Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw, Sunday, August 2, 1863 - Noon

Willard's Hotel, Washington,

Sunday noon, August 2d.

I found, when I reported in the evening, that I was ordered to take command of all the Cavalry in the Department (only three regiments, not very magnificent), headquarters to be at Fairfax Courthouse or Centreville.¹

Everything that comes about Rob shows his death to have been more and more completely that which every soldier and every man would long to die, but it is given to very few, for very few do their duty as Rob had. I am thankful they buried him “with his niggers;” they were brave men and they were his men.²

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¹ Besides that already mentioned, other important reconnoissances, and escort duty to supply-trains, were performed by Colonel Lowell's command during July. In the end of the month, Mosby with his “Partisan” force made some very successful raids on the army wagon-trains, capturing near Alexandria between one and two hundred prisoners, with many horses, mules, wagons, etc. General King ordered Lowell to pursue, and he returned on the last day of July, with many men and horses recaptured. About the 1st of August, he was put in command of a brigade, consisting of the Second Massachusetts and Thirteenth and Sixteenth New York Cavalry regiments. The First Battalion now rejoined the Second Cavalry, after several months' service in the Peninsula.

² In the Reminiscences of Mr. J. M. Forbes (privately printed) is a letter written to him by Mr. Frank G. Shaw, just after his son's death, from which I am allowed to quote : —

“He has gone from us, and we try not to think of our loss, but of his gain. We have had no doubt since the first news came. We had expected it.  . . . We thank God that he died without pain, in what was to him the moment of triumph; and we thank God especially for his happy life, and that he did not rise to his eminence through suffering, but through joy.”

Mr. Forbes adds, “I have seen no reference yet to our late friend's manly nobility [Mr. Shaw had recently died]. Every one remembers the brutal answer of the rebels to our flag of truce, when General Gilmore, after the assault on Fort Wagner, asked for Colonel Shaw's body: ‘We have thrown him into the ditch under his niggers.’ When we recaptured the fort, an attempt was made to find the sacred relics; and the general in command, or probably Secretary Stanton, wrote to Mr. Shaw asking some intimation as to what should be done in case of their recovery, and suggesting a monument recalling the indignity which had been offered. No thought of vengeance had ever been mixed up with Frank Shaw's patriotism or clouded his serene brow.  . . . The answer which now came — I think from both parents — was grand in its . . . simplicity. ‘We wish no search made, nor is there any monument so worthy of a soldier as the mound heaped over him by the bodies of his comrades.’”

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 289, 432-3

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw, June 14, 1863

Camp Brightwood, June [14th?], 1863.

I don't believe we are going to have marching orders, after all. For twenty-four hours we have been all ready to move at a moment's notice. I want marching orders very much, but am afraid I shall be kept here. I wish you could see how my Battalion will turn out tomorrow morning; not an extra gew-gaw, nothing for ornament. If they want ornamental troops around Washington, they’ll let me go, — indeed, I have dropped some things which have generally been counted necessaries; two of my companies go without any blankets but those under their saddles. That is pretty well for recruits.

If we use it rightfully, I think the Pennsylvania movement an excellent thing for the cause, — but that is if. What effect will it have on the opposition? For the moment, of course, all differences will be dropped, — but afterwards will not the Administration be the weaker for it, unless the if be avoided? You would not suppose I had thought much about it, from the loose and simple way in which I write, but I have: only, so much depends now on the skill of Hooker and Halleck (Eheu!) and on the nerve of Lincoln and Stanton, — depends, that is, on individuals, — that it is impossible to foresee events even for a day.¹

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¹ The invasion of the North was beginning, by way of the Shenandoah Valley, and Hooker, intent on guarding Washington, had not yet started in pursuit. Mosby, with his guerrilla band, had crossed the Potomac into Maryland on the night of the 10th and 11th, and Lowell was telegraphed: “Go where you please in pursuit of Mosby!” and promptly set out; but unfortunately before the message came Mosby had made his raid, re-crossed to Virginia and scattered his band.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 257-8, 424

Diary of Private Charles H. Lynch: April 12, 1864

Nothing important has taken place. Our regular routine of duty goes on from day to day. A strong picket guard is kept up owing to the guerillas in these mountains. Mosby is the chief among them. This seems to be the rainy season, judging by the way it comes down. Mud, mud, sticky Virginia mud. At every step one must lift a load of it, as it sticks to our army shoes. It helps to add misery to our camp life. Well, we are Uncle Sam's soldiers, doing our duty from day to day.

SOURCE: Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary, 1862-1865, of Charles H. Lynch 18th Conn. Vol's, p. 52

War News.

Washington, August 10. – Brig. Gen. Custer commanding a brigade under Pleasanton with a small force of cavalry, on Saturday came up with Mosley’s [sic] guerrillas, commanded by that notorious partisan chief in person. They fled before our cavalry and left twelve prisoners in our hands, who were turned over to Pleasanton. Mosely [sic] escaped under cover of a dense wood, when our forces were upon his heels.

Memphis, August 9. – A company of citizen scouts about seventy five in number who were organized in the fore part of June last to resist the rebel conscription, in North Alabama have thus far evaded every effort of the rebel authorities to catch them. They report to the Commander at Corinth that their numbers are now increasing, and that they have captured or driven out nearly every officer who was trying to enforce the draft.

Large numbers of deserters who have their arms with them are in the mountains of Pikeville, Alabama, and are organizing with the citizens to resist the draft.

A correspondent of the Missouri Republican thus writes from Memphis.

As soon as the surrender of Vicksburg became generally known throughout the States spoken of, a peace feeling began to develop itself in all sections.

Within the last week, Union leagues have been formed in several counties in Mississippi. Where there is no rebel army – where the people can give free expression to their feelings, there the cause of the Union is comparatively strong, and its adherents are more numerous than in sections where the army has been encamped.

Forest of the Harris cavalry is under arrest, charged with having defrauded the Government of $5,000.

The draft is nearly completed in the western part of New York. Revisions of the enrollment lists have been ordered in the first nine districts of the State. The draft therein will take place in tow weeks.

Jeff Davis is ill at Richmond, and doubts are entertained of his recovery. It is said that Lee has addressed a letter to Jeff Davis, calling upon him not to hang the two Federal officers now confined in Richmond, as his son, Gen. W. T. Lee, would in consequence be hung. If this is resisted, he declares his intention to throw up his commission. It is not thought that the rebels will hang our officers.

- Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, August 15, 1863

Cavalry Raid.

Washington, Aug 12. – Last night Mosby’s gerillas [sic] captured twelve suttlers wagons a short distance beyond Occoquan creek south of Mount Vernon. A detatchment of federal troops is pursuing –

- Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, August 15, 1863