Diary of 1st Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Friday, August 26, 1864

As usual we were ordered to be under arms at 4 o'clock a. m. but the enemy has not yet appeared on our right, nor do I think they will; have had charge of a fatigue party nearly all day policing in front of the rifle pits. Captain L. T. Hunt of Company H returned to the regiment this afternoon looking well; has been absent wounded. Captains C. D. Bogue and A. W. Chilton's commissions came by to-day's mail; no skirmishing all day.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 140

Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney, Tuesday, December 23, 1862

Arrived at Dayton at 2 A. M. Went into a hotel. Landlord very insolent. Turned down the gas on the Major. Major told him he was the meanest man he ever saw. He intimated that he was secesh. I told him to say he was half secesh and we would clean him out so soon he wouldn't know it. Kept the light burning. Boys stole a good many things. Went around Dayton a little. A very neat city. Liked it well but couldn't go the “Vallandighamism” of the place. Arrived at Columbus at 3 P. M. Remained with baggage to take care of Major's things. After dark when I got to camp, stayed with Bill.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 51

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Thursday, May 11, 1865

Sprinkled a little during the night cloudy & promising ruin this morning. Spend the forenoon making out some Returns. Afternoon spend writing, sprinkled a very little A. M. Pay Master Maj Gifford commences paying the regt at 10.45 pay all the companies except “K” “G” & “B,” which have to lay over until tomorrow. Lt Cory come over this evening when he & I went to the pay master & drew our pay. I was paid in full up to time of discharge Feb 20th 1865, & ree'd $253.30. Genl Steel has arrived with his command & Genl Smith is coming with the 10th Corps. Men visiting the city today had to have passes approved by the Pro Marshal of the Div which had to be approved by the Pro Marshal in the city before they could return on them, evening cool, about 300 of Genl Taylors men come in from Meridian today & the town is alive with grey backs.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 600

Joseph Bryant to John Brown, June 16, 1857

I called on the colonel last night; found him well, except very anxious about getting his family to this country. He is not ready to join you; thinks nothing will be needed out West before winter, — not till Congress have met and acted in favor of the constitution about being framed; so he thinks. He is getting along, he tells me, as fast as possible with his book; will have it ready in about ten days; has as yet raised no funds to pay the passage of his family. Thinks they will have to come in the third class passage, which grieves him very much, as his wife is not in good health. I had promised what money was in my hands to defray the expenses of publishing his book; this I promised him on account of your introduction to me of him.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 390

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, April 30, 1863

To-day has been designated for a National Fast. I listened to a patriotic Christian discourse from my pastor, Mr. Pyne.

Had a long, studied, complaining letter from Admiral Du Pont, of some twenty pages, in explanation and refutation of a letter in the Baltimore American, which criticizes and censures his conduct at Charleston. The dispatch is no credit to Du Pont, who could be better employed. He is evidently thinking much more of Du Pont than of the service or the country. I fear he can be no longer useful in his present command, and am mortified and vexed that I did not earlier detect his vanity and weakness. They have lost us the opportunity to take Charleston, which a man of more daring energy and who had not a distinguished name to nurse and take care of would have improved. All Du Pont's letters since the 8th show that he had no heart, no confidence, no zeal in his work; that he went into the fight with a predetermined conviction it would not be a success. He is prejudiced against the monitor class of vessels, and would attribute his failure to them, but it is evident he has no taste for rough, close fighting.

Senator Sumner called on me this P.M. in relation to the coast defense of Massachusetts. I received a letter from Governor Andrew this A.M. on the same subject. The President had also been to see me in regard to it.

After disposing of that question, Sumner related an interesting conversation which he had last evening with Lord Lyons at Tassara's, the Spanish Minister. I was an hour or two at Tassara's party, in the early part of the evening, and observed S. and Lord L. in earnest conversation. Sumner says their whole talk was on the subject of the mails on captured vessels. He opened the subject by regretting that in the peculiar condition of our affairs, Lord Lyons should have made a demand that could not be yielded without national dishonor; said that the question was one of judicature rather than diplomacy. Lord Lyons disavowed ever having made a demand; said he was cautious and careful in all his transactions with Mr. Seward, that he made it a point to reduce all matters with Seward of a public nature to writing, that he had done so in regard to the mail of the Peterhoff, and studiously avoided any demand. He authorized Sumner, who is Chairman of Foreign Relations, to see all his letters in relation to the mails, etc., etc.

To-day Sumner saw the President and repeated to him this conversation, Lord Lyons having authorized him to do so. The President, he says, seemed astounded, and after some general conversation on the subject, said in his emphatic way, “I shall have to cut this knot.”

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 288-9

Diary of John Hay: December 13, 1863

The President, speaking to-day about Missouri matters, said he had heard some things of Schofield which had very much displeased him: — That while Washburne was in Missouri, he saw or thought he saw that Schofield was working rather energetically in the politics of the State, and that he approached Schofield and proposed that he should use his influence to harmonize the conflicting elements so as to elect one of each wing, Gratz Brown and Henderson. Schofield’s reply was that he would not consent to the election of Gratz Brown.

Again when Gratz Brown was about coming to Washington, he sent a friend to Schofiled to say that he would not oppose his confirmation, if he (S.) would, so far as his influence extended, agree to a Convention of Missouri to make necessary alterations in her State Constitution. Schofield’s reply, as reported by Brown to the President was that he would not consent to a State Convention. These things, the President says, are obviously transcendent of his instructions and must not be permitted. He has sent for Schofiled to come to Washington and explain these grave matters.

The President is inclined to put Rosecrans in Schofield’s place, and to give to Gen. Curtis the Department of Kansas. But Halleck and Stanton stand in his way, and he has to use the strong hand so often with those impractical gentlemen that he avoids it when he can.

To-night Hackett arrived and spent the evening with the President. The conversation at first took a professional turn, the President showing a very intimate knowledge of those plays of Shakespeare where Falstaff figures. He was particularly anxious to know why one of the best scenes in the play — that where Falstaff and Prince Hal alternately assume the character of the king — is omitted in the representation. Hackett says it is admirable to read, but ineffective on stage; — that there is generally nothing sufficiently distinctive about the actor who plays Henry to make an imitation striking.

Hackett plays with stuffing of india-rubber; — says Shakespeare refers to it when he says: “How now! blown Jack!” Hackett is a very amusing and garrulous talker. He had some good reminiscences of Houston, Crockett (the former he admires, the latter he thinks a dull man), McCarty and Prentiss. . . .

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 139-40; For the whole diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 137-9.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Brigadier-General Charles W. Hill, July 31, 1862

Headquarters 23D Regt. O. V.,

Camp Green Meadows, Mercer County, Virginia,

July 31, 1862.

Sir: — I am this day in receipt of Special Orders No. 716, dated Adjutant-General's Office, Columbus, Ohio, July 21, 1862, directed to me at Cincinnati, authorizing me to assist in raising one of the new regiments now forming in Ohio. I shall apply for leave of absence by today's mail for the purpose of entering upon the service indicated in the order.

It is proper to add that, although fully sensible of the importance of rapid recruiting, I would not ask leave of absence from duty in the field for that purpose, if there was any immediate prospect of active operations here.

Respectfully,

R. B. Hayes,

Lieutenant-colonel Twenty-third Regt., O. V.

Commanding.

Brigadier-general C. W. Hill,

Adjutant-general Ohio.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 314

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: February 9, 1864

Great news this morning. A raid is being made on Richmond by Kilpatrick, Rebels manning their forts in sight of us. All are at work, women, children, in fact everybody who can shovel. No cars running over the big bridge. Double guards placed over us and the greatest activity prevails among them. It is really amusing to see them flying around and many are the jokes at their expense. All business is suspended in Richmond; no papers issued, and everybody with their guns or working utensils. Brass bands are playing their best to encourage the broken down Confederacy. A portion of the congress came over this afternoon to take a look at us, among whom were Davis, Benjamin and Howell Cobb. They are a substantial looking set of men and of the regular southern cut The broad brim hats, gold headed canes and aristocratic toss of the head, alone would tell who they were. They are a proud, stern set of men and look as if they would like to brush us out of existence. Still we are not going to be brushed out so easy and they found men among us who were not afraid to stare, or hold our heads as high as their lordships. A band accompanied them and played the Bonnie Blue Flag, which was hissed and groaned at by the Yankees, and in return a thousand voices sang Yankee Doodle, very much to their discomfiture.

SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p. 31

Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett: November 12, 1864

I am very much encouraged by my condition the last few days, very little pain, no diarrhoea.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 148

Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett: November 24, 1864

How much I have to give thanks for on this day. That I am here, as well as I am. When I think of what easily might have been!

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 148

Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett: December 31, 1864

So ends 1864, an eventful year for me in more ways than one. May the end of 1865 find me alive and well, a better man, and more deserving of God's mercy and goodness and the love of my darling Agnes.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 148

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 10, 1863

No war news of importance.

Just at this time there is a large number of persons passing to and from the North. They are ostensibly blockade-runners, and they do succeed in bringing from the enemy's country a large amount of goods, on which an enormous profit is realized. The Assistant Secretary of War, his son-in-law, Lt.-Col. Lay, the controlling man in the Bureau of Conscription, and, indeed, many heads of bureaus, have received commodities from Maryland, from friends running the blockade. Gen. Winder himself, and his Provost Marshal Griswold (how much that looks like a Yankee name!), and their police detectives, have reaped benefit from the same source. But this intercourse with the enemy is fraught with other matters. Communications are made by the disloyal to the enemy, and our condition — bad enough, heaven knows! — is made known, and hence the renewed efforts to subjugate us. This illicit intercourse, inaugurated under the auspices of Mr. Benjamin, and continued by subsequent Ministers of War, may be our ruin, if we are destined to destruction. Already it has unquestionably cost us thousands of lives and millions of dollars. I feel it a duty to make this record.

To day we have a violent snow-storm — a providential armistice.

It has been ascertained that Hooker's army is still near the Rappahannock, only some 20,000 or 30,000 having been sent to the Peninsula and to Suffolk. No doubt he will advance as soon as the roads become practicable. If Hooker has 150,000 men, and advances soon, Gen. Lee cannot oppose his march; and in all probability we shall again hear the din of war, from this city, in April and May. The fortifications are strong, however, and 25,000 men may defend the city against 100,000 — provided we have subsistence. The great fear is famine. But hungry men will fight desperately. Let the besiegers beware of them!

We hope to have nearly 400,000 men in the field in May, and I doubt whether the enemy will have over 500,000 veterans at the end of that month. Their new men will not be in fighting condition before July. We may cross the Potomac again.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 271-2

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Thursday, August 25, 1864

Well, another birthday has passed and with it another year has gone, and one of great military experience, and I trust it has been profitably spent; very warm till about 3 o'clock p. m. when it showered; had monthly inspection at 4 o'clock p. m. General Wilson's division of cavalry started this morning on a reconnoissance towards Martinsburg; heard heavy cannonading about 3 o'clock p. m.; can't learn any particulars.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 139

Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney, Monday, December 22, 1862

Arrived at Lafayette at 10 A. M. Went to a bakery for dinner. Pie and bread and butter. Remained till 2 P. M. Herb. Kenaston came aboard and went with us to Indianapolis. Had a good visit with him, not much change. Told a pleasing incident about correspondence with Mary Dascomb. Arrived at Indianapolis at dark, only an hour or two delay. Lunch.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 50-1

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Wednesday, May 10, 1865

Slept sweetly. Sun arose hot. Myself rather lame with a boil on the right ancle, Temp & Capt hard to work get up a good shade & at 10, A. M. ordered ¾ mile to the right & camp in the brushy woods where we have to cut out the brush to make camp. The report of our likelyhood to be mustered out arose from the publication of Genl Orders No 77, news here that Kirby Smith tells his men by a proclamation that he intend to fight, are told that tomorrow at 8. a. m. we get our Greenback rec mail today.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 600

In The Review Queue: The Republic for Which It Stands

The Republic for Which It Stands:

The United States during Reconstruction

and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896

by Richard White

Release Date: September 2017

The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multivolume history of the American nation. In the newest volume in the series, The Republic for Which It Stands, acclaimed historian Richard White offers a fresh and integrated interpretation of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age as the seedbed of modern America.

At the end of the Civil War the leaders and citizens of the victorious North envisioned the country's future as a free-labor republic, with a homogenous citizenry, both black and white. The South and West were to be reconstructed in the image of the North. Thirty years later Americans occupied an unimagined world. The unity that the Civil War supposedly secured had proved ephemeral. The country was larger, richer, and more extensive, but also more diverse. Life spans were shorter, and physical well-being had diminished, due to disease and hazardous working conditions. Independent producers had become wage earners. The country was Catholic and Jewish as well as Protestant, and increasingly urban and industrial. The "dangerous" classes of the very rich and poor expanded, and deep differences-ethnic, racial, religious, economic, and political-divided society. The corruption that gave the Gilded Age its name was pervasive.

These challenges also brought vigorous efforts to secure economic, moral, and cultural reforms. Real change-technological, cultural, and political-proliferated from below more than emerging from political leadership. Americans, mining their own traditions and borrowing ideas, produced creative possibilities for overcoming the crises that threatened their country.

In a work as dramatic and colorful as the era it covers, White narrates the conflicts and paradoxes of these decades of disorienting change and mounting unrest, out of which emerged a modern nation whose characteristics resonate with the present day.

About the Author

Richard White is Margaret Byrne Professor of American History at Stanford University. He is the author of numerous prize-winning books, including Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815, and "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A New History of the American West. He is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Mellon Distinguished Scholar Award, among other awards.

ISBN 978-0199735815, Oxford University Press, © 2017, Hardcover, 928 pages, Photographs, Maps, Illustrations, Appendix, Foot Notes, Bibliographical Essay & Index. $35.00. To purchase this book click HERE.

Joseph Bryant to John Brown, June 1, 1857

I this day saw your friend Colonel Forbes; he is trying to raise funds to get his family brought to this country, but I fear he will not succeed very well. I will have, when collected, some six dollars only in my hands; this I intend passing into his hands. I may get a few dollars more, but the prospects are not very good here at present to raise money. The colonel says he is getting along well in getting his printing done (and is losing no time).

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 390

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, April 29, 1863

The atmosphere is thick with rumors of army movements. Hooker is reported to have crossed the river. Not unlikely a portion of his force has done so, and all may. That there may be a battle imminent is not improbable. I shall not be surprised, however, if only smart skirmishes take place.

Admiral Lee writes me that in his opinion there is no such force in Suffolk as Dix and others represent. General Dix, like most of our generals, cries aloud for gunboats and naval protection, but is not inclined to be grateful, or even just to his defenders.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 287

Diary of John Hay: December 12, 1863

I met at the Theatre S. S. Cox, who was speaking of the statesmanship and success of Gov. Seward, attributing much to the bon hommie and affability of his manners. He says Seward sent for him the other day and asked him if he wanted to retain his place on the Committee of Foreign Relations, and if he wished to designate what gentlemen on the Democratic side should be associated with him, promising to speak to Colfax for him. This frank kindliness seemed to have won Cox over very much personally. Seward is unquestionably gaining in popularity very fast. Mercier said of him the other day: — “II est très sage.” The diplomatic body have all apparently stopped abusing him, and those who do not like, have been forced to respect.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 138-9; For the whole diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and letters of John Hay, p. 137.

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Thursday, July 31, 1862

Rained almost all day, clearing up the after part of the day. Received Commercial of 28th. It looks as if they were getting ready to draft. The Commercial finds fault with the rule which practically excludes from the new regiments officers already in the field: no one to be appointed unless he can be present to aid in recruiting, and no officer to have leave of absence unless he is actually commissioned over a regiment already filled up!! Well, I am indifferent. The present position is too agreeable, to make [me] regret not getting another. — I saw the new moon square in front.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 313-4