Diary of Luman Harris Tenney: Wednesday, May 7, 1862

At 2 A. M. prepared for another day's march. At 3 were on the way. Reached Sparlan's, a noted secesh, at nine A. M. Fed and ate breakfast. Jayhawked his store. They said the boys destroyed a great deal of property ruthlessly. Continued the march. During the day Orff and Purington had a fuss. Orff took his men and our wagons and turned east to Neosho. After going a few miles we got trace of a band of jayhawkers. Charged after three on horses. Quite a spirited time we had, but the men had a long start, getting on a high hill and in the woods. Scoured the woods, finding some suspicious characters but without arms. Kept eight prisoners. Encamped near by in the valley. They stole a horse during the night.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 14

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw Lowell, August 30, 1864 – 8 a.m.

Summit Point, Aug. 30, 8 A. M.

If we ever do have any money to help the Government with, I would rather put it in the 5-20 Bonds than in those 7-30 fellows, — I don't believe in the policy or wisdom of the latter, and prefer not to encourage them by my support! Before I got your letter, I had already written Charley Perkins to sell my land at $200 (?), though that is too cheap for such a pretty place. By the way, I am literally a “penniless colonel,” — I have not a single cent left, except a silver dime-piece which an officer gave me a day or two ago for luck. The Rebs will be disgusted if they ever have occasion to “go through me.” I do wish George,¹ or somebody, would write a candid article showing that the great weakness of this Administration has been from first to last in every department a want of confidence in the people, in their earnestness, their steadfastness, their superiority to low motives and to dodges, their clear-sightedness, &c. I think the whole Cabinet have been more or less tricky, — or rather have had faith in the necessity of trickiness, — and the people are certainly tired of this.

I was interrupted here and sent out to drive in the enemy 's picket in front of us. We have brought back five prisoners, killed two lieutenants and three privates, — Captain Rumery and two privates very slightly wounded, and two men of Second Maryland killed. Successful, but not pleasant, — the only object being to get prisoners, and from them to get information. We now have orders to move camp at once. Good-bye, I don't think it's pleasant telling you about our work, and I think I shan't tell any more, — it doesn't give you any better idea of my whereabouts or my whatabouts.

_______________

¹ George William Curtis

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 330-2, 460

Brigadier-General John Sedgwick to his Sister, July 12, 1862

Camp James River, July 12, 1862.

My dear sister:

Everything remains very much as when I last wrote. No reinforcements have arrived since. The enemy have withdrawn and returned to the vicinity of Richmond. What our future movements are to be is quite uncertain. The President rode through the camps when here, and expressed himself pleased and disappointed in the appearance of the troops. He had supposed that we were all desponding, when he found every one joyful. General McClellan paid me and my division a high compliment in presenting us to the President. I believe he has recommended me for a Brevet Brigadier in the regular army. I know General Sumner has. I would value this more than a Brigadier of Volunteers.

Write often. Have you purchased the Treasury notes and have you paid off all our debts? I hope so, and have something left to keep the machine running. You must not break in upon what we have salted away. I believe I wrote you that I lost my old horse in one of the actions. My servant, who has been with me as long as the horse, had gone on, and I did not see him for two days. When I told him about Tom, he cried like a child, and said, “Bless God, General, I am glad they did not get you. Next to old Tom” (the horse), “I had rather see you safe than any man living.” I owe him about one hundred dollars. With much love to all,

I am, very affectionately,

J. S.

SOURCES: George William Curtis, Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major-General, Volume 2, p. 74-5

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Tuesday, December 24, 1861

Good weather. Moderately cold; ground frozen so it will bear teams, whitened with a thin sprinkling of snow. Captain Sperry left this morning with Sergeant Hall and Private Gillet for home via Cincinnati. . . .

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 168

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Wednesday, December 25, 1861

A beautiful Christmas morning — clear, cool, and crisp (K. K. K.), bright and lovely. The band waked me with a serenade. How they improve! A fine band and what a life in a regiment! Their music is better than food and clothing to give spirit to the men. . . .

Dined with McIlrath's company — sergeants' mess; an eighteen-pound turkey, chickens, pies, pudding, doughnuts, cake, cheese, butter, coffee, and milk, all abundant and of good quality. Poor soldiers! A quiet orderly company under good discipline; speaks well for its captain.

In the evening met at the adjutant's office the commissioned officers of the regiment. Much feeling against the promotion from third sergeant to captain of Company G of Sergeant Haven, Company A. It was an ill-advised act. I think highly of Sergeant Haven. He will, I think, make a good officer. But the regular line of promotion should [be departed from] only in extraordinary cases, and then the promotion should be limited to the merits of the case. The lieutenants passed over — all the first and second-lieutenants — are much dissatisfied and the captains who are not yet reconciled to the major are again excited. They have a story that the colonel recommended Sergeant McKinley for promotion to a first lieutenancy. It can't be possible, and if not, the other case will lead, I think, [to] no unpleasant action.

We adjourned to my quarters. I sent for oysters to the sutler's; got four dollars and fifty cents' worth and crackers. They were cooked by Lieutenants Warren and Bottsford. A good time; Bottsford, a little merry and noisy. Present, Major Comly, Captains Canby and Moore, First-Lieutenants Warren, Hood, and Rice and Naughton, Second-Lieutenants Bottsford, Hastings, Ellen, Adjutant Kennedy, Stevens. Retired at 11 P. M.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 168

Francis Lieber to Senator Charles Sumner, December 19, 1861 - Afternoon

New York, December 19, 1861, Afternoon.

. . . I do not wish to be misunderstood on the slavery question. My opinion — I give it as the individual opinion of a citizen — is that negroes coming into our lines must be, and are by that fact, free men; for, on the one hand, the United States cannot become auctioneers of human beings, and, on the other hand, our soldiers cannot see in a human being anything but his humanity. Is the being that flies to us a human being? that is, does he talk; has he reason; is he, black or white, a man, or is he a gorilla? You may remember I stated this, in my “Political Ethics,” to be the practical, the legal distinction. Or, to make it more distinct, does he belong to a class of beings who, in their normal state, speak? If he is a man, I say, then the army cannot, in its very essence, occupy itself with that mixture of humanity and thing, or chattel, characterizing slavery, and creating all the difficulty inherent in that institution (in antiquity as well as in modern times), — a mixture which even the Roman law acknowledges not to be owing to the law of nature, but to municipal law. That mixture of the two ideas, man and thing, which the chemist would call unmixable (like oil and water), is a forced one, — forced by municipal law or violence, — and ceases, I take it, by the inherent character of war, which, by its physical contest of men with men, reduces men again to their simple status of men. Suppose an Austrian peasant, with all his feudal obligations thick upon him, had presented himself to the army of Napoleon, and the feudal lord had asked his surrender; what would Napoleon's general have answered? The only difficulty in this case — as altogether in the slave question — arises from the black skin; but the law of nature does not acknowledge the difference of skin, and war is carried on by the law of nature. Those who commenced this Rebellion ought to have reflected upon this. It is now too late to talk — in the midst of war — of rights made or guaranteed by municipal or Constitutional law. They might as well ask for a writ of habeas corpus for a spy we may catch. . . .

SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 322-3

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 11, 1861

And Wise has had bloody fighting with Rosecrans in Western Virginia, He can beat the enemy at fighting; but they beat him at manoeuvring, with the use of the guides Gen. Winder has sent them from our prisons here.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 84

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: January 5, 1864

At Mrs. Preston's, met the Light Brigade in battle array, ready to sally forth, conquering and to conquer. They would stand no nonsense from me about staying at home to translate a French play. Indeed, the plays that have been sent us are so indecent I scarcely know where a play is to be found that would do at all.

While at dinner the President's carriage drove up with only General Hood. He sent up to ask in Maggie Howell's name would I go with them? I tied up two partridges between plates with a serviette, for Buck, who is ill, and then went down. We picked up Mary Preston. It was Maggie's drive; as the soldiers say, I was only on “escort duty.” At the Prestons', Major Venable met us at the door and took in the partridges to Buck. As we drove off Maggie said: “Major Venable is a Carolinian, I see.” “No; Virginian to the core.” “But, then, he was a professor in the South Carolina College before the war.” Mary Preston said: “She is taking a fling at your weakness for all South Carolina.”

Came home and found my husband in a bitter mood. It has all gone wrong with our world. The loss of our private fortune the smallest part. He intimates, “with so much human misery filling the air, we might stay at home and think.” “And go mad?” said I. “Catch me at it! A yawning grave, with piles of red earth thrown on one side; that is the only future I ever see. You remember Emma Stockton? She and I were as blithe as birds that day at Mulberry. I came here the next day, and when I arrived a telegram said: ‘Emma Stockton found dead in her bed.’ It is awfully near, that thought. No, no. I will not stop and think of death always.”

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 271-2

Diary of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire: October 1, 1862

Letters from Winchester, giving cheering accounts of our army. It is stationed at Bunker's Hill, twelve miles from Winchester, greatly increased since our recent fights, and in fine spirits. We leave Lynchburg to-morrow, and after spending a few days with our friends at the University, proceed to Richmond and Ashland.

SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War, p. 161

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: Monday Morning, June 13, 1864

I had a calm, solemn, two-hours conversation yesterday, with an intelligent and seemingly Christian man, which has filled me with entire despair for the Confederacy. He listened to my solemn declarations that I knew the spirit which animated every man, woman, and child was a martyr spirit; was a conscientious belief that in the sight of heaven they were doing their holiest duty; that there was a deadly earnestness among our men which would make the last remnant of them fly to our mountain fastnesses and fight like tigers till the last inch of ground was taken from them: that then the women and children would be swept into the Ocean on one side, and into the wilds of Mexico on the other, but there could be no yielding. “If,” said he, after listening with deep interest to what I had been saying, “if I believed that your spirit animated your army, I would feel obliged to lay down this sword; I could not fight against men who fought for conscience’ sake.” “I beseech you, sir,” I said, “to believe it; for it is as true as that the heavens are above us.” This is the sentiment expressed by the best of them. He took from his pocket-book some leaves which he had gathered from Jackson's grave, which he said he would keep as sacred mementos. One of the guard which he sent us, decent fellows, who have kept us from being insulted, asked me for some trifle that had belonged to Jackson, saying, “We think as much of him as you do.” I gave them each an autograph.

We were told the house was to be searched for arms as some of our neighbors’ have been. I delivered up all the sporting guns, but forgot that I had hidden Jackson’s sword in a dark loft above the portico. At one o'clock last night I crept up there as stealthily as a burglar, and brought it down, intending to deliver it up to this Lt. B.; but on running up the back way to Dr. White's gate, and consulting him, he said he had his old sword, which had never been in the service, and advised me to keep it as long as I could. I have hidden it in Anna Jackson's piano. We hear that we are to be searched this morning; almost every house in town has been, and but for the interest this Lt. has taken in us, I believe we should have been too.

Gen. Smith's house has not been burned; they have not yet discovered our wounded man. Oh! I am so exhausted — so heart and soul weary! We have heard many times this morning that the Cadets have been captured. Lynchburg no doubt has fallen, for there was no force there. The servants are flocking away. The soldiers almost force them into the omnibuses. We have a young girl here now, our Mary's sister, whom they were about to drag away; Mary went and brought her here for safe keeping.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 192-4

Diary of Corporal Alexander G. Downing: Friday, August 26, 1864

A large number of the boys are going home on furloughs. Their papers came in from the front today, signed up, and the boys are to start home tomorrow. Thomas R. McConnoll and John Zitler of our company are among them. I am sending $25.00 home to father by John Zitler. That makes a total of $445.40 which I have sent home. A. G. Downing, Company E, Eleventh Iowa, Veteran Volunteers.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 212

Robert Lewis Dabney to Elizabeth Price Dabney, December 28, 1860

I feel sick at heart at the state of the country. I have been attempting, in my feeble way, to preach peace, and to rouse Christians to their duty in staying the tide of passion and violence. I have received many letters from men in the North, chiefly ministers, such as Drs. Hodge, Sprague, Plumer, etc., giving the strongest assurance of moderate intentions on the part of all the better people, assuring me, in the most solemn terms, that the present congressmen from the Northern States do not represent the feelings of the people there; and that if the South would unite calmness with firmness in demanding the arrest of the Abolition agitation, they would succeed. I fully believe this; I know it. But the people will not believe it. The very Christians seem to have lost their senses with excitement, fear and passion; and everything seems hurrying to civil war. Dr. Plumer says in his letter that he is too desperate to make another attempt, having failed in his most solemn and earnest appeals to the people to pause; and that he confidently expects to see civil war of the most dreadful kind in a few months. I had been more hopeful before this, believing that surely the people could not be so forsaken of God and their own senses, as to go to cutting each others' throats for no possible benefit. But when such men at the North as he and Dr. Prime say so, I begin to think that they know the temper of the Northern people best, and, therefore, see the danger. They still say that three-fourths of the people there are for peace; but we seem to be given up of God, and the violent ones have it all their own way. As for South Carolina, the little impudent vixen has gone beyond all patience. She is as great a pest as the Abolitionists. And if I could have my way, they might whip her to her heart's content, so they would only do it by sea, and not pester us.

SOURCE: Thomas Cary Johnson, The Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney, p. 214-5

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw Lowell, August 27, 1864* – 2 p.m.

Aug. 28,* 2 p. M., Charlestown.

Every morning I am waked at 3.30, and since we started on the campaign I can remember but two nights in which I have slept over two hours consecutively. At this moment I have half my men out on reconnoissances towards the front, and am constantly receiving and expecting reports. Every day but one for the last ten, we have had more or less fighting, and as my command is a very mixed one, — the largest regiment (25th N. Y.) having only joined four days ago, and having had its horses only seven days before that, — only time to march from Washington, — I have my hands full. You will be sorry to hear that Captain Eigenbrodt is killed, and Lieutenant Meader; Captain Phillips wounded in the arm by a guerrilla; several of our best sergeants and men are gone too. The Second has been more fortunate, too, than either of my other regiments. Day before yesterday, we made a nice dash on the Rebs, killing two, wounding four or five, and capturing 70, including a lieut.-colonel, three captains, and three lieutenants, — all of a South Carolina Infantry Regiment. Yesterday, if I had had a little more pluck, I think I might have sent you a battle-flag, but Caspar thinks it more likely I should have gone to Richmond.¹ To-day we are trying to find out what the enemy is after, whether really retreating, or only feigning. Berold is right in front of me eating oats.

Two orderlies since I began to write this page, and General Sheridan is the most restless mortal, — he would like a report every five minutes, if he could have one.

It is one thing to be one's own master, as at Vienna, and another to be a small part of a large body,—as I am now. I like it, but I should be sorry to have it continue more than four weeks longer. I sincerely hope that Lee will find he needs Early near Richmond! That's “demoralization,” only disguised in a patriotic dress.²

_______________

* In the first part of the war, it was held that the day of charging infantry with cavalry had ended with the introduction of the rifle. But by 1864 this was sometimes done with effect; moreover the cavalry, with excellent carbines, constantly skirmished on foot. Lowell evidently made a mistake of one day in dating this letter. It should have been August 27, for on August 25 Torbert reported that his cavalry met Confederate cavalry in a wood near Leetown. From all the information he could get, there appeared to be only cavalry in his front. He at once made dispositions to attack. “Soon after the attack was made, it was found that we were fighting infantry, a division of Breckenridge's corps on the march.  . . . The attack was so sudden and vigorous, the division was thrown in complete confusion and back three quarters of a mile. The enemy lost 250 killed and wounded, together with one brigade commander.” Torbert then fell back, followed by enemy's infantry and artillery, to his position. Sheridan reported: “This evening General Crook made a dash and drove in their heavy line of skirmishers.  . . . Colonel Lowell took advantage of it to make a cavalry charge, capturing 7 officers and 69 privates of Kershaw's division.”

² August 28, Torbert reports that Merritt's Division (Lowell's was Third Brigade) moved out towards Leetown, met enemy's cavalry in force, and gallantly drove them with the sabre through Smithfield and across the Opequan, a distance of five miles.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 329-30, 460

Brigadier-General John Sedgwick to Brigadier-General Seth Williams, July 11, 1862

Headquarters Sedgwick's Division,

Sumner's Corps,

Harrison's Landing, Virginia,

July 11, 1862.

Brigadier-General S. Williams, A.A.G.:

I have the honour to request that the name of Major R. F. Halsted, formerly of the 40th New York Volunteers, be forwarded to the Governor of the State of New York for an appointment to a Colonelcy. I have known Halsted for nearly a year, and have had abundant opportunities for becoming thoroughly acquainted with his character. I have no hesitation in saying that I have not met, in the service, with a more thorough gentleman or a man of better principles and character, while I regard him as being, both by natural qualification and by his acquirements, one of the best volunteer officers I have known. I consider him peculiarly fitted to enforce respect and discipline as commander of a regiment, and to govern it justly and wisely. The service requires just such men at the head of the regiments.

I have the honour to be, with much respect,

Your most obedient servant,

John Sedgwick,

Brigadier-General Volunteers.

SOURCES: George William Curtis, Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major-General, Volume 2, p. 73

Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Dr. Joseph T. Webb, December 23, 1861

Headquarters 23D Reg't. O. V. Inf. U. S. A.,

December 23, 1861.

Dear Doctor: — Thanks for your letter of the 16th. You will of course stay with Lucy until after she is out of all danger, if it is a month or more, and all will be well. Some arrangement, or no arrangement, it will be all right. I will come home unless something turns up to prevent, which I do not anticipate, so as to reach there just before you leave. McCurdy would like to go home during the next month, but it can all be arranged.

I will make Jim assistant at any time if it is thought best, but I do not wish to put him over McCurdy. This, however, need not trouble you. You can stay as long as you please, and I will see it duly approved.

You have authority to send home our men, but to stop all cavil I send you an order which you can fill up with the name of any officer, commissioned or non-commissioned, who you think can be trusted, directing him to bring here all men who are able to come.

At dinner just now I got your dispatch as to the boy.  . . . Welcome to the little stranger! I hope he will be stout and healthy. . . .

Did Lucy get a draft for eighty-seven dollars by Captain Drake or Lieutenant Richardson, and two gold twenty-dollar pieces by a Company A man? Get Lucy for me some ring or “sich” thing that she will like — something nice.

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes.

Dr. J. T. Webb.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 167

Francis Lieber to Senator Charles Sumner, December 14, 1861

New York, December 14,1861.

As to that proposition to melt together the United States army and the volunteers, I wish to heaven I had the ear of some influential man in this matter. Nothing is more dangerous to modern civil liberty than a large democratic army; vide France. The traditional fear of standing armies, thoroughly founded in times past, when Louis XIV. and James II. were justly haunting the minds of upright men, must be changed into a fear of a large, thoroughly democratic army. In countries pervaded by an institutional spirit and system of self-government, — with a true, not nominal, representative national body, which keeps the army under its thumb as to size and appropriation, — the danger is not in the standing army, of itself. Look at England. Make our present large army a homogeneous, vast, democratic army; give it some suecesses; let some striking victory knit them well together, man to man, and to the general, — and every person versed in the analytical chemistry of history will tell you that a Bonaparte dictating after a Lodi is unavoidable. No congress, no parliament, can keep under an organized, vast, democratic army, especially when no sea intervenes. There is nothing so revolutionary as such an army. The sword is always arrogant. A soldier is writing this, — but a soldier who is a historian too, and a citizen, philosopher, and a man who is willing that this should be “hung out” after he is gone — as they used to hang out the proof-sheets in the early days of printing — for all that might choose to find errata. I stake my name to this. . . .

SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 321

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 10, 1861

A victory — but not in the East. I expect none here while there is such a stream of travel flowing Northward. It was in Missouri, at Lexington. Gen. Price has captured the town and made several thousand prisoners, whom he dismissed on parole.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 84

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: January 4, 1864

Mrs. Ives wants us to translate a French play. A genuine French captain came in from his ship on the James River and gave us good advice as to how to make the selection. General Hampton sent another basket of partridges, and all goes merry as a marriage bell.

My husband came in and nearly killed us. He brought this piece of news: “North Carolina wants to offer terms of peace!” We needed only a break of that kind to finish us. I really shivered nervously, as one does when the first handful of earth comes rattling down on the coffin in the grave of one we cared for more than all who are left.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 270-1

Diary of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire: September 30, 1862

The Richmond Examiner of yesterday contains Lincoln's Proclamation, declaring all the negroes free from the 1st of January next! The Abolition papers are in ecstasies; as if they did not know that it can only be carried out within their lines, and there they have been practically free from the moment we were invaded. The New York Tribune is greatly incensed at the capture of Harper's Ferry; acknowledges that the battle of Sharpsburg was a disaster to them — Sumner's corps alone having lost 5,000 men in killed and wounded. It says it was the “fiercest, bloodiest, and most indecisive battle of the war.” Oh, that their losses could convince them of the wickedness of this contest! but their appetite seems to grow on what it feeds upon. Blood, blood, is still their cry. My heart sickens at the thought of what our dear soldiers have yet to pass through. Arise, O God, in thy strength, and save us from our relentless foes, for thy great name's sake!

Mr. ––– has improved so much in health that we return in a few days to Richmond, that he may again enter upon the duties of his office. Ashland is our destiny for next year; the difficulty of obtaining a house or board in Richmond has induced us to join a party of refugee friends in taking a cottage there. Our children are already there, and write that a comfortable room is awaiting us. Last night we received a message from Mrs. and Miss S., of Alexandria, that they were in this place, having run the blockade, from their oppressed home, during the battles around Richmond, when many of the soldiers had been withdrawn, and of course the surveillance of the old town had become less severe. Mrs. D., of Alexandria, and myself went directly after breakfast to see them. They had much to tell of the reign of terror through which they had gone, and nothing very satisfactory of our homes. Mrs. D's house was occupied as barracks, and ours as a hospital. Miss ––– had accompanied our friend Mrs. ––– there one day during the last winter; it was used as a hospital, except the front rooms, which were occupied by General N. (a renegade Virginian) as headquarters. Can it be that any native of Virginia can be untrue to her now? Let General Scott, General Newton, and Captain Fairfax answer! General N. married a Northern wife, which must account for his defection. The ladies drove up to our poor old home, the road winding among stumps of trees, which had been our beautiful oak grove; but one tree was left to show where it had been; they inquired for Mrs. N. She was out, and they determined to walk over the house, that they might see the state of our furniture, etc. They went up-stairs, but, on opening the door of our daughter's room, they found a lady standing at a bed, cutting out work. Mrs. ––– closed the door and turned to my chamber; this she found occupied by a family, children running about the room, etc.; these she afterwards found were the families of the surgeons. With no very amiable feelings she closed that door and went to another room, which, to her relief, was unoccupied; the old familiar furniture stood in its place, and hanging over the mantel was my husband's portrait. We left it put away with other pictures. The wardrobe, which we had left packed with valuables, stood open and empty; just by it was a large travelling-trunk filled with clothing, which, she supposed, was about to be transferred to the wardrobe. She turned away, and on going down-stairs met Mrs. N., who politely invited her into her (!) parlour. The piano, sofas, etc., were arranged precisely as she had been accustomed to see them arranged, she supposed by our servants, some of whom were still there. This furniture we had left carefully rolled together, and covered, in another room. The weather was cold, and the floor was covered with matting, but no carpet. Mrs. N. apologized, saying that she had lately arrived, and did not know that there was a carpet in the house until, the day before, she was “exploring” the third story, and found in a locked room some very nice ones, which the soldiers were now shaking, and “she should make herself comfortable.” She had just before been expressing holy horror at the soldiers in Alexandria having injured and appropriated the property of others. Mrs. ––– looked at her wonderingly! Does she consider these carpets her own? Our parlour curtains were upon the passage-table, ready to be put up. She found them, no doubt, while exploring the third story, for there we left them securely wrapped up to protect them from moths. Ah! there are some species of moths (bipeds) from which bars and bolts could not protect them. This we did not anticipate. We thought that Federal officers were gentlemen!

SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War, p. 158-61

Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: Sunday, June 12, 1864 – 12 o’Clock

We have just heard that Gen. Smith, Col. Williamson, and Col. Gilham with some of the Cadets have been taken prisoners! Where is my husband? Where is Frank? If our house is burned to night, and we hear of my husband being captured or killed, what will life be worth? God protect and have mercy upon us all! To whom can we look but Thee!

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 191-2