Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: July 6, 1864

COLUMBIA, S. C. — At the Prestons’ Mary was laughing at Mrs. Lyons's complaint — the person from whom we rented rooms in Richmond. She spoke of Molly and Lawrence's deceitfulness. They went about the house quiet as mice while we were at home; or Lawrence sat at the door and sprang to his feet whenever we passed. But when we were out, they sang, laughed, shouted, and danced. If any of the Lyons family passed him, Lawrence kept his seat, with his hat on, too. Mrs. Chesnut had said: “Oh!” so meekly to the whole tirade, and added, “I will see about it.”

Colonel Urquhart and Edmund Rhett dined here; charming men both — no brag, no detraction. Talk is never pleasant where there is either. Our noble Georgian dined here. He says Hampton was the hero of the Yankee rout at Stony Creek.¹ He claims that citizens, militia, and lame soldiers kept the bridge at Staunton and gallantly repulsed Wilson's raiders.

At Mrs. S.'s last night. She came up, saying, “In New Orleans four people never met together without dancing.” Edmund Rhett turned to me: “You shall be pressed into service.” “No, I belong to the reserve corps — too old to volunteer or to be drafted as a conscript.” But I had to go.

My partner in the dance showed his English descent; he took his pleasure sadly. “Oh, Mr. Rhett, at his pleasure, can be a most agreeable companion!” said someone. “I never happened to meet him,” said I, “when he pleased to be otherwise.” With a hot, draggled, old alpaca dress, and those clod-hopping shoes, to tumble slowly and gracefully through the mazes of a July dance was too much for me. “What depresses you so?” he anxiously inquired. “Our carnival of death.” What a blunder to bring us all together here! — a reunion of consumptives to dance and sing until one can almost hear the death-rattle!

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¹ The battle of Stony Creek in Virginia was fought on June 28-29, 1864.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 313-4

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw Lowell, September 30, 1864

Near Mt. Crawford, Sept. 30, 1864.

We did leave Waynesboro' the other afternoon, and in a hurry, — what was left of Early's army came in upon our left flank and came near doing us a mischief, but we got away in the dark and marching all night reached here yesterday evening, — and are safe under the wing of the infantry. Colonel Crowninshield lost "Jim" (his old sorrel, you know, which you used to recognize so often), and in the march lost “Tinker” and the pack-mule which carried his mess things. Mr. Kinny got a slight wound from a spent ball and Lieutenant Woodman had his leg broken, and the ball is still in, making an ugly wound. I had a horse hit, but only slightly, — a Sergeant of the Second Cavalry claims to have saved my life by running in and getting very badly sabred himself.¹

Here we are all safe and comfortable again, however, after a long night's sleep, — to bed at 9, and not up till 6.30.

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¹ On September 26, Wilson's division and Lowell's brigade of the First Division had moved towards Staunton, and made large captures there of arms, equipments, and stores; next day they went to Waynesboro', and, on the 28th, destroyed the railroad bridge over the South Fork of the Shenandoah. In the afternoon they were attacked, and, to avoid being cut off, retired on the main army. September 29, Colonel Lowell was ordered, with his command, to rejoin his division at Cross Keys.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 351-2, 465

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw Lowell, September 24, 1864 - 10 a.m.

Newmarket, 10 A. M.

Headquarters Res. Brigade (Sept. 24?).

We have been in Luray Valley and entirely away from communications. I send you a little purple Gerardia, picked for you by General Wilson (whom you don't know, but who must have heard Mr. Dana speak of you): he had just handed it to me, when my unfortunate Adjutant-General was shot right behind us (not fatal, though we feared so for some time), so it has not very pleasant associations. We did capture a battle-flag yesterday, so I'm tolerably satisfied. If you could only look in here for a minute, — it's in the loveliest mountain scenery you can imagine.¹

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¹ General Sheridan had sent Torbert, with most of his cavalry, up the Luray Valley, just before the infantry of General Crook flanked and dislodged Early's army from the mountains at Fisher's Hill. He thus expected to cut off the Confederate retreat, and make an end of that army. In his Life, he expresses great disappointment with Torbert on that occasion, as he was held in check by Wickham's Cavalry until after Early got off with the remains of his force.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 349, 465

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw Lowell, August 24, 1864 – 5 A. M.

Near Halltown, Aug. 24, 5 A. M.

We have had the rear-guard nearly every mile of the way down, — have had no real heavy fighting, but a great deal of firing; have got off very well, losing in the whole brigade not over seventy-five. I have had my usual bad luck with horses — Ruksh was wounded on Friday in the nigh fore leg, pastern joint; the ball went in, and came out apparently about one third of the way round, but I have got him along to this point and may save him. Monday morning I was on Will's “Dick,” and his off hind leg was broken and we left him, and yesterday I tried Billy,and a bullet went through his neck, — it will not hurt him at all, however, — will add to his value in Mr. Forbes's eyes at least a thousand dollars.¹ Berold is so foolish about bullets and shell now (feels so splendidly well in fact) that I really can't ride him under fire, so it's probable you '11 see him again. I'm training the gray and shall try to use him habitually, — as I mustn't risk Billy again. Please don't speak of my bad luck with horses, it seems foolish, — of course I shall have to write Mr. Forbes. I think I shall write Charley Perkins to sell that farm, — I don't see how we shall keep ourselves in horses otherwise.²

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¹ Ruksh and Berold were fine horses, both of a bright sorrel, Ruksh very tall and with a look of distinction.

“And Ruksh, his horse,

Followed him like a faithful hound at heel.

Ruksh, whose renown was noised through all the earth,

The horse which Rustum, in a foray once,

Did in Bokhara by the river find,

A colt beneath his dam, and drove him home

And reared him; a bright bay with lofty crest,

Dight with a saddle-cloth of broidered green

Crusted with gold.”

“Sohrab and Rustum,” Matthew Arnold.

Mrs. Lowell, during her life in camp, rode Berold, and kept him, later, in peaceful fields, until his death many years after the war.

Billy was the favourite horse of Colonel Lowell's friend and most trusted major, William H. Forbes, then in prison at Columbia. Dick also belonged to him, but his father had given Colonel Lowell permission to use them if necessary.

The unnamed action, so destructive to the colonel's mounts, — risks to the rider, who ignores them, can be imagined, — was on August 22.

General Torbert, in his report, says that on that day a rapid advance of the enemy, with strong infantry skirmishers, was held in check by General Duffie's West Virginian Cavalry and Lowell's brigade of the First Division and part of Wilson's Second Division, until the First Division could withdraw towards Shepherdstown, and the trains get to the rear.

² Just before Lowell was called to take charge of the Mt. Savage iron-works, he had bought a farm in Dixon, Illinois. His wife later gave it to that town.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 325-6, 458-9

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw Lowell, August 19, 1864 – 7 A. M.

NEAR BERRYVILLE, Aug. 19, 7 A. M.

We are falling back: we commenced the day after the day I wrote you. I had the right rear, with orders from Grant to drive in every horse, mule, ox, or cow, and burn all grain and forage, — a miserable duty which continued till Winchester. Just in front of Winchester (on the old ground where Shields and Banks and Milroy and Hunter had already been outwitted) Torbert made a stand with Wilson’s Division and my Brigade of cavalry and a small Brigade of infantry. He stood till nightfall, just long enough to lose nearly the whole of the Infantry Brigade and some of Wilson's Cavalry, -my men were only engaged in the very beginning, and were withdrawn as soon as Torbert discovered he had infantry in front of him. That was Wednesday, — the next day we held the Berryville Pike at the Opequan till Rhodes's Infantry drove us back, and now for two days we have been picketing about halfway between there and Berryville, expecting every minute to be driven back, – our infantry having moved back some twelve miles. Longstreet's Corps is in the valley, and Lee's Cavalry, and Sheridan feels too weak to fight them far from his base. If the rain does not raise the Potomac, I think they will be in Pennsylvania again within a fortnight. It has been raining for two days at intervals and still continues. I am writing in a fortunate snatch by the light of the Doctor's lantern, — as I have no blankets and we allow ourselves no great fire, the nights are a little “tedious,”— however I'm entirely well, and at this moment, not even homesick, — am too anxious about the Rebs, I suppose, to leave room even for that.¹

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¹ In what was said above, Lowell probably did not mean to criticise General Torbert for his tenacity. Also, he had not yet found out General Sheridan's quality, who had fallen back to Halltown as the only good defensible position in the lower Valley against superior numbers. Early did not get into Maryland, though Sheridan told Grant he purposely left the door open for him, hoping to divide his forces, and thus defeat him.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 324-5, 458

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, April 13, 1864

Culpepper C. H., Va., April 13, 1864.

. . . What I wrote yesterday of my confirmation is perhaps true, but the declared reasons, from a subsequent conversation with General Wilson, I am satisfied are not the correct ones . . . The investigation will affect only the officer named as the subject of it. They have passed over the confirmation of other staff appointments for the present, simply to enable them to get through the investigation of this case in quiet . . . I see nothing wrong in this at all. As I wrote, however, it is more on your account than my own that I should feel badly.

The General will be back from Annapolis to-morrow. This will finish up his visits to points of rendezvous for the troops, until he has tried with Lee the merits of their respective armies. You see, I have no doubt, much in the newspapers as to the plan of coming campaigns. For these of course we care little, but you know my opinion of General William F. Smith, who has altogether a different plan from that of the General, and feels very badly that Grant don't fall into his views . . . We have not communicated his plans to either General Wilson or General Smith. Of one thing the country can be assured, the General does not mean to scatter his army and have it whipped in detail. No such calamity as this will happen to us, I am certain. If I have ever been of signal service to General Grant, it has been in my constant, firm advocacy of massing large forces against small ones, in other words, of always having the advantage of numbers on our side. Such is the General's notion of battles. . . .

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 415-6

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, April 13, 1864

Culpepper C. H., Va., April 13, 1864.

. . . I have not been well to-day, owing to the large doses of medicine I have taken for my cough . . .  The quantity of opium has affected my whole system inasmuch as to produce a sensation of numbness and drowsiness and given me a bad headache. I have slept the whole day as it were, and feel considerably better now, but am most miserable. I have seen the doctor and he directs me to diminish the dose.

General Wilson is here. He has been assigned to the command of a cavalry division in the Army of the Potomac. I hope it may secure his confirmation. As for my own, I have little hope. The Senate is holding it over until the papers of another staff officer, General Ingalls, are examined. If his are all right, mine may possibly go through. If not, his will be passed over ostensibly because of his being a staff officer, but really because his accounts are wrong, and mine will meet the same fate.

This is a beautiful story, that the Senate of the United States will make the confirmation of any officer depend upon the character of another. It is all idle talk. I will not be confirmed simply because there are such officers as Kilby Smith for whom places must be kept. He has been confirmed of course. I did not seek my appointment nor have I asked any living man to try to influence my confirmation. All who know me are aware of my devotion to my country. The only poignant grief that pierces my heart is the effect a failure of my confirmation may have upon your mind. If I go out of the service it is to strike hands with poverty and wrestle with existence. . . .

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 414-5

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, April 11, 1864

Culpepper C. H., Va., April 11, 1864.

. . . I did not write yesterday because the bridges over Bull Run and Cedar Run were carried away and the mails delayed.

. . . I found finally the note from General Wilson accompanying the present which the General and staff sent to you, and will at once draft the reply you desire . . .

It is refreshing to read letters from officers like Sherman in reference to their preparations for the coming campaign. He writes so cheerfully, so full of hope of success that it makes one feel that all must be well. You know my high opinion of him. He is one of the first men of this or any country. In all the points of character as soldier or statesman, he has among our military men no superior. . . .

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 414

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, March 6, 1864

LouisvIlle, March 6, 1864.

. . . I have just returned from the theatre, not at all delighted with having gone, but the General would go, and I deemed it at least courteous to go with him . . . I sat with the General and other officers of rank in a private box, and witnessed the play of Jane Short or the Royal Favorite. During its performance I was supremely disgusted . . . with the eagerness or willingness rather, of him we love to say is so modest and unassuming to acknowledge the notice people are taking of him. In one who had less reputation for modesty it would be pardonable. Oh, greatness, how dost thou lift up . . . those whom thou favorest! I feel that to go with them is ascending heights too far above the level of my plebeian birth; beyond the reach of any influence I can exert for my country's good. A few short weeks will determine this. And believe me, dearest, should my sad forebodings be realized, and I can find an honorable way in which to retire from a service in which my usefulness is questionable, I shall do so. I write this not from anything that has occurred between the General and me, for let me assure you, he was never more kind and mindful of me than now. I had a long talk with him on the subject of General Wilson's letter, as we came from Nashville, and he agrees with me in every particular . . .

I talked to him upon the importance of an able and accomplished corps of staff officers, should he be the recipient of the high honor in connection with which his name is mentioned, namely, the Lieutenant-Generalcy, and before we get to Washington I shall assure him of my readiness to withdraw from his staff in order to enable him to fill my place with an educated and finished soldier. As Lieutenant-General he will be the first in military position in the United States, and my military education is not such as to fit me for his chief of staff, hence it becomes me to withdraw and allow one who is fitted for it to take the place. True, were I vain enough I might claim to retain the place, for I have been with him throughout his thus far brilliant career; have been his stay and support in his darkest hours, and never I trust his injudicious friend. I have shared with him the hardships of the camp, borne with him the fatigues of the march, and braved with him the dangers of battle from the bloody plain of Belmont to the crimson fields of Chattanooga. In all, to the best of my ability, I have served my country and him; and trust my beloved wife and children will never blush at the mention of my name. But I grow dizzy in looking from the eminence he has attained and tremble at the great responsibility about to devolve upon him.

We leave here in the morning by boat for Cincinnati. . . . Do not forget me in your prayers, but forget me rather than the cause of my country to which I have given the best years of my life. . . .

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 400-1

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Congressman Elihu B. Washburne, January 20, 1864

Headquarters Military Division Of The Miss.,

Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 20, 1864.

Dear Washburne:

On my return from the North I was pleased to find your very welcome and interesting letter of the 20th ultimo, and I hasten to assure you, your friendship for the General, your devotion to our common country, and heroic manifestation of interest in the welfare and success of our army here, through evil as well as good report, in the dark hour of the Nation's despondency, as well as in the light of its victories, are truly and honestly appreciated, and to you, more than any one in Congress, the great heart of the army warms with gratitude as its true representative and hold and uncompromising defender. So give yourself no concern in the matter of the cavalry regiment you speak of, for the General fully understands your motives and knows them to be prompted solely by a desire for the public service and in friendship to him.

I see by the papers the bill creating a Lieutenant Generalcy is still undisposed of. So far as General Grant may be regarded in connection with it, I can only say that if the conferring of this distinguished honor upon him would be the taking him out of the field, or would supersede General Halleck, he would not desire it, for he feels that if he can be of service to the Government in any place, it is in command of the army in the field, and there is where he would remain if made a lieutenant general; besides, he has great confidence in and friendship for the General-in-Chief, and would without regard to rank be willing at all times to receive orders through him.

The advocacy of the New York Herald and other papers of the General for the Presidency gives him little concern; he is unambitious of the honor and will voluntarily put himself in no position nor permit himself to be placed in one he can prevent that will in the slightest manner embarrass the friends of the Government in their present grand effort to enforce its rightful authority and restore the Union of the States. Of his views in this matter, I suppose he has fully acquainted you.

The presence of Longstreet in East Tennessee is much to be regretted. Had General Grant's order been energetically and with a broader judgment executed by General Burnside, Longstreet would have been forced to have continued his retreat from Knoxville to beyond the Tennessee line. The General's official report will show the facts and order and be satisfactory, I have no doubt, to the Government. Our forces in the Holsten Valley, east of Knoxville, have been compelled by Longstreet to fall back towards Knoxville. Whether he intends to again undertake the capture of that place, or simply to extend his forage ground, is not as yet known. In either design he must be foiled. General Grant, General W. F. Smith and myself go forward to-morrow to Chattanooga, that the General may be enabled to give his personal attention to affairs in the direction of Knoxville. Fred, the General's oldest son, is lying very sick at St. Louis with the “Typhoid Pneumonia,” and he was intending to start to see him this morning, but despatches from Knoxville detained him, and he turns in the direction of duty to his country, leaving his afflicted family to the care of friends.

I am sorry I did not see you when in New York — there is much that I would have been pleased to tell you that one cannot write.

While North, on the 23rd day of December, 1863, at Danbury, Conn., I was married to Miss Mary E. Hurlbut, a native of that place and daughter of S. A. Hurlbut, Esq. I first met her in Vicksburg in the family at whose house we made headquarters after the fall of that place. She was in the city during the entire siege, having gone South with friends previous to the breaking out of the rebellion. From my acquaintance with her, she was in favor of the Union, and will instruct and educate my children in the spirit and sentiment of true patriotism that I hope will ever actuate them in the support and maintenance of the princely inheritance bequeathed us by our revolutionary fathers and now being daily enhanced in value and increased in endearment by the sacrifices we are making for its preservation. She is now with my three little ones at the home of my parents near Galena. I saw few of my friends in Galena, owing to my limited stay, having been there only about six hours of daylight. I had hoped to spend a week, but detention on the cars from snow prevented it. Galena was really lively and all seemed well.

General Grant is in excellent health and is “himself” in all things. Colonel Brown, Major Rowley, etc., all send their regards to you. General Wilson has been ordered to Washington to take charge of the Cavalry Bureau. He is a brave and accomplished young officer, and has rendered valuable services in the field. I hope he may be successful in his new duties and bespeak for him your kind offices of friendship.

I met Russell Jones in Chicago, and he made me go to see Mr. Autrobus's paintings of the General. They are both very fine, and the full-size one I regard as the finest likeness I ever saw. I am no judge of paintings, but I examined this one closely and compared it in my own mind with the General and pronounced it like him, and since my return I have looked at and watched the General with interest and compared him with the picture, and am sure he is like it. . .

.

Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain, your friend.

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 387-9

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, January 19, 1864

Jan. 19, 1864.

. . . General Grant and wife start for St. Louis in the morning, and will be absent eight or ten days. Fred is very ill, but will recover.  . . . General Wilson also starts in the morning for Washington to assume his new duties. May success attend him, is my sincere wish. Colonel Duff left here on Saturday for Vicksburg with important despatches for General Sherman. Yesterday a message came from him that he was snowed in at Mitchell, Indiana. . . .

A collision between our forces and the enemy on the 14th instant, consequent on the extension of our lines out from Knoxville that I spoke of in a former letter, ordered by General Grant when he was at Knoxville, resulted in the capture by the enemy of a wagon train of ours, some twenty-three wagons, but they were subsequently recaptured by our forces, together with an ambulance of the enemy loaded with medicine, and the capture of the rebel General Vance, his assistant adjutant general, over a hundred of his men and two hundred horses and equipments, which ended the affair decidedly in our favor. . . .

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 386

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, January 18, 1864

Nashville, Jan. 18, 1864.

. . . General Wilson has been ordered to Washington, where he will take charge of the Cavalry Bureau. It is a difficult and responsible position, yet I have faith in his ability to perform its arduous duties. No one wishes more earnestly than I that he may succeed, for he is a brave, faithful officer, a high-minded and honorable man. We shall miss him much. General Grant has not started to St. Louis yet, but is waiting for an answer to his inquiry as to how his son is. Should he be getting better, the General will not go. There is no news to-day from the front, and we presume therefore all is quiet on the Tennessee. A letter from General Halleck to General Grant received to-day states that much opposition will be made to General McPherson's appointment as brigadier general in the regular army. General Grant has written a strong letter in reply, urging the Senate to confirm him. . . . My cold is still troublesome, but I hope to report differently in a few days.

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 385-6

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, June 12, 1864

June 12, 1864^l

General Grant has appeared with his moustache and beard trimmed close, giving him a very mild air — and indeed he is a mild man really. He is an odd combination; there is one good thing, at any rate — he is the concentration of all that is American. He talks bad grammar, but he talks it naturally, as much as to say, “I was so brought up and, if I try fine phrases, I shall only appear silly.” Then his writing, though very terse and well expressed, is full of horrible spelling. In fact, he has such an easy and straightforward way that you almost think that he must be right and you wrong, in these little matters of elegance.  . . . At 3 P.M. tents were struck and we all rode to Despatch Station, where we turned up to the left and went as far as Moody's house.  . . . We halted in a field hard by and waited for the train, an operation that required much patience: for the waggons undertook to go over a sort of mill-dam, and tumbled down a bank and had many mishaps, so that they arrived only at ten. General Grant, however, had made a big fire, got a piece of board, lain down on it, with a bag under his head, and was fast asleep. At eleven, before getting to bed; we had news that Wilson's cavalry had forced the passage of the Chickahominy at Long's Bridge (the bridge was long since burnt) and that the pontoon was going down for the passage of the 5th Corps. Fain would I write more, but I am so stupid and sleepy that I am not equal to it.

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¹ On this date the army began its march to the James River.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 156

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, May 31, 1864

May 31, 1864

Last night, what with writing to you and working over some maps of my own, I got to bed very late, and was up tolerably early this morning, so to-day I have passed a good deal of time on my back fast asleep; for the General has not ridden out and has sent out very few officers. As I implied, to-day has been an occasion of Sybarite luxury. What do you think we mustered for dinner? Why, green peas, salad, potatoes, and fresh milk for the coffee! Am I not a good forager? Yes, and iced water! The woman (a fearful Secesh) asked two dollars for half a bushel of ice; upon which I, in a rage, sent a sergeant and told him to pay only a reasonable price and to take what we needed. But, in future, I will not pay for ice; it costs these Rebels nothing, and they can't eat it. For food I will always pay the scoundrels. They have usually plenty of ice for the hospitals, and the bands are kept there to play for the wounded, which pleases them. The Sanitary are doing, I believe, a great deal of good at the rear, between this and Washington. There is room for any such people to do good, when there are such multitudes of wounded. I was amused to read a letter from one of the Sanitaries at Fredericksburg, who, after describing his good works, said that, for eight days, his ears were “bruised by the sound of cannon.” To me, Fredericksburg and Montreal seem about equally far away!

The armies lay still, but there was unusually heavy fighting on the skirmish line the whole time; indeed there was quite an action, when Birney, Barlow, and Wright advanced and took the front line of the enemy. We used, too, a good deal of artillery, so that there was the noise of battle from morning to night. We took in some cohorn mortars, as they are called. These are light, small mortars, that may be carried by two or three men, and are fired with a light charge of powder. They throw a 24-lb. shell a maximum distance of about 1000 yards. As these shells go up in the air and then come down almost straight, they are very good against rifle-pits. General Gibbon says there has been a great mistake about the armies of Israel marching seven times round Jericho blowing on horns, thereby causing the walls to fall down. He says the marching round was a “flank movement,” and that the walls were then blown down with cohorns. Some of the heavy artillerists of the German regiment were first sent to fire these mortars; but it was found that they could give no definite account of where the projectiles went, the reason of which was that, every time they fired, the officer and his gunners tumbled down flat in great fear of Rebel sharpshooters!

"Baldy" Smith arrived, by steamer, at Whitehouse, from Bermuda Hundreds, with heavy reinforcements for this army. The Rebels, on their side, have been also bringing up everything — Breckinridge from the valley of the Shenandoah, Hoke from North Carolina, and everything from the South generally. . . . General Wilson's division of cavalry was sent out towards our rear and right, to cover that quarter and to continue the destruction of the railroads below Hanover Junction. General Sheridan, with the remaining cavalry, swung round our left flank and pressed down towards Shady Grove and Cool Arbor (this name is called Coal Harbor, Cold Harbor, and Cool Arbor, I can't find which is correct, but choose "Arbor" because it is prettiest, and because it is so hideously inappropriate). In vain I try to correct myself by the engineer maps; they all disagree. The topographical work of the engineers is rather uphill in this country. Before we opened the campaign the engineers prepared a series of large maps, carefully got up from every source that they could come upon, such as state, county, and town maps, also the information given by residents and refugees, etc., etc. In spite of all this the result has been almost ludicrous! Some places (e.g. Spotsylvania) are from one to two miles out of position, and the roads run everywhere except where laid down. I suppose the fact is that there was no material whatever wherewith to make a map on a scale so large as one inch to a mile. It is interesting to see now how the engineers work up the country, as they go along. Topographers are sent out as far as possible in the front and round the flanks. By taking the directions of different points, and by calculating distances by the pacing of their horses, and in other ways, they make little local maps, and these they bring in in the evening, and during the night they are compiled and thus a map of the neighborhood is made. If the next day is sunny, photographic copies are taken of this sketch and sent to the principal commanders, whose engineers add to, or correct it, if need be, and these corrections are put on a new sketch. Much information is gotten also by the engineers sent with the cavalry. . . .

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 134-7

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, April 13, 1864

April 13, 1864.

We went to a review of Birney's Division near J. M. Bott's house. The two brigades are under H. Ward and Alex. Hays. About 5000 men were actually on the ground. Here saw General Hancock for the first time. He is a tall, soldierly man, with light-brown hair and a military heavy jaw; and has the massive features and the heavy folds round the eye that often mark a man of ability. Then the officers were asked to take a little whiskey chez Botts. Talked there with his niece, a dwarfish little woman of middle age, who seems a great invalid. She was all of a tremor, poor woman, by the mere display of troops, being but nervous and associating them with the fighting she had seen round the very house. Then there was a refreshment at Birney's Headquarters, where met Captain Briscoe (said to be the son of an Irish nobleman, etc., etc.); also Major Mitchell on General Hancock's Staff. The Russ was delighted with the politeness and pleased with the troops. Introduced to General Sheridan, the new Chief of Cavalry — a small, broad-shouldered, squat man, with black hair and a square head. He is of Irish parents, but looks very like a Piedmontese. General Wilson, who is probably to have a division, is a slight person of a light complexion and with rather a pinched face. Sheridan makes everywhere a favorable impression.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 82

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, January 16, 1864

Nashville, Jan. 16, 1864.

I arrived here last night¹ and found all well and delighted to see me.  . . . I myself am still troubled with my cold. I mention this not to cause you uneasiness . . . but simply because I promised you I would write you the exact state of my health, whether good or bad, and this I shall always do. This morning was delightful, just cold enough to be bracing to those who sought the street for a stroll either for pleasure or business. Don't understand me to say there were any pleasure promenaders, for, dearest, if there ever was a city over which the shadow of gloom hung darkly it is this. It is literally the City of Woe. Nineteen out of twenty of the inhabitants are in mourning for friends who have been killed in battle.  . . . The very buildings seem to lift their darkened and dingy walls in consciousness of the gloom above them. . . .

I have just written a letter to General Ransom, one of my warmest and most intimate friends, and send you an extract from it. “While North, at Danbury, Connecticut, on the 23rd ultimo, I married Miss Mary E. Hurlbut, whom I met first at our headquarters in Vicksburg, where she had been during the siege, having gone South with friends previous to the outbreak of the rebellion.  . . . She was for the Union after my acquaintance with her and will instruct and educate my children in the spirit and sentiment of patriotism which I hope will always actuate them.” . . .

The following extract from a letter written by Mr. C. A. Dana, the Assistant Secretary of War, to General Wilson I send you, knowing how pleased you are at everything said pleasantly of me. Don't, however, indulge in Mr. Dana's forebodings as to my health. “Mrs. Rawlins I had no opportunity of seeing, but I hope she will add nothing but happiness to the life of her most excellent husband. His appearance made me somewhat anxious about him. I feared that his lungs might be more seriously affected than I had supposed. His loss would be a great misfortune, not only for his friends, but still more for the country. Public servants of his quality will always be few. There are plenty of men whose names will flourish largely in history without having rendered a tithe of his unostentatious and invaluable contributions to the great work of the nation.”

_______________

¹ From the leave of absence which he took to be married.

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 384-5

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, May 8, 1865

AT SEA, STEAMER Russia,

Monday, May 8, 1865.

We are now approaching Cape Henry and by nine o'clock to-night will be at Old Point, where I expect to stop an hour or so to communicate with Grant and then go on up to City Point and Petersburg to meet my Army. I have been to Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington on business connected with past affairs, and now I am free to join my army proper. I have seen the New York papers of April 24 and 28, but don't mind them much, for it is manifest that some deviltry is on foot. The telegram of Halleck endorsed by Stanton is the worst,¹ but its falsity and baseness puts them at my mercy, and in a few days look out for breakers. This cause may delay me east a few days and I will likely accompany my Army up to Washington. At all events from this time forth I can hear from you and write to you. My latest letter is April 11, received at Raleigh. I want you to go right along, attend the Fair, and I will join you wherever you may be as soon as I can leave. We will probably all spend the summer together at Lancaster. At Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, and Morehead City, officers, soldiers, sailors, and citizens paid me every sort of honor and respect, especially my old soldiers, more especially when they heard they were down on me at Washington. Now that the war is over, how brave and fierce have become the men that thousand-dollar bounties, patriotism, the appeal of generals and others would not bring out! How terribly energetic all at once Halleck became, to break my truce, cut off “Johnston's Retreat” when he knew Johnston was halted anxious to surrender and was only making excuses to keep his own men from scattering, a thing I did not want, and a reason I reported to Halleck and Stanton before my “Memorandum” went to Washington. Worst of all, his advice that my subordinates, Thomas, Wilson, and Stoneman, should not obey my orders. Under my orders, those Generals have done all they ever did in their lives, and it sounds funny to us to have Halleck better my plans and orders. But of all this hereafter. Go along as comfortably as you can. I am not dead yet, by a long sight, and those matters give me new life, for I see the cause. A breach must be made between Grant and Sherman, or certain cliques in Washington, who have a nice thing, are gone up. I am glad Grant came to Raleigh, for he saw at a glance the whole thing and went away more than satisfied. But heaven and earth will be moved to kill us. . . . Washington is as corrupt as Hell, made so by the looseness and extravagance of war. I will avoid it as a pest house. . .

The Gates of the Press can't prevail with my old army against me, and in them I put my faith.

__________

¹ This telegram, sent out at the height of the dissatisfaction with the terms between Sherman and Johnston, directed generals, subordinate to Sherman, to disregard his orders.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 350-2.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/24

Major General Henry W. Halleck to Edwin M. Stanton, April 26, 1865, 9:30 p.m.

RICHMOND, VA., April 26, 1865 – 9.30 p. m.

(Received 10.45 p. m.)

Hon. E. M. STANTON, Washington:

Generals Meade, Sheridan, and Wright are acting under orders to pay no regard to any truce or orders of General Sherman suspending hostilities, on the ground that Sherman’s agreements could bind his own command only and no other. They are directed to push forward, regardless of orders from anyone except General Grant, and cut off Johnston's retreat. Beauregard has telegraphed to Danville that a new arrangement had been made with Sherman, and that the advance of the Sixth Corps was to be suspended till further orders. I have telegraphed back to obey no orders of General Sherman, but to push forward as rapidly as possible. The bankers here have information today that Jeff. Davis’ specie is moving south from Goldsborough in wagons as fast as possible. I suggest that orders be telegraphed through General Thomas that Wilson obey no orders of Sherman, and notifying him and General Canby and all commanders on the Mississippi River to take measures to intercept the rebel chiefs and their plunder. The specie taken with them is estimated here at from six to thirteen millions.

 H. W. HALLECK,     

 Major-General, Commanding.

SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 953-4

Edward Francis Winslow

BRAVE SOLDIER AND SUCCESSFUL RAILROAD PRESIDENT

Almost alone among the Iowa soldiers who bore distinguished honors and responsibilities during the War for the Union, General Winslow lived on until the 22d of October, 1914, when his death occurred, at Canandaigua, N. Y., aged seventy-seven years.

Edward Francis Winslow was born in Augusta, Me., September 28, 1837. In 1856, at the age of nineteen, he entered upon a business career in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. When the war called the young men of Iowa, he gave quick response, recruiting a company for the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. In January, 1863, he was made major, and, ten months later, was commissioned colonel of his regiment. He commanded a brigade under Sherman, Grant, Sturgis and Wilson respectively, and wherever he was ordered, whether to victory or, as under Sturgis, to inevitable defeat, he served with equal fidelity and courage. In December 1864, after having earned his star over and over again, he was brevetted a brigadier-general. He was mustered out at Atlanta, August 10, 1865.

Reference has been made to Sturgis’s ill-starred campaign against Forrest. It is a matter of history that but for the defense put up by Winslow’s brigade, without orders other than those originating with himself, the retreating army of Sturgis would never have reached Memphis. Other witnesses of the retreat corrected certain misrepresentations of Sturgis, and Winslow received the high praise he had so bravely won but which his chief had withheld. The chagrin of this retreat was in part obliterated by the after-victory at Tupelo in which Winslow was led by A. J. Smith.

To tell with any detail the story of General Winslow's activities during the war — from the winter of 1861-62, with Curtis in Missouri, until the victory at Columbus in 1865, to which he contributed both the plan and a brigade of splendid veterans — would be to write many chapters of war history. It must suffice here to quote the deliberate judgment of Iowa’s war-historian, Maj. S. H. M. Byers, who says: “He was loved by his soldiers, and shared with them the hard march, the fierce encounter, or the last cracker. His brigade, was a fighting brigade and was as well known among the cavalry of the West as was Crocker's Iowa Brigade among the infantry.” He “came out of the war a brevet brigadier-general, with the reputation of a good patriot, a brave soldier and a splendid cavalry commander.”

The veteran general was only twenty-eight when he was mustered out. Gen. James H Wilson, in his interesting work, “Under the Old Flag,” refers to General Winslow's achievement at Columbus as “one of the most remarkable not only of the war but of modern times.”

After the war, General Winslow was offered a captain’s, and later a major’s, and still later a colonel’s commission in the regular army, but he had seen enough of war.

In the siege of Vicksburg he received a wound which caused him no end of pain and inconvenience. Before setting out on his long marches, his wounded leg was wrapped in stiff bandages, and much of the time his suffering was acute. Again, one day, while leading his brigade in the fall of 1863, in the vicinity of Vicksburg, a shell burst near him as he sat on his horse, and the concussion ruptured an ear-drum, causing total deafness in one ear.

The purpose of the war attained, the general gladly turned his attention to business. His executive ability led him to engage in railroad building and managing. For years he resided in Cedar Rapids, serving as manager of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway, years afterward absorbed by the Rock Island system.

In 1879, as vice president and general manager of the Manhattan Elevated Railway, he unified the system of control and management of its lines. In 1880 he was elected president of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company, and vice president of the Atlantic & Pacific Railway Company. He was also for several years president of the New York, Ontario & Western Railway Company, and formed an association for the purpose of building the West Shore Railway, which he completed in about three years. His last active work was in the organization of the “Frisco” system.

For several years after his retirement, General and Mrs. Winslow resided in Paris and spent much time in travel. A few years ago the general visited his old comrade, General Bussey, in Des Moines, and a reception given the two worthies by ex-Mayor and Mrs. Isaac L. Hillis, was a notable assemblage of prominent Iowa soldiers and civilians. The general was in full possession of his faculties, including that most elusive of all the faculties, the memory.

During the last three years of his life, General Winslow had busied himself writing a book of reminiscences of his part in the Civil War. The book had been completed and waited only the final revision when, on the 22d of October, 1914, illness closed it forever to the author. The manuscript left in possession of his widow cannot fail to be a valuable addition to Iowa history, as it is a transcript from the memory of one of Iowa’s best-known and most highly esteemed soldiers.

SOURCE: Johnson Brigham, Iowa: Its History and Its Foremost Citizens, Volume 1, 397-9