Diary of Private Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Saturday, December 6, 1862

Oxford, Miss. Awoke with an unpleasant feeling, a racking pain in back and head. Started out early, the road having frozen hard enough to bear footmen, marched without much difficulty. Reached Oxford by noon. Neat place, two-thirds the size of Holly Springs; compared favorably with it in building but not in situation. Went into camp on the southern limits, saw some 700 prisoners marched in from the advance. Price still ahead. One darky reported him almost to hell.

SOURCE: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary, pp. 17-8

Diary of Private Jenkin Lloyd Jones: Monday, November 17, 1862

La Grange, Tenn. Awoke to hear the rain pattering briskly on the Sibley [tent] above me. We were called out, and with expectations to march, we drew three days' rations in our haversacks. 8 A. M. the rain cleared off and the column of infantry began to move by on the road leading to Holly Springs. At 9 A. M. we fell in rear of column. We marched west about three quarters of a mile, then turned north toward La Grange; travelled through very pretty country. We halted at Wolf River to water our horses, fill our canteens and ate a dinner of hard crackers and sugar. Ascended a steep hill, half a mile in length, on the top of which was situated La Grange, when we turned westward and travelled until 7 P. M. Encamped on a hill. Killed a beef for supper.

SOURCE: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary, p. 13

Diary of Private Jenkin Lloyd Jones: Friday, November 28, 1862

Moscow. Awoke before daylight with orders     Started to prepare to march. All was ready by 6:30 A. M. at about 7:30, fell in rear of the column and marched toward Holly Springs; traveled all day with the exception of the necessary halts in the train. Passed through Early Grove 4 P. M., Hudsonville 7 P. M. Traveled until 9 P. M. Encamped near Coldwater River for the night. The country was all woodland except the cleared plantations; after dark the air was illumined, the raging fire caused by the dry leaves and fences, running for miles, it being set out by the advance. Came into park in a grove, made a "shebang" of shakes and laid down about 11:30 Р. М.

SOURCE: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary, p. 15

Diary of Private Jenkin Lloyd Jones: Saturday, November 29, 1862

Holly Springs, Miss. The bugle's notes awoke me in the same position as that I fell asleep in three hours before. Prepared for march and started with the sun, in advance of the artillery; passed through Holly Springs about 11 A. M.; passed through the streets where twenty-four hours before the last of the rebels skedaddled. Holly Springs passed my expectations in size and beauty, being the largest place I have seen in Secession.

We traveled on in a southward course towards Waterford. General Hamilton and troupe passed us about 4 miles beyond Holly Springs. Two miles farther on we heard two guns discharged and heard rumors of a battle ahead. On the brow of a hill we were shown the grounds where the cavalry were engaged in the morning with the Rebs' pickets, killing a Michigan boy and three Rebs. Ascended the hill which overlooked Waterford, consisting of a mill and a small creek, branch of Coldwater River. Here the enemy opened fire on our troops in the morning with two pieces which were taken. We forded the stream about 5 P. M., went into camp on the banks, got some flour from the mills (ground by the secesh for supper), and laid down under the gun on soil twenty-four hours ago occupied by Rebs, seven miles south of Holly Springs.

SOURCE: Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary, pp. 15-6

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Benjamin F. Pearson, December 29, 1862

I had the pleasure of seeing a number of friends from Iowa that came in from Holly Springs for supplies in Hamilton & Quimbys divisions that arrived this afternoon

SOURCE: Edgar R. Harlan, Currator, Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 1925, p. 101

Diary of Private Seth J. Wells, December 20, 1862

The news came in this morning that Holly Springs was entered at daylight and captured. The Rebels took over two hundred thousand dollars and burned the depot with all the stores and the arsenal we had fitted up for a hospital. After dinner we were set to work building breastworks of cotton, having captured one thousand bales from the C. S. A... When we first came here the regiment was scattered along the railroad, one company in a place extending nearly to Oxford. Companies G and K were kept here, this being the headquarters of Regiment 1, Norton commanding the Post. Two companies below were sent up, and by night we had a complete breastwork of cotton bales, regular old hickory style.

SOURCE: Seth James Wells, The Siege of Vicksburg: From the Diary of Seth J. Wells, Including Weeks of Preparation and of Occupation After the Surrender, p. 19-20

Diary of Private Seth J. Wells, December 26, 1862

Warm and raining. We were astir early, cooked our breakfasts, filled our haversacks with meat and what little bread we had, and fell in about 7 o'clock. It began to rain and we had gone but a mile or two when we were wet through. We secured two ox teams, one of six oxen, and one of four, which hauled our knapsacks. The 12th Ind. is still camped on the Tallahatchie. Saw Lieut. E. Webster and Tom Anderson, they are living on quarter rations. Capt. Williams, now Colonel of the regiment, was at Holly Springs at the time it was captured and he was taken for the third time. We marched to the Yazoo Bottoms and camped on the opposite side. It rained and we were completely soaked. The ground was muddy and I looked around, found a stack of corn, dug down to the dry stalks, husked out a lot and made a bed for myself. We are, within seven miles of Holly Springs.

SOURCE: Seth James Wells, The Siege of Vicksburg: From the Diary of Seth J. Wells, Including Weeks of Preparation and of Occupation After the Surrender, p. 22

Diary of Private Seth J. Wells, December 27, 1862

Warm and rainy this morning. We struck out tents, fell in about daylight and marched through to Holly Springs, where we saw the effects of the late raid.

A long ambulance train, a large hotel and one whole block was burned, also the whole of the large arsenal building which we had prepared and were using for a hospital, the large depot and all the supplies that were in it, two or three engines and a long train of cars. When the magazines exploded it jarred out nearly all of the window glass in that part of the town. We camped on the north side in a beautiful grove. As soon as camp was laid off we killed one of our oxen which had labored so faithfully in hauling our knapsacks here, and drew one more day's rations to finish out our four days. The boys have taken the mills into their own hands and are shelling and grinding corn, what they should have done long ago, live off the country. They tell us that we are the first regiment of the first brigade, sixth division (Gen. Arthur's) of Grant's department. There has been no time to parole the sick.

SOURCE: Seth James Wells, The Siege of Vicksburg: From the Diary of Seth J. Wells, Including Weeks of Preparation and of Occupation After the Surrender, p. 23

Diary of Private Seth J. Wells, December 29, 1862

A foraging party went out this morning. One of our boys killed five hogs and thirteen chickens, and found two government wagons and two barrels of molasses that the Rebs had taken out from Holly Springs and hidden. At 3 o'clock we had orders to move in twenty minutes for Moscow, a small town ten miles west of LaGrange on the Memphis and Charleston railroad. We marched to the opposite side of Coldwater and camped for the night. Our brigade was in advance of the division and our regiment in advance of the brigade.

SOURCE: Seth James Wells, The Siege of Vicksburg: From the Diary of Seth J. Wells, Including Weeks of Preparation and of Occupation After the Surrender, p. 23-4

Diary of Private Seth J. Wells: December 12, 1862

Quite sore from chopping and rolling cotton. Our Colonel, Amos Norton, is Commander of the Post, and Rats is provost-marshal, Col. Smith commanding the regiment. Toward dark a rumor was rapidly circulated through the camp that we were ordered to Holly Springs, Miss. No one could tell where it started from, and consequently no one credited it.

SOURCE: Seth James Wells, The Siege of Vicksburg: From the Diary of Seth J. Wells, Including Weeks of Preparation and of Occupation After the Surrender, p. 16

Diary of Private Seth J. Wells: December 15, 1862

We struck tents early, packed our effects as snugly as possible, and as on the preceding morning, shouldered our knaps. It rained during our entire march to Holly Springs, the flower city of the South, and on our arrival there the flood gates of heaven opened and the rain poured down on our defenseless heads in torrents. We stood it about two hours before the Colonel culd secure quarters. Three-fourths of a mile up the railroad track we found a very large rebel arsenal, but were wet to the skin long before we reached this shelter. It continued to rain all day without intermission.

SOURCE: Seth James Wells, The Siege of Vicksburg: From the Diary of Seth J. Wells, Including Weeks of Preparation and of Occupation After the Surrender, p. 17-8

Diary of Private Seth J. Wells: November 28, 1862

I was on guard in front of the Provost-marshall's office today. The troop began to move toward Holly Springs long before day light. While I was in town five batteries and as many brigades passed. Gen. Grant passed us a number of times. He is looking a great deal better than when at Iuka.

SOURCE: Seth James Wells, The Siege of Vicksburg: From the Diary of Seth J. Wells, Including Weeks of Preparation and of Occupation After the Surrender, p. 14

Diary of Captain Joseph Stockton, December 21, 1862

Broke camp today. Left for Oxford on our retreat to where, I don't know, as the rebel General Van Dorn, through the treachery of Colonel Murphy, captured and destroyed all our supplies at Holly Springs and cut the railroad tracks. Reached Oxford in the afternoon and on alarm that the rebels were coming our brigade was called up and the 72d sent out as grand guard. I kept awake all night but fortunately the alarm was caused by the moving of some of our own troops that our scouts had taken for Rebs.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 6

Diary of Captain Joseph Stockton, December 25, 1862

LUMPKINS MILLS, MISS.

Passed the day in camp as Ross's division were passing on their way to Holly Springs. Weather beautiful. It made the day pleasant for our men. I had a pole greased and tied some tobacco and a dollar bill on top and the man who climbed it was to have it. It afforded a great deal of amusement and helped to make the day pass away agreeably to all.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 6

Diary of Captain Joseph Stockton, December 26, 1862

Started on our march to Memphis. Quimby's [sic] division are to guard a train of 600 empty wagons. The day's march was a terrible one. Raining and roads muddy, and cut by the wagon trains many of which were filled with sick soldiers taken from the hospitals at Oxford and Holly Springs. Several poor fellows died and were buried alongside the road, their winding sheet a blanket and no ceremony but the digging of the grave, the body put in, filled up and the burial party hurrying away to get to their position. Poor fellows, they died for their country as much as if they were killed in battle.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 6

Diary of Captain Joseph Stockton, November 28, 1862

Left Moscow for Holly Springs, Mississippi, at nine o'clock, marched twenty miles, encamped in the woods, slept soundly until awakened by rain; wrapped my rubber blanket around me and went to sleep again—too tired for anything trifling to keep me awake. 4th Minnesota in the advance.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 4

Diary of Captain Joseph Stockton, November 29, 1862

Marched at 8 o'clock in the morning. General Grant passed us at about 10 o'clock; arrived at Holly Springs at about 11 o'clock; halted an hour, marched to Lumpkins Mills where we encamped for the night. Had to take off our pants, etc., to wade a stream to reach our camping grounds—found a splendid pond of water which was made good use of. Firing in the distance. I saw one of the grandest sights tonight. I had occasion to ride up on a high hill and in the valley below there were some 40 or 50 thousand troops encamped and going into camp the thousands of camp fires, the cheers of the men as they were going into camp, the tattoo of the regiments which had already gone into camp, some with bands of music, others with only the bugle, others with drums, all together made up a scene long to be remembered. I would not have missed seeing it for hundreds of other scenes at home. I staid on the hill for some time and at midnight not a sound was heard, all was as still as could be and the only things to be seen were groups of soldiers either lying or sitting around the camp fires.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 4-5

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: August 31, 1864

 Bright and pleasant.

The only news to-day was a dispatch from Gen. Hood, stating that the enemy had left Holly Springs, Miss., for the Mississippi River, supposed to reinforce Sherman, whose communications are certainly cut. It seems to me that Sherman must be doomed. Forces are gathering from every quarter around him, and it is over 200 miles to Mobile, if he has any idea to force his way thitherward.

Attended an auction to-day. Prices of furniture, clothing, etc. still mounting higher.

Common salt herrings are at $16 per dozen; salt shad, $8 a piece. Our agent was heard from to-day. He has no flour yet, but we still have hopes of getting some.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 275

Major-General William T. Sherman to Miss P. A. Fraser, October 22, 1862

MEMPHIS, October 22, 1862.

Miss P. A. FRASER, Memphis:

DEAR LADY: Your petition is received. I will allow fifteen days for the parties interested to send to Holly Springs and Little Rock to ascertain if firing on unarmed boats is to form a part of the warfare against the Government of the United States.

If from silence or a positive answer from their commanders I am led to believe such fiendish acts are to be tolerated or allowed it would be weakness and foolish in me to listen to appeals to feelings that are scorned by our enemies. They must know and feel that not only will we meet them in arms, but that their people shall experience their full measure of the necessary consequences of such barbarity.

The Confederate generals claim the Partisan Rangers as a part of their army. They cannot then disavow their acts, but all their adherents must suffer the penalty. They shall not live with us in peace. God himself has obliterated whole races from the face of the earth for sins less heinous than such as characterized the attacks on the Catahoula and Gladiator. All I say is if such acts were done by the direct or implied concert of the Confederate authorities we are not going to chase through the canebrakes and swamps the individuals who did the deeds, but will visit punishment upon the adherents of that cause which employs such agents. We will insist on a positive separation; they cannot live with us. Further than that I have not yet ordered, and when the time comes to settle the account we will see which is most cruel—for your partisans to fire cannon and musket-balls through steamboats with women and children on board, set them on fire with women and children sleeping in their berths, and shoot down the passengers and engineers, with the curses of hell on their tongues, or for us to say the families of men engaged in such hellish deeds shall not live in peace where the flag of the United States floats.

I know you will say these poor women and children abhor such acts as much as I do, and that their husbands and brothers in the Confederate service also would not be concerned in such acts. Then let the Confederate authorities say so, and not employ their tools in such deeds of blood and darkness. We will now wait and see who are the cruel and heartless men of this war. We will see whether the firing on the Catahoula or Gladiator is sanctioned or disapproved, and if it was done by the positive command of men commissioned by the Confederate Government, you will then appreciate how rapidly civil war corrupts the best feelings of the human heart.

Would to God ladies better acted their mission on earth; that instead of inflaming the minds of their husbands and brothers to lift their hands against the Government of their birth and stain them in blood, had prayed them to forbear, to exhaust all the remedies afforded them by our glorious Constitution, and thereby avoid "horrid war," the last remedy on earth.

Your appeals to me shall ever receive respectful attention, but it will be vain in this case if General Holmes does not promptly disavow these acts, for I will not permit the families and adherents of secessionists to live here in peace whilst their husbands and brothers are aiming the rifle and gun at our families on the free Mississippi.

Your friend,

W. T. SHERMAN,                

Major-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 17, Part 2 (Serial No. 25), p. 287-8

Captain Charles Wright Wills: July 1, 1863

Lagrange, Tenn., July 1, 1863.

Everything moves quietly here. No more alarms or anything else to "bust" the confounded monotony of garrison life. A guerrilla was brought in yesterday who has murdered at least one of our soldiers, and an unarmed one at that. He rests comfortably now with a nice lot of jewelry on his arms and legs, and a good heavy chain connecting his precious body to his bed, a not very soft plank. He is a worse fellow than we have in Illinois to my knowledge. We have two regiments of negroes here now, great big, stout, hardy fellows, and they really look right well in their uniforms. I heard from old Company "E" of the 8th this morning. They have had two men killed and five wounded before Vicksburg. There are only 15 left now. Wonder where my bones would have been if I had stayed with the boys.

A woman from Holly Springs is up to-day with the statement that Johnston is marching on Memphis, and proposes to have possession thereof within ten days. Good for Joseph! We had a confirmation of the report of the taking of Port Hudson yesterday, but nothing further to-day. It don't go down here without a good deal of forcing.

Isn't it music to hear those Pennsylvania fellers howl? I almost wish that Lee would cut the levee of Lake Ontario, and let the water over that country. Don't tell father and mother. If Lee don't wake them up to a sense of their misery, he isn't the man that Price is. If ever Price reaches Illinois, and he swears he's going to do it some day, you can reckon on seeing a smoke, sure! Don't you folks feel a little blue over Lee's move? Kind o' as though you wish you hadn't gone and done it! Never mind, you'll get used to it. The first raid isn't a sample. Wait until general Rebel somebody, establishes his headquarters in Canton, and you've all taken the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. Imagine yourself going up to the headquarters with your oath in your hand and tears in your eyes to ask the general to please keep the soldiers from tearing the boards off your house (for bunks), or asking for something to eat out of his commissary department, and then blubber right out and tell him that the soldiers broke open your trunks and took your clothes and what little money you had, and you don't know what in the world you'll do. Many of these people are in this condition, and I hear a hundred of them tell the story every week. Every man in Illinois ought to die on the border rather than allow an invading force to march into our State.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 184-6