Diary of 1st Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Tuesday, August 30, 1864

We were under arms at 3 o'clock a. m., but no signs of an enemy. It's a beautiful cool morning. Some think Early has gone to reinforce Lee; guess not; at any rate, an enemy is in front. The Third Division hasn't moved back to its original position as anticipated last night. Time hangs heavily and were it not for the bands I should be almost homesick; got a mail but no news from home.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 142

Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney, January 1, 1863

In Camp Chase. Charlie went home and D. R. H. returned to camp. Saw D. R. and John Devlin. Brought a note and stick of candy from home.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 52

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Monday, May 15, 1865

Seems to be the opinion that we will remain here sometime Regt are ordered to clear the brush from about the camp & keep them well policed. I go to the pier at the river & take a canoe & am rowed to the city by “99” in the short space of 43 minutes, find the town crowded with Jonnies, plenty of stores open but no stock on yet, go to more than a dozen shops before I could get a pair of shoes to suit me & payed the small sum of $8.00 The city did not interest me atal & I remained but about ¾ hour, going back to find our canoe it was gone, & I had to foot it to camp 3½ miles which I found no fun for a lame man especially as the sun was most unsparingly liberal with its heated rays. I heard no news in town, no paper published this morning, a regt of Jonnies from the state of La. came in on the cars they look pretty rough, stopped at the bridge to wash & cool off saw 2 recruits green from the north for an Illinois Regt arrived at camp found John Alsup of co B had been a prisoner with our men in Texas is now exchanged. reports that there is an order in New Orleans to muster out all the troops enlisted in 1862, Reports from Div Head Quarters are that a flag of Truce has been sent to negotiate terms of surrender with Kirby Smith & that the reb Genl Hood accompanied the flag to use his influence with Smith. This P. M. Div recs orders to be in readiness to move at an hours warning & to store all surplus baggage immediately in Mobile. This looks toward Texas. It is yet a hidden mistery how we will move from here. Some say by water to New Orleans others direct to Galveston & yet others that we will march to Batonrouge went to the river this evening & had the pleasure of a fine boat ride leg gives me but little pain

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 602

James H. Holmes to John Brown, 3 p.m., April 30, 1857

Lawrence, Kan., 3 o'clock, P. M., April 30, 1857.

Dear Friend Brown, — This morning I received your letter which came by the way of Tabor, and also your letter which came through the mail. I had previously written you a short letter. I now write to let you know that I have received them, and to answer them hastily; though I presume you will leave Springfield for Kansas ere this reaches you. I do not think there is any disposition to “back down” by the Free-State men, other than by the speculators; and they are, as a class, never to be relied on, of course. I have full faith in the virtue of the Free-State men of Kansas. You have something to learn in the political world here.

You will hear of me either at Lawrence, through J. E. Cook, of the firm of Bacon, Cook, &. Co., or I may be at Emporia, where I have taken a claim and make it my home. At any rate, Cook can tell you where I may be. A case has recently occurred of kidnapping a Free-State man, which is this: Archibald Kandell, a young fellow who came in with Redpath under Eldridge, last fall, and has been all winter on a claim near Osawatomie, was some two weeks since enticed out under pretence of trading horses, by four men, and abducted into Missouri. Archy was in my company, and is a good brave fellow. How long he is to remain incarcerated and in chains I will not in this place and time attempt to predict.

Judge Conway is here, radical and right. Dr. Robinson recently made a proposition with some leading proslavery men to compromise. The Free-State men won't do it. We are talking of running Phillips for governor next fall.

Very truly your constant friend,

James.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 392-3

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, May 5, 1863

But little of importance at the Cabinet. The President read a brief telegram which he got last evening from General Hooker, to whom, getting nothing from the War Department, he had applied direct to ascertain whether the Rebels were in possession of the works on the heights of Fredericksburg. Hooker replied he believed it was true, but if so it was of no importance. This reply communicates nothing of operations, but the tone and whole thing — even its brevity — inspire right feelings. It is strange, however, that no reliable intelligence reaches us from the army of what it is doing, or not doing. This fact itself forebodes no good.

Sumner came in this afternoon and read to me from two or three documents — one the late speech of the Solicitor of the Treasury in the British Parliament on the matter of prize and prize courts — which are particularly favorable to our views in the Peterhoff case. From this we got on to the absorbing topic of the army under Hooker. Sumner is hopeful, and if he did not inspire me with his confidence, I was made glad by his faith. The President came in while we were discussing the subject, and, as is his way, at once earnestly participated. His suggestions and inferences struck me as probable, hopeful, nothing more. Like the rest of us, he wants facts; without them we have only surmises and surmises indicate doubt, uncertainty. He is not informed of occurrences as he should be, but is in the dark, with no official data, which confirms me in the belief that the War Department is in ignorance, for they would not withhold favorable intelligence from him, yet it is strange, very strange. In the absence of news the President strives to feel encouraged and to inspire others, but I can perceive he has doubts and misgivings, though he does not express them. Like my own, perhaps, his fears are the result of absence of facts, rather than from any information received.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 292-3

Diary of John Hay: Tuesday, December 24, 1863

I dined to-day with S. S. Cox. He spoke of Greeley’s foolish  Chase explosion the other night at Wendell Phillip’s Cooper Institute meeting, and said Chase was working night and day. He has gotten nearly the whole strength of the New England States. If there is any effort made in Ohio he can be beaten there.  He has little strength in his own State.

I asked him whom his party would nominate.

C. “Gen'l McClellan! We will run McClellan. He is our best ticket. He lost some prestige by his Woodward letter. But it was necessary. He never would have gotten the nomination without it.”

“You don't agree with the Herald on Grant?”

C. “Grant belongs to the Republicans. We can't take him after his letter to Washburne. But for that, we might have taken him. The Republicans won't take him either. They have got his influence, and have no further use for him.”

“If I were a soldier I should much prefer commanding the U. S. Army for life, to four years in the Executive Mansion. I think Grant would.”

“So would McClellan, I know."

I met him again to-night in the Theatre. He says he is getting tired of Washington. He wants to spend a few years in Europe. He will go, if McClellan is next President; — thinks he will anyhow. Says it is delightful to be in the minority; you are not bored by your people for office. — “Glad you like it!” quoth I. “We will try to keep you so.”

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 143-4; for the entire diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letter of John Hay, p. 143-4

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Monday, August 4, 1862

Company I, Greenwood muskets, fired at target one hundred yards. Best string, thirty-seven inches (4 shots); the muskets not so accurate for short ranges as the Enfields; not so well sighted. Possibly the men are somewhat afraid of them is one reason. I keep the men busy to prevent rusting. This target practice seems to interest them very much.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 315

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: February 13, 1864

Very cold. The rebels are again settling down and getting over their scare. Not much to eat now and the men more disheartened than ever. A rebel preacher delivered us a sermon of two hours length from a dry goods box. He was listened to attentively and made the remark before closing that he didn't know as he was doing any good talking to us. It was like casting pearls before swine and he would close his remarks, to Which a Yankee told him he might have stopped long ago if he had wanted to; no one would have made any objections. Was told that six hundred are to start for Georgia to-day and subsequently six hundred every day until all are removed from Richmond. Lieut. Bossieux says it is so but there is going to be an exchange of sick in a few days and all outside hands shall be sent north with them.

SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p. 32

Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett to Edwin M. Stanton, August 19, 1865

[Draft.]

August 19, 1865.

Dear Sir, — I cannot express to you my appreciation of and thanks for your very kind note of the 12th, in which you so graciously grant my request for leave of absence. I cannot forget your kindness in this matter, and shall try not to forfeit your favorable consideration.

You addressed me as Brevet Major-general, and I have been informed that such a brevet had been recommended, and that Mr. S. had written to you concerning its confirmation, but I have not received any official notice of it, and the leave is made out for Brigadier-general. In the matter of pay, you have said all that I could expect, and I am content to leave the question suspended, and await the decision that circumstances may dictate, judging that it is not doubtful up to the time when I should otherwise have been mustered out.

I have just received the leave from the Adjutant-general's office.

Yours, etc.

[brigadier-general Willaim F. Bartlett.]

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 154-5

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 14, 1863

Gen. Pemberton writes that he has 3000 hogsheads of sugar at Vicksburg, which he retains for his soldiers to subsist on when the meat fails. Meat is scarce there as well as here. Bacon now sells for $1.50 per pound in Richmond. Butter $3. I design to cultivate a little garden 20 by 50 feet; but fear I cannot get seeds. I have sought in vain for peas, beans, corn, and tomatoes seeds. Potatoes are $12 per bushel. Ordinary chickens are worth $3 a piece. My youngest daughter put her earrings on sale to-day — price $25; and I think they will bring it, for which she can purchase a pair of shoes. The area of subsistence is contracting around us; but my children are more enthusiastic for independence than ever. Daily I hear them say they would gladly embrace death rather than the rule of the Yankee. If all our people were of the same mind, our final success would be certain.

This day the leading article in the Examiner had a striking, if not an ominous conclusion. Inveighing against the despotism of the North, the editor takes occasion likewise to denounce the measure of impressment here. He says if our Congress should follow the example of the Northern Congress, and invest our President with dictatorial powers, a reconstruction of the Union might be a practicable thing; for our people would choose to belong to a strong despotism rather than a weak one — the strong one being of course the United States with 20,000,000, rather than the Confederate States with 8,000,000. There maybe something in this, but we shall be injured by it; for the crowd going North will take it thither, where it will be reproduced, and stimulate the invader to renewed exertions. It is a dark hour. But God disposes. If we deserve it, we shall triumph; if not, why should we?

But we cannot fail without more great battles; and who knows what results may be evolved by them? Gen. Lee is hopeful; and so long as we keep the field, and he commands, the foe must bleed for every acre of soil they gain.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 273-4

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Monday, August 29, 1864

A cool comfortable day; laid out Company streets this forenoon and everything looks as though we were to remain in camp several days. Torbet's cavalry has been engaged all day, but was driven back about 4 o'clock when our Division was sent out to support it. The enemy fell back as soon as they discovered our infantry. We followed the rebs about five miles, returned about half way to camp, and Bivouacked. There's good news from Grant's army to-night. We await anxiously for the returns from the Chicago convention.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 141

Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney, December 26-31, 1862

Received and answered home letters. Kept at my old duties of Com. Sergt., not very arduous. Delos went home, having received a telegram that his presence was needed there. They had a real family gathering of friends from east, south and west. Came back the 31st and made us most homesick. Wrote a letter, a good one too, to Will, intending to send it by C. G. F. but he did not let me know when he left, so I destroyed it, getting too old.

Well, the year as a whole has passed much more rapidly and pleasantly than I anticipated a year ago. To be sure I never could be satisfied to spend a life in such service, still I have rather enjoyed the life I have been leading, because a sense of duty prompted me to it. My sufferings have been light indeed.

Of one thing I am sure. Had I spent the year at home, though I would have enjoyed it much, I would have been a poor, frail, sickly boy longing for death to come quickly and suddenly. Nearly so I felt January last. I hoped that health would come quickly or that by the fate of war my life would be sacrificed. A lingering death I have always had a horror of. Even now did I know that my fate were to die of consumption 8 or 10 years hence or to be shot in battle in six months, I should prefer the latter I believe. In fact, I have no desire to live a frail dependent boy any length of time. I presume this feeling has influenced me greatly in going upon so many expeditions, when I have been where I need not have gone at all. I have felt that this time I can go as well as any one else and if I fall, the world loses nothing, if somebody else fell, the contrary. Still I never went where bullets were flying but I thought seriously of my past life, my preparation to die. Sometimes there would be a hesitation, but only for a minute.

February, Independence.

March, Platte City, Fort Scott.

April, Carthage, Horse Creek, Neosho, Cowskin Prairie.

May, Fort Scott, Tola.

June, On the march to Indian Territory.

July, Cabin Creek.

August, Fort Scott, Lone Jack.

September, Springfield, Mo.

October, Sarcoxie, Grandby, Newtonia, Coalbed.

November, Arkansas, Pea Ridge, Bentonville, Maysville, The Mills, Osage Springs, Jones Mills, Fayetteville, Tannery, Boonsboro, Boston Mountains, Cane 'Hill.

December, Fort Scott, Leavenworth, Ohio.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 51-2

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Sunday, May 14, 1865

Arose late this morning, lameness much better. Capt. on duty as Brig. off. of the day & I take the co out on inspection Spend the forenoon reading & writing, sleep all the afternoon Nothing new in the papers today published in Mobile. The steamer which burned yesterday was the Lt. John, everything on board was a total loss, two lives lost one a passenger the other the cabin boy, fire broke out in some cotton alongside the boiler Boys who have been to the city today state that the 1st Div Quartermaster had drawn the clothing & entrenching tools for that command but was ordered not to issue, & I learn positively that the 26th N. Y. Battery had drawn the complement of ammunition for field service & had again turned it over, Preaching in camp this eve After supper go to the river, While there the steamers Thomas and Lockwood come down the latter carrying about 300 Jonnies.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 601

James H. Holmes to John Brown, April 30, 1857

Lawrence, Kansas, April 30, 1857.

My Dear Friend Brown, — I have been anxiously expecting to hear from you direct, but have only heard through Mr. Wattles. I want to see you as soon as possible after you arrive in the Territory. I have settled at Emporia, six miles above the junction of the Neosho and the Cottonwood. My address is either Emporia or Lawrence, as you may choose. My letters all come and go safe. War, ere six months shall have passed away, is inevitable. Secretary Stanton has made a public speech in Lawrence, and says that those laws (the bogus) shall be enforced, and that the taxes shall be paid. The people shout, “Never!” “Then,” he says, “there is war between you and me, — war to the knife, and the knife to the hilt.” There will be no voting; no paying of taxes; and I think the Free-State men will remove the Territorial Government and set up their own. Then we want you. Please write. All your friends, as far as I know, are well.

Very truly yours,

James H. Holmes.¹

_______________

¹ Holmes was at this time nineteen years old, the son of a New York broker, and had gone to Kansas to aid the cause of freedom. He has since been a journalist, and under President Lincoln was secretary of New Mexico. Brown used to call him “my little hornet.”

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 391-2

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, May 4, 1863

Great uneasiness and uncertainty prevail in regard to army movements. I think the War Department is really poorly advised of operations. I could learn nothing from them yesterday or to-day. Such information as I have is picked up from correspondents and news-gatherers, and from naval officers who arrive from below.

I this P.M. met the President at the War Department. He said he had a feverish anxiety to get facts; was constantly up and down, for nothing reliable came from the front. There is an impression, which is very general, that our army has been successful, but that there has been great slaughter and that still fiercer and more terrible fights are impending.

I am not satisfied. If we have success, the tidings would come to us in volumes. We may not be beaten. Stoneman¹ with 13,000 cavalry and six days' supply has cut his way into the enemy's country, but we know not his fate, farther than we hear nothing from him or of him. If overwhelmed, we should know it from the Rebels. There are rumors that the Rebels again reoccupy the intrenchments on the heights in the rear of Fredericksburg, but the rumor is traceable to no reliable source.

_______________

¹ General George Stoneman was conducting an extensive cavalry operation intended to cut off Lee's army after its expected defeat. The unlooked-for discomfiture of the Federal forces placed Stoneman in considerable danger, but he succeeded in rejoining Hooker's main army on May 1st.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 291-2

Diary of John Hay: Monday, December 23, 1863

I took to the Senate to-day the nomination of Schofield as Major General. The President had previously spoken to some of the Senators about it. He is anxious that Schofield should be confirmed so as to arrange this Missouri matter promptly. I told Sherman, Wilson, Harris and Doolittle. Senator Foote also agreed to do all he could to put the matter properly through. But on the nomination being read in Executive Session, Howard of Michigan objected to its consideration and it was postponed. Sherman and Doolittle tell me it will certainly go through when it is regularly taken up.

Lane came up to the President about it, and told him this. Lane is very anxious to have the Kansas part of the plan at once carried out.

Morgan says that Gratz Brown gave to Sumner to present to the Senate the radical protest against Schoflied’s confirmation, and that Sumner presented it to-day. The President sent for Sumner, but he was not at his lodgings.

The President is very much disappointed at Brown. After three interviews with him he understood that Brown would not oppose the confirmation. It is rather a mean dodge to get Sumner to do it in his stead

The President to-night had a dream: — He was in a party of plain people, and, as it became known who he was, they began to comment on his appearance. One of them said: — “He is a very common-looking man.” The President replied: — “The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them.”

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 141-3; Michael Burlingame, Editor, Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 139-43.

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Sunday, August 3, 1862

. . . Was glad to be able to release Mr. Landcraft and Mrs. Roberts. This arrest was a foolish business.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 315

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: February 12, 1864

Lieut. Bossieux has sent a squad of men from the island composed of runaways over to Castle Thunder to remain during the war as hostages, among whom were our friends Myres and Mustard. I never expect to see them again.

SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p. 32

Edwin M. Stanton to Brigadier-General William F. Bartlett, August 12, 1865

War Department,

Washington City, August 12, 1865.

Dear Sir, — Your note of the 9th inst. reached me this morning, and the Adjutant-general has been directed to give you six months’ leave of absence with the privilege to go beyond the limits of the United States. I would be glad to continue the pay, but it would lead to so many applications of a similar nature as to become necessary perhaps to revoke all. The question of pay therefore can remain suspended, but it is probable that the service will require the absence to be without pay.

Yours truly,

Edwin M. Stanton.

Brevet Major-general Bartlett,

16 Broad Street, Boston.

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 154

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 13, 1863

To-day a great calamity occurred in this city. In a large room of one of the government laboratories an explosion took place, killing instantly five or six persons, and wounding, it is feared fatally, some thirty others. Most of them were little indigent girls!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 273