to Europe and the South that the people intend to prosecute the war until the Union is re-established. Still, if things continue as favorable as they now are, I think Lincoln will be elected.

I see that Mr. Long is not renominated. I supposed he would be and that my election over him was quite a sure thing. Against Mr. Lord the result will depend on the general drift matters take. I am not. a-going to take it to heart if I am beaten. “It's of no consequence at all,” as Mr. Toots would say. Mr. Lord's wife and family are particular and intimate friends of my wife and family.

His wife is a sister of Stephenson's wife. Divers friends of his and mine will be in a worry how to vote, I suspect.

I am glad you are out of debt – a good place to be out of in the times a-coming. 

Sincerely, 

R. B. HAYES. 

S. BIRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 506

Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards: February 1863

The members of our society sympathized with General McClellan when he was criticised by some and we wrote him the following letter: 

CANANDAIGUA, Feb. 13, 1863.

MAJ. GEN. GEO. MCCLELLAN:

 

Will you pardon any seeming impropriety in our addressing you, and attribute it to the impulsive love and admiration of hearts which see in you, the bravest and noblest defender of our Union. We cannot resist the impulse to tell you, be our words ever so feeble, how our love and trust have followed you from Rich Mountain to Antietam, through all slanderous attacks of traitorous politicians and fanatical defamers—how we have admired, not less than your calm courage on the battlefield, your lofty scorn of those who remained at home in the base endeavor to strip from your brow the hard earned laurels placed there by a grateful country: to tell further, that in your forced retirement from battlefields of the Republic's peril, “you have but changed your country's arms for more,—your country's heart,”—and to assure you that so long as our country remains to us a sacred name and our flag a holy emblem, so long shall we cherish your memory as the defender and protector of both. We are an association whose object it is to aid, in the only way in which woman, alas! can aid our brothers in the field. Our sympathies are with them in the cause for which they have periled all-our hearts are with them in the prayer, that ere long their beloved commander may be restored to them, and that once more as of old he may lead them to victory in the sacred name of the Union and Constitution.

 

With united prayers that the Father of all may have you and yours ever in His holy keeping, we remain your devoted partisans.

 

Signed by a large number.

The following in reply was addressed to the lady whose name was first signed to the above:

New YORK, Feb. 21, 1863.

 

MADAM—I take great pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of the very kind letter of the 13th inst., from yourself and your friends. Will you do me the favor to say to them how much I thank them for it, and that I am at a loss to express my gratitude for the pleasant and cheering terms in which it is couched. Such sentiments on the part of those whose brothers have served with me in the field are more grateful to me than anything else can be. I feel far more than rewarded by them for all I have tried to accomplish. — I am, Madam, with the most sincere respect and friendship, yours very truly,

 

GEO. B. MCCLELLAN.

SOURCE: Caroline Cowles Richards, Village Life in America, 1852-1872, p. 149-51

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, August 23, 1864

CAMP NEAR CHARLESTOWN SIX MILES (OR FOUR) FROM 

HARPERS FERRY, August 23, 1864. 

DEAREST:— For the first time since I saw you I received letters from you the day before yesterday. I hope I shall not be so cut off again. It almost pays, however, in the increased gratification the deferred correspondence gives one. You can't imagine how I enjoy your letters. They are a feast indeed.

I had hardly read your letter when we were called out to fight Early. We skirmished all day. Both armies had good positions and both were too prudent to leave them.' So, again yesterday. We are at work like beavers today. The men enjoy it. A battle may happen at any moment, but I think there will be none at present. Last evening the Twenty-third, Thirty-sixth, and Fifth surprised the Rebel skirmish line and took a number of prisoners, etc., without loss to us. It is called a brilliant skirmish and we enjoyed it much.

You recollect "Mose" Barrett. He was taken prisoner at Lynchburg while on a risky job. I always thought he would get off. Well, he came in at Cumberland with a comrade bringing in twelve horses from the Rebel lines!

Colonel Tomlinson was slightly wounded in the skirmish last night, just enough to draw blood and tear his pants below the knee. - One corporal of the color-guard was killed at Winchester - George Hughes, Company B. He died in five minutes without pain.

Winchester is a noble town. Both Union and Secesh ladies devote their whole time to the care of the wounded of the two armies. Their town has been taken and retaken two or three times a day, several times. It has been the scene of five or six battles and many skirmishes. There are about fifty Union families, many of them “F. F.'s.” But they are true as steel. Our officers and men all praise them. One queer thing: the whole people turn out to see each army as it comes and welcome their acquaintances and friends. The Rebels are happy when the Secesh soldiers come and vice versa. Three years of this sort of life have schooled them to singular habits.

I have heard heavy skirmishing ever since I began to write.

Now I hear our artillery pounding, but I anticipate no battle here as I think our position too good for Early to risk an assault and I suppose it is not our policy to attack them.

Interrupted to direct Captain Gillis about entrenching on our left. Meantime skirmish firing and cannonading have almost ceased.

I believe you know that I shall feel no apprehension of the war being abandoned if McClellan is elected President. I therefore feel desirous to see him nominated at Chicago. Then, no odds how the people vote, the country is safe. If McClellan is elected the Democracy will speedily become a war party.

А great good that will be. I suspect some of our patriots having fat offices and contracts might then on losing them become enamored of peace! I feel more hopeful about things than when I saw you. This Presidential election is the rub. That once over, without outbreak or other calamity, and I think we save the country.

By the by, I think I'll now write this to Uncle Scott. So good-bye. Love to chicks. Ever so much for their grandmother and more for you, darling.

Ever yours,

R. 

MRS. HAYES.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 495-6

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, August 27, 1864

CAMP SHERIDAN'S ARMY NEAR HALLTOWN, VIRGINIA, 

August 27, 1864. 

DEAR UNCLE:— I am getting letters at last; heard nothing from anybody for six weeks until last Sunday.

 We are entrenching a fine camp here as if a strong Rebel attack was expected. We have the enemy directly in front - supposed to be in force. We have fighting daily. My brigade and the other brigade of Crook's old division are in the front and do the most of it. We had quite a little battle last night — our loss seventy — Rebel about [the] same in killed and wounded and we captured a small South Carolina Rebel regiment entire (one hundred and four (men). This is the third time we have dashed back on them and picked up their skirmish line. The Rebs did intend to go into Maryland and Pennsylvania. Perhaps we have stopped them. We don't know yet.

Sheridan's cavalry is splendid. It is the most like the right thing that I have seen during the war.

Discipline and drill have been woefully neglected in our army. General Crook's army is about one-third of the force of Sheridan. Half of his (Crook's) force is capital infantry — the old Kanawha Division and two or three other regiments. The rest is poor enough — as poor as anything here. This is what hurt us at Winchester. The Nineteenth Corps, another third of Sheridan's army, are Yankee troops just returned from Louisiana. We have not seen them fight yet, but they look exceedingly well. We are pretty certain to have heavy fighting before long.

We are having capital times in this army—commanders that suit us (we are rid of Hunter), plenty to eat and wear, and beautiful and healthy camps, with short marches. The best times we have had since our first raid under Crook.

My old regiment keeps up notwithstanding the losses. We have filled up so as to have in the field almost six hundred men - more than any other old regiment.

I see Buckland is nominated (for Congress.) I suppose that will please him much. My college friend, from Michigan, Trowbridge, is a candidate also.

I hope McClellan will be nominated at Chicago. I shall then feel that in any event the war is to be prosecuted until the Union is restored.

Sincerely, 

R. B. HAYES. 

S. BIRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 498-9