Diary of Corporal John Worrell Northrop: Wednesday, June 1, 1864

Scalding heat during forenoon; heavy showers follow. Water is running through camp like a flood. Prisoners reported missing, rations suspended; Rebels are making a stir on the outside.

Finished "Paradise Lost"; called on Harriman. He supplied us with Pollock's "ourse of Time." We had read this, but it is now more acceptable. In our view it is a work of more natural thought and imbibes less of the unnatural. Milton has soulstirring passages, alive with truth, significant expression and beautiful simplicity. Then he goes deeply into themes beyond most conceptions; we don't wish to not, unless this is "Paradise Lost." Confederacy when he said:

follow him, or cannot, have Did he mean the Southern

"Devils with devils damned firm concord hold."

Did he mean the North when he wrote:

"Men only disagree of creatures rational,

Though under hope of heavenly grace"

how they should save the Union?

The following lines express a truth in human experience:

"God proclaiming peace,

Yet men live in hatred, enmity and strife

Among themselves, and levy cruel wars

Wasting the earth, each other to destroy,

As if man had not hellish foes enough besides,

That day and night for his destruction wait."

Milton seems to have designed to impress the thought that man had hellish foes distinct from his race, awaiting his destruction, which originated through rebellious war in heaven. I think the causes of our troubles lie in our lack of knowledge and misconception of our social relations, wicked ambition, foolish pride, and that these lines better fit an earthly than a heavenly realm.

The usual monotony except an unusual amount of firing by sentry. Prisoners arrive daily from both our great armies. Men crowd near them to get news and hardtack; occasionally old friends meet. About half the camp draw raw meal; we are of that half this week; have the trouble of cooking it without salt or seasoning or wood, half the time. We stir it in water, bake it on plates held over a splinter fire with a stiff stick, or boil it into mush or dumplings, baking or boiling as long as fuel lasts.

SOURCE: John Worrell Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 70-1

Diary of Corporal John Worrell Northrop: Monday, June 6, 1864

The impression is growing that the situation is more and more unfavorable every day. Hospitals are overflowing with sick and no more admittance, though crowds throng at the gate daily; deaths are rapidly increasing. The numbers laying about, helpless and speechless, are growing daily. Thompson reported a particular case to the gate, asking help, and got the answer: "You Yanks help yourselves." Sergeants of detachments have reported so many cases of insane, helpless and entirely naked men, and got no satisfaction, that they ceased to do so.

A much worn Atlantic Monthly of 1861, fell into my hands which I read with interest; "Concerning Veal," by the author of "Recreations of a Country Parson," and "Nat Turner, the Slave Insurrectionist of 1831," who aroused all Virginia to defend slavery. I noticed today a man with the whole lower part of his body buried in dirt as a remedy for scurvy.

SOURCE: John Worrell Northrop, Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner in Andersonville and Other Military Prisons of the South in 1864, p. 72-3

Diary of Private Lewis C. Paxson: Thursday, November 13, 1862

I wrote off Gough's Apostrophe to Water. Small snow. John R. Goodenough, Carr and Harrison in my office telling fortunes.

SOURCE: Lewis C. Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson: Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 8

Diary of Private Lewis C. Paxson: Friday, November 14, 1862

I dug up an Indian back of quarters and wheeled the body down to the river. I read John B. Gough's Apostrophe to Water before the crowd. S. V. Carr crossed Red river on the ice.

SOURCE: Lewis C. Paxson, Diary of Lewis C. Paxson: Stockton, N.J., 1862-1865, p. 8

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel John Beatty: July 10, 1861

From the best information obtainable, we are led to believe the mountains and hills lying between this place and Beverly are strongly fortified and full of men. We can see a part of the enemy's fortifications very plainly from a hill west of camp. Our regiment was ordered to be in readiness to march, and was under arms two hours. During this time the Dutch regiment (McCook's), the Fourth Ohio, four pieces of artillery, one company of cavalry, with General McClellan, marched to the front, the Dutchmen in advance. They proceeded, say a mile, when they overhauled the enemy's pickets, and in the little skirmish which ensued one man of McCook's regiment was shot, and two of the enemy captured. By these prisoners it is affirmed that eight or nine thousand men are in the hills before us, well armed, with heavy artillery planted so as to command the road for miles. How true this is we can not tell. Enough, however, has been learned to satisfy McClellan that it is not advisable to attack today. What surprises me is that the General should know so little about the character of the country, the number of the enemy, and the extent of his fortifications.

During the day, Colonel Marrow, apparently under a high state of excitement, informed me that he had just had an interview with George (he usually speaks of General McClellan in this familiar way), that an attack was to be made, and the Third was to lead the column. He desired me, therefore, to get out my horse at once, take four men with me, and search the woods in our front for a practicable road to the enemy. I asked if General McClellan had given him any information that would aid me in this enterprise, such as the position of the rebels, the location of their outposts, their distance from us, and the character of the country between our camp and theirs. He replied that George had not. It occurred to me that four men were rather too few, if the work contemplated was a reconnoissance, and rather too many if the service required was simply that for which spies are usually employed. I therefore spoke distrustingly of the proposed expedition, and questioned the propriety of sending so small a force, so utterly without information, upon so hazardous an enterprise, and apparently so foolish a one. My language gave offense, and when I finally inquired what four men I should take, the Colonel told me, rather abruptly, to take whom I pleased, and look where I pleased. His manner, rather than his words, indicated a doubt of my courage, and I turned from him, mounted my horse, and started for the front, determined to obey the order to the best of my ability, but to risk the lives of no others on what was evidently a fool's errand. After proceeding some distance, I found that the wagon-master was at my heels, and, together, we traced every cowpath and mountain road we could find, and passed half a mile beyond the enemy's outposts, and over ground visited by his scouts almost hourly. When I returned to make my report, I was curtly informed that no report was desired, as the plan had been changed.

A little after midnight the Colonel returned from head-quarters with important information, which he desired to communicate to the regiment. The men were, therefore, ordered to turn out, and came hesitatingly and sleepily from their tents. They looked like shadows as they gathered in the darkness about their chieftain. It was the hour when graveyards are supposed to yawn, and the sheeted dead to walk abroad. The gallant Colonel, with a voice in perfect accord with the solemnity of the hour, and the funereal character of the scene, addressed us, in substance, as follows:

"Soldiers of the Third: The assault on the enemy's works will be made in the early morning. The Third will lead the column. The secessionists have ten thousand men and forty rifled cannon. They are strongly fortified. They have more men and more cannon than we have. They will cut us to pieces. Marching to attack such an enemy, so intrenched and so armed, is marching to a butcher-shop rather than to a battle. There is bloody work ahead. Many of you, boys, will go out who will never come back again."

As this speech progressed my hair began to stiffen at the roots, and a chilly sensation like that which might ensue from the unexpected and clammy touch of the dead, ran through me. It was hard to die so young and so far from home. Theological questions which before had attracted little or no attention, now came uppermost in our minds. We thought of mothers, wives, sweethearts—of opportunities lost, and of good advice disregarded. Some soldiers kicked together the expiring fragments of a campfire, and the little blaze which sprang up revealed scores of pallid faces. In short, we all wanted to go home.

When a boy I had read Plutarch, and knew something of the great warriors of the old time; but I could not, for the life of me, recall an instance wherein they had made such an address to their soldiers on the eve of battle. It was their habit, at such a time, to speak encouragingly and hopefully. With all due respect, therefore, for the superior rank and wisdom of the Colonel, I plucked him by the sleeve, took him one side, and modestly suggested that his speech had had rather a depressing effect on the regiment, and had taken that spirit out of the boys so necessary to enable them to do well in battle. I urged him to correct the mistake, and speak to them hopefully. He replied that what he had said was true, and they should know the truth.

The morning dawned; but instead of being called upon to lead the column, we were left to the inglorious duty of guarding the camp, while other regiments moved forward toward the enemy's line. In half an hour, in all probability, the work of destruction will commence. I began this memoranda on the evening of the 10th, and now close it on the morning of the 11th.

SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 20-24

Diary of Malvina S. Waring, February 9, 1865

Finished Les Miserables, Victor Hugo's grand work. What munificence of power! What eloquence! What strength! How sublime even its absurdities! A waggish acquaintance of mine calls it Lee's miserables. I must write a little note to James Wood Davidson and thank him for this treat. He is ever kind to think of me when it comes to a literary tid-bit.

SOURCE: South Carolina State Committee United Daughters of the Confederacy, South Carolina Women in the Confederacy, Vol. 1, “A Confederate Girl's Diary,” p. 273

Diary of Private W. J. Davidson, January 11, 1863

To-day we have another beautiful Sabbath. The boys are engaged in cleaning up guns for inspection, and as we are not in the immediate vicinity of the enemy, and have no hope of marching orders, we may expect a day of comparative idleness, which is more to be dreaded than any hardship that could be imposed, as it disposes the men to immoral practices to kill time. In two hours at least half of us will be playing cards, while a few, true to the principles of religion instilled into their hearts in times past, will be reading their Bibles, or engaged in other devotional exercises. The news of the defeat of our army in Tennessee [Murfreesboro] has created quite an excitement in our camp, as nearly all of the soldiers here are from that State. We are impatient for orders to go to the defense of our own homes, and some of the men say they will go whether they get orders or not. As yet, however, good order and discipline have prevailed, and I believe will to the end.

SOURCE: Edwin L. Drake, Editor, The Annals of the Army of Tennessee and Early Western History, Vol. 1, p. 19

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, January 30, 1864

Camp near Orange Court House, Va.,

January 30, 1864.

The weather has been fine recently and there have been some indications of a move. Yesterday we were ordered to cook one day's rations and be ready to march, but it has turned very cold to-day and everything is quiet again.

About ten days ago I succeeded in buying some turnips and cabbage, and I found them most delightful for a change until our box from home arrived. Everything in it was in excellent condition except the sweet potatoes. It contained ten gallons of kraut, ten of molasses, forty pounds of flour, twelve of butter, one-half bushel of Irish potatoes, one-half peck of onions, about one peck of sausage, one ham, one side of bacon and some cabbage. I am expecting Edwin to visit me to-morrow and I shall offer him part of the kraut and some of the molasses, but he is so independent I am afraid he will not accept it.

I saw Colonel Hunt's wife yesterday, and she is the first lady with whom I have conversed since my return in December. He pays ten dollars a day board for himself and wife at a house near our camp.

Dr. Tyler has had his furlough extended twenty days by the Secretary of War, and will not return before February. I have been alone for over four weeks. I have had such a quiet time that I have been reading Shakespeare some recently. I received a letter from Robert Land's wife begging me to give her husband a sick furlough, and I told him to write her that if he could ever get sick again he certainly should go at once.

The postmaster is here and I must close.

SOURCE: Dr. Spencer G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 88-9

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 16, 1861

Another pamphlet in Paris by La Guéronnière-i.e., by, or with the approval of, the Emperor has appeared. It narrows the temporal power and estate of the Pope to nothing, but keeps the French force in Rome for the safety of his person. Its title is "France, Rome, and Italy."

The Duke of Buckingham's historical notices of the reigns of William IV. and Victoria, and the autobiography, letters, etc., of Mrs. Piozzi, have been my reading for some days. The former is very superficial, a mere skimming of Hansard and the newspapers; the latter, by A. Hayward, Esq., Q.C., is full and entertaining. Both published since January 1, 1861. Hayward takes occasion to give a hit at Macaulay's style of writing history, which is worthy of extraction, as undoubtedly just: "Action, action, action, says the orator; effect, effect, effect, says the historian. Give Archimedes a place to stand on, and he would move the world. Give Talleyrand a line of a man's handwriting, and he would engage to ruin him. Give Lord Macaulay a hint, a fancy, an insulated fact or phrase, a scrap of a journal, or the tag-end of a song, and on it, by the abused prerogative of genius, he would construct a theory of national or personal character, which should confer undying glory or inflict indelible disgrace."

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 435-6

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 22, 1861

Just finished the Duke of Buckingham's two volumes on the “Courts and Cabinets of William IV and Victoria.” There is a curious note by the Marquis of L., which says that about 1845, "in a conversation at the drawing-room with Lord John Russell, Lord L. asked him what he seriously looked to in the present state of parties in the opposition, if Sir Robert Peel, in disgust, was forced to throw up the government. Lord J. replied, he looked only to an American Constitution for England." I make another extract, as it is one which harmonizes with my own judgment, and, coming from so stern a Tory as Buckingham, is probably just. "No fair critic of public men can deny that Lord Palmerston is a statesman of extraordinary resources. Indeed, his experience, his tact, his judgment, his inexhaustible good humour, and rare political sagacity, have maintained his party in power when blunders of every kind have most severely tried the patience of the nation."

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 437

Dr. Seth Rogers to his daughter Dolly, March 2, 1863—Evening

March 2, Evening.

John Quincy (Co. G) came and asked me today if I would “send up North” for a pair of spectacles for him, “for common eyes of 60.” The old man said he “could not live long enough to make much account of them,” but that he “could read right smart places in the Testament,” and since he has lost his spectacles he missed it. This is the same soldier who told his congregation on the Ben Deford, after our St. Mary's trip, that he saw the Colonel with his shoulder at the wheel of the big gun in the midst of the firing, and that “when de shell went out it was de scream ob de great Jehovah to de rebels.” What made this statement the more interesting to me was the fact that I was standing in the background with the Colonel at the time, and John Quincy did not know of our presence.

We are now weeding our regiment a little, and today I have examined about a hundred and discharged thirty for disability. I find one poor fellow whose mind is very torpid, though he is not idiotic. A companion of his told me that he had been overworked in the Georgia rice swamps and that “he be chilly minded, not brave and expeditious like me.” I believe I have somewhere written that our men were not subjected to examination by a surgeon before enlisting, hence this disagreeable business of discharging now. It is much easier to keep men out of a regiment than to get them out when once in.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 43, October, 1909—June, 1910: February 1910. p. 368-9

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: August 5, 1863

This morning we are thirty miles from Corinth. We pass Purdy about noon, halt and feed close by, after which we move on and arrive in camp at seven P. M. All seem glad to get back to Corinth. This morning we interest ourselves in reading the letters that have accumulated during our absence. These do the soldiers good, and in consequence they are cheerful to-night.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 188

Brigadier-General Rutherford B. Hayes to Sophia Birchard Hayes, Sunday Morning, December 18, 1864

CAMP RUSSELL, VIRGINIA, December 18, 1864.

Sunday morning before breakfast.

DEAR MOTHER: — We have as yet received no orders as to winter quarters. I begin to suspect I shall not get home during the holidays.

We are feeling very happy over the good news from the other armies. Salutes were fired yesterday and the day before in all our camps in honor of General Thomas' victory at Nashville.

We are living on the fat of the land now. The sutlers are now again allowed to come to the front and they bring all manner of eatables, wholesome and otherwise, but chiefly otherwise.

I wish you could visit our camps. I know what you would exclaim on coming into my quarters, “Why, Rutherford, how comfortably you are fixed. I should like to live with you myself.” I am getting books and reading matter of all sorts against rainy weather. Unless the weather is atrocious, I take a ride daily of a couple of hours or more. We yesterday had an inspection of my brigade. The Twenty-third was in the best condition. Notwithstanding our heavy losses, we have managed to get so many new men during the summer that the regiment is about as large as it was in the spring. It is larger than it was at this time last year.

A large number of men and officers who fell into Rebel hands, wounded, are now coming back, having been exchanged. They are all happy to be back and full of determination to fight it out.

I have been made a brigadier-general, but it is not yet officially announced. It was on the recommendation of Generals Crook and Sheridan.

Affectionately, your son,

R.

MRS. SOPHIA HAYES.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 549-50

Diary of Brigadier-General Rutherford B. Hayes: Sunday, December 25, 1864

A pleasant and “merry Christmas.” A good dinner. Captain Nye, Lieutenants Turner and Stanley, Dr. Webb, Majors Carey, Twenty-third, and McKown, Thirteenth. Wine, oysters, turkey, etc., etc. Read through [General Winfield] Scott's “Autobiography.” Weak and vain beyond compare.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 552

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sophia Birchard Hayes, December 6, 1864

CAMP RUSSELL NEAR WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA,

December 6, 1864.

DEAR MOTHER: — I received your cheerful letter on Sunday. It finds us in the best of spirits and so comfortably camped that we all would be glad to know that our winter quarters would be at this camp.

We have the railroad finished to within eight miles; daily mails and telegraphic communication with the world. The men have built huts four feet high, eight or nine feet square, of logs, puncheons, and the like, banked up with earth and covered with their shelter blankets. My quarters are built of slabs and a wall tent. Tight and warm. We are in woods on a rolling piece of ground. It will be muddy but we are building walks of stone, logs, etc., so we can keep out of the dirt. — I have a mantel-piece, a table, one chair, one stool, an ammunition box, a trunk, and a bunk for furniture.

We get Harper's Monthly and Weekly, the Atlantic, daily papers from Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia. The Christian Commission send a great many religious books. I selected “Pilgrim's Progress" from a large lot offered me to choose from a few days ago.

Our living is, ordinarily, bread (baker's bread) and beef, and coffee and milk (we keep a few cows), or pork and beans and coffee. Occasionally we have oysters, lobsters, fish, canned fruits, and vegetables. The use of liquor is probably less than among the same class of people at home. All kinds of liquor can be got, but it is expensive and attended with some difficulty.

The chaplains now hold frequent religious meetings. Music we have more of and better than can be had anywhere except in the large cities. We have very fine horse-racing, much better managed than can be found anywhere out of the army. A number of ladies can be seen about the camps — officers' wives, sisters, daughters, and the Union young ladies of Winchester. General Sheridan is particularly attentive to one of the latter. General Crook is a single man — fond of ladies, but very diffident. General Custer has a beautiful young wife, who is here with him.

I have just seen a case of wonderful recovery — such cases are common, but none more singular than this. Captain Williams of my command was shot by a Minié ball on the 24th of July in the center of the back of his neck, which passed out of the center of his chin, carrying away and shattering his jaw in front. He is now perfectly stout and sound (his voice good) and not disfigured at all. But he can chew nothing, eats only spoon victuals!

Dr. Webb is a great favorite. The most efficient surgeon on the battle-field in this army. He is complimented very highly in General Crook's official report. He hates camp life, especially in bad weather, when he suffers from a throat disease. My love to the household.

Affectionately, your son,

R.

MRS. SOPHIA HAYES.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 543-4

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: June 8, 1864

Clouds and sunshine-cool.

No war news except what appears in the papers.

There was a rumor yesterday that several of the companies of the Departmental Battalion were captured on Monday, but it was not confirmed by later accounts.

Our battery of 49 guns was unmasked, and opened on the enemy, who had been firing over the heads of our young men (clerks). This was replied to by as many guns from the enemy. Thus both fires were over the heads of the infantry in the low ground between, and none were hurt, although the shell sometimes burst just over them.

A pontoon train passed down the river to-day, on this side, one captured from the United States, and brought from Gordonsville. If Grant crosses, Lee will cross, still holding the “inside track.”

Received a letter from Custis. He is at Gen. Custis Lee's headquarters on ordnance duty. A pretty position, if a shell were to explode among the ammunition! He says he has plenty of bread and meat, and so we need not send any more. But he considers it a horrible life, and would rather be without his rations than his daily reading, etc. So I sent him reading enough for a week-all the newspapers I had; a pamphlet on the Bible Society in the South; Report of the Judiciary Committee on the Suspension of the habeas corpus; and, finally, the last number of the Surgical Magazine, in which he will find every variety of gunshot wounds, operations, etc. etc. I had nothing else to send him.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 227-8

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, November 17, 1864

CAMP NEAR WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA, November 17, 1864.

DEAREST: When I wrote last I was in some doubt whether this Valley campaign was ended or not. It seems to be now settled. Early got a panic among his men and left our vicinity for good, I think.

The Sixth and Nineteenth Corps are building winter quarters. A telegraph line is put up and the railroad from Winchester to Harpers Ferry is nearly rebuilt. The location is a good one for a large body of troops. We are very pleasantly camped, but having no orders to put up winter quarters, have not fixed up for winter. We are very comfortable, however. My tent is floored, banked up, a good tent flue built, etc., etc. daily papers now regularly. The Baltimore American, a sound Republican paper, sells several thousand copies, more than all other papers put together. The Philadelphia Inquirer, also sound, sells next in number. The New York Herald, sound on the war in a sort of guerrilla style, sells one thousand to two thousand copies. No other newspapers have any large circulation, but the pictorials, Harper's Weekly having the preference, sell immensely — nearly as many copies, I judge, as the Baltimore American. The Christian Commission distributes a vast amount of religious reading matter gratuitously. The sutlers sell dime novels and the thunder-and-lightning style of literature, in large quantity.

The Sixth and Nineteenth Corps have built fine fieldworks. The weather has been good and a great many squads and regiments are drilling. There are a score or two of bands. Possibly two are better than ours not more than that. There is a good deal of horse-racing with tolerably high betting. The scenes at the races are very exciting. You would enjoy them. Nothing so fine of the kind is anywhere to be [seen] in civil life. Here the subordination of rank, the compulsory sobriety of the great crowds, etc., rid these spectacles of such disagreeable accompaniments as rioting, drunkenness, and the like. – We are beginning to have oyster and wine suppers and festive times generally.

General Crook has gone to Cumberland, and it is thought that my command will be ordered there for the winter, but this is all guess. I am again in command of the division after going back to the brigade for one day. How we shall be organized ultimately is not settled. I prefer the brigade. It now has three fine veteran regiments and the Thirteenth. The First Virginia Veterans (old Fifth and Ninth) is splendid.

I mean to ask for a leave as soon as we get housed in our winter quarters. I hope to see you by Christmas.

Tell Birch I am greatly pleased to have a letter from him. He will soon be one of my chief correspondents. — Love to all. Affectionately ever, your

R.

P. S. — Hastings is getting better slowly. There are now hopes of his recovery. His sister is with him.

Mrs. Hayes.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 537-9

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Friday, January 16, 1863

This morning the boys are seen wending their way to the timber to chop wood. It is very cold, and the boys are kept busy getting fuel. It snows all day, and except those detailed to get wood, the boys keep close around the camp fires, busily engaged at something. Some talking of home and friends, some about the armies, and others about the Emancipation Proclamation. Some are perusing old Waverlys, and others amusing themselves with Harper's cuts, one has a volume of Shakspeare with his mind following intently the dramatic play of Edward the "three times.” We are wondering now, how the leaders of northern democracy would feel could they hear the comments made, and the anathemas heaped upon their devoted heads by the soldiers, sitting around the winter camp-fires to-night in Mississippi. We are of the opinion that they would not consider themselves very much flattered.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 131

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Saturday, October 29, 1864

Bright and warm. Read "John Phoenix.” A new tent put up in good style. Bunk and fireplace.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 531

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Thursday, September 25, 1862

To-day, in every direction, we can see the Seventh boys reading the papers (for by the way, the Seventh is a reading regiment,) and from every quarter comes bitter denunciations against the enemies of Pope, and laudations upon Abraham Lincoln for having the backbone and the wisdom to issue at this turbulent and threatening period the great emancipation proclamation. We hail this as one of the most powerful blows against rebellion; the freedom of the slave paving the way for the advance of free thought.

SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 87-8