Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: Sunday, December 4, 1864

Bright, clear, and warm.

A dispatch from Gen. Bragg.

AUGUSTA, December 3d, 6 P. M.— A strong force of the enemy's cavalry and infantry advanced from Louisville and encamped last night six miles from Waynesborough. They turned off this morning toward Savannah. Our cavalry is pressing in the rear, and all available means is being thrown to their front by rail. There is time yet for any assistance which can be spared, to be sent by way of Charleston.—B. B.

The Northern papers say our army under Hood in Tennessee has met with a great disaster. We are still incredulous—although it may be true. If so, the President will suffer, and Johnston and Beauregard will escape censure—both being supplanted in the command by a subordinate.

Brig.-Gen. Preston is still directing orders to Col. Shields, who is under the command of Major-Gen. Kemper, and the conflict of conscription authorities goes on, while the country perishes. Preston is a South Carolina politician—Kemper a Virginian. Mr. Secretary Seddon leans to the former.

The law allowing exemptions to owners of a certain number of slaves is creating an antislavery party. The non-slaveholders will not long fight for the benefit of such a "privileged class." There is madness in our counsels!

We are still favored by Providence in our family. We have, at the market prices, some $800 worth of provisions, fuel, etc., at the beginning of winter, and my son Thomas is well clad and has his order for a month's rations of beef, etc., which we get as we want it at the government shop near at hand in Broad Street. His pay and allowances are worth some $4500 per annum.

Major Ferguson having got permission of the Quartermaster-General to sell me a suit of cloth-there being a piece too dark for the army, I got four yards, enough for coat, pants, and vest, at $12 per yard—the price in the stores is $125; and I have the promise of the government tailor to make it up for some $30 or $40, the ordinary price being $350; the trimmings my family will furnish—if bought, they would cost $100. Tom has bought a new black coat, made before the war, for $175, the peace price $15, in specie, equivalent to $600. And my daughter Anne has made three fine bonnets (for her mother, sister, and herself), from the debris of old ones; the price of these would be $700. So I fear not but we shall be fed and clad by the providence of God.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 346-7

Senator John Sherman to the National Intelligencer, February 22, 1868

UNITED STATES SENATE CHAMBER,        

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 1868.

Gentlemen: The publication in your paper yesterday of General Sherman's note to the President, and its simultaneous transmission by telegraph unaccompanied by subsequent letters withheld by the President because they were "private," is so unfair as to justify severe censure upon the person who furnished you this letter, whoever he may be. Upon its face it is an informal private note dictated by the purest motives, — a desire to preserve harmony, and not intended for publication. How any gentleman receiving such a note could first allow vague but false suggestions of its contents to be given out, and then print it, and withhold other letters because they were "private," with a view to create the impression that General Sherman in referring to ulterior measures suggested the violent expulsion of a high officer from his office, passes my comprehension. Still I know that General Sherman is so sensitive upon questions of official propriety in publishing papers, that he would rather suffer from this false inference than to correct it by publishing another private note; and as I knew that this letter was not the only one written by General Sherman to the President about Mr. Stanton, I applied to the President for his consent to publish subsequent letters. This consent was freely given by the President, and I therefore send copies to you and ask their publication.

These copies are furnished me from official sources; for while I know General Sherman's opinions, yet he did not show me either of the letters to the President, during his stay here, nervously anxious to promote harmony, to avoid strife, and certainly never suggested or countenanced resistance to law or violence in any form. He no doubt left Washington with his old repugnance to politics, politicians, and newspapers very much increased by his visit here.

JOHN SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 309-10

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 23, 1864

Snowed last night three inches. Clear and cold this morning; ground frozen.

Had a dream last night—that meeting a few men in my wood and coal-house, I nominated R. Tyler for the Presidency, and it was well received. I must tell this to Mr. T.

I narrated my dream to Mr. T. Before I left, he said a clerk ship was at the disposal of my son Thomas; but Thomas is clerk in the conscription service, getting rations, etc. etc., better than the $4000 per annum. But still that dream may be realized. He is the son of President Tyler, deceased.

John Mitchel is now editor of the Examiner, and challenged Mr. Foote yesterday—the note was borne by Mr. Swan, of Tennessee, Mr. Foote's colleague. Mr. Foote would not receive it; and Mr. S. took offense and assaulted Mr. F. in his own house, when Mrs. F. interposed and beat Mr. S. away.

Gen. Winder has been appointed, by Gen. Cooper, commander of all prisons east of the Mississippi.

Gen. Winder has been made Commissary-General of all prisons and prisoners of war. The Bureau of Conscription is yet sustained in power. All this is done by Gen. Cooper,—unwise, probably fatal measures!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 337

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Wednesday, April 20, 1864

Nothing new this morning; reported all quiet all along the Tennessee. “Now Lieutenant A——, we will have some music this morning,” says Captain Ring as he moves from the room. Will she refuse a Yankee officer, wonder the remaining occupants of the parlor. Hark! we hear footsteps; she is coming. She is now seated at the piano; she plays sweetly, but oh! the language, the sentiment; rebellion deep, defiant, loud, echoes from her soul. Her heart dwells fondly upon the “Bonnie South," but the gallant Union soldiers blame her not. Though her heart is with a cause which aims at the foundation of human freedom, she has had encouragement, has been made to believe that the land of her birth is engaged in a righteous cause. The democracy of the North have given that encouragement. We will look among the old files of papers that lie here. What do we find! A number of Cincinnati Enquirers of old and new dates containing the speeches of Ohio's exiled traitor. These speeches have been eagerly read by the southern people, and upon their factious' and treasonable sentiments they predict their hopes of Southern independence. Oh! modern democracy, what have you done, and what are you doing? You have strengthened the South in their wicked aims to subvert liberty and thereby shut the gates of mercy upon mankind.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 233-4

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, October 12, 1864

Near Petersburg, Va.,        

October 12, 1864.

I have not received a letter from you for several days, as there seems to be something wrong with the mails again.

Grant has come to a dead halt before Petersburg and Richmond. It is believed that the next fight will take place across on the north side of the James River. The Richmond papers state that there is encouraging news from Georgia, but they will not tell us what it is, because they say they do not want Grant to find out about it. Hood may have Sherman in a tight place.

About twelve thousand men from Richmond have been sent into the trenches at the front. Many of them were in the Government service and many others were gentlemen of leisure. The authorities sent everybody. The police would capture men in all parts of the city and send them under guard to some point to be organized and put under the command of officers who happened to be in Richmond from the army. A man told me these officers were seized in the same way on the streets, and that the authorities would even send out and capture a colonel and put him in command of the whole battalion. A medical officer would sometimes be seized. He would plead that he was due at his command and that he was a noncombatant, but they would tell him he was the very man they needed to attend to the wounded. It delights soldiers to hear of these things. It does them good all over. The soldiers are accustomed to these sudden dashes at the front, but the miserable skulkers almost die of fright.

We are building chimneys and fixing up things in our camp as if we are to remain here. If I were sure of it, I would have you come out and stay with me awhile. It is useless for me to try to get off now while we are so tightly pressed I saw Billie this morning. I carried a haversack full of biscuits and ham to him. I will have ham, light bread and coffee for breakfast in the morning. I have been living well this year.

We have a new chaplain in our brigade named Dixon. I heard him preach yesterday, and he does very well. If Congress would pass a conscript law bringing the preachers into the army we could have chaplains. They have acted worse in this war than any other class of men.

We are having rain to-night and I am very glad to see it, for the weather was dry and the roads were dusty.

SOURCE: Dr. Spencer G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 108-9

Senator John C. Calhoun to Andrew Pickens Calhoun, January 12, 1850

Washington 12th Jan 1850

MY DEAR ANDREW, . . . The issue between the South and the North is the all absorbing subject here, although one would not think so who would judge from the party Organs here. They keep silent in the hope of giving such prominence to mere party issues, as to divert the publick mind from the higher questions and issues. They see in the latter a power sufficient to brake up the old party organization, and with it, the spoils system. The Southern members are more determined and bold than I ever saw them. Many avow themselves to be disunionists, and a still greater number admit, that there is little hope of any remedy short of it. In the mean time the North show no disposition to desist from aggression. They now begin to claim the right to abolish slavery in all the old States, that is those who were original members, when the Constitution was adopted. The Session will be stormy, but I hope, before it ends, a final and decisive issue will be made up with the North. There is no time to loose.

Give my love to Margeret and all the children. Kiss them for their grandfather.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p. 780

Diary of Private Louis Leon: September 22, 1863

I spoke and exchanged papers with a Yankee of the 7th Ohio Regiment.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 48

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, February 8, 1864

Camp near Orange Court House, Va.,

February 8, 1864.

The Yankees advanced to the Rapidan River yesterday and we were ordered off to met them. After some little fighting, they retired. It was evidently nothing more than a reconnoitering party of cavalry. To-day everything is quiet.

Billie and I are enjoying our box immensely— especially the sauer-kraut. Edwin was over again yesterday. He has been over three times this week. I am just as comfortable in every respect as I could possibly wish to be. The health and spirits of everybody seem to be excellent.

I had my hair cut to-day and I feel quite cool about the head. I am sending you the soldier's paper which I take, and you will find it interesting. We have such a dearth of news that I do not know of one thing worth relating.

SOURCE: Dr. Spencer G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 89-90

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, September 27, 1863

Camp near Orange Court House, Va.,

September 27, 1863.

We had nine more military executions in our division yesterday—one man from Thomas' Brigade, one from Scales' and seven from Lane's. Colonel Hunt was a member of the court-martial which sentenced them, and he tells me that one of the men from Lane's Brigade was a brother of your preacher, and that the two looked very much alike. He said he was a very intelligent man, and gave as his reason for deserting that the editorials in the Raleigh Standard had convinced him that Jeff Davis was a tyrant and that the Confederate cause was wrong. I am surprised that the editor of that miserable little journal is allowed to go at large. It is most unfortunate that this thing of shooting men for desertion was not begun sooner. Many lives would have been saved by it, because a great many men will now have to be shot before the trouble can be stopped.

We have been having some cavalry fighting recently. On the 23d the enemy were threatening to flank us, and our division was moved about six miles up the Rapidan River, but we soon returned to a place near our old camp. We have heard nothing of General Meade for the last few days, but we all expect soon to have a battle.

I must close, as a doctor has just come for me to go with him to assist in dissecting two of the men who were shot yesterday.

SOURCE: Dr. Spencer G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 79-80

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, December 24, 1862

Camp near Fredericksburg, Va.,        

December 24, 1862.

The Yankees seem loath to make another advance since the good whipping we gave them here on the thirteenth in the battle of Fredericksburg. Milton Bossardt's company went into the fight with forty men, and thirty of them were killed or wounded. He escaped very narrowly. A hole was shot through his hat and one of his shoe heels was shot off. Pick Stevens never shuns a fight. He goes boldly into them all.

I will not write you about the battle, for you must have seen enough in the newspapers concerning it. According to their own newspaper accounts, the Yankees were defeated much worse than we at first thought they were.

Some of us sent out to-day and got some eggs, and are going to have an egg-nog to-night, so you see we are trying to have some enjoyment for Christmas if we are out here in the woods. The Government is trying to help us, for we drew several extra good things to-day.

You must keep in good spirits. I will get home some of these days yet. I may surprise you.

SOURCE: Dr. Spenser G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 38-9

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 30, 1864

Cloudy, and occasional showers.

None of the papers except the Whig were published this morning, the printers, etc. being called out to defend the city. Every device of the military authorities has been employed to put the people here in the ranks. Guards everywhere, on horseback and on foot, in the city and at the suburbs, are arresting pedestrians, who, if they have not passes from Gen. Kemper, are hurried to some of the depots or to the City Square (iron palings), and confined until marched to the field or released. Two of the clerks of the War Department, who went down to the Spottswood Hotel to hear the news, although having the Secretary's own details, were hustled off to a prison on Cary Street to report to Lieut. Bates, who alone could release them. But when they arrived, no Lieut. Bates was there, and they found themselves incarcerated with some five hundred others of all classes and conditions. Here they remained cooped up for an hour, when they espied an officer who knew them, and who had them released.

To-day the guards arrested Judges Reagan and Davis, Postmaster-General and Attorney-General, both members of the cabinet, because neither of them were over fifty years old. Judge Reagan grew angry and stormed a little; but both were released immediately.

Gen. Lee dispatched Gen. Bragg, at 9 P.M. last night, that all the assaults of the enemy on Fort Gilmer had been repulsed, the enemy losing many in killed, and wounded, and prisoners, while our loss was small.

And we have driven the Yankees from Staunton, and have them in full retreat again as far as Harrisonburg.

To-day at 2 P.M. another battle occurred at or near Fort Harrison or Signal Hill, supposed to be an attempt on our part to retake the post.

I never heard more furious shelling, and fear our loss was frightful, provided it was our assault on the enemy's lines. We could see the white smoke, from the observatory, floating along the horizon over the woods and down the river. The melee of sounds was terrific: heavy siege guns (from our steam-rams, probably) mingled with the incessant roar of field artillery. At 3 P.M. all was comparatively quiet, and we await intelligence of the result.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 296-7

Acting Brigadier-General Samuel P. Carter to Brigadier-General George H. Thomas, November

HEADQUARTERS EAST TENNESSEE BRIGADE,        

Camp Calvert, November 16, 1861.

(Received November 17.)

Brig. Gen. GEORGE H. THOMAS, U. S. A.,
        Commanding, &c., Crab Orchard, Ky.:

GENERAL: My brother William has just arrived from East Tennessee, and the news he brings I think of so much importance, that I will dispatch a special messenger to convey it to you. My brother left Roane County, near Kingston, on Monday night last. He reports that on Friday night, 8th instant, of last week, he succeeded in having burned at least six, and perhaps eight, bridges on the railroad, viz: Union Bridge, in Sullivan County, near the Virginia line; Lick Creek Bridge, in Greene County; Strawberry Plains, in Jefferson County, 15 miles east of Knoxville, partially destroyed; Hiawassee Bridge, 70 miles southwest of Knoxville, and on the East Tennessee and Georgia. Railroad; two bridges over the Chickamauga, between Cleveland and Chattanooga, and between Chattanooga and Dalton, Georgia These bridges are certainly destroyed. The Long Island Bridge, at Bridgeport, on Tennessee River, and a bridge below Dalton, on the Western Atlantic road, are probably destroyed.

The consternation among the secessionists of East Tennessee is very great. The Union men are waiting with longing and anxiety for the appearance of Federal forces on the Cumberland Mountains, and are all ready to rise up in defense of the Federal Government. My brother states that he has it, from reliable sources that the rebels have but 15,000 men at Bowling Green, many of them badly armed and poorly organized. The other 15,000 men are distributed at two other points in Southwestern Kentucky.

The above information was obtained from Union members of Tennessee legislature who were at Bowling Green on last Monday was a week ago.

On last Monday, as nearly as could be ascertained, Zollicoffer had in East Tennessee 8,000 men, about 1,000 of whom were unarmed, and about 1,500 on sick list, most of them badly clothed, and many poorly armed. About 6,000 of the above were at different points on Cumberland Mountains; at Jacksborough there were some troops, but the exact number could not be accurately ascertained. There were 1,400 at Knoxville, but only 600 of them able to bear arms. There were 60 at London, 60 at Carter's Depot, and 300 at Jamestown.

The only troops that have passed through East Tennessee in last six weeks was an Alabama regiment, 800 strong, which went to Virginia; they were without arms.

I send you a Nashville paper, brought by my brother, containing some account of the attack on Port Royal.

I to-day moved Colonel Garrard's regiment to the ground which was occupied by the Thirty-third Indiana, and the First and Second Regiments East Tennessee to the heights where the artillery and Thirty-eighth Ohio were encamped. I have heard nothing definite since yesterday from Cumberland Gap, but I have reason to believe that the reported loss of the Union men at Cumberland Ford was not correct. If possible, general, send me some artillery, for if I am attacked with artillery I cannot resist with any hope of success. Some cavalry are also necessary to our security.

General, if it be possible, do urge the commanding general to give us some additional force and let us advance into East Tennessee; now is the time. And such a people as are those who live in East Tennessee deserve and should be relieved and protected. You know the importance of this move, and will, I hope, use all your influence to effect it. Our men will go forward with a shout to relieve their native land.

The brigade commissary has not yet handed in his report of the amount of provisions on hand; but I think we have already nearly, if not quite, a month's supply on hand.

With much respect, I am, dear general, yours, very truly,

S. P. CARTER,        

Acting Brigadier-General, Comdg. East Tennessee Brigade.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 359-60

Brigadier-General Albin F. Schoeph to Brigadier-General George H. Thomas, November 8, 1861

LONDON, KY., November 8, 1861. (Received November 9.)

[General THOMAS:]

GENERAL: Yours of the 7th instant, with copy of letter to Governor Andrew Johnson, is before me, and it is with extreme satisfaction that I note the decided manner in which the case is laid down to Governor Johnson.

This outside pressure has become intolerable and must be met with firmness, or the Army may as well be disbanded.

With importunate citizens on one side and meddlesome reporters for papers on the other, I can scarce find time to attend to the appropriate duties of my position. By the way, cannot something be done to rid our camps of this latter class? I have really reached that point that I am afraid to address my staff officer above a whisper in my own tent. My most trivial remarks to my officers are caught up, magnified, and embellished, and appear in print as my "expressed opinions," much to the surprise of myself and those to whom my remarks were addressed, thus keeping me continually in a false position with my superior officers and the country.

So far as a forward movement is concerned, I have never urged it; do not now urge it; but on the contrary believe that in the present condition of my command (having a large sick list) it would be most decidedly imprudent. I am nevertheless ready to obey your order to advance, come when it may. That is a question for my superiors, and not for me, to determine.

After eight days of labor on the part of Captain Everett, he has returned the regimental monthly returns to the respective commanders, to be forwarded direct to your headquarters; Captain Everett having declared his inability to obtain from any one regiment anything like a passable document, or even the data upon which he could frame one.

My consolidated morning reports will be commenced on the 10th and promptly continued as per orders every ten days, and forwarded upon the days upon which they are made.

Please furnish the regimental commanders with blanks in time for the close of the present month, when, perhaps, by "line upon line and precept upon precept," they may be brought to produce a more businesslike sheet in future.

Very respectfully, yours,

A. SCHOEPF,        

Brigadier-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 347-8

Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer to Samuel Cooper, November 22, 1861

BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS,        

Jamestown, Tenn., Nov. 22, 1861.

General S. Cooper,

        Adjutant and Inspector-General, Richmond:

SIR: Heavy rains have made the roads slippery and will somewhat retard our progress. Day before yesterday I ordered Colonel Stanton, with his regiment, Colonel Murray's and Lieutenant-Colonel McClellan's cavalry, encamped about 10 miles north of Jamestown, to make a rapid and stealthy forward movement to capture the ferry-boats at four or five crossings of the Cumberland, and, if practicable, the enemy's cavalry said to be on this side of the river. I have not heard whether the movement has been made. I see it stated in the Nashville newspapers that General Ward has 2,000 men at Campbellsville, 1,200 at Columbia, and a regiment at Lebanon. It is reported to Colonel Stanton that the two or three regiments between Somerset and the river have moved towards Columbia, to join other forces there. He communicates also a rumor of the crossing of the Cumberland by a force of the enemy at Green's Ferry; but all these reports seem to be uncertain.  I have no dispatches from Knoxville since I left there, but hear through various scouting parties that the tories in Lower East Tennessee are dispersed, a number of prisoners taken, a few Lincolnites killed and wounded, and several hundred guns captured. Citizens have turned out in large numbers and assisted the soldiers in scouring the mountains and hunting down the fugitive traitors. They should now be pursued to extermination, if possible.

Very respectfully,

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER,        

Brigadier-General.

[Similar report to Colonel Mackall.]

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. 690

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, January 8, 1861

ALEXANDRIA, Jan. 8, 1861.

 . . . Things are moving along with the rapidity of revolutions. The papers announce that the people of Alabama have seized the arsenals at Mobile Point, Fort Morgan, and above Mobile. I think similar steps will soon follow at the forts at the mouth of the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain. I have been in town today and had a long talk with Dr. Smith who goes next week to Baton Rouge to attend the meeting of the legislature and convention. He knows well my opinions; I have not concealed them, that I cannot do any act hostile to the United States. . .

The Board is unwilling to entrust the management here to any one of the other professors. It takes me all I can do to suppress disorder and irregularity. I had a cadet threaten me yesterday with a loaded pistol because I detected a whiskey jug in his room and threatened him with dismissal. He did not await trial but went off. Although a large majority of the cadets are good boys still we have some hard cases.

From what I see in the New Orleans papers Anderson is still in possession of Fort Sumpter, and the general government has failed to reinforce him and will wait till he is attacked. This disgusts me and I would not serve such a pusillanimous government.

It merits dissolution. This fact will increase the chances of an attempt to prevent Lincoln's installation into office, and then we shall see whether the wideawakes will fight as well as carry cheap lamps of a night zigzagging down the streets.

I see every chance of long, confused, and disorganizing Civil War, and I feel no desire to take a hand therein. When the time comes for reorganization then will come the time. I feel anxious for your comfort and safety but these cannot be threatened. . .

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 331-2

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, November 26, 1860

ALEXANDRIA, Nov. 26, 1860.

 . . . I commenced writing a letter last night to Minnie, but a friend sent us out a newspaper of New Orleans, November 22 which had come up from New Orleans in a boat. For some reason the papers come to us very irregularly. The stage whenever it has passengers leaves behind the paper mail and only brings the bags when there are few or no passengers. Well, of late though letters come about as usual our papers come along very straggling. This newspaper so received brings intelligence, how true I know not, of a panic in New York, Baltimore, Virginia, and everywhere. Of course panics are the necessary consequence of the mammoth credit system, the habit of borrowing which pervades our country, and though panics transfer losses to the wrong shoulders still they do good.

But along with this comes the cause, the assertion that South Carolina will secede certain. Georgia ditto. And Alabama. Mississippi will of course, and with her Arkansas and Texas. This will leave Louisiana no choice. If these premises be true then indeed is there abundant cause for panic, disorder, confusion, ruin and Civil War. I am determined not to believe it till to withhold belief would be stupidity. The paper also announces that Governor Moore has called the legislature together for December 10, and specially to consider the crisis of the country and to call a convention. You know that the theory of our government is, as construed by the southern politicians, that a state, one or more, may withdraw from the Union without molestation, and unless excitement abates Louisiana will follow the lead of her neighbors.

You will hear by telegraph the actions of the conventions of South Carolina and Alabama. Should they assert their right to secede and initiate measures to that end, then you may infer that I will countermand my heretofore preparations for a move. Then it would be unsafe for you even to come south. For myself I will not go with the South in a disunion movement, and as my position at the head of a State Military College would necessarily infer fidelity and allegiance to the state, my duty will be on the first positive act of disunion to give notice of my purpose.

December 10 the legislature meets. It is hardly possible a convention will be called before January and until the convention acts the state is not committed. Still I think the tone of feeling in the legislature will give me a clew [sic] to the future. I confess I feel uneasy from these events, and more so from the fact that the intelligence comes so piecemeal and unsatisfactory. . .

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 308-9

Rutherford B. Hayes to Lieutenant-Colonel Russell Hastings, May 20, 1865

New CREEK, WEST VIRGINIA, May 20, 1865.

DEAR COLONEL:— My wife came here last evening. I have sent in my resignation and asked to be relieved. I hope to get to Washington to the great doings to come off next week.

I take "Old Whitey” home (to Fremont, Ohio,) and hope you will be able to ride him again.

It is not yet known when troops of the class of Twenty-third, Thirty-sixth, and First West Virginia Veterans will be mustered out. They are all now at Staunton and appear to enjoy it much.

I have had the Cincinnati papers withdraw my name from the candidate list. I am of course much obliged to the brigade, but it would not be the thing for me to allow it.

My wife says she is glad you have sound views on the treatment of Rebels. She doubts her husband.

If Sherman did it with an eye to political advancement, as some say, of course it is bad, but if he thought to follow the policy of Lincoln as indicated by Weitzell's programme (and this I believe), he surely ought not to be abused for it.

My wife sends regards to your sister and yourself. Excuse haste.

Sincerely,

R. B. HAYES.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL RUSSELL HASTINGS.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 584

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Wednesday, September 16, 1863

Early this morning we are off for Corinth, moving over the old familiar highway. Oh! how dusty; the rising clouds almost hide the sun. We arrive at Corinth about noon, hungry, tired, sleepy and miserably dirty. The soldiers are soon perusing the papers, which seem to tell us that the long dark night of war is waning. The shouts from the soldiers that roll from the camp to-night are: “Hurrah for Gilmore!” and “More Greek fire for Charleston!”

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 192

Sumner’s Speech — published May 27, 1856

The New York papers publish Sumner’s late speech in full. It fills some twenty columns of small type—and, as he had been rehearsing it before a looking-glass for several weeks previous to its delivery, with a negro boy holding a candle to aid him in adjusting the action to the word, it is probable the whole abolition confederacy had the document before it was read to the Senate.

We have perused the effusion from curiosity to see what this bell-weather of fanaticism had to say for his cause. It smacks of the ravage of the maniac—and that would constitute the best apology for its abundant wickedness, but for the fact that method pervades the madness, and the madness is steeped in malignity.

We noticed that Mr. Douglas and some other Senators charged the Massachusetts senator and his abolition confederates with the design to subvert the constitution and dissolve the Union. Such would seem to be the purpose of the speaker, from the general tone of his discourse. We extract the following brief paragraph, that the reader may see what terrible evils impend over the land, if the abolitionists are not permitted to have their way.

“Already the muster has begun. The strife is no longer local, but national. Even now, while I speak, portents hang on all the arches of the horizon, threatening to darken the broad land, which already yawns with muttering of civil war. The fury of the propagandists of Slavery, and the calm determination of their opponents, are now diffused from the distant Territory over wide-spread communities, and the whole country, in all its extent—marshalling hostile divisions, and foreshadowing a strife, which, unless happily averted by the triumph of Freedom, will become war—fratricidal, parricidal war—with an accumulated wickedness beyond the wickedness of any war in human annals; justly provoking the avenging judgment of Providence and the avenging pen of history, and constituting a strife in the language of the ancient writer, more than foreign, more than social, more than civil; but something compounded of all these strifes, and in itself more than war; sed potius commune quoddam ex omnibus, et plus bellum.”

SOURCE: Richmond Daily Whig, Richmond Virginia, Tuesday Morning, May 27, 1856, p. 2

Advertisement In The Red River American, Alexandria, La., July 7, 1860

ALEXANDRIA, June 23, 1860.

The annual examination of the Cadets at this institution will take place on Monday and Tuesday, July 30th and 31st proximo.

The order of exercises each day will be as follows: from 8 to 11 a.m., examination in mathematics; from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., examination in French and Spanish; from 3 to 5:30 p.m., examination in English and Latin.

There will be a drill at 6:30 p.m., each day, terminating with the usual dress parade at sundown.

From 8 to 11 in the evening there will be speeches, declamations, and compositions.

The meals of the cadets will be served at the usual hours, and one hour thereafter, viz: 2 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. dinner and supper will be provided by the steward for all visitors who will give him previous notice. The ferry boat at Alexandria will run till midnight, affording a good opportunity to all to honor us with their presence at the evening exercises.

The parents, families and friends of the cadets and the public generally are most respectfully invited to attend.

W. T. SHERMAN, Superintendant.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 235-6