Diary of Captain Joseph Stockton, January 17, 1863

Evacuated Fort Stockton today. Marched into Memphis through mud nearly knee deep. Slept in an old building near the railroad depot. Heard today of Adjutant Bacon's death. He was one of the best soldiers ever met. Our regiment has met with a serious loss, one that cannot well be replaced. "Peace to his ashes."

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 7

Diary of Captain Joseph Stockton, January 18, 1863

Went into quarters in the navy yard at Memphis. Quarters very good. Men under shelter. The machine shop is used as barracks for the regiment. Officers use the offices around the yard. Weather very cold and hard work to keep warm. I use a carpenter's bench as my dining table and bed at night. Sheets are a luxury not to be thought of. Regiment goes on provost duty. Mail communications, my regular letters and papers are not following us around as on the march. We have not had any pay for a long time and all are very hard up. I got a draft for $75 cashed and divided it among my men. They were all very grateful for it. Memphis is at present a hard place, filled with soldiers. I regret to say many drunken officers are to be seen, while with the men it is almost too common to be mentioned. Orders came to destroy liquor wherever found and our regiment has destroyed a great many barrels. You might as well try to dam the Mississippi river as to keep the men from getting liquor.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 7-8

Diary of Musician David Lane, June 11, 1863

We are fairly packed on board a small transport; so thickly are we crowded in, it is almost impossible to stir; yet all will stir. Every man seems to think his very existence depends on movement. As I sit here on my knapsack, my back against the railing, inkstand between my feet to prevent it being kicked over, a continuous stream of restless, uneasy men is pouring around, on and over me, which, added to the motion of the vessel, makes writing difficult. We left Cairo yesterday at five o'clock in the afternoon, and steamed down the river a few miles below Cumberland, Kentucky, and anchored for the night.

The captain dare not run his vessel in the night, it being dark and cloudy, and the Mississippi being the most dangerous river in the world to navigate. We expect to reach Memphis early in the morning, and will then learn our final destination.

Having crossed the Mississippi at Dubuque, some three hundred miles above Cairo, I was somewhat disappointed, as it did not appear to be any wider at Cairo than at Dubuque, but, by close observation, I discovered that what it lacked in width was made up in velocity and depth.

At Dubuque, too, the water is clear as crystal; from St. Louis down it is the color of chocolate. The banks of the river are uninhabited and uninhabitable most of the way. Every spring and fall they overflow from ten to thirty miles, and then this mighty mass of water will not be confined. The river channel is constantly changing. The light, loose soil of the valley cannot withstand the tremendous power of the resistless floods that are hurled from the north upon its yielding bosom. This is one cause of disaster. The sand bars change so often it is impossible to keep track of them.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 47-8

Diary of Musician David Lane, June 14, 1863

We are still in the harbor at Memphis awaiting orders. Eight hundred and fifty wounded men were brought to this place yesterday from Vicksburg. Grant is still hammering away at that seemingly impregnable fortress. The weather is extremely hot, which renders our situation, huddled together as we are, very uncomfortable. Yesterday we steamed up the river about a mile to a fine grove, and all went on shore while the crew gave the old boat a thorough cleaning. This morning our surgeon ordered us all on shore as a "sanitary measure." We marched off by companies, each company going where it chose, but to different points. We went to Court House Square and disbanded. It was like being transferred from a gloomy prison to "smiling fields and shady groves.” The square contains about five acres; is enclosed by an iron fence; is thickly set with trees of different varieties the brave old oak, with its spreading branches and delicious shade; the gorgeous magnolia, the tree of paradise; the orange and lemon, with an almost endless variety of evergreens. Near the center of the square is a bust of General Jackson, cut in marble.

On one side of the pedestal is inscribed those memorable words of that grand old patriot: "The Federal Union; it Must Be Preserved." I noticed the word "Federal" was partly obliterated, and inquired the cause. A citizen told me it was done by a Rebel Colonel at the beginning of the war; that his men, still cherishing some regard for the hero of New Orleans, took him outside the city and shot him. At four o'clock we were marched on board our prison ship.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 48-9

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, December 29, 1862

Marched into Memphis, encamped in the southern part of the city near Fort Pickering—one of the meanest places we ever encamped in, no water or wood near. Glad to get a chance to lie down as our tramp has been a hard one. A snow flurry during the night.

SOURCE: Joseph Stockton, War Diary (1862-5) of Brevet Brigadier General Joseph Stockton, p. 7

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: March 26, 1864

This morning a squad of twenty men, under the command of Lieutenant Fergus, is sent out on a scout to Eastport, Tennessee river, and another squad, under the command of a noncommissioned officer, is sent to Cheatam's Landing, seventeen miles from Raw Hide. e make the point by noon; find Company F, Captain Knowlton, in camp here. Returning, we bring through a prisoner captured by Company F, who reports Forrest in Memphis and Longstreet in Knoxville.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 230

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: August 26, 1864

Clear; but rained copiously last night.

A letter from Gen. Lee indicates that the “Bureau of Conscription” fails to replenish the army.

The rich men and slave-owners are but too successful in getting out, and in keeping out of the service. The Governor, who commissions magistrates, is exempting some fifty daily, and these, in many instances, are not only young men, but speculators. And nearly every landed proprietor has given bonds to furnish meal, etc. to obtain exemption. Thus corruption is eating to the heart of the cause, and I fear the result of the contest between speculation and patriotism. Mr. Seddon says he has striven to make the conscription officers do their duty, and was not aware that so many farmers had gotten exemption. He promises to do all in his power to obtain recruits, and will so use the strictly local troops as to render the Reserves more active.

What that means we shall soon see. A dispatch from Mobile says Fort Morgan is in the possession of the enemy! Per contra, a dispatch from the same place says Memphis is in the possession of Forrest.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 272

Major-General Ulysses S. Grant to Major-General Stephen A. Hurlbut, June 27, 1863

HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE TENN., Near Vicksburg, June 27, 1863.

Maj. Gen. STEPHEN A. HURLBUT,

        Comdg. Sixteenth Army Corps:

GENERAL: Your idea of massing as many troops as possible at the important bridges in the case of an attack is right. If it should become necessary, you can go further, and hold only Memphis and Corinth. As much of the railroad should be held as possible, however.

The troops from Bragg's Army that are threatening you, are probably [doing] it to cover a further movement from his army to re-enforce Johnston. I have information that Johnston expects 10,000 men from there in a few days. There is scarcely a shadow of doubt but I will be attacked by next Wednesday or Thursday, unless Vicksburg should fall in the mean time.

It will be impossible for me to send troops from here in the mean time. Should I learn that Johnston was moving off, I will send all my surplus force to counteract his movements, whether it be to East or West Tennessee. Should more troops become absolutely necessary for the maintenance of your position before I can send them, telegraph immediately to the General-in-Chief for them.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

U.S. GRANT.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 3 (Serial No. 38), p. 444-5

Major-General Ulysses S. Grant to Absalom H. Markland, June 29, 1863

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE,        

Near Vicksburg, June 29, 1863.

A. H. MARKLAND, Special Agent, Post-Office Department:

DEAR SIR: Yours of yesterday, stating that an effort was being made to change the plan of distributing the mails for the Department of the Tennessee from Memphis to Cairo, is received.

The mails for this department are carried by Government through their own agents, I believe, as far as Memphis. From that point they are distributed by agents detailed by me. Nearly the entire mail for the department must come to Memphis, whether distributed elsewhere or not, and, in my opinion, should be gotten to that point with as little delay as possible. The distribution at Cairo would necessarily involve some delay, at least for those letters and public documents intended for the commander of the District of West Tennessee, and would not hasten the delivery of one single letter within the department. I have, therefore, to request that no change be made in the present satisfactory postal arrangement.

Very truly, yours,

U.S. GRANT.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 3 (Serial No. 38), p. 448-9

Major-General William T. Sherman to Captain Fitch, August 7, 1862

HEADQUARTERS FIFTH DIVISION,                 

Memphis, August 7, 1862.

Captain FITCH,

Assistant Quartermaster, Memphis, Tenn.:

SIR: The duties devolving on the quartermaster of this post, in addition to his legitimate functions, are very important and onerous, and I am fully aware that the task is more than should devolve on one man. I will endeavor to get you help in the person of some commissioned officer, and, if possible, one under bond, as he must handle large amounts of money in trust; but for the present we must execute the duties falling to our share as well as possible. On the subject of vacant houses General Grant's orders are:

Take possession of all vacant stores and houses in the city, and have them rented at reasonable rates; rent to be paid monthly in advance. These buildings, with their tenants, can be turned over to proprietors on proof of loyalty; also take charge of such as have been leased out by disloyal owners.

I understand that General Grant takes the rents and profits of this class of real property under the rules and laws of war and not under the confiscation act of Congress; therefore the question of title is not involved—simply the possession, and the rents and profits of houses belonging to our enemies which are not vacant we hold in trust for them or the Government, according to the future decisions of the proper tribunals.

Mr. McDonald, your chief agent in renting and managing this business, called on me last evening and left with me written questions, which it would take a volume to answer and a Webster to elucidate; but as we can only attempt plain, substantial justice I will answer these questions as well as I can, briefly and to the point:

First. When ground is owned by parties who have gone South and have leased the ground to parties now in the city, who own the improvements on the ground?

Answer. The United States takes the rents due the owner of the land; does not disturb the owner of the improvements.

Second. When parties owning houses have gone South, and the tenant has given his notes for the rent in advance:

Answer. Notes are mere evidence of the debt due landlord. The tenant pays the rent to the quartermaster, who gives a bond of indemnity against the notes representing the debt for the particular rent.

Third. When the tenant has expended several months' rent in repairs on the house?

Answer. Of course allow all such credits on reasonable proof and showing.

Fourth. When the owner has gone South and parties here hold liens on the property and are collecting the rents to satisfy their liens?

Answer. The rent of a house can only be mortgaged to a person in possession. If a loyal tenant be in possession and claim the rent from himself as due to himself on some other debt allow it; but if not in actual possession of the property rents are not good liens for a debt, but must be paid to the quartermaster.

Fifth. Of parties claiming foreign protection?

Answer. Many claim foreign protection who are not entitled to it. If they are foreign subjects residing for business in this country they are entitled to consideration and protection so long as they obey the laws of the country. If they occupy houses belonging to absent rebels they must pay rent to the quartermaster. If they own property they must occupy it by themselves, tenants, or servants.

Eighth. When houses are occupied and the owner has gone South, leaving an agent to collect rent for his benefit?

Answer. Rent must be paid to the quartermaster. No agent can collect and remit money South without subjecting himself to arrest and trial for aiding and abetting the public enemy.

Ninth. When houses are owned by loyal citizens, but are unoccupied?

Answer. Such should not be disturbed, but it would be well to advise them to have some servant at the house to occupy it.

Tenth. When parties who occupy the house are creditors of the owner who has gone South?

Answer. You only look to collection of rents. Any person who transmits money South is liable to arrest and trial for aiding and abetting the enemy; but I do not think it our business to collect debts other than rents.

Eleventh. When the parties who own the property have left the city under General Hovey's Orders, No. 1, but are in the immediate neighborhood, on their plantations?

Answer. It makes no difference where they are so they are absent.

Twelfth. When movable property is found in stores that are closed?

Answer. The goods are security for the rent. If the owner of the goods prefers to remove the goods to paying rent he can do so.

Thirteenth. When the owner lives in town and refuses to take the oath of allegiance?

Answer. If the house be occupied it does not fall under the order; if the house be vacant it does. The owner can recover his property by taking the oath.

All persons in Memphis residing within our military lines are presumed to be loyal, good citizens, and may at any moment be called to serve on juries, posses comitatus, or other civil service required by the Constitution and laws of our country. Should they be called upon to do such duty, which would require them to acknowledge their allegiance and subordination to the Constitution of the United States, it would then be too late to refuse. So long as they remain quiet and conform to these laws they are entitled to protection in their property and lives.

We have nothing to do with confiscation. We only deal with possession, and therefore the necessity of a strict accountability, because the United States assumes the place of trustee, and must account to the rightful owner for his property, rents, and profits. In due season courts will be established to execute the laws, the confiscation act included, when we will be relieved of this duty and trust. Until that time every opportunity should be given to the wavering and disloyal to return to their allegiance, to the Constitution of their birth or adoptions.

I am, &c.,

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. 156-7

Brigadier-General Ulysses S. Grant to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, January 29, 1862

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CAIRO,                      

Cairo, January 29, 1862.

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK,

Saint Louis, Mo.:

In view of the large force now concentrating in this district and the present feasibility of the plan I would respectfully suggest the propriety of subduing Fort Henry, near the Kentucky and Tennessee line, and holding the position. If this is not done soon there is but little doubt but that the defenses on both the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers will be materially strengthened. From Fort Henry it will be easy to operate either on the Cumberland, only 12 miles distant, Memphis, or Columbus. It will, besides, have a moral effect upon our troops to advance them toward the rebel States. The advantages of this move are as perceptible to the general commanding as to myself, therefore further statements are unnecessary.

U.S. GRANT,            

Brigadier-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 121

Major-General George B. McClellan to Brigadier-General Don Carlos Buell, February 7, 1862 — 7:15 p.m.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY, February 7, 1862—7.15 p. m.

 Brig. Gen. D. C. BUELL,  Louisville, Ky.:

Why not take the line of the Tennessee with your command and operate on Nashville, while Halleck turns Union City and Columbus?

I have directed him to destroy bridge at Decatur if possible to reach it.

After carrying Nashville and Columbus a combined attack on Memphis could be made; it would easily fall if bridge at Decatur destroyed. Call for all available troops in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.

Please number and give hour of transmittal of telegraphic dispatches.

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,       

Major-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 593

Major-General George B. McClellan to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, February 7, 1862 — 7:15 p.m.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY, February 7, 1862—7.15 p.m.

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, Saint Louis, Mo.:

Dispatch received. I congratulate you upon the result of your operations. They have caused the utmost satisfaction here. I would not undertake a dash at Columbus now. Better devote everything towards turning it; first collecting a sufficient force near Forts Henry and Donelson to make success sure.

Either Buell or yourself should soon go to the scene of operations. Why not have Buell take the line of Tennessee and operate on Nashville, while your troops turn Columbus? Those two points gained, a combined movement on Memphis will be next in order. The bridges at Tuscumbia and Decatur should at all hazards be destroyed at once.

Please number telegraphic dispatches and give hour of transmittal. Thank Grant, Foote, and their commands for me.

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,       

Major-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 591

Judah P. Benjamin to General Albert Sidney Johnston, February 8, 1862

WAR DEPARTMENT,         

Richmond, February 8, 1862.

General A. SIDNEY JOHNSTON,

Bowling Green:

SIR: The condition of your department in consequence of the largely superior forces of the enemy has filled us with solicitude, and we have used every possible exertion to organize some means for your relief.

With this view the following orders have been issued to-day and the following measures adopted:

1st. We have ordered to Knoxville three Tennessee regiments—Vaughn's, Maney's, and Bate's—the First Georgia Regiment and four regiments from General Bragg's command to be forwarded by him. This will give you in East Tennessee the following force, viz: As above, eight regiments. Add Gillespie's Tennessee, one regiment; Vaughn's North Carolina, one regiment;* one regiment cavalry; Stovall's battalion and another from North Carolina, together one regiment—total, twelve regiments, besides Churchwell's command at Cumberland Gap, the other forces stationed at different passes by General Zollicoffer, and a number of independent companies.

The whole force in East Tennessee will thus amount, as we think, to at least fifteen regiments, and the President desires that you assign the command to General Buckner.

2d. The formation of this new army for Eastern Tennessee will leave General Crittenden's army (augmented by Chalmers' regiment and two or three batteries of field pieces already sent to him) free to act with your center.

Colonel Chalmers will be nominated to-morrow brigadier-general. You might assign a brigade to him at once.

The President thinks it best to break up the army of General Crittenden, demoralized by its defeat, and that you should distribute the forces composing it among other troops. You can form a new command for General Crittenden, connected with your own corps, in such manner as you may deem best.

General Crittenden has demanded a court of inquiry, and it has been ordered; but from all the accounts which now reach us we have no reason to doubt his skill or conduct in his recent movements, and feel convinced that it is not to any fault of his that the disaster at Somerset is to be attributed.

3d. To aid General Beauregard at Columbus I send orders to General Lovell to forward to him at once five or six regiments of his best  troops at New Orleans.

4th. I have sent to Memphis arms for Looney's regiment; to Knoxville 800 percussion muskets; to Colonel Chalmers 800 Enfield rifles for his regiment, and to you 1,200 Enfield rifles. The Enfield rifles will be accompanied by a full supply of fixed ammunition. They form part of a small cargo recently received by us, and of the whole number (6,000) one-third is thus sent to you, besides which we send 1,600 to Van Dom.

5th. We have called on all the States for a levy of men for the war, and think that in very few weeks we shall be able to give you heavy re-enforcements, although we may not be able to arm them with good weapons. But we have another small cargo of Enfield rifles close by, and hope to have some 10,000 or 12,000 safe in port within the next two or three weeks.

I forgot to say that the rifles already received may not reach you for eight or ten days, as they were introduced at a port quite far south.

I am, your obedient servant,

J. P. BENJAMIN,      

Secretary of War.

_______________

*The records show to Vaughn’s North Carolina regiment.  Probably R. B. Vance’s Twenty-ninth North Carolina.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 862-3

The Victory on the Cumberland—The End in Sight

We have reason to believe, if not the certainty, that Fort Donelson has fallen.  After a struggle, desperate on both sides, and, as far as my be judged from the imperfect details which have reached us, creditable to the fighting qualities of both, the post capitulated, and the National colors took the place, on the ramparts, of the rebel rag.  The destruction of life and the lists of wounded are probably largely in excess of those of any previous contest of the war.  It could hardly be otherwise.  The opposing forces were strong in numbers, but while the assailants were more perilously exposed, the defenders, from their very numbers, cooped up as they were in lines where they were helpless to fight, and simply in the way of each other, must have suffered frightfully from the storm of shell and shot hurled upon them from that circumvallation of fire.  It was doubtless the terrible sacrifice of life to which they were subjected within the fort that prompted these daring sorties which the besiegers so gallantly repulsed.

Having this glorious result of the fight, we may well postpone the discussion of details.  With the capture of Fort Donelson, another of those mortal blows recently struck at the heart of the rebellion has been inflicted.  Nor are we to lose sight of the fact that nearly all of these victories come from the command of Gen. HALLECK.  Fort Henry captured, the loyalty of Tennessee brought to light, the surrender if Fort Donelson, the retreat of PRICE, from Springfield, and the report of this morning that CURTIS had overtaken his rear, had seized his baggage-train and more prisoners that he knew what to do with, show with what energy and how victoriously the commander of the Western Department is executing his part of the great programme.  These, with the retreat of JOHNSTON from before BUELL, relieve, practically, both Missouri and Kentucky from the rebel enemy, and lay bare the Tennessee  to the admission of these Union armies which shall bring liberation to its oppressed but loyal people.

While the war in the West is thus drawing to a close, the signs are not less significant in the East.  There is little doubt that in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, our forces are at this moment executing flank movements to the interior, which must effectually isolate the main rebel army in Eastern Virginia from its sources of supply.  It is clearly improbable for the rebels to hold their position at Manassas.  Their retreat must be a question of a few days—perhaps of a few hours.  There is but one reason for the evacuation of Bowling Green that is not valid for the evacuation of Manassas, and it is that no division of the Potomac army has been thrown forward to threaten an attack.  But such a threat is no longer necessary.  The news that Fort Donelson is in National hands; that the Tennessee river is open to our gunboats even to Muscle Shoals in Alabama; that the Cumberland can now be ascended to Nashville; that Memphis is in danger, and that the garrison of Columbus are for all practical purposes prisoners of war, must give that shock to the rebels near Washington which shall leave to its leaders an only alternative of withdrawing their army, or seeing it dissolve.  A retreat will be begun, but where will it end? Nowhere, we conceive short of the Gulf States.  The only pause at Richmond will probably be to witness the gloomy pageant of JEFF. DAVIS inaugurated as President, like a King crowned on his death-bed, or the succession of a Byzantine Emperor, when Byzantium itself was beleaguered and stormed by the Turks.  It will be in the Gulf States that the last stand of the rebels will be attempted.  But there our lines are already drawn tightly about them.  We hold the coast.  The blockade is pinchingly close.  What our gunboats and mortar-boats have done East and West they can do for every river and harbor on the Gulf.  Our troops will escape from the mud and the frosts of the Border States, to a theater of war, where for months to come the temperature is that of our Northern Summer, and where roads are settled, and military movements facile.  Indeed, of the resistance of the desperate traitors can be protracted through the Summer, a campaign in July and August would convey no discomfort to those who have experienced similar heats in our own latitudes; for the steady Southern Summer is far less intolerable that the varying temperatures of the North.

It is no extravagance, therefore, to say the rebellion has culminated.  Its settling must be as the flash of a meteor.  Had the illusory stimulus of the apparent victories of Bull Run and Ball’s Bluff been wanting; and had the certainty of the non-interference of France and England been earlier attained, the result must have been early reached.  After this, it certainly can[no]t be materially postponed.  The monster is already clutched and in his death struggle.

SOURCE: “The Victory on the Cumberland—The End in Sight,” The New York Times, New York, New York, Monday, February 17, 1862, p. 4.

Brigadier-General Ulysses S. Grant to Brigadier-General George W. Cullum, February, 25, 1862

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE,

Fort Donelson, February 25, 1862.

Brig. Gen. G. W. CULLUM, Cairo, Ill.:

I wrote you that General Nelson's division had been sent to Nashville. Since that I have learned that the head of General Buell's column arrived there on Monday evening. The rebels have fallen back to Chattanooga, instead of Murfreesborough, as stated in a former letter. I shall go to Nashville immediately after the arrival of the next mail, should there be no orders to prevent it.

The soldiers of the Eighth Missouri Volunteers who were disguised and sent to Memphis have just returned. They went by the way of Nashville and Decatur. Saw Beauregard at Decatur sick; he has since gone to Columbus. They were in Fort Donelson before the attack commenced, and say the force was estimated at 40,000.

Since the battle the people through the country are much disposed to return to their allegiance. Orders have been given for the evacuation of Columbus. This I learn not only from the men themselves, but from Memphis papers which they bring with them. I send two of these papers to General Halleck. I am growing anxious to know what the next move is going to be. The Southern papers advise the Columbus forces to fall back on Island No. 10 and to Fort Pillow. The force at Memphis is said to be about 12,000.

U.S. GRANT,

Brigadier-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 666

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 15, 1863

To-day, at 12 M., I saw a common leather-wing bat flying over the War Department. What this portends I do not pretend to say, perhaps nothing. It may have been dislodged by the workmen building chimneys to the offices of the department.

The order of the government conscribing all foreign residents who have acquired homes in this country, and the expulsion of the British consuls, will immediately be followed by another exodus of that class of residents. Already passports are daily applied for, and invariably granted by Mr. Assistant Secretary Campbell. The enemy, of course, will reap great benefit from the information conveyed by these people, and the innumerable brood of blockade-runners.

Gen. Lee has sent down between 600 and 700 prisoners captured in recent cavalry engagements. He took their horses and equipments also. And there is an account of an engagement in the West, near Memphis, in which the Confederate troops inflicted injury on the enemy, besides destroying the railroad in several places.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 71

Captain Charles Wright Wills: October 21, 1863

Iuka, Miss., October 21, 1863.

We reached here the evening of the 18th inst., and I have been on extra heavy fatigue nearly ever since our arrival. We worked all night first night loading wagon trains and unloading cars. We were doing the work of another division, but, such is war. The impression is that we will leave here about the 23d. The other divisions have all moved on, taking with them thirty days' rations. We marched all the way from Memphis. Went about 20 miles out of our way to burn a little secesh town of some forty homes — Mount Pleasant. We reached Collinsville the day after Sherman, with about 800 men, had his fight with Chalmers. I stood the march splendidly, and am good for Chattanooga at 25 miles per day. It rained gently three nights on this march, and one night like the devil. We got in that night about 9 o'clock, and by a blunder of our brigade commander bivouacked in a regular dismal swamp. We had just stacked arms when the clouds sprung a leak, and such a leak, the cataract of Niagara is a side show, comparatively. Build a fire! Why, that rain would have quenched a Vesuvius in its palmist [sic] days. I never saw just such a night. The one we spent at Lumpkin's Mill on the 18th of last April, of which I wrote you, was more disagreeable, because colder; but in six hours am sure I never saw so much water drop as in this last rain.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 196-7

Captain Charles Wright Wills: October 10, 1863 – 4 p.m.

Memphis, Tenn., October 10, 1863, 4 p. m.

Have just got here; bored to death. Had to march around three sandbars between Helena and Memphis. Never want to see a steamboat again. Never want to journalize again. We started at 5 in the morning for Corinth and then, maybe, for Rosecrans. I'll be furiously glad to get ashore once more.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 196