Captain Charles Fessenden Morse, November 22, 1862

Camp Near Sharpsbubgh,

November 22, 1862.

I have received to-day the long-looked-for box of clothing which you have so kindly made and sent to my company.

I have felt very thankful to you all since I first heard of the interest which has been shown to serve myself and my men, but I never appreciated the extent of the gratitude that I owed you till I saw the amount of labor and pains that must have been bestowed to produce such a quantity of most excellent and comfortable clothing. I had my company formed and marched to my tent, where I read your note, and then I commenced the distribution of the shirts and stockings; I first gave each man in the company one of each of these articles, and then to every sergeant and returned prisoner, or any one else who had seen especially hard service, another one, making as fair a division as I could. The written instructions found with some of the stockings were very entertaining and proved very useful in the distribution.

I believe that my men felt truly grateful to you for your kind present, and though a soldier shows very little emotion, whatever may occur, yet when they thanked me, I knew that they meant what they said. It must be some comfort to every man to know that while he is suffering hardships and dangers, he has kind friends at home who are thinking of him and administering to his comfort and happiness. You may be sure that it is a strong motive for us to do our duty bravely, knowing all this, and feeling that we have your best wishes.

Once more I thank you, each and all, most heartily, and hope that at no very distant day, I may do so in person.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 107-8

Major Wilder Dwight: Sunday Evening, November 3, 1861

Camp Near Seneca, Sunday Evening,

November 3, 1861.

If you had waked night before last in our camp, you would have thought yourself in a storm at sea, with a very heavy northeaster blowing. By the rattle, and creak, and strain, and whistle of the canvas and gale, you would have believed that the good ship was scudding before the blast. If you had shivered outside to attempt to secure your fluttering tent, you might, by a slight effort of the imagination, have thought yourself overboard. When the morning broke, after a sleepless and dreamy night, expectant of disaster, you would have seen, here and there, a tent prostrate, and the wind and rain, for you could see them both, wildly making merry over the storm-driven camp. As the Colonel stepped out of his tent at reveillé, a big branch from an overhanging tree came crashing down upon it, and broke the pole, and drove into the tent he had just stepped from. “There's luck,” said I, putting out my own head at the instant. We went out, and found half a dozen of the limping officers' tents flat upon the ground in shapeless masses. Captain Cary said, with an attempt at mirth, “I woke up about three o'clock with a confused idea that something was wrong, and found my face covered with wet canvas, and my tent-pole across my breast. I crawled out into the rain, and ran for shelter.' By the chill and exposure of the night, I found myself a little under the weather, and I found the weather a good deal over me. I was indisposed for breakfast, and the Doctor said, with a meaning chuckle, “Sea-sick, I guess.” I got my tent secured with ropes and strong pins, and, after considering the best way to be least uncomfortable, determined to go to bed and “feel better by and by.” What a day it was! The storm howled and roared, and seemed to tear the tent away from its moorings. I had every alternation of fear and hope, but, to my surprise, weathered the gale. The Sergeant-Major, who is an old soldier and a professional croaker, and whose rueful phiz always appears shining with grim pleasure amid disaster, who says, with a military salute, “Can't get nothing done, sir, not as it ought to be, sir,”  — the Sergeant-Major appeared at my tent with his gloom all on. “Tent is blown down, sir; pins don't seem to do no good, sir; my things is all wet, sir. Never see no storm, sir, equal to this in Mexico, sir.” “Well, Sergeant, it 'll be pleasanter to-morrow,” is all the satisfaction he gets. The day blew itself away, and, as we had hoped, the sun and wind went down together. This morning a clear sky and bright sunshine brought their gladness with them, and our Sunday morning inspection was a proof that “each tomorrow finds us better than to-day.” The men came out bright and shining and clean, except an occasional unfottunato whose clothes were drying. “Got wet yesterday, sir,” was a valid excuse, though not a frequent one. The day was a proof, however, that winter-quarters in this latitude will have to be our resource before many weeks. Tell Mr. that I put my feet in a pair of his stockings, and thought of him with the warmest affection. Sich is life, and, more particularly, camp life. To-day we receive the news of Scott's retirement, which has been rumored of late. I did not think that the day would come when the country would welcome his loss. But I think every one is relieved by his retirement. Now McClellan assumes an undivided responsibility, and if he has courage to defy the politicians, he may yet win the laurel which is growing for the successful general of this righteous but blunder-blasted war. What a fame is in store for that coming man. Talk of hero-worship. The past cannot furnish a parallel for the idolatry which will bow down before the man who restores the prestige and rekindles the associations of our dear old flag. You ask in your last letter if my heart does not sink. Sink? It swims like a duck when I think of the future which some of our eyes shall see; and will not they swim, too, with intense delight, when the sight dawns upon them? For myself, even now, I cannot look upon the flag which we brought away from Boston without a glow and heart-bump, which I take to be only faint symptoms of the emotion that is to come. I augur well from McClellan's new power, and I feel sure that things will go better for it. One will, one plan, one execution. As to the immediate results, I have no opinion. Upon this line of operations I do not look for anything decisive this winter. Yet it is not impossible that the season may favor us sufficiently to allow activity here this month.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 135-7

Major Wilder Dwight: Monday Evening, November 4, 1861

Monday Evening.

I did not finish my letter last night, as there was no mail out. This will go to-morrow. It takes no news, except that Colonel Andrews seems quite to have settled into a fever. The fever is by no means severe, but it may drag slowly along. There is nothing dangerous in his condition, only to be abed is not pleasant, and to be weak is miserable. I have got him very pleasantly fixed, and he has the best care that we can give him.  . . . . We have had drills today, and the usual incidents of camp life. Our family is having a little measles, but is otherwise well. We have fine, clear weather again, and a bright, hopeful new moon.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 137-8

Brigadier-General Benjamin F. Butler to Blanche Butler, March 25, 1861

LoweLL, March 25, '61

MY GOOD LITTLE BLANCHE: I was glad that your visit to Washington on the occasion of the Inauguration gave you so much pleasure. The apples too were very carefully put up that you might feel that father had not forgotten you. Your letters, neatly written, generally well composed, and correct in language please me much. The only drawback I have is your persistent quarrel with the Latin. You say that it will do you no good hereafter. You will allow, I know, that I am the better judge upon that point; and I assure you if I did not believe that in after life you would thank me for insisting upon your further pursuit of the language I would yield to your wish. Not to enter into a labored argument to prove its usefulness, will you remember that the Latin is the foundation of at least five of the modern languages most in use, as a part of our own language and a most powerful auxilliary to our own – that you may see how much we are in debt to it I have checked the words (thus) derived in whole or part from it. You will find your path so strewn with Latin flowers while you acquire the Spanish or the Italian that you will remember with pleasure the pain of Sister Augustine's teachings. I am much obliged to you for your “cards.” If you could fully appreciate a father's pride in the well doing of a darling child a new incentive would be added to the conscientious discharge of your duty which you now I believe most fully do.

Do not permit idle gossip of idle people to annoy you. While you do as well as you now do you can have no cause to fear anything however malicious. You see, I have written you precisely as if you were a “big girl” instead of a very little one, but you know I have always treated you more like a woman than a child, and have appealed to your good sense and judgment rather than to the childish motives of hope of reward or fear of chiding. I look forward with almost as much pleasure as you can do to our excursion which we shall have together in our vacation.

FATHER

SOURCE: Jessie Ames Marshall, Editor, Private and Official Correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler During the Period of the Civil War, Volume 1: April 1860 – June 1862, p. 14

Major-General John A. Dix to the Honorable Francis P. Blair,

Fort McHenry, August 31, 1861.

My Dear Sir, — I have received the letter of the Postmaster of Baltimore, with your endorsement, in regard to the Exchange and other Secessionist presses in that city.

I presume you are not aware that an order for the suppression of these papers was made out in one of the Departments at Washington, and, in consequence of strong remonstrances from Union men in Baltimore, was not issued. Under these circumstances it would not be proper for me to act without the authority of the Government. Any action by me without such authority would be improper for another reason that probably does not occur to you. The command of General McClellan has been extended over the State of Maryland. I am his subordinate, and have corresponded with him on the subject. I cannot, therefore, act without his direction.

But, independently of this consideration, I think a measure of so much gravity as the suppression of a newspaper by military force should carry with it the whole weight of the influence and authority of the Government, especially when the publication is made almost under its eye.

There is no doubt that a majority of the Union men in Baltimore desire the suppression of all the opposition presses in the city; but there are many, and among them some of the most discreet, who think differently.

The city is now very quiet and under control, though my force is smaller than I asked. There is a good deal of impatience among some of the Union men; they wish to have something done. The feeling is very much like that which prevailed in Washington before the movement against Manassas. It would not be difficult to get up a political Bull Run disaster in this State. If the Government will give me the number of regiments I ask, and leave them with me when I have trained them to the special service they may have to perform, I will respond for the quietude of this city. Should the time for action come, I shall be ready. In the mean time preparation is going on. I am fortifying Federal Hill under a general plan of defence suggested by me and approved by General Scott. Two other works will be commenced the moment I can get an engineer from Washington.

On the Eastern Shore there should be prompt and decisive action. I have urged it repeatedly and earnestly during the last three weeks. Two well-disciplined regiments should march from Salisbury, the southern terminus of the Wilmington and Delaware Railroad, through Accomac and Northampton Counties, and break up the rebel camps before they ripen into formidable organizations, as they assuredly will if they are much longer undisturbed. No man is more strongly in favor of action than I am; but I want it in the right place. We are in more danger on the Eastern Shore than in any other part of the State.

I am, dear Sir, sincerely yours,

John A. Dix.

SOURCE:  Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 30-1

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Wednesday March 5, 1862

Fayetteville, Virginia. — Snow, raw weather. Rode with Dr. Joe four or five miles. The new horse doesn't seem to care for pistol firing. Open-air exercise agrees with me so well that I often feel as if an indoor life was unworthy of manhood; outdoor exercise for health I Read news of the 28th and [March] 1, Cincinnati. Rebel papers afford good reading these days.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 203

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 11, 1862

I have summed up the amounts of patriotic contributions received by the army in Virginia, and registered on my book, and they amount to $1,515,898.*

The people of the respective States contributed as follows:

North Carolina	$325,417
Alabama	317,600
Mississippi	272,670
Georgia	244,885
South Carolina	137,206
Texas	87,800
Louisiana	61,950
Virginia*	48,070
Tennessee	17,000
Florida	2,350
Arkansas	950

_______________

* Virginia undoubtedly contributed more than any other State, but they were not registered.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 113-4

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: December 27, 1864

Oh, why did we go to Camden? The very dismalest Christmas overtook us there. Miss Rhett went with us — a brilliant woman and very agreeable. '”The world, you know, is composed,” said she, “of men, women, and Rhetts” (see Lady Montagu). Now, we feel that if we are to lose our negroes, we would as soon see Sherman free them as the Confederate Government; freeing negroes is the last Confederate Government craze. We are a little too slow about it; that is all.

Sold fifteen bales of cotton and took a sad farewell look at Mulberry. It is a magnificent old country-seat, with old oaks, green lawns and all. So I took that last farewell of Mulberry, once so hated, now so beloved.

SOURCES: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 340

Diary of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire: August 10, 1863

Spent this morning in the house of mourning. Our neighbour Mrs. Stebbins has lost her eldest son. The disease was “that most fatal of Pandora's train,” consumption. He contracted it in the Western Army. His poor mother has watched the ebbing of his life for several months, and last night he died most suddenly. That young soldier related to me an anecdote, some weeks ago, with his short, oppressed breathing and broken sentences, which showed the horrors of this fratricidal war. He said that the day after a battle in Missouri, in the Fall of 1861, he, among others, was detailed to bury the dead. Some Yankee soldiers were on the field doing the same thing. As they turned over a dead man, he saw a Yankee stop, look intently, and then run to the spot with an exclamation of horror. In a moment he was on his knees by the body, in a paroxysm of grief. It was his brother. They were Missourians. The brother now dead had emigrated South some years before. He said that before the war communication had been kept up between them, and he had strongly suspected that he was in the army; he had consequently been in constant search of his brother. The Northern and Southern soldier then united in burying him, who was brother in arms of the one, and the mother's son of the other!

The Bishop and Mrs. J. returned home to-day from their long trip in the South-west. They travelled with great comfort, but barely escaped a raid at Wytheville. We welcomed them gladly. So many of our family party are wandering about, that our little cottage has become lonely.

Mr. C. has come out, and reports a furious bombardment of Sumter. This has been going on so long, that I begin to feel that it is indeed impregnable,

SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War, p. 236-7

General Joseph E. Johnston to Senator Louis T. Wigfall, December 14, 1863

Brandon, Dec. 14th, 1863.

My dear Wigfall:

I see in the newspapers reports of resolutions of what is called the Mississippi campaign. One of them calling for the correspondence connected with it.

Let me suggest that the campaign really commenced in the beginning of December, 1862 — and that my connection with it dates from November 24th of that year — the day on which I was assigned to supervision of Bragg's, Pemberton's and Kirby Smith's Commands. If investigation is made it should include that time, to make it complete. Or if correspondence or papers are called for begin with the order of November 24th just referred to. At that time we had the means of preventing the invasion of Mississippi and those means were pointed out by me in writing, as well as orally, to the Secretary of War in your presence. Such a publication would justify me fully in the opinions of all thinking men. It would show that while it was practicable I proposed the true system of warfare. That I could not go to Mississippi sooner than I did, and that I was “too late” to repair the consequences of previous measures and never had the means of rescuing Vicksburg or its garrison.

Very truly yours,

J. E. Johnston.

SOURCE: Louise Wigfall Wright, A Southern Girl in ’61, p. 161-2

Diary of Sarah Morgan: August 19, 1862

Yesterday, two Colonels, Shields and Breaux, both of whom distinguished themselves in the battle of Baton Rouge, dined here. Their personal appearance was by no means calculated to fill me with awe, or even to give one an idea of their rank; for their dress consisted of merely cottonade pants, flannel shirts, and extremely short jackets (which, however, is rapidly becoming the uniform of the Confederate States).

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

Just three lines back, three soldiers came in to ask for molasses. I was alone downstairs, and the nervous trepidation with which I received the dirty, coarsely clad strangers, who, however, looked as though they might be gentlemen, has raised a laugh against me from the others who looked down from a place of safety. I don't know what I did that was out of the way. I felt odd receiving them as though it was my home, and having to answer their questions about buying, by means of acting as telegraph between them and Mrs. Carter. I confess to that. But I know I talked reasonably about the other subjects. Playing hostess in a strange house! Of course, it was uncomfortable! and to add to my embarrassment, the handsomest one offered to pay for the milk he had just drunk! Fancy my feelings, as I hastened to assure him that General Carter never received money for such things, and from a soldier, besides, it was not to be thought of! He turned to the other, saying, “In Mississippi we don't meet with such people! Miss, they don't hesitate to charge four bits a canteen for milk. They take all they can. They are not like you Louisianians.” I was surprised to hear him say it of his own State, but told him we thought here we could not do enough for them.

SOURCE: Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's Diary, p. 179-80

Diary of Corporal Alexander G. Downing: Saturday, December 17, 1864

Large details of men from our division were sent out to cut and prepare timber for the engineers to build a wharf at the landing so that the boats can be unloaded more readily. Several hundred of us were at work, some cutting the trees — tall pines, others cutting them into proper lengths, and still others hewing and squaring the timbers. The teamsters then hauled them to the landing. Two more boats came up the river today, one loaded with hay for the mules, the other with our provisions. We received our mail today. All is quiet along the line and the weather is fine.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 238

Captain Charles Fessenden Morse, November 14, 1862

Camp Near Sharpsburgh, November 14, 1862.

I wonder if you are having as charming a day at home as we are having here. It is genuine Indian summer, with that soft, hazy atmosphere so peculiar to the season. The sun is almost hot, and only the chill in the air occasionally tells one how near winter it is. The leaves have nearly all fallen from the trees around us, and the river is almost in view from my tent door. Our camp must now be in plain sight from the other side, but I trust the rebs won't be so ill-mannered as to throw any shells into it.

Everything about our camp has the appearance of winter quarters; the men have, most of them, built themselves very comfortable houses of logs, boards, etc., with fire-places of various kinds in them, all far more comfortable than anything we had last winter. We officers are all fixed up in some shape or other, very pleasantly. I am living alone now and have my tent nicely floored; at the end of it, I have had the seam ripped up and have had built a good, open brick fire-place, so that now these cold evenings, and, in fact, nearly all the time, I have a fine blazing wood fire. You have no idea how cheerful this is; it seems almost like sitting down at home.

We heard, yesterday, the joyful news that Harry Russell had been exchanged. He won't allow much time to elapse before he joins the regiment. I know we shall all be glad enough to see him. He is one of our very best officers and a first-rate fellow; I hope he will never have to go through another such experience as he has had this summer.

You don't know what an interesting thing it is to ride over the hard fought ground of Antietam. Yesterday, Bob Shaw and I visited all the places where we were engaged, saw where our men were killed, etc.

We could follow our first line along by the graves; next to ours came the Third Wisconsin's, which lost terribly in this place; next to that was a battery which was splendidly fought. Where it stood, in one place there are the remains of fifteen dead horses lying so close that they touch each other. Farther on, towards our left, we found numerous graves of the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania men; they were in a wood. Every tree in the vicinity is scarred by bullets, and the branches torn by shell and shot. No language could describe more forcibly the severity of the fight. It is hard to realize, in riding through these now peaceful and beautiful woods, that they could have been filled so lately with all the sights and sounds of a great battle.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 105-6

Major Wilder Dwight: November 1, 1861

muddy Branch Camp, Camp Near Seneca,

November 1, 1861.

You have your choice of dates, for I think our camp lies between the two, and General Banks uses the former designation for the division, while General Abercrombie uses the latter for his brigade. I hope that we shall cease to have occasion to use either date before the traditional Thanksgiving day overtakes us. Unless we do, it will find us in the wilderness, and in fasting and humiliation. I look to see ripeness in these late autumn days, and I hope that, without shaking the tree of Providence, some full-grown events may gravitate rapidly to their ripe result, even in this ill-omened month of November. Your letter of Monday takes too dark a view of events. I can well understand that, at your distance, our hardships and trials look harder than they seem to us. I do not, in the least, despair of happy results, and the more I think of the Edward's Ferry, or loon-roads, or Conrad's Ferry mishap (or, to describe it alliteratively, the blunder of Ball's Bluff), the more clearly it seems to me to be an insignificant blunder on the out skirts of the main enterprise, which, except for the unhappy loss of life, and except as a test of military capacity, is now a part of the past, without any grave consequences to follow. I was well aware that, in writing my first letter, I should give you the vivid, and possibly the exaggerated impressions of the sudden and immediate presence of the disaster. The wreck of a small yacht is quite as serious to the crew as the foundering of the Great Eastern. But the underwriters class the events very differently. And in our national account of loss, Ball's Bluff will take a modest rank.

Should the naval expedition prove a success, and should the Army of the Potomac strike its blow at the opportune moment, we can forget our mishap. You see I am chasing again the butterflies of hope. Without them life wouldn't be worth the living.

Tell father I have read the pleasant sketch of Soldiers and their Science, which he sent me. I wish he would get me the book itself, through Little and Brown, and also “Crawford's Standing Orders,” and send them on by express. This coming winter has got to be used in some way, and I expect to dedicate a great part of it to catching up with some of these West Point officers in the commonplaces of military science.

We are quietly in camp again, and are arranging our camping-ground with as much neatness and care as if it were to be permanent. The ovens have been built, the ground cleared, the stumps uprooted, and now the air is full of the noise of a large party of men who are clearing off the rubbish out of the woods about our tents. By Sunday morning our camp will look as clean and regular and military as if we had been here a month. Yesterday was the grand inspection and muster for payment. I wish you could have seen the regiment drawn up with its full equipment, — knapsacks, haversacks, and all. It was a fine sight. By the way, why does not father snatch a day or two, and come out to see us? We are only a pleasant morning's drive from Washington, and I think he would enjoy seeing us as we are in our present case. D––– would enjoy the trip, too, and they might also pay a visit to William down at Port Tobacco, or wherever he may now be. I throw out this suggestion.

To-day I am brigade officer of the day, and I have been in the saddle this morning three or four hours visiting the camps and the pickets on the river. It has been a beautiful morning of the Indian summer, and I have enjoyed it greatly. Colonel Andrews took cold and got over-fatigued during our last week's work, and he is quite down with a feverish attack. Yesterday I found a nice bed for him in a neighboring house, and this morning he is quite comfortable. We miss him very much in camp, and I hope he'll be up in a day or two

“Happy that nation whose annals are tiresome,” writes some one. “Lucky that major whose letters are dull,” think you, I suppose. That good fortune, if it be one, I now enjoy.

I have an opportunity to send this letter, and so off it goes, with much love to all at home, in the hope that you will keep your spirits up.

SOURCE: Elizabeth Amelia Dwight, Editor, Life and Letters of Wilder Dwight: Lieut.-Col. Second Mass. Inf. Vols., p. 133-5

Colonel Edward F. Jones to Governor John A. Andrew, February 5, 1861

BosTON, Feb. 5th, 1861

To His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief:

At our interview this morning you requested me to put the matter which I wished to communicate in writing. In accordance therewith, I make the following statement as to the condition of my command, and take the liberty to forward the same directly to you, passing over the usual channel of communication for want of time. The Sixth Regiment consists of eight companies, located as follows, viz.: Four in Lowell, two in Lawrence, one in Acton, and one in Groton, made up mostly of men of families, “who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow,” men who are willing to leave their homes, families, and all that man holds dear, and sacrifice their present and future as a matter of duty. Four companies of the regiment are insufficiently armed (as to quantity) with a serviceable rifle musket; the other four with the old musket, which is not a safe or serviceable arm, and requiring a different cartridge from the first, which would make confusion in the distribution of ammunition. Two companies are without uniforms, having worn them out, and were proposing to have new the ensuing spring. Six companies and the band have company uniforms of different colors and styles, but insufficient in numbers, and which are entirely unfit for actual service, from the fact that they are made of fine cloth, more for show and the attractive appearance of the company on parade than any other purpose, being cut tight to the form and in fashionable style.

I would (after being properly armed and equipped) suggest our actual necessary wants, viz.: a cap, frock coat, pantaloons, boots, overcoat, knapsack, and blanket to each man, of heavy serviceable material, cut sufficiently loose, and made strongly to stand the necessities of the service. Such is our position, and I think it is a fair representation of the condition of most of the troops in the State. Their health and their efficiency depend greatly upon their comfort.

My command is not able pecuniarily to put themselves in the necessary condition, and should they, as a matter of right and justice, be asked so to do, even were they able? What is the cost in money to the State of Massachusetts when compared to the sacrifices we are called upon to make?

Respectfully,

EDWARD F. JonEs, Col. Sixth Regiment

P.S.. I would also suggest that it would require from ten to fourteen days as the shortest possible time within which my command could be put in marching order.

SOURCE: Jessie Ames Marshall, Editor, Private and Official Correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler During the Period of the Civil War, Volume 1: April 1860 – June 1862, p. 5-6

Assistant-Adjutant General William D. Whipple to Edward McKenney Hudson, August 16, 1861

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA,

Baltimore, Md., August 16, 1861.

EDWARD McK. HUDSON, Aide-de-Camp:

SIR: I am directed by Major-General Dix to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 15th instant, addressed to Brigadier-General Dix, commanding Department of Baltimore, and inclosing paragraphs from newspapers published in this city.¹

He requests me to say that he is the major general commanding the Department of Pennsylvania, composed of the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and all of Maryland except the counties of Alleghany and Washington, which belong to the Department of the Shenandoah, and the counties of Frederick, Montgomery, and Prince George's, which belong to the Department of Washington. If any changes have been made in his command he has no information, official or unofficial, in respect to them. He received last evening a dispatch, signed Lawrence A. Williams, aide-de-camp, in the name of the commanding general of the division, and though it contained nothing more definite in regard to the authority from which it emanated, he assumed that it came to him by direction of the Government, and immediately sent for the agent of the Sun newspaper, The proprietor being absent, and he thinks the result of the interview will be to cause a discontinuance of exceptionable articles like those which have recently appeared in that paper.

Major-General Dix requests me to say to Major-General McClellan that his attention, since he assumed the command of this department, has been so engaged by official duties that the course of the secessionist papers in Baltimore was not noticed by him until the early part of this week. He has been considering whether the emergency would not warrant a suppression of the papers referred to, if, after warning them of the consequences of a persistence in their hostility to the Union, they should refuse to abstain from misrepresentations of the conduct and motives of the Government and the publication of intelligence calculated to aid and encourage the public enemy. It was his intention in a matter of so much gravity – one affecting so deeply the established opinions of the country in regard to the freedom of the press – to ask the direction of the Government as soon as he should feel prepared to recommend a definite course of action. In the mean time it will give him pleasure to do all in his power to suppress the publication of information in regard to the movements, position, and number of our troops, as Major-General McClellan requests, as it is possible that orders may have been issued affecting his command and by accident not have reached him.

Major-General Dix will be glad to receive any information you may have in regard to the modification, if any has been made, of General Orders, No. 47.²

I am, very respectfully, yours,

 WM. D. WHIPPLE,

 Assistant Adjutant-General.

_______________

¹ Not found.

² Of July 25, 1861. See p. 763, Vol. II, of this series.

SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 5 (Serial No. 5), p. 562-3; Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 29-30

Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas’ General Orders, No. 47, July 25, 1861

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 47

WAR DEP’T, ADJT. GEN.'S OFFICE,

Washington, July 25, 1861.

I. There will be added to the Department of the Shenandoah the counties of Washington and Alleghany, in Maryland, and such other parts of Virginia as may be covered by the Army in its operations; and there will be added to the Department of Washington the counties of Prince George, Montgomery, and Frederick.

The remainder of Maryland and all Pennsylvania and Delaware will constitute the Department of Pennsylvania; headquarters, Baltimore.

The Department of Washington and the Department of Northeastern Virginia will constitute a geographical division, under Major-General McClellan, U.S. Army; headquarters, Washington.

By order:

 L. THOMAS.

Adjutant-General.

SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 2 (Serial No. 2), p. 763

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Monday March 3, 1862

Still raining, some sleet, cold as blazes at night. Ride my new horse, a yellow sorrel of Norman stock; call him Webby.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 202

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Tuesday March 4, 1862

Bright, cold, snow on ground. Ride with Dr. Joe, A. M. Webby doesn't like the bit; it brings the blood. A good horse, I think.

Today a German soldier, Hegelman, asks to marry a girl living near here. She comes in to see me on the same subject; a good-looking girl, French on her father's side, name, Elizabeth Ann de Quasie. A neighbor tells me she is a queer girl; has belonged to the Christian, Baptist, and Methodist church, that she now prefers the Big Church. She has a doubtful reputation. When Charles Hegelman came in to get permission to go to Gauley to get married by the chaplain of the Twenty-eighth, I asked him why he was in a hurry to marry; if he knew much about her; and what was her name. He replied, “I like her looks”; and after confessing that he didn't know her name, that he thought it was Eliza Watson(!), he admitted that the thing was this: Eight hundred dollars had been left to him payable on his marriage, and he wanted the money out at interest!

A jolly evening with Drs. Webb and McCurdy and Lieutenants Avery and Bottsford at my room. Bottsford giving his California experience — gambling, fiddling, spreeing, washing clothes, driving mules, keeping tavern, grocery, digging, clerking, etc., etc., rich and poor, in debt and working it out; all in two or three years.

News on the wires that the Rebels have Murfreesboro; that Pope takes four or six guns from Jeff Thompson; that there is appearance of a move at Centreville and also of a move on Charleston, Virginia, and the capture of six hundred barrels of flour.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 202-3

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 3, 1862

But McClellan would not advance. He could not drag his artillery at this season of the year; and so he is embarking his army, or the greater portion of it, for the Peninsula.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 113