Scott County Soldiers’ Relief Association

The Executive Committee are requested to meet in the office of Messrs. Putnam & Rogers, on Monday evening, 26th instant, at 8 o’clock.

H. PRICE, President.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, May 26, 1862, p. 1

Major Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, June 10, 1861

Columbus, June 10, 1861.

Dear Uncle: — Matthews and myself are here and find that the governor makes up a list of regimental officers, calls it a regimental organization and assigns to it companies as he pleases, preferring to select officers from one part of the State and men from another. We are the Twenty-third Regiment * and our companies will probably be from the north. The men indicated are said to be a superior body. We have seen the captains and are favorably impressed. Of course this policy is calculated to cause embarrassment, but the governor shoulders the responsibility and we are not involved in any personal unpleasantness. We shall be here probably a week before going down to make our final preparations.

I may not be able to visit Fremont. If not you will see me here.

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes.

S. Birchard.

_________________

*The first three-years regiment organized in Ohio.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 21

A Contrabandish Idea of War

We were passing along the warves, a few days ago, wondering at the amount of business that was there transacted.  While standing observing a cargo of horses being transferred from a vessel to the store, an “old contraband” appeared at hour elbows, touching his old fur hat, and scraping an enormous foot.  He opened his battery on us with the following:

“Well, boss, how is yer?”

“Pretty well, daddy; how are you?”

“I’se fuss rate, I is.  B’long to Old Burnside’s boys, dos yer?”

“Yes, I belong to that party.  Great boys, aint they?”

“Well I thought yer belonged to dat party.  Great man he is, dat’s sartain.  Yes, sir.”

“We waited and waited; we heard yer was comin, but we mos guv yer up.’Deed jess did; but one morning’ we heard de big guns, way down riber, go bang, bang, bang, and de folks round yer began to cut dar stick mitey short, and trabble up de railtrack.  Den, bress de good Lord, we knowed yer was comin, but we held our jaw. Byme-by de sogers begun to cut dar stick, too, and dey did trabble! Goramity, ‘pears dey made de dirt fly!  Yah, hah!”

“Why were they scared so bad?

“De sogers didn’t skear um so much as dem black boats.  ‘Kase, yer see, de sogers shot solid balls, and day not mind dem so much; but when dem boats say bo-o-m, dey knowed de rotton balls was comin’ and dey skeeted, quicker’n a streak o’litenin.”

“What rotten balls did the boats throw at them?”

“Don’t yer know?  Why, dem balls dat are bad, dar rotten, flew all to bits – ‘deed does dey – play the very debil wid yer.  No dodgin’ dem ere balls; kase yer donno wher dey fly to – strike yah and fly yandah; dat’s what skeered ‘em so bad!”

“Well, what are you going to do when the war’s over?  Going along?”

“Duno, ‘praps I goes Norf, wid dis crowd.  Pretty much so, I guess.  ‘Peers ter me dis chile had better be movin’.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 22, 1862, p. 2

Major-General Thomas J. Jackson to Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, March 24, 1862

24th of March 1862.

Yesterday important considerations, in my opinion, rendered it necessary to attack the enemy near Winchester. The action commenced about 3 p.m. and lasted until dark. Our men fought bravely, but the superior numbers of the enemy repulsed me. Many valuable lives were lost. Our God was my shield. His protecting care is an additional cause for gratitude. I lost one piece of artillery and three caissons. The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded was probably superior to ours.

SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 247

Important Decision

It seems, from the following letter, that the Secretary of the Interior has reversed his decision in regard to Swamp Lands.  The Government, if we understand the correspondence, will now issue land scrip in lieu of swamp lands donated to the State, but sold by the Government, previous to the selection.  As the number of acres of swamp or overflowed land thus sold by the general Government is large, this decision of the Secretary is a very important matter in our State:

WASHINGTON CITY, May 10th, 1862.

C. DUNHAM, ESQ., EDITOR HAWK EYE,

Burlington, Iowa.

SIR: Enclosed I send you a letter from Hon. J. M. Edmunds, Commissioner of General Land Office in reference to swamp lands in the State of Iowa.

This reversal of the original decision of the Secretary of the Interior, made after hearing arguments of Senator Harlan and Representative Wilson, will give to the state of Iowa, many thousands of dollars, and a large amount of land scrip in lieu of lands selected in Iowa as swampy, previously sold.

Yours very respectfully,

JAS. A. BEARD.

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, May 7, 1862.

Hon. JAMES HARLAND, U. S. Senate:

SIR – Referring to the case of report No. 13, 392 for $9,006 92-100 of Iowa indemnity on account of swamp lands, I have the honor to advise you that since the rendition of the recent decision of the Secretary of the Interior, I have been instructed to regard it as fixing form of affidavit and terms as facts in future cases, and not as affecting the past; and in this view I have certified said report and submitted it, this date, for final approval of the Secretary, so that It may be sent to the Treasury to the end that it may be followed by a draft.

With great respect your obd’t serv’t,

J. M. EDMUNDS, Commissioner.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 22, 1862, p. 2

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, February 4, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Division,

Fifteenth Army Corps,

“young's Point,” Before Vicksburg, Feb. 4, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

I could write much on these army matters and the course of events here if it were proper for me to do so; but, of course, my lips are sealed and my pen tabooed. You must rest assured that all the newspaper accounts you have seen of the late battles, and the movements of the Army of the Mississippi, are basely, utterly false. So much has been admitted by the correspondent of the New York . . .  in my presence to General Sherman. Courts martial will develop strange facts. All that you read in the newspapers will only serve to mislead you and confuse your mind. Great plans cannot be revealed. Few of the generals themselves know them. The newspaper men, dangerous to the army as spies giving information to the enemy, closely restricted and carefully watched, nevertheless manage to mingle undetected with the residue of the horde of base camp followers who are always at the heels of the army. Provoked at the restrictions placed upon them, by common agreement they hound down with infamous slander the generals from whom the orders against them emanate. Thus the scoundrel . . . the correspondent of the New York . . . has admitted by letter to General Sherman, as well as verbally in my presence, not only that his article was false, and malicious, and based upon false information received from parties interested in defaming General Sherman and his command, but that he renewed the old story of his insanity for the purpose of gratifying private revenge. . . .  Our country is in an awful condition ; we are verging rapidly upon anarchy. Government has almost ceased to exist save in name. An immense army will be demoralized and crumble by its internal opposing forces. A united people have only to fold their arms and calmly bide the event. God help us, and forgive that political party which sowed the wind, the fruits of which we now reap. This much and this alone I have to say. A soldier has naught to do with politics; the nearer he approaches a machine, an animal without volition, the more valuable he becomes to the service, and perhaps the greater part of our present difficulties grow out of the fact that our soldiers are too intelligent, for they will talk and they will write, and read the papers. Our Army of the Mississippi, and particularly our gallant “Old Division,” have the firmest faith and the most implicit reliance upon Sherman and Grant. Sherman is a splendid soldier, a most honorable gentleman, a pure patriot. Would to God we had more like him to battle for the right. I earnestly pray God he may not be sacrificed. This new infusion I know nothing about. McClernand has been sent off; he is out of place here. Brigadiers have come and are coming. I shall soon be superseded by some one of them, or General Stuart will be compelled to give way and I to him. No change of this kind will be cheerfully submitted to by my command. I have the most substantial evidence that I possess their affection and confidence. You speak about my resigning; it would be utterly impossible for me to resign, if I desired to do so, and an effort on my part to have my resignation accepted would ensure my lasting disgrace. An officer cannot resign in the face of the enemy. But I do not want to resign. With all its terrible hardships and privations, greater than tongue can tell, or pen describe, the life of a soldier is dear to me. I love its dangers and excitements. I am proud of, and delighted with the applause which even a temporary success meets. I am relieved of the miserable, wretched chicanery that surrounds the civilian. I rejoice in the free air. I take kindly to the nomadic life that a field service compels. The romance of chivalry is realized, the ideality of my youth and early manhood brought into actual being. The war horse and the sabre, the glitter of the soldier's trappings, the stirring strains of martial music, the flashing eye, the proud, high bearing, the bivouac fire, the canteen, the song and jest, the perilous scout, the wary picket, the night march, all familiar — this is my life. What I read of, till my cheeks tingled and my eyes suffused, I now do and my comrades do, and like Harry Percy, feel able to “pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon.”

How long we shall stay here, God knows; it is a horrid place now, what it will be in the spring, none can tell; a long fiat swamp a foot above or below — I can't tell which —  the level of the Mississippi, which we are fighting to keep out. That portion not covered with a growth of brake and timber is completely so by cockle burr, that grows to an enormous height and presents an almost impenetrable mass of those little prickly burrs that get into the manes and horsetails, the same kind we have at home, but fearfully exaggerated in size and numbers. It is not quite the season, but after a very little while we shall be enlivened by the pleasant society of alligators and mocassin snakes, mud turtles and their coadjutors. Meanwhile we have every conceivable variety of lice and small-pox, measles and mumps, and other diseases incident to women and children. There is a species of moss you have often heard of and which abounds in this climate — a long hanging and beautiful moss when seen close at hand, but which waving in the forests presents a dreary funereal aspect. It is an article of commerce, and when properly prepared is a material for the stuffing of mattresses. Of course the men, when we camped near where it grew, eagerly sought it to make their beds, and were much disgusted to find it filled with lice. It has to be boiled and bottled to clean it from vermin. So, with the moss, and the transport boats filthy in the extreme, many of which had been hospital boats, the troops were pretty thoroughly infected with the plagues of Egypt, all but the frogs; and the first sun, I reckon, will make them tune their pipes.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 268-71

An Evening Drive

MR. EDITOR:  I have been reconnoitering, in force, in the vicinity of Davenport, and as in duty bound, report to headquarters.  Perhaps my document will be unacceptable, as I have nothing to report respecting slaughter and desolation, of broken cohorts, and flying phalanxes of Parrott’s and Dahlgren’s belching forth their iron hail, and mimicking thunders of heaven.  I speak but of Davenport and its surroundings.

I have been visiting the cemeteries, the home of the departed, in which all feel interested.  This is a pleasant and befitting season to visit our cemeteries, when vegetation is regaining its strength and the balmy breath of the advancing spring is driving back to its polar empire, the savage and unrelenting blasts of an invading winter which has plundered and laid waste the charms of the vegetable kingdom, and annihilated for a time the flowery nations.

I set out from Davenport with one of livery Smith’s best teams, piloted by his trusty man Friday.  We headed for Bridge Avenue – Mount Ida soon loomed majestically in sight.  Alas, Mount Ida! she appears in a wintery state; the painter and gardener have forsaken or neglected her; yet I feel a reverence for Mount Ida, for here in ’58 I undertook to master music and astronomy!  Now the then eighty merry students, as well as the worthy but unrewarded and neglected Codding, have disappeared, and the district school mistress, with a small class, occupies the then classic premises.  Fair schoolmates, whose merry laugh then gladdened the hearts of all, where are you?  Some perhaps have gone to the cold and silent tomb; others, with bitter tears, are contrasting the bright tints of girlhood’s morning with the dark somber hues of despair, that now in dusky folds, wraps their aching hearts.  All here now appears dreary, desolate and sad, yet a spirit of prophecy tells me that Mount Ida will yet fulfill her destiny and become a first class institution for the education of the young ladies of Iowa.  The location is beautiful, situated on the summit of the bluff some one hundred and twenty feet above the lower plain, overlooking the most might of rivers, the majestic Father of Waters.  Once Beautiful Ida,

Where the willow boughs entwining,

Cast a shadow o’er the plain,

In her classic shades reclining,

Genius will return again.

Leaving Mount Ida to the southward, we drove over hill and dale, upon nature’s primitive carpet of green and through a continuous wood made vocal by a thousand warbling songsters, we entered Oakdale Cemetery.  This is quite a beautiful Cemetery, embracing an area of some thirty acres laid out with taste and neatness.  A natural growth of oak and hickory trees, add greatly to its beauty, and the care with which many of the tombs are decorated, bear witness to the love borne towards the departed.

Leaving Oakdale for the northward, we entered one of nature’s most magnificent specimens of prairie, upon which is located Pine Hill.  Here we found the sexton, who welcomed us to the city of the tombs.  We found him not unlike the grave digger that Shakespeare gave to Hamlet – a philosopher.  Grave-diggers are all philosophers!  This philosopher informed me that Pine Hill embraced an area of 60 acres, with five miles of carriage road and eleven miles of walks.  This cemetery in time will vie with any in the west.  Art is furnishing the trees and shrubbery, and settling them down wherever taste and beauty require their presence.  The grounds are elevated, and susceptible of being rendered beautiful with little labor.

I will examine the stone records of mortality.  Here rests a man of years and experience, who tarried through many of the long years that make up the great past, and here will his mortal part mingle with the soil until the Almighty arm shall dash to pieces the structure of the earth.  And here’s an infant by its fond mother’s side.  The record speaks of a life of months.  Happy innocent! it did not long sip the cup of life.  And here the grim messenger of death has summoned to his tribunal a youth of sixteen.  Fair youth! hadst I been thy advocate, I would have plead thy tender years, and pointed to those who had outlived their allotted time.  And yonder rests, side by side, three of tender years.  Happy voyagers! no sooner launched than moored in Heaven; but you have escaped the barbed arrows of calumny, the finger of scorn, and the temptations of a sinful and dangerous world. – Highly favored probationers! were it not sinful, I would envy you your sweet and happy repose.  Sleep, angels, sleep, Heaven will guard and protect you.

We now depart for the City Cemetery – westward.  We pass a large and stately mansion, with its lawns, vineyards and well selected shrubbery, situated on the bluff.  It is not only grand, but magnificent, and does credit to its projector.  It is built on the Ionic order, and is, beyond question the most beautiful and perfect mansion within the county – and I claim to be a connoisseur in architecture, as well as in furbelows and flounces.  Our contraband driver informs me that this splendid mansion is owned by J. M. D. Burrows, Esq.

The City Cemetery I find to be a small enclosure of some five acres, located on the river’s bank.  Here discord reigns supreme; an unfinished and rickety stone wall graces the eastern ditch; uncared for shrubbery, sunken graves and shattered tombs.  It needs no ghost to arise from the dead to tell the visitor that this Cemetery is under the supervision of a soulless body.

We now visit Westphal & Co.’s flower garden and nursery, then homeward bound.  Here, at Westphal’s, can be found choice plants and shrubbery, both in the useful and ornamental department.  The gentlemanly proprietor showed me over his expansive flowery domain, and gave me valuable information in the art of cultivating shrubbery, and presented me with one of May’s richest and choicest pearls – a boquet of flowers.

Concluding I have seen sufficient for one afternoon, I retire to rest, bidding you and all the world good night.

STE. MARGUERITE’S HILL.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 22, 1862, p. 2

Major General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, June 29, 1863

Headquarters, Middleburg, Md., June 29, 1863.

We are marching as fast as we can to relieve Harrisburg, but have to keep a sharp lookout that the rebels don't turn around us and get at Washington and Baltimore in our rear. They have a cavalry force in our rear, destroying railroads, etc., with the view of getting me to turn back; but I shall not do it. I am going straight at them, and will settle this thing one way or the other. The men are in good spirits; we have been reinforced so as to have equal numbers with the enemy, and with God's blessing I hope to be successful. Good-by!

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 13-14

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, August 8, 1863

Quite pleasant today. We cleaned up our clothing and accouterments for inspection. We are getting fixed up very nicely in our camp and all are feeling fine. Only a few of our boys are sick and in the hospital at present. I loaned George Toyne (Company E) $25.00 today, until next pay day.¹

_______________

¹ Mr. Downing explained that Toyne's family at home was in need and that it was a very common thing for a single man to loan a married comrade money to send home to his family. — Ed.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 134

69th Ohio Infantry

Organized at Hamilton, Ohio, and Camp Chase, Ohio, November, 1861, to April, 1862. Moved to Camp Chase, Ohio, February 19, 1862, and duty there till April, 1862. Moved to Nashville, Tenn., April 19-22, thence to Franklin, Tenn., May 1, and duty there till June 8. Attached to District of Nashville and Franklin, Unattached, Army of the Ohio, to September, 1862. 29th Brigade, 8th Division, Army of the Ohio, to November, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, Centre 14th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to January, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 14th Army Corps, to October, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 14th Army Corps, to September, 1864. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 14th Army Corps, to November, 1864. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 14th Army Corps, to July, 1865.

SERVICE. – Moved to Nashville, Tenn., June 8, 1862, thence to Murfreesboro, Tenn. Expedition to McMinnville and Pikesville June 12-20. Provost duty at Nashville till December. Expedition to Gallatin and action with Morgan August 13. Siege of Nashville September 12-November 7. Near Nashville November 5. Nashville and Franklin Pike December 14. Advance on Murfreesboro December 26-30. Battle of Stone's River December 30-31. 1862, and January 1-3, 1863. Duty at Murfreesboro till June. Middle Tennessee or Tullahoma Campaign June 23-July 7. Occupation of Middle Tennessee till August 16. Passage of the Cumberland Mountains and Tennessee River, and Chickamauga (Ga.) Campaign August 16-September 22. Battle of Chickamauga September 19-21 (train guard during battle). Rossville Gap September 21. Siege of Chattanooga, Tenn., September 24-November 23. Orchard Knob November 23-24. Mission Ridge November 25. Graysville November 26. Duty at Rossville, Ga., till March, 1864. Veterans absent on furlough March 16-May 11, rejoin at Buzzard's Roost, Ga. Atlanta Campaign May to September. Demonstration on Rocky Faced Ridge May 8-11. Battle of Resaca May 14-15. Advance on Dallas May 18-25. Operations on line of Pumpkin Vine Creek and battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills May 25-June 5. Pickett's Mills May 27. Operations about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain June 10-July 2. Pine Hill June 11-14. Lost Mountain June 15-17. Assault on Kenesaw June 27. Ruff's Station. Smyrna Camp Ground, July 4. Chattahoochie River July 5-17. Peach Tree Creek June 19-20. Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25. Utoy Creek August 5-7. Flank movement on Jonesboro August 25-30. Battle of Jonesboro August 31-September 1. Lovejoy Station September 2-6. Operations against Hood in North Georgia and North Alabama September 29-November 3. March to the sea November 15-December 10. Siege of Savannah December 10-21. Campaign of the Carolinas January to April, 1865. Near Cheraw, S.C., February 28. Taylor's Hole Creek, Averysboro, N. C., March 16. Battle of Bentonville March 19-21. Occupation of Goldsboro March 24. Advance on Raleigh April 10-14. Occupation of Raleigh April 14. Bennett's House April 26. Surrender of Johnston and his army. March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Va., April 29-May 19. Grand Review May 24. Moved to Louisville, Ky., June, and duty there till July. Mustered out July 17, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 5 Officers and 84 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 98 Enlisted men by disease. Total 187.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1529

Major Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, June 9, 1861

Cincinnati, June 10 [9], 1861.

Dear Uncle: — I shall go to Columbus in the morning under orders. I do not know what is intended, but by telegraph, Judge Matthews and myself are informed that we are to be in a regiment with Colonel Rosecrans — a West Pointer and intimate friend of Billy Rogers, and a capital officer, — Matthews as lieutenant-colonel and I as major. This is all we know about it. Buckland perhaps told you that I had got a dispatch asking if I would accept, and that I replied accepting the place. We have since been telegraphed that we were under orders accordingly, and must report at Columbus forthwith. This seems certain enough, but as red-tape is in the ascendant, we don't count positively on anything.

I shall try to visit you before definitely leaving home. Mother will return to Columbus soon. I hope this matter is as it appears. It is precisely what we wish, if we understand it.

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes.

S. Birchard.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 21

Major-General Thomas J. Jackson to Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, March 17, 1862

woodstock, March 17th, 1802.

The Federals have possession of Winchester. They advanced upon the town the Friday after you left, but Ashby, aided by a kind Providence, drove them back. I had the other troops under arms, and marched to meet the enemy, but they did not come nearer than about five miles of the town, and fell back to Bunker Hill. On last Tuesday they advanced again, and again our troops were under arms to meet them, but after coming within four miles of the town they halted for the night. I was in hopes that they would advance on me during the evening, as I felt that God would give us the victory; but as they halted for the night, and I knew they could have large reinforcements by morning, I determined to fall back, and sent my troops back the same night to their wagons in rear of Winchester, and the next morning moved still farther to the rear.

SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 243

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith and Eliza Walter Smith, January 30, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Division,

Fifteenth Army Corps,

“Young's Point,” Before Vicksburg, Jan. 30, 1863.

My Dear Wife And Mother:

I have your letters, mother's of the 15th and 18th and wife's of 22d inst. I can imagine your anxiety, and regret you could not sooner have heard of my safety and well being. But you were not born to be a soldier's wife and mother. You must keep up brave hearts; none of us can die but once; as well in the battle as in bed. I hope my life may be spared to comfort you for many years to come, and assure you that I will not unnecessarily, or otherwise than in the strict performance of my duty, expose a life dearer to others than it deserves, far dearer to them than to me, and you must write me cheeringly. Give me words of comfort and good cheer. We need comfort, for we are in a pretty tight place at the present writing; camped just in front of that famous ditch of Butler's that the papers made so much fuss about last year and in the full view of Vicksburg, about two miles, including the width of the river, from my tent. As I write, its white towers and steeples and window panes gleam in the light of the setting sun. It's the Gibraltar of America, and we shall have a good time taking it, I guess; but nil desperandum; we shall try. I believe I wrote you some account of the affairs at Chickasas Bayou, and at Post Arkansas. My troops behaved remarkably well in both engagements, though I lost rather more than my share. I stand well enough with the army here, but have not had the luck to do anything brilliant enough to make me brigadier, except so far as they can give it to me by brevet. I do most earnestly want the rank, and think I have honestly earned it, but suppose I must exercise patience and wait. My health is pretty good. Indeed I always feel well while the weather is cool and the past three or four days have been lovely. In the immediate personal superintendence of large works, I am in the saddle constantly.

My horses are peculiar, and I ride hard in battle and latterly with a large command have had to spread myself over the field. This was a good deal the case at Chickasas. Morgan L. went over almost the first pop, while I had run the gauntlet half a dozen times before him and was over the same ground where he fell for hours afterwards and always under fire. The newspaper reports are all false; there is scarcely any coloring of truth to them. I am always confounded with Morgan L. and his brother Giles A. I am utterly lost in the obscurity of the name. My only salvo is in the official reports; there alone can I be identified, and in an official report the bare detail alone is permitted. I have sent you two from my immediate commanding officer. General Sherman's I have not yet seen, but am told that I receive therein flattering mention. I have tried hard to win my spurs, but my heart has been made sick by the terrible injustice of the public prints. I have nobody in particular to blame; I don't know that I have a single enemy among the newspaper reporters; yet I am always ignored. You must take the published stories of the correspondents with very great allowance. They are never eye-witnesses of the scenes they attempt to describe. This I assure you is true, and a moment's reflection will give you the reason why. They have no business in battle; there is no position they could occupy. In the din and confusion and smoke and hurly burly, the assault, the charge, the cannonading, the rattling of musketry, the changing front of long lines of troops, the rapid advance, the quick retreat for change of position, the trampling of cavalry, and artillery and orderlies' horses — where would the newspaper reporter, with his pen and wit or pencil and paper be? No, they are far off to the rear, picking up items from stragglers, and runaways and the riff-raff of the camp and army; with just enough knowledge of the ground and the main facts to form a basis, they draw upon their imagination for fancy sketches, and paint their words in glaring colors. My regiment did go in where none dared to follow, and by my superior officer was withdrawn after the performance of the most heroic valor. It was the astonishment of the army, and no mention is made of it. The 8th Missouri was not under fire at any time during the fight at Chickasas. Its former colonel, the present major-general, was wounded by a sharpshooter before the engagement fairly began. See the reports and the absurdity. But I won't dilate upon what you cannot well understand, and in which your heart cannot possibly be.¹

________________

¹ Readers of Field Marshal, Lord Roberts's interesting book, will see that trouble with the correspondents of newspapers besets military commanders in these later days also. There is great similarity in the expression of his views in relation to this subject in his account of the Afghanistan campaign.

"No one could be more anxious than I was to have all details of the campaign made public. I considered it due to the people of Great Britain that the press Correspondents should have every opportunity for giving the fullest and most faithful accounts of what might happen while the army was in the field . . .  What to my mind was so reprehensible in this Correspondent's conduct was the publication in time of war, and consequent excitement and anxiety at home, of incorrect and sensational statements founded on information derived from irresponsible and uninformed sources, and the alteration of telegrams after they had been countersigned by the recognized authority, the result of which could only be to keep the public in a state of apprehension regarding the force in the field, and what is even more to be deprecated, to weaken the confidence of the troops in their commander." — Forty-One Years in India, vol. ii., p. 166.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 266-8

Major General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, June 29, 1863

Headquarters Army Of The Potomac, June 29, 1863.

It has pleased Almighty God to place me in the trying position that for some time past we have been talking about. Yesterday morning, at 3 A. M., I was aroused from my sleep by an officer from Washington entering my tent, and after waking me up, saying he had come to give me trouble. At first I thought that it was either to relieve or arrest me, and promptly replied to him, that my conscience was clear, void of offense towards any man; I was prepared for his bad news. He then handed me a communication to read; which I found was an order relieving Hooker from the command and assigning me to it. As, dearest, you know how reluctant we both have been to see me placed in this position, and as it appears to be God's will for some good purpose — at any rate, as a soldier, I had nothing to do but accept and exert my utmost abilities to command success. This, so help me God, I will do, and trusting to Him, who in his good pleasure has thought it proper to place me where I am, I shall pray for strength and power to get through with the task assigned me. I cannot write you all I would like. I am moving at once against Lee, whom I am in hopes Couch will at least check for a few days; if so, a battle will decide the fate of our country and our cause. Pray earnestly, pray for the success of my country, (for it is my success besides). Love to all. I will try and write often, but must depend on George.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 11-12

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Friday, August 7, 1863

It is quite sultry today. There is no news of any importance. The Sixteenth Iowa received their pay today.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 134

Thomas Ritchie to Howell Cobb, February 8, 1844

Richmond [va.], February 8th, 1844.

Dear Sir: Your polite but laconic note prompts me to address you. You cheer me with the history you give me, and as your information preceded our late glorious convention I am in hopes the skies are brighter than when you wrote me. I will thank you for any information you may be able to impart to me on this subject. I take a very deep interest in the success of the Republican candidate and in the defeat of Mr. Clay. I consider his election is calculated to ring the knell of most of our great Republican principles.

A reunion has taken place between the friends of Calhoun and Van Buren in Virginia. Our late State convention has happily brought it about. Am I too sanguine in hoping that the moral effects of our example will extend to Georgia? I received a letter from Governor McDonald the other day in which he says that the Republicans are about to make a great rally in that State at the convention they are about to hold in June or July. Is it not possible to rouse up the Republicans of Georgia immediately and to unite them together more firmly and energetically in the way we have done? Could not you and your colleagues address your friends there and call upon them to put forth their strength directly? I hope to see the press of Georgia and of N. Carolina and of Tennessee come out without delay trumpet-tongued.

I beg you to communicate as soon as is convenient what is going on among our friends.

Mr. Cobb,¹ first in the H. of R. and then in the U. S. Senate, and the particular friend of Mr. Crawford,² was my correspondent from Washington to the day of his death. Are you related to that estimable man and esteemed statesman?

The enclosed memorandum has been put into my hands and I must ask you to assist me in answering it. My impression is that I have seen a letter from Mr. Crawford, changing his views of the Bank of the U. States. Be so good as to drop me a line upon it and enclose me a copy of Mr. Crawford's letter if you have such a one at your disposition, or write me where I am to obtain the information.

________________

* Thomas Ritchie was the veteran editor of the Richmond Enquirer, and afterwards of the Washington Union.

¹ Howell Cobb, Congressman from Georgia, 1807-1812, uncle of the Howell Cobb to whom this letter was addressed.

² William H. Crawford, Senator from Georgia, 1807-1813; United States minister to France, 1813-1815; Secretary of the Treasury, 1816-1825; presidential candidate, 1824-1825.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 55-6

68th Ohio Infantry

Organized at Camp Latta, Napoleon, October to December, 1861. Moved to Camp Chase, Ohio, January 21, 1862, thence ordered to Fort Donelson, Tenn., February 7, Attached to 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, Military District of Cairo, February, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, Army of the Tennessee, to May, 1862. 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, Army of the Tennessee, to July, 1863. Unattached, District of Jackson, Tenn., to November, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, Right Wing 13th Army Corps, Dept. of the Tennessee, to December, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 17th Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee, to July, 1865.

SERVICE. – Investment and capture of Fort Donelson, Tenn., February 12-16, 1862. Expedition toward Purdy and operations about Crump's Landing March 9-14. Battle of Shiloh April 6-7. Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30. March to Purdy, thence to Bolivar, and duty there till September. March to Iuka, Miss., September 1-19. Battle of the Hatchie or Metamora October 5. Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign, operations on the Mississippi Central Railroad, November 2, 1862, to January 10, 1863. Reconnoissance from LaGrange November 8-9, 1862. Moved to Memphis, Tenn., January 20, 1863, thence to Lake Providence, La., February 22. Moved to Milliken's Bend April 10. Movement on Bruinsburg and turning Grand Gulf April 25-30. Battle of Port Gibson May 1. Forty Hills and Hankinson's Ferry May 3-4. Battle of Raymond May 12. Jackson May 14. Battle of Champion's Hill May 16. Siege of Vicksburg May 18-July 4. Surrender of Vicksburg July 4, and duty there till February, 1864. Expedition to Monroe, La., August 20-September 2, 1863. Expedition to Canton October 14-20. Bogue Chitto Creek October 17. Meridian Campaign February 3-March 2, 1864. Morton February 10. Veterans absent on furlough February 20-May 8. Moved to Cairo, Ill., May 7-8, thence to Clifton, Tenn., and march via Pulaski, Huntsville and Decatur, Ala., to Rome and Ackworth, Ga., May 12-June 9. Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign June-9-September 8. Operations about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain June 10-July 2. Assault on Kenesaw June 27. Nickajack Creak July 2-5. Chattahoochie River July 5-17. Howell's Ferry July 5. Leggett's or Bald Hill July 20-21. Battle of Atlanta July 22. Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25. Flank movement on Jonesboro August 25-30. Battle of Jonesboro August 31-September 1. Lovejoy Station September 2-6. Jonesboro September 5. Operations in North Georgia and North Alabama against Hood September 29-November 3. March to the sea November 15-December 10. Siege of Savannah December 10-21. Campaign of the Carolinas January to April, 1865. Pocotaligo, S.C., January 14. Salkehatchie Swamps February 2-5. Barker's Mills, Whippy Swamp, February 2. Binnaker's Bridge, South Edisto River, February 9. Orangeburg, North Edisto River, February 12-13. Columbia February 16-17. Battle of Bentonville, N. C., March 20-21. Occupation of Goldsboro March 24. Advance on Raleigh April 10-14. Occupation of Raleigh April 14. Bennett's House April 26. Surrender of Johnston and his army. March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Va., April 29-May 20. Grand Review May 24. Moved to Louisville, Ky., June 1, and duty there till July. Mustered out July 10, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 2 Officers and 48 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer and 249 Enlisted men by disease. Total 300.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1528-9

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, January 20, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade, Second Division,

Fifteenth Army Corps,

Steamer “Sunny South,” January 20, 1863.

My table is covered with orders, letters, plans, and maps, and my head full of business to the limit of its capacity, therefore, I propose to abandon business and for the small balance of this night, devote myself to you, my dear mother. This is the thirtieth day of this memorable expedition, a month has passed away since we left Memphis, a month fraught with startling events. Many a poor fellow has lost the number of his mess, and we are yet on the verge of the consummation of the great event. If you will look at the map, and running your eye down the Mississippi River seek a point first below the dividing line between Arkansas and Louisiana, say eighty-five miles above Vicksburg, you can form an idea of about the place where my headquarters, the Sunny South, is now plowing her way southward. Tomorrow we propose to debark at or near Milliken's Bend near the mouth of the Yazoo River, and this may be my last opportunity for some time to come, of writing home; the opportunity of sending, at any rate, is doubtful. I can only hope it will reach you, as I hope that other letters, cast as waifs upon the water, have reached, or will reach their haven at last.

I am in good condition in all respects for the next battle. The weather for the past two or three days has become delightful, neither too warm nor too cold, balmy and at the same time bracing. These southern winters are far preferable to those of Ohio and probably more healthful. The river is nearly bankfull, an immense wide expanse of water. We are passing beautiful plantations, with their long rows of neat, whitewashed negro quarters, every house deserted. Now and then we come to the cane, then the cottonwood. Sometimes, when we get to a long reach in the river, the view is beautiful; one great fleet of steamboats, keeping their regular distance in military style, sometimes as many as sixty in sight, the steam wreathing up in fantastic forms, the spray from the wheels forming rainbows in the bright sunlight; now and then a strain of martial music or the refrain of a cheery song from the soldiers. Soldiers are much like sailors in this regard; they will have their song and fiddle and dance, and we encourage it, because it keeps the devil down.

I notice I have had a good many friends killed and wounded at Murfreesboro — glorious spirits gone up as avant couriers.

Last night my own little fleet ran up one of the numerous chutes of this part of the river on the Arkansas side, and not long after we had landed I was boarded by a substantial-looking planter with a request for a guard to his house, as he had ladies in his domicile. I of course extended the desired protection and took occasion in person to see my orders carried out. Of course the hospitalities of the house were offered, and I passed a couple of hours very pleasantly in the society of the four ladies, who did the honors, a mother and three daughters, very fair samples of real Southern plantation society.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 264-5

Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, March 14, 1779

Head Quarters, March 14, 1779.

Dear Sir:

Colonel Laurens, who will have the honor of delivering you this letter, is on his way to South Carolina, on a project which I think, in the present situation of affairs there, is a very good one, and deserves every kind of support and encouragement. This is, to raise two, three, or four battalions of negroes, with the assistance of the government of that State, by contributions from the owners, in proportion to the number they possess. If you should think proper to enter upon the subject with him, he will give you a detail of his plan. He wishes to have it recommended by Congress to the State; and, as an inducement, that they would engage to take their battalions into Continental pay.

It appears to me, that an expedient of this kind, in the present state of Southern affairs, is the most rational that can be adopted, and promises very important advantages. Indeed, I hardly see how a sufficient force can be collected in that quarter without it: and the enemy's operations there are growing infinitely serious and formidable. I have not the least doubt, that the negroes will make very excellent soldiers, with proper management: and I will venture to pronounce, that they cannot be put in better hands than those of Mr. Laurens. He has all the zeal, intelligence, enterprise, and every other qualification, requisite to succeed in such an undertaking. It is a maxim with some great military judges, that, with sensible officers, soldiers can hardly be too stupid: and, on this principle, it is thought that the Russians would make the best soldiers in the world, if they were under other officers than their own. The King of Prussia is among the number who maintains this doctrine, and has a very emphatic saying on the occasion, which I do not exactly recollect. I mention this because I have frequently heard it objected to the scheme of embodying negroes, that they are too stupid to make soldiers. This is so far from appearing to me a valid objection, that I think their want of cultivation (for their natural faculties are as good as ours), joined to that habit of subordination which they acquire from a life of servitude, will enable them sooner to become soldiers than our white inhabitants. Let officers be men of sense and sentiment; and the nearer the soldiers approach to machines, perhaps the better.

I foresee that this project will have to combat much opposition from prejudice and self-interest. The contempt we have been taught to entertain for the blacks, makes us fancy many things that are founded neither in reason nor experience; and an unwillingness to part with property of so valuable a kind, will furnish a thousand arguments to show the impracticability, or pernicious tendency, of a scheme which requires such sacrifices. But it should be considered, that if we do not make use of them in this way, the enemy probably will; and that the best way to counteract the temptations they will hold out, will be, to offer them ourselves. An essential part of the plan is, to give them their freedom with their swords. This will secure their fidelity, animate their courage, and, I believe, will have a good influence upon those who remain, by opening a door to their emancipation. This circumstance, I confess, has no small weight in inducing me to wish the success of the project; for the dictates of humanity, and true policy, equally interest me in favor of this unfortunate class of men.

While I am on the subject of southern affairs, you will excuse the liberty I take in saying, that I do not think measures sufficiently vigorous are pursuing for our defence in that quarter. Except the few regular troops of South Carolina, we seem to be relying wholly on the militia of that and the two neighboring States. These will soon grow impatient of service, and leave our affairs in a miserable situation. No considerable force can be uniformly kept up by militia; to say nothing of the many obvious and well-known inconveniences that attend this kind of troops. I would beg leave to suggest, Sir, that no time ought to be lost in making a draught of militia to serve a twelvemonth, from the States of North and South Carolina and Virginia. But South Carolina, being very weak in her population of whites, may be excused from the draught, on condition of furnishing the black battalions. The two others may furnish about three thousand five hundred men, and be exempted, on that account, from sending any succors to this army. The States to the northward of Virginia, will be fully able to give competent supplies to the army here; and it will require all the force and exertions of the three States I have mentioned, to withstand the storm which has arisen, and is increasing in the South.

The troops draughted, must be thrown into battalions, and officered in the best possible manner. The supernumerary officers may be made use of as far as they will go. If arms are wanted for their troops, and no better way of supplying them is to be found, we should endeavor to levy a contribution of arms upon the militia at large. Extraordinary exigencies demand extraordinary means. I fear this southern business will become a very grave one.

With the truest respect and esteem,

I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,

Alex. Hamilton.

His Excell'y John Jay,

President of Congress.

SOURCE: John C. Hamilton, Editor, The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Volume 1, p. 76-78

Orders of Major-General Meade, Commanding of the Army of the Potomac, June 28, 1863

ORDERS.]                                  

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

June 28, 1863.

The army will march to-morrow as follows:

4 a.m. – The First Corps, Major-General Reynolds, by Lewistown and Mechanicstown, to Emmitsburg, keeping to the left of the road from Frederick to Lewistown, between J.P. Cramer's and where the road branches to Utica and Creagerstown, to enable the Eleventh Corps to march parallel with it.

4 a.m. – The Eleventh Corps, Major-General Howard, by Utica and Creagerstown, to Emmitsburg.

4 a.m. – The Twelfth Corps, by Ceresville, Walkersville, and Woodsborough, to Taneytown.

4 a.m. – The Second Corps, by Johnsville, Liberty, and Union, to Frizellburg.

4 a.m. – The Third Corps, by Woodsborough and Middleburg (from Walkersville), to Taneytown.

The Fifth Corps will follow the Second Corps, moving at 8 a.m., camping at Union.

The Sixth Corps, by roads to the right of the Fifth and Second Corps, to New Windsor.

The Reserve Artillery will precede the Twelfth Corps, at 4 a.m., and camp between Middleburg and Taneytown.

General Lockwood with his command will report to, and march with, the Twelfth Corps.

The engineers and bridge train will follow the Fifth Corps.

Headquarters will move at 8 a.m., and be to-morrow night at Middleburg.

Headquarters train will move by Ceresville and Woodsborough to Middleburg at 8 a.m.

The cavalry will guard the right and left flanks and the rear, and give the commanding general information of the movements, &c., of the enemy in front.

Corps commanders and commanders of detached brigades will report, by a staff officer, their positions to-morrow night, and all marches in future. The corps moving on the different lines will keep up communication from time to time, if necessary.

The corps will camp in position, and guard their camps.

Corps commanders will send out scouts in their front as occasion offers, to bring in information.

Strong exertions are required and must be made to prevent straggling.

By command of Major-General Meade:

 S. F. BARSTOW,

 Assistant Adjutant-General.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 9-10; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 27, Part 3 (Serial No. 45), p. 375-6