Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 13, 1863

Col. Gorgas, Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, sent in to-day a report of the arms captured in the recent battle. It appears from his statement that, so far, only eight guns have been found, taken from the enemy, while we lost ten. Thus, it would appear, our papers have been “lying,” in regard to that item, as well as the Northern papers about the number of prisoners lost and taken. But, so far, we have collected 12,000 of the enemy's small arms left upon the field, and 8000 of our own, indicating the number of our killed and wounded. But the New York journals say we captured only 1700 prisoners; whereas, up to this time, more than 6000 have arrived in Richmond; 5000 of whom leave to-day, paroled until exchanged. I doubt whether we lost 2000 prisoners in the battle.

The Philadelphia Press, just received, charges the government in Washington with circulating false reports, and is now convinced Hooker met with a most crushing defeat.

It is rumored the enemy are disembarking troops at the White House, York River. If this be so, it is to prevent reinforcements being sent to Lee.

The Governor of Alabama declares that Mobile is neglected, and says he will continue to protest against the failure of the government to make adequate preparations for the defense of the city.

I saw Gen. Wise to-day. He seems weather-beaten, but hardy.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 323-4

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: April 9, 1864

See here Mr. Confederacy, this is going a little too far. You have no business to kill us off at this rate. About thirty or forty die daily. They have rigged up an excuse for a hospital on the outside, where the sick are taken. Admit none though who can walk or help themselves in any way some of our men are detailed to help as nurses, but in a majority of cases those who go out on parole of honor are cut-throats and robbers, who abuse a sick prisoner. Still, there are exceptions to this rule. We hear stories of Capt. Wirtz's cruelty in punishing the men, but I hardly credit all the stories. More prisoners to-day. Some captured near Petersburg. Dont know anything about exchange. Scurvy and dropsy taking hold of the men. Many are blind as soon as it becomes night, and it is called moon blind. Caused, I suppose, by sleeping with the moon shining in the face. Talked with Michael Hoare, an old school fellow of mine. Mike was captured while we were in Pemerton Building, and was one of Dahlgreen's men Was taken right in the suburbs of Richmond. Has told me all the news of their failure on account of Kilpatrick failing to make a junction at some point. Mike is a great tall, slim fellow, and a good one. Said he heard my name called out in Richmond as having a box of eatables from the North. He also saw a man named Shaw claim the box with a written order from me, Shaw was one of our mess on Belle Isle. He was sent to Richmond while sick, from the island, knew of my expecting the box, and forged an order to get it. Well, that was rough, still I probably wouldn't have got it any way. Better him than some rebel. Mike gave me a lot of black pepper which we put into our soup, which is a luxury. He has no end of talk at his tongue's end, and it is good to hear. Recounts how once when I was about eight or ten years old and he some older, I threw a base ball club and hit him on the shins. Then ran and he couldn't catch me. It was when we were both going to school to A. A. Henderson, in Jackson, Mich. Think I remember the incident, and am strongly under the impression that he, caught me It is thus that old friends meet after many years. John McGuire is also here, another Jackson man. He has a family at home and is worried. Says he used to frequently see my brother George at Hilton Head, before being captured.

SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p. 48-9

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: April 7, 1863

Nothing definite has transpired at Charleston, or if so, we have not received information of it yet.

From the West, we have accounts, from Northern papers, of the failure of the Yankee Yazoo expedition. That must have its effect.

Judge Campbell, Assistant Secretary of War, has decided in one instance (page 125, E. B. Conscript Bureau), that a paroled political prisoner, returning to the South, is not subject to conscription. This is in violation of an act of Congress, and general orders. It appears that grave judges are not all inflexibly just, and immaculately legal in their decisions. Col. Lay ordered the commandant of conscripts (Col. Shields) to give the man a protection, without any reason therefor.

It is now said large depots of provisions are being formed on the Rappahannock. This does not look like an indication of a retrograde movement on the part of Gen. Lee. Perhaps he will advance.

This afternoon dispatches were received from Charleston. Notwithstanding all the rumors relative to the hostile fleet being elsewhere, it is now certain that all the monitors, iron-clads, and transports have succeeded in passing the bar, and at the last accounts were in readiness to begin the attack. And Beauregard was prepared to receive it. To-morrow we shall have exciting intelligence. If we are to believe what we hear from South Carolinians, recently from Charleston (I do believe it), Charleston will not be taken. If the ground be taken, it will not be Charleston. If the forts fall, and our two rams be taken or destroyed, the defenders will still resist. Rifle-pits have been dug in the streets; and if driven from these, there are batteries beyond to sweep the streets, thus involving the enemy and the city in one common ruin.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 287-8

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 28, 1863

We have nothing additional or confirmatory from the West. A letter from Gen. Beauregard states that he has but 17,000 men in South Carolina, and 10,000 in Georgia, 27,000 in all. He asks more, as he will be assailed, probably, by 100,000 Federals. The President refers this important letter to the Secretary of War, simply with the indorsement, “this is an exact statement of affairs in South Carolina and Georgia."

Col. Lay predicts that we shall be beaten in thirty days, or else we shall then be in the way of beating the enemy. A safe prediction — but what is his belief? This deponent saith not. There will be fearful odds against us, and yet our men in the field fear nothing.

We are sending Napoleons up to Lee. But the weather, which has been fine for the last two days, is wet again. If Hooker makes a premature advance, he will be sure to “march back again.”

An amusing letter was received from an officer in Tennessee today. He was taken prisoner by seven Federals when straying some distance from camp, and subsequently hearing the men express some anxiety to be at home again with their families, gave them some brandy which he happened to possess. He then suggested a plan by which they might return to their homes, viz., to become his prisoners, and being paroled by him. After consultation, they agreed to it, and released him. He then paroled them, giving them the usual certificates to exhibit to their officer, and so, taking another drink, they pursued their different ways. If this disposition prevails extensively among the Western Federals, we may look for speedy results in that quarter. Rosecrans may lose his laurels in a most unexpected manner.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 280-1

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Saturday, April 22, 1865

Quiet all night, a little shower about Midnight. As I was not notified that we would march today lay in bed until late. Our Nigger Charlie brought breakfast for me which I greatly relished. It is talked that this is about the only place on the river the jonnies could bring guns to bear on transports & is to be fortified & held by a garrison a gunboat lies in the river here & I hear that 5 more are 5 miles above. I am relieved & return to camp at 11. a m after dinner Lt Loughridge & I walk to the river about ¼ mile from camp. The bank a very steep bluff 50 ft high, on the bank a good & large frame house splendidly furnished & the folks at home. I hear the man is a parolled prisoner from Lees army. I understand that there are two cuts off one about 3 miles & the other about 10 or 15 miles above here & that it is the object to go above these & plant guns large enough to keep the Reb fleet which is above from coming down. Patrolls arrest quite a no of men for foraging and more fore nothing, march them to Div Hd Quarters, all punished alike riding a wooden horse, a beautiful day but Evening somewhat cool, a negro dance in the battery near by. Amusing.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 594

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: January 6, 1864

Still prisoners of war, without the remotest idea as to how long we are to remain so. Some of the paroled Yankees on the outside curse and treat the inside prisoners more cruel (when they have a chance,) than the rebels themselves. Blass, a Spaniard, who has been a prisoner over a year and refuses to be exchanged, is the lieutenant's right hand man. He tied up a man a few days ago for some misdemeanor and whipped him. He is afraid to come inside, knowing he would lose his life in a jiffy. He also raises the rebel flag at the island mornings, and lowers it at night.. It is a dirty rag, and the appearance of it ought to disgust any sensible person.

SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p. 24

Diary of Luman Harris Tenney: Friday, November 7, 1862

Capt. Quigg after examination released “Dr. Brissel” without a parole. Capts. Lucas and Nettleton and all the boys think the man fooled us — black hair and whiskers, good looking and very gentlemanly. Heard no mean expression. When I bade him good morning, three miles out, he shook hands with me, and said if we ever got into trouble, he would be glad to do what he could for us. At 11 A. M. got orders to march with two days' rations, at 12 M. Had no bake kettles and no rations but beans and flour. Got me a canteen full of bean soup. Ready at noon. 25 2nd Ohio and 25 6th Kansas. Had charge of platoon of twelve — our boys. Went west, trotted most of the time. Got to the tannery at 3 P. M. 13th at work getting out the hides from the vats. Soon Col. Cloud with 250 or 300 — and all went to work. A grand scene. Would like to see it represented in Leslie. Burned up twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars worth of property. Started in about dark — southwest. Went 15 or 20 miles, mostly on a trot. Then stopped at a field of corn and lay down by fires till 4 or 5 A. M. Changed platoons to get 2nd Ohio together. Capt. N. with Kansas platoons.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 42

Major Wilder Dwight: September 5, 1862

camp Near TennallytowN, Maryland, September 5, 1862.

I wrote you a hasty scrawl in my hurried visit to Washington, just to assure you of our safety at last. That was Wednesday. We went into camp near Fort Albany, and within a mile of the Long Bridge. Yesterday we got marching orders again; crossed the Potomac at Georgetown, and came out here on the Edwards's Ferry and Darnestown road, about eight miles, and are now in camp. . . . .

We suppose that we are to go up the river towards Edwards's Ferry. You would, perhaps, like to have a record of our life since we occupied the line of the Rappahannock till to-day. It has been so tense and corrosive that I am not yet in tone to write an account of it. Our week on the Rappahannock was a series of marches, countermarches, vigils, pickets, wet bivouacs, always within sound, often within reach, of the enemy's cannon, moving under the hissing importunity of flying shells and round shot. One morning at Beverly Ford we took a position from which our forces had been driven two previous days. Colonel Andrews and I breakfasted under a tree with shell and round shot moving merrily about us. We held the position. On Monday night we lay under arms within half a mile of the battle in which Kearney and Stevens fell, near Fairfax Court-House. The fight was a fierce one. During most of it a violent thunderstorm raged fearfully. I can only leave you to imagine the scene. We were all night under arms, wet through, and without fires. The worst night I ever spent. Tuesday night we came in last over the Warrenton Pike, — the very tail of the Grand Army, as we had been before.

Our risks and chances have been great, but we were not in either of the fights about Manassas or Bull Run. I am glad of it. Unsuccessful battles we have had enough of. I have been too busy to get news of Charley. We have been on the march for eighteen days. Colonel Taylor's account of the matter was encouraging. I met him by chance on Tuesday. Inquired at once for Charley. His answer was, “He is on his way to Richmond.” I was taken aback. Under all the circumstances, you may regard him as lucky.

I hope he will be paroled without being taken to Richmond.

Our recruits have had a hard time. It is an illustration of the folly of our whole system of organization and recruiting, that we should have dragged one hundred and fourteen unarmed recruits through all this business. But I will not begin about follies. The events of the past three weeks are incredible. Disaster, pitiable, humiliating, contemptible! Love to all at home. Now that we are in Maryland, I suppose the absurd order stopping the mails will be rescinded. I shall write again as soon as I can.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 285-7

Lieutenant I. Pinckney Thomas to Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett, August 10, 1864

Danville, Va., August 10, 1864.

Brig.-gen. W. F. Bartlett, U. S. A.: —

General, — I am directed by General Young to say to you that he will take great pleasure in handing your letter to Judge Ould in person, and that he will use every means in his power to procure you an exchange, or parole of honor, immediately. If he should fail, General Young will do everything in his power to alleviate your pain, or to promote your recovery.

You will hear from General Young as soon as he has seen Judge Ould.

I am, General,

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

I. Pinckney Thomas,

Lt. & A. D. C.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 124-5

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: December 13, 1862

After all, Fredericksburg was severely shelled — whether designedly or incidentally in the fight, does not yet appear.

Our army has fallen back a little — for a purpose. Lee knows every inch of the ground.

Again we have rumors of a hostile fleet being in the river; and Major-Gen. G. W. Smith has gone to Petersburg to see after the means of defense, if an attack should be made in that quarter. Some little gloom and despondency are manifested, for the first time, in this community.

Major-Gen. S. Jones writes that although the Federal Gen. Cox has left the valley of the Kanawha, 5000 of his men remain; and he deems it inexpedient, in response to Gen. Lee's suggestion, to detach any portion of his troops for operations elsewhere. He says Jenkins's cavalry is in a bad condition.

Here is an instance of South Carolina honor. During the battle of Williamsburg, last spring, W. R. Erwin, a private in Col. Jenkins's Palmetto sharpshooters, was detailed to take care of the wounded, and was himself taken prisoner The enemy supposing him to be a surgeon, he was paroled. He now returns to the service; and although the mistake could never be detected, he insists on our government exchanging a private of the enemy's for himself. With the assurance that this will be done, he goes again to battle.

Yesterday flour and tobacco had a fall at auction. Some suppose the bidders had in view the contingency of the capture of the city by the enemy.

In the market-house this morning, I heard a man speaking loudly, denounce a farmer for asking about $6 a bushel for his potatoes, and hoping that the Yankees would take them from him for nothing!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 211-2

Major Wilder Dwight to Elizabeth White Dwight, Monday Evening, June 2, 1862

Williamsport, Maryland, Monday Evening,

June 2, 1862. At last.

Soon after my last words, Mr. Barnhardt, with corpulent and puffy energy, came up stairs. “Well, will you go this morning?” “Yes.” He had previously told me, when I asked him about a wagon for Martinsburg, “O, it worrits me, it worrits me!” Now he said, “I've got a wagon for ye, yes I have, already!”¹ Sure enough, a contraband and his cart were at our door in half an hour. Dr. Stone² and I started at once. Colonel Kenly bade me good by and God speed.

Now for impudence and liberty! On we rode. Four miles, and then came the halt that we dreaded. Two mounted citizens pragmatically inspected our paroles, and at last let us go. Then two cavalrymen, whom we dissuaded. Then we were shouted at to halt! Two mounted men, with bowie-knife, revolver, carbine, and sabre, said, “You must turn back.” Our hearts sank, but we took out our papers, reasoned, persuaded, and, as Providence would guide it, led them to respect our paroles, and let us free. They said, “We will go back to town and ask again.” On we went, and, with only another halt, but with every nervousness of anxiety, we got to Bunker's Hill. There the harness broke, and again we looked to the rear, but on we went again. “What is that?” “Our cavalry?” “It must be”; and sure enough down they charged upon us, and we were, in an abrupt transition, at once within the Union lines. I cannot describe our thankfulness and heart-swell.

We reached Martinsburg. Then our contraband and colored driver, entering into the spirit of our pursuit, agreed to put us through to Williamsport. We crossed the river, met Brown's³ wagon. Brown's ready grin and constant delight prepared me a little for the enthusiasm of the regiment. I cannot describe their welcome. God knows, I should be proud to deserve it. I have never known greater happiness or thankfulness than to-night. Good by, my dear mother. I go to Washington to-morrow. I will come home when I can, and tell you all.

_______________

¹ After Major Dwight left Winchester, some of Mr. Barnhardt's neighbors, who were Rebels, said to him: “You’ll have to suffer yet for keeping your Major so long, and then helping him away.” “I told them,” said the brave old man, “that they couldn’t rob me of much if they took my life, for I was ’most eighty year old.”

² Dr. Lincoln Ripley Stone, then Assistant-Surgeon of the Second Massachusetts Infantry, who would not abandon the hospital in his charge at Winchester, was a prisoner. He was paroled; the parole to be a free release, if at Washington he could secure an agreement that surgeons should not be liable to capture; which was accomplished.

³ George H. Brown, Regimental Wagoner.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 266-7

Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett: Thursday, August 4, 1864

Get no better, yet wrote to General Lee and Secretary of War this morning, asking for my exchange or parole. I hope they are not much worried at home. I am glad they do not know the truth. Much pain still; bowels very weak; no appetite. No one can ever know the misery that I have suffered the past few days. I don't know how long I can endure this. It seems to be my lot to suffer. I must not be ungrateful for all God's mercies though, in sparing my life.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 121

Journal of Major Wilder Dwight: Saturday Evening, May 31, 1862

The streets are quiet tonight. We await events.

The parole under which I have been quietly living at Mr. Barnhardt's since Monday involved only this restraint: confinement to the corporate limits of Winchester, and the duty of reporting every morning at ten o'clock at the office of the Provost Marshal. We have fed on rumors, speculations, fears, hopes, falsehoods, and sensations, but have felt none of the constraints of captivity. The parole which I have given to-day is, not to serve till exchanged, and I may “go at large.”

Mr. Barnhardt, a big Dutchman, who has lived over seventy years, as he says, “just for good eating,” returned from market Wednesday morning. “No market,” says he. “Butter forty cents, eggs twenty-five, lamb twenty; and all because the Confederates is here. I could ha' sot down on the market-steps and ha' cried, as sure as you sit there in that there cheer.” To-night his nervousness has reached that point that he has gone to bed “a'most sick and downhearted.” He is a Union man. “I was born a Union man, I have always been a Union man, and a Union man I 'll die, and the Devil can't make nothing else of me.”

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 264

Journal of Major Wilder Dwight: Saturday, May 31, 1862

To-day (Saturday, P. St., May 31) they have loaded all their wounded into wagons for transportation in their retreat.

Colonel Kenly and I have been paroled this afternoon. Colonel Kenly's wound in the head improves daily. Most of the prisoners, officers and men, marched off this Saturday morning.

I have furnished bread and some vegetables to our friends at the court-house every morning. Now that they have gone, I fear that they will suffer, perhaps for want of food.

Lieutenant-Colonel Cunningham, Twenty-first Virginia Volunteers, who has just taken my parole, tells me that his regiment was on the hill opposite our position.

“Your battery was splendidly served,” said he; “and your line of sharpshooters behind the stone wall on your right picked off every officer of our regiment who showed himself. Seven or eight of our officers were wounded by them. We fired spherical case over the wall at them, and, at last, round shot at the wall from the Rockbridge artillery.”

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 263

Diary of Corporal Charles H. Lynch: April 25, 1865

Weather good. Regular routine of duty is now on again. Drill, dress parade, picket, and guard. Not much interest taken in these duties at this time. No danger now from the enemy. The only real interest is taken in our dress parades, as we have many visitors from town. Confederate soldiers are now on their way home, all having been paroled. Halt them at the outposts, send a guard with them to the Provost Marshal, when they are allowed to proceed to their homes in Virginia and Maryland. Many were glad the war was over. Some were very bitter. Would not admit they were beaten. We laughed at the poor fellows. Many having tramped for miles to reach home. Some shed tears when they were forced to admit that the war was over, and their cause was lost.

SOURCE: Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary, 1862-1865, of Charles H. Lynch 18th Conn. Vol's, p. 150

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Thursday May 7, 1863

Picked up several rebs. among them a quartermaster, took him hid in wheat field, paroled most of the prisoners. Cavalry took one road Inf another with 3d. Iowa cav.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 489

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Sunday, March 22, 1863

Hard rain. misty and rainy tore the boat considerable one man hurt considerably by a limb. Preaching at 3. P. M. Prisoner paroled and sent off, at home rebel Lieut. sent on up.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 486

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 25, 1862

Blankets, that used to sell for $6, are now $25 per pair; and sheets are selling for $15 per pair, which might have been had a year ago for $4. Common 4·4 bleached cotton shirting is selling at $1 a yard.

Gen. Lee's locality and operations, since the battle of Sharpsburg or Shepherdstown, are still enveloped in mystery.

About one hundred of the commissioned officers of Pope's army, taken prisoners by Jackson, and confined as felons in our prisons, in conformity to the President's retaliatory order, were yesterday released on parole, in consequence of satisfactory communications from the United States Government, disavowing Pope's orders, I presume, and stating officially the fact that Pope himself has been relieved from command.

We have taken, and paroled, within the last twelve or fifteen weeks, no less than forty odd thousand prisoners! The United States must owe us some thirty thousand men. This does not look like progress in the work of subjugation.

Horrible! I have seen men just from Manassas, and the battlefield of the 30th August, where, they assure me, hundreds of dead Yankees still lie unburied! They are swollen “as large as cows,” say they, “and are as black as crows.” No one can now undertake to bury them. When the wind blows from that direction, it is said the scent of carrion is distinctly perceptible at the White House in Washington. It is said the enemy are evacuating Alexandria. I do not believe this.

A gentleman (Georgian) to whom I gave a passport to visit the army, taking two substitutes, over forty-five years of age, in place of two sick young men in the hospitals, informs me that he got upon the ground just before the great battle at Sharpsburg commenced. The substitutes were mustered in, and in less than an hour after their arrival, one of them was shot through the hat and hair, but his head was untouched. He says they fought as well as veterans.

_______________

* It is held by the government now, January, 1866, and my family are homeless and destitute. Onancock, Accomac County, Va. — J. B. J.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 155-6

Diary of Sarah Morgan: Tuesday, May 2, 1865

While praying for the return of those who have fought so nobly for us, how I have dreaded their first days at home! Since the boys died, I have constantly thought of what pain it would bring to see their comrades return without them — to see families reunited, and know that ours never could be again, save in heaven. Last Saturday, the 29th of April, seven hundred and fifty paroled Louisianians from Lee's army were brought here — the sole survivors of ten regiments who left four years ago so full of hope and determination. On the 29th of April, 1861, George left New Orleans with his regiment. On the fourth anniversary of that day, they came back; but George and Gibbes have long been lying in their graves. . . .

SOURCE: Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's Diary, p. 439-40

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: September 3, 1862

We lament the fall of Ewell — not killed, but his leg has been amputated. The enemy themselves report the loss, in killed and wounded, of eight generals! And Lee says, up to the time of writing, he had paroled 7000 prisoners, taken 10,000 stand of small arms, 50 odd cannon, and immense stores!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 151