Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney: February 26, 1863

In the morning came letters from Will Hudson at Lebanon, and one of Nov. from home. Had quite a visit with Lt. Abbey about Pa. In the evening took my letters from Fred and Will and reviewed them with Charlie. Played four games of chess with McAulis. Beat three times. Finished the “Life of Washington.” Had some taffy.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 57-8

Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney: February 27, 1863

After breakfast played two games of chess with Case. Got beaten. Ordered to move to Covington immediately, then countermanded. Wrote to the boy William. God bless him and lead him. Thede came over. Went down and looked at a horse he thought of taking. Read in Scott's “Waverly.” Music in Q. M. D.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 58

Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney: February 28, 1863

Got up the rations and issued for ten days. Overlifted and strained my back and sides, makes me lame. After we got through I cleaned up. Charlie Crarey came down, got all the business straightened up, thinking I would go home Monday morning.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 58

Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney: March 1, 1863

Stayed at home in the morning. Snow. Chester came in. Made a little taffy and ate apples. Read the Independent and Cincinnati Commercial. Col. Abbey was in and told his usual number of stories. Knew Pa well. Wrote a short letter home.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 58

Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney: March 2, 1863

Helped about the meat and bread. My back gets worse. Mason has given me some liniment which he warrants sure cure. Invited to Mr. Rice's. Charles, Tully, and Theodore went. M. and I couldn't. Commenced a letter to Fannie Andrews and wrote a short letter to Fred.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 58

Diary of Sergeant Major Luman Harris Tenney: March 3, 1863

The Convention of Govs. took place. I was too lame to venture out. It stormed awfully, snow and rain, and the boys suffered considerably. 2nd Ohio out en masse, as escort. No letter from Fannie. Finished her letter and wrote to Lucy Randall. Played checkers with McAulis.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 58

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Monday, June 26, 1865

Very warm. Rec marching orders & a small mail ordered to be ready to march at 4 A. M. tomorrow transportation furnished to Galveston on the Warrior

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 606

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Tuesday, June 27, 1865

Revelie at 3. smart shower at 4.30 get off at 6, 2 hours & 40 min. to Brazos. Lighter just starting out not unloaded before night had to camp, sleep on a board pile See Lt Henry Whitney.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 606

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Wednesday, June 28, 1865

Embark at 9. a. m. on Louisa. go out to Warrior seas run too high, cant effect a transfer return disembark & form camp Wind increases. P. M. Capt & I go on board the boat & make out muster Rolls.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 606-7

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Thursday, June 29, 1865

Last night a little rain a great deal of wind & sand. Wait all day wind still up.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 607

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Friday, June 30, 1865

Calmer: A. M. Muster, working until 2. P. M. on papers. At 2 P. M. A norther lasts until 6. P. M. go on board Louisa for the night.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 607

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Saturday, July 1, 1865

Raining. Embark on Louisa at 9. A. M. at 11. go out until 6.30 transferring to Warrior. Stormy indications Rains a little at 6. W starts at 6.30, quarter on deck under awning. Ship rools much.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 607

Diary of Private Charles Wright Wills, April 28, 1861

Cairo. This is the twilight of our first day here. We started from Peoria last Wednesday at 11 a. m. amid such a scene as I never saw before. Shouting, crying, praying, and shaking hands were the exercises. Along the whole line from Peoria to Springfield, from every house we had cheers and waving of handkerchiefs. Got to Springfield at dark and marched out to Camp Brick (it is a brickkiln) by moonlight. Our beds were of hay, scattered on the earthen floor of the dry shed. We had to sleep very close together, being cramped for room. Our eatables are bread, bacon, beef, coffee, beans, rice, potatoes and sugar and molasses and pickles.

I had to quit last night because the light wouldn't wait for me. Well, we stayed at Camp Brick until Thursday 25th in the p. m., when we were marched over to Camp Yates to form a regiment. Ten companies of us, numbering from 93 to 125 men in each, were trimmed down to 77rank and file, each. This created considerable dissatisfaction and made a deal of very wicked swearing. Some of the men who were turned out of our company threatened to shoot our captain, but he is still living. After we were trimmed to the required number we were sworn in by company and then quartered in Camp Yates, though we elected our officers first. You will see by the papers who they are. To be certain I will put them down: Colonel, Oglesby; Lieutenant Colonel, Rhoads; Major, Post; Captain, Denison; First Lieutenant, Wetzel; Second Lieutenant, Probstein. Our quarters are the old cattle stalls. Eight men are allowed the same room that one cow or jackass had. I heard Douglas Thursday night and cheered him for the first time in my life. Saturday night at 9 we started for this place. Flags were displayed from houses the whole distance, and the feeling seems as good here as at home. Sixty miles above here, at the Big Muddy bridge, occurred the only trouble the boys have had here. A lot of traitors from over the Ohio river tried to burn the bridge and are still trying to do it. A company of Chicago Zouaves are posted there with a 6:25 field piece. They shot at fellows spying around four times Saturday night. We are more afraid of ague here than of the enemy. We drink no liquors and keep ourselves as cleanly as possible. There are 3,000 of us here and we think we can hold it against 15,000. If they cut the levee the river is so low that we will not be flooded. We have 15 cannons now and will have 15 more to-day. We stop every boat that passes and take off all provisions and ammunition and clothing. The boys are allowed to appropriate what clothing they need from that which is seized. There are now 5,000 men twenty miles below here, at Columbus, Ky., who intended trying to take this spot, but the arrival of our regiment will, it is thought, stop that movement. It is well worth their trouble to take us for we have thousands of dollars worth of their goods here which are seized. You cannot conceive anything like the feeling that possesses our troops here. Although about half of us are green, raw militia, and will need discipline to make us what we should be, yet to a man they all pray for an assault. Kentucky, right across the river, is as strongly for secession as Mississippi can be, and I have no doubt but that we will be attacked the latter part of this week if no more troops come.

Our quarters here are much the same as at Camp Yates. The shed in which our company sleep is entirely open to the south, and very well ventilated otherwise. It is quite warm here though, and we all go in our shirt sleeves even when off duty. The trees are nearly in full leaf and grain is up eight or nine inches.

If any boys go from Canton, they should have a pair of woolen undershirts, ditto drawers, and two flannel overshirts, woolen stockings (feet don't blister as quick in them) and a heavy blanket or pair of light ones. Our company all have a revolver (Colt) and knife each. Mine were given to me by friends in Peoria.

This is a lovely place — a gorgeous hole! It smells just like that bottom below Dorrance's mill, and will breed fever and ague enough to disable all the men in this state. I just now hear the boys saying that we move to-morrow up the river to form a battery to stop a move expected from the Rebels. We can't rely on any of these rumors, though. The boys are shooting at marks all round us with their revolvers. I shoot about as well as any of them.

George Bestor, Jr., sits near me and just now said that he saw a man from Memphis this morning, who said that they were making preparation to come up here and take this Point, relying partly on the disloyal citizens for help. They will have a good time of it.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 7-10

Leroy P. Walker to Brigadier-General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, April 11, 1861

MONTGOMERY, April 11, 1861.

General BEAUREGARD, Charleston:

Do not desire needlessly to bombard Fort Sumter. If Major Anderson will state the time at which, as indicated by him, he will evacuate, and agree that in the mean time he will not use his guns against us unless ours should be employed against Fort Sumter, you are authorized thus to avoid the effusion of blood. If this or its equivalent be refused, reduce the fort as your judgment decides to be most practicable.

L. P. WALKER.

SOURCE:  Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 424; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 1 (Serial No. 1), p. 301.

John Brown to Edmund B. Whitman, October 5, 1857

Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, Oct. 5, 1857.

E. B. Whitman, Esq.

Dear Sir, — Please send me by Mr. Charles P. Tidd what money you have for me, — not papers. He is the second man I have sent in order to get the means of taking me through. General Lane sent a man who got here without any team, with but fifty dollars of Lane's money (as he said), which I returned to him, and wanted me to start right off, with only four days’ time to load up and drive through before this bogus election day, — which my state of health and the very wet weather rendered it impossible to do in time; and I did not think it right to start from here under such circumstances. Do try to make me up the money, all in good shape, before Mr. Tidd returns, and also write me everything you know about the aspect of things in Kansas. Please furnish Mr. Tidd with a horse to take him to Osawatomie, and greatly oblige me. The fifty dollars Lane sent was only about enough to pay up my board bill here, with all I had on hand. I need not say my disappointments have been extreme.

Your friend,

John Brown.

P. S. Before any teams are now sent, I want to hear further from Kansas.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 402-3

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, May 21, 1863

Had an early call from the President, who brought a communication from Tassara to Seward, complaining of violation of neutral rights by a small pilot-boat, having a gun mounted amidships and believed to be an American vessel, which was annoying Spanish and other neutral vessels off the coast of Cuba. The President expressed doubts whether it was one of our vessels, but I told him I was inclined to believe it was, and that I had last week written Mr. Seward concerning the same craft in answer to Lord Lyons, who complained of outrage on the British schooner Dream, but I had also written Admiral Bailey on the subject. I read my letter to the President. He spoke of an unpleasant rumor concerning Grant, but on canvassing the subject we concluded it must be groundless, originating probably in the fact that he does not retain but has evacuated Jackson, after destroying the enemy's stores.

It is pretty evident that Senator John P. Hale, Chairman of the Naval Committee of the Senate, is occupying his time in the vacation in preparing for an attack on the Navy Department. He has a scheme for a tract of land with many angles, belonging to a friend, which land he has procured from Congress authority for the Secretary to purchase, but the Secretary does not want the land in that shape. It is a “job,” and the object of this special legislative permission to buy, palpable. Hale called on me, and has written me, and I am given to understand, if I do not enter into his scheme, — make this purchase, — I am to encounter continued and persistent opposition from him.

Hale has also sent me a letter of eight closely written pages, full of disinterested, patriotic, and devoted loyalty, protesting against my detailing Commodore Van Brunt to be one of a board on a requisition from the War Department for a naval officer. Van Brunt has committed no wrong, is accused of none, but Hale doesn't like him. I replied in half a page. I will not waste time on a man like Hale.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 307-8

Diary of John Hay: February 1 & 2, 1864

Evening of February 1st General Turner and I got on board a noisy little tug at the wharf which took us to the Ben Deford. We went upstairs and drank a few whiskey punches, and then to sleep.

In the morning found ourselves off Stono; — tide too low to let us over the bar; — were rowed ashore, — Gen. Terry, Turner and I. Stopped at lower end of Folly for an ambulance; rode to Gen. Terry’s headquarters and took horses to ride to Light House Inlet; crossed in a boat and walked up to Col. Davies. Col. D. full of a plan for capturing the Sumter garrison.

We went in ambulance to Wagner. The sound of firing had been heard all the morning. It grew more frequent, and Davies told us it was directed at a stranded blockade-runner. Just as we got in sight of Wagner a white smoke appeared in the clear air (the fog had lifted suddenly) and a sharp crack was heard. It seemed as if a celestial popcorn had been born in the ether. “There's a shell from Simkins,” said Turner. We went on, and there were more of them. As we got to Wagner we got out and sent the ambulance to a place of safety under the walls. They were just making ready to discharge a great gun from Wagner. The Generals clapped hands to their ears. The gun was fired, and the black globe went screaming close to the ground over the island, over the harbor, landing and bursting near the helpless blockade-runner stranded half-way from Fort Beauregard to Fort Moultrie. We walked up the beach. Heretofore we had from time to time seen little knots of men gathered to look at the fight, but now the beach was deserted. Once in a while you would see a fellow crouching below a sandhill keeping a sharp lookout. We soon came to Batteries Seymour, Barton and Chatfield, which were firing vigorously. We mounted the parapet and took a good look at the steamer. She was already a good deal damaged by one shell amidships.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 158-9.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, August 12, 1862

Camp Green Meadows, August 12, 1862.

Dear Uncle: — I write merely to say that I have concluded to accept [the] colonelcy of the Seventy-ninth if it is filled without drafting. I love this regiment, but must leave it. I was pretty evenly balanced on the question. I have decided it rightly. It will take me to Cincinnati, I conjecture, in about three or four weeks. I shall no doubt be kept closely at work, but will manage some way to see you, if but for a night. Possibly you can come down.

I am sad over McCook's death. From the first he always told me — I suppose he said the same thing to many — that he would certainly not survive the war. He expected confidently to be killed. I suppose all men have notions one way or the other of that sort.

Quite a batch of the new colonels are persons with whom I am on agreeable terms. Anderson, Haynes, Lee Stem, Moore, Longworth, Tafel, and a bunch of others. But they will be a funny lot for a while. I suspect I shall enjoy the thing. I can now appreciate the difference between an old seasoned regiment and the same people raw. Nothing is nicer than a good old regiment. The machine runs itself — all the colonel has to do is to look on and see it go. But at first it's always in a snarl, and a thousand unreasonable men make such a big snarl. I have no doubt I shall see times when I would like to see around me the quiet, neat, hardy youngsters who are with me now.

Well, good-bye. I feel like shedding tears when I think of leaving these men, but I at once get into a quiet laugh when I think of what I am going to — a thousand-headed monster!

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes.

P. S. — I forgot to say anything about the war. My command is scattered from fourteen to twenty miles from any succor, and if attacked it's doubtful if any would reach in time. We must fight or go under, perhaps both. Well, on the 6th, the enemy three times our whole and six times our detachment at the ferry, with rifle, cannon, etc., etc., attacked. We had a busy day but by stratagem and good luck we got off with slight damage. They thought we were the strongest and after firing two hours retreated. Next day but one, we destroyed their salt works twenty-five miles from here. Last night I was up all night riding and manoeuvring to keep them off; but it makes a man feel well to have something to do.

S. Birchard.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 326-7

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: March 2, 1864

The food we get here is poor, water very good, weather outside admirable, vermin still under control and the “Astor House Mess” flourishing. We are all in good health with the exception of Dr. Lewis, who is ailing, I was never tougher — seems as if your humble servant was proof against the hardest rebel treatment. No exchange news. Trade and dicker with the guards and work ourselves into many luxuries, or rather work the luxuries into ourselves. Have become quite interested in a young soldier boy from Ohio named Bill Havens. Is sick with some kind of fever and is thoroughly bad off. Was tenderly brought up and well educated I should judge says he ran away from home to become a drummer. Has been wounded twice, in numerous engagements, now a prisoner of war and sick. Will try and keep track of him. Every nationality is here represented and from every branch of the service, and from all parts of the world. There are smart men here and those that are not so smart, in fact a conglomeration of humanity — hash, as it were.

SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p. 37-8

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 27, 1863

This is the day appointed by the President for fasting and prayers. Fasting in the midst of famine! May God save this people! The day will be observed throughout the Confederacy.

The news from the West, destruction of more of the enemy's gun-boats, seems authentic. So far we have sustained no disasters this spring, the usual season of success of the enemy by water.

Mr. G. W. Randolph was the counsel of the speculators whose flour was impressed, and yet this man, when Secretary of War, ordered similar impressments repeatedly. “Oh, man! dressed in a little brief authority,” etc.

Mr. Foote has brought forward a bill to prevent trading with the enemy. Col. Lay even gets his pipes from the enemy's country. Let Mr. Foote smoke that!

A gentleman said, to-day, if the Yankees only knew it, they might derive all the benefits they seek by the impracticable scheme of subjugation, without the expenditure of human life, by simply redoubling the blockade of our ports, withdrawing their armies to the borders, and facilitating trade between the sections. We would not attack them in their own country, and in a month millions of their products would be pouring into the South, and cotton, tobacco, etc. would go to the North in vast quantities. I wonder the smart Yankee never thinks of this! Let both sides give passports freely, and an unlimited intercourse would be immediately established.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 280