Diary of Private William S. White, September 13, 1862

Heavy firing in the direction of Harper's Ferry; many camp rumors afloat concerning it.

SOURCE: William S. White, A Diary of the War; or What I Saw of It, p. 131

Diary of Private William S. White, September 14, 1862

Firing to-day towards Middletown, in our rear. Left camp to reinforce our troops, who are sharply engaging the enemy at Boonsboro'. We moved on towards that place when we met a portion of our troops returning; they report the enemy to be falling back.

Camped near Boonsboro'. The Yankees now begin to understand our plans, and are making strenuous efforts to save their troops penned up in Harper's Ferry by Stonewall Jackson, but "Old Jack" is bound to "gather them in."

SOURCE: William S. White, A Diary of the War; or What I Saw of It, p. 131

Diary of Private William S. White, September 15, 1862

In some way McClellan succeeded in getting his hands upon one of General Lee's orders, which gave him a pretty correct idea of the disposition of our forces, and thinking he could throw a heavy force upon D. H. Hill, at Boonsboro', cut our army in two and get to Harper's Ferry in time to save the Federal forces stationed there and now penned up by Jackson, he made a heavy attack upon Hill. Hill made a desperate resistance with his gallant troops, but it remains to be seen whether or not he held out long enough.

Certain it is that Hill has had to fight against very heavy odds, and has lost many men.

The Yankees having pushed us so closely at Boonsboro' it becomes necessary for us to gather up our forces before we can offer McClellan battle. The larger portion of our troops moved last night, and this morning, towards Sharpsburg, whilst my artillery command moved on to Williamsport, on the Potomac, to guard the ford—had neither infantry nor cavalry support, and we were smartly excited on getting within a few miles of that place to find the Yankees had possession of it and had destroyed a good many of our ordnance wagons. It seems that a body of Yankee cavalry had escaped from Harper's Ferry, and from the clutches of the rapacious Jackson, and had made their way to Williamsport. Crossing the Potomac at that place they came upon our ordnance train, which being unprotected was completely at their mercy. Our artillery regiment was also unprotected, and had the Yankees been aware of it, we could have been easily captured; but war is a game of chance and I presume they concluded that they had accomplished enough for one day escaped from Jackson at Harper's Ferry and captured a Confederate ordnance train. They beat a hasty retreat, and we entered Williamsport without opposition, crossing the Potomac and bringing our guns "into battery" once more upon Virginia soil. So far, our march into Maryland has resulted in but little good to our cause, and has lasted but a single week. There is no doubt of this fact (and 'tis useless to attempt to conceal it) the people, or at least the larger portion of them, are against the South, and that, too, most bitterly.

Confederate money, in most places, was not current, and as we had nothing else, we made but few purchases.

We remained on the Potomac until dark, then marched six or seven miles and camped for the night.

SOURCE: William S. White, A Diary of the War; or What I Saw of It, pp. 131-2

Diary of Private William S. White, September 17, 1862

Camped near Shepherdstown last night. This morning we can faintly see, far over towards Sharpsburg that another great battle is commencing.

McClellan very well knew that the time to attack Lee was when Jackson was absent, and the bloody battle of Sharpsburg is the consequence.

This little village is filled with our sick and wounded, and the citizens are straining every nerve to render them comfortable. Jackson has gained a glorious victory at Harper's Ferry, and that, too, without loss. His troops have passed through Shepherdstown on the way to Sharpsburg.

This little village of Shepherdstown is the most intensely Southern place I ever saw, and what makes it more surprising is its proximity to Maryland.

Our battery has just received orders to move, not to Sharpsburg, as we supposed, but to Williamsport.

In order to relieve Lee at Sharpsburg, General J. E. B. Stuart is to recross the Potomac at Williamsport, and make a diversion. McClellan, not knowing Stuart's force and fearing a flank movement, will withdraw, possibly, a large force to watch or catch him.

Camped near Martinsburg.

SOURCE: William S. White, A Diary of the War; or What I Saw of It, p. 132-3

Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, Thursday, January 10, 1861

The weather is a little colder tonight, just freezing. Exciting news from Charleston. The Steamer “Star of the West” with troops to reinforce Maj Anderson was fired into yesterday and she turned off to Sea. Maj Anderson threatened the City with Bombs if she was again molested. We hear that she is in the Harbor landing her troops and stores at Fort Sumpter. It has been rumored this afternoon that the Gov of Virginia had ordered two Regiments to Harpers Ferry to take possession of the U S Arsenal &c, and that their passage through this City will be resisted by the Gov^t. I have not been well today, and have not been out of the house since dinner.

SOURCE: Horatio Nelson Taft, The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865. Volume 1, January 1,1861-April 11, 1862, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington D. C., image 7.

Victor Hugo to Editor of the London News, December 2, 1859

HAUTEVILLE HOUSE, Dec. 2, 1859.

SIR: When one thinks of the United States of America, a majestic figure rises to the mind—Washington. Now, in that country of Washington, see what is going on at this hour!

There are slaves in the Southern States, a fact which strikes with indignation, as the most monstrous of contradictions, the reasonable and freer conscience of the Northern States. These slaves, these negroes, a white man, a free man, one John Brown, wanted to deliver. Certainly, if insurrection be ever a sacred duty, it is against Slavery. Brown wished to begin the good work by the deliverance of the slaves in Virginia. Being a Puritan, a religious and austere man, and full of the Gospel, he cried aloud to these men — his brothers — the cry of emancipation "Christ has set us free!" The slaves, enervated by Slavery, made no response to his appeal — Slavery makes deafness in the soul. Brown, finding himself abandoned, fought with a handful of heroic men; he struggled; he fell, riddled with bullets; his two young sons, martyrs of a holy cause, dead at his side. This is what is called the Harper's Ferry affair.

John Brown, taken prisoner, has just been tried, with four of his fellows — Stephens, Coppoc, Green, and Copeland. What sort of trial it was, a word will tell.

Brown, stretched upon a truckle bed, with six half-closed wounds—a gun-shot wound in his arm, one in his loins, two in the chest, two in the head—almost bereft of hearing, bleeding through his mattress, the spirits of his two dead sons attending him; his four fellow-prisoners crawling around him; Stephens with four sabre wounds; "Justice" in a hurry to have done with the case; an attorney, Hunter, demanding that it be despatched with sharp speed; a Judge, Parker, absenting; the defence cut short; scarcely any delay allowed; forged or garbled documents put in evidence; the witnesses for the prisoner shut out; the defence clogged; two guns, loaded with grape, brought into the court, with an order to the jailers to shoot the prisoners in case of an attempt at rescue; forty minutes' deliberation; three sentences to death. I affirm, on my honor, that all this took place, not in Turkey, but in America.

Such things are not done with impunity in the face of the civilized world. The universal conscience of mankind is an ever-watchful eye. Let the Judge of Charlestown, and Hunter, and Parker, and the slave-holding jurors, and the whole population of Virginia, ponder it well: they are seen! They are not alone in the world. At this moment the gaze of Europe is fixed on America.

John Brown, condemned to die, was to have been hanged on the 2d of December—this very day. But news has this instant reached us. A respite is granted him. It is not until the 16th that he is to die. The interval is short. Has a cry of mercy time to make itself heard? No matter. It is a duty to lift up the voice.

Perhaps a second respite may be granted. America is a noble land. The sentiment of humanity is soon quickened among a free people. We hope that Brown may be saved. If it were otherwise—if Brown should die on the scaffold on the 16th of December—what a terrible calamity!

The executioner of Brown—let us avow it openly (for the day of the kings is past, and the day of the people dawns, and to the people we are bound frankly to speak the truth)—the executioner of Brown would be neither, the Attorney Hunter, nor the Judge Parker, nor the Governor Wise, nor the State of Virginia; it would be, we say it, and we think it with a shudder, the whole American Republic.

The more one loves, the more one admires, the more one reveres the Republic, the more heart-sick one feels at such a catastrophe. A single State ought not to have the power to dishonor all the rest, and in this ease federal intervention is a clear right. Otherwise, by hesitating to interfere when it might prevent a crime, the Union becomes an accomplice. No matter how intense may be the indignation of the generous Northern States, the Southern States associate them with the disgrace of this murder. All of us, whosoever we may be—for whom the democratic cause is a common country—feel ourselves in a manner compromised and hurt. If the scaffold should be erected on the 16th of December, the incorruptible voices of history would thenceforward testify that the august confederation of the New World had added to all its ties of holy brotherhood a brotherhood of blood, and the fasces of that splendid Republic would be bound together with the running noose that hung from the gibbet of Brown.

This is a bond that kills.

When we reflect on what Brown, the liberator, the champion of Christ, has striven to effect, and when we remember that he is about to die, slaughtered by the American Republic, the crime assumes the proportions of the Nation which commits it; and when we say to ourselves that this Nation is a glory of the human race; that—like France, like England, like Germany—she is one of the organs of civilization; that she sometimes even out-marches Europe by the sublime audacity of her progress; that she is the queen of an entire world; and that she bears on her brow an immense light of freedom; we affirm that John Brown will not die; for we recoil, horror-struck, from the idea of so great a crime committed by so great a People,

In a political light, the murder of Brown would be an irreparable fault. It would penetrate the Union with a secret fissure, which—would in the end tear it asunder. It is possible that the execution of Brown might consolidate Slavery in Virginia, but it is certain that it would convulse the entire American Democracy. You preserve your shame, but you sacrifice your glory.

In a moral light, it seems to me, that a portion of the light of humanity would be eclipsed; that even the idea of justice and injustice would be obscured on the day which should witness the assassination of Emancipation by Liberty.

As for myself, though I am but an atom, yet being, as I am, in common with all other men, inspired with the conscience of humanity, I kneel in tears before the great starry banner of the New World, and with clasped hands, and with profound and filial respect, I implore the illustrious American Republic, sister of the French Republic, to look to the safety of the universal moral law, to save Brown; to throw down the threatening scaffold of the 16th December, and not to suffer that, beneath its eyes, and, I add, with a shudder, almost by its fault, the first fratricide be outdone.

For yes, let America know it, and ponder it well—there is something more terrible than Cain slaying Abel—it is Washington slaying Spartacus.

VICTOR HUGO.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON NEWS.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, pp. 99-102

Diary of Corporal John Worrell Northrop: Thursday, July 14, 1864

Report that Lee is moving forces northward; Ewell at Harper's Ferry; and a cavalry raid into Maryland. Whether this is to attract attention for political effect, or is a military movement is a question. While writing, sergeants of detachments have been called by Capt. Wirz and notified that he has if attempted he will kill every man in camp. Reports of two cannon startled the prisoners this afternoon, and we turned out to see Rebel soldiers pouring into line double quick. It was soon evident that it was practice. They formed on the hill, deployed skirmishers who indulged in a vigorous fire, interspersed with several volleys of musketry from a brigade, showing how they would do if Kilpatrick came, or if prisoners break out.

SOURCE: John Worrell Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, pp. 91-2

Diary of 4th Corporal Bartlett Yancey Malone: September 16, 1862

we started to Harpersferry and we got as far as Berryville the first day and then taken the left hand road and got as far as Charlestown the 17 day

SOURCE: Bartlett Yancey Malone, The Diary of Bartlett Yancey Malone, p. 25

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Friday, March 7, 1862

Left Harper's Ferry. Detached to General Gorman's brigade. Marched till within a mile of Charlestown, Virginia, and went in camp to the left of the road, close to the First Minnesota, Colonel Sully.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 34

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Thursday, March 13, 1862

At Berryville. Marched by eight o'clock A. M. towards Winchester. When within two miles of the latter place, orders arrived for our division to return to Harper's Ferry. General Banks' troops were occupying Winchester already. Arrived at Berryville again by four o'clock in the afternoon.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, pp. 35-6

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Saturday, March 15, 1862

Marched to Harper's Ferry, and occupied the government building, in which we were quartered before, again. A heavy rain-storm to-day.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 36

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Saturday, March 22, 1862

We left Harper's Ferry in the morning. During the afternoon, the battery was loaded on railroad cars at Sandy Hook. The train started by seven o'clock in the evening, for Washington.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 36

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Wednesday, February 26, 1862

Marched at seven o'clock A. M. Arrived at Adamstown by eleven o'clock A. M. General Banks was at Harper's Ferry already. Troops were passing by railroad, en route for Harper's Ferry, all the time. Our battery went in park, for the rest of the day, close to the railroad. General McClellan passed through in a special train. Rain all night.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 33

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Friday, February 28, 1862

The battery crossed the Potomac to Harper's Ferry on a pontoon bridge. We occupy one of the government buildings on the hill.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 34

Diary of Private Jenkin Lloyd Jones: Friday, September 19, 1862

Rienzi. On roll call the Captain told us that Burnside had captured the whole of Longstreet's command at Harpers Ferry after their first capturing the place and the whole army under Colonel Miles. Three cheers were given with a spirit. No mail. Went after berries in the afternoon.

SOURCE: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary, p. 6

Diary of Dr. Alfred L. Castleman, October 11, 1861

Sent off ambulances to-day to commence bringing forward the sick of my regiment, and whilst they were gone, after having put my hospital in good order for their reception, I stepped over again to Commodore Jones' house to see how the guards stationed there had succeeded in carrying out their orders. Till I entered the house, I thought I had seen evidences of extreme vandalism, but the wanton destruction here beggars everything I have before witnessed. Furniture broken; feather beds opened, and their contents emptied over house and yard; even those beautiful family pictures were ground to atoms and thrown to the winds. But I need not describe here, for the impression is deeply stamped in memory, more durable and more accurate than words and letters can ever make. Everything destructable was destroyed.*

In handling over the papers I picked up the Commodore's "Journal of a cruise in the U. S. ship Relief-bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Jones-Thos. A. Downer, Esq., Commander," which I have preserved, and also a letter from a son of Commodore Tatnall (late of the rebel Merrimac) to Commodore Jones, written from the Meditterranean, asking to be relieved from duty there, and to be permitted to return to America.†

As it will be a matter of interest to me, in future, to study my predictions as to the course and conduct of this war-to rejoice and be vain over those which prove correct, and to laugh at or be ashamed of those which prove false, I shall continue to record them as I have begun; and here I enter one in which I hope to take interest a long time hence. As I have constantly predicted, we have had no fight here nor shall we have; and I now very much doubt whether we shall have a fight even at Manassas, and for this reason: "After all the feints of the enemy here to draw Gen. Banks from Harper's Ferry had failed, they, seeing that we have got foot-hold in North Carolina, will fall back on their fortifications at Centerville and Manassas, and then presenting a bold front with a small body, will cover the withdrawal of the larger part of their force, which they will distribute in Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Western Virginia, and I very much doubt whether they will retain enough at Manassas to make a respectable fight. Kentucky and Tennessee are to become the theatre of war; and if I am not greatly mistaken, Kentucky will have trying times between this and the first of January. I hope that Gen. McClellan is taking the same view of things, and is preparing to meet it." What I have here marked as a quotation is a copied from a letter this day written to a friend on the prospects of the war.

_______________

* It is worthy of remark here, that thus whilst this wanton destruction was going on, a half a mile away, everything on the place of Mr. Johnson, (a loyalist, whose house and garden were in the very midst of the encampments,) though unguarded was unmolested; every article he had to dispose of was bought and paid for, at high prices, by the soldiers. Even thus early could we read the soldier's aversion to guarding, or having guarded the property of rebels.

† This letter I handed to a lady connection of the Tatnall family, who was with me at the time, and she found means of restoring it to them.

SOURCE: Alfred L. Castleman, The Army of the Potomac. Behind the Scenes. A Diary of Unwritten History; From the Organization of the Army, by General George B. McClellan, to the close of the Campaign in Virginia about the First Day January, 1863, p. 42-3

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Wednesday, October 23, 1861

A clear day. The enemy in great force around Leesburg. We can see the church steeples of that place. Skirmishing kept up all day. In the evening our battery received orders to embark and cross the river,—Capt. Tompkins, having come back from Harper's Ferry, with the right section, the evening before,—three guns were already loaded on a canal boat, together with Company C, First Maryland Regiment, and started; but the current of the stream being too strong, and losing half of the oars, they had to return again. Orders awaited us already to disembark immediately, and return to camp. All the troops withdrew from the Virginia shore before daylight, eight thousand men in all.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 25-6

Diary of Corporal John W. Dennett, October 31, 1862

Started out at half-past nine A.M., and marched to Loudon, passing through Harper's Ferry; and went into park at seven P.M. Eight miles.

SOURCE: John Lord Parker, Henry Wilson's Regiment: History of the Twenty-second Massachusetts Infantry, the Second Company Sharpshooters and the Third Light Battery, in the War of the Rebellion, p. 268

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Monday, October 7, 1861

Capt. Tompkins very suddenly marched off to Harper's Ferry, with the right section. Thunder storm in the evening.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 23

Diary of Private Theodore Reichardt, Saturday, October 19, 1861

Gen. Banks and staff honored our battery drill with their presence. Col. Geary of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania, and Capt. Tompkins, with the right section, had a fight with the rebels at Harper's Ferry and Bolivar Heights. Our right section, occupying Maryland Heights, fired into Bolivar and on a rebel battery on Loudon Heights. Even the drivers served an old iron gun. Col. Geary's troops, crossing the river in scows, carried the fight to Bolivar Heights. No loss of men in the right section.

SOURCE: Theodore Reichardt, Diary of Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery, p. 24