Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Luman Harris Tenney: May 12, 1864

Orders early to move. Sent 10 teams yesterday after forage. Sent two today for rations: Went with Pike and Ed. Livingston to the front, raining quite hard. Last night Gen. Hancock moved from right to left and this morning captured a division of Rebs under Johnson — Bushrod, I hear. Several charges made to little purpose. Ed and I visited our breastworks and one battery of 15 guns, Napoleon 12 and Rifled guns. Artillery firing very heavy all along the lines. Train pulled out about 2 o'clock and moved to within 3 miles of Fredericksburg. Cut off several miles of bad roads. Camped a little after dark. Rainy night. Firing still continues.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 115-6

Edwin M. Stanton to Abraham Lincoln, March 23, 1865 – 8:45 p.m.

WAR DEPARTMENT,         

Washington City, March 23, 1865—8.45 p.m.

President LINCOLN,

Fort Monroe:

(Care of General Barnes, Point Lookout.)

I reached the arsenal with Mrs. Stanton to see you depart a few minutes after you had got under way. I hope you have reached Point Lookout safely, notwithstanding the furious gale that came on soon after you started. It did a great deal of damage here, blowing up trees, unroofing houses; wrecked a vessel at the wharf; killed a hackman and his team in the street, upon whom a roof fell. No news from any quarter has come in to day, except a report of Hancock showing much more force in his department laying around loose than was before known. This will be sent to General Grant. Please let me hear from you at Point Lookout and how you and Mrs. Lincoln stand the voyage.

EDWIN M. STANTON,       

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I Volume 46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 86-7

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, October 20, 1863

Busy when out of the Department in collecting materials and framing the skeleton outlines of my Annual Report. Shall be so occupied for a few weeks to the neglect of my journal, which usually consumes a late evening hour, after company has gone and other labors of the day are laid aside. But the details of an annual report require personal labor and investigation which I cannot delegate to another without revision and my own examination. This takes all my time and really overtaxes me, with current duties.

There was little of interest to-day at the Cabinet. Seward, Chase, and Stanton were absent. Stanton, I am told, has gone to Tennessee.

Lee with his army has disappeared from the front. It is reported that he has torn up the rails and destroyed the bridges as he has disappeared. Meade, we are told, is in pursuit, and the press and others give him great credit for strategy; that is, he knows not what to do, and the papers and correspondents don't know that fact, — this is strategy. He will not overtake Lee if he wants to.

I met General Sickles at the President's to-day. When I went in, the President was asking if Hancock did not select the battle-ground at Gettysburg. Sickles said he did not, but that General Howard and perhaps himself, were more entitled to that credit than any others. He then detailed particulars, making himself, however, much more conspicuous than Howard, who was really used as a set-off. The narrative was, in effect, that General Howard had taken possession of the heights and occupied the Cemetery on  Wednesday, the 1st. He, Sickles, arrived later, between five and six p.m., and liked the position. General Meade arrived on the ground soon after, and was for abandoning the position and falling back. A council was called; Meade was earnest; Sickles left, but wrote Meade his decided opinion in favor of maintaining the position, which was finally agreed to against Meade's judgment.

Allowance must always be made for Sickles when he is interested, but his representations confirm my impressions of Meade, who means well, and, in his true position, that of a secondary commander, is more of a man than Sickles represents him, — can obey orders and carry out orders better than he can originate and give them, hesitates, defers to others, has not strength, will, and self-reliance. My impressions in regard to the late movement by Lee in front are strengthened. Meade's falling back was a weakness. The movement on the part of Lee was a feint to cover his design of sending off troops to some other point, — I think Chattanooga, — where the Rebels are concentrating and the information received to-day that he is destroying the roads as he retreats confirms my opinion. We shall soon learn whether this strategy is Meade's or Lee's. It is now asserted that Meade retreated before one division of Lee's army. This is probably a caricature rumor, and yet perhaps not much exaggeration. Others do not listen to my conjecture that more troops have gone to Chattanooga, yet it is strongly impressed upon me. The Rebels can't afford to be defeated there. Jeff Davis has gone there, and there they must make a stand.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 472-3

Major-General George G. Meade to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, July 3, 1863 – 8:35 p.m.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,            

Near Gettysburg, July 3, 1863 — 8.35 p.m.  

(Received July 4, 6.10 a.m.)

Major-General HALLECK,

General-in-Chief:

The enemy opened at 1 p.m. from about 150 guns, concentrated upon my left and center, continuing without intermission for about three hours, at the expiration of which time he assaulted my left center twice, being upon both occasions handsomely repulsed, with severe loss to him, leaving in our hands nearly 3,000 prisoners; among the prisoners, Brigadier-General Armistead and many colonels and officers of lesser rank. The enemy left many dead upon the field and a large number of wounded in our hands.

The loss upon our side has been considerable. Major-General Hancock and Brigadier-General Gibbon were wounded. After the repelling of the assault, indications leading to the belief that the enemy might be withdrawing, an armed reconnaissance was pushed forward from the left, and the enemy found to be in force. At the present hour all is quiet. My cavalry have been engaged all day on both flanks of the enemy, harassing and vigorously attacking him with great success, notwithstanding they encountered superior numbers, both of cavalry and infantry. The army is in fine spirits.

GEO. G. MEADE,    

Major-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 27, Part 1 (Serial No. 43), p. 74-5

Diary of Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett: Sunday, August 28, 1864

Quiet, pleasant day. I live comparatively well here, and am quite comfortable. More prisoners come in to-day. Lieutenant-colonel Walker, Hancock's Assistant Adjutant-general, brought in recaptured, taken first at Reams Station; got within thirty yards of our pickets on James, which he swam. Tells me Macy is badly hurt. I dreamt it a week ago. Patten lost a leg. Walker was dressed in rags and filth, but how undisguisable the gentleman is. I was very much taken with him. He knew me, but I had never seen him. Roast mutton for dinner. I am treated with marked consideration just now for some reason or other. The surgeon marked for me good diet.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 131-2

Diary of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle: Tuesday, July 7, 1863

Lawley, the Austrian, and I drove into Hagerstown this morning, and General Longstreet moved into a new position on the Williamsport road, which he was to occupy for the present. We got an excellent room in the Washington Hotel on producing greenbacks. Public opinion in Hagerstown seems to be pretty evenly divided between North and South, and probably accommodates itself to circumstances. For instance, yesterday the women waved their handkerchiefs when the Yankee cavalry were driven through the town, and to-day they went through the same compliment in honour of 3500 Yankee (Gettysburg) prisoners whom I saw marched through en, route for Richmond. I overheard the conversation of some Confederate soldiers about these prisoners. One remarked, with respect to the Zouaves, of whom there were a few — “Those red-breeched fellows look as if they could fight, but they don't, though; no, not so well as the blue-bellies.”

Lawley introduced me to General Stuart in the streets of Hagerstown to-day. He is commonly called Jeb Stuart, on account of his initials; he is a good-looking, jovial character, exactly like his photographs. He has certainly accomplished wonders, and done excellent service in his peculiar style of warfare. He is a good and gallant soldier, though he sometimes incurs ridicule by his harmless affectation and peculiarities. The other day he rode through a Virginian town, his horse covered with garlands of roses. He also departs considerably from the severe simplicity of dress adopted by other Confederate generals; but no one can deny that he is the right man in the right place. On a campaign, he seems to roam over the country according to his own discretion, and always gives a good account of himself, turning up at the right moment; and hitherto he has never got himself into any serious trouble.

I rode to General Longstreet's camp, which is about two miles in the direction of Williamsport, and consulted him about my difficulties with regard to my leave. He was most good-natured about it, and advised me under the circumstances to drive in the direction of Hancock; and, in the event of being ill-treated on my way, to insist upon being taken before the nearest U.S. officer of the highest rank, who would probably protect me. I determined to take his advice at once; so I took leave of him and of his officers. Longstreet is generally a very taciturn and undemonstrative man, but he was quite affectionate in his farewell. His last words were a hearty hope for the speedy termination of the war. All his officers were equally kind in their expressions on my taking leave, though the last sentence uttered by Latrobe was not entirely reassuring—viz., "You may take your oath he'll be caught for a spy."

I then rode to General Lee's camp, and asked him for a pass to get through his lines. We had a long talk together, and he told me of the raid made by the enemy, for the express purpose of arresting his badly wounded son (a Confederate Brigadier-General), who was lying in the house of a relation in Virginia. They insisted upon carrying him off in a litter, though he had never been out of bed, and had quite recently been shot through the thigh. This seizure was evidently made for purposes of retaliation. His life has since been threatened, in the event of the South retaliating for Burnside's alleged military murders in Kentucky. But few officers, however, speak of the Northerners with so much moderation as General Lee; his extreme amiability seems to prevent his speaking strongly against any one. I really felt quite sorry when I said good-bye to so many gentlemen from whom I had received so much disinterested kindness.

I am now about to leave the Southern States, after travelling quite alone throughout their entire length and breadth, including Texas and the trans-Mississippi country, for nearly three months and a half, during which time I have been thrown amongst all classes of the population — the highest, the lowest, and the most lawless. Although many were very sore about the conduct of England, I never received an uncivil word from anybody, but, on the contrary, I have been treated by all with more than kindness.* I have never met a man who was not anxious for a termination of the war; and I have never met a man, woman, or child who contemplated its termination as possible without an entire separation from the now detested Yankee. I have never been asked for alms or a gratuity by any man or woman, black or white. Every one knew who I was, and all spoke to me with the greatest confidence. I have rarely heard any person complain of the almost total ruin which has befallen so many. All are prepared to undergo still greater sacrifices, — they contemplate and prepare to receive great reverses which it is impossible to avert. They look to a successful termination of the war as certain, although few are sanguine enough to fix a speedy date for it, and nearly all bargain for its lasting at least all Lincoln's presidency. Although I have always been with the Confederates in the time of their misfortunes, yet I never heard any person use a desponding word as to the result of the struggle. When I was in Texas and Louisiana, Banks seemed to be carrying everything before him, Grant was doing the same in Mississippi, and I certainly did not bring luck to my friends at Gettysburg. I have lived in bivouacs with all the Southern armies, which are as distinct from one another as the British is from the Austrian, and I have never once seen an instance of insubordination.

When I got back to Hagerstown, I endeavoured to make arrangements for a horse and buggy to drive through the lines. With immense difficulty I secured the services of a Mr ——, to take me to Hancock, and as much farther as I chose to go, for a dollar a mile (greenbacks). I engaged also to pay him the value of his horse and buggy, in case they should be confiscated by either side. He was evidently extremely alarmed, and I was obliged to keep him up to the mark by assurances that his horse would inevitably be seized by the Confederates, unless protected by General Lee's pass in my possession.

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* The only occasion on which I was roughly handled was when I had the misfortune to enter the city of Jackson, Mississippi, just as the Federals evacuated it. I do not complain of that affair, which, under the circumstances, was not to be wondered at.

SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 292-7

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Sunday, May 22, 1864

The enemy appeared on our right flank about 3 o'clock a. m. evidently with the intention of cutting us off from the rest of the army, but didn't succeed. It has been very warm all day, and by far the most difficult marching we have had during the campaign; encamped near Bowling Green. General Hancock is reported ten miles ahead of us; no fighting to-day.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 63-4

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Friday, May 13, 1864

My prayer for Lee's withdrawal last night was granted. Our Division moved to the “Bloody Angle” this morning; it virtually joined our regiment's left last night. The enemy abandoned the angle during the night after three days' desperate fighting. No pen can fully describe the appearance of the battlefield — and yet our wounded and dead have been cared for, and some of the enemy's, by us and such are mostly out of view. The sight of the enemy's dead is something dreadful. There are three dead lines of battle a half mile more or less in length — men killed in every conceivable manner. The wounded are fairly bound in by the dead. Lee abandoned his works leaving most of his wounded, and all his dead in our hands unburied. Several pieces of artillery were taken. Prisoners say that General Lee fought in person as it meant the loss of his army if his line was broken here, as well as Richmond.

No wonder from its present appearance this place has been christened the “Bloody Angle” and the “Slaughter Pen.” For several hundred yards — fully a half mile or more — in the edge of the heavy oak forest of immense trees skirting an open field, the enemy's works are faultlessly strong of large oak logs and dirt shoulder high with traverses fifty feet back every sixty feet or so. This breastwork is filled with dead and wounded where they fell, several deep nearly to the top in front, extending for forty feet more or less back gradually sloping from front to rear, to one deep before the ground can be seen. The dead as a whole as they lie in their works are like an immense wedge with its head towards the works. Think of such a mass of dead! hundreds and hundreds piled top of each other! At the usual distance in rear of these breastworks — about ninety feet — are two more complete dead lines of battle about one hundred feet apart the dead bodies lying where the men fell in line of battle shot dead in their tracks. The lines are perfectly defined by dead men so close they touch each other. Many of the bodies have turned black, the stench is terrible, and the sight shocking beyond description. I saw several wounded men in the breastworks buried under their dead, just move a hand a little as it stuck up through the interstices above the dead bodies that buried the live ones otherwise completely from sight. Imagine such a sight if one can! It is indescribable! It was sickening, distressing and shocking to look upon! But, above all, think if one can of the feelings of the brave men who, regiment after regiment, were marched up in line of battle time and again for several days to fight with such a sight confronting them! Could anything in Hades be any worse? Only the misery I imagine, of an uneasy conscience at some great wrong done an innocent person could exceed it. It seems like a horrible nightmare! Such intrepidity is worthy of a better cause. Was there ever before such a shocking battlefield? Will the historian ever correctly record it? No pen can do it. The sight of such a horror only can fully portray it.

The First and Second Divisions of the Sixth Corps and Hancock's men have done most of the fighting today at the “Bloody Angle.” The Sixth Corps has lost eight hundred and forty wounded and two hundred and fifty killed. The loss of our army at Spottsylvania Court House has been five thousand two hundred and thirty-three of which number nine hundred have been killed. Our Division has lost in this fight to-day twenty-three killed and one hundred and twenty-three wounded. I examined this forenoon an oak tree fully eighteen inches in diameter felled by being cut off by minie bullets at the apex of the “Bloody Angle” occupied by the enemy. I could hardly believe my eyes, but there stood the stump and the felled tree with the wood for two feet or more all eaten away by bullets.*

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*The stump of this tree is on exhibition at the War Department in Washington, D. C, or was a few years since — L. A. A.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 57

EDITOR'S NOTE: The "Spotsylvania Stump" is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, Behring Center, in Washington, D.C.: Catalog #: 4435    Accession #: 20209

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Wednesday, May 11, 1864

Very sultry until about 5 o'clock p. m. when the heavens became shrouded with dark and threatening clouds and a terrific thunder-storm followed, which continued till about dark, when our whippoorwill again dolefully sang out “Whip-em-well! Whip-emwell!” as our men are pleased to interpret it. A whippoorwill has appeared midway between the lines every evening since we left winter camp, with its solemn song, until the men regard it as a good omen. It don't seem to occur to them that the enemy may regard it the same way, as meant for them to whip us.

There has been a furious cannonading kept up by our side all day. The enemy has made three or four fruitless attempts to plant batteries, and return the fire in our front, but without success; has been hard fighting on our left all day by the rest of the Sixth Corps and General Hancock's men; was relieved from my pit by Lieut. G. E. Davis. I ache all over from having been in the hole twenty-four hours in the same position. It wasn't safe to stand up nor did I try it, as it would draw the sharpshooter's fire up the trees, etc. One could only occasionally raise his head high enough to peek under the bushes, during lulls in firing, which masked our position as the place was almost continually under fire. It is close by on the ground occupied by our regiment and in its front that General Sedgwick, our Corps Commander, was killed by a sharpshooter when locating a battery, and where General W. H. Morris, our Brigade Commander was wounded when changing the position of two regiments which makes us doubly cautious. It's a dangerous point being high and furthest advanced of any part of the line. The stench from the dead is sickening and terrible.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 54-5

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Monday, May 9, 1864

Our army's line is about five miles long this morning and runs northwest by southeast. General Hancock occupies the right followed by General Warren, Generals Sedgwick and Burnside in the order mentioned. Our batteries have been shelling the enemy fiercely all day and this evening, but the heaviest fighting seems to be on our left. Our regiment was terribly shelled when supporting batteries which has been all day. We were ordered to lie flat on the ground in one instant and there's no doubt but what we did for the ground was a dead level and the shells whistled and shrieked very thickly and closely over us. It was terribly nerve-trying. The Johnnies didn't want to see us bad enough though, to come over and call. We could see many dead between the lines in our front a little to the left of where we supported a battery this morning, of both armies, as a result of the assault last night. It is a shocking sight, but such is war.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 51-2

Diary of Corporal Charles H. Lynch: March 4, 1865

A camp has been located a short distance north of ours. Reported that General Hancock will organize a veterans' corps at this point. It will be composed of men who have been in the service and wish to re-enlist. All is quiet in our camp.

SOURCE: Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary, 1862-1865, of Charles H. Lynch 18th Conn. Vol's, p. 143

Diary of Colonel William F. Bartlett, May 7, 1864

Morning, lay under some trees near the road to Chancellorsville. Afternoon, persuaded to go in ambulance to Rappahannock, thence to Washington, with rest of the wounded. Went to Ely's Ford. Stayed there till two A. M. Only heard of five of my officers being wounded. . . . Colonel Chandler behaved splendidly. General Hancock ordered me to charge over a regiment lying in front of us that would not move. We did it in perfect line. Hancock said “Glorious!” Saw Macy, as I was carried to rear, wounded in leg.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 99-100

Major Charles Fessenden Morse: October 28, 1863

Wartrace, Tenn., October 28,1863.

When I wrote you last, I thought we were off immediately for the front, but the following day brought a great many changes of orders, the final ones being that General Slocum, with one division, should remain on the railroad, and that the other division should concentrate at Bridgeport, to march from there to Chattanooga.

Although we are very pleasantly situated here and are living very comfortably, I should very much prefer to be with the main army at the front. Rumor says that Buell is to be Grant's chief of staff. I hope this may be so; I don't think that he has ever been justly appreciated. Old officers of the regular army say that Buell is the abler man of the two. Of course, now that Rosecrans is down, every cur has to have his snarl and bite at him. The Washington Chronicle has indulged in one of its characteristic articles about him. In some degree, I think he has brought it upon himself; he was before the public a great deal in the newspapers while he was in command of the Army of the Cumberland, and very often made public speeches and wrote public letters.

There is no use for a general to try and get popularity by anything except his acts; newspaper talk does very well for a time, but it does not last or produce any impression on sensible men. Every one knows, nowadays, that he can get a puff by entertaining a correspondent well, and that the latter will natter his vanity by praising his military ability. The men who stand best to-day with the army have hardly ever had their names in print except in public documents, like Sedgwick, Sykes, Hancock and their class.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 151-2

Major Wilder Dwight to Elizabeth White Dwight, January 5, 1862

cantonment Hicks, January 5, 1862, near Frederick.

DEAR Mother, — The New Year is fairly open, yet my pen has been silent. I would have had it otherwise, but have been prevented writing by a sudden call to Washington. There I saw Colonel William, who was as critical and hypercritical as possible. I enjoyed his discussions very much. His spirit and go are delightful. He will take his regiment wherever men can go, if they only give him a chance. We had a pleasant time, looking over his books, and talking about war and home. . . . .

The effect of my visit to Washington was to fill me with forebodings; but, as I won't stay filled, I am resuming my buoyancy again. Yesterday there was a great flurry. I had come up to Frederick to church, and was enjoying the service much. General Banks was called out of church, and we found that Jackson was threatening Hancock, and aiming to destroy the railroad bridges near by. An order was immediately issued, “Two days' rations in haversack, and be ready to march.” I did not allow it to disturb me, but this morning the Third Brigade went off in a snow-storm, before light, to Williamsport. We are left quiet; and, as I consider it all a mere scare, I am glad we were not aroused by it.

Winter quarters are pretty precarious, however. We are too far from the Potomac. This division is nowhere. It is liable to go anywhere, and hence is unfortunate. One regiment of the Third Brigade got back from Williamsport day before yesterday; now it is off again the same thirty miles through the snow. That's generalship, ain't it? Who is to blame? No one, of course. Bah! . . . .

I wish you all a happy New Year; and as for us in the army, I wish us all a fighting New Year.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 184-5

Acceptance of the Sword and Other Testimonials by Major-General John Sedgwick

Gentlemen:

I accept these beautiful testimonials of your regard with feelings of sincerest gratitude, mingled with somewhat of embarrassment. It is a fortunate thing for a commander to be able in the discharge of the duties imposed upon him to win the kindly regard of those over whom he happens to be placed. I had not dared to hope, when I parted with you many months ago, that such had been my good fortune, for I felt that whatever obligation our mutual connection had created rested solely with me. I was proud of the division. I felt that I had every reason to be grateful to the officers and men composing it for their gallant and unexceptionable bearing and for the high reputation which their conduct had won for the command. I was, therefore, naturally somewhat embarrassed when I learned that it was your intention to revive the memories of old associations by an occasion such as this. It did not need, however, these substantial evidences of your good will to recall the old division and the pleasant days of my connection with it. I have never forgotten it, nor the friends who made it dear to me and honoured in the army.

Though some of these are not present with you to-day, and will never again take part in any scene on earth, yet all are alike remembered. Some, too, who united with you in the preparations for this day have not lived to see it, or are absent suffering from wounds received at Fredericksburg or on the glorious field of Gettysburg. The brave young Kirby and the gallant Colonels of the 59th and 82nd New York and of the 69th Pennsylvania Volunteers, and others whose names are equally familiar, are numbered with the unforgotten dead. They have fallen in recent battles, giving up their lives for the glory of the Union and the honour of our arms. If there had been anything wanted to give your offering a value which no words of mine can express, it would have been that it comes partly in the name of brave men killed in battle for their country. It comes, too, from a part of that command which was so often led to battle by that noble soldier Sumner, whose last and proud boast it was that they “never lost a gun.”

Have I not reason, then, to be grateful for these your gifts, recalling, as they do, both the living and the dead — brave men who are still contending for their country's honour, and noble martyrs who have borne witness with their blood to the sincerity of their patriotism.

Gentlemen, I honour the division which you represent; I shall always look back with pride to the time I commanded it, as who would not be proud to lead such men to battle under Sumner? With such a leader for your corps, it is no wonder that your record is unspotted. I glory in the reputation you have won under the gallant veteran whose memory the nation reverently honours, and I rejoice that under the leadership of Hancock and Gibbon so grand a future awaits you.

I have followed your career with interest through the varying fortunes of the war, observing always with sorrow whenever any of the old, familiar names appeared on the honoured roll of the fallen. I shall still continue to watch your course in the campaigns that are to follow, and I shall feel that every new honour you may win will be another ornament added to this beautiful sword, increasing, if that were possible, the value I attach to it. Deeply appreciating the kind feelings you have expressed for me, I accept these testimonials of your esteem with pardonable pride. I thank you with all my heart.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major-General, Volume 2, p. 152-4

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Brigadier-General Francis C. Barlow, September 10, 1864

Ripon, Va., Sept. 10, '64.

Take care of yourself, old fellow. Just get your mother to take you to some quiet place and make much of you — don't think too much of campaigns and of elections. This isn't the end of the world, though it is so important for us. Don't mind Lincoln's shortcomings too much: we know that he has not the first military spark in his composition, not a sense probably by which he could get the notion of what makes or unmakes an Army, but he is certainly much the best candidate for the permanency of our republican institutions, and that is the main thing. I don't think even he can make the people tire of the war. What you want is rest and care; don't be foolish, my dear fellow, and neglect to take them. Unless you give yourself some time now, you will never half complete your career. What the devil difference does it make where a man passes the next six months, if the war is to last six years? If it is to be ended in one year, you have done and suffered your share in it.¹

There are better things to be done in the Country, Barlow, than fighting, and you must save yourself for them too. I remember we said to each other six months ago, that the man who wasn't in the coming campaign might as well count out. Bah! it hasn't proved. There are as many campaigns for a fellow as there are half years to his life.

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¹ The brilliant career of General Barlow was well sketched by Mr. Forbes, in a letter to a friend, written May 30, 1862, just after Barlow's wounding in the Wilderness Campaign: “You, out West, may not know about Barlow. Graduating high at Harvard some four or five years since [Mr. Forbes was mistaken; Barlow graduated in 1855], he entered one of the New York regiments either as a private or in some subordinate capacity; rose to be Colonel, led his regiment gallantly in the Peninsula and the great battle of Antietam. While lying on the field, supposed mortally wounded, he received his commission as Brigadier for his services on the Peninsula. Barely recovered from his wounds, he served at Fredericksburg, and again fell at Gettysburg, shot in several places, and pronounced by the Faculty fatally shot. He laughed at their predictions; his strong will prevailed, even under the disadvantage of a feeble frame, and he slowly recovered to be just able to head a Division in the late battles, under Hancock. He led the attack on the ‘Salient’ [Spottsylvania], when Johnston and his Brigade were captured. . . .

“From his slight frame and youthful appearance, he is often called the ‘boy-General,’ though there is about as much man to him as to any one I know; and, moreover, he is one of the few men who have achieved distinction without coming through the portals of West Point, or of politics. It is said Hancock or Meade recommended him for a Major-General’s commission the day after that assault, the credit for which Hancock distinctly gives him.”

General Barlow survived the war some thirty years, and practised law with distinction in New York. He married Mrs. Lowell's younger sister.

General Francis A. Walker, in his History of the Second Corps, tells the story of Colonel Barlow's masterly and successful tactics with his brigade at a dark moment at Antietam, and also of his desperately successful capture of the Salient at Spottsylvania. Another officer who served with him on both these fields, Lieutenant-General Miles, said, “Under the most depressing circumstances, he never was without hope and fortitude. He was apparently utterly devoid of the sensation of fear, constantly aggressive, and intensely earnest in the discharge of all duties. His integrity of purpose, independence of character, and sterling honesty in the assertion of what he believed to be right and just, made him a marked man among public men. He abhorred a coward; had a perfect contempt for a demagogue, and despised a hypocrite. He believed in the administration of public affairs with the most rigid integrity, and did not hesitate to denounce wrong as he believed it to exist, and maintain what he believed to be right under all circumstances.” The same qualities shone out in time of peace. In his short term as United States Marshal in New York he is said to have cleaned out a nest of corruption, and, given special powers by President Grant, he broke up by force a large filibustering expedition about to sail for Cuba, thus averting a war with Spain. As Attorney-General of New York, he officially instituted most of the legal proceedings ending in the impeachment of corrupt judges. Hon. Charles S. Fairchild said of him, "The State owes General Barlow more than she does any single man for results, without which the life of any honest man would have been intolerable in this State.”²

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² See an admirable sketch of Barlow's life, in the Harvard Graduates' Magazine for June, 1896, by Edwin H. Abbot.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 343-4, 461-3

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, December 5, 1864

December 5, 1864

The weather continues very fine and really warm of days, though the nights are provocative of blankets — weather, law! that isn't very interesting, is it? My head has indeed been singularly empty for letter-writing; when a man talks about weather to his own wife he must be pretty hard up. I heard a characteristic anecdote of Hancock which made me laugh, as I knew his ways. It appears that he had issued stringent orders against plundering, despite which the troops had fallen on a large flock of sheep and were making short work of them. Away went Hancock, followed by the inevitable Morgan, Mitchell, and Parker. Very soon all these three were sent spinning off at tangents, after distant delinquents, and the General went frothing along alone. Presently he catches sight of four men pursuing a poor sheep, bayonet in hand, and off he goes, full tilt, to arrest them; but, before he can get in, poor ba-ba is down and still. “You blank blank all-sortsof-bad-things,” roars Hancock, “how dare you? How dare you kill that sheep?” “Please, General, we didn't kill it,” cried the terrified soldiers. “What! Didn't kill it! You liars! You infernal, desperate liars! I saw you kill it, with my own eyes; and there it lies dead!” — when — the sheep hopped up and ran away.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 288-9

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, November 30, 1864

November 30, 1864

Did you hear how the Hon. Nesmith, whom I have mentioned, discovered the real cause of the defeat at the first Bull Run? He was in Washington at the time, and the military wiseacres, as soon as they got over the scare, were prolific in disquisitions on the topic. One evening Nesmith found a lot of them very verbose over a lot of maps and books. They talked wisely of flank movements and changes of front, and how we should have won a great victory if we had only done so and so; when he remarked solemnly: “Gentlemen, I have studied this matter and I have discovered the real reason of our defeat.” They were all ears to hear. “Well,” said Nesmith with immense gravity, “well, it was them darned Rebels!” . . .

Last night the 2d Corps picket line was relieved by the 9th — a delicate job in face of the enemy, who are pretty close up; but it all was done in entire quiet, to the relief of General Humphreys, who feels the new honor of the 2d Corps. That worthy officer stopped on his way to his new Headquarters and honored me by taking a piece of your plum cake. He was much tried by the noisy ways of Hancock's late Headquarters. “They whistle of mornings,” said the fidgety little General, “and that Shaw, confound the fellow, amuses himself with imitating all the bugle-calls! Then the negroes turn out at four in the morning and chop wood, so that I am regularly waked up. But I shall stop it, I can tell you.” And I have no doubt he will, as he is wont to have his own way or know the reason why. I rode out with him to his new Headquarters and followed the line afterwards, and was much amused to see them drilling some of the worthless German recruits, in a polyglot style: “Steady there! Mehr heraus — more to the front. Shoulder arms! Eins, zwei! One, two!” etc.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 284-5

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, November 27, 1864

November 27, 1864

I think I will occupy the remainder of this letter with an account of our picnic yesterday to Butlerdom. The day was further remarkable for the departure of my dear General Humphreys to take command of the 2d Army Corps. For Hancock has got a leave of absence, and will doubtless be put to recruiting fresh troops, while it is hoped that the President will permanently assign Humphreys to this Corps. He is in high glee at going, and will be in despair if a big fight is not got up for his special benefit. He was a great favorite and was escorted by some fifteen mounted officers of the Staff to his new quarters, at which compliment I think he was gratified. I regretted not to be with him, but had to go with the General, who started by the mail train, at 8 A.M., to be early at Grant's Headquarters, whence they were to start. We took our horses on a freight car. In the train we found Generals Warren and Crawford, who were invited to be of the party. Arrived at City Point, we discovered that the Lieutenant-General was still in bed, whereat Meade did laugh, but the three stars soon appeared and went to breakfast. After which meal, our horses were put on the boat and we put ourselves on, and off we started. The party was a big one. There were Generals Grant, Meade, Warren, Crawford and Ingalls, and several Staff officers. There were then the bourgeois: to wit, a great many “Turkeys” (gentlemen who had come down to distribute those Thanksgiving fowls); two men who wanted to sell a steamer; one Senator, viz., Nesmith of Oregon, and one political blackguard named H–––, whose special business was to praise a certain Greek fire, of which more anon. This fellow's name is usually prefixed by “Pet.” He has wild hair and beard and a face showing a certain ability; his distinguishing mark, I am told, is the absence of any sort of morality or principle. With him was his son, a small and old boy, of whom they said that, if papa could not get the best at a game of poker, son would come in and assist. Senator Nesmith is a child of the people, and was prepared for his congressional duties by a residence of twenty-five years among the Indians. When he first got to Washington, he had never before seen a railroad, a telegraph, or a gas-light. “Senator Fessenden asked me what I thought of things. ‘Well,’ says I, ‘when I first came along I was full of the dignity of the position to which I had been elected; but now all I want to know is, who in thunder ever sent you fellers here!’” He has plenty of brains, this same, but is a very coarse man. The “Turkeys” were of various sorts: several of them were Club men, e.g., Mr. Benson, a gentleman who seemed a middle-aged beau, with much politeness and no particular brains. He kept bowing and smiling and backing into persons, and offering his chair to everyone, from orderlies up to General Grant. He requested to know whether in my opinion he could be properly considered as having been “under fire; because,” said he, “I stood on the Avery house and could see the shells explode in the air, you know!” All this motley crowd started at once for Deep Bottom; nor should I omit to say that we had also on board a Secesh bishop — Leigh of Georgia — who was going by flag of truce to Richmond. He had remained in Atlanta, and Sherman had told him if he wished to get back, he must go via Richmond. From him they got a good deal of entertaining conversation. His opinion of Sherman was very high and complimentary. “The old Book tells us,” he said, “that the race may not be to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, and we feel that Providence will not desert our righteous cause.” “Yes,” said General Meade, “but then we feel that Providence will not desert our cause; now how are you going to settle that question?” Whereat they both laughed. The bishop was a scholastic, quiet-looking man, and no great fire-eater, I fancy. The boat made fast at Aiken's landing, halfway between Deep Bottom and Dutch Gap. A Staff officer was there to receive us and conduct us, two miles, to General Butler's Headquarters. Some rode and some were in ambulances. The James Army people always take pretty good care of themselves, and here I found log houses, with board roofs, and high chimneys, for the accommodation of the gentlemen of the Staff. You might know it was Butler's Headquarters by the fact that, instead of the common ensign, he had a captured Reb battle-flag stuck up! This chieftain asked in the general officers and we were left to the care of the Staff, who were not behindhand in their civility.  . . . Presently Butler climbed on his horse and led the way to see Fort Harrison, which was captured in the movements at the end of September. It was well worth seeing, for on our side of the river we have no hills: it is pretty much one plain with gullies. But here was a regular hill, of some size, dominating the whole country about. How they took the place, I hardly see, for the land is often for a mile in front of it, and the Rebs had artillery in position and a regular infantry running quite to the river. . . .

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 279-82

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, April 22, 1864

Culpepper C. H., Va., April 22, 1864.

. . . We have been reviewing the Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, General Hancock commanding. It was the finest display of troops I ever witnessed at one review, twenty-two thousand men in all, in one clear, open field, with their glittering arms, their banners (many of them battle worn) and bands of music, all conspired to fill one with emotions of pride that he, too, was an American soldier fighting for the perpetuation of the principles of civil and religious liberty for our Republican form of Government. Never on but one occasion before have I seen so many men at one view, and that was not on review. It was in the second day's fight at Chattanooga. The whole of Thomas's army, numbering nearly twenty-five thousand men,¹ moved upon the enemy's works across an open plain much like the field we were on to-day, but how different were my feelings from what they were to-day. As regiment after regiment of the brave men moved by I could but feel that many a one with proud and elastic step was marching to the end of time, the very farthest verge of which they had already reached, and such was the case. How eagerly my mind contrasted the pageantry, the grandeur of to-day with that of actual conflict at Chattanooga, and the mind would run along the lines of the not distant future and picture these brave men amid the din and heat of the coming terrible conflict. How different will they then appear to those whom Heaven spares to see them. They are full of hope and confidence, and in their buoyancy of spirit, their cheerful soldierly satisfaction I place the fullest confidence. They feel that they can whip Lee. This is much in our favor. I believe they can and will. Every effort is being made to concentrate troops from all sections here, and much has already been accomplished. From New York City alone we get three thousand men, or thereabouts, that have been for months virtually dead to the service. In all the Northern States are many troops, kept mainly that some of our major generals might have commands in Peace Departments commensurate with their rank. These are all being gathered up and brought to the front. I assure you nothing is left undone that should be done to give us victory. Victory here is what would be of much service to us. The Red River expedition appears to have been a terrible failure. Porter has his gunboats, several of them far up towards Shreveport, with the river falling so that he is prevented by sand-bars from either going forward or returning, and is waiting for rain and a rise in the river. I feel much anxiety for him.

You ask me if General McClellan is to have a command. He is not, for the present at least. You also ask me what kind of a general General Meade is. He is a man of real sterling worth, and is evidently the best general who has yet been honored with the command of this army. He is well liked by both men and officers, and no change is demanded by them. This you can rest assured is true, anything in the newspapers to the contrary notwithstanding. . . .

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¹ Probably considerably in excess of 25,000.

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 421-2