A cheerful bright morning and a sound sleep dispels the
gloom resting on my views of the future. During the night a courier came to my
tent saying that two thousand of our wounded are in the hands of the enemy and
are starving! The enemy is in bad condition for food.
Siege guns were put in the fort on our right (Ramsay) during
the night; the preparations are advancing which will enable us to hold this
post and “save Washington.”
10 A. M. — The rumor is that the enemy is directing his
course up the Potomac, intending to cross into Maryland. We now hear cannon at
a great distance, in a northern direction.
About 4:30 P. M. the enemy began to fire at our cavalry
picket, about three miles out. Waggoners rolled in, horsemen ditto, in great
haste. The regiments of General Cox's Division were soon ready, not one-fourth
or one-third absent, or hiding, or falling to the rear as seems to be the habit
in this Potomac army, but all, all fell in at once; the Eleventh, Twelfth,
Twenty-third, Twenty-eighth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-sixth Ohio can be counted
on. After skedaddling the regiment of cavalry, who marched out so grandly a few
hours before, the firing of the enemy ceased. A quiet night followed.
Cincinnati is now threatened by an army which defeated our
raw troops at Richmond, Kentucky. Everywhere the enemy is crowding us.
Everywhere they are to be met by our raw troops, the veterans being in
the enemy's country too distant to be helpful. A queer turning the tables on
us! And yet if they fail of getting any permanent and substantial advantatge of
us, I think the recoil will be fatal to them. I think in delaying this movement
until our new levies are almost ready for the field, they have let the golden
opportunity slip; that they will be able to annoy and harass but not to injure
us; and that the reaction will push them further back than ever. We shall see!
A rumor of a repulse of the enemy at Harpers Ferry by Wool. Hope it is true!
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 342-3
