Diary of Judith W. McGuire: August 29, 1862

The Richmond papers of yesterday mention two severe skirmishes on the Rappahannock within a week The enemy are retreating through Culpeper, Orange, etc., and our men are driving them on. General Jackson has reached Warrenton. Burnside's army is said to be near Fredericksburg, and Pope retreating towards Manassas. The safe situation of this town makes it a city of refuge to many. Several of our old friends are here. Mr. and Mrs. Dixon, of Alexandria, are just across the passage from us; the Irwins are keeping house, and Mrs. Charles Minor is boarding very near us. This evening our friends the S's arrived. None but persons similarly situated can know the heartfelt pleasure of meeting with home friends, and talking of home scenes — of going back, as we did this evening, to the dear old times when we met together in our own parlours, with none to make us afraid. We see very little of Lynchburg society, but in this pleasant boarding-house, with refugee society, we want nothing more. The warmest feelings of my heart have been called forth, by meeting with one of the most intimate friends of my youth — now Mrs. Judge Daniel. We met the other day in the church-door, for the first time for many, many years. Time has done its work with us both, but we instantly recognized each other. Since that time, not a day has passed without some affectionate demonstration on her part towards us. At her beautiful home, more than a mile from town, I found her mother, my venerable and venerated friend Mrs. Judge Cabell, still the elegant, accomplished lady, the cheerful, warm-hearted, Christian Virginia woman. At four-score, the fire kindles in her eye as she speaks of our wrongs. “What would your father and my husband have thought of these times,” she said to me — “men who loved and revered the Union, who would have yielded up their lives to support the Constitution, in its purity, but who could never have given up their cherished doctrines of State rights, nor have yielded one jot or tittle of their independence to the aggressions of the North?” She glories in having sons and grandsons fighting for the South. Two of the latter have already fallen in the great cause; I trust that the rest may be spared to her.

I see that the Northern papers, though at first claiming a victory at “Cedar Run,” now confess that they lost three thousand killed and wounded, two generals wounded, sundry colonels aid other officers. The Times is severe upon Pope — thinks it extraordinary that, as he knew two days before that the battle must take place, he did not have a larger force at hand; and rather “strange” that he should have been within six miles of the battle-field, and did not reach it until the fight was nearly over! They say, as usual, that they were greatly outnumbered! Strange, that with their myriads, they should be so frequently outnumbered on the battle-field! It is certain that our loss there was comparatively very small; though we have to mourn General Winder of the glorious Stonewall Brigade, and about two hundred others, all valuable lives.

SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War, p. 132-4

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, February 26, 1863

Shady Hill, 26 February, 1863.

. . . It was pleasant to hear from you of your visit to Philadelphia, and to hear from John,¹ on the same day, his glowing account of it. What a loyal place Philadelphia has become! We should be as loyal here if we had a few more out-and-out secessionists. Our Union Club — we have dropped the offensive word “League” — promises well: two hundred members already, and Mr. Everett and his followers pledged to principles which suit you and me. We are proposing to take the Abbott Lawrence house on Park Street, and to be strong by position as well as by numbers. But nothing will do for the country, — neither Clubs nor pamphlets nor lectures, nor Conscription Bills (three cheers for the despotism necessary to secure freedom), nor Banking Bills, nor Tom Thumb, nor Institutes, — nothing will do us much good but victories. If we take Charleston and Vicksburg we conquer and trample out the Copperheads, — but if not?

I confess to the most longing hope, the most anxious desire to know of our success. I try to be ready for news of failure, indeed I shall be ready for such news if it comes, and we must all only draw a few quick breaths and form a sterner resolve, and fight a harder fight.

Where is the best statement, in a clear and quiet way, of the political necessity of the preservation of the Union, its vital necessity to our national existence? Seward has done harm by keeping up the notion of the old Union, — but who has seen clearest the nature of the new Union for which we are fighting? . . .

_______________

¹ Their common friend, John W. Field of Philadelphia, with whom Norton had travelled in Sicily.

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 260-1

Charles Eliot Norton to Meta Gaskell, August 30, 1862

Shady Hill, Cambridge, 30 August, 1862.

My Dear Miss Meta, — . . . Spite of all mismanagement, and spite of all reverses, our cause is, I believe, advancing. The autumn months show great military activity; and the people throughout the North are more and more resolved to accomplish the work they have to do. The spirit, the patience, the energy, and the good sense of our people are worthy of the highest admiration. I wish you could see and feel, as we do, this truly magnificent display of national character and feeling. You would be proud with us, of it all. Do not believe what you see in the “Times,” or in other papers, of discord or of want of heart, or failure of resolution at the North. We mean to save the Union and to establish the Government of the United States over the whole country; — we mean to do this for the sake of Liberty and of civilization, and in doing it the slavery of the black race in America will come to an end.

I am sorry for, but not surprised at, the general misconception abroad of our position, our purposes, and our principles. We do enough foolish and wrong things, and we say enough, to lead astray any one who cannot see through the outside to the deeper truths below, and who has not sympathy with our institutions and our better hopes and intentions. . . .

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 255-6

Wilder Dwight to Elizabeth White Dwight, Saturday, July 18, 1861

charlestown, Va., July 18, 1861.

From Bunker Hill to Charlestown may not seem a long way to a Massachusetts man, but in Virginia it is a hard day's work. Our regiment slept on its arms at Bunker Hill Tuesday night. We thought the forward movement was to be on Winchester. A feint was made that way. The enemy had obstructed the main road. We held Johnston's men, expecting attack. By our sudden flank movement we have got him. If McDowell has done rightly by Manassas, we will put Johnston in a tight place. Yesterday we were ready to start at three, A. M. Twenty thousand men move slowly. It took till nine in the evening to get the regiment into position at Charlestown, twelve miles off. We were in the reserve, fifteen hours in the saddle. When the men were drawn up, and had stacked their arms, they fell right down to sleep as they stood. The day was bitterly hot; the march terribly tedious, but glorious. Twenty-five thousand men occupy the town where John Brown was hung. We are the first Massachusetts regiment which has defiantly, and without interruption, stalked through Virginia. In the afternoon we entered a small village on our route. The band played first the Star Spangled Banner, then Hail Columbia, then Yankee Doodle. Our horses arched their necks and moved to the music. The men moved with fresh life and spirit. Our splendid banner, not a star dimmed, flaunted in the faces of the sulky Virginians.

The country is splendid; but, as the hymn-book says, “Only man is vile!” My cook came to me on the route, after vainly endeavoring to forage for our dinner, and said, “I tout Virginny was a perducing country, but I don't see nothin' growin' fit to eat nohow.” The negroes sat on the fences along the route, and wondered. Our march means freedom to them. It means, too, the restoration of the Union line wherever we move. The-American flag sprouts in the furrow of our ploughshare. It is hard work, slow work, new work; but it has its compensations, this military occupation of a country. “Southern blood has been boiling all day,” said a woman standing on the door of a farm-house on our line of march. Just at dusk, as we neared Charlestown, there was a cannonading in front. We threw out skirmishers and drew up the battalion, but have not yet learned the cause of the alarm. This is not a very coherent epistle. It exhibits only an echo of the tone of feeling which animates one on an expedition like ours. You would have wondered to see our jaded men prick up their ears, and stand alive again, when they thought a brush was at hand. The Indiana regiment in our rear yelled like wild Indians. I think Johnston will retire without much of a fight. But here we know nothing except the movements of our own brigade. Half of our force goes out of service tomorrow. This will hamper our movements.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 51-2

Prospectus

Since, in accordance with the views of many, every public act should follow a precedent in these days of trouble, and since no harm can accrue from following the foot prints of others in commencing the publication of this paper, I shall as briefly as convenient state the character.  I wish it to sustain, and for which I shall labor to the best of my ability.

It is perhaps needless for me to say concerning the great question of the day, that the sheet will be an advocate for the Union, and will please that all practical means may be used for the immediate suppression of this rebellion, at the least possible cost of blood and treasure.

Heretofore I have been a Republican from principle; but while I believe political parties are strictly necessary in times of peace, for the purpose of keeping each other within bounds of propriety and honesty, I also believe, with Douglas, that in this dark hour of our national existence every man should disrobe himself of his party prejudices, strike hands with his political opponents, and with an eye only to the Union of these States, and the perpetuation of the Institutions that have been our pride and boast for more than eighty years, stand shoulder to shoulder in support of the head of this administration, whose acts, since in power, not only merit, but have received the approbation of the honest and intelligent of all parties.

He who does this is a Republican, a Democrat, and a Patriot; and will be remembered by me at the ballot-box as well as in my prayers, whatever may have been his former political views.

He whose tongue finds no oth[er] employment so delightful as that of [illegible] the Administration, will be regarded as either destitute of good sense , or as a traitor at heart, striving to overthrow our revered institutions, the monuments of Patriots who now sleep in honored graves.

In addition to the war news of the week, condensed from the daily papers, these columns will contain communications from correspondents in those companies that have left this and adjoining Counties, to serve their country; and we trust that such communications will be interesting to those families, at least whose circles have been broken – broken for a short time, we hope – by this wicked rebellion.

We shall endeavor to keep our readers informed in regard to our county affairs; nor will Educational, Agricultural and other interests, be overlooked in the excitement of the times.

While we wish to keep within the limits [missing text] all occasions, we cannot ex-[missing test] one on all quest-[missing text] assion.

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[This page of the Union Sentinel was torn from the middle of the left side diagonally to the lower right side.  The rest of this column is missing but the story is continued at the top of the next column:]

Begging your forbearance in this my first effort at this business,

I am your servant,

J. H. CAVERLY.

– Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, Saturday, October 18, 1862, p. 2

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, February 6, 1863

February 6, 1863.

Why should Dr. Holmes trouble himself about the base of McClellan's brain? McClellan has nothing to do with all this McClellanization of the public mind. The reaction requires a small Democrat with great military prestige for its presidential candidate. The new programme, you know, is a new conservative party of Republicans and Democrats, and all mankind except Abolitionists. It will work, I think, for as a party we have broken down. I blame nobody. It was inevitable. The “Tribune,” through the well-meaning mistakes of Greeley, has been forced to take (in the public mind, which is the point) the position of W. Phillips, — the Union if possible, emancipation anyhow. As a practical political position that is not tenable. If, by any hocus-pocus, the war order of emancipation should be withdrawn, we should be lost forever, beyond McClellan's power, assisted by John Van Buren, the “Boston Courier” and “Post” and the “New York Herald,” to save us. There's nothing for us but to go forward and save all we can.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 161

Diary of Reverend James Freeman Clarke: September 26, 1861

National fast. Preached on “Slavery and the Union.” Church very full.

SOURCE: Edwin Everett Hale, Editor, James Freeman Clarke: Autobiography, Diary and Correspondence, p. 273